Chapter 10
“What’re you doing?”
Keys’ thumb immediately hit the Pause button at the sound of the small voice.
Despite how comfortable it was in Rose’s bed, Keys hadn’t been able to go to sleep.
It was just too early for him. So after cuddling with Rose for a while, and verifying she was deep into dreamland before he slipped from the bed, Keys came out into the living room to try to calm his racing mind with a video game.
He’d supplied the apartment with a console and a number of games with the intent of playing with Rose.
A quick glance over his shoulder showed that Rose’s bedroom was still dark and quiet. It was just him and Oscar.
Keys wasn’t sure if he should get Rose, torn between wanting to respect her as Oscar’s mother and wanting her to get some sleep. In the end, he chose to let her sleep. Even with the late hour, maybe he could use this time to bond with Oscar.
Patting the cushion beside him on the couch, Keys explained, “I’m playing a video game. Shouldn’t you be in bed?”
“I couldn’t sleep! I thought you and Mommy might be wrestling again, and I was missing all the fun!”
Keys was so grateful that Oscar was too young to understand the double meaning of his own words, or why Keys’ face turned bright red, despite the innocence of them.
“No more wrestling tonight.” His ears and nose had been tortured enough. “Your Mommy’s asleep. Do you want me to help you back to bed?”
Oscar shook his little blonde head. “No. What’s a video game?”
“Well, it’s a game I play on the computer or television. I control my character with my controller.” He held up the double winged device to show him. “Want to see?”
Though the couch was nearly as tall as he was, Oscar managed to pull himself onto the cushion.
Keys put a hand out to help, but it ended up not being necessary.
Oscar scooted himself right up to Keys’ side, working his small body under Keys’ arm and staring down intently at the controller in Keys’ hands.
Surprised, but also feeling a sense of honor he couldn’t explain, Keys must have stared down at the little boy too long, because Oscar tipped his head up to look at him impatiently.
Oops. Keys quickly shook his head and turned his attention back to the game.
He’d been playing with the game muted so as not to disturb either of the apartment’s occupants, but that seemed to have been unnecessary for one of them.
He turned the volume up just slightly now so Oscar could hear the sound effects.
Keys barely started playing again when Oscar began asking questions, which led to Keys setting up another controller for Oscar. He also adjusted the game settings to beginner and added a second player.
But an issue arose almost immediately, because the controller was far too big for Oscar’s little hands.
While both thumbs were planted firmly on the joysticks, which was technically correct, his hands stretched awkwardly over the face of the controller.
This meant that his left palm was continuously pressing down on the O-button, making his character do perpetual squats even in Pause mode.
“Okay,” Keys said, carefully adjusting Oscar’s hand on the controller. When he saw Oscar’s character stand up straight, he pressed Play. “So the first thing we want to do is—”
Oscar smashed both joysticks simultaneously. On the screen, his little blue character spun wildly in place, ran directly into a wall, and then fell off the edge of the platform into the void below.
The losing jingle played.
Oscar turned and looked at Keys with enormous blue eyes. It looked like he was torn between excitement and trepidation that he’d done something wrong.
Keys couldn’t help but chuckle. “It’s okay,” he reassured him quickly. “Trust me when I say everyone does that their first time.”
Oscar’s jaw dropped like Keys had just revealed a top-level secret. “Even you?”
Keys winced and readjusted his glasses on his nose. “Especially me. It took a long time for me to gain any hand-eye coordination.” When Oscar continued to stare at him, Keys cleared his throat. “Yes, it happened to me, too.”
This seemed to amaze the boy. “When?”
“When I was little. Like you.”
Oscar contemplated this before nodding to himself, like he found Keys’ answer satisfactory. He turned back to the screen, where the respawn countdown was ticking. “Mommy says I’m not little. She says I’m a big boy now.”
“You are very big,” Keys agreed.
“You’re bigger,” Oscar told him.
Keys couldn’t help but chuckle; Oscar said it like he was trying to boost Keys’ confidence. “Fair, but one day, you’ll be just as big. If not bigger.”
“I’ll be the biggest,” Oscar announced, puffing his chest out in pride.
“Okay,” Keys said with renewed focus. He scooted slightly closer to Oscar so he could see the boy’s hands on the controller. “Let’s go slower.” He pressed Play again. “Now, see this stick, on the left?”
Oscar looked down at his hands. “Uh huh.”
“That one moves your guy. Just left and right, like this.” He demonstrated on his own controller, walking his character in a small, direct line. “You don’t want to push it all the way. Just a little.”
But before he could even finish his statement, Oscar already pushed it forward all the way.
His character bolted sideways like it had been launched from a catapult, ricocheted off a bumper platform, and went flying upward in an arc that was, objectively, kind of impressive. But this time he did not commit character suicide.
“I went up,” Oscar exclaimed, completely delighted.
“You did go up,” Keys agreed with a smile. “Can you come back down to the platform?”
“I don't know where down is.”
Keys showed him, gently encouraging him to “tilt, not shove”.
After three more falls—one of which involved Oscar’s character bouncing off Keys’ character’s head in a way that made Oscar shriek with laughter—they made it to the first checkpoint.
A small burst of fireworks erupted on screen.
Oscar threw both hands up, controller and all.
Keys scrambled to catch the controller before it landed on Oscar’s head as the boy loudly shouted, “We won! We won!”
Handing him back the remote, Keys informed him, “We got to the checkpoint. Game’s not over yet.”
“There’s more?” Oscar’s eyes widened into giant saucers.
“This is only the first checkpoint on Level One, kid. There’s a lot more to go.”
Oscar lowered his arms and looked at the screen with a grave expression. “Okay,” he said with far too much seriousness for someone of his age and the time of night. “Let’s do this.”
* * *
Hours later, and way past Oscar’s and Keys’ bedtimes, they reached Level Three.
Keys ended up removing his character from the game.
Oscar and he were now on the floor with Keys’ back against the base of the couch and Oscar stationed on his lap.
They shared the controller with Keys doing most of the moving while Oscar did most of the jumping.
This was not the intended design of the game, but the game did not know Oscar or the boy’s very strong feelings about the jump button.
Specifically, he loved it. He pressed it constantly and completely unnecessarily.
He even occasionally made his character do an unintentional flip.
“You don’t have to jump every time,” Keys mentioned casually when they were skipping more than running.
“I like jumping.”
Keys shook his head, his chest shaking with silent laughter. “Oh, I know. But we would certainly move faster if you kept your jumping skills to a minimum.”
When Oscar looked up at him from his place on Keys’ lap, Keys indicated the screen where Oscar’s blue character was at the zenith of a completely pointless leap over nothing, sailing through empty air. He came back down safely and immediately started jumping again.
But the unabashed joy on Oscar’s face made Keys feel guilty for having said anything at all.
This wasn’t a challenge or a competition.
What did it matter if Oscar’s character jumped his way through the entire game?
He wasn’t jumping to be difficult; he was jumping because he genuinely loved it.
And who was Keys to take away that joy from the little boy?
“You know what?” Keys said, dropping his thumbs from the joysticks. “You jump as much as you want.”
Oscar’s giggles rang through the living room.
Keys had been around his club nieces and nephews before, had seen them accomplish various tasks and milestones.
He’d certainly cheered them on and felt happy for them, but it was nothing like the sheer pride he felt growing in his chest as he watched the pure glee on Oscar’s face as he jumped his way through the third level of the game.
“Hey,” Oscar said up to him, not looking away from the screen.
“Yeah?”
“Do you have a brother?”
Keys blinked, not sure where that question came from. “Yeah,” he answered, not wanting to lie. “One. He’s younger than me.”
Oscar perked up immediately. “Where is he?”
Shit. Keys had no idea how to answer that one. “I’m not sure, bud. We haven’t talked in a lot of years.”
“Why not? Was he a bad brother?” Oscar asked innocently, his character jumping twice in the interim.
Keys shifted uncomfortably. “He was, but I also wasn’t a good brother either. It’s complicated, Oscar. We were very different growing up, and some things are just easier to understand when you’re bigger.”
“Do you miss him?”