“I’ll think good thoughts for you both tonight,” she reassured him, and it made him glad he had called her. She was the kind of woman who always seemed to have words of comfort. He had sensed that about her. “Try and sleep on the flight. It’s a short flight to Paris, only six hours, and you’ll have your hands full when you get there. Is anyone going with you to help you?” she asked, concerned.
“No, his friends can help me in Paris, and we’re flying back tomorrow night. His mother is organizing things here. He’s going to be a lot for her to manage. He’s a big guy.” Mike didn’t explain that he was no longer living with Maureen. It didn’t even occur to him to say it, but she thought that what he’d said was odd, and didn’t want to pry. He had called her, that was enough. Maybe he meant that his son would be a lot to manage in the daytime while Mike was at work. She had thought of Mike several times since she’d last seen him, when she’d rejected the deal he had offered her. She had wondered if he was angry at her, but he didn’t sound it.
“Can I call you when you get back?” she asked him. “Just to find out how he is.”
“Of course. I’ll give you a full report. And Spencer, thanks for being there and listening.”
“No worries, Mike. I’m always here if you need to talk.” It was more than he’d had from Maureen in the past ten years.
It was eight o’clock by then, and he lay on his bed for another hour thinking about Spencer before he left for the airport. He checked in and went to the first-class lounge and helped himself to some snacks, still thinking about his conversation with Spencer. It had been nice to hear her voice and find out that things were going well with the renovation.
Mike boarded the flight and ate a light meal before going to sleep for the rest of the flight. The steward woke him with croissants and coffee right before they landed at Charles de Gaulle Airport. The flight was on time and it was noon in Paris. The car and driver his secretary had hired were waiting for him, and drove him straight to the hospital. The staff at the information desk spoke English, and they gave him directions to the ward where Zack’s room was. He found it easily a few minutes later, knocked on the door, and found Zack sitting up in bed with a grazed cheek and a black eye, both wrists in short casts, his leg in a cumbersome cast, and a wheelchair at the foot of the bed. Luke and Greg looked relieved to see him, and Zack looked sheepish, but there were tears in his eyes when his father approached the bed and leaned down to kiss him.
“Training for the Tour de France, were you?” he said with a rueful smile, and Zack laughed, relieved that his father wasn’t angry. The doctor came to check on him a few minutes later. He told Mike essentially the same things the boys had reported to him. He said that it had been a clean break, but Zack would have to wear the cast on his leg for eight weeks, which would hamper him for most of the summer. The wrists would heal more quickly. The doctor reiterated that Zack had been incredibly lucky. He could easily have been killed by the bus, and he admitted to his father that he had drifted slightly out of the bike lane, that the bus had not slipped into the bike lane. The accident had been Zack’s fault.
The hospital discharged Zack shortly after Mike got there, and they all went to a suite at the Four Seasons for the day. Before they left the hospital, Mike called Maureen, and handed the phone to Zack so he could talk to his mother. With the broken wrists, he couldn’t do anything for himself.
They ordered room service at the hotel, and the other boys went to get Zack’s things from their hotel and bring them to the Four Seasons. He was traveling very light, with everything in his backpack. Greg and Luke were staying two more days, and then they would be home too. Their year of trekking around Europe was over. Mike was relieved.
Mike and Zack were on an eight o’clock flight that night back to New York that was due to land in New York at nine-thirty P.M. local time. Mike had told Maureen he’d have Zack home to her around ten-thirty or eleven, and she said she was ready for him. It was going to be hard managing him with a broken leg and two broken wrists.
Mike wasn’t sure of the timing, so soon after the accident, but he told Zack on the plane that he and Maureen were separated. Zack would know as soon as Mike left the apartment to go back to his own place, so he had to tell him. Zack looked sad but not surprised. It had been obvious for years that his parents didn’t get along and had deteriorated into a loveless marriage.
“Are you getting divorced?” Zack asked him.
“It looks that way,” Mike told him calmly, and then Zack surprised him.
“Can I stay with you, Dad?” he asked.
“Don’t you want to stay at your mom’s and sleep in your own bed?”
Zack shook his head.
“I’d rather stay with you, and I can’t even go to the bathroom by myself without help.” There was a practical side to it now that Mike hadn’t thought of. “But I’d want to stay with you anyway,” he added and smiled shyly at his father. “I want to see your new apartment. Do you have room for me?” He looked worried.
“Of course, and there’s a gym and a pool, for when you’re feeling better.” Zack looked excited to be with him, so for all Maureen’s claims that Mike had ruined his relationship with him forever, there was no sign of it. Zack was happy to be with his dad. Maureen wanted Mike to think his kids hated him.
Mike had had his secretary order a wheelchair for Zack that was supposed to be in the car when the driver picked them up in New York. He was going to have to explain to Maureen that Zack wanted to stay with him. He decided to use Zack’s bathroom needs as the excuse, but he suspected she would be disappointed anyway. But Mike was going to drop him off to her in the daytime. He would need a lot of help for a while, and some tender loving care. Mike’s mind raced ahead to the thought of hiring a helper of some kind at home for Zack while he was at the office every day.
Mike had texted Maureen right before the flight took off, to assure her that everything was on track and in order, and the flight was on time. And then he had texted Spencer. “About to take off. All well in Paris. The young eagle is in surprisingly good shape all things considered. Talk soon. Best, Mike.”
He settled back to have dinner with Zack on the luxurious first-class flight. Zack looked right at home. After having backpacked around Europe for eight months, Zack was ready to come home and be pampered for a while, and Mike was excited that his son would be staying with him. He may have missed out when Zack was a little kid, but in spite of all of Maureen’s dire predictions, he wasn’t missing out now, and Zack had forgiven him his earlier absences and loved being with him. Mike felt like a lucky man as he watched his son sleep on the flight, and thanked God again that Zack was alive.
Chapter 9