As we got into the Charger, my phone rang, and it was Angie.
“David, I need a babysitter right now. I have a group project and Greg’s working. Would you be able to come over for an hour?” she asked.
“Hang on,” I said and then turned to Brook. “Want to meet my niece and nephews?”
“Sure.”
“See you in fifteen minutes,” I said to Angie.
Mac and Kyle were peering out the window as we pulled up. They were worse than Duke. When Brook and I reached the door, we could hear the chaos on the other side. When it opened, I pushed Brook in front of me. Both Mac and Kyle took a step back and looked up at her, not sure who she was.
“Tell her what your names are,” I told them.
“Hi, I’m Brook,” she said as she got down on their level.
I was surprised when the two toddlers became shy. Normally they would meet anyone. Angie came out of the back with her book bag.
“No winding them up. I need them to go to bed tonight. Your mom’ll be here in about forty-five minutes. Thanks,” she said and kissed me on the cheek as she ran out.
I found Nate in his bouncy seat. It was like a small swing on bungee cords. It helped build his leg strength as he bounced up and down. I pulled Nate out of it so he could sit on my lap while Kyle and Mac sat on each side of me. Brook had her phone out and took our picture. Mac grabbed my sleeve to get my attention. She looked very serious, so I leaned down so to hear her.
“Unca David dance,” Mac whispered and pointed at the TV.
It took me a minute to figure out what she wanted. When I had filmed Star Academy, they had captured me learning dance moves from everyone. I also was tricked into doing lip-sync routines when we shot in northern Canada. They had sent me several DVDs, and I had given one to Greg. He said that Kyle and Mac loved to watch it, but it confused them because they wanted to know where I was. They were getting good at mimicking my dance moves, according to Greg. I’d yet to see it, and it amused me to think about how two little tots would do dancing.
“You guys want to dance?” I asked.
They both squirmed off the couch, and Kyle ran to the DVD collection and found my video. I put Nate into the bounce seat and then loaded the DVD.
“You do it!” Kyle yelled as he bounced up and down.
“Can you video this for me?” I asked Brook, who showed me she planned to.
Angie was going to kill me. As I danced around, imitating myself on the video, my two little mimics did a credible job for being almost two. I about fell down laughing when Mac did her imitation of Nicki Minaj in Bang Bang. She had the head twists down on the ‘oh, oh.’ Mac was going to be a little diva someday.
When my mom arrived, Brook had joined the fun. At first, I was worried that Mom was going to be mad that I had them wound up, but she took her jacket off and joined us. Luckily, Greg got home first and smiled when he saw we had our own little dance party going on. Nate was in my arms as we bounced around to the music.
The fun part about winding little ones up is watching them just fall over asleep. It’s almost as much fun as dealing with drunks. Brook and I helped Greg get the little ones down.
On the drive home, I caught the end of the Cubs–Pirates game. The winner would be in the playoffs.
“I take it you’re a Cubs fan,” Brook said.
“Did you ever see that movie Back to the Future?” I asked.
“Yeah, the one with Marty McFly in it.”
“In it, they predict that the Cubs’ll make the World Series this year. I think it’s finally our turn.”
“Your brother’s kids are cute,” Brook said to change the subject.
“I need to spend more time with them,” I said, and then remembered something. “Send me the video from tonight. I’ll get it posted so others can see what little stars they are.”
Dancing baby videos went viral all the time. Kyle did this cute thing where he tried to shake his butt. Of course, I might have been responsible by telling him that he needed to shake his ‘moneymaker.’ Mac, being a little older, was more coordinated. She tried to do everything Brook did.
We made plans to go skydiving Saturday morning. We had to get all our jumps in to qualify for our license. Brook gave me a quick kiss and jumped out of the car as soon as it stopped.
◊◊◊
When I got home, I did something that I’d been neglecting: calling my friends. The first call was to Tami. We talked about school, and then I broached a subject that was in the back of my mind.
“Can I trust you, or if I tell you something will you tell on me?” I asked.
“Oh, this is good. What have you done?”
“Answer my question first.”
“Of course you can trust me. Now spill it, or I’ll figure it out,” she threatened.
In the old days that might have been a credible threat, but Tami had been gone long enough that it wasn’t anymore.
“I’ve been bad,” I admitted. “I’ve been going on adventures I thought I never would, but have to say they’ve been fun. I guess what I need from you is your opinion on whether I’ve gone too far.”
“I find it hard to believe you’d go too far. What are you talking about?” she asked.
“Let me show you a video,” I said and started the one of me doing motocross.
“Two things come to mind: the first is you are so dead. When your mom sees this, she’ll ground you for life. The second is … why didn’t you invite me?” Tami asked.
“There’s more,” I said, then showed her Brook and me skydiving, and then the video of Devin’s new toy, the wingboard.
“I can see you doing all these different activities, but you do realize you’ll kill yourself, right?” Tami asked.
“Maybe.”
She looked at me hard, and I felt like she was looking into my soul.
“Tell me the rest,” she ordered.
I told her about my last two recruiting visits. The first, I had gone to a swingers party. On the second, I had bought prostitutes for my friends, faced off their pimp, and spent the night with a prostitute who taught me stuff.
“Like what stuff?” Tami asked.
“Have you ever heard of the helicopter? That’s where you swing your dick around in a circle,” I said with a big smile on my face.
“As much as I’d like to see that, what the hell were you thinking?” she asked.
I guess I wasn’t.
“You do realize that in a few short months you’ll become a household name when your movie’s released. This is the kind of stuff that will cause you no end of trouble,” Tami warned. “David, raising a little hell is understandable. I can see you wanting to do fun things like motocross, but the risky sex stuff is going to bite you in the ass. I’m not going to lecture you. You need to decide for yourself about what you should or shouldn’t be doing. Just realize that at some point you’ll get caught, and it won’t be pretty.”
Tami was right, in that I had had fun with the swingers and Raven, but couldn’t see repeating it anytime soon. I guess if you had a bucket-list at my age, I could check those two off. Just how much meaningless teenage sex could I have? Shit! My ‘Man Card’ just burst into flames!
“Can I make one observation? I think this all goes back to your mom ordering you around and not talking to you. I think this is your way of rebelling against how you were treated. I never knew you to keep anything from your parents,” she said.
I had said there would be consequences. I no longer felt the need to share everything. I was silently kicking myself because I’d told Tami.