“Nora, nobody is really going to toss him into the sea,” Randy scoffed. “Besides there are little islands along the way he could latch on to.”
Nora rolled her eyes at her husband’s quip. “Grant, Sweetheart, I just don’t know if right now is a good time for you to be going away.”
“Please, Mom,” Grant begged. “Don’t you remember last time you let me go on vacation with Otto? I got to see the Taj Mahal, and, in Bangladesh, I got to see a real tiger.”
Nora nodded. “Do you remember after you got back last summer, and you and I went home and took Rachel and Emily to Disney World? Wasn’t it nice to get to spend time with your family? Florida was beautiful, and there was so much to do that we couldn’t get it all done.”
“I had fun,” Grant recalled.
“Do you remember wearing Mickey Mouse ears and eating the chocolate covered ears off of Mickey Mouse ice cream bars?” Nora asked with animated enthusiasm.
Grant nodded.
“Did you have as much fun as you had with Otto?” Nora gulped after a moment.
“Nora, that’s not fair,” Randy grumbled.
Grant shrugged. “Mom, you do know that Tigger is a guy in a costume making minimum wage, and the tiger I saw in India was a stunningly beautiful beast on the verge of extinction, right? No cages, no nothing. No readily accessible, removable head for smoke breaks. No maintaining the same goofy grin that’s plastered on his face even as some kid tugs on his tail.”
“Oh, come-on now, Soldier,” Randy shook his head with a chuckle. “Don’t ruin the magic of Disneyland for your mother.”
Nora stared back at her little boy, her face contorted, as though to ask who had stolen her child’s soul. “Didn’t you enjoy eating breakfast with all of Mickey’s friends?” she asked seriously. “I remember how much you loved seeing the Pirates of the Caribbean. Emily was scared, but not you! You made us wait in line to go through for a second time and then a third. I couldn’t take my eyes off you for a split second in Epcot Center because you were darting about so curiously, and…”
“Nora,” Randy interrupted, “I think we should let him go with his teachers. You can go home and visit the other kids. You can make sure that Emily is getting everything she needs; you can even go to Tennessee and see your mother if you want to. It’ll be relaxing for you to get away.”
Nora glanced at Randy, her eyes full of tears. “I wanted us to go home as a family,” she cried.
“This is my job, Nora,” Randy shrugged. “You knew that before you married me.”
Grant wriggled free of his father’s arms and reached for the security of his trusty basketball.
Randy stared at his wife, then glanced down at his son. “Run on and tell Otto and Ludwig the good news,” he said with a nod of his head.
Nora watched her little boy run across the street dribbling his basketball. She had once enjoyed watching high school basketball games, and, as Grant ran, she couldn’t help but wonder if she would one day sit in the bleachers watching him play the game that they both enjoyed. She didn’t know the rules to soccer. Randy had never once taken her to Boston to see his beloved Red Sox or Patriots play, but she understood basketball, and there was something about the game that transported her back to her youth and made her feel young and carefree again. She had bought Grant his first basketball when he was just a baby; she had never pushed him toward it, but when he gravitated toward it on his own, she had been quite pleased.
Randy put his hand on Nora’s shoulder. “Are we okay?” he asked softly.
Nora pecked Randy on the cheek. “I’m going to enroll him in school in North Carolina next year,” she said confidently. “I need to be home for awhile.”
“I love you and our kids more than anything,” Randy replied.
“I know,” Nora nodded, “but you promised to slow down. Then after the accident…” She couldn’t bring herself to finish her sentence. “You’ve thrown yourself into your work, Randy. You could retire…you should retire. Ike is gone; I know how close the two of you were, but it’s been five years since we lost him…perhaps we should consider going to counseling.”
“Am I not allowed to miss my son?” Randy shrugged angrily.
Nora shook her head. “I miss him everyday,” she sighed, “but you have a seven- year-old who needs you. You could retire; we could spend time together. You could spend more time with Grant…build a relationship with him like you had with Ike.”
“Grant and I have a great relationship,” Randy said defensively. “And when he’s older we’ll have a relationship more like Ike and I had.”
Grant bounded back across the street, obviously excited after having told Otto and Ludwig that his parents had signed off on his summer plans.
Randy put his hand on Grant’s shoulder. “You know your daddy loves you, don’t you, Trooper?”
Grant nodded.
“See there,” Randy smiled. “This kid is just fine…he’s better than fine…you’re looking at the next General Cohen right here, Nora.”
“Randy, he’s a gifted child,” Nora sighed. “Do you even talk to him about what he wants to do with his life or have you just decided for him?”
“He’s seven, Nora,” Randy grumbled. “He doesn’t know what he wants out of life yet. He’ll have plenty of time to figure that out while he’s at West Point.”
Nora rolled her eyes. Their oldest son, David, had graduated from West Point, becoming the third generation Cohen man to graduate as part of the Long Gray Line, but, much to his father’s dismay, David was counting down the days until his years of required service were over. Their middle son, Ike, had dreamed of nothing but attending his father’s alma matter, and, though Grant was only two when his brother Ike lost his life in a tragic accident, Randy seemed to have transferred Ike’s dreams onto him. At first it was endearing, the efforts of a father who wanted his son to follow in his footsteps, but it had become more than that. Ike had been, not only a spitting image of his father, but eager to please him. He had grown into a strong, disciplined young man who was totally focused on becoming an Army officer. He not only had a great respect for his father’s profession, but he strived to emulate his father in every way. In fact, the day of the deadly accident, Randy had been taking his eighteen-year-old pride and joy out to celebrate his appointment to The United States Military Academy. Ike never got to live out his dream of becoming an Army officer. The son who had shared Randy’s passion, hopes, dreams, goals…was taken from him in an instant. It was too early to tell what Grant would gravitate toward, but Nora worried that if it wasn’t West Point, her husband would have his heart broken.
Randy pulled Nora into a hug. “I have a few things to take care of; I’ll meet you at home tonight,” he promised. “We’ll sit down and talk about where we want to go from here.”
Nora pulled away. “I’m not that naïve, Randy,” she replied. “I know you love your family, but you’re a slave to your job. You love it with everything you are, and, because that’s exactly how I love you, I’m going to take Grant back to the house, pull myself together and prepare myself for the inevitable possibility that this will continue to happen again and again.”
Randy started to reply, but Nora shushed him and walked away, pulling her little boy along side her as he glanced back over his shoulder at his father.
Following a summer away, Grant spent the next year acclimating to a classroom setting at a small, private, Christian school in North Carolina where his greatest struggle seemed to be the fact that he was much more advanced, both academically and socially, than the other children on his grade level. While his teacher was impressed by his grasp of the curriculum, she often struggled to keep him interested. At the school’s urging, Nora registered Grant for a series of written tests that would provide them with a better idea of what level he was performing on. When the results came back, Nora met with Grant’s principal who suggested that they consider bypassing elementary and middle school and challenging Grant on the high school level. Nora was shocked, if not appalled, that anyone would seriously suggest essentially robbing a child of his childhood. Nora, a staunch traditionalist, could not fathom sending her little boy into the high school jungle. He was her baby, and while he might have been mentally prepared for high school…she wasn’t.
“What then?” Nora exclaimed as she vented her frustrations over the telephone to her husband. “If he graduates from high school in four years, are you going to be trying to get my eleven-year-old an appointment to West Point? I don’t think so! Is that even legal? I can’t send our baby to high school! That’s crazy! He’s not even four foot tall yet, Randy. He couldn’t reach his locker. He would be trampled. Am I a horrible mother because I think this idea is outrageous?”
“You’re a wonderful mother…” Randy began before Nora spun off into another rant.
“He wants to play basketball! He can’t play basketball with high school boys!” Nora exclaimed. “High school kids don’t get to spend recess climbing on the Monkey bars. Their Mommies don’t get to put Flintstone vitamins in their Spiderman lunchboxes. Seven-year-old little boys don’t get dates to the prom!” Nora flopped down on the sofa, fully aware that she was pouting. “I want all of that for him, Randy.”
