146. It’s never too early
146
IT’S NEVER TOO EARLY
Nate
“It’s too early for all of this,” Daire said as we stood outside the baby store. “But I kind of don’t care.”
We’d both been over the moon excited about the baby and every time there was a commercial about a baby item flicking across the television, on the radio, or even before we watched a how to short online, we wanted it. We were worse than a kid with the Christmas catalog from their favorite store.
And now here we were, walking back to the car after we stopped for some curry that Daire had been craving, and we spotted a baby store. How could we not go in? How could we not buy all the things?
“Will it make us feel better to have everything we need ready to go?” I asked knowing that it would.
“Absolutely.”
“And if we buy it now or buy it later, we’re still going to need to put a lot of it together, right?”
He bobbed his head up and down.
“And when your belly enters the room before you do, you’re not going to want to put shit together, but then you’ll feel bad that you aren’t helping make things for our baby… so in a way, we are doing this right on time.” There was a great deal of gymnastics needed to logic that out, but I managed to and was rewarded with a kiss.
“Let’s go buy all the things.” He took my hand and we walked inside.
It was a small boutique, but what they lacked in size, they made up for in excellent taste .
“I love this set.” I rubbed my hand along the bamboo crib. It boasted being sustainable and some other things about the environment and I did appreciate that, but what attracted me to it was the warm color of the bamboo. It didn’t have the harshness the white furniture had and felt less cold that some of the other sets shouted to me.
“I do too.” He turned over the price tag. “And it’s not as bad as I thought it would be.” Not that money was an issue for us. But we didn’t want to go around burning through it either.
“It says that there are matching pieces.” I pointed to the tiny script under the price.
I barely got the words out and a sales person was at our side, describing everything that line had to offer including bamboo sheets and organic mattresses. We left with an order in place and all of the furniture needs for the room met.
“I feel like we accomplished a great deal doing that.” I held the door open for my mate.
“We did. But do you know what would make me feel better?” Daire bit his bottom lip.
“Getting some clothing for our little one?”
“No, but I love the way you think. I was wondering if we could try that place that advertises ‘the widest selection of quality strollers in the tri-state area’.”
“So stroller, then home?”
“Stroller, car seat, and possibly that cute little kids boutique on 3rd Avenue?”
“Yeah, we can do all of that.” I promised.
And we did. By the time dinner rolled around we had the furniture, the textiles, and the wall decor for our nursery all on order, a baby stroller that was able to do more things than my first car ever could including converting to a pram for the early days, enough gender neutral clothes for our baby’s first six months of life, an array of cloth diapers I was fairly certain neither of us understood, and some toys just because they were cute.
“That was the best day ever.” Daire plopped into the recliner. “Thank you for indulging me.”
“I had fun too.” I sat on the coffee table in front of him. “Now we have another big decision to make. What should we get for dinner, because I’m not cooking and there’s no way I’m eating cereal around you ever again?”
Daire stuck his tongue out at me playfully.
“You mean I should get the cereal out?”
He shook his head back and forth a few times. “No. No cereal. I wasn’t saying you were wrong.” He chuckled. “Let’s order chicken. I’m in the mood for chicken.”
“Broasted?” I clarified.
“Yes! With jo- jo potatoes.”
I ordered dinner and put on a movie we both loved and the two of us enjoyed a nice quiet evening home. It was the perfect end to the perfect day.
Ryder
“I was thinking,” I said to Archer.
We were having coffee, just the two of us. It had been a while since we’d done this and it was nice.
“You should probably avoid that when possible. It leads to ideas, and ideas require action and it becomes a whole thing.” He picked up his drink and blew on it before taking a sip.
“Too late.” I tapped my head. “The idea is already here.”
“Then do tell, my friend.” He leaned back in the comfy chair that was the main draw of this particular coffee place. It by far didn’t have the best coffee, but it was the most comfortable place to hang out while drinking it.
“Things are different now. Work wise. My life is in a sort of chill place where things are working like clockwork, you know?”
“I guess.”
“This is going to sound unrelated, but it is.” And could go either way. Archer was the first person to help Mike, so I didn’t think this would hit him wrong, but also Mike had almost cost Archer his freedom, so maybe this whole idea would be a step too far. Only one way to find out.
“Mike’s appeal was this week as you know.” One piece of very good news was that the lawyer Archer had used had worked his magic and appealed Mike’s one-year sentence. “Because he was a minor and because the person he hit was the world’s worst witness.” Everyone involved agreed it was less that he was a bad witness and more that he didn’t want to see Mike in jail after hearing his testimony. “It’s amazing that he has probation and community service—a lot of community service.”
And I wasn’t opposed to giving back to society, but they gave him so many hours he wouldn’t be able to hold down a job to pay bills, go to school, and complete the hours. It was like they were setting him up to fail. And maybe that was the point. The judge was not impressed when none of the witnesses seemed any too eager to put the boy in jail.
“I know. I was so relieved. Lewey would’ve had to go to a nursing home for sure.” Lewey being his grandfather. Lewey didn’t need a ton of care, but he had no income other than his social security leaving him with few options except for the community nursing home, if he qualified. “He really didn’t mean to be awful. He just was doing the best he could in a bad situation.”
Even without him spelling it out, I was aware Archer was helping Mike and his grandfather, supporting them while Mike was behind bars for a short time until his appeal, and now while he did his community service.
“And that brings us to my idea. What if we started a foundation? We could call it Lewey’s Friends and help raise funds to pay the non-cancer related bills that come with cancer. Just because you’re sick doesn’t mean you should become homeless or lose your power or?—”
“Have your teen grandson feel the only option is to steal someone’s car to get to work?” Archer cut me off.
“Yeah, something like that.”
“And we could set up an app with resources for other groups that can help.” He took out his phone and opened a note and started typing away. “There is so much we could do with this. So much good. Sick people should focus on getting better. Full stop.”
We chatted for over an hour about all our ideas. There was still a lot to figure out. Ideally we wanted to create some apps that would help people, but also others that would make money to help with the main goal of the foundation, which was to make sure that the fiscal side effects of cancer weren’t worse than the cancer itself.
In the end we weren’t really even sure if it should be technically a foundation or whatever, but we had a vision with some very clear goals, goals we felt passionately about and it was a start.