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After the face painting event, Kali and Theo went to the library just in time for a puppet show, then on to the Commons, where a band was playing. Women with big smiles, one with a big belly, were giving out freezies. A huge bouncy castle, shaped more like a pirate ship than a castle, drew children from across the lawn.
“Wanna go?” Kali asked.
Theo nodded—his fast, vigorous nod—and dragged her down the path. He stood in line, his feet firmly planted, and inched forward every few minutes. He'd look up at her when they moved, grin. And she grinned back. He kicked off his sneakers and crawled inside, looked back when he realized she wasn't coming with him, hesitated. Kali waved him on.
“Go ahead, Sweetie.” He looked at her, at the castle, at her. “It's for the kids, no adults allowed. Go on.” And he did. Bouncing. Laughing. She imagined sound was coming from that laugh. Loud, boisterous sound, instead of the barely audible giggles that sometimes escaped him. She stood as his little form rose in and out of view, as his eyes sparkled, and felt, for the first time in as long a time as she could remember, that she was living a normal life. That Theo was a normal, happy, well-adjusted boy. That they were just your average family. And that they might be okay ... soon.
She'd have a job with regular hours. A substantial pay increase. She'd rent an apartment with two rooms and get Theo an amazing bed. A race car or some animal or a space ship. She'd seen a space ship bed on Kijiji last year for fifty dollars. In a few weeks she could actually afford that, knowing there'd be money, consistent money, coming in.
The psych visits would be covered up to fifteen hundred a year. But he'd stop needing them. She could feel it. When their lives were settled, when he had his own room and didn't see her stressed all the time, when she smiled real smiles and laughed real laughs—ones without fear behind them—he'd stop being afraid. They'd be fine.
Theo ran to the back of the line the moment his turn was done. His cheeks were flushed and pushed high with a smile. He raised his eyebrows, his eyes lit, a question in them.
“Yes,” Kali laughed, “you can go again.”
Feeling frivolous, she bought each of them ridiculously overpriced hot dogs and Fantas, even though she could get them for half the price at the corner store two blocks away. They sat on the grass, licking the ketchup and mustard off of their fingers and letting the music flit over and under and around them. It was a kids' band Kali had heard about but never heard, though every other parent and child around them knew the words. When they finished eating, Theo jumped up and danced with a group of children—shaking his hips and wiggling his arms and smiling so big.
Kali held back her tears. She clapped. She cursed Derek. This was the life they were supposed to be living. This was the life he'd promised.
When the band left the stage and the bouncy castle started to deflate and other families trailed away from the park, Kali took Theo's hand and turned toward home. A glint flashed in the corner by some trees. Marvin. She waved.
He raised his hand about two inches then let it fall.
“Look. It's Grampie.”
Theo released her hand and ran across the field. He stopped a foot away from the man, who bent down to pat the boy's head. Theo looked back at Kali and waved an exaggerated arm at her, urging her to hurry up.
Kali hastened her step.
“I saw him—” Marvin cleared his throat then looked at Theo. “I saw you dancing.” Something of a guttural noise, the closest he usually came to a laugh, escaped his throat. “You've got the moves.”
Theo waved his hips then put a hand to his mouth in a silent giggle.
Kali rubbed her hand on Theo’s head. “You should have come over.”
“Oh, no. No.” Marvin stepped back from them. “They don't like it. Me. Around. Days like today. Just trouble.”
“Not if you were with us. Not if you left—”
“I don't leave the cart.”
“I know.” Kali nodded. He didn't leave it for the beach that day, despite her offer to put everything in the trunk. He wouldn't leave it for dancing and hot dogs. She touched a hand to his shoulder, remembering the days when he'd hug—awkward hugs. But he'd give them. Receive them. After those missing weeks, any touch, especially sudden ones, seemed like they burnt.
“It was nice to watch.” His eyes darted between Kali and the boy. “His daddy used to dance like that. Like he meant it.”
Kali remembered. Derek had danced like that as a man too. The first night they met he'd been dancing. Dancing like he meant it, not like he was trying to impress.
Theo reached a hand out and gave Marvin's leg a tug. Marvin looked down. Theo gave him the lion face he'd been perfecting all day—fierce silent roar—or so Kali suspected. It must have been fierce; Marvin jumped back. He put his hands to his face and peered up over his eyes. “D-don't h-hurt me. I'm afraid of lions.”
Theo's arms dropped beside him. He tapped his hands on his chest. Kali could picture him smiling—assuring his grampie with his kind smile and his big brown eyes that it was okay. It was just him.
Marvin looked relieved. He held a finger up at Theo and shook it. “Don't you scare me like that.”
Theo's hands went to his mouth—she couldn't hear the giggle.
“You should come home with us.” Kali stepped forward, feeling brazen, desperate. Today she'd been a family. And he was their family. “I can pick up some burgers from the store and one of our neighbours would let us use her barbecue.”
“Store's closed, Kali.”
“Right.” She pressed her lips together. “Well, we have other food. It's a holiday. Come for dinner.”
“Kali.”
“You can meet Lincoln.”
“Kali.”
“I know I've complained about him a bit but he's not that bad. He's—”
“I know he's not that bad. He's helping you out. I'm thankful.”
“You know I'm moving soon.”
“I know.”
“And I want you to come. It's just across the harbour.”
“Kali.” He raised his hands above his shoulders and looked to the sky. “This is my home.” He grinned. Winked at Theo. “I don't like roofs.”
“In the winter you—”
“I do what I have to do.”
“This winter you'll move in with us. I'll have an apartment by then. A good apartment.”
Marvin took hold of his cart and started to manoeuvre it out from the shade.
“Stop it. Why is some shelter better than me? Than us?”
“Kali.”
“Stop saying my name!” She closed her eyes, bit her lip, then looked up, her voice even. “You can't keep living like this.”
“I get by.”
Kali held her hands over Theo's ears. “You'll die. One day I'll come looking for you and—”
“People die, Kali.”
“I said stop it. Kali. Kali. Like I don't understand. You don't understand. Maybe this isn't about you. Maybe it's about us. You're all the family we have left and—”
“That's not true.”
Kali grabbed for Theo's hand. “Say goodbye to Grampie.”
Theo waved.
Kali held back a scowl. “I'll check in soon.”
“You have a good night, Sweetness. Okay? Go see the—”
“Don't talk to me about the damn fireworks!”