Chapter 9
After Joel kicked Ellie out of the front seat, the trio were on their way. "What do you have for brunch?" Ellie asked.
"Oh, the usual." Tommy glanced at her in the rearview mirror as he replied. "Eggs, bacon, orange juice, donuts. My little girl is making some pancakes right now. That sound good to you?"
Ellie's stomach grumbled loudly. "That sounds fucking fantastic."
Joel turned to glare at her. "You can't use that kind of language around their kid, got it? Nice words only."
"I thought you said she's my age!" Ellie protested. "You're delusional if you don't think she hears that shit all the time at school."
"I don't care what she hears at school. I'm telling you to watch your mouth at my brother's home." Joel patted his brother's shoulder. "As unhygienic as he is, I'm sure Tommy has some soap he'd happily lend me to wash your mouth out."
"I'm only letting you get away with that because it's your birthday." Tommy grumbled.
"Yeah, how old are you turning?" Ellie asked with a glint in her eyes, "65? 70?"
Tommy cackled. "I like this kid."
"Hasn't anyone told you it's rude to ask adults their age?" Joel retorted.
"He's 53." Tommy said.
"You're dead to me." Joel muttered.
Tommy and Ellie were laughing as Tommy pulled into his driveway. Ellie jumped out of the car and started running toward the house, but after two steps, Joel grabbed her arm. "Listen, you can stay for a quick breakfast, but after that, I'm taking you home. I don't want your parents reporting me for kidnapping."
Ellie scowled as she yanked her arm away from Joel. "I wasn't lying. They're gone for the weekend."
"What?" Joel blinked. "You didn't mention that last night."
"I went over to get my keys back before you got up and they were in front of the door with a note. Apparently, they're going to Dallas for the weekend." Ellie rolled her eyes. "No idea why."
She turned to leave, but Joel stepped in front of her. The rage he'd felt last night was back with a vengeance. "Your parents abandoned you on one of the coldest nights of the year and didn't stick around to make sure you were ok? You could be dead!" He growled. "You can't live like this, Ellie."
Ellie glared at Joel. "Shit, guess I'll just look into my fuck-ton of other options." She drawled sarcastically.
"What about your dad?" Joel pressed. "Can you live with him?"
"My mom doesn't even know who my dad is, so no. Now get the fuck out of my way." Ellie shoved past Joel and stormed toward where Tommy was waiting for them on the porch. Joel sighed as he followed her.
Tommy led them through the house to the backyard, where the table was laden with breakfast goodies piled atop a colorful, balloon-patterned tablecloth.
"Holy fuck, finally!" Ellie yelled just as Maria walked outside with a plate of bacon.
"Girls! Don't use that language!" Maria's shocked expression faltered into confusion when she saw Ellie piling food onto her plate. "You're not- You- Who?" She finished as she turned to her husband.
"Joel is babysitting." Tommy replied.
Maria raised her eyebrows in disbelief at Joel. "Well, I never thought I'd see this day." Joel dropped her gaze.
"I tagged you!"
"You did not!"
Joel turned toward the yelling to see Bria and another girl her age running from the forest surrounding the backyard toward the table. "Uncle Joel!" Bria grinned when she saw him. "Happy birthday!" Then her eyes shifted to Ellie, and she skidded to a halt. Her friend stumbled to avoid running into her. "What?"
Ellie looked up from her half-finished plate to see everyone staring at her. She shrugged. "I'm just here for the food."
"She's my neighbors' kid." Joel hastened to explain. "I'm watching her while they're gone for the weekend."
"More like I'm watching him." Ellie scoffed. "He doesn't even have food in his house."
Bria and her friend giggled, then joined Ellie at the table. Maria shook her head. "Happy birthday, Joel." She passed him a plate. "Please, take some food."
"Thank you both for planning this." Joel rubbed the back of his head awkwardly as he, Tommy, and Maria walked to the table. "I… honestly forgot about it."
"I thought you might." Tommy smiled. "I had to make sure my big brother had a fun birthday. After all, you're only 60 once."
"Watch it." Joel grumbled.
Meanwhile, the girls had started talking. "We go to the same school, right?" Bria asked Ellie. "I think you're in my English class."
Ellie paused. "Mr. Ennen?"
Bria grinned. "That's him!"
Ellie scowled. "He knows how to suck the fun out of every book we read." She took an aggressively large bite of bacon.
Bria laughed. "Yeah, he kinda does." She studied Ellie. "Hey, how old are you?"
"Fourteen." Ellie responded around a mouthful of eggs. Joel flinched. He would have to work on her manners. "How old are you?"
"Thirteen. I'll be fourteen soon, though." Bria replied.
"Well, joke's on you. I'll be fifteen soon." Ellie attention suddenly shifted to Bria's friend. "Why do you keep staring at me?" She demanded. "You have a problem or something?" Bria's friend flinched as she looked away.
"Ellie!" Joel snapped. "Manners."
"She's the one being rude!" Ellie retorted indignantly.
"Sorry." Bria's friend mumbled. "Uh, my name's Dina."
"And I'm Bria." Bria added.
"I'm Ellie." Ellie glanced at Dina, her expression turning guilty. "Sorry for yelling at you."
Dina shrugged. "It's cool." Her dark eyes met Ellie's green eyes for a strangely long moment. Then Ellie's gaze dropped to her food. Joel glanced between them and noticed that both girls' faces were redder than before.
"Anyways," Tommy cleared his throat. "Joel, I'm curious as to how this whole babysitting gig started. I don't suppose you'd tell us the story?"
"Oh, sure." Joel took a bite of scrambled eggs and chewed as he scrambled for a story. Then he smiled. "Well, she just kept popping into my lawn asking for things. A bit annoying really. So I ended up talking to her parents and they asked me to watch her this weekend. I figured even if I said no, she'd find herself in my yard anyways, so I gave in."
Ellie crossed her arms. "Oh, that's how you're going to play it, old man? Got it." She turned to Bria and leaned forward like she was about to share a secret. "I kept going to visit him because he seemed so lonely and I felt so bad for him." She grinned at Joel as she continued. "I mean, I'm helping a senior citizen get out of the house every once and a while. This is basically community service."
Everyone laughed as Joel shook his head ruefully. "There's no getting around that smart mouth of yours, is there?"
"Nope." Ellie pushed her empty plate away and looked at Bria and Dina. "You guys want to climb trees?"
The girls grinned. "Totally!" Bria exclaimed. In a moment, all three were up and running toward the forest.
Joel sighed. "Practically feral." He glanced apologetically at Tommy and Maria. "Sorry if she's a bad influence on your girl."
"I like her." Maria smiled. "Feel free to bring her over any time, Joel."
"I second that." Tommy nodded. "Kid's funny. I think she's good for you."
Joel paused in the middle of cutting a sausage. "What do you mean?"
Tommy and Maria glanced at each other. Then Tommy leaned forward. "For the last twenty years, it's felt like you don't care about life. Like you're going through the motions, but you don't want to do it anymore. But for the last month, something has been different. You just seem… I don't know, man, you just seem happier. After twenty years, it's really nice to see you happy." Joel stared at Tommy wordlessly. Tommy cleared his throat and looked away.
"Anyways," He started. "I'm guessing you didn't catch the game yesterday, with the kid sleeping over."
"Yeah, I missed it." Joel replied, eager for the subject change. "How was it?"
But as Joel spent the rest of the morning talking and laughing with his family, Tommy's words kept coming back to him. Even as he focused on what his brother or sister-in-law was saying, part of his brain was focused on Ellie, taking in her distant shouts, tracking her small figure through the trees. If he blinked, he could imagine that he was listening for Sarah twenty years ago as she ran around the same backyard. She'd loved visiting Uncle Tommy. Joel watched Ellie sprint after Dina as both girls shrieked. She would have liked Ellie too.
Lunch time came around, and Joel practically had to drag Ellie to the car.
"Now you have friends at school." Joel pointed out to a sullen Ellie as he drove them back to his house. "Not as hard as you thought, was it?"
Ellie grumbled. "We were in the middle of a game."
Joel scratched his chin. "Tag never ends, as far as I recall."
"We were still in the middle of it." Ellie crossed her arms.
Joel chuckled. He remembered driving Sarah with the same pouty expression. He'd make ridiculous dad jokes until she broke and went back to being his happy girl.
Joel's smile vanished as he waited for the wave of grief that always accompanied his memories of Sarah. And waited. And waited.
It never came. Joel just felt the warmth of the memory.
Tommy was right. For so long, he'd been stagnant. The day he saw his daughter's eyes close for the last time, he felt broken. Numb. When she went, he went with her. Every day since then, he'd felt just as shattered as that first day. Twenty years changed nothing. But now, something was finally changing in his static life. The ache in his chest was fading. He could smile and mean it. He wanted to stay now, if only so he could laugh at something Ellie did. Hear what she had to say.
"I'm hungry." Ellie groaned.
Joel rolled his eyes. "How are you hungry again?"
"Normal people have to eat more than one meal in their lives, Joel." Ellie retorted. "Can we go to McDonalds?"
"You've had that so many times. Let's do something else this time." Joel said. "How about Wendy's?"
"That's literally the same thing, just worse."
"Taco Bell?"
"I want to sink my teeth into a burger, not a burrito."
"You've had too many burgers. We're going to do something healthy."
"Ok, ok, I'll do the apples instead of fries, just go to McDonalds."
"Hey, there's a Sweetgreen. Let's go there."
"Joel, don't you fucking dare."
"I'm turning into the parking lot…"
"JOEL, DON'T YOU DARE MAKE ME EAT A SALAD."
"…And we're here."
"Fuck you."