Psychikos

This Monday morning dawned as it almost always did in early spring: With an unexpected snowstorm when it seemed well past the time for it. Caitlyn hadn’t been awake more than fifteen minutes before her husband came bounding into the kitchen wearing only a pale-yellow towel wrapped around his waist, wet hair dripping in his face. “Cait, have you looked outside yet?”

“My eyes aren’t even open yet,” she mumbled, staring down into her coffee cup, then glancing up at him. “What are you doing? Get off there! You’re going to lose your towel.”

“So? The kids aren’t up yet and it’ll give you a cheap thrill,” Geo grinned at her over the dining table, but got off the windowseat and tucked the towel more securely around his waist. He was a burly, muscular man of medium height with jet-black hair worn feathered to just past his shoulders and clear brown eyes, with a thick jet mustache and more body hair than Caitlyn had ever seen on a man before. His Greek/Italian heritage seemed to dictate being hirsute, as their son had been born with a headful of thick black hair as well.

“What I need is a break from your god-dammed morning cheerfulness and weird sense of humor, not a cheap thrill. Besides, I’ve seen your bare ass a thousand times.”

“And you’ll see it a thousand more. But what I came down to tell you was that it’s snowing!” he said with a childlike sense of wonder, ignoring her usual morning grumpiness. It was one of the few parts of their life together that Giovanni and Caitlyn Anastasopoulos didn’t agree on. He was always cheerful and in a good mood from the moment he awoke. She was no morning person, though once she’d had a couple of cups of coffee her mood always improved. By the time she arrived at the office Caitlyn was usually her normal sunny self, and it took a lot to sour her after that.

“Oh, wonderful,” she snapped sarcastically. “I just put the snowblower back in the basement.”

“It’ll probably melt by noon,” he said as he left the kitchen, clearly having anticipated her grumpy reply, which didn’t appear to change his delight in the snow at all. Caitlyn’s eyes turned to the window beside her, where blowing snow was illuminated from the lighted room’s window against the darkness outside. She sighed and took a sip of her hot coffee, then glanced over at the digital clock on the microwave: 6:23, almost time to go get the boys up. She didn’t feel awake enough to deal with them yet, but Geo had hit the sleep button on the alarm clock twice and so they’d gotten up twenty minutes late.

As if he’d known she was thinking about him, six-year-old Adam walked into the kitchen and Caitlyn groaned silently. In her opinion children were not to be seen or heard until their mother was fully awake. “What’s for breakfast, Mom?” he asked, going to the refrigerator.

“A knuckle sandwich,” she grumbled. “Why are you up so early?”

“Dad’s singing in the shower,” Adam said, taking a quart jug of grape juice out of the refrigerator. Caitlyn watched him, but knew she didn’t have to, since he wouldn’t drop or spill it. Adam was so like his father that sometimes he drove her crazy; it was almost like having her ex-husband around the house again. And Adam looked just like John Sheiga, almost fully Japanese, with little of her blonde Anglo features.

“Is Warren up too?”

“Yeah, he’s in the frochroom watching cartoons.” Adam got a clean glass from the dishwasher and slowly poured the dark purple liquid into it, not spilling a drop. He was an amazing contrast to his younger half-brother Warren, who was as klutzy and rough as Adam was neat and careful. Warren, too, was his father’s child one hundred percent both in looks and personality. Caitlyn sometimes wondered if any of her genes had found their way into either of her two sons.

Yawning, she got up. “Don’t let Warren have any of that or I’ll be cleaning purple spots out of the carpet. How’s oatmeal sound this morning?”

“Apple-cinnamon for me,” Adam said over his shoulder as he carried the glass out into the other room. A moment later she heard her youngest son’s voice begging for a drink, and Adam telling him only if he let him hold the glass. Then there was silence but for the low murmur of the TV, and with her first smile of the morning Caitlyn got down a box of instant oatmeal.

While the boys were eating, Caitlyn went upstairs to get dressed. Their old renovated farmhouse had such a small water tank that they had to take turns showering in the morning every other day, so she’d taken hers last night. From halfway up the stairs she heard Geo singing off-key; something old and almost indistinguishable by the Beatles. The bathroom door was half open and as she walked past, she saw him standing at the mirror knotting his tie. Only Geo could get away with wearing faded jeans, a button-down shirt, tie, and high-top tennis shoes to work, she thought as she went on into their large bedroom. Of course, he was the owner-manager of the franchise store, and he had just enough balls to get away with it.

As a receptionist, Caitlyn had to dress a little more conservatively. Though she worked in a factory, she always made it a point to look nice and businesslike since she was the first person anyone saw coming through the front door. Today she wore a navy skirt, a blue, yellow and grey striped blouse, dark blue blazer, and black flat-heeled shoes. Both her boss and husband were barely taller than she, so heels were out. Geo always teased her about looking like the ultimate preppy businesswoman, and this morning was no exception. “Hey, darlin’, get brave this morning. Instead of the blouse, wear a t-shirt. You’ll make a fashion statement at work,” he said as he came in the bedroom.

“Right, Geo. Michaelson would fire me if I pulled something like that,” she frowned at him in the mirror as she brushed her wavy shoulder-length blonde hair. She had it permed every four months so she could just brush it and go. Her Norwegian heritage showed in her thick, pale silvery blonde hair and wide face with high cheekbones, and clear blue eyes just a shade or two lighter than her husband’s.

“Only one cup so far, huh?”

She had to grin. God, he did it to her every morning, got her to smile before she was ready to. “You’re an asshole.”

“And you love it.” He paused to drop a kiss on her shoulder, which she barely felt through the blazer. “The boys ready yet?”

“It’s only ten ’til. They’re probably still eating.”

“No, knowing Adam, he’s dressed already and bugging Warren to get ready,” Geo said as he put his wallet and car keys in his pockets. “That kid is really something else.”

“Yeah, he is,” Caitlyn agreed, heading for the bathroom. “I’ve never known a child that young to be so responsible.”

“Too bad his father wasn’t, huh?”

“Yeah, no shit,” she called through the door. “But at least he comes and gets him on time.”

“There is that, at least.” Geo’s sarcastic voice was fading away as he went down the steps.

Putting on her mascara, Caitlyn mentally shook her head. There was no love lost between her ex and present husbands at all. Geo thought John was an irresponsible idiot, and John had told her once that Geo was nothing more than an overgrown child. Cait herself agreed with them both, but at least Geo was a responsible and caring overgrown child, which was much better than John Sheiga’s total self-absorption. He’d been thrilled when she’d had a boy, but had been--and still was--too involved with his budding art career to bother with Adam or her. But at least now he came and got him on weekends, though she couldn’t help but worry until he was dropped off on Sunday afternoon.

Her makeup finished, Caitlyn went back downstairs to find the boys dressed and ready for school. Geo was standing in the living room gulping down a bowl of cold cereal, all of them watching G.I. Joe cartoons. “I’m off. Give me a kiss and hug, guys.”

Warren reached her first and threw his chubby arms around her hips. He was a miniature version of Geo: thick, unruly black hair, round cherubic face splattered with light freckles, and dark blue eyes. “Love ya, Mommy,” he said, turning and bumping into Adam, who also gave her a hug, though slightly more restrained. “Watch out,” Adam said, then, “You got your boots, kid? Put your shoes in your backpack.”

It secretly amused both parents to hear Adam call Warren “kid”. They were only a little over two years apart; Caitlyn had divorced John Sheiga when Adam was four months old and married Geo less than a year later already pregnant with Warren. She wondered how they would react if she got pregnant again, since she and Geo had decided that another child would round out their family nicely and that they could just afford one more, hopefully a daughter. Though they weren’t trying yet, it was under consideration.

She got more than a rough, careless kiss and hug from her husband, then pulled on her coat and walked out to the cars in the driveway. Geo drove the bulky minivan since he took the kids to school, while she used their gas-saving little Ford Edge to journey the eighteen miles to work. Geo’s store and the boys’ schools were in the nearby town of Rushmore, barely a ten-minute drive, while she traveled to the outskirts of Canton City which was nearly an hour from their home. Caitlyn never regretted moving out in the country, since it had been a dream come true for all of them, but she did dislike the long travel time five days a week. She had planned to find another job out here once they’d moved, but that hadn’t been as easy as it had sounded. Besides, she liked her job just the way it was, since she knew everyone and everything. It was a good life, and Caitlyn never took it for granted after the disappointments of her first marriage.

At eight o’clock Geo got the boys loaded in the five-year-old Town and Country and backed out, feeling the tires slip on the snow-covered gravel of the driveway as he turned out onto the dirt road. “Maybe your mom was right, this snow isn’t so great,” he admitted, fighting the wheel. “Or maybe I should’ve just bought new snow tires for this beast.”

“Yeah, but look how pretty it is,” Adam pointed out the window. The wind had decreased and now they could see the snow-covered fields and forest that surrounded their rural home, the tree branches covered with white velvet.

“Can I take my sled out today?” Warren piped up from the back seat.

Geo frowned at him in the rearview mirror. “Only if you behave yourself at school today. Mrs. Neal said you’ve been really bad lately, Warren. You cut that out, you hear me?”

“Yeah, Daddy,” the four-year-old, not the least abashed, continued looking out the window. “If I’m good today then I can take my sled out, right?” Kids’ logic, Geo thought fondly as he murmured an affirmative answer.

Ten minutes later they entered Rushmore, which was a small Midwestern town not much different from any other its size. Geo dropped Adam off at the grade school where he started at 8:15, then took Warren to the “Happy Children” preschool just down the block from the strip mall where his store was.

Since his store didn’t open until ten o’clock, he headed back home for a couple of hours. The big old house was too silent and empty without the rest of the family, but he had work to do, serious work: watching one of the new Blu-ray movies that had arrived yesterday so he knew what it was about in case any customers asked before putting them it on the shelves for sale. A rough job, but someone had to do it. With a cup of coffee and box of Hostess donuts Geo settled down on the couch and was soon absorbed in the gory horror movie.

Caitlyn picked the boys up from daycare—which was also Warren’s preschool--at quarter to six and they stopped by the store to visit Geo, something they did once or twice a week.

The place wasn’t busy, but it made a decent profit every month between DVD, Blu-ray, game and console rentals and sales, computer/electronics and, mostly, cell phone sales and service. The store hadn’t been an easy decision for Geo to make and Caitlyn was still proud of him for not only doing it, but succeeding as well.

He’d gotten sick of the rat race of advertising and had wanted to own a business, buy a franchise. They’d only been married about eighteen months and she had just gone back to work after her maternity leave with Warren, and it didn’t seem to be the right time to take such a gamble. But the offer of opening an Electronics’n’More branch in town was an opportunity too enticing to refuse and Geo had gone for it. But it had been his idea to also sell band/music t-shirts, comic books and other related merchandise, which made up a decent chunk of the profit the place made.

And though there were few rental places such as Blockbuster still around, there was a huge demand for movie rental in Rushmore, which had surprised them both but they didn’t argue with.

Geo was helping an elderly matron find a movie in the DVD Classics section as they walked in, and Caitlyn held the boys back until he was done and walking away from the old woman. Then Adam and Warren ambushed him from around one of the long, shoulder-height shelves and Geo pretended surprise, though both he and Caitlyn knew he’d seen them as soon as they came through the door. He grabbed Adam by the upper arms and swung him high as Warren wrapped himself around one of his father’s legs, both boys yelling with excitement.

“Guys, quiet down,” Caitlyn admonished, but none of them listened to her. The few other customers in the store were smiling their way, but she also saw the looks at Adam, then at her and Geo, she’d gotten used to. Most people seemed to think they’d adopted an Asian orphan when they saw him, and few believed that he was actually her son.

Once the boisterous horseplay and greetings were over, Geo dropped an arm around Caitlyn’s shoulders and kissed her. “So to what do I owe the pleasure of this unexpected visit?” he asked, leading them back to his office in the rear of the store.

“Nothing special,” she shrugged beneath his arm. “The boys wanted to stop in and say hi.”

“Can we go play, Mom?” Warren asked, pointing to the small playhouse set against one side wall. Geo, from his own experience with taking young children in stores, had built a small play area in his own store, something that many parents thanked him for.

“Yeah, sure, go ahead, but be careful, Warren,” Caitlyn said as she always did.

As the boys ran off, Geo let his arm drop and grinned down at her. “Why do you always tell him that? You know damn well he’ll fall and hurt himself, or break something, anyway.”

They went to his office which was through the warehouse doors then up a short flight of stairs, looking out on the store just high enough to see over all the shelves. A one-way mirrored window gave a clear view without revealing the watcher. It was an older building, having started life as a convenience store in the nineteen-seventies. Though Geo had updated to the newest video security system when he’d bought it, she knew he liked looking down on his little kingdom.

Sitting in the chair before his paper-littered desk, she sighed and nodded. “Yeah, I know. If there was any doubt that he’s your son, which there isn’t, I’d be sure just because of his klutziness.”

Geo perched on the edge of his desk, one tennis-shoe’d foot swinging. “Yeah, he’s definitely the child of my loins. Cait, have you talked to Adam about the adoption again yet?”

“No. . . Geo, let it go for now. I’d like for him to be your son too, but he’s getting flak from John, and I can’t deny him his real father, you know that.”

“Yeah, but what’s he learning from him, Cait? To be a worthless, self-centered--”

“Dammit, would you drop it, Geo? I’m going to have a talk with John when he calls Friday, if he does. It’s not good for Adam to have the two of you pulling him back and forth like this.”

“What d’ya mean, ‘if he does’?”

“He said something about going to New York for a gallery opening when he dropped Adam off last night. So, I don’t know if he’ll be taking him next weekend.”

“I wouldn’t mind,” Geo muttered, but he could see that she was really getting annoyed and changed the subject, but had plans to bring it up again. He loved Adam as much as Warren, having raised him from a small baby, and wanted him to be his son in name as well as heart. But that idiot Sheiga, who offered the boy nothing, was hanging onto him with tales of his “heritage” and “birthright”. Geo had gotten that same crap from his maternal grandfather, an Italian immigrant, but had learned for himself that it wasn’t what your ancestors were or did, but what you made of yourself. “So, what’s for dinner tonight?”

Caitlyn mentally rolled her eyes. Geo would drop it for now, but the subject would continue to smolder deep inside him until it popped up again like lava from an uneasy volcano. They’d been arguing over this since just before Warren’s birth, when John Sheiga had re-entered their lives by offering to pay child support to be able to see his son. What mattered most to Caitlyn was Adam’s wishes in the matter, and he’d told her that he liked being able to see his father and “other” family, as he called the extensive Sheiga clan. She had tried to tell Geo that it wasn’t that Adam didn’t want to be an Anastasopoulos too, but that he was afraid he might not be able to see his real father any more. She didn’t know how that would work if Geo did adopt Adam, and didn’t want to find out, either, unless the boy did.

Realizing that she’d hesitated for too long by Geo’s quizzical look at her, Caitlyn replied to his question. “Breaded pork chops and applesauce, I guess. Thought I might stop at the deli and get some of that coleslaw you like so much to go with them.”

“Sounds good,” Geo agreed, but he was looking over her head out the big mirrored window that showed the store interior. She turned, seeing Adam, Warren, and two other children playing around the small plastic house. As they watched, Warren tripped over his own feet and went sprawling, but didn’t hurt himself on the padded floor. Adam went over and picked him up, then they both ran over to the playhouse.

She noticed that one of the high school girls he employed part-time as a cashier was watching the kids too, and Caitlyn had seen her glance at them as they went in the back. Though she told herself she was used to other women looking at her husband, it still bothered her. She was four years older than Geo and when her looks began to fade, would he begin to return some of those perusals? The old saying if they’ll cheat with you they’ll cheat on you was a refrain that refused to be suppressed.

“Cait? Come back to earth, would you? What’s with you today, hon?”

She turned back to see him smiling quizzically at her. “What?”

“I said, maybe you’d better get going if dinner’s to be ready at seven. I’m hungry now.” He made his big sad eyes face, which never failed to make her laugh.

Caitlyn got up and went to him, wishing that the teenaged clerk could see how Geo held and kissed her goodbye. For now, at least, she had no worries about him getting involved with another woman, though it was a very real fear. The future would come, and what would happen would happen.