Chapter 5 - THE BEDROOM DRAWING
Ethan stayed with Robert and Linda overnight.
Ryan arrived the next morning alone.
Ethan was drawing at the dining table.
Ryan sat beside him.
“Can we talk?”
Ethan nodded.
Ryan noticed the drawing.
A house.
Three upstairs windows.
One labeled DAD.
One VANESSA.
The third was empty.
Ryan pointed.
“Which room is yours?”
Ethan colored harder.
“The basement.”
Ryan stopped.
“You don’t sleep in the basement.”
“I know.”
“Why did you draw yourself there?”
Ethan whispered:
“Vanessa said when the new baby comes, babies need bedrooms close to parents.”
Ryan felt cold.
“There is no new baby.”
Ethan shrugged.
“She says someday.”
“What did she tell you would happen to your room?”
“That I’m big enough for downstairs.”
Ryan stood so quickly the chair scraped.
Then immediately sat again.
He did not want to frighten Ethan.
“Has Vanessa ever said you have to move?”
“Not yet.”
Not yet.
Those words stayed with him.
Ethan continued:
“She bought yellow paint.”
Ryan frowned.
“For what?”
“The nursery.”
Ryan stared.
There was no nursery.
At least none he knew about.
“Where?”
Ethan pointed toward the upstairs guest room.
Ryan drove home.
Vanessa was gone.
He went upstairs.
The guest room door was locked.
It had never been locked before.
Ryan found the spare key.
Inside were stacked paint cans.
Yellow.
A boxed crib.
New curtains.
And several storage bins.
One had a handwritten label:
ETHAN — BASEMENT.
Ryan stood completely still.
Inside were Ethan’s old toys.
Books.
Winter clothes.
A framed photograph of Emily and Ethan.
Vanessa had already begun packing his life away.
Not because a baby existed.
Because she had constructed a future where one would.
Ryan heard the front door open.
Vanessa called:
“Ryan?”
He remained inside the room.
Her footsteps came upstairs.
Then stopped.
She saw the open door.
Her face changed.
May you like
Ryan held up the box labeled with his son’s name.
“Tell me when you planned to mention this.”
