"Then the dinosaur came out, and he ROARED!" yelled Ethan, beaming, as his father watched, enraptured. "But he had a really bad cough, so the superhero gave him a cough drop! And then the dinosaur was all better, and he wasn't mean anymore. The End." he said with great finality, clapped his hands and smiled.
"That must've been soooome show," said Dave. Dave put his arm around Mitch, who nestled in appreciatively.
"What else did you do at school today?" Mitch asked.
"We played with rocks!" said Ethan, excitedly.
As Ethan went on to describe the rocks he played with in great detail, Jess reflected, as she always seemed to on Ice Cream Wednesday, how much things had changed. Five-and-a-half years of marriage to Mitch before the attacks started—house, job, cars, kid—then a year of hell, then—
The divorce had been beyond amicable; no complaints there, certainly. The fact was that it quickly became apparent that it wasn't going to work very well. Mitch's pain had ceased immediately, of course, and he had become pleasant, even ingratiating. But there was definitely a sense that something had been changed or lost—which the old Mitch had fought so hard against, even though the new Mitch didn't seem to mind—and Jess had felt a surprising amount of guilt for her part in pressing Mitch to get the surgery. Mitch had tried to remind her that he had had to make that decision himself, that it was better all around, just like she had said; he had tried to shower her with kindness to get her to forget it, but these things only reminded Jess all the more that Mitch was no longer the man she had married. The old Mitch had never been unkind, he had been very thoughtful, at times; but he had always let his acts sort of speak for themselves, and his new effusiveness was rather jarring. Not to mention that the old Mitch had been completely crazy about her, and the new Mitch was politely disinterested at best. Jess had found it harder than she had predicted to live with a man who was completely uninterested in her, physically. For a while they made a brave attempt for the sake of Ethan, but they eventually had to admit that while they could be friends, they should probably no longer be spouses.
They had agreed to make every effort to keep continuity in Ethan's life; to constantly reassure him that even though Mommy and Daddy didn't live together anymore, that they both loved each other, and they both loved him. They tried to give him the same routine no matter whom he was with, and they consulted with each other often about how they were raising him. That was part of the reason they had started doing Ice Cream Wednesday: so that Ethan could see that "Mom's side" and "Dad's side" of the family were unified; that they both loved Ethan even if Mommy had a boyfriend and Daddy had a boyfriend . . .
Jess glanced wryly over at Doug. Doug was such a good man, eager to please, that he would never betray a negative reaction to anything Jess suggested; but when Jess told him, "every Wednesday Ethan and I have ice cream with my ex-husband—and his boyfriend—and they're both scarries," he had said, "Oh. Okay," which Jess was pretty sure meant Doug wasn't extremely comfortable with the idea. But he had been a good sport and come along anyway, and he had told her that the experience was much less awkward than he had expected; but Jess still stole a glance from time to time to see if she could catch a look of polite bewilderment on Doug's face as he pondered the unique scene before him.
The rocks discussion was wrapping up; the ice cream was getting low in the bowls. It would soon be time to leave the ice cream parlor and head separate ways—they had sold the big dumb house, of course, and Mitch had found a well-appointed condo downtown in agreement with his new urban mystique; but Jess had found a dog-eared little house in a quiet old neighborhood outside the city, the sort of house that featured in and inspired poetry. It really was little—a small front room with a kitchen behind and two small bedrooms with a tiny bathroom between them–but she had room and time for a sizeable garden in the back, and she grew vegetables and flowers to keep and give away. She still worked, but now that Ethan was in school she could be home whenever he was. And during the weeks that he was with Mitch, well, she could write, do genealogy, ponder the mysteries of life with Doug, go to a church activity—
YOU ARE READING
Never Easy
General Fiction"I've, uh, well, I've been pretty low sometimes in my life, and I know you probably don't want me to say this, but-" Jason sighed as if steeling himself to say what he needed to say next, "what I've learned is that you can't try to do it all on your...
