My brother, for whatever reason, was trying to use my son as his own personal table as he laid on the floor. There was a small plate now in Toby’s hands that had just been on my son’s tummy.
“He’s perfect size, though,” Melio said, trying to take the plate to put it back right where it was.
“Josh is not a table,” Toby spoke. Although his voice was quiet, it was filled with disbelief that the grown man could think the way he was.
“He doesn’t care. Look at him. He just wants to lay there and do nothing,” Melio stated.
“He’s a baby,” Toby said, looking down at my son. “He doesn’t know what he wants.”
“And do you know?” Melio said jokingly. A second later, his smile faded as he realized what he had said. He was worried that Toby would be upset at the words.
I was expecting Toby to clam up, or run away, as he was known to do more times than any of us could count. Violet was ready to jump in at any given moment, but the boy surprised us all. I don’t think he knew he had an audience.
“If I was him, I wouldn’t want to be used as some piece of furniture,” Toby spoke, his voice calm despite his look of hate towards the man he was arguing with. “He’s a person. And even though he can’t talk, he has the same wants as you. Same as me.”
“What are your wants?” Melio asked.
“I want to be happy,” Toby said, ducking his head down. “I want a family.”
“Oh, Tobs,” Melio said, lightly placing his hand on the boy’s. “You do have a family here.”
“No I don’t,” Toby said, shaking his head.
“Yes. Yes you do. I won’t let you go anywhere else, man. Never. You are as much my son as Josh is Zach’s.”
I watched in awe as Toby let a small smile fall on his lips. “Can I call you dad, then?”
Chapter 38
Avidya
I think Toby surprised everyone. I certainly had never expected him to do that, ever.
“If you want to,” Melio said easily. “I would like that, but it’s totally up to you.”
“Okay,” Toby said, not sure what to say. He seemed surprised himself.
Just then, Joshua let out a huge cry, alerting everyone that no one was paying attention to him. My son loved attention, demanded it constantly, too.
The spell was broken as Toby was quick to take my son and hold him, mumbling things to the baby.
“Well that was a good turn out,” Violet said on a breath of air. “I expected a huge outburst.”
“I think everyone was,” I said. “Glad he’s doing so much better.”
“Thanks to you,” Violet said my way. “Whatever you said to him the other day worked wonders.”
“I didn’t say anything that wasn’t true,” I shrugged. “He’s a good kid. And you and Melio have done wonderful with him.”
“We try,” Violet said. “He’s called meMoma few times, mostly by accident.”
“I don’t think it was a mistake. He may have been testing it out to see how you react. You don’t jump to conclusions, Vi. Toby knows that and you were a safe person to try it on. I wouldn’t have worked for that,” I said.
“You’re right,” she said. “I also think counseling has helped.”
“It usually does. It’s all about trial and error,” I mused.
“When did you grow up?” Violet laughed.
