“Sir, tell me you know what this song is. Or at least where it’s from.”
“No. I don’t. What is this?” He was leaning against the door frame of her room, watching each step I took.
“This is Will Smith’sAladdin. Literally the only man who could have furthered the torch after the late great Robin Williams in the role of the Genie. How did you not watch that movie?”
“Because I’m an adult.”
I waited for him to say something else but when he didn’t my mouth dropped open in shock. “You take that back!”
He cracked up at my shock but I could tell he didn’t understand why I was so offended. “What am I supposed to take back? I am an adult. I’m not watching cartoons.”
I put the nipple of the bottle to her lips after I adjusted her so she was higher on my chest. The move raised the hem of my shirt and I hurriedly tugged the bottom back into place. The clothes I’d slept in were oversized, a habit I always had to hide my shape and I didn’t want to look sloppy on what was technically my first day on the job. “Where is your whimsy? Where is your joy?”
“Whimsy? You make it sound like I’m supposed to be dancing like Michael Jackson in The Wiz.”
I pointed at him excitedly because I knew I had something to work with. “That’s exactly it. Life is too fucking hard not to find something that makes you happy. Tell me you don’t listen to music before a game.”
“Of course I do.” His eyes were on Ami who hadn’t immediately taken to her bottle because she was too transfixedby the sounds. I’d had to squirt just a little of the milk on her lip to remind her she was hungry. She started to go to work after that and her taking her bottle had her father's rapt attention.
“Because it shifts your mood, right?”
“Yeah it helps me focus.”
“And that’s all this is. Instead of having you continue to be heavy it shifts your heart to feeling lighter. Even if it’s for a moment. Besides, some of the greatest scores in music history came out in the 90s. It might’ve been slightly before our time but tell me you didn’t grow up watching and looking at the classics.”
“Yeah, when I was a kid.” He spoke like I should’ve naturally assumed his response.
“Did it make you happy then?”
“Yeah.”
“So why wouldn’t it now?”
Aldrich opened his mouth and then closed it abruptly, seeing that he had nothing he could counter my argument with. He silently hemmed and hawed before a smile broke over his face.
“Fair enough, but that still doesn’t explain what you’re doing with her. She’s a baby.”
“Yes, and sounds can still soothe. They play music for babies in the womb, kids find comfort in their family’s voices even before they meet them. It’s like when kids react to a parent’s voice by kicking in the belly. That excitement translates.”
“I’m not too sure how she was relating to the world when she was on the inside. I never got the chance.” His eyes darkened and I hated that this situation was such a minefield. But trying to avoid what would piss him off was a potential detriment to her and I couldn’t let that happen.“Then focus on the now. That’s all you can change, right?” The soft high pile light tan carpet felt good under my bare feet. I would eventually get a rug when Ami became mobile to prevent the carpet from getting destroyed.
“Yeah…I guess.”
“What was your favorite Disney movie when you were a kid?”
“That’s easy, Lion King.” Aldrich’s face was balled up like I should’ve known that automatically.
“Then let’s go.”
Aldrich looked around the room confused. “Go where?”
“Let’s move and make memories. You said that you didn’t have the chance then, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then do it now.”
“You’re serious.” He seemed surprised that I would suggest this and I couldn’t understand why.
