“That’s probably good.”
“I remember asking if you still liked me.”
Marcus looked at him.
“You remember that?”
“Kind of.”
Ethan shrugged.
“Maybe because people told the story later.”
Marcus sighed.
“What story?”
“Mom says that was the day everything came out.”
“Daniel calls it the worst birthday gift in history.”
Marcus laughed.
“That sounds like him.”
Ethan grew serious.
“Do you ever wish you didn’t know?”
Marcus did not answer immediately.
“Yes.”
Ethan looked surprised.
“For about five minutes at a time.”
“What does that mean?”
Marcus put the car down.
“It means truth can hurt so badly you miss ignorance.”
“But ignorance was hurting us too.”
“I just didn’t know.”
Ethan thought.
“Would we still be a family if I didn’t say anything?”
Marcus looked at his son.
“You mean would your mother and I still be married?”
“Yeah.”
“Maybe.”
Ethan looked guilty.
Marcus immediately understood.
“No.”
“What?”
“Do not finish that thought.”
“I wasn’t—”
“You were about to wonder if you caused the divorce.”
Ethan looked down.
Marcus stepped closer.
“You did not.”
“But if I hadn’t said—”
“Then adults would have continued making decisions that were already damaging the family.”
“You told the truth.”
“That did not create the truth.”
Ethan nodded slowly.
Marcus pointed at him.
“Repeat it.”
“Dad.”
“Repeat it.”
“I didn’t create the truth.”
“Again.”
Ethan rolled his eyes.
“I didn’t create the truth.”
“Good.”
Marcus returned to dinner.
Ethan picked up the toy.
Then:
“Can I repaint it?”
Marcus looked over.
“What color?”
“Red.”
Marcus smiled.
“Absolutely.”
Daniel objected when he saw it.
“You ruined a classic.”
Ethan laughed.
“It’s plastic.”
“Heritage matters.”
Marcus nearly choked on his drink.
Daniel caught the look.
“Do not.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You were about to.”
“Never.”
By the time Ethan graduated high school, the four adults had become something no one would have predicted after that birthday.
Not one family.
Several families connected by one person.
Marcus sat beside Claire at graduation because their assigned seats were together.
Aaron on Claire’s other side.
Daniel one row behind them with his girlfriend, Maya.
When Ethan crossed the stage, all four stood.
Ethan later complained:
“You embarrassed me.”
Marcus said:
“We coordinated.”
“You did not.”
Daniel answered:
“Correct.”
Claire laughed.
For one photograph, Ethan asked Marcus and Daniel to stand beside him.
Both men hesitated.
Then did.
Marcus looked at the picture later.
Ethan between them.
Same skin tone.
Same jawline as Daniel.
Marcus’s posture.
Daniel’s smile.
A person could belong to more than one history.
That no longer frightened Marcus.
Ethan attended Texas A&M.
Mechanical engineering.
Of course.
His first year, he called Marcus at two in the morning.
Marcus answered immediately.
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why are you calling at two?”
“I failed calculus.”
Marcus sat up.
“You failed an exam.”
“Same thing.”
“No.”
“It’s thirty percent.”
“Also not death.”
Ethan groaned.
“Daniel said you’d say that.”