I'll be the first to admit that I envied what Joanie had with her parents. I knew that they'd be the strong supportive parents that everyone ought to have, especially people going through rough things. But still, and maybe it's because of the example they gave her to be a comforting person or maybe it was that guilt she couldn't shake but she still spent most of that Saturday trying to comfort her folks and tell them she was okay. I wished she would just accept their shoulders to cry on and I'm sure they wished it too but she just couldn't do it.

I guess you'd figure that we went to her parents' after temple and you'd figure right. I knew she needed her family and they needed more time with her too. At one point in the afternoon, Mr. Cohen had me alone. I know I didn't need to feel wrong about looking him in the eye but I did anyway. He trusted me to take care of his little girl and I had failed miserably. That's how it felt anyway.

"Do you know how badly you hurt him?" Mr. Cohen asked and I was startled because I hadn't said anything about having hurt anyone.

"Joanie told me," he said to my questioning look. "I could tell you how rash and ill-advised it was for you to do that but I think I would have done the same thing. I don't think I could have done as much damage though. Even in my youth, I was not as physically strong as you."

I nodded, "I don't know how bad I hurt him."

"She is afraid that he will file a complaint," Mr. Cohen said, "I think probably not but if he does, you call the firm. Eli and I would represent you. It would be the least I could do for all you've done for her."

"I know Joanie didn't want me to go after him," I said, "And I swear I didn't. I tried to just walk away but he kept talking and saying things you just shouldn't say; about anyone but least of all about her."

Mr. Cohen smiled at me, "She's not angry and she never meant that you couldn't rough him up a little, as you might say. She didn't want you to kill him. I can get an acquittal for an assault and battery charge but maybe not for manslaughter. I could get it reduced for sure but you'd still be found guilty and that would not go away like your juvenile record."

"I can't believe she told you about my record."

"Technically," he clarified, "You have no record. You once did but you do not now. You think I am a foolish man to give his blessing to your relationship knowing some of the things you have done?"

"I don't know if I'd say foolish but I don't understand it."

"You are not the first young person to make a mistake and you will not be the last," he said, "That is why juvenile records are expunged when the young person becomes an adult. I too made mistakes in my youth and have been grateful for the chance to learn from them."

It was then that Joanie came in and wrapped her arms around me. Surrounded by her family who had always been there for her and loved her more than life itself, she still sought me out when she felt the panic rise. That is how love works though. If I didn't already know she loved me that would have told me all I needed to know. I had sought revenge for her. I had defended her and I had been there putting aside my own anger and hurt when she just needed someone strong to hold her. I knew I couldn't keep that last part up indefinitely but I had done it for those first few days and I even marveled that all that had happened had all just happened within that short span of time. It had been Wednesday night when Sherry had called and there it was Saturday morning. In that time everything in my life that I had felt solid and sturdy had at once been shaken and yet strengthened. I didn't know how that could be but it was.

"Hey there beautiful," I said kissing the top of her head. I meant the 'beautiful' part too. The shock of seeing that black eye had worn off and I no longer even noticed it. She was just my beautiful girl. There was no way that a jerk like Stan Klein could do anything at all to change that.

We sat all together and talked a while more but not about what happened to Joanie. There was a lot of talk about Zaydeh Cohen and it wasn't any happier talk. There wasn't anything that the doctors could do for him anymore and it was only a matter of time before he would be gone. I held Joanie's hand through the whole conversation and she squeezed my hand back hard. It is true Zaydeh Cohen was not a young man and for him to pass away was hardly a shock but still, he was very loved and it was a cause for sadness that he would soon be passing on.

Joanie and I were driving home, well actually we were driving to Emma's to pick up Sherry, and Joanie said something that really struck me.

"Daddy would like for you to sit Shiva with us. We need a minyan for kaddish," she said very quietly, "He doesn't have a son."

"He asked for me?"

"Yes," she said, "It's not appropriate yet for you to be there through aninut. Zaydeh was pretty cool but he was also very traditional where his faith was concerned."

I knew this. I was very surprised that Mr. Cohen would want me there to be part of the minyan. But it would allow me to be closer to Joanie while she was dealing with what we knew was to come.

"Will you be alright through aninut?" I asked.

She nodded, "It's only a couple of days and we'll be busy seeing to the arrangements."

"You'll stay at your parents' through Shiva?" I asked.

"It'll be so much easier," she said, "And I can't expect Sherry to get ready without a mirror for a whole week. She's not vain or anything but I think she'd still like to see what she looks like before she leaves for class."

I looked over and I could see her turning the gold star around her neck over and over in her fingers. I might just have to have a chat with God and ask some questions about how he could pile so much on this dear family all at once. I guess I was a little ticked off. I'd get over it in time and be grateful for the trials we went through and the strength it gave us. This all strengthened our relationship, my relationship with Mr. and Mrs. Cohen and although it seemed impossible at the time, my faith in God.

We pulled up in front of Emma's and Joanie saw the cars in the driveway.

"The babies are here," she nearly squealed and I knew she needed to go and cuddle some babies far more than she needed to sit and talk to me anymore about her dying grandfather or what Stan had done or even what I had done to Stan.

Joanie nearly sprinted inside where she knew the women would be with the babies. It was the first time she didn't act awkward about her eye though it was probably okay. I'm sure Emma had filled them in, not to be a gossip mind you but just to explain Sherry's presence. The guys was on the porch listening to some game or another.

"You look about a hundred years old, Jimmy," Buck said to me.

"Feel every one of them too," I said, "It's been a tough week."

Ike smiled sympathetically and Al handed me a beer.

"How'd you tear your hands all up, son?" he asked me and I looked at Sam first knowing that to tell I'd have to confess to a crime and I wasn't sure I wanted to do that. Sam was a good guy and surely understood my plight but I still had beaten up a guy who was smaller and had not thrown the first punch. Sam was also a good cop, a clean and fair cop.

"If you did what I suspect you did," Sam said, "I think I'd take all the information I have on the case and conclude he jumped you. That seems to be his M.O."

"I think that's what Joanie's dad would argue in court if the S.O.B. presses charges," I told him.

Al looked at me like he wanted to be mad over the chance I had taken but I think he was more wishing he'd been the one pummeling Stan.

"Your hands look pretty rough," Buck said and I finally took a look at them. One knuckle looked worse than the rest.

"Did you take care of them at all?" Sam asked knowing that my focus hadn't been on myself that last couple days.

"Sherry cleaned 'em," I told him.

"Well, she probably knows more than the rest of us what with her dissecting stuff all the time," he said, "Go in and show her."

I did though I felt stupid. It was just a scraped knuckle. I found her leaning against a wall in the living room watching Joanie make funny faces at Lisa and then laughing herself when the baby giggled at her.

"Hey," I said, "How was your day?"

"Emma's pretty cool," she said, "You left the men and braved this hen party to ask me that? Or were you checking up on your girlfriend?"

"Neither," I replied, "One of these sores ain't looking right. I get my hands messed up plenty and this is just looking rough."

"To the bathroom with you then and let me take a look," she said. I followed along dutifully and sat on the toilet lid while Sherry held my hand over the sink and looked at it.

"Well, that explains it," she said opening the medicine cabinet and searching for something.

"What?" I asked.

She started digging through the drawers next until she found what she was looking for.

"The swelling was too bad last night for me to see it," she said as she held up the tweezers. "You want a towel to bite or something because this is going to really hurt."

"Why?"

"I don't trust peroxide to keep this clean enough so I'm going to have to use isopropyl to clean the tweezers and the wound," she said.

"I don't know what that means," I said.

"Rubbing alcohol," she explained, "Something is stuck in there and I need to dig it out. The alcohol is going to sting and me digging in there won't feel too nice either. Do you want the towel?"

I nodded and used the hand she wasn't working on to shove it into my mouth. She wasn't kidding when she said the alcohol would hurt. Just poke a hole in your hand and pour alcohol over it if you don't believe me. I did alright with not screaming like a little girl but that was much more of a challenge once she took up the tweezers and started poking around in my hand. I really thought I might pass out but eventually she made a satisfied grunt and poured peroxide over it before bandaging it up and patting me on the head.

"Do you want a lollipop now, little boy?" she asked.

"Actually that would probably make this much better," I said, "What was in there anyway?"

"It looks like part of a tooth," she said almost laughing and holding the thing up. "I probably shouldn't be that happy about it but I really am."

"What's going on?"

Sherry and I both looked up to see Emma standing in the doorway.

"Just a little minor surgery," Sherry told her, "Tough guy here got a tooth stuck in his fist."

"Jimmy?" Emma started all concerned like, "What on earth did you do?"

I looked at Sherry.

"You think I was going to go blabbing about it?" she asked, "I thought you knew me better than that."

"Well, someone better tell me and soon," Emma said with her hand on her hip.

"I left my apartment last night and found Stan waiting outside," I began, "I really tried to keep my temper in check but there's only so much a man can hear before it's just too much."

I thought I was in for a tongue lashing for sure but Emma came toward me and took my hands and looked at them real hard. Then she kissed them and patted my cheek before turning and walking out of the bathroom without a word.

"That was really weird," I said.

"Yeah," said Sherry, "I mean, I could tell she was pretty cool but I really expected her to read you the riot act."

"Maybe I should see if she's okay," I said almost more to myself than to Sherry. "She looked like she might cry or something and she doesn't do that too often."

I looked down at my hand.

"Am I good to go Doctor?" I asked sort of teasing but not really. We all knew she wasn't stopping at an undergraduate degree and she didn't. In time she was a doctor, just not a medical one.

"You are free to go," she said.

I went off to find Emma. I was hoping I was imagining things in the look she gave me after she saw my hands but I wasn't. If I had been then she would have been in the living room with the rest of the women and the babies. I kept looking and found her in the kitchen just standing in front of the sink and staring out the back window. Emma was a woman who kept a strong control over her emotions but I could see she'd let a couple of tears escape her as she obviously thought no one would see. I walked over to her and just stood and looked out the window with her for a while. I wasn't sure what to say but as it turned out, I didn't have to.

"You're so much like him," she said without looking away from whatever had her so transfixed in her back yard and really I know there wasn't anything in the yard, she was looking across a whole lot of years and not through a window pane.

"Who am I like, Emma?"

"Edward," she answered, "He was an impulsive child too." She finally drew her gaze from the window and looked at me. "He would have been about your age now too, maybe a year older. He always wanted to be the hero riding in on his horse with his white hat to rescue the damsel in distress. Looking after you was like I got a second chance to raise him. It was almost too perfect with all of you boys. I didn't have my son anymore and none of you had real parents. You needed me, all of you. But I think somehow you needed me most. I don't know how Kid managed and he did need me a little bit but Ike and Buck had each other. You were my chance at mothering my son again. The number of times I almost called you Edward, I can't even begin to tell you. When you were young I could even handle you getting into trouble because I knew it was mostly the kind of trouble Edward might have gotten into if he'd lived. I would yell at you and scold you because I could."

She dropped her eyes to the sink and knotted her fingers together.

"I can't scold you anymore," she said, "You're not my little boy, you're a man. I'd like to think you're the man Edward might have grown into but it doesn't change the fact that you don't need me anymore."

I couldn't believe she could think for a moment that I could ever not need her.

"Emma," I said and she lifted her eyes to mine. "You don't stop being someone's mom just because they grow up. I need you. I think I might even need you more now that the guys have all left me in the dust wondering where I am and what I'm doing with my life. Joanie and I will get married sometime and I'll need you there with me 'cause I don't expect I'll see either of my parents there and who else will I call from the hospital when Joanie and I finally get to having one of those babies everyone says are so great? And right now I could use someone to talk to because I don't know at all if what I done was right or not and I'm real tore up about it. You wouldn't quit being a mom to me now right when I need you, would you?"

"You think of me like a mother?"

"I do," I said, "I have a choice between the one that loves me and the one that don't. I'll pick the one that does every time."

"I do love you, you know."

"I love you too, Emma," I said, "Or I could start calling you mom."

That comment earned me a playful swat and a big hug.

"Oh and don't worry too much about what you did to him," she said, "He had it coming. I'm just glad you weren't hurt worse. You should go see how Joanie's doing."

I kissed Emma's cheek, "I can hear the babies giggling in here so I'm sure she's just fine." But I did go in to check on her anyway and I was right, she was playing with those little cuties and looking so happy and natural doing it that I didn't even want to go out and talk to the men. I just wanted to stare at Joanie and watch her eyes dance as she laughed with the little ones.

Well that seemed not so heavy...yay for that...and yay for Mr. Cohen and yay for Sherry. I like her.

Um Jewish stuff...aninut is the period between death and burial...usually not more than a couple of days as Jewish burials are to take place as soon as possible. The family receives no visitors until after the burial when they are sitting Shiva. During Shiva, the son of the deceased must say a prayer called kadddish in front of a minyan (10 men from the congregation and I think now women can too but then it would have been all men). During Shiva the family does not change clothes, wear make-up or style their hair. Mirrors are all covered so the grieving do not have to look upon their own sorrow. At least that's one of the reasons. Shiva is seven days following burial. There is more to the mourning process in Judaism but that's the intensive period of mourning.

Had a decent day where the battle of my kid v. the school rages on but significant strides were made on our side. However, a dear friend of our family could use your prayers/well-wishes/loving thoughts/good vibes/etc. She was involved in a serious car accident and we are still awaiting word on her condition. The irony is that she is at U of M hospital in Ann Arbor...great hospital though so that is a positive. Stay safe out there!-J