2015 Prompt Responses - 5. Prompt 390 - The Minor Part 4

Use the following words in a story – beach towel, sock monkey, ceramic bowl, Swiss chocolate, and a turtle.

“This is all my fault! He wouldn’t have been driving in that storm if I hadn’t screwed things up between you guys.” Jonathan wiped his eyes and hung his head.

“Ray and I were having problems before you showed up on my doorstep. Don’t blame yourself. It’s not your fault.” I ate a forkful of the fluffy scrambled eggs I had made us for breakfast.

“Well, I’m sure my showing up didn’t help.” He shoved the eggs around his plate with his fork.

“You coming here was one of the best things that’s ever happened to me.”

Jonathan looked at me doubtfully.

“You know Ray and I were saving for a house. I don’t think I’ve ever told you why.” I paused as I took a sip of coffee. “We talked about starting a family. We were going to look into adoption.” I looked at him pointedly. “Now we don’t have to.”

“You really want me to be a part of your family?” He sniffled.

“Jonathan, you already are.” I reached over the table and squeezed his hand.

“Thanks,” he whispered.

I stood up and put my dishes in the sink. “Why don’t you clean up? I want to check over the list the hospital gave us one more time. I want to make sure everything is perfect when Ray comes home.”

Jonathan nodded.

I headed into our bedroom to do a final check before going to the hospital. Ray was being discharged today. To my relief, Dave had been speaking the truth when he told me that Ray wanted to work things out between us. We had plenty of time to talk while Ray was recovering from his surgery. We made a few decisions, like Ray coming home to recover instead of going to his parents’ house. I had plenty of PTO (paid time off) accrued and was approved to take time off using the Family Medical Leave Act, so I would be staying home to take care of Ray. We decided to put our house plans on hold while we concentrated on our relationship and taking care of Jonathan.

I also planned on using the time off to get Jonathan settled into school and the custody papers finalized. My lawyer had sent a draft to Brad’s lawyer, so now I was just waiting to hear if they were approved or not. Once they were approved I could enroll Jonathan in the local school and get him settled into a daily routine.

Our bedroom was ready for Ray’s return so I grabbed my wallet off the nightstand and turned to leave the room. A flash of fabric caught my eye and I moved Ray’s pillow to find a stuffed creature behind it.

“I’m done with the dishes, Uncle Nate.” Jonathan stood in the doorway.

“Thanks. Do you have any idea what this is?” I held up the stuffed animal.

He turned bright red and looked down. “That’s Monk Monk. He’s a sock monkey. He was my favorite toy when I was a kid. I just thought that…” he mumbled.

“You thought what?” I asked gently.

“I thought that maybe he could help comfort Ray like he used to for me. God I sound like a six year old.”

I set the sock monkey down on the pillow. “I’m sure he’ll love having Monk Monk for company.” I put my hand on Jonathan’s shoulder and squeezed. “Let’s go bring him home.”

Four hours later Ray was collapsed on the couch – the effort of getting up the stairs to the apartment had exhausted him – and Jonathan and I took several trips schlepping all the flowers and gifts that had been showered on Ray at the hospital into the apartment.

“Do you want some hot chocolate, sweetheart? I bought your favorite. Swiss Miss with the little marshmallows.”

Ray smiled. “That sounds great.”

“How about you, Jonathan? Would you like a cup?”

He nodded. I put three mugs worth of milk into a pan and set it on the stove to heat up. I dug through a bag of Ray’s gifts while I waited and found a box of Turtles. They were Ray’s favorite candy and I figured they’d go perfect with the hot cocoa. I placed a bunch of them in a ceramic bowl and set them on the coffee table before bringing out the mugs of steaming chocolate. I brought one to Jonathan’s room, where he was playing video games, then handed one to Ray before sitting on a recliner with my own cup of cocoa.

“Who brought you the candy?” I asked, biting into the caramel goodness of the chocolate-covered treat.

“Dave.”

I frowned and set the remaining half of the candy on the coffee table. “I thought you weren’t going to see him anymore.”

“I’m not. He brought them when we had our talk. I didn’t see the point in throwing away perfectly good chocolate.”

“I’m sorry. The last thing you need right now is me being a jealous bitch.” I walked over to the couch and kissed him.

“C’mere.” He drew me down to the couch and lay his head on my lap. “It’ll take time, Nate.” He squeezed my leg. “We’ll get there.”

I ran my fingers through his hair. “Yeah. We will.”

We watched a movie in silence. It felt good to have Ray home and nestled on the couch with me. He fell asleep about halfway through the movie and I watched my sleeping boyfriend more than I did the action on the screen. I had just drifted off to sleep when I was awakened by loud knocking on my door. I knocked over the mug of cocoa I never finished, spilling it all over the floor.

“Shit!” I swore and grabbed the nearest thing I could use to mop up the mess – an old beach towel that we used as a rag. Apparently I forgot to put it away when I was cleaning earlier. I threw the towel on top of the spilled cocoa and then opened the door. I wasn’t prepared for the sight of the man standing in front of me.

“Hi Brad.”