CHAPTER TWO: FIRST IMPRESSIONS
For every parent leaving off their child the first day of school is always a trauma.
Victor Bennett was forced to admit to himself that he was been too young- or irresponsible- to feel like that when he had played the father to his three daughters.
Therefore, the sickening taste of guilt and fear over his adequacy which assailed him when he accompanied his younger grandnephew to Elementary School was a first, terrifying experience.
He liked to think his relationship with the little Chris was special, not only because it benefited from the encouraging connection he had tested with his older, unforgotten counterpart but also because after all his mistakes as parent, raising Chris felt like an undeserved reward.
He couldn't- even in his wildest dreams-have imagined how amazing it was to feel this proud of a little person for every single, meaningless thing he did.
Victor tried every day to make up for the fact Piper and Leo weren't there in his place, exactly as he wasn't been there for Phoebe, Prue and Piper; sometimes he couldn't help to feel like if a punishment reserved for him was been misdirected on the little boy he held so dear.
Somewhere along the way, he was learning to forget all this and to think of Chris as his own only.
It was frightening, although it was worth the adoring look on the Chris face when the small boy gazed up to him. And it was difficult, handling all this responsibility to deserve that wordless adoration, especially it meant to be honest if Chris came to him with strange questions like:
"Is my daddy went Upthere after he died? Will he come back?"
"Why has the magic died?"
"Is Wyatt the Boogie Man name, Grandpa?"
Little Chris' head was full of confused fantasies, and when the small boy asked those question, often he did not know why… or he got scared because he didn't understand why he already knew the answers. Victor wondered how long time had yet come to pass before all the pieces found their way to complete the puzzle.
The naked truth of his origins was tickling bomb set to destroy the innocence of his little boy, and Victor just hoped to be there to help when it happened.
"You must not go in right away, Chris. We can wait until you are ready"
The grandfather squeezed the minute hand of his grandchild as they stood in the Elementary school hallway.
Chris looked up with huge grey-green eyes and sing sang:
"Grandpa, I'm ready now!"
Victor swallowed forcibly the heavy lump in his throat and squeezed more tightly the Chris' little fingers, reluctant to let them go.
Two simple words echoed in his mind: separation anxiety.
"Well, wait here two minutes then. I'll have few words with your teacher"
Chris observed his new surroundings with wonder and curiosity. The school seemed too large, like if he could get lost if he got distracted even a moment.
He was aware of a vague feeling of fear as well, what if everybody there could see him and notice that there something weird about him? Even Chris felt that way about himself sometimes- like if he was a shoe put on the wrong feet, like if something inside him went amiss leaving him unfinished and incomplete.
He turned around when he heard somebody behind him giggling and he found himself face to face with a boy who was almost his mirror image.
Chris blinked and the other boy did the same, still slapping the hands of a little blonde girl at his side away from his bag.
The impression of similarity which had shocked Chris into silence faded away quickly: all what he had in common with the unknown newcomer been their height and their dark hair.
The other boy had sharper features and a thinner, skinnier frame. What Chris was vaguely perturbed for was his eyes: they were a very dark shade of brown and stared him shamelessly.
Then a strange thing happened: a raven haired lady passed Chris by and suddenly the girl was falling right on him. Her hands were warm and fit perfectly into his as Chris helped her to her feet, before the other boy got the chance.
She smiled very brightly up at him and his whole body felt warm like her soft hands. He smiled back and all the apprehensions which had accompanied him until this moment -without he was aware of them- dissolved into nothing.
" Thanks" she said shyly. Before Chris could answer welcome- like Grampa and the mother he didn't quite remembered always insisted to- the other boy broke in confidently :
"What's your name? "
"I'm Chris. What about you?"
"My name is Ben Calloway- the other boy sillabed- and she is my cousin Bree. Do you want to be our friend?"
When Ben extended his hand to him, Chris couldn't know what he would started by shaking it.
But the warmth he felt inside while he did it was the same he had experienced by touching the Bree's hand. He felt a bit less weird about leaving Grampa now.
The lady who had him passed by so recently, giving him goosebumps before starting it all, was already forgotten.