Title : Fathers and Sons Chapter 5

Author : Dani Kin

Rating : PG-13

Genre: Drama

Summary : Being a parent is never easy and family relationships never run smooth. And nothing makes for anxiety like the first day of school.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~M~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The warden inspected the room. It seemed clean, and, well, normal. The walls were decorated with pictures made of bright primary colors and the whole building smelled like chalk and crayons. The smell was oddly reassuring actually - it reminded him of his own school days. And he really couldn't beat the location.

No, this would be a good place for him.

The woman who ran the school seemed nice. She was sitting in front of him, talking about how the school was funded by private donations from those in the community who believed in nurturing children with particularly unique abilities. It all sounded great, but he found himself especially distracted by the playground in the yard.

The boy had never gotten a chance to play on a swing, maybe he would like that. There were a lot of things here he would probably like.

The school was highly competitive and restricted to a select small group of gifted kids. The warden had laughed a bit at the cheeky name, but that was what Blue would need. There was no way he could put the boy in public school. He would be bored to tears. And that would open both of them up to too much scrutiny.

There was an issue of tuition and it wasn't going to be cheap. But he could afford it. He might have to forgo the new suits for a while and eat some cheap dinners, but he would make it work.

No, this would be a good place for the boy, he told himself. The boy needed something like this.

The woman talked about the 'uniquely enriching activities' and 'educational opportunities' provided to the children at the school and he smiled and nodded. He didn't really know what that meant, but it sounded good. He could picture Blue here. The boy enjoyed hands on activities and he briefly imagined him happily playing with other children.

"And we have one boy who is particularly musically gifted and he leads the class in various sing-alongs," the teacher said proudly and with a large smile.

Huh, the arts. That was something that he never thought of. He had played some lullabies for the boy as a baby, but he probably didn't know much about music. Maybe the boy could learn to play an instrument or something. That was supposed to be good for kids.

The more he heard the more convinced he became that this place would be a good fit for his boy. Then the tables turned and she asked the questions that he had been preparing for.

"Now why don't you tell me a little more about your son, Mr. Woodridge? His name is Blue? Spelled like the color?"

He took a breath.

"Yes." He blew past the son bit. That was…. way too tricky to get into. Best to just let her assume.

"He is adopted and he's a very smart boy. He likes science and figuring out how things work. Umm, he likes drawing, particularly robots, and building things."

"He's been… homeschooled until now but I think he needs to learn to be around children his own age. He can read at a college level and he creates highly intricate machines." He let a hint of pride show through in his voice there. "But he is very shy. He can be…. strangely literal as well. I think he just needs to do things with other kids."

"And you work over at the prison?" she raised her eyebrow at him.

"Yes," the warden replied. He was used to people being slightly unnerved by his profession. "He will probably come straight from there."

"Oh, that's fine," the woman replied with a slightly strained smile.

"There is one more thing," he took a deep breath. "The boy does have a slightly unusual look about him. He has a skin pigment disorder and a large head. He is also bald. It's a genetic condition. But he is perfectly normal otherwise."

"Oh, that's not a problem!" The woman quickly assured him. "We have a very diverse class here. In fact, we have another child with vision issues and last year we had a boy in a wheelchair."

The warden nodded, again happy to let her assumption stand that he was somehow disabled. Because there was no way he was going to tell this lady that the child was a space alien.

The woman was a bit odd, but she seemed to genuinely love what she did. Her enthusiasm for the classroom activities, particularly the music lessons, was palpable. And this is what the boy would need. Someone who could be excited about teaching him.

"Well, based on what you've told me, as well as based on the IQ test scores you sent over last week, we would be happy to offer your son enrollment here at the Lil' Gifted School. Now there is some paperwork….." She trailed off as she shuffled the papers together.

And after several things had been signed and dated, he shook her hand firmly. They were all set for Blue to start classes next Monday morning.

On his way out the door, he further inspected the art on the walls and smiled to himself. Yeah, his kid could draw way better than this. The kid was gonna do fine.

He walked back over to the prison and headed straight for the familiar little cell. As expected, the boy sitting on the bed reading one of his new science textbooks amid the flutter of pieces of paper suspected from the ceiling by binder clips and red string.

That had been the project last weekend. For some reason the boy had insisted on hanging his drawings that way. The warden had given up decoding some of the twists and turns in his logic at times and this was one of those times.

He stared for a moment as the boy didn't notice his presence, completely absorbed in what he was reading. It made him smile. Soon the boy wouldn't have to sit in a lonely cell by himself and read. Well, he did have the fish, but Minion appeared to be taking a nap in his ball on the pillow.

And he quieted the little voice inside that fretted about if it was safe to take him outside the prison walls. He was 8 years old and he wasn't a baby any more. And it was becoming more apparent that he needed to be prepared for some kind of life in the world, rather than be protected from it. A small private school a block away would be a good way to ease him in.

"How's the reading goin', kiddo? You liking your new book?" he asked, jolting the boy out of his deep concentration.

"It's a good book," the boy answered with a big grin and a nod. "There's astrophysics in this one." He looked so damn pleased with the book. So this was probably a good time to tell him.

"Blue? How would you feel about going to school?" the warden asked, leaning in the doorway.

The boy cocked his head, confused. "What's that?"

"A place with kids like you to meet and play with. And you would learn - from a teacher and from new books," the warden explained, letting the smile creep across his face.

"Kids that would look like me?" he asked with wide elated eyes.

Dammit. He needed to backtrack. "Well, they wouldn't be blue, but they would be your own age. And they would be smart like you." The boy seemed to think for a moment then burst into one of his enthusiastic smiles.

"Someday I would like that," he said.

"How about Monday?" the warden asked neutrally. The child's mouth rounded into a surprised little o. "You're going to start school next week."

"Next week?" he repeated, face pulled into a nervous frown as he chewed his bottom lip. "With other kids?"

"Yep," the warden responded. He was trying to be calm and not pushy. Oh, the boy was going whether he liked it or not, but he was trying to let him get used to the news.

"I don't want to go," the boy shook his head, pulled up his knees, and crossed his arms over them.

"Will you give it a try, just for me? I think the other kids would really like you," the warden tried a bit of reverse psychology that he knew would probably work. The boy was always so eager to please.

"Well….. it would be nice to play with someone besides Minion," he offered quietly. It wasn't quite enthusiasm but it was a first step.

"That's a good boy," the warden said with a proud smile. The boy uncrossed his arms.

"Minion and I want to play superheroes tonight. And he's just terrible at it." The warden heard the little fish hrumpf, indicating he had probably been awake and listening the whole time. "Can you be our evil villain?"

The warden chuckled under his breath. "Sure, kiddo." He bought the boy some comic books on a whim a few months ago and that was his favorite game now. And it was fun to mwahaha at the boy.

~~~~~~~~M~~~~~~~

"So school tomorrow, Blue," he indicated to the boy, who was tucked into bed but looking nervous as hell. The boy nodded. "You're gonna do just fine," the warden tried his best reassuring voice.

"It's going to be an adventure, Sir!" Minion added enthusiastically from his spot next to the boy.

"Can you come with me?" the boy asked him, his eyes begging.

"School is just for kids. But you'll do just fine, Blue," the warden responded and patted him affectionately on his bald blue head.

"I don't wanna go. Don't make me go away." Oh boy, now he was starting to look panicked. The warden knelt down by the edge of the bed.

"Hey hey kiddo. You're just going to get on the bus and go to school for a day then you'll come right back here." He made eye contact with the boy, who let out a big sigh and then looked up at the ceiling.

"You'll be just fine. Good night." The warden leaned in and kissed the boy on the forehead. Then a small blue hand grabbed his own before he could go.

"Warden?"

"Yes?"

"Can you stay here? Stay with me?" the boy asked in a shaky scared voice, squeezing the warden's hand tight as he asked.

"You mean for the night?"

"Please?" the little blue boy looked at him with pleading eyes.

God, the last time he had spent the night here the boy was what? Five? He had been sick. Ahh yes, the peaches incident. The warden hadn't touched a peach for six months after that miserable day.

He exhaled deeply. The warden had a big day of his own tomorrow, between seeing the boy off to school and the Office of Budget Management auditors coming in for their yearly review. He really shouldn't sleep here since he knew he would wake up stiff, exhausted, and in a piss poor mood.

But the boy was gripping his hand so tightly, thin little blue fingers digging into the peach of the back of his hand.

"Fine, kiddo. Scoot over. You better not hog the bed," he said with as much of a smile as he could muster to reassure the boy. "That goes for you too, Minion."

The little blue child instantly relaxed his grip on the warden's hand and moved over. The warden left the cell to turn off the lights then made his way back to the bed by the light of the fish's bioluminescence.

The warden removed his belt and dress shirt before kicking off his shoes. He set an alarm on his wristwatch before taking it off and setting it on the floor next to the head of the bed. He crawled into bed next to the lanky boy and it was just as uncomfortable as he remembered. The boy curled up to him and repositioned Minion up by their heads. Then after a moment the boy broke the snuggled silence.

"I've never met any other children before," the boy whispered in the dark, fisting the man's undershirt. "What if they're scary, daddy?"

"They're not scary. Just be yourself and give them a chance. They are going to love you," the warden said simply in return, letting the rest of that statement, the 'just like I do' hang unsaid.

"Now go to sleep like a good boy, Blue."

~~~~~~~~M~~~~~~~
"Don't make me go!" The next morning found the boy clinging to the warden's leg.

Today was the big day. The warden had gotten up early this morning, after the predictably terrible night spent on a prison cot with an 8 year-old that seemed to somehow simultaneously thrash and grip him like a barnacle.

He already spent the morning fighting with the boy about clothing. Blue refused to wear the jeans and button-up shirt the warden had bought for today and insisted on wearing his orange prison uniform. He tried and tried to convince the boy that this was how people dressed in the real world, before just giving up and letting him wear what he wanted. Honestly, the warden felt like a walking sore bruise and he didn't feel like fighting that battle. Especially since it was looking increasingly likely that he was going to need to be the bad guy and actually force the boy to go.

"Now, Blue, you need to get on that bus," the warden tried to sound firm but reassuring at the same time, as he pried the boy's fingers from his thigh.

He had hoped he could let the boy walk the short distance to school eventually, but that was too much to send him alone on the first day. He was concerned the child would simply not go or wander off chasing a butterfly or something else that piqued his interest. And in order to keep the paperwork in order he had to follow the standard work release procedure to arrange transport.

Now he simply had to get the boy to stop being so difficult so he could snap this picture and the guards could get him on the bus.

"I want to stay here with my books," the child whined, trying now to hide behind him.

"Hey. Kiddo. I need you to be a brave boy," he tried to turn and grab the boy but Blue was too fast and darted out of his grip.

"Blue. Hey. We're gonna take a picture before you go so I need you to stand still and smile for me, ok?" the warden tried to distract him. But the boy wasn't having it, instead seeming to enjoy darting excitedly as though this were all a game.

The warden had bought a new camera and a brand new roll of film just for today. All the pictures he had of the boy were from when he was very young and he felt like this was the kind of thing that should be documented. So before the bus came to pick the child up, he called the boy into his office and asked Beatrice take a photo of the two of them.

Or he had tried to anyway. The boy was refusing to come out from behind him, and running around every time the man tried to get a handle on him, somewhere between defiant and playful.

But the child needed to get to school on time and the warden needed him to not be here when the auditing team arrived. Which would be any minute now. The stress and a lack of sleep had him right on the verge of losing his patience with the child.

"Blue, come here. You need to go to school. That's the way it's going to be. Now no more silly games," he snapped. The boy finally stopped moving and the warden was able to grab his arm.

"Can Minion come with me?" the boy asked abruptly.

"If I say yes, then you need to take the picture and go. Deal?" The warden offered and the boy nodded.
Now that a solution had finally been reached, the warden knelt down on one knee next to the boy and put his hand on his shoulder. The boy still looked nervous but he managed a smile at the camera and Beatrice snapped off a few shots.

Then Blue looked up at the warden, biting his lower lip, suddenly more nervous than playful. The warden squeezed his shoulder and gave the boy the most reassuring smile he could offer.

"You are going to do just fine, Blue. And you're going to have fun. I promise."

That seemed to push away some of the boy's nerves and he gave the warden a little smile.

Finally the warden gave the boy one last pat on the shoulder before turning him over to the two guards outside his door, who were given instructions to grab his Minion, put him on the bus, and see that he made it inside the school without delay. The boy walked away with them, then turned back to the warden one last time. The warden waved at him and Blue smiled a little more back.

With every step away his kid seemed to gain a bit more confidence. Which was good, but made the warden feel a little sad. His baby boy was growing up.

~~~~~~~~M~~~~~~~

He had just shown the auditors out when he was startled by the sight of the boy, running towards him at a gallop down the hallway. He had a bright smile on his face that made him look ecstatic.

He proceeded to throw himself at the warden, who picked him up in a big bear hug.

"How was your first day of school, Blue?" He held the boy up so they were face to face.

"Fantastic! There were all these children Warden and they were all there and there was one boy and he can fly and I think he's the boy from the other pod and he's an alien just like me!" Blind elation shone on the boy's face.

"Whoa whoa, slow down," the warden chuckled. "A flying boy?"

Blue nodded.

"Does the flying boy have a name?"

"Wayne. And everyone likes him even though he's an alien." The boy's eyes were wide and excited.

"How do you know he's an alien?" the warden asked, his back starting to twinge from holding the boy up. Ugh, this was killing his back. He was too old for this. He set the boy back on the ground as the child answered the question.

"Because we met before. When we were coming here." He explained enthusiastically as though it made perfect sense.

"Coming where?" The warden had no idea what he was talking about.

"To this planet. He knocked me off course in an asteroid belt." The boy gave a little frown. The warden had learned from experience just to believe the boy when he talked like this. The child had displayed his remarkable memory for early life experiences countless times - though this was one of the more fantastic tales he had heard him tell.

"Did you talk to him today?" the warden asked and suddenly the boy buried his face in the warden's leg and shook his head.

"Were you shy?" The boy nodded. "That's ok. You can be shy."

"He made everyone a snack with laser beams from his eyes," his face not quite leaving the man's pants.

"Oh, did he now? What kind of snack?"

The boy looked up at him and screwed up his nose as though he was thinking. "Popp-ed corn." He finally answered.

"He made popcorn with his eye lasers?" the warden parroted back to him skeptically, just trying to make sure he understood.

The boy nodded with eyes too wide and reverential for him to be lying.

"Well, that sounds pretty impressive."

"I want to make the popp-ed corn too warden," the little boy said haughtily and then laid out his logic. "The children like the popp-ed corn. And they like Wayne. So if I make it for them, then they will like me, too."

Shameless bribery might work, the warden thought. And at least the boy wasn't terrified any more.

"Okay," he replied. "We can make some popcorn in the kitchen tonight and send it with to you school tomorrow."

The boy shook his head. "No, I have to show them that I can make it. Then they'll like me even though I'm an alien too." The boy chewed hit bottom lip. "It might take a few days to make something suitably impressive. Can I use the blowtorch?"

Ahhh, child logic. But he couldn't say no to the boy when those green eyes of his were so wide and excited.

"Okay, Blue. You come up with a genius way to make popcorn and you can bring it to school," the warden said, shaking his head with a smile.

After all, there was no harm in letting the child try to build a popcorn maker.