Chapter 6

“Some guy called,” Terri informed when Marc got home. He’d had a late meeting and had set up for Terri to go home with Ariel after school for a few hours.

Marc only grunted and ignored the blinking answering machine. Terri got all of her homework together and he drove her home from there. “Thanks for watching Ariel again,” he said. Having a babysitter was nice. It took a little bit of the stress off of him if something came up.

Terri nodded and went inside. “What do you want for dinner?” Marc asked, turning in his seat to look at Ariel.

“Real food,” she declared. “Like what Terri makes.”

Marc dropped his head and sighed. “I can try and make something, if you tell me what you want.”

“Soup.”

“Soup is not very descriptive,” Marc grumbled but headed for the store anyways. The directions for soup were simple enough—add some milk in and cook. He bought some cheese to melt in, because nothing could ever be ruined by cheese. Ariel wanted green onions in it and they went home from there.

It only took a few minutes to put together, and the cheese made it even thicker. He chopped the green onions, and almost his finger, before adding it all into the soup. He was actually quite proud of himself for this one—something that wasn’t bacon and eggs.

He dished some up for himself and Ariel and they ate while watching another run of Lilo and Stitch. At the moment, she refused to watch anything else. And Marc could admit it was kind of a cute movie. Ariel moved some of her art supplies into the living room to work while watching the rest of the movie, and Marc cleaned up from dinner.

“Oops,” Ariel remarked, barely audible from the living room.

“What?” Marc questioned.

“Nothing,” was her quick reply.

Marc swore under his breath and went over. She was trying to cover some of it up, but he could see the paint-water stain on the carpet from her watercolors. Marc sighed and picked up the spilled cup, and grabbed some paper towels from the kitchen.

“I’m sorry,” Ariel whispered guiltily.

“It’s fine,” Marc sighed, trying to pat up the blue-green mess. It wasn’t like he was going to get angry at her, these things happened. “Just keep it to your art room, okay? I don’t care if you make a mess in there.” All they had to do was close the door then, but the living room was a little different.

He had her clean the rest of everything up and take it back up stairs. It was late enough where he could tell her to get ready for bed. Only then did he actually listen to the answering machine for a brief moment. It was the usual, “How are you?” from his dad, along with wanting to see Ariel again sometime soon.

Marc stayed up later to do some work from home before he went to bed too.

The morning was the usual too; waking up earlier than he wanted to and lurking around the house until it was a decent enough hour to wake Ariel up. She went a little bit slower that morning and so he dropped her off late and got to work later than usual.

He set up in his office and buckled down for a few hours, undisturbed. His pocket started vibrating sometime between ten and eleven. No one usually called him this early in this day especially on his cell phone. He pulled it out to see that it was Brendan calling.

He missed the actual call by a second, so he quickly called Brendan back. “Oh, good,” Brendan answered, his voice low. “Um, I don’t know if you know, but Ariel has a visitor.”

“What?” Marc scowled. He could think of only two people, and one was in Europe.

“He said he’s her grandfather, so they let him in at the office. He’s sitting in on my class with her right now,” Brendan explained. “And you said you aren’t on good terms, so… I don’t know if I should be telling him to leave?”

Marc swore. “Is he going to try and sign her out for the day?” He knew that his dad had been wanting to see Ariel, but he wasn’t allowing this. At all.

“I don’t know. I mean there’s still thirty minutes of class left, or if you call the office and say that you’re not going to allow him to take her out…” Brendan suggested.

“Good—yeah, thanks,” Marc huffed. “I might stop by really quick, take an early lunch.”

“Okay,” Brendan answered. “Call the office too just in case.”

Marc hung up and called the office—they confirmed they’d let Ariel’s grandfather in for a visit. He told them that he wasn’t okay with her missing any school, so that she wasn’t allowed to be taken out for the day. From there he took his lunch early and went over to the school.

He made it just before the mark of Brendan’s class ending, and got his visitors pass. “Is there a family emergency or something?” the woman at the office asked.

“No, I just didn’t know my dad was visiting,” Marc answered truthfully.

He went down to Brendan’s class and peeked in through the door. Marc could see his dad kneeling down next to Ariel’s desk. He was in good shape for being older, and probably didn’t look like he was a grandfather.

Marc braced himself and went into the classroom. “Dad,” he chimed in, getting the man’s attention. “What are you doing here?”

His father looked up at him and smiled. “I was just dropping in to see Ariel.”

“I would have liked you to let me know that. Can we talk out in the hall?” Marc pointed over his shoulder. He didn’t need lots of little ears listening.

“Class is almost over I think,” his dad pointed out. “Maybe we can all go out to lunch?”

“No,” Marc answered shortly. “You know I don’t like it when you just drop in like this,” he couldn’t help but snap. “Showing up here without telling me is disrespectful of me as her father.” It was the only way his dad was going to understand anything.

The bell for the end of the class rang, and there was a flurry of younger kids running out of the class. Ariel packed up her things quietly, watching carefully between her dad and grandpa.

“Ariel, sweetie, you’ve got class,” Brendan intervened, pulling Ariel out from in between them.

Marc’s father stood up, his face hardening slightly. Marc tried to not back down, but he felt his stomach twist. “She’s my blood, too,” he challenged. “I should be able to see her.”

Marc just shook his head. “Ariel’s in school right now, and I need to get back to work. We should go.”

Marc nodded briefly to Brendan on his way out, knowing this would probably warrant an explanation of some sort. Marc watched his dad leave and hung around for another minute before he had to leave to get back to work.

Once he was there he still had a hard time focusing, with his mind on the idea that maybe his father had gone back after all. He’d told the office to call so he was hoping no news was good news.

At the end of the day he was flying out of the office so that he could go to pick Ariel up. He met her outside of the school and let out a sigh of relief. Brendan was oddly outside of his classroom with her. He smiled at Marc and nudged Ariel off towards him. “Just figured I’d make sure,” Brendan said.

“Thanks,” Marc grumbled, waiting for an invitation out so that he could be asked all sorts of questions about it.

“Hope all goes well,” was all he said, raising an eyebrow. “Let me know if you need anything.”

Marc nodded deftly and took Ariel’s hand as they walked to the car. “Are we having dinner with Granpa again soon?” she questioned from the backseat.

“No, not anytime soon,” he answered shortly. He was still too riled up about earlier in the day.

He got Ariel home and set her in front of the TV with Lilo and Stitch. He eyed the stain with still no idea on how to actually get it out. Maybe new carpet, or maybe they would get a tacky rug to cover it. Or just leave it—what better excuse than she was a kid and they made messes sometimes?

Marc sighed and rubbed his temples. He stared at Ariel from behind without a word and clenched his jaw. Shit. “Ariel, sweetie, are you okay with Terri coming over?” He asked, keeping his hands on the back of the couch.

“No.” Ariel tilted her head back to look up at him. “Are you going out again?”

“Yes, sorry,” Marc grumbled. He really hated the idea of going out again, but he needed to be out for a little while.

He called Terri, feeling even worse about it now. “Sorry about this again, but… do you think you could watch Ariel for a little bit?” Maybe he was abusing the use of babysitters?

“Um, sure. Is everything okay?” she asked.

“Yes, fine. Just, some work came up.” And he really needed to get out.

“Okay, sure. Just give me a second to ask my mom for a ride and such,” she said.

Marc hung back in the kitchen until she was there. He gave her some money for food and forced a smile. “Sorry,” he said again. “Just um—don’t answer the house phone if anyone calls. And…” shit, was it even right to leave her here if he showed up? “Don’t let anyone in,” he added. “And call me if you need to.”

Terri nodded, and Marc went out to his car. He just sat in the driveway for a while before testily driving to the Drunken Monkey.

***

Marc couldn’t say anything—never did anyways. He and his father on what seemed like equal ground again, black and bottomless beneath them. His father took one step closer, and Marc took another step back. Whatever he was standing on then gave way, and he tumbled back into the nothingness.

He lurched awake again, this time feeling three times worse because he was hung over. He groaned and held his head. He should have bought some coconut water, but he wasn’t exactly sure how he got home the night before either.

“Shit,” he groaned. At least he’d slept until a decent hour, and in fact he was running slightly late.

Ariel had gotten up on her own and gave him a curious look downstairs when they met in the kitchen. “How are you feeling?” she asked. “You fell over last night.”

“Better,” Marc lied. He was trying not to think of the day before and was focusing on the headache.

“Time to go to school,” he announced, ushering her out the door and to the car.

He dropped her off at the school for before care, and saw Brendan hooking up his bike outside. Brendan smiled at him and straightened up. “How was the rest of your night?”

“Fine,” Marc answered vaguely, narrowing his eyes. “Why?”

“I may or may not have gotten a drunk call from you,” Brendan answered.

Marc swore again. “Shit, I really don’t remember doing that.”

“It wasn’t anything bad,” Brendan consoled quickly, adjusting a messenger bag over his shoulder. “You were at the Drunken Monkey again. I had to come and get you—I got my bike in your car, I hope you don’t mind, but I needed a way home after.”

Marc let out a sigh of relief. “Well that’s good to know. I fell over, according to Ariel.”

Brendan chuckled. “You weren’t very steady on your feet. It was kind of funny. You were hugging all the walls.”

“I have to get to work,” Marc admitted. He would have rather stayed to find out what else happened the night before, but he didn’t have the time.

“Okay. Next time you decide to go drinking, take someone with you,” Brendan advised, pointing his finger. “Either as a DD, or… for someone to talk to.”

Marc stiffly cleared his throat. “Maybe another time.”

Brendan gave him another smile and took a few bouncing steps towards the school as his exit. Marc sighed again and retreated to his car.