Chapter 3 – The Deception

Tracy prepared breakfast for the two men and the two children before she set out for her party, which was up in Bellaire. She bid goodbye to both Howard and Howie before she left, as their plane was at 3:00 pm to return to Chicago. As soon as she went out the door, the two men looked at each other, did sinister chuckles, shook hands, and set off on their plan…switching kids without telling them, to see if they'd know their own dads.

First, they dressed alike. Both had khaki-color trousers – Howard's were his airline uniform pants, and Roger's were just civilian pants. Roger had two navy blue polo shirts that were identical, so he loaned one to Howard. They kept their own wallets, but Roger handed Howard a check that Tracy had given him, already filled out. To further confuse things. Roger handed his set of car keys to Howard to let him drive. Fortunately, the two places they were going were within a few blocks of each other.

Howard dropped Roger and Howie off at an ice rink. "Bye, s- Howie," he said, trying not to give away what they were doing.

"Bye, Colonel Healey, thanks for the ride," Howie replied, then turned to Roger. "Dad, how come you've never taken me ice skating in Chicago?"

"Oh, I did, but it was a long time ago," Roger faked it. He was still amazed at the feeling at being called "Dad" by a boy. Skylar always called him "Daddy". Occasionally T.J. would slip and call him "Dad" but he was still really young.

"I don't remember you taking me."

Roger paid for their admission and skate rental, and helped get Howie fitted to a pair of skates. Howard had told him that Howie probably skated but he wasn't really sure. Roger himself had been skating recently, because he often went with T.J. if Tony were too busy.

"Dad, that's too tight," Howie said. Roger loosened the ties just a little, but not much.

Roger got his own rental skates put on, and laced up. He had gotten hockey style skates for both of them, because that's what he always wore with T.J. "Let's go, partner," Roger grabbed Howie by the hand and called him by the name that Tony called T.J. It was the first mistake.

Howie stopped. "Dad, you've never called me that before."

"Well – since you don't remember skating with me, then we have to be skating partners, right?" Fortunately, Roger was very good at deceptions – thirteen years hiding a genie's powers will make you an expert quickly.

"Yeah – I GUESS so…"

Roger noticed that Howie seemed comfortable on the skates, but not as relaxed as T.J. usually was. They skated together for awhile. Howie fell a couple of times and pulled Roger down with him. Finally he decided to skate separately from his "dad", and Roger was free to skate alone. He skated down the rink and suddenly, a little boy of five years old shot out near him.

"Colonel Healey! Where's T.J.?" asked Adam.

Roger looked around. "Ssh, Adam. Don't use my name today, okay?"

"Are you playing 'undercover man'?" Adam giggled.

"I guess you could say that. And to answer your question, T.J. isn't here. He's with his dad today."

"Are you here ALONE? Or did you bring Skylar?"

"No – I'm with him," Roger indicated Howie, skating past. "His name's Howie, if you want to say hi."

Adam looked at the ten-year-old and shook his head. "No, he's too big."

Meanwhile, Howard looked at the directions that Roger had written down for him. 'Hmm, our handwriting even looks similar,' Howard thought. He drove the Healey family car, the one Tracy usually drove, to the dance studio.

"I like ballet," Skylar told him. "Daddy, did you ever do ballet?"

Howard choked back a laugh, and pulled the car into the parking slot right in front of the studio. "No, I don't think so." He shut the engine off and said, "Now, where do you go?" That was his first mistake.

"Daddy! You took me here last time!"

"Yeah, I guess I did."

"Did you forgetted again? Mommy needs to know if you forgetted. She told me!"

"No, I remember." Howard breathed a sigh of relief.

The little girl, dressed in a black leotard and pink tights and street shoes, grabbed a small case from the back seat as Howard helped her out. "Wow, Daddy. You help me out of the car!"

"Anything for you, sweetheart." By this time, Howard was falling in love with the little girl who belonged to the astronaut.

As they went into the studio, Howard noticed that he was the only father in the waiting room. All the rest were mothers. There were a few writing checks but most were helping their daughters put on shoes. However, Skylar seemed to be able to get her own ballet shoes on, without his help. Then she handed him a thing that looked like a rubber band.

"Daddy, can you put this in my hair?" she asked him.

Howard looked at the object and wondered what he was supposed to do with it. "How?"

"You know – a ponytail."

"I don't know how to do that."

"But Daddy, you helped me last time!"

Howard was totally befuddled. Women's hair was definitely not his thing. Fortunately for him, another mother noticed his predicament and came to the rescue. "Oh, Colonel Healey, I guess Tracy didn't do Skylar's hair this morning? Come, Skylar, I'll do it for you," the mother said, and Howard breathed a sigh of relief.

It took two more mothers handing the receptionist a check, for Howard to realize that he was carrying a check. He went into his wallet to take out the check, stood up and as he handed it to the receptionist he said, "This is from Mrs. Hea- from Tracy," he corrected himself. He had no idea what it was for.

When the class began, all the other mothers went into a little observation room to watch class. Howard followed them. Another father had come in with his daughter, and sat next to Howard in the room. Howard was totally out of his element here. He had no idea what the girls were doing, but it looked pretty. The music was also very nice – mostly piano, coming from a record player in one corner of the room. The teacher was built like a stick but seemed to know what she was doing with four and five year old girls.

"So, Colonel Healey," the father next to Howard spoke quietly, "What's it like up in space?"

Howard stopped to think before he answered. "Heavenly."

The other man smiled, the women all around had heard the conversation and giggled.