Twenty-Four Shadows. Tanya J. Peterson

her against him. He opened his eyes. “Hey, you’re already dressed.” He opened his eyes wider. “Did I oversleep? Please tell me I didn’t oversleep. I don’t want to be late for work.”

      Reese kissed him. “No, you’re not late. I just woke up extra early to get a jump on the day. Max will bring Elise by before he leaves for work, and I want to be ready. You have plenty of time.”

      “Oh. Good.” He closed his eyes. He had so much to get up for, so many good things in his life, so why did he have no motivation to move? Why did he want to hide away here forever? He felt Reese begin to run her fingers gently through his hair. The goose bumps returned, but even they seemed half-hearted.

      “Honey, are you feeling okay? I was hoping that your headache would be better this morning. It didn’t go away, did it?”

      Isaac opened his eyes and gave her a crooked grin. He raised his eyebrows. “Since when do I let a little headache stop me? It didn’t stop me from doing the mattress mambo with you last night, did it?” Reese laughed, then nuzzled his neck and nibbled on his ear. That gave him something to get moving for. “Wanna dance again?”

      Reese rolled over to lie on her back beside him. She laughed again. “Absolutely. But not right now or you will be late for work, Dominic will come barging in here looking for us, and Max will be left standing outside with the baby and eventually he’ll have to wander off to find someone to babysit her.”

      Isaac sighed. “Yeah, all of that would be bad. Save the dance for me tonight, though.” No longer thinking solely of mattress dancing, he continued right into the topic of Max. “I’ll quit belaboring this, I promise, but I just feel so awful for Max and Elise. I know you can’t answer this, but how could Gretchen do this? I didn’t think they had it that bad. I mean, they had issues, yes, and they weren’t as compatible as you and me, but still.” He sighed. He looked intently into his wife’s eyes and implored, “I love you so much and I want us to be together for always and forever.”

      “You got it, bud.” She kissed him. Only reluctantly did he eventually pull back so he could force himself out of bed to get ready for work.

      A half hour later, he entered the kitchen ready to fake enthusiasm for the tasks of the day. The last to join the party, he made his presence known by plopping down on the blanket with Dominic and Elise. “Hey, Tiger! Looks like you’re taking good care of the baby this morning.”

      “I am! She likes me. See?” He snatched up the stuffed elephant resting on the blanket and danced it in front of Elise, making it talk to her and eliciting squeals of delight.

      “Wow. She does like you! But of course she likes you. You’re very nice to her, and Mommy told me that you’re very helpful. Elise knows that. You’re a good person, Dominic.”

      “Thanks, Daddy.”

      Max chimed in. “Your dad’s right, little man. You are a good person. Thanks for helping take good care of Elise.” Max looked at Isaac, then at Reese. “Thank you guys, too.”

      Isaac spoke before Reese had a chance. “Don’t thank us. You’re our friend. Elise is special to us. We wouldn’t just let her go to some babysitter, Max.”

      Max shook his head. “What is it with you and babysitters? Did you have some sort of a traumatic experience with one when you were a kid or something?”

      Isaac shook his head and smiled. “No. Nothing like that. It’s just stuff you hear in the news, stuff about awful things happening. And articles in parenting magazines make me think that it’s best to avoid babysitters when possible.”

      Max countered, “First, those stories are in the news because they’re anomalies. The vast majority of babysitters and daycares are good so they’re ordinary and not newsworthy. Second, you read parenting magazines?”

      Isaac shrugged. “Reese leaves them in the bathroom. They’re just convenient to read when I’m in there.”

      “TMI, dude.” He stopped and appeared thoughtful. When he resumed, he addressed Reese. “But, uh, I could maybe benefit from reading some of those. Would you mind if I, um, ever took a look at some since, um, you know, I’m kinda a mother and a father now?” He looked down and sighed.

      Isaac stood up and approached his friend. He slapped him lightly on the back. Reese spoke. “You got it, Max. Whatever you need, we’re here.”

      Max sighed again. “I appreciate it. And now I guess I need to get to work.”

      “Yeah. Me, too.” Isaac kissed Reese, Dominic, and Elise, said good-bye to Max, and left for his job. He had a full plate ahead of him today. In addition to playing catch-up from yesterday, he had to scramble to finalize arrangements for several upcoming end-of-season special event nights plus work on the plan for beefing up some of the promotions for next year’s baseball season. He didn’t mind the workload. He loved what he did. He especially loved the busiest time of year, the summertime. More often than not, he was present at games, coordinating the special activities that took place between innings or mid-innings. Even though he was working, it was a fun family activity, too. Reese and Dominic usually came, and it was fun to see his son fall in love with baseball. Isaac loved the sport, too. He had played through high school, but he didn’t go on to the college level, at least as a player. Working as a mascot for the Conifers kept him connected to the game. And now here he was, still part of it all.

      By the time he reached his destination, he was glad he was up and moving and ready to work. A part of him was still dragging, but part of him wasn’t, and that’s the part he would focus on. As he walked into the building and headed toward his office, he was intercepted by his boss, the general manager of the front office. “Hey, Aubrey. Good morning!”

      “Morning, Isaac. Can I see you in my office?”

      “Yeah, sure. Just let me get settled in, and I’ll be right there.”

      “No. I mean now. Right away.”

      “Uh, okay.” For whatever reason, he felt conspicuous as he walked behind Aubrey toward her office. She didn’t attempt to talk to him, and the silence was incredibly uncomfortable. He was cognizant of the sound of his pant legs sliding past each other; the noise was at odds with clacking keyboards and the rhythmic clunk of the copy machine in the distance. He stared at Aubrey’s over-sprayed hair as she bustled ahead of him. Had something terrible happened? When they reached her office and he stepped inside to find Seth, the human resources manager, already present and sitting in a chair at a small conference table, Isaac’s stomach lurched before it plummeted, and his mouth became dry. What was this about?

      He wasn’t sure if he wanted to know.

      “Have a seat, Isaac.” Seth gestured to a chair. Rather than looking at Seth, Isaac looked past him to the mural of a baseball field that filled the entire wall.

      Unable to say anything, he simply sat, lightly holding his hand against his tie to keep it in place as he lowered himself. He looked from Seth to Aubrey, who was now seated across from him.

      Aubrey began. “How was your day off yesterday, Isaac?”

      “Uh, kind of difficult. Helping a friend through a terrible event isn’t actually a fun day off.” Perplexed, he looked from Aubrey to Seth and fell silent.

      “I’m sorry to hear about your friend, but while it was a noble reason to take the day off, I’m afraid that you didn’t actually have the luxury of taking a day off.”

      Isaac furrowed his eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

      Aubrey shifted in her seat in a way that made her look, not uncomfortable, but more in command of the situation. “Don’t pretend that you don’t know what this is about, Isaac. We had a conversation a while back. You have missed far too many days of work. You’ve exceeded sick time, allotted vacation days, and the extra time off in the form of unpaid leave days we extended to you. You knew that you had maxed out. Yesterday was the last straw. We can’t have an employee we can’t count on to be present. We’re terminating you.”