Chapter 6 #3
Trent noted it was about aviation disaster research. “I don’t know if this is—” Trent began. Ricky stopped him before Trent could get out the word appropriate.
“Maybe not,” Ricky conceded, giving Trent a wry look, “but it’s fascinating. And I like the logic on how they solve these problems,” he shared, as he immediately carried the huge tome to Naomi.
She took one look at it and nodded. “This is the next in the series, isn’t it?
” He nodded, and she replied, “Perfect.” And, with that, she took everything up to the checkout counter and purchased them all.
When she turned to Trent, he stood there, staring at her in shock. She shrugged. “For us, it’s normal.”
And there wasn’t anything Trent could say about having such an amazing and gifted child like that around.
After lunch and all the shopping, it was phone-buying time. What should have been an easy and quick process—not that phone shopping ever was—ended up taking them a little bit longer because they had two to get. When they were done and heading home, Naomi seemed more than a little tired.
Trent glanced over at her. “Sorry, that ended up taking a lot longer than expected.”
She checked on Ricky, who was nodding off on the passenger seat behind them. Thank heavens they had the family car to use for Ricky’s needs. “That’s shopping with kids for you,” she noted, “but we’re also not quite caught up on sleep. So, this is to be expected.”
“He’s really reading that stuff, huh?”
“He really is,” she confirmed. “Not always getting everything, but his interest is there, so I let him read it.”
“And you don’t worry about the negative effect of more potential nightmares? Aviation disaster is a pretty-tough subject.”
She turned to him and sighed. “I think what he’s been through in his life to date is probably a bigger nightmare than anything a book could ever create for him.
” Then she snorted. “So, if we can get him through this recent disaster, I’m pretty sure all the other thoughts of nightmares will go away for him too. ”
“Yes, of course,” Trent admitted. “That was a silly question.”
“Not at all,” she replied. “Yet we can also blow up things in our heads to the point that we can’t deal with anything because we’re completely paralyzed. We don’t want Ricky doing either of those things.”
Trent laughed. “I should be telling you that.”
She smiled. “It just brings us back to the fact that he’s a high-potential child,” she declared.
“And does the family realize how special he is?”
“No, not a clue. I mean, we haven’t seen them in years. And he’s six now. So, from their perspective, he’s probably barely more than a not-quite-viable toddler,” she muttered, trying hard to keep the note of rancor out of her tone.
He had to laugh. “You do a great job, you know?” he told her. “I’m really in awe of everything that you do for him.”
“It’s nothing I wouldn’t do for anybody else, including my own child,” she stated. “And, in many ways, Ricky is. And that’s the hardest part.”
“Of course.” Secretly though, he worried what it would be like for her when it actually came time to walk away from this job.
And he knew that she was fully aware of those limitations.
Yet he also knew she wouldn’t quit and would do the best she could for Ricky, regardless of the pain to herself.
And that was when Trent really saw her self-sacrifice.
When they drove back to the apartment, he kept glancing around.
He wasn’t sure what was bugging him, but something was.
As he caught sight of somebody skulking around the side, he hesitated as he pulled up to the main entrance of the building.
He asked her, “Can you carry Ricky upstairs on your own? Leave the packages for me.”
“Sure,” she said, not missing a beat. “We’ve done it many times, but I have to take at least one bag of the books with me.” Then she eyed him suspiciously. “Why?”
“I want to check around the corner,” he told her, “and I want to do our due diligence.”
She turned, glanced around, and, not seeing anything, she nodded. “That is your department. I’ll take him up now.”
He added, “Don’t let anybody into the apartment unless it’s me, okay?”
She looked back, surprised, but nodded in response, then walked inside the building.
He quickly drove around the block to see where the suspicious man had disappeared to.
As he came around the corner, he wasn’t surprised to see somebody rapidly moving down the block, trying to stay ahead of him without making it look like he was running away.
Too bad, Trent thought to himself, as he quickly parked the car.
Then he broke into a full jog, trying to catch up to this guy.
This case was getting stranger and stranger.
The guy headed into a farmers’ market and lost himself amid all the stands and the crowds.
At the end of the day, Trent was afraid that he had a very simple answer for this part of the mystery. And it wouldn’t be very good at all. He ran back to his vehicle and decided to follow his gut.