Page 107 of Waiting for Redemption

“Why was it no good?” Hendrix looks over at Harold with those big brown eyes of his and Harold tells him the story about how he lost his arm. Hendrix listens to every detail without ever losing interest, only taking his eyes off of Harold to make a move in his game with Don.

“I’m sorry you lost your old arm, Mr. Harry. But I think your new one is super cool.” There’s something about the innocent mind of a child that could bring a whole new perspective to the world.

“You think so, kid?” Harold and Don laugh, rustling Hendrix’s hair as he makes his last move on the board.

“Yeah. You’re like a cyborg or Iron Man—Checkmate.” Hendrix beams as we all look at the board. Sure enough, he’s captured the king.

“Don, I think you’ve finally met your match.”

“Good game kid.” Don extends his hand to Hendrix, who shakes it like a grown man.

“Alright, we’re going to make some rounds, we’ll holler at y’all before we leave.”

“Bye, Mr. Don. Bye, Cyborg.” Hendrix waves.

We spend the rest of the morning taking Maverick around to see people, helping serve breakfast, and talking with more of the guys about their time served. Hendrix seems to absorb every story like a sponge, intrigued by every little detail. While I help with maintenance on a few things, Hendrix busies himself by playing a few rounds of Go-Fish, and very animatedly telling people about how I threw a grown man in the trash can—which I’m sure I’ll catch some grief over later. When it’s finally time to go, I have to basically drag Hendrix out the door.

“You bring that boy back with you anytime, Tank. We could use a little ball of energy like him around here,” Harold says as he makes his way back to his room.

“I think he would like that,” I agree, glancing over at Hendrix and Maverick waiting for me by the door.

“You ready to go home?” Hendrix bounces to his feet, causing Maverick to do the same.

“Yes, sir. I can’t wait to tell Mom all about Mr. Harold and his super cool arm.” He begins pretending his arm can shoot lasers out of it.

“Hey, Dad.”

“Yeah, buddy?”

“I’m really glad you made it back home,” he says, catching me off guard a little.

“What do you mean?” I ask, stopping to really look at him while he talks.

“Well, some of those guys said their other friends didn’t make it back home from fighting bad guys. And you said you used to do that too. So I’m glad you made it back home and got to be my dad.” This kid has no idea the impact his little words have on my heart.

“I love you, Hendrix. I am honored that I get to be your dad.” He smiles, throwing his arms around my neck before letting go again and starting back towards the truck.

“Can we go see Mom at work? I wanna tell her about our day rightnow,” Hendrix excitedly requests. I glance down at the clock to see that it’s just about lunchtime, and from the way my stomach growls right on cue, I take it as a sign to have lunch at the bar.

“Sure little man. Let's surprise Mom at work.”

“Yes!”

* * *

“I gotta pee!” Hendrix yells as soon as we walk through the door of Chattahoochies.

“Okay, maybe don’t announce it to the whole place though.” I grab him by the shoulder and politely nod to the couple sitting at the booth closest to us. On our way to the bathroom, we spot Ruby and Hendrix suddenly forgets his previous urgency.

“Hey, Mommy! Dad and I had thebestday today. I got to meet Mr. Harry, he has an arm like Iron Man. And I beat Mr. Don at chess, and then I played alotof Go-Fish and told everyone how Dad put mean old Tommy’s dad in the trash can, and then Maverick napped in Mr. Wilson’s lap, and… it was the best. Day. Ever.” He lets out a huge sigh of relief after his run-on storytelling, while Ruby’s wide eyes bounce between us.

“Wow, thatdoessound like the best day. But you look exhausted buddy,” she says, running her fingers along his cheek.

“I’m not tired.” With his eyes only about half open right now, I beg to differ.

“Weren’t you about five seconds away from peeing your pants, son?” I ask, reminding Hendrix of his mission.

“Oh, right! Gotta pee!” He starts running down the hallway again.

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