Page 23 of When We Were Young
Another house?
What did that mean?
He sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. He had to be quiet. If Olivia woke up he’d be in trouble. He blinked a few times. But maybe he was already in trouble.
Always when there was a storm and the thunder was loud against the house, when lightning made the sky bright or the rain and wind came too hard, Aiden knew just where to go.
To his daddy.
When he thought he saw things moving in his closet at night or when he had a dream that he fell off his Big Wheel. When the other boys made a running game at preschool and forgot to ask him to be part of their group.
Every time he would go to his daddy.
Then he remembered. That had happened just yesterday. A long time after he and Olivia had gone to sleep a superbad storm came over their house. Thunder sounded like monsters making the windows shake, like someone was trying to get into his room.
Olivia kept sleeping, but Aiden was finally too scared to stay.
So last night he ran as fast as he could down the hallway to his mommy and daddy’s room. Mommy must’ve been in the bathroom, because only Daddy was in bed.
Aiden jumped in and crawled under the covers. Quick as he could he snuggled up next to his dad. The storm got louder, but it didn’t matter. He was safe because he was with his daddy.
A little while later his dad woke up. He rolled over and looked at him. “Buddy, what are you doing in here?”
“The storm.” It was all Aiden needed to say.
His daddy smiled and rubbed his head and closed his eyes. Aiden was always allowed to come sleep with his mommy and daddy if a storm was bad. He’d thought there was going to be a bad storm tonight. Thunder had started at the park when they were on the swings.
But now the sky was quiet.
Even if the windows weren’t shaking and the lights from lightning weren’t slamming down from heaven, still he was scared.
Scared about his dad moving.
And where was he going? Aiden tried to remember. A different house. Yes, that was it. His dad was moving to a new house. His feet were cold outside the blankets. But he couldn’t lie down. Not with so many thoughts in his head. Aiden had a friend at preschool, Jamal, whose daddy didn’t live with him.
At first when Jamal told Aiden, it sounded kind of exciting. Two houses. Sleepovers. But Jamal said it wasn’t exciting at all. It was terrible, because he never saw his dad ’cept on weekends. And sometimes Jamal sat on the grass at recess and cried.
And there was nothing Aiden could say to make him stop. No running games or monkey bars or swings. Because all Jamal wanted was his daddy.
Which was how Aiden felt right now. Because right now his daddy was still here in the same house. His bed was still down the hall right where it was supposed to be. Right now Daddy still took care of him. If a storm came he still knew exactly where to run.
Aiden blinked his eyes a few more times.
A long breath came from him. A sad breath. He needed someone to help him. Someone who would come right into the house and tell his daddy not to leave. But who would that be?
Aiden thought hard. His teacher wouldn’t do it. She didn’t live nearby. Maybe his mommy. But she seemed too sad. She hadn’t said any words at all when everyone was here in the bedroom earlier.
Then all of the sudden it hit him.
God!
He could ask God to help him! Wasn’t that what Mommy and Daddy had always told him and Olivia? Whenever they were in trouble, God was right there. Just waiting for them to talk to Him. It was called praying. You could ask God for anything.
Because God was always listening.
Aiden looked through the window at the dark night. So very dark. Somewhere past the sky was where God lived. In a place called heaven. That’s what Mommy had told him a few days ago. What he had to say was very important, so he needed to be as close to God as he could get.
With steady feet, he stood on his bed and held his arms and hands straight up. High as he could get them. “Do you see me, God?” He whispered the words.
