My eyes snapped back to his at that and the whirlwind going on in my head paused for a minute as he continued on. “But I would like to be a part of his life as much as I can if the results come back that I am, in fact, his father. I can’t be for sure, but the timing does add up.”
I nodded my head at him slowly, trying to put myself in this guy’s situation and I could see how he would feel that way, even though I felt a strong urge to grab Caleb up and run away, never to be seen again. No, I couldn’t do that. If this really was Caleb’s dad, both of them deserved to be in each other’s lives. I had grown up without a father; I knew how it felt. And I think I had turned out pretty well for the hand I was dealt in life. I had basically raised myself without much parental supervision.
“That’s…understandable. So what’s the next step, how do we go about getting a paternity test?”
He pulled out a yellow sheet of paper from his briefcase that I just noticed he was carrying and then grabbed a small business card out of one of the divided pockets.
“This is all of the information you need for the lab that I found around this area. Don’t worry, it’s just a simple swab of the cheek, no needles required. I made sure to check, I really don’t want to put him through more than necessary. I actually live in Indianapolis and when I found your new address here I figured I’d drive down and see if I could catch you. I thought maybe you were trying to avoid me after reading your mother’s letter.”
Well, maybe if I had read that letter right away…No, just stop, negative Nancy. Just because I was feeling a little selfish, okay maybe a lot selfish, didn’t mean I could just push this guy out of Caleb’s life if he really is his father. Now, maybe if this guy was one of the usual customers I would run and hide until he decided to give up. But this guy seemed to be pretty decent.
“Would you like to come in for a minute so we can talk more about things?”
A look of relief passed over his face and I noticed his shoulders visibly relax at my words. He was probably relieved that I hadn’t slammed the door in his face. I was kind of surprised at myself that I hadn’t done it. I gave myself a pat on the back for controlling my urges and made my way into the living room, kicking toys aside and moving a pile of clothes off one of the couches to make room for him to sit down.
“Sorry, there’s a little bit of a mess. We’re packing right now, so it’s a little bit chaotic to say the least.”
“Oh, where…” He was interrupted by a shrill scream and the sound of a bike racing down the hardwood floors of the hallway.
“Caleb! You know you’re not supposed to be riding that in the house.” I stood with my hands on my hips and saw Mr. Barnum studying Caleb the way he had just done to me as he skidded to a stop at my feet. I’m sure it was a bit of a shock to see your supposed child for the first time.
“But Mommy, I already packed all of my other toys, this is all I got. Can’t I just ride it in here this one time? Please?” He gave me one of those puppy dog looks again but saw that I wasn’t budging this time and hopped off the seat of his bike quickly.
“Who are you?” Caleb asked bluntly, eyeing Mr. Barnum up, who looked at me with a confused face like he wasn’t sure exactly how to answer that. Truthfully, I wasn’t either.
“Um, my name’s Roy.” He crouched down to Caleb’s level and reached out a hand to shake Caleb’s, who answered with a fist bump instead. Chase had really rubbed off on him.
“I’m Caleb, do you wanna see my room? I can show you all of my toys, but they’re all packed up right now. You can help me re-pack them if you want. Mommy says I can’t take all of ‘em anyway. I don’t know why, they’ll miss me when I’m gone and I don’t want them to get lonely.”
Yes, I’m sure all of his toys would be a crying heap when Caleb left. Tears of joy would be more like it, if the toys really had feelings, they would probably be excited for his departure. No more getting thrown around or colored on. What the hell? Am I actually thinking about talking toys? I really needed a break. “Maybe some other time, buddy. Can you go back in there and work on packing for a minute? I need to talk to Mr. Barnum for a little bit. And this time let’s limit it to two toys and the rest clothes. I don’t think you want to be running around naked, right?”
“No, silly Mommy,” he answered back with a giggle and took down off the hallway once again on his bike. I had a feeling that thing was seriously going to end up in the garbage before the day was over.
I turned back to Mr. Barnum who watched Caleb until he was out of sight with what seemed like a look of awe on his face. I had to admit, the kid was pretty amazing. I was pretty proud of myself for how he had turned out so far.