My Friend Barney
"Hey Didi, can I talk to you for a moment?"
Didi smiled, motioning for Chas to join her on the bench. The kids were playing nearby, well within sight but with enough distance that they could have a bit of a sense of freedom. "Only if you help me with this paperwork. Why I agreed to help the school go over their budget I'll never know!"
"Sure thing," Chas said, snagging part of the stack and beginning to thumb through it. He waited about ten minutes before he finally said, "Chuckie found my fish."
"Pardon?"
"You remember that fish I caught that I had mounted?"
"Oh right! It was in your dining room. I haven't seen it in ages…"
"Melinda never liked it," Chas said softly. "So I didn't mind taking it down because while it was impressive I got her not liking it, what with her being a vegatarian. But Chuckie found it and he seemed to like it so I decided to… well…" He sighed. "Didi, how do you think I should talk to Chuckie about her?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well… for a while I didn't bring her up because I didn't want to upset him. When she passed away he was just so confused and upset that I figured if I didn't say a word it would be better. And it seemed to work. He stopped fussing and expecting her to come pick him up and just… adjusted. But the other day he was rooting around in the closet and found one of her photos… and I could tell he really didn't recognize her." He swallowed. "I didn't want that. I didn't want Chuckie to forget about her. So… what should I do?"
"Have you talked to the shrink you are taking Chuckie too?" Didi asked.
"I have but Dr. Jasper just said it was something I needed to think about very carefully. That I couldn't just… have him explain everything to Chuckie. That it would be better if I did it and that it needed to come from the heart. I just don't know where to start."
Didi considered that, watching as Tommy babbled to Chuckie; he was so desperate to learn how to talk and she thought it was so cute how the two would say nonsense to mimic the grown ups. It was good to have friends you could-
That was it.
"Chas, what about this? Stu has been talking about doing a home movie night… he has our video from the Grand Canyon he wanted to show off to everyone. What if we made it where everyone brought home movies… and you brought some of Melinda with Chuckie?"
"You think that might work?"
"Of course! We could all talk about her to him so it's not just you and if things got too hard we'd just switch to someone else's tape."
"That… I think that would be super, Didi. Thank you."
"You're welcome Charles."