Monday morning, two weeks later, Kensuke was scheduled for release and seemed to be doing better. He was responding to the medication, therapy, plus good old-fashioned affection, and was still agreeable to moving into the house. Healing and counseling would continue on an outpatient basis.
Billy rolled over and gave Erika a kiss. “What time are we heading over to the hospital?”
“Morning, Hockey Puck.” Milo stretched, pulling the covers off everyone, exposing a lot of skin in the process. “You know, my nan was big on that movie Bob and Carol, Ted and Alice. If only she could see me now.”
Billy buried his face in the pillow. He was all the way to the left. Erika was beside him, then Tom Alan and Milo. Etsuko cried out for someone and Erika crawled over two of them to get up. When Milo rolled closer to Tom Alan, and Tom Alan shifted to where Erika had been, Billy scooted too far and hit the floor, completely naked. “That’s gonna leave a mark,” Tom Alan said.
By the time Erika came out with Etsuko, Milo was in the kitchen creating some sort of frittata that smelled heavenly. He set the plates out on top of the island, one in front of each stool. When Billy asked for a banana, Milo fondled it before handing it over. “Subtle,” Erika muttered. Men…They obsessed far more about the ones they had than Jesse did with the one he didn’t. Erika didn’t mind it, really, even if the constant innuendo sometimes got old.
“Now how long ‘til we get one in ya, love?” Milo set down the food.
“I’m ‘love’ now, too?” Billy asked.
“You’re going to scare him,” Erika warned.
“Fisher was the most nervous last night.”
Their first evening as a foursome had ended up sort of like a really bad doubles tennis match. Everyone was playing hard, but their balls all stayed on their own side of the net.
“It was hot watching Flower play around back there. Maybe next time…” Milo licked his lips.
“I always wondered if women liked doing that,” Tom Alan said.
“I can’t speak for all women,” Erika told him, in the same quiet voice they all used because of Etsuko. “This one does.”
“Look at Billy’s ears.” Tom Alan pointed. “They’re as pink as last night.”
“Can we just eat without talking?” Billy asked.
“That’s what she said.” Milo smirked as Erika nearly spit her eggs and veggies across the kitchen.
Midway through the morning, she and Tom Alan took a break from practice. Milo had driven over with Etsuko, and since Billy was in class, the four of them went to bring Kensuke home. “Do you want to go to school and register, or just wait and do everything tomorrow morning?” Tom Alan asked.
“I don’t care.”
Tom Alan threw him a look. “You okay?”
“Yeah. It’s just…going to be different. New again. New school, new home, new life, new disease.”
“Disorder,” Erika said.
“Same thing. “
“Another transition,” she told Kensuke.
“If you get overwhelmed,” Tom Alan added, “we’ll just take a break and figure it out. We can just stop and talk or stop and skate any time.”
“A GED, college classes, those options are still on the table as well.”
“I’d kind of like to finish something for once. My shrink’s behind me on that, so we may as well hit the school, I guess,” Kensuke replied.
“You guess,” all three said back.
“You guys really gotta stop doing that, yo.”
They walked into Somers High just as a period was ending. The first thing Erika spotted was the orange hair a few inches taller than everyone else’s. “Burgess!” she called out into the crowded hallway. He spun around—and then turned beet red. “Sorry,” Erika said when he made his way over. “At least I didn’t call you Peanut.”
“Hey, Little Red.” Burgess raised Etsuko’s pink striped shirt a smidge and poked her chubby belly. “What’s up? Hey, Kensuke.” Burgess held out his hand. Erika thought it a rather old-fashioned way for two teens to greet each other.
“Burgess is in band,” Erika said. “Kensuke will be, too.”
“Whaddayaplay,” all one word.
“With myself,” Kensuke said.
Burgess laughed, a loud, dorky sound that went with his look.
“That’s our boy,” Milo said, stroking Tom Alan’s arm.
“Can you point us toward the main office?” Erika asked.
“It’s my free period.” Burgess reached for Kensuke’s hand. “I’ll walk you down.”
They took off, hand in hand. That right there said something about the atmosphere of the school. Kensuke stopped in front of a poster for The Wizard of Oz tryouts. “You do the orchestra?”
“Only the strings. Oh. You meant…”
“How do you guys talk when we’re not around?” Erika asked.
“Oh. A lot worse,” Burgess told her.
“You thinking about trying out, Kensuke?”
“Could happen, Tabby.” Tom Alan had finally been given a nickname. “An Asian Tin Man, yo. You think the world is ready?”
By the end of the week, Kensuke seemed close to his old self—the first version Erika had met at the restaurant. He claimed to be adjusting well to his new school and was surprisingly cooperative about early bedtimes and chores at home, a home which was suddenly more chaotic than usual. That weekend, after dinner, sex was on everyone’s mind. The adults weren’t getting as much as they’d have liked, all four afraid Kensuke would hear them no matter how quiet they tried to be. “I thought we had a while before we had to worry about kids overhearing us,” Milo said.
“We could take turns spending the night at my apartment,” Billy offered. “I have another month left on the lease.”
“I think Hockey Puck needs to take us for a ride in the truck. Only this time, he doesn’t get out.”
“Not without me,” Erika said.
“Shh. They’ll hear us,” Tom Alan whispered. “Who knows where sound from this heating duct comes out?”
Jesse and Burgess were both staying over, and the so-called adults switched to a discussion about where the three kids should sleep. “Here’s the deal,” Erika said. “If they were heterosexual, and a mixed group, in no way would we let them all sleep in the same room…would we?”
“What kind of prudes are we going to look like if we try to separate them, love? Whatever’s going to happen is going to bloody happen. They can do it anywhere.”
“You two should know,” Billy said. “We can’t worry about how we come off, though. We have to have rules. It’s not about being cool.”
“We’re responsible for all of them,” Erika said. “I assume Jesse can still get pregnant.”
That stopped the men in their tracks. “What the hell, babe?”
“Oh, grow up,” she said. “It’s a legitimate concern. Jesse already said he and Kensuke have sex. I don’t know what kind…how…where…” Not one of the men responded, but she knew damned well all of them were thinking.
“I left a box of condoms in Kensuke’s underwear drawer,” Tom Alan blurted out, almost as if confessing to a murder after hours of interrogation.
“Umm, I put some in his backpack,” Milo revealed.
“I just leave them lying around where he’ll find them,” Erika said.
“My baby brother’s upstairs with a dude who now thinks he’s expected to go through fifty condoms in a weekend?”
“Okay, look,” Tom Alan said. “Truthfully, here’s my biggest worry…what if Kensuke is developing feelings for Jesse again that aren’t going to be…?”
“Reciprocated,” Erika supplied.
“Exactly. What do we do about that?”
“About what?” Kensuke and Jesse descended the kitchen stairs.
“Can we talk about something?” Tom Alan asked.
“Oh, crap,” Kensuke said. “What’d I do now? You’re using your fatherly tone.”
It was the kind of sarcasm one could smile about. “Do you have us categorized already? The serious one, the fun one, the pushover?”
“Naw. It’s not like that,” Kensuke said, perching upon the counter next to the sink. “You’re all pushovers. You have no idea what I get away with around here.” He took an apple from the bowl and bit in.
“Listen,” Milo said. “Both of you, and pass this on to Goober. Before you engage in anything that requires the removal of knickers, make sure you’re all on the same page.”
Kensuke rolled his eyes at him.
“We don’t do that,” Billy said.
“Sorry, Coach.” There wasn’t the slightest hint of sarcasm. “Sorry, One Direction. I forgot.”
“It’s okay, but seriously, Suke. I don’t want your head messed up over miscommunication.”
“Me neither,” Jesse said.
“Are you seeing anyone?” Erika asked him.
“No,” Jesse replied, and suddenly Erika wondered if she could trust anything any one of them said. “This guy, Alex, he asked me out, but he called Kensuke crazy, so I told the jerk to F off.”
“That is jerky,” Tom Alan said.
“Jess…you ain’t gotta defend me.”
“I punched him in the face,” he proudly declared.
“Jesse!”
“It was after school,” he told Erika. “No one can do anything. It’s not like he’s going to go around telling people the tranny gave him a black eye.”
“Jesse, don’t call yourself that.”
“I totes can, Tom Alan, but no one else better.”
“Do kids in your school say things like that, Kensuke? Should we talk to the principal?”
“No,” Kensuke said firmly. “It’s all good.” He gave Erika a smile.
“Okay.”
Burgess finally came down, too, probably wondering where the others had gone.
“Run for your life, Penis. It’s a sex and mental health lecture. Listen.” Kensuke took a breath and let it out. “I’ll lay it out for you.” He reached over and turned up the volume on Etsuko’s video. “My brain and body are changing with the drugs, just like Jesse’s will. I can’t even nut half the time. The doc swears it’ll get better. And not only that…” A bite of apple delayed the rest of the sentence. “As I’m yanking it until my hand starts to hurt the other day, I realized my feelings are more…realish and my thoughts aren’t so all over the place. My head’s on straighter. We three hang out and mess around sometimes,” Kensuke said quite directly, causing four jaws to drop. “But there’s no penetration.” He smirked. “And don’t tell me we can’t play more than twosies, because you guys probably do it all the time.”
Burgess turned without a word and headed back up the stairs.
“Can I go now?” Kensuke hopped down from the counter and waved to Etsuko. She waved back.
“What’d you come down for?” Billy asked.
“Food.” He tossed Jesse a banana and picked up two more.
“Honestly…You’re both okay?” Tom Alan asked, lowering the cartoon’s sound.
“Ye-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-s,” Kensuke stated with grand frustration.
“Jesse?”
“Totally,” he said. “I love Kensuke, but we’re not exclusive or nothing. We’re all in agreement.”
“I hope so,” Tom Alan said once both were out of sight. “And I hope they do find their way back together exclusively.”
“Me, too, Skater Boy. They are kind of adorable.”
“What’s wrong with Peanut?” Billy asked. “What’s wrong with him being adorable with Jesse or Kensuke?”
“A redhead and a pretty Asian?” Milo shook his head. “I don’t see any future in that.”
“So, your brother is B-boy?” Tom Alan asked. “I was kind of kidding. That’s one hell of a coincidence.”
“Not really,” Billy said. “Not at all, actually, especially in the tech age. They already knew each other from Peanut hanging out down at the rink. If Jesse saw him on Grindr,” Billy seemed to nearly choke on the word, “he would definitely hit him up. The sexuality issue might be stranger. I wonder what the odds are of having one gay son and one bi one in the same family.”
“I’m sure they increase when you have eight kids,” Milo said.
“Maybe. Of course, whenever I ask Peanut what he’s into…who he is…he tells me it’s none of my business. ‘Why I got to have a label?’ He asks that, too. To him, it’s more progressive to do away with them. I don’t know if that’s youth, avoidance, or what.”
“It’s not that uncommon. A lot of the kids at the college think that way,” Milo said. “They don’t want to be boxed in. Humans. Americans. That’s it. Someone like Rocky, who wants to use certain words still, someone a little older who fought for the terms to be worn with pride, they might see it as going backwards. They might actually get angry. Who’s right? What’s sad is two people on the same side might end up fighting while the bigger enemy goes unchecked.”
“That kind of argument still happens among women sometimes, with regards to feminism versus being a feminist,” Erika said.
“What’s the difference?” Billy wondered.
“Depends who you ask.”
“Human beings, human rights. Equal pay for equal work. Do unto others…Be nice. All people are created equal. I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe I sound like a simpleton…like a moron…but why can’t we do that starting now?”
“Or maybe anyone who tries to makes it more difficult than that is,” Milo countered.
The philosophical discussion was interrupted by Forbidden Fruit blaring from upstairs.
“Aww…it’s Kensuke and Jesse’s song,” Erika jested, wanting to plug her ears from the heavy metal as she felt the beat in the floor.
“No offense to Teen Red, but I’m pulling for Kenesse,” Milo said.
“What the hell is that?”
“A ship name, love. You prefer Jessuke?”
“What the hell’s a ship name?” Billy directed his second question at Tom Alan, as if he could no longer translate Milo’s gibberish without help.
“Ship name…like relationship. Mine and Skater Boy’s is MTA,” Milo clarified. “And you and Erika would be Birika or Erilly or…”
“Bee,” Tom Alan offered. “Billy, Erika, Etsuko…B, E, E…Bee.”
“So no one is rooting for Peanuke? Kenut?” Billy seemed genuinely sad.
“I don’t think our votes matter,” Erika said, offering a soothing peck. “Their story will work out however they want it to.”
* * * *
The next Saturday was Kensuke’s birthday. Erika had taken him and Jesse down to register to vote the day before. Kensuke could have done it a year ago, but never had. Jesse was quite excited to be able to cast his very first presidential ballot in 2016.
“People are saying the upcoming election is shaping up to be one of the most important in history,” he said. “My Social Studies teacher also said it’s going to be very divisive.”
“Could be,” Erika feared.
“No matter how it turns out, I’m going to stay involved,” Jesse told her. “I’ll march for men, women, gays, lesbians, transgender people, kids, animals, better schools, separation of church and state, immigrants…anyone who’s being treated wrong.” He had that new voter energy and a belief one person could change the world at a time when cable news had much of America swinging back and forth between hopeful and riled up. “We won’t go backwards.”
“No.” Erika wholeheartedly agreed on that.
Kensuke spoke with his parents, and though he reported at the end of the call that they didn’t much care about his new living situation, his bipolar diagnosis, his three-month probation, community service, and the loss of his license for the car wreck and subsequent train problem, he didn’t seem to be terribly hurt. Erika and Billy, Tom Alan and Milo, they all made sure to shower him with extra love and affection throughout the day, knowing he was likely putting up a front once again.
The homemade cake was a visual disaster. “Maybe frosting will help.” Milo practically licked Tom Alan clean when he pulled the hand mixer from the mixing bowl while the beaters still whirled. “I hope there’s enough left.”
“Get a room,” Kensuke commented, entering the kitchen in time to see it.
“Got one. And we gotta keep the curtains closed so you can’t see into it.”
The cake didn’t taste bad. After it was served, Billy dropped Etsuko off at his parents’, picked up Burgess, then dropped both him and Kensuke off at the indoor skate park. Jesse and a few other friends—from both Kensuke’s old school and the new one—would be meeting them there to continue the party.
“He seems happy,” Billy said upon his return, as the other three were still cleaning up the kitchen. “I hope…” He shrugged.
“The house is quiet.” Erika listened. “For the first time in weeks, no music and TV going at the same time, though a cloud of Axe Body Spray still lingers.”
“It’s going to be an interesting year. A few months ago…two years ago, who could have predicted this was our future?”
“I knew you were mine,” Milo told Tom Alan. “How about some more cake and ice cream?” he suggested, plopping into a chair as if beat. “Though I think I’m getting fat.”
“I don’t call you Downton Flabby for nothing.” Billy smirked.
Milo gasped. “You call me that?” He was on his feet, chasing Billy around the table, until Erika stepped between them.
“You caught him.” Actually, she had. “Now kiss and make up.” They stared at her. “Do it. We have the house to ourselves. Why waste it eating cake? Kiss him.” It was little more than a peck, but at least they listened. “Come on.” Erika took Billy’s hand, and then Milo’s, and led them to the kitchen door. “Grab your Skater Boy.”
“Our Skater Boy,” Milo said.
Erika continued to take charge once they were all in her bedroom. “Undress each other.” The three or four hours they had suddenly didn’t seem like enough.
“This wasn’t a one-time deal?” Milo asked. It was still hard to believe he was the most timid.
“Oh.” Erika took her bottom lip between her teeth. “Was it?” No one spoke up. No one left. “Undress each other,” she said again.
There they stood naked, in descending height—Tom Alan, Billy, Milo—the blond, the redhead, and the brunet, all three already hard. “Be right back. You can start without me, but don’t you dare finish.” She had an idea, and thought they might loosen up if she left them alone and aroused a few minutes. When she returned from the laundry room, just a few minutes later, Tom Alan was on his knees in front of Billy and Milo was behind.
“Babe.” The way Billy said it, in a whisper, she wasn’t sure if it was for how she looked or for the pleasure he was receiving. Tom Alan turned and took her in. She’d stripped as well, and had wrapped herself in a sheet again.
“God. You’re stunning.”
“Definitely, babe.”
“Once again, it’s unanimous, Flower.”
She’d worn couture on and off the ice, but this was what got the most reaction. Still, she let the sheet fall almost immediately, and just as quickly, the two men she’d been torn over for nearly two years were at her side, each taking a hand and guiding her to the bed. Tom Alan was the first to kiss her. He wasn’t shy now. There was no hesitation. Erika wondered if they had discussed things while she was gone. His hand beneath her head, it was so gentle. The top of his naked body against hers, his other hand, as it touched her near intimate places, it was just like on the ice, as comfortable and natural as that, but with a whole new sensation.
Milo was a noisy kisser. He and Billy were voracious with each other, and then Billy with her. Milo, though he did take a turn with Erika as well, was surprisingly tender, moving her hair from in front of her eyes, taking her cheeks in his hands, and then moving in, telling her she was beautiful afterwards.
She took him in her mouth first. Romance was going to take a back seat just for a moment as the three of them sat on the foot of the bed and she went down on each as the other two stroked one another. The squeal Milo made, his eyes closed, his face scrunched up, it was comical, and the only other time Erika had heard a similar sound it had come from one of the kittens. “You okay?” she asked, her hand on his furry gut.
“I guess.” He laughed. “I know I’m bloody immature.”
“You’re fun,” Erika told him, before taking him all the way down to his bushy hair, making him twitch against the roof of her mouth.
“I might come,” he warned.
Erika released his hard-on and stood. “Billy, you’re up,” she said, mussing Milo’s already wild hair. “I think he wants that.”
“Not after he called me ‘Downton Flabby,’” Milo said.
“Get over it.” Billy stood and shoved him back, flat against the mattress. “You’re sexy as fuck. Later, we wrap you in a sheet.”
“It’s been a long time,” Erika said, waiting for Tom Alan’s eyes to come to hers. “Make love to me?”
The taste of his hard flesh in her mouth, his mouth on her, the way it made her writhe, the erotic tickle as he took his time, the ecstasy she felt emotionally and sensually, was only outdone by the girth of him sliding into her. She wrapped herself around him from beneath, yearning for as much of him as possible, deep within and skin to skin as Milo and Billy provided the rhythm with grunts and pounding that rattled the lamp beside the bed. Erika knew she would come with Tom Alan inside her. She’d dreamed of it for years, since she had the first time. The guilt of the fantasy gone, now that Billy and Milo were aware—now that they were fucking hard right beside her—she gave into it fully, allowing the sounds that wanted out to escape and the feeling that started with a rising heat between her thighs to envelop her head to toe. Tom Alan’s breaths were loud and warm at her neck. The twitching of his dick was followed by a rush of his climax as she tightened her hips around him and also tugged at his hair. He collapsed atop her with much of his weight.
“Whoa.”
“He says that almost every time.” Milo brushed Tom Alan’s cheek, and then hers, all sweaty, no doubt red. He and Billy had stopped, apparently to watch and then bask in the afterglow.
“I think you two should switch things up,” Erika said. Some time had passed, though she was still a bit short of breath.
“Babe.”
“No pressure,” she said, “but you did always wonder if what Milo said was true…about…”
“Coming while being fucked.” Milo walked on his knees, positioning himself behind Billy. With a lick of his lips, he gave Billy’s ass a thwap that echoed off the wall. “It’s oh so very, very true. You’ll thank me profusely…if you’re game, Hockey Puck?”
After another moment of hesitation, he was. Erika had Billy’s face and his dick, stroking each with one hand while Tom Alan and Milo worked his ass.
“All good?” Milo asked.
By Billy’s expression, the grimacing with a hiss as he inhaled, Erika assumed Milo was easing his thick cock inside. Billy nodded.
“He said yes,” Erika relayed. “Right?”
Billy nodded again.
“Let me know if you want me to quit.”
“Uh-uh.” Billy verbalized his response—more or less—as his face contorted in ways Erika had never seen. Bending forward to lick at the small slit in Billy’s tip as Milo fell against him and grinded, she was getting aroused yet again. Taking Tom Alan’s hand in hers, she put it where she felt the urge. His finger hit the right spot, rubbing softly, then with pressure. She shuddered.
“I’m there, babe.” Billy erupted onto her tongue and coated the back of her throat, his warning barely spoken.
So was she—or close to it. A conscious decision about whether or not to hold back to prolong the pleasure wasn’t even possible, however. Billy’s cum and Tom Alan’s breath at her neck took her the rest of the way in a matter of moments.
Milo announced his orgasm with a hoot, slamming hard into Billy, and also laughing, if Erika wasn’t mistaken.
“Jesus, Fisher, we’re gonna have to repaint the wall.” Billy collapsed to one side of Erika, against the headboard. She stretched to kiss him, then grabbed for Milo, and finally Tom Alan, wanting to share some of Billy’s taste with all of them.
“Was he right?” she asked Billy.
“Oh yeah.”
“Told you. Wait until you experience it with the Yank’s.”
“Guess it’s you and me that night, Milo,” Erika said.
He didn’t answer, which made them all laugh.
The next time anyone spoke, everyone had been quiet quite a while—just lying contentedly, if they all felt like Erika. “A blast went off.” It was Billy, almost as if he were talking to himself, Erika thought, until her hand went to one of his scars and found Milo’s already there.
“It burned…the shrapnel, but then I heard the whining and a couple of yelps. The medic was at my side. ‘Find the dogs,’ I said. He tried to pull my shirt away. It was all torn, tattered and sticking to all the blood. It hurt like a motherfucker when he tried. He was pulling skin with the fabric and threads and I shouted, ‘Find the dogs!’” He didn’t shout it then. His voice was still barely loud enough to hear as he shared something else he’d been keeping inside a very long time. “We saved them.” Billy smiled and looked to Erika on one side and Tom Alan on the other, then past him to Milo. “Doctoring soldiers or puppies and a mama…Shawn…that’s the medic’s name. He saved all of them…but one. We did. They made it.”
“And you.” Milo kissed his shoulder. “Thank God.”
“We got them all over here and adopted. Well, we took them. Four dogs…eight siblings…it was a fight. I kept two myself.”
“Mama and Tuxedo,” Milo said.
“Yes.” Billy had nothing else to say right then. They were all quiet for the longest time, quite cramped, four to one bed, but no one mentioned wanting to leave. In fact, it seemed as if they got a little closer.
Erika awoke sometime later, surprised she had fallen asleep. Everyone was still there, all uncovered, but Billy, who was always cold. Erika flushed when Tom Alan ran the back of his fingers down her throat unexpectedly, organically, it seemed, but didn’t stop until much lower down. Then Billy kissed her—territorially perhaps. She was one lucky woman. The clock beside the bed went from 11:29 to 11:30. “Who’s going for the kids?” Billy asked.
Burgess had originally offered to drive, but the adults all figured—just in case someone snuck a beer or two—it was better if one of them picked them up.
“Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen…” Erika had said. “It’s different for every boy. Some go sixteen to thirty. Some go sixteen back to twelve.”
“Only the boys?” Billy had asked.
Erika had offered just a shrug. “We were lucky mother let us be kids,” she’d continued. “Father was stoic, showing love with encouragement and praise on the ice. Mother, though she doesn’t always like being hugged, never sent us away when we wanted to crawl up into her lap for one, even as tall as you were already when you came to us, towering over her from the start, Tom Alan.”
“I’m not letting Kensuke crawl up on my lap.”
“No.” Erika hadn’t been able to hold back a giggle. “That’s probably not a good idea. If he wants to act childish a little while longer, though, I think we should all encourage it. He might have missed out on that.”
“His childish comes with an adult twist,” Milo had said.
“Like yours.”
He hadn’t argued Erika’s point.
“I’ll go.” Billy got up, rubbing his nakedness over Milo. He faltered a bit when he stood straight.
“He’s all weak from gay sex, and pretty to look at.”
“Bi sex,” Billy said. “And you’ve seen it before.”
Milo decided to ride along. It turned out they were out of ice cream, and he wanted to stop for some on the way back.
“Come on.” Tom Alan tapped Erika’s bare thigh. “Slip something on. Let’s go for a walk.”
She watched as he got out of bed and walked naked to the door and then turned around and smiled.
He took her down to the edge of the property, to the bench they had sat on after Tom Alan told Kyoko he was leaving his marriage to Erika for another chance with Milo. It was dark and chilly this time. Tom Alan patted the seat beside him and then snuggled into Erika when she sat. “I’ll never forget how sad you were when we did this two years ago.”
“It all worked out. Billy came back downstate when I told him I was pregnant. You and Milo got to be happy.”
“And you…you’re finally happy?”
“I don’t think I could be any happier.”
“I didn’t know all that about Billy…about the dogs…about the bomb.”
“I didn’t either, not the whole story. I’m still learning things about him. He keeps a lot to himself and then it all comes rushing out…just like someone else I know.” She touched Tom Alan’s face.
“Men,” he said. “Can’t live with ‘em…”
“Can’t live without you three.”
“He’s being good to you?”
“God, yes,” Erika said. “He thinks you and Milo just see him as the dumb jock type, but he’s complicated, like everyone else.”
“Sure. I admire him for serving our country and his devotion to animals…among other things. I should have told him that. I should,” Tom Alan said. “He’s a great dad. I look forward to learning more about him, too. Hey. I got ya something. And for Billy and Etsuko, too. Though she won’t be able to wear it for a while. Here.” He opened his palms. Three round disks sent off a shimmer from the streetlamp at the end of the street. “They’re like the ones me and Milo wear. Did you know they’re actually from California? The New York ones never had the letters MTA on them. Milo got ours on eBay. I got some more, and had the back modified. Look.”
Erika held one up to the glow. “A bee,” she gushed. “Aww. It’s a bee.”
“B, E, E. All five of us are a family and now we have the jewelry to prove it. I’ll get the bees put on ours, but I hate to take them off.”
“I love it.” Erika kissed Tom Alan on the cheek, and then the lips.
“Milo and I have never traded back. It might sound silly—I hope it was his good luck charm that day, on the train.”
“That reminds me.” Erika was wearing the jacket she’d had on the day she’d picked up the marble and the red string in the rink’s parking lot.
“What’s that?”
“The things we found the day Kensuke…” She handed the string to Tom Alan.
“I forgot about these.”
“Well, I kept thinking it was a sign…maybe from Papa…telling us to look out for him.”
“Maybe. We will, even after he’s on his own again after graduation. You know I believe Papa can speak to us. Red…” He twisted the string around his finger. “The color of love…a happy color in Japan. None of it really fits the Japanese folklore, I guess. None of it fits traditional Japanese folklore when it comes to spirits and ghosts. What happened on Ben’s wedding day didn’t either. Of course, red often means danger, but who says signs from beyond have to follow anyone’s rules?”
“True.”
“Papa told me, right before he died, if we feel something, it’s real. Oh. Did I ever tell you what Milo said? According to him, there’s a thing in the UK where if you find a string it signifies you should pay more attention to the ties that bind, like family.”
“Oh?”
“So…I’m going to stay put right here…except when we have to travel for skating. Chicago, Sapporo, Marseilles, Kansas City, Gangneung, Helsinki…Next year, PeyeongChang…Everything else was running…from this…us…my confusion.”
“I was wrong. That made me even happier.” Erika stood. “Let’s go wait for our fellers and our teenagers to get home.”
Tom Alan laughed. “Hand me your pendant.” He put it around her neck. “What a difference two years makes—and the four since Sochi have gone by in a blur.”
“I’m never taking this off.” She held the coin against her palm. “I can’t wait to give Billy his. You think he and Milo will be jealous when we don’t get them matching gold medals next February?”
“I don’t know.” Tom Alan took her hand. “We share everything now, so we might have to try to find a couple extras.”
Of all the words there were in the world, spoken in the many languages in all of the places Erika traveled with Tom Alan for skating, a short one, only four letters, was the most powerful one she knew. It could ease the hurt of the nasty ones that stuck with Billy from years ago. It could help with his bad memories. It made Tom Alan feel whole again, and bonded him and Milo, Billy and Erika, and all four of them together. What would they use to guide Etsuko as she grew? What helped Jesse feel stronger and gave Kensuke hope? The answer, the word, was love.
THE END