Page 33 of Tiger's Quest
You never lose by loving.
You always lose by holding back.
—Barbara DeAngelis
I’m sensing a theme here.Grabbing a diet cola and the popcorn, I slowly climbed up the stairs carrying my broken, strappy shoes.
One down. And one to go.
7
Back to School
The next morning Ren called to see if we could have breakfast together and watch a movie. I said yes and hung up the phone. My body was a bit sore from my fall, so I popped some aspirin and took a hot shower.
The smell of burnt pancakes wafted up the stairs. I joined Ren in the kitchen. He had bacon sizzling on the stove and was scrambling eggs in a large bowl. My frilly apron was tied around his waist. It was quite a sight.
“I would have come down to help you, Ren,” I said and removed his burnt pancake from the griddle.
“I wanted to surprise you.”
“This is a surprise alright,” I laughed and took over the stove. “What is the peanut butter for?”
“Peanut butter and banana pancakes, of course.”
I laughed. “Really? And how did you come up with that creation?”
“Trial and error.”
“Okay,” I acquiesced. “But you also have to try some pancakes my way, with chocolate chips.”
“Deal.”
When I had a stack of pancakes sufficiently high enough to please Ren, we sat down to eat. He took a big bite of his.
“Well? What do you think?”
“Excellent. But they would be even better with peanut butter and banana.”
I reached out to get the syrup, revealing a long, purple bruise on my arm. Ren immediately noticed and touched my arm gingerly.
“What’s this? What happened to you?”
“What? Oh . . . that. I was trying to prevent an old lady from being hit by an oncoming car that bumped me instead. I fell down.”
Ren jumped off his stool and poked and prodded me, carefully feeling my bones and rotating my joints. “Where does it hurt?”
“Ren!Really, I’m fine. Just some cuts and scrapes. Ow! Don’t push on that!” I slapped him away. “Cut it out! You aren’t my doctor. It’s only a few simple bumps and bruises. Besides, Jason was right there with me.”
“Was he hit by the car too?”
“No.”
“Then he wasn’t right there with you. Next time I see him, he’s going to get some matching bumps and bruises so that he can truly empathize.”
“Ren, stop making threats. It doesn’t matter anyway because I told him I didn’t want to see him anymore.”
Ren cracked a self-satisfied smile. “Good. The boy still needs to learn a few things, though.”
