That Sexy Librarian and Me

39th

thirty nine + eleven

flecks and stars

Once in a while, after his birthday, his mother would rope him into babysitting for her.

“It’s just an hour,” she would say before she’d drop off her adopted son. From the look in her eye he could see that this wasn’t something normal. He didn’t question it, though.

“I like the planetarium,” he told Remy one Thursday evening as they ate Chinese takeout and spent the evening playing board games. From Monopoly to Life, they played it all. With hours on hand, there wasn’t anything stopping them.

“I didn’t think it was that entertaining.”

“Did you know that something close to fifty stars die every year?”

“I did not know that,”

“Well, most of these can’t even be witnessed, since they don’t explode.”

“What happens when they explode?” Remy asked, just to keep up conversation.

“You’re kidding right?” Augustus asked. His tone said he was not amused that his older brother had no idea about astronomy.

“I kid you not, kid. What happens?”

“Supernova!”

“Wow,”

“Have you ever seen one?”

“Nope,”

“Dad rented a telescope one night years ago,” he said excitedly, having forgotten his chopsticks. “We watched one.”

His father was willingly spending time with his second son. With his adoptive son. Remy took a long hard look at August then, saying nothing.

“When you come home, I’ll show you.”

He didn’t want to break the little kid’s heart by telling him how many nights he’d keep waiting. That was one kind of cruel even he wasn’t.

“Eat your noodles,” he said, instead.

“You’ll come with Dad and me, won’t you? It’ll be fun!”

Remy had to nod at that, right before he repeated his previous command. Thankfully, August left that at that. He then shifted over to talking about constellations he had yet to map and stars he had yet to discover with his amateur make-it-yourself telescope. The boy’s enthusiasm was contagious, so when he asked him what he liked, Remy couldn’t come up with much.

“I like the library. I like books.” He said, sounding lame to his own ears.

“That’s cool.”

No, it isn’t, he would’ve said, but he didn’t. Instead, he thought about how a seven year old had his life more in order than he did. Three years of school left. Then what?

“I think I like dolphins, though they’re really creepy. I read some scary things about them.”

“How old are you, Gus?”

“Don’t call me Gus. Gus is an old uncle with spiders for pets.”

Remy laughed at that. “How old are you, Uncle Gus?”

Augustus made a face that made him laugh even harder.

When he left with their mother he felt cold.

“Friday night,” his mother said. “I have a late therapy session.”

Remy nodded, feeling a little better.

Spending all this time with the boy almost made him forget about the elephant that wasn’t in the room.

The phone rang at odd hours of the day, mostly whenever Maddie would decide to check and see if he was even alive. Then, there’d be those calls for Athenia. Insurance, bills, cheques that bounced, the domestic stuff she clearly didn’t have to do, being a princess and what not.

Still, when the phone rang at that odd hour of the day, his heart would still leap.

“Hello, this is—”

He would hang up after a second, maybe two, if it’s a woman with a husky voice, a voice that could be Athenia’s.

Then, he’d go back to whatever meaningless deed he was doing.

Checking the messages when he came back from the library was always the most painful, though. It was like looking at a letter from college. It could be anything. It could make you or break you.

The messages on the machine, though, mostly only broke him, even the ones that ended without a message because the person didn’t want to leave a message.

If it weren’t for caller ID telling him it was a local call, he would’ve told himself it was the elephant.

“And you’re doing alright?”

“Better than before,” he told Maddie over the phone.

“Can we have pizza tonight?”

“Who’s that?” she questioned.

“My brother,”

“You have a brother.”

“I even have an annoying bitch of a friend who calls every day, asking the same damned questions.”

“I didn’t ask about you-know-who.”

“Not yet, you haven’t.”

“Wanna meet my you-know-who?” she asked as Augustus peaked into the frames he turned upside down. Remy walked over to him.

“Sure, whatever,”

“Tonight?”

“Sure.”

“Who’s this?” his brother asked him as he hung up.

For a little while, he just stood there, thinking about where that memory was from. Was it from her room? Did she pose? Was it for an eligible suitor?

“Do I know her?”

“I don’t think you do, Gus. A friend’s coming over. Do you still want pizza?”

“Sure.”

“Good. We’ll get the pig to cook.”

Gus looked confused. “You’re friends with a pig?”

Remy laughed. For a bright kid, he sure wasn’t so bright.