Collision Course, Chapter 74
“ You’re hesitating because you LOVE our son? Eve, do you think I don’t
mean it? Do you think I’m going to chicken out and not reveal myself? I assure
you that I won’t.”
“ Julian, I…I can’t fight with you about this. Not now. Please let me be.
The next month is critical for Whitney. I can’t handle anything else…ok?”
“ Ok. No more Chad talk until Whitney comes home from the hospital.”
“ Thank you, Julian. Bye.”
Eve hung up the phone, and saw TC standing there.
“ Julian?”
“ Yes.”
“ I saw you looking at Chad. Is it the reporter situation? Did it finally
dawn on you that the reporter situation will be ten times worse for Chad?”
“ Yes.”, Eve said quietly.
“ Ok, I get the reporter situation, it pisses me off too, the way
that they went after Whitney. But, Baby, there’s something more, isn’t it?
Do you doubt that Julian will come through for Chad?”
Eve shook her head. “ No, I know, even with the mistakes he’ll make, that
he’s completely sincere.”
“ Alright, sincere Julian, yet there’s a problem?”
“ Yes, TC. There is. I love my son.”
“ Was there any doubt you did?”
“ Chad’s in a GOOD place right now, TC. A GOOD place.”
“ Eve..”
“ We’ve really come together – as a family. Or am I delusional?”
“ No. We’re doing pretty good.”
“ I love him. He loves me. He accepts me as his mother. He’s protective
of his sisters.”
“ Yes. You can tell that he’s really finding his way as a big brother.”
“ Then, there’s the two of you. Your hostility towards him has gone down
a lot.”
“ I agree. Chad is your son. He can’t help that he’s Julian’s son. He’s
his own man, and there’ll be no guilt by association with me.”
“ See? And, I think he and Theresa are dating. They’re taking it slow, but
it’s in a positive, real direction. The topper is school. He’s doing SO WELL.
He’s taken to it. I think it surprised him.”
TC nodded. “ It did. He’s doing very well, and I couldn’t be prouder.”
“ So, don’t you see? His life has come so far.”
TC took Eve’s hands in his. “ Baby, what’s scaring you?”
“ We all have scars, TC. We all have dark places, and we get away from them.
Chad..”
“ Will handle the dark places. We’ll help him.”
“ TC, Chad…Chad is a Crane.”
“ Being Julian’s son would make him a Crane.”
“ I’ve defended Julian to you. I’ve told you numerous times that I knew
a different Julian, and the Julian that fathered Chad wasn’t the man that
you hate.”
“ So, you’ve told me.”
“ It…it’s not that I wasn’t telling you the truth of what I believe in my
heart, but it’s also something that I have to tell myself for Chad’s sake.”
Eve stood and walked across the room, turning her back on TC. “ What’s been
haunting me is wondering what part of Chad is a Crane.”, Eve said, looking
at the wall.
TC got up, crossed the room to turn Eve towards him. “ Nature versus nurture.”
“ TC, if I had had the chance to raise Chad. To give him all the love that
I had for him. He would have grown up with a boring middle-class existence.
He wouldn’t have been raised in the lap of luxury, but he never would have
wanted for anything, especially love. So, when he finally found out about
Julian, it would be a shock, but I wouldn’t have to be afraid of him going
dark on me.
But, of course, I DIDN’T get to raise Chad. He raised himself. Surviving.
Scrounging literally for crumbs. Homeless. Abandoned. Unloved. All those scars.
But, I found him. We found one another. And, he loves me. He knows how much
I loved him. How much I always loved him. It’s been unspoken between us, because
the subject of his father hasn’t been an issue for us….yet. I believe it’s
been easier for him to accept me because he shifted the blame.”
“ To his father?”
“ Yes. I suppose it was good for my ego to be put on somewhat of a pedestal.
But, now…I see the folly in that. Life is complicated. Few of us are outright
heroes or villains. Most of the world is in between, and by accepting the
heroine role..”
“ You’ve thrust Julian into the role of the villain.”
“ I know you think that’s accurate.”
“ Doesn’t matter what I think. It matters what CHAD thinks. But, Eve..”
“ TC…” Eve hesitated before she spoke. “ You’re a young Black male, basically
thrown away the day you were born. Made to survive in the human equivalent
of Darwin’s theory. You make to adulthood without being incarcerated, and
you find out that none of it was necessary. That you were forced to live out
that Lord of the Flies existence because of pure racism. Then, you look and
see another man- Ethan, living the life you should have had, even though
YOU’RE the first-born son. “
“ I get it. “
“ Chad learned a lot, on the streets. He had to, in order to survive. But,
he’s tried to put it all behind him….it’s still there, TC. It HAS to be.
Then, there’s what he gets naturally, by being a Crane. A MALE Crane. I know
the ugliness of Julian, TC. And, what part of that is in my son? Or is he
not Julian? Is he…..”
“ Alistair.”, TC replied quietly.
“ I’m terrified, TC. “
TC hugged his wife. “ We’ll help him, Eve. I promise. I promise.”