Oma nodded at me, and we sipped our tea in silence.
It wasn’t an Awkward Silence, but it was an uncomfortable one.
Once Melanie or Linda Kellner said what they had to say, that was it.
They were as averse to small talk as Vulcans.
Dad popped his head in from the living room. “Darius. You ready forStar Trek?”
“Yeah. You want a cup?”
He nodded. “Mom? Linda? Want to watch with us?”
“No thanks,” Oma said.
And Grandma had already buried her head back in the fridge.
So I poured Dad’s tea, and topped off my cup, and settled on the couch to watch “Explorers,” this really excellent episode about Captain Sisko and his son, Jake, taking a voyage together in a replica of an old solar-sailing ship.
In the morning, Dad would be taking a voyage without me.
I felt melancholy and unsettled as I sat there with Dad’s arm around me, and I scooted closer to him so I could rest my head against his shoulder, although I had to kind of scoot forward on the couch in order to reach.
Ever since I grew taller than Dad, all my habits had to shift.
It made me melancholy.
And unsettled.
Sunday morning, the lights were on when I got home from my run. The garage door was up, and Mom’s car was in the driveway with the trunk open. I stopped at the curb to stretch my calves, but Mom looked out the door and waved me in.
“Can you help with your dad’s suitcase?”
“Oh. Sure.” I kicked off my running shoes, wiped my face, and jogged upstairs. Dad was sealing his toiletries in their clear plastic bag when I knocked on the door frame.
“Hey. Can I help?”
“Sure. Give me a second.”
He tossed his brown leather shaving kit into the suitcase—he hadn’t shaved yet, and his golden whiskers caught in the glow of the bathroom lights—and zipped it up.
I reached down for the suitcase, but he stopped me.
“You gonna be okay?”
“Yeah,” I said. “It’s only a month. And you’ll be home weekends. Right?”
“As much as I can.”
“Okay.”
Dad had gone on business trips before, but that was back when he and I didn’t get along, and him being out of town was like a little vacation for both of us.
Now the thought of him being gone for so long made my heart ache.
He pulled me closer, his hand resting on the back of my head where the fade had started to grow from bristly to fuzzy.
It seemed like he held on to me longer than usual.
