The Families in Rossford

“So the thing about Liam,” Brendan explained, while he and Sheridan sat on Layla’s sofa, “is that not only is he from another country, but he has no parents, and no agency to work through, and he is, in a way, kidnapped.”

“How’s he kidnpapped?” Layla snapped. “If he has no mother, no father and no agency, how is he kidnapped?”

“Ease up,” Brendan put up a hand. “I’m not saying he is, I’m saying the state would say he is.”

“And they might also wonder about how he got on the plane and arrived here in the first place,” Sheridan added.

“Right,” Brendan’s expression was sober. “That could be serious.”

“Well, that’s why you’re here,” Lee said brusquely. “To take care of things like that. Or else they could have got any lawyer.”

“But I’m telling you I’m having a hard time seeing how to make this legal.”

“Brendan,” Fenn spoke more gently than the rest. “Surely you understand we were not asking you how to do this through the law, but how to do it around the law?”

Brendan looked irked and said, “Yes, Fenn. I’m beginning to see that.”

“Beginning to see it?” Layla began.

“Layla,” Fenn warned.

“Well, I feel squeamish about that,” Brendan began.

“You didn’t used to.”

“There’re are a lot of things I didn’t used to do,” Brendan said sharply.

Brendan was in the kitchen feeling irritated when the door pushed open and he turned around.

“Look, Fenn,” he said, gently.

“Yes?”

“I would like us to work within the law. I’m so tired of the fake papers and the manouvering and pulling strings and hiding things. I am a man of the law.”

“I know that,” Fenn said, nodding.

“Then what did you come in here for?”

“To say you shouldn’t pay attention to Layla. Or Lee for that matter.  Liam can go to school. All he needs is a residence, and he has it. The other stuff will work itself out.”

“It’s just we seem to have this cavalier disregard for law. And… Am I a lawyer or not?”

“Of course,” Fenn said.

“Only?”

“Only what?” Fenn said.

“There is an only or a but behind that ‘of course’.”

Fenn nodded. “There is. Yes.

“Liam is a mixed race child from Great Britain with no family who came here illegally with no valid paper work, and if you make that known, then what happens? And how will Layla and Will adopt him?”

“He would likely be sent back to England and placed in their foster care system.”

Fenn nodded.

“Look, Fenn,” Brendan sat down across from him quickly, and leaned across the table.

“If I were to do what Will and Layla were doing—and I would never do that—”

“No, of course not.”

“Then I would have Pam and all of their friends who got them those bullshit papers pose as a private adoption firm. If they could do that, then I could do something too, on behalf of the state of Indiana, and Liam could be adopted.”

“Apparently he’s seeing this Maggie girl or something,” Charlie told her.

“I can’t believe Milo has a daughter,” Meredith said. “How could he? I mean, where the hell did he have time to make her?” Meredith spoke more to herself.

“Before he came here, I guess. Maybe. Well, I guess Dena will get it out of him. That is, if the girl is right. If she isn’t totally flipping.”

“Ed will be paying for everything he did,” Charlie said. “Those windows took me out a lot.”

“It was really good of you, Charlie.”

“No it wasn’t,” Charlie told her. “There really wasn’t anything else I could have done. But he’s giving me every one of his paychecks until he’s paid for it. I’m so mad at him,” Charlie pounded his fist softly into his palm.

“That’s your mad?” Meredith said with a smile.

Charlie looked at her and grinned.

“That’s kind of as far as I go,” he said.

“I think that’s why I love you.”

Charlie cocked his head and said, “Did you say you loved me?”

“I’m not one of those people who thinks you can’t say it or that you have to wait a long time. Especially since I usually don’t feel it.”

Charlie kissed her, and she touched his ear.

“How long can you stay?” he asked her. He placed his hand on hers.

“Dena’s keeping Elijah and Cayla tonight,” Meredith said.

“Then don’t go,” Charlie said squeezing her hand. “Stay with me tonight.”

“Charlie.”

“Or don’t,” he said. “Sorry, I may have spoken too soon.”

“No,” Meredith said. “I’ll stay. I’d love to stay.”

SHE HAD HONESTLY NEVER felt this way. This morning she woke up, looking at the grey light of the sun coming through the curtains, and she looked at the walls of Charlie’s room, decorated with little portraits. Charlie’s face was pressed to her neck, and his arms were around her. She tried not to wake him as she turned around to look at him, but he was smiling at her when she saw him.

“Hello,” he said.

“Well, hello yourself,” Meredith said.

“When do you have to get the kids?”

“Are you trying to make me stay longer?”

“I would love if you stayed longer,” Charlie reclined on his side.

“Well, what the hell time is it?”

She turned around, and he turned around with her.

“It’s only eight o’clock,” she said. “I think we’ve got another hour, at least.

Charlie’s fingers walked up her shoulder.

“We can make good use of it.”

There was a noise from downstairs and Meredith said, “Is someone knocking?”

“The kids shouldn’t be here.”

Charlie climbed out of hed in his boxers and pulled his housecoat on.

“Should I stay here or what?”

“Nah,” Charlie shook his head. “Com’on down. If it is the kids, it’s time for them to learn about birds and bees and…”

Charlie took off his housecoat and handed it to her and then, while the knocking on the door grew more forceful, he pulled on pajama bottoms and Meredith said, “That’s what I call an asshole. I’m definitely going down there with you.”

Meredith followed Charlie down the steps, her hand on his shoulder. He looked back and grinned at her.

“What?” she said. “You’re my boyfriend.”

He kissed her hand quickly, and then they went down the stairs together.

A curtain covered the door and Charlie peeked past the thin fabric, shrugged and then opened the door.

“Is Meredith Affren here?” the man asked, but Meredith could see him.

“Mathan? What the hell are you doing here?”

“I came to find out the truth,” Mathan said, as billigerent as before.

“Is it true Elijah’s my son?”

Andrew looked at her, his mouth open a little and Meredith looked at both of them and then said, “Fuck.”

“Where did you hear that from?” Meredith demanded.

“Does it matter?” Mathan asked.

“Well, it sort of does,” Meredith told him.

Charlie came down the stairs, dressed, and said, “If you all want to hash this out, I’m going to get your kids from Dena.”

“And is one of those kids my kid?”

“Yes!” Meredith said, impatiently. “Yes, goddamnit yes. And if you hadn’t run off with Carol right away, then you would have been raising him.”

“Carol was interested in me.”

“But you were fucking me!”

“And on that note,” Charlie said, “I’m gone.”

The door shut before them, and Meredith said, “I was not about to humiliate myself by telling you and Carol that I was having your baby, and I was not going to be left some single mother with Mathan Alexander’s child while he married another white woman altogether.”

“Did you think about me? How it would affect me?”

“No, Mathan, I didn’t. And here’s one worse: I didn’t think about Max either, which is why he’s gone.”

“Well did you love him?”

“No.”

“You really are—”

“A blue-eyed bitch,” Meredith finished. “I know.”

“And this Charlie?”

“I am in love with him. I haven’t been in love since we were kids. You and me.”

Meredith realized this wasn’t exactly true. But she didn’t know that until she said it, and it was too late and too cruel to take the statement away. She had liked Mathan a lot. But she had never been in love with him. She knew that now.

“So,” he sat on the edge of the sofa. “We’ve got a kid.”

“We have a kid,” Meredith said. “And if you think about it, that’s more than Sheridan and Chay had. A kid’s forever.”

“Elijah is my son.”

“He’s your oldest son. I wonder how the other one will deal with that.”

“The other one is two years old. Two year olds adapt.”

“Will Carol adapt?”

“She’s a mature woman.”

“She’s certainly not two,” Meredith said.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It’s supposed to mean you left me for an old woman. I mean, Brendan Miller’s sister!”

“Meredith, you were already gone.”

Meredith was quiet.

“I know,” she said. “But I wanted my disappearance to hurt a little more than it did.”

“How do you feel about what you heard?” Elias asked him.

“Whaddo you mean?” Dylan said. He sounded half distracted. They sat in the coffee shop on Loretto’s campus.

“About your family?”

“I’ve already got a family,” Dylan said brusquely.

“Meredith’s boyfriend’s ex wife is—”

“I already heard it,” Dylan told Elias, taking a long sip of his coffee while his brow furrowed.

“You don’t have to be that way about it.”

“I’m not being any way about it,” Dylan said, continuing to be that way about it.

“I’m just saying, this woman is your blood aunt and—”

“Look, the way you’re saying that is like somehow some random woman is more important than Adele or Layla or any of the rest of my family.”

“That’s not what I meant. It’s just if my birth mother’s sister came to town—”

“You’d want to meet her? You’d want to be friends with her children? Really?” Dylan said.

“Yeah,” Elias said weakly.

“Aren’t you the one that told Matthew he shouldn’t look for his real family? Look, I’ve got a real family, and in case you forgot, I’m related to a ton of Mesdas. So I already know what it’s like to have biological cousins and I have to tell you, I think they’re pretty fucking weird. And then, from what I hear, this cousin of mine broke all the windows in Dena’s house so—not much of a prize.”

“I’m sorry,” Elias said.

“I just don’t want to talk about it,” Dylan said, lamely, turning away.

Elias wondered if it had anything to do with Eileen Wehlan. He knew how Dylan felt about Fenn, and how protective he was of his father. He also knew how much Dylan wanted to protect himself from the mother who had abandoned him. Thinking of her family was probably thinking of her. Elias wasn’t going to say this. He wasn’t going to bring it up.

“Dylan,” he placed a hand over Dylan’s.

Dylan looked at him like he would be wise to choose his words carefully.

“I love you,” Elias said, squeezing his hand. “And I am your family.”

“I’m an asshole,” Dylan said, turning his face away, suddenly ashamed.

Elias tugged at his hand. Dylan looked at him. Elias shook his head.

“When I get back from Chicago do you want to spend the night with me?” Dylan said.

“If you think we’re ready for it.”

“I know you’re ready for it,” Dylan told him. “You’re ready for everything. It’s me. But… I don’t want to be apart from you, and we’re getting up so early in the morning or I’d say tonight.”

They were still holding hands across the table. Elias turned to listen to the man reading his poetry at the table beside them.

 

i bet even if i didn't tell you,

if i didn't tell you...

and if i didn't tell you

i was having fun,  i still would have it

and if i didn't tell you that

in a burst of lust i pretended

i made love to you and you

never knew that everything

flowed out of me onto my

hand onto my bed sheets

 

“Oh my God, who the fuck is that?” Dylan wondered.

“Do you know Sean Babcock?”

“Not that well,” Dylan admitted.

“That’s his boyfriend. Came all the way from Detroit or something to find him. He’s a poet.”

“Is he here a lot?”

Elias shrugged.

“But that’s the way I feel,” Dylan said, excitedly, shaking Elias’s hand. “That’s how I always feel.”

 

then when we meet,

is it still an affair,

at least on my part, and if i

keep it to myself, and if i

keep it to myself, am i still alive?

or do i have to prove it to you

do picture books pick up where

memory left off and can i find you

and can you climb inside me?

 

Dylan looked at the man in glasses who reminded Dylan a little of one of his cousins, and then said, “What about now, El? We have now.”

“School—?”

“Fuck the rest of school. What about right now?”

Elias looked at Dylan, at the joy on his face. Both of them knew sex and even the joy of forbidden sex. This excitement, this joy in being with each other was something completely different.

“Yes,” Elias said. He nodded his head quickly.

They both turned to look at Jonah Layton, who had just noticed them, and smiled. They smiled back, and then looked at each other, grabbed their coats, and, leaving money on the table, went quickly to the door.