Joint Custody

Flash fiction by @crystalsenterbrown

You were supposed to be spending the weekend with your dad, but he had to play out of town, so you go to your aunt’s house in Russellville. You don’t mind being there, but you miss being home where all your friends are. You wished your daddy could only work on weekdays. You even cry a little to add more drama to the scene.

Since it’s your little brother’s 1st birthday, you expect there to be a large sheet cake from Winn Dixie. Maybe even some Mayfield Neapolitan ice cream and Chek Cola.

But you are disappointed when your oldest cousin Lamar carries out a tiny, crooked cake that was barely large enough to feed three people. “I made this in home economics!” Lamar says, beaming. Your hardened gaze softens, and you are grateful.

As your aunts cut the cake into microscopic pieces, you hold out your flimsy paper plate that probably came from Dollar General. Your first bite of cake takes you all the way back to your grandmother’s Formica kitchen table. The cake tastes just like one she made for your ninth birthday. It was right from a box, Betty Crocker brand,

chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. The hand mixed batter made the cake a little bumpy. But it was perfect.

After you have cake and sing BOTH versions of Happy Birthday, your little brother opens his presents and squeals with excitement. Someone plops him onto the big wheel that is much too advanced for his tiny, chubby legs, but he tries his best. He falls more than he rides that night, but that’s okay. Within a few weeks he will be a pro.

Later that evening, all of the children are gathered on the plush, white carpet of your aunt’s. living room to watch “Sleepaway Camp” on her new VCR. You are elbows deep in a giant bowl of homemade popcorn when you look through the sliding door and see your father’s Cadillac pull into your aunt’s gravel driveway.

“What is he doing here?” You mouth to your cousin, but within a few minutes, you are gathering your overnight bag and climbing into your fathers backseat. His show was canceled, so you can spend the weekend with him after all.