Page 51 of Waves

“Yeah, I’m basically trash when he’s around,” Ezra said while he nodded at me.

“Come now, dogs love rubbish,” I reminded him.

“Thanks, babe,” Ezra mumbled.

“He just hasn’t seen me for longer.” I squatted and flopped Ishmael’s ears around while pointing his head to Ezra. “Tell your daddy how much you missed him.”

Ishmael answered by finally managing to lick my chin while his tail beat between his legs.

“Well, he missed one of his dads,” Mary snickered.

Ezra shot her a glare. “Oh, hell no. I’m the one who adopted him. Kai is his stepfather at best.”

“Still his daddy,” Mary sang.

“Well, thank you, Mary.” Ezra huffed, clipping Ishmael’s leash to his collar. “While all of this has been fun, I’m sure you have plenty you’d rather be doing. I know I do.”

Mary snorted and opened the door then waved from the porch. “Glad you’re back, Kai.”

“Glad to be back,” I answered with a wave. “See you soon.”

When we arrived back home, the first thing I noticed was the pool. A few brown leaves took the plunge early and swirled below the surface of the water and the maple in the corner of the yard already lost some green.

“What am I going to do in autumn?” I said, mostly to myself.

Ezra stood behind the refrigerator door while he put Ishmael’s food supply back in a drawer. “The heaters I ordered should keep the temperature up, maybe even warmer than the water is now. It will be like hot tubbing, I hope.”

“What if that doesn’t work? What if the water’s freezing?”

“Won’t feel cold if you put on your coat.”

I had nothing nice to say in response to that, so I remained silent and crossed my arms.

Ezra realized his suggestion had been poorly received as soon as he closed the refrigerator door and looked at me. “I’m sorry, that was an awful joke.”

I huffed and turned my head away from him. While I appreciated the apology, I wished he never went there in the first place. I might not have seen Ezra’s expression, but his deadpan tone told me he was serious, if only for a split second.

“Kai,” he said with a smile. “I was only kidding. Besides, you’d probably gnaw on the sides and puncture the damn thing.”

I smiled to myself. Darn right, I would. A pool was no place to keep a seal. Besides, I was no one’s pet, and I refused to be treated as one; a man or wild animal, sure, but never a fish in a bowl.

Ezra snaked his arm around my waist, making sure to appear extra contrite while he lovingly stared at me with his beautiful bright eyes. There was not much I could do other than sigh and bonk my head against his, giving into a smile. I couldn’t stay mad at him even if I tried.

Everything went so well, I actually started to believe Kai could do this. For the first week, Kai remained his perfectly contented self and as warm as sunshine while going about his day. Once the month ended, I prayed for a late summer, if only for his benefit. Closer to the two-week mark, his demeanor subtly shifted. He became quieter and spent longer bouts in the pool, but seemed fine otherwise. Early evening on our fifteenth day together, Kai began shaking and sweating at the same time (which very much reminded me of someone detoxing). I almost wished this were as simple as coming down. Kai would only get worse with time, not better.

Fifteen days beat his previous record, but Kai couldn’t last much longer. He would fix those pitiful brown eyes on me, and make me feel awful for letting him suffer. As guilty as I felt seeing him so miserable, never again staring into those big brown eyes of his haunted me. I did my best to keep him comfortable, and Kai spent the afternoon quietly tucked beside me on the couch while I played with his hair. He never asked for what I knew he wanted.

“The same show is on every station,” Kai mumbled, his voice dull and bored while he flicked through the local channels.

I looked up from my phone to see what he meant. Call me desensitized, but I forgot today was that day. “The local stations play a memorial every year.”

“For what?”

“People flew planes into buildings and killed a lot of people.”

Kai scrunched his brow while he watched the television. “That’s terrible.”

“Yep, so then we went to war and killed even more people who never did anything to us.”