Uniting the Souls (Souls of Chicago #6)(21)
“Yep. Can I have some ice cream now?” Nicholas asked.
“Hmmm. That depends,” I told him, scratching my chin like I was giving the matter serious thought.
“On what?” He quirked his head at me.
“On how fast you get your bath and pajamas on. You know you have to be in bed before your mom gets home,” I reminded him. “Do you think you can get all of that done quick enough to still have time for ice cream?” He grinned at me, the front two teeth missing from his happy smile. His brown eyes were bright and trusting and I felt my heart trip over itself as I gazed back at him.
“I know I can, Uncle Hudson,” he said so solemnly that I had to fight back a laugh.
“Okay then. How about I start your bathwater while you pick out your pajamas?” I suggested.
“Okay!” he exclaimed, jumping out of his chair and running out of the kitchen. I sat there for a moment, enjoying the sounds of his little feet as he raced down the hallway to his bedroom. He was singing to himself as he went and it was such a happy, carefree sound that I felt myself smiling.
My mother had taken off shortly after I was born, leaving my grandmother to raise my older sister and me on her own. I knew it couldn’t have been easy for Nonna to take on a five-year-old girl and her newborn brother, but she’d been determined to hold her family together and to keep us from going into the foster care system.
At sixty-five years old, Nonna should’ve been able to relax and enjoy her golden years, but instead she took on a job working in the laundry room of the local hospital to make ends meet. While we barely scraped by at times, she never complained. She’d taught us to love God and to help others whenever we could and she did it all by the examples she set forth in her own life. In all my years with her, I never heard her say a cross word about another person, choosing instead to look for the good in everyone.
Our family might have been small, but my sister, Aysha, and I were extremely close and Nonna made sure we never doubted how much we were wanted and loved. That’s why it had been such a difficult decision for me to go to Los Angeles for college. As much as I wanted to set out on my own and see a new part of the world, I felt like after all the sacrifices she’d made for me, I owed it to Nonna to stay and take care of her.
She wouldn’t hear of it though, insisting that the biggest gift I could give to her would be to accept the full-ride scholarship I’d received and go to college to become a doctor like I’d always dreamed. So, with Aysha’s assurance that she would watch over our grandmother, I left.
It was an experience that I was grateful to have, making many friends and enjoying being a young man out on my own for the first time. Nonna and Aysha were both there to cheer me on when I graduated at the top of my class, and celebrated with me when I got an internship with a well-known group of therapists.
A couple of years later, Aysha got married and had a little boy. I was working as a therapist at a private clinic in L.A. and it seemed that everything was going well for us. Then, in the blink of an eye, everything changed. I will never forget the phone call in the middle of the night, informing me that the woman who had been like a mother to me, my nonna, had passed away. I’d been filled with guilt and regret for not having been with her when it happened, but Aysha told me that I had nothing to feel badly about and that Nonna had always been so proud of me for becoming a man that helped people.
I’d returned home for the funeral and it was during that time that Aysha found out that her husband had been cheating on her. Heartbroken and a single mother to a young boy, I could see her scrambling to figure out where to go next. That’s when I decided it was time for me to come home for good. I quit my job and moved back to Chicago two weeks after we laid Nonna to rest. I may not have been there when she passed, but I was determined to help hold together the family that she had worked so hard to protect.
Aysha and Nicholas moved into Nonna’s house and she got hired as an office manager at a dental office. I took on several clients privately while I was working on getting my own practice up and running.
Being back in Chicago and near my sister and nephew had filled me with a sense of belonging and purpose that I hadn’t realized had been missing in my life up until then. Aysha had spent so much of her teenage years cooking me dinner, checking my homework, and driving me to and from football practices when Nonna had to work. I knew she had to miss going out with her friends, but she never once complained.
I finally had the chance to give back a little of what she’d always given to me and I was glad I could be there for her when she needed me. Not to mention how much I enjoyed spending time with the sweet little boy that had just left the room. Still smiling, I headed towards the bathroom and began filling the tub with warm water. I gathered a clean towel and washcloth out of the linen closet and then walked down to Nicholas’s room to check on him. I found him standing in front of the open drawer of his dresser, with his hands on his hips.
“Your bathwater is almost ready, little man. Did you pick out which pajamas you want tonight?”
“I don’t know,” he said, his face scrunching up in concentration.
“Well, what are our choices?” I asked. Ever since he’d started kindergarten that year, he’d insisted on doing things for himself and so I tried to respect his independence.
“Batman and Ninja Turtles,” he told me, pointing to each of the sets of pajamas that were folded neatly in the drawer.