A Day to Remember

"Did you see how fast I went that time, Mommy?" yells a winded eight-year-old boy, his face still painted red from all of the excitement.

His mother responds, "I did! You were going so fast I could barely see you!"

The child laughs hysterically then runs off towards the jungle gym.

---

Two adults sit side by side on a double swing set, rocking back and forth like a pendulum on its last pass. 9 years ago, the man proposed and only 6 months later, they became man and wife. A few months after the wedding, their son was born.

"He's a good kid." says the dad.

The mom agrees.

Behind her wistful smile, she unclenches her teeth (a recommendation from last week's dentist visit). Dad's chewed fingernails grip the swing's chain while his sunken eyes stare through the woodchip covered ground. The aura in the air is familiar for these two, but unwanted for all. A few seconds later, the father breaks the silence.

"So..." he starts, "How are we gonna' tell him?"

The mother blinks hard and lets out a forceful exhale while looking up towards the sky. Her jaw expands as her teeth clench. The dad looks towards her, raises his eyebrows, then presses the matter: "Well?"

"Can we please just enjoy the day?" the mom pleads, "The sun's finally out, we have the whole park to ourselves, let's just... let's just not talk about it right now, ok?"

"We have to say something soon, it's been put off too long."

"..."

"Well, I think we should just be up front with it. Let him know what's going to happen and why. Just tell him everything, you know? He's a smart kid, he'll understand."

The mom shakes her head, "No, no. He's just a child, that would be too much for him."

"It's a nasty thing, I don't think there's a way that wouldn't be too much."

The mother pauses for a few seconds then says, " Maybe we could say it like - I don't know... Maybe we tell him that you have a new job or something and it requires you to move away, but I'm still-"

The dad interrupts, "What!? No, why would you want to lie about it?"

"I just don't want to hurt him!"

"Neither do I, but lying about it will just make everything worse when he does find out. And why am I the reason? Why can't it be something mutual?"

"It was going to be something mutual, but you didn't let me finish!" she said, raising her voice while still keeping it somewhat of a whisper.

"Whatever, it doesn't matter because I'm not lying to my kid."

The mom slams her hands down, widened her eyes, and leaned over towards her spouse so fast she almost fell face-first off the swing.

"Your kid?! Your kid!?" her tone is piercing but still subdued, "Since when did he become just your kid, huh?!"

The dad drops his head back until it's parallel with the sky. Annoyed cursing sneaks out under his breath, but he moves it aside for a real response, "It was an accident, calm down."

The mom sarcastically chuckles, "An accident?!" Her upper body is now rotated 90 degrees to be squared up with her partner's side. Her eyes shoot lasers through his averting eyes.

Trying to look at anything but her, the dad notices their child in the distance running back to them. He straightens his posture, takes a deep breath, then looks at his his wife for the first time since the argument started. She's still glaring hard at him and she's still berating him, but the boy is getting closer. He firmly tells her, "Ok, ok, that's enough, I'm sorry."

"Are you serious? No, I'm not going to let this one slide. That was an extremely-"

"Shut up!" he says through his locked teeth.

The mom jumps back and freezes like she just saw a violent car crash, her expression sitting somewhere between shock and disgust. She regains her composure then leans back into the cage, "Don't tell me to shut up, how dare you! You used to be-"

The man's eyes are wide and intense. "Stop it." He points over towards the incoming child. She looks over her shoulder to see the gleeful little boy about 25 feet away and, in that moment, all of the anger and stress melted right out of her. Every muscle in her body relaxed, her posture fell limp, and her teeth unclenched. Their son approaches.

---

"Are ya havin' fun, buddy?" the dad asks him.

"Ya!" he shouts back. "That big slide over there, the big green one there," he points over to it and the parents nod. The kid asks, "do you see it?" and the parents say they say they do.

The child continues, "Well, at the end of it, there's a really bad turn." He moves his arms to help them visualize the angle, "It turns like this. When you go down it, it pushes you off if you're going super fast. This one time, I landed bad and I cut my leg right here." The boy lifts his shorts leg up to reveal a bloodless scratch above his knee.

"Oh no! That sounds intense!" replies the mom with a concerned but mildly sarcastic tone.

"It was, but I'm ok. I didn't even feel it when I fell, I just wanted to warn you guys if you wanted to go down it."

"Thanks for the warning, but please be careful out there, you don't want to have to go to the ER!"

The kid laughs then asks what the ER is. The dad answers, saying it's "the doctors but worse".

The boy squeals, "Eww! Not the doctors!"

"I know! That's why you have to be careful! You're not 5 years old anymore, you have to start taking care of yourself better."

"Ok, I'll be more careful."

"That's good."

"So..." the kid grins and starts kicking his leg back and forth along the woodchips, "what were you guys talking about?"

The question causes both parents to freeze in place - even their breathing stops. "Oh, uh", the dad clears his throat, "we were just discussing what to do for dinner tonight."

The child's smile starts to fade, "oh, that's all?"

"Yup! Just dinner." The mom quickly says.

"Ok... Oh! Can we have spaghetti again?"

"Would you like spaghetti tonight?"

"Ya!"

"Sure, we can do that."

The boy cheers then starts running (kind of skipping) away. His mom yells out to him, "Hey! Where are you going?"

"Just over here!" he yells back.

"Alright, just don't go too far."

"I won't!"

---

With that, the parents are back in isolation. They're still smiling and chuckling to themselves about their goofy, innocent child, but the happiness begins to fade as reality sets in. The air is once again thick with emotion.

"I just don't want to hurt him." The mom speaks softly.

The dad replies with a similar somber tone, "No. Me neither."

He looks up at the boy who is currently trying to grab a tree's branch 5 feet above his head. Both parents watch for a few seconds, then the father stands up from the swing.

"I'm gonna'... I'm gonna' go take a walk." he says, then he leaves for the dirt path that encircles the playground.

The mom, still sitting on the swing, continued to watch the child. By now, he successfully retrieved the stick and was swinging it around like a sword, or maybe a baseball bat, but that doesn't matter. He's happy, he's enjoying himself. A perfect day for a boy that age: a fun day at the park then spaghetti for dinner, what's not to love?

The mother's lip starts to quiver and tears begin to fill up her eyes, blurring her vision. She doesn't wipe them away. Even though she can hardly see him now, she knows her son is happy. "He's a good kid." she says under her breath.

The father's now a good distance away from the swing set, but he still has a clear view of his son. He stops in place and watches how he jumps around and flails his arms. If he had any tears left, he'd be crying. He stops to check the time... It's getting late.

The dad takes a deep breath and looks around. "Spaghetti." he says, "we'll have spaghetti."