Van Dorens from distant branches of the family now send their kids here. We have boarding students and local students.
Jalon designed the school to expand as needed, with those expansions already in place. We’re currently at two classrooms for the K through six. The high school years are larger than the younger grades.
I teach a few private investigation classes as electives for eleventh- and twelfth-year kids sometimes.
If Emerson is visiting local classrooms, it means that the school is in the process of expanding again. This time, the young kids. I imagine we’re going to reach capacity soon. Jalon set a barrier and refuses to go beyond it. I know that the K-12 tracks—the kidswho are here for their entire schooling careers—already have a waiting list.
There’s nothing that man can’t do. I swear to fuck. He builds it, and the world flocks to it. Anything to be a part of the Van Doren legacy that Jalon has created. And goddamn, his little successor is going to be the first ruler of the entire world. I’m sure of it. She’s a genius spitfire if I ever saw one.
And she’s only six!
“What did you like best about elementary school, Uncle Gracen?”
I’m still staring at Malin. I haven’t taken my eyes off him. There’s something meditative about watching him, even as my mind wanders or I hold a conversation. It’s as if I can feel the gentle rocking of the lake as he is.
“Recess.”
Emerson snorts. “Be serious. You had to have liked something.”
“I liked building things. Robotics. LEGO. That kind of thing. Taking something that can be manipulated and creating whatever was in my mind. Finding the exact piece that brings it all together.”
“Was it a club?”
Was it? “I suppose so. I’m not sure we called it a club, but yeah, that’s basically what it was.”
Emerson hums. We share the contents of his basket and continue to talk about school while I watch Malin. There are times when I think Sulien has fallen asleep. Malin jerked up atone point to keep Sulien from rolling off the float. Beside me, Emerson inhaled sharply.
“It’s a good thing Uncle Malin has quick reflexes or my brother would have drowned,” Emerson says.
I don’t think he’d have drowned. There are enough of us around that we’d have saved him easily enough, but he doesn’t need to go through that.
The sun is on its way over the trees in the distance when Malin brings Sulien back to the dock. I help him off the float and watch as the two young boys head for their little Jeep. I watch as Malin ties his float to the dock, meets my eyes briefly, and then walks away.
I’m still sitting on the dock when a shadow falls over me. I look up to see one of the triplets. He watches me, studying my face.
“If you’re waiting for him to notice you, it’ll never happen,” he says. Then he walks away.
Is that what I’m waiting for? Malin to notice me? He knows I’m here. He looks at me all the time. Well, often enough, I suppose.
But I hear the message clearly enough. Malin isn’t like everyone else. The abuse he survived assured that. If I’m interested in him, I’m going to have to make that far clearer than the clearness of what I’m doing already.
Which is practically stalking him, though I’m not at all hiding the fact that I’m watching him.
So… what do I do to make it clear to Malin that maybe I want to be a part of his life as more than just a spectator?
3
MALIN
Brodrie carefully balancesa square block on the cylinder that Sawyer put down. When he’s finished and it’s still standing, they look at me. I have a bridge piece, and I stand it on end. It remains upright when I take my hand away, and the twins grin widely.
I muse over how relatively easily they are impressed. They are just babies. Almost eighteen months, I think. I suppose everything looks impressive through the eyes of a child.
Sawyer picks up a sphere and tries to get it to stay at the top of the bridge piece. He gets frustrated after the third attempt, so I hand him a cube that’s open.
“This first. Then the ball,” I tell him.
He tries to put the ball first until his brother takes the cube and puts it up.ThenSawyer’s ball stays where he wants it. His smile splits his face when he meets my eyes.
