Trouble finding Blondie (20 page)

“No. I’m saying I won’t go. You can’t make me.” Andre stood up and started to stomp his foot on the ground like a stubborn child. It always worked magic. Simona started laughing out loud.

“Ok, your honeymoon has an expiration date. Ten days. And somewhere in there, we need to have a reality check and a talk.”

“Isn’t that every spouse’s favorite sentence?”
“Yes. Honey, we need to talk.”

“Fully noted. Preparation in progress, presentation to impress, execution in style.” Andre was grimacing serious expressions.

“Oh Lordy. Jesus, help us all.”

“Jesus is not coming. It’s just you and I.”

“You are a clown.”

Andre moved Simona’s tray and pulled her into his arms. He was kissing and caressing her hair, like a reaffirmation of his love, but also his place in her life. His blissful happiness got a weird knot in his stomach that wasn’t there these last two weeks. Before he found her, he was realistic and ran down all the different possibilities, even rejection. But with Francois and these past weeks, there wasn’t a doubt in his mind. Is it really possible that there are doubts in hers?
 

Of course it’s possible! You just got blindsided with all the love! Love was never the problem! TRUST was the issue. She always said trust is not given, it’s earned. Ok, easy. I’ll just prove it to her. Wait! You need a chance to prove trust. I already have a chance, or don’t I?

Andre was smiling, but his mind was absent. Simona walked over, kissed him, and sat down on his lap. She looked in his eyes and said, “And now?”

“Now, I’m trying not to freak out.”

“Come on. You didn’t think that at some point we were going to have to talk about reality?”

“No, that part, of course we have to talk about plans and future, but the part of you wanting to be apart?”

“What happened to you? If I remember correctly, your lifelong fear was exactly that. Not to have enough freedom, be stuck with someone every single day.”

“Yes, it’s pretty ironic. Now I fear the opposite, and you became me.”

“Haha. Successful, good looking, with money and options?”

“Holy shit. Is this ‘payback is a bitch?’”

“Told ya, God has a sarcastic humor.”

They were both laughing, but Andre couldn’t help but have a possessive urge to hold her back as she was walking away.

11

"NOT TODAY... TODAY IS AN HONEST DAY."

BARCELONA WAS FANTASTIC. They flew on Philippe’s plane which only deepened Andre’s insecurities. The boys were goofing off with Francois, but there were moments when they all noticed that sometimes he had different looks in his eyes. Different from other babies. Simona was telling him not to stand up on the plane like he was used to at home. He was so proud of himself when he was able to pull himself up, holding onto furniture. He crawled from one chair, got up, then to the opposite side, got up… Simona looked at him and said, “You are going to fall down and get hurt. This is a plane. You don’t have good balance yet.”

“Mom, you can’t talk like that to a baby.”

“Talk like what, Arye?”

“Like to an adult. You have to say something like, ‘sit down, ouchie.’”

“Pay attention when he looks at you, as if he understood. It’s freaky,” Simona said.

“It already happened to me,” Arye said. “I thought I was reading too much into it.”

“Me too. I agree with your mom. It’s kinda freaking me out,” Andre said.

“You know what else he has from you? That annoying look when you clap me on my shoulder or hand with the smirk of ‘I got this. It’s ok’. Well, he does that, too,” Simona said.

“Haha. My signature move came with the genes?” Andre was laughing.

“Very funny. It’s freaky because he has never seen you do it. That means even if he would be a genius at copying gestures and behaviors, he has not been around anyone who does that.” Simona didn’t even finish it when Francois crawled over to her, pulled himself up, holding onto the chair, and clapped her on her leg with a nodding smile. Everyone busted out laughing, except for Andre who was staring at him in awe.

Patrick was excited to see his two boys, especially Arye. It had been a few months since he saw him in London. The reunion with Andre was even better. For the first time, there was a true friendship on display. Francois ended up on Patrick’s lap whose love for all babies was genuine. Everyone ordered food. Francois was happily busy with a spoon, ignoring the big people and
 
letting them have their talk.

“By the way, thanks for the upgrade. I looked like an idiot again, not paying attention at the check-in until I handed it to the stewardess,” Patrick said.

“You are welcome. Hope you had a nice flight,” Simona smiled, knowing Patrick and his dislike towards traveling.

“What are you talking about?” Cori asked.

“Mom upgraded dad’s ticket to business class,” Arye said. “You know why she does it, right?”

“No, enlighten us, smarty. Why do I do it?”

“Because you don’t want to risk him to going off for two days bitching about his flight,” Arye said.

The laughter was contagious, even Cori who was usually on defense lawyer duty laughed in agreement. Patrick was pretending to be offended and talked to Francois about how ridiculous they all behave. “Do we even know these people, Frankie? Let’s see if you know them.”

Patrick started pointing to them one by one, asking Francois who each was. To everyone’s complete shock, Francois went on to say all their names, “Mama, Papa, Aiii, Coiii, moi...”

Patrick was smiling, giving him high five, saying ‘bravo’, until he noticed that everyone else was in complete silence with their mouths open.

“What?”
 

“Dad, he doesn’t talk yet.”

“What do you mean? Let’s do it again for these idiots. Who is that, Frankie?”

The scene repeated itself. Simona jumped up, grabbed Francois, and started kissing him. Andre was right there with tears in his eyes. Francois clapped Andre’s face with one of his nodding smiles. They both started laughing, and Francois clapped.

“I have to show up for this kid to talk?” Patrick laughed. “Holy moly. Frankie, come back to me. Let me teach you a few more words.”

“That’s not a good idea, dad. He would start swearing before talking.” Arye was being his usual sarcastic self, and Cori was in unusual agreement.

It was a great evening. The impossible became possible. Everyone Simona loved was at the table in peaceful harmony.
Everyone?
She finally realized the missing piece. Philippe…

The hotel had a wonderful terrace overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. It was a Saturday morning. Everyone was enjoying the view, the seabirds, and a fabulous breakfast buffet. Philippe walked in, greeted everyone, and sat down with his plate of food. Because he was so natural and normal about it, everyone’s brain took a pause until Arye reacted.

“WTF? Philippe?”

Philippe got up laughing, properly greeting everyone with hugs, kisses for Simona and Francois. He grabbed Francois who was visibly excited. He was speaking French to him, asking him who he was, and to everyone’s shock again, he answered.

“Pipe,” then, “moi,” pointing first at Philippe, then his own little chest.
 

“Philippe, you knew he talked?” Cori asked.

“No. That’s a first. Très bien.”

“Did you teach him ‘moi’?” Simona asked.

“I kept telling him names, and when pointing at him, I just say ‘moi, Francois’. But you keep doing the same thing, so what’s the problem?”

“Nothing, except that last night he said everyone’s name with such nonchalance that he shocked us all.”
 

“Ahhhh. But you guys already figured out that he is playing us all, right?”

“We talked about the ‘looks’ he gives us sometimes,” Andre added.
 

“Yes, so much behind those eyes. An old soul.” Philippe reverted back to Francois, giving him his full attention, speaking in French. Arye and Cori were intrigued by the unconventional, nontraditional approach. They grew up in family settings with many children around. Everyone had younger siblings, always babies around. This kid was like nothing they had ever seen.

“Mom, you are going to rob this kid of his childhood if you keep this up,” Arye said.

“Keep what up?”

“You know, the adult talk. The lack of goo goo gaga.”

“I never did that with either of you, and you turned out ok, I think.”

“Your mother is right. She hated the sweet baby talk. She always said she didn’t want to talk to her children like they were retarded,” Patrick jumped in. “I remember at some party she was telling her theory about how babies are born with great intelligence which they keep until they
 
learn to speak. They look at us adults like the morons who don’t understand them.”

“How well did that theory go?”

“You can just imagine, Arye.”
 

“Doesn’t matter what any of us think. One day we are going to find out.”
 

“Spoken like a true expert, Philippe.”

“Well, the whole world would argue otherwise, but I do have some good news. A surprise, actually.” Philippe had a mysterious smile on.

“For whom?”

“Yes, Cori, you are part of the group.”

“Haha. That’s all I needed to know. Thanks, Philippe.”

All eyes were on Philippe who was still holding Francois. He pulled out an envelope and started talking in French to Francois. Francois clapped in excitement as if he understood. “I have four tickets to an event. If your name is called, you are the lucky winner. Ok, Francois, are you ready?”

Philippe took four large tickets out, gave them to Francois one by one, pointing to Arye, Cori,
 
and Andre. Francois said their names perfectly, until he got to Patrick. Everyone was staring at Francois, curious about the outcome. He has not seen Patrick for months. Philippe couldn’t teach him his name. Last night was the only time he could have heard his name. Francois turned around looking at everyone. Cori tried to help him out by whispering. Then he turned to Philippe. Philippe patiently repeated the question, pointing at Patrick. Francois smiled, like one of those smiles 'you wanted to trick me’, and came up with his final answer. “Pat.”

The reaction was a spectrum of ‘holy shit’ to laugher, clapping, all the way to disbelief. Then the unthinkable happened. Francois put his right hand on his chest. “Moi?”

“Haha. No, no, no. You are too little to go to a raging soccer stadium.”

“Wait. Where are they going?” Simona exclaimed.

“They are going to see Real Madrid and Manchester United,” Philippe said.

“Sweet. Thanks, Philippe.” The boys were ecstatic, checking out their tickets. Patrick joined them in their excitement. Andre had no reaction. For lack of a better word, he was frozen.

“You are the bomb, Philippe. This is unbelievable. Wait. It’s tonight.”

“Yes, Arye. You have to leave in an hour.”

“Wait. Where is my ticket?”

“It’s a boys’ trip, Simona.”

“What? How chauvinistic.” Simona was pretending to be mad.

“You are not coming either?” Cori was inquiring.
 

“Me? Football? Hell no,” Philippe was answering Cori, but was really checking out Andre’s reaction. Andre finally snapped out of his brain freeze and figured out the plot. Philippe had a perfect distraction plan to ship everyone off and to have alone time with Simona. Andre’s instincts were to reject the invite, but he couldn’t bring himself to ruin everyone’s excitement. Simona’s intuition was that Andre’s uneasy feeling was turning into resentment. She touched his leg under the table and kissed him.

“So what are you guys going to do?” Patrick asked.

“Sightseeing. This is only my second time in Barcelona. Philippe, you are my tour guide,” Simona said.

“Avec plaisir, Madame,” Philippe smiled.

Simona felt Andre’s leg tense and knew she had to put him at ease. After breakfast she asked to go for a beach walk and asked the others if they could watch Francois for a while. It was almost comical how they all volunteered to babysit.

❖ ❖ ❖

“Talk to me, Andre.”

“I think my fears are turning into paranoia, especially after our last talk.”

“I understand, but you are channelling all your insecurities onto Philippe.”

“I can’t help it, Blondie. He is a threat.”

“You have growing resentment. Pretty soon it’s going to be some bitter indignation of being treated unfairly.”

“Yes, it’s unfair. To him, too. I should feel gratitude. I found you, thanks to him. But I can’t help but feel threatened. I entered your world. A world that I don’t know, a world that I feel I have no say in. A world that I may get in, or be denied entrance. I never felt this way. I was never scared like this. I have never felt this powerless.”

Simona was stunned by his raw and honest confession. This wasn’t the old Trouble, who would bullshit his ego way in, who lacked remorse or direction. This was a man with determination in his eyes, willing to do anything to preserve, protect, and fight for his beliefs.