When The Lights Go Down In The City

(1989)

(If any of you know much about Tom Keifer, you know that he has a son named Jaiden. I don't really know what Tom did wrong. Just that whatever it was it had to do with loosing our house for the time being. So Ray, the manager for Ray's Records, the company that Cinderella was signed to in my imaginary world, let us stay at one of his houses.)

Tom went to the grocery store while Kayla and Jaiden unpacked. He found canary melons at the market and a ripe cranshaw. He parked across the street from the house and sat for a few minutes, still gripping the wheel. He was ashamed that because of him Kayla was rooted out of the house she loved and put among strangers.

Tom had done his best. This was no faceless house with chair arms bleached by palm sweat. It was a pleasant cottage, freshly whitewashed, with impatiens blooming around the steps. It was the product of careful hands and a sense of order. The rear yard sloped down to the Chesapeake Bay and there was a swimming raft.

Blue-green television light pulsed behind the curtains. Kayla and Jaiden were watching baseball, Tom knew.

Jaiden spent a lot of his time collecting baseball cards and trading them with his friends at school. He had recently been begging Kayla to sign him up for baseball in the summer with his friends.

Jaiden watched baseball whenever he could. Kayla watched baseball with him when she was upset.

Tom had no key. He knocked.

"I'll get it." Jaiden's voice.

"Wait." Kayla's face between the curtains. "All right."

Jaiden opened the door. In his fist, held close to his leg, was his stuffed lion, Perry. The boy must have brought it in his suitcase.

Kayla took the stuffed lion from him. Jaiden was six-years-old and they thought he was too old to be carrying around a stuffed toy. "Want some lemonade? We have some gin, but it's not the kind you like."

When she was in the kitchen, Jaiden asked Tom to come outside.

From the back porch they could see the riding lights of boats outside.

"Tom, is there any stuff i need to know to see about Mom?"

"You're both safe here, Jaiden. I promise it won't happen again. No one knows that we are here."

"Why did we leave our home?"

Tom closed his eyes for a moment. "We just need to stay here for a while. I promise it won't be long."

"Will's mother had this little magazine, Tom. It said that you--"

"It's not true, Jaiden."

"I started to ask Mom, but i figured i'd ask you."

"I appreciate your asking me straight out."

The lights went out in the kitchen. He could see Kayla's dim outline inside the screen door and he felt the weight of her judgement. Dealing with Jaiden he was handling her heart.

Jaiden clearly did not know what to ask next. Tom did it for him. "I feel really bad about it, you know."

"Say, i'm going in the kitchen for a minute. You want something, a Coke?" Jaiden liked to bring Tom things, but he always made it a casual adjunct to something he was going to do anyway. No special trip or anything.

"Sure, a Coke."

"Mom ought to come out and look at the lights."