The Best Friday Night This Dad Has Ever Had

Cade grabbed my arm, urgency written all over his face.

“Dad, what day is it?”

“Um, August 24th?”

“No, the day? You know, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday –“

“Oh, yeah, it’s Wednesday.”

His face wrinkled up in thought.

“So Friday is two days away?”

“Yeah.”

“Can we do that thing we did last Friday night? Stay up late? That was awesome!”

* * * * *

Flash back to last Friday night. I had just purchased “The Hunger Games” and couldn’t stop reading it. Eventually Maile gave up on me and went to bed. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw two little people dart through the living room and vanish into the bedroom. I didn’t think anything of it.

At 9:00pm I went to check on Mai – our two girls had curled up with her in bed: Lucy was reading “The Hardy Boys,” and Maile and Abra were curled up together, fast asleep. I left them, undisturbed, and went looking for Cade.

I found him in his bed. Sam slept soundly in his crib on the other side of the room, even though Cade had his small reading light on. His eyes rapidly scanned the pages of the first Sugar Creek Gang book. He looked up at me.

“Hey, dad.”

Flashbacks. Time travel headaches. Was that me or him lying there on the bed, reading The Sugar Creek Gang? Wow, that was weird.

“Why don’t you bring your book out to the living room?” I asked him.

The look on his face was the answer. Oh, unexplainable joy! Oh, unasked for freedom!

We both slipped out of his room. I took the back cushions off of the sofa so that we could read side by side. We got settled in. He kept peeking over my shoulder, trying to read what I was reading.

“When you’re a little older, buddy,” I said.

Then, a moment of pure elation: he looked over at me, ruffled my hair with his little-boy hand, and said:

“This is awesome, dad.”