Chapter 6

"Pick up. Please pick up damn it." Jenn said, over the phone as she waited for a response on the other end of the line.

"Hello?"

"Phil! Great you're home. I have to talk to you about Bam."

"Bam? What's the matter?" Phil caught the sense of urgency in Jenn's voice.

"He's not good. He… has April told you anything? I talked to her the other day."

"About his depression? Ape told me everything you said. It was a bit sketchy though. Is he all right? He's not suicidal or anything is he?"

"No he's not suicidal, Thank God. But he's not good. I think you and April should come see him." Jenn felt a tugging at her shirtsleeve and turned to look at the source. "What?"

"Who are you talking to? Is that my dad?"

"Yes Brandon."

"Can I talk to him? I wanna talk to him. Please?"

"Hold on." She turned away from Bam. "Phil you still there?"

"Yeah. What's wrong with Bam?"

"He's not right. He thinks that he's a little kid, and I don't think there's any…"

"Let me talk to my dad. I wanna talk to him." Bam interrupted.

"There's no convincing him otherwise." She continued. "You and April should come here right away."

"Jenn? Jenn?" He tugged on her shirtsleeve.

"Hold on a sec Phil." She snapped her head toward Bam. "What is it Brandon? I'm on the phone."

"Is that my dad?"

"Yes it's your dad. Now let me talk to him."

"I wanna talk to him!" He stomped his foot.

"Fine! Just give me a minute ok?" She went back to the phone. "Sorry 'bout that."

"Was that Bam?"

"Yes. He really wants to talk to you. But um… just play along with him. Oh and call him Brandon or add an extra Bam or he'll get upset."

"Ok. Put him on."

Jenn handed Bam the phone. He put it up to his ear with both hands.

"Hi dad?"

"Hey kiddo. How… how are you doing?"

"I'm fine." he began to dance in his spot. "When are you and mom picking me up?"

"Uh… soon. Very soon Bam Bam. Can you hang in there until we get there?"

"Yeah."

"You being a good boy and listening to Jenn?"

"Yes dad I'm a good boy."

"Ok. We'll be there soon to pick you up. Put Jenn back on please."

"Ok." Bam held the phone toward Jenn. "He wants to talk to you some more."

"Ok thank you Brandon. Can you go play while I talk to him?"

"Can I play with the key keys?"

"If you play nicely with them."

"Yay!"

Bam ran off to look for the cats and Jenn went back to talking to Phil.

"See? He's pretty bad. He actually believes he's a kid. I'm worried about him."

"This isn't good. I'll uh… I'll talk to April and then we'll come over."

"I don't know what to do about him Phil. It scares me." She said with a lump in her throat.

"Me too. We'll think of some way to help him."

"I sure hope so. I can hardly take care of Bam when he's acting his age, it's even harder now that he's… like this."

"I know Jenn. I know. April and I will be over soon. And the three of us will figure this thing out."

Shortly after Phil explained briefly to April what was going on, they arrived at Bam's house. Bam saw them pull up the driveway and came running out of the house and up to them, closely followed by Jenn.

He wrapped his arms around Phil. "You came to take me home!"

"Yes, Brandon we're here to take you home." Phil said softly. He looked at a shocked April beside him, and signaled for her to act normal.

She smiled at Bam "Did you miss us honey?"

"Yes. But Jenn is the best babysitter ever! Her house is neat; it looks like a castle inside. You know like from a storybook. She tried to show me how to skateboard but she fell down on her butt. She's ok though. Oh! She has two key keys named Mister and Tubbles." He rambled excitedly.

April looked at Jenn confused for a second. "Mister and Tubbles?"

"Oh! He means Mischief and Trouble." Jenn said.

"That's what I said!"

"So you had a good time with Jenn, didn't you?" April asked with a smile.

Bam nodded. "Where's Jess Jess? I wanna tell him I got to spend time with Jenn and he didn't."

"Jess Jess is at home, Brandon." Phil answered.

"Oh. Well that's ok I can tell him later."

" Brandon could you go inside while I talk to your parents?"

"Ok."

Bam hugged his parents and then skipped back into the house. Jenn looked at Phil and April.

"That's exactly what I was talking about."

"When did this happen?"

"He just woke up in the middle of the night, the other night, and he was looking for you. I had to tell him that I was his babysitter and that you were going to pick him up the next day, which was yesterday."

"And then we didn't show up. Poor Bam. Phil he must have been heartbroken."

"He started crying when he realized you guys weren't coming, and he said that I lied to him. So I told him I talked to you, April, and you said you and Phil were delayed." She paused. "I hate to think this, but I hate seeing Bam this way even more. But I think we should have Bam committed."

Phil and April both bowed their heads sadly. They looked at each other and then at Jenn.

"You're right. He's clearly not well." Said Phil.

"I would hate to do this to my baby, but… what else can we do? He certainly can't go on like this."

"What should we do?" Jenn asked.

"Well…." Phil paused and took a sad breath. "Go get Bam. We shouldn't waste any time."

"But Phil we can't…"

"Ape he needs this. We're here now and he's expecting us to take him home. We might as well take him now."

"Ok. Ok Phil. You're right." She looked at Jenn. "Go… go get him."

Jenn nodded and headed back inside. Phil gave April a hug while they were waiting.

"It will be ok Ape. Bam needs this. You can see that he does."

"I know. But this shouldn't be happening to my baby."

Jenn returned with Bam close at tow. Phil barely finished asking Bam if he was ready to go when Bam ran into the backseat of the car. They didn't say a word to Bam where they were really going.

They just let him believe that they were going home. As the car pulled out of the driveway, Bam waved to Jenn as happily as he could be. He was none the wiser, which made his parents and Jenn feel even worse about what was happening.