"Walking the mile, walking the mile. Walking the green mile." I coo at the two year old boy in my arms.
"Stop teaching him that!" The small man standing beside us growls. He's wearing a cute little craft apron. His blonde hair shines in the sunlight as he stands at the threshold of the daycare center. His blue eyes glint in frustration. The flush of anger on his cheeks only enhanced his adorable features.
"It's not my fault!" I say in mock seriousness.
"How is it not your fault? The only way a baby could have seen it is if you put the movie on!"
"Its really not my fault. Watch. Hey Grey what do you wanna watch buddy?" I asked my son..
"I wanna watch 'walkin' the mile'!" Grayson instantly replies in his cute little baby voice.
"See! The Green Mile is his favorite movie. I only watched it one time when he was playing with his toys and ever since he's been hooked. He loves the part where the old guy demonsrates the procedure for sending the prisoners to the electric chair and he's saying 'walkin' the mile walkin' the mile, walkin' the green mile.' It makes him laugh." I try my best not to laugh at the frustration on the Mr.Nelsons face.
"If its his favorite movie then how come he doesn't say the name? He just says 'walkin' the mile'." Mr. Nelson asks smugly as if he's made a valid point.
I only smirk. I can't help it with the perfect line that has just popped into my head. "People never know the name of their favorite things. Like your first name Mr. Nelson, I never seemed to have caught it."
Mr. Nelsons face flushes for an entirety different reason now. "Mr. James!"
"Go out with me?"
"Sir that would be inapropriate. I've met your wife!" The outraged daycare teacher exclaims.
I sigh. Just the mention of her makes me want to crawl into bed and never come out. I close my eyes at the sting I feel as my eyes betray me and begin to water.
"My wife is dead." Is all I can get out without breaking down completely.
Mr. Nelson looks quite stricken by this revolation.
"What? But just last year she was the one bringing Grayson to day care everyday! I thought her schedule had changed and you had to do it now. How did she die?" He looked quite stricken now. Any hint of anger now replaced with condolence.
"Cancer. She hid it from me because she didn't want to lose Grayson. She found out early in the pregnancy that she had a rapidly growing tumor. The doctors told her that if she started treatment while pregnant it could harm or kill the child. So she waited amd refused treatment. By the time she had Grayson it was too late to do much. The doctors gave her a little over a year- I'm sorry I have to go." I tore away from the scene of my breakdown not wanting anyone to see me this way.
Still holding a now more demure Grayson. Children read moods better then adults sometimes.
"Mr. James wait!" I turmed to see Mr. nelson running my way but instead of waiting I moved to buckle Grayson in faster and pretended not to here him calling after me.
Once safely on the road I sighed and continued blinking back tears. I was doing so well and now this. The first person I try to ask out sees all the fucking baggage just hanging out. Nice fucking going Thomas. I curse myself.
I thought it was time to move on. It had been one year six months, three days, and ten hourse since Iris' death. Ir is was the only woman i would ever love so being the openly bisexual man I am I looked towards other men for my next relationship. When I first started taking Grayson to daycare I found the teacher cute but until now I didn't have the emotional stability to jump into a relationship. Now when I thought I could finally do it this shit happens.
*I was at work today and some lady brought chocolate for Christmas
My coworker saw one in particular and said:
"Ooooh is that the one with cherry filling? When I eat them i can't wait for it to come I have to bite it! Its so good it doesn't come fast enough for me."
I died laughing cuz I have a dirty mind but she was confused and continued on to say.
"I guess thats a personal preference."
I was just like, "Yeah" 😏😏😏
😂😂😂😂*
