Guys Weekend

Matt was finishing up his conversation as Kelly walked up. "It's okay, it's not your fault. I hope you feel better."

"What's up?" Kelly asked as they finished up their shift.

"That was my sister."

"Christie? Is she sick?" He asked having heard the tail end of the conversation.

"Yeah," Matt sighed. "Gabby and I were supposed to have a romantic weekend up in Wisconsin, leaving right after shift and coming home tomorrow night. Christie was going to watch Kyle for us, but she woke up with the flu: fever, vomiting. So no weekend for us. At least not one in Wisconsin."

"I'll take him," Kelly offered.

"Are you sure? You spent Friday night on shift and you're willing to give up your Saturday night as well?"

"Sure, why not. He hasn't spent the night with me in a couple of months. It's time for a Kelly, Kyle weekend."

"Well, before you commit you need to understand that he's got a lot going on this weekend."

"I can handle it."

"Hmmm, I don't know. He's already at a hockey tournament that will go until at least noon. Then he has a chorus competition across town. And Sunday he has a rehearsal for some kind of show that he's going to be in."

"I've got it," Kelley assured.

"What have you got?" Gabby asked as she came over.

"Our backs," Matt said smiling. "I'll get his schedule for you. Thank you, thank you!"

Kelly smiled as Matt disappeared and Gabby looked puzzled.

An hour later Kelly found a seat and looked out onto the ice at the scattering of players sliding this way and that. He never realized how skilled and fast the National Hockey League was until he watched the game in its lower forms. Granted these were kids and they already skated much better than he ever did in his youth hockey experience, but it still seemed to be dragging along in slow motion.

From reading the schedule taped to the wall that welcomed everyone to the third annual Greater Chicago Midget, or Mite, or Junior or was it Squirt, three on three tournament. Pee Wee, that was it, Kyle's age group was Pee Wee, Kelly remembered thinking that sounded like the worst moniker of them all. When he read said schedule he knew that the Lincoln Park Warriors were playing now and he searched for his Godson on the ice.

"Great way to spend a weekend. Not." A woman said as she sat down next to him. "Shane plays baseball where I fry my ass of all summer and hockey where I freeze it off. I can't win. Which one's yours?"

Kelly looked out onto the ice just in time to see Kyle's number 91 jersey appear. "That one," he said pointing, he long ago gave up trying to explain the relationship so he just went with the assumption.

"I think he scored his last shift or maybe that was number nineteen. I can't remember. I think I suffer from brain rot from all these games. But I guess I'm glad he's in a organized activity and not out there roaming the streets getting shot at."

Kelly just gave an awkward smile and returned his focus back to the game. After several minutes he watched the clock wind down and the buzzer sound indicating the end of the game. The players ambled off the ice, a cluster of sticks and pads. The poor goalie looked like a manatee lumbering off the ice, his pads overwhelming him. Kyle looked around and shuffled over, balancing on his skate blades. He had to stop at the end of the rubber strip or risk damaging his expensive equipment.

"What are you doing here? I thought Aunt Christie was watching me this weekend?"

"She woke up with the flu, so you're stuck with me."

"Awesome," Kyle chirped.

"When's your next game?"

"Um, I think it's after this next game. Then they have to run the Zamboni and then we play our last game."

"How are you guys doing?"

"We lost our first one, but we won this game. But we'll definitely lose the next one."

"Why do you say that?"

"Because they're huge. I swear some of them are shaving already."

"Where are they from?" Kelly asked quashing a smile.

"The Garfield Park Gladiators. We just played the Bridgeport Bombers. This tournament is stupid anyway. All it's for is scouting for the city/county game."

"What do you mean?" Kelly asked.

"They do three on three so than get a good look at each player and a great look at goalie skills. At the end of the season, the players they deem worthy get asked to a tryout and only half of them make it onto teams. Then the six or so teams that they created all play each other and whoever has the most points at the end of their mini season faces off against the Cook county all stars who have the same type of set up."

"Wow, that sounds organized."

"Yeah, they play into May. Well I have to go so the coach can yell at us as a team. Did you bring my change of clothes?"

"Right here," Kelly said patting the black pants and white dress shirt Kyle was required to wear for his concert. Kyle gave him a thumbs up and hobbled off towards the locker room.

The Warriors gave it a good try but true to Kyle's prediction they lost by two late goals to the Gladiators, who were indeed, huge. Kelly figured that some of them not only shaved that they had probably driven themselves to the game. He wondered what they fed their kids in that neighborhood. One of them hip-checked Kyle and sent him flying across the rink.

After the game Kyle ran over and snatched his clothes and began to head to the locker room. "Don't forget to shower," Kelly called out. Kyle didn't bother to turn around he just waved, his glove nearly falling off as he did.

After racing way too many blocks to count and getting stuck at every single stop light, Kelly double parked across the street from the school that was holding this round of the chorus competition in its auditorium. He turned and looked at Kyle who had just finished up two protein bars and a bottle of water. His hair was still wet from his shower after the game and it wasn't quite sure which direction to go so Kelly used his fingers to rake it into some kind of semblance of order. "I'll find a place to park and then I'll be in. Your teacher or coach or whatever you call her knew you might be a little late right?"

"Mr.," Kyle emphasized. "Ritter, knew it might happen. But wasn't too pleased."

"What'd he say?"

"Don't be late."

"Well go." Kyle flung the door open and started to get out. "Hey, go to the corner and cross at the light."

Kyle rolled his eyes as he slammed the door, but began to jog the short distance to the light and waited for it it turn in his favor. He then ran across and disappeared through the front doors. Kelly shook his head as he watched the boy disappear. He could never completely understand the complex emotions he felt for the boy. But, he was very grateful to have them.

The room was dark by the time Kelly had arrived. He finally found a parking space three blocks away and half walked, half ran back to the school and then found he had follow the signs pointing the way to the auditorium. He finally arrived and stumbled in, waiting for his eyes to adjust before he made a move to find a seat.

He settled in one near the aisle just in time for a woman to come out on stage and explain the rules of the competition. Apparently several schools from the area would compete, singing two songs that they chose from a theme that they were given weeks ago. They submitted their choices that were either approved or disapproved. Then they came out and performed their first piece and then left the stage to return later to complete the second one. They were awarded points for presentation, creativity in song selection, and of course the actual singing performance. As the production started Kelly realized there was more than just singing. The kids didn't just stand around and belt it out, some were dancing while others were moving around putting some kind of sketch as the words rolled off their tongues. There seemed to be a lead singer and the others were backup, but were still a big part of the production, often filling in gaps with intertwining melodies that were more involved and complicated than Kelly had expected. It would seem as if Kyle's life was a series of actions in which he was awarded points. It was no wonder that kids suffered from self esteem issues. Being constantly judged on one's performance would be difficult to bear on a regular basis. Whatever happened to win some lose some? Playing for the sheer joy of it? Or filling in the gap of a lazy afternoon. It appeared as if those days were over.

About twenty minutes into the program a woman sat down next to Kelly and pulled her phone out and began to text. "I'm sorry" she whispered as her fingers pounced on the letters. "My daughter is playing basketball in Lawndale and of course here I am in Hyde Park and my no-good, lazy ass husband is warming up a bar stool somewhere in the Loop, leaving all the juggling to me." She finished her word play and tossed the phone into her purse.

"I'm Lynn, sorry to disrupt your viewing. These kids are so good, but the competition is incredible. Which school does your kid sing for?"

Kelly decided to keep it simple and gave a one word response. "Parker." He was already growing tired of giving an explanation of their relationship that nobody was interested in hearing anyway.

"Oooh, they're good. Last month I was sitting down front and got a video of their performance of Sweet Child Of Mine. The lead singer was amazing. Very moving. The theme was children. They chose well. That got them the top points for sure." Inside her purse her phone buzzed and she pulled it out, looked at it disgustedly and tossed back in. "Don't get married. Oh, it's probably too late for that bit of advice. The only good thing I got out of it was my girls and I don't even like them half the time," she sighed.

Kelly felt for the harried mother, but he returned his attention to the stage and the next group to perform. As the kids in front of him went through their motions, he reflected on his life. The older he got the more desire he had to put roots down, something that had never appealed to him in the past. Having Kyle in his life helped him continue his wild ways while still having a part of him grounded in reality. True, Kyle wasn't his, but on days like today, it felt as if he was and that gave him a piece of domesticity that filled a hole.

Now that he was watching his thirty's disappear behind him, the life of one night stands and drinking the night away didn't seem to be as much fun as it used to be. Kyle was eleven and even though he knew they had a great bond, the day would be coming soon that he would be hanging out more with his friends than anyone else, including Matt and good ole Uncle Kelly.

He found he was looking at life differently these days and though he wasn't quite sure he was ready for weekends like this on a constant basis, he just might be ready to share his life full time. He felt like his life was like a puzzle and most of the pieces were made up of his firehouse family. Kyle was definitely a corner piece, one that held him securely and was always easy to find and count on for so much that ailed him. But he was ready for another step, one in which he couldn't count on a child to provide for him.

He thought back to when Renee came back from Spain supposedly carrying his baby. He was ready to jump ship and follow her without even doing the math. Was he ready then? Was he ready now? Would he ever be ready? Was anyone ever ready?

But before he could think himself to death about scenarios that hadn't happened and may never happen, his phone lit up and buzzed. He swiped it to reveal a text from Kyle showing a selfie of the boy sticking his tongue out. Kelly smiled and returned the favor making a silly face of his own and hitting send. The two exchanged texts every day. Sometimes it was a joke, other times a silly meme or picture and sometimes it was just a simple hello. But they touched base each and every day. It was a ritual they both clung to and Kelly hoped would never fade away.

Kyle had told him these things usually lasted around ninety minutes and it was nearing that mark. Frances Parker School had one more routine and it was beginning to look like they'd be last to perform. Kelly fought to stay awake as the darkness trumped the music coming from the stage he and he felt his head nodding. They had had two calls the night before. One was around ten but they didn't get back until midnight and the other was a short call but still sucked two hours of snooze time from his night.

Finally Parker was announced as the final act and was going to be led by Kyle Casey. "That's the kid I was telling you about that sang Sweet Child," the late arriving mom told him.

Kelly felt a surge of pride rise up, but then realized he had nothing to do with Kyle's talent. But then again he didn't think Hallie or Matt did either. Kyle was an anomaly. The kid belted out a tune with a fifties vibe to it and it had everyone head's bobbing despite the fact that nobody had every heard the obscure song before. When it ended there was quite a round of applause. Kyle had a great voice, but he had something more, he never stopped trying to make a connection with his audience and did so without much of an effort.

Kelly clapped his heart out and even put his fingers in his mouth and let out a long whistle. The one Kyle called the attention-getter.

"So, what happens now?" Kelly asked his seatmate.

"Oh, they go backstage and their teachers talk about the performance and then let them go. They'll all be trickling up this way soon."

"Thanks," Kelly said. "Good luck with the rest of your afternoon."

She nodded as stuck her phone up to her ear and began to chatter at a high rate of speed at whoever answered on the other end.

As he waited for Kyle, he thought back to last May when school was winding down and the fifth grade ended the year with a Sock Hop. Due to some lingering Alderman duties, Matt was unavailable and Gabby was going to be stuck at Molly's causing Kyle to ask, nay, beg, Kelly to chaperone the dance. He managed to beg off for all of fifteen minutes before he agreed. Then twenty minutes before he was supposed to pick Kyle up, he was informed by said child that as a chaperone he was supposed to dress to the theme. Once again Kelly balked, only to show up a the Casey's wearing black boots, jeans, a white t-shirt and a leather jacket. His hair was too short to do much with, but hey, he did the best he could.

Kyle was almost ready, in his black Chuck T's, jeans, black t-shirt with the short sleeve rolled up over a mock cigarette pack and Gabby was still squirting gel in his hair and combing it back. "See, aren't you glad you didn't your hair cut this week. I have just enough to give you a ducktail—sort of."

"You look great dude. Did you smoke those cigarettes yourself?" Kelly joked.

"Yep, that was the deal," Kyle said laughing.

"Okay kid, that'll do it. The dance ends at 9:30. He ate dinner so shouldn't be starving. If you need anything call me, Matt will probably have his phone on vibrate and hidden away."

"Okay boss," Kelly saluted. "Ready to go?"

Kyle nodded emphatically. "Wait, one more thing," Gabby said. The guys stopped and looked at her. "A picture." She grabbed her phone and took a couple of shots.

"Text me those," Kelly said on the way out the door.

"You bet. Make sure you ask those girls to dance," she said.

"What girls?" Kelly asked.

"There were a few girls texting him asking him if he was going to the dance." Gabby answered.

"Yeah, to see if I was going not that they were going to dance with me."

"I was a girl once. They were asking you, because they want to dance with you."

In the end they both had a great time. The kids weren't yet polluted by puberty. They were sweet, naive, uncertain at first but eventually adventurous. The cookies and punch were innocent and so were the kids. At first it was the typical boys on one side, girls on the other. But when Kelly asked the Language Art's teacher to dance and the principal joined in with another teacher a few kids began to wander towards the dance floor and bounce around and forgot about being wallflowers.

By the end of the night Kyle had danced with several girls and even asked on behalf of a friend if Kelly would dance with her. Much to her delight, he said yes, and twirled her into memories she would forever cherish.

When they got back to the Casey apartment that night, they were both so tired they collapsed on the couch and fell asleep. Kyle leaned against Kelly, his head on the man's chest, while Kelly had his arm draped over Kyle. Neither had any idea the moment had been documented until Kelly received the picture from Matt the next day along with the two Gabby had taken before the dance. Those pictures could always bring a smile to his face whenever he need a break from reality.

To be continued...