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“You know, son, if you want to talk about it, I’m here to listen,” Watson said to Charlie as the latter sat on his bed, idly tossing a ball into the air and catching it with his glove. Ever since the three kids had come back from their father’s wedding, Charlie had been maddenly silent, not just on the subject, but, in general. Watson had been willing to let it be for a period of time, but days had turned to over a week, and something had to be done. It wasn’t good for Charlie to stew in his feelings. No matter how tempting stewing had to be to a teenage boy who had never really had a chance to be a child, yet alone a teenager. “I won’t even tell your mother about what happened, if that’s what you want,” he offered.
Normally, Watson was against keeping secrets in his family, mainly because if he started a trend of keeping secrets, no matter how hard he tried, he knew that Karen would catch wind of it and miss the nuances of why a person kept secrets, and cause a gigantic kerfuffle, and, well, given that he and Elizabeth, and Lisa and Seth, spent their collective days undoing the situations and trouble that their seven year old got herself into -- he tended to avoid seeking such situations out. However, for Charlie, he would make an exception.
Watson didn’t really have any personal experience with the type of life that Charlie had been forced to live when Patrick had walked out on Edie and her kids, and forced her eldest son into a life that was too mature for someone beyond his years, but, he knew that what Patrick had done had done a number on the kid. It had to have.
“What’s there to talk about?” Charlie said. “It was a typical visit with my sorry excuse for a father, Watson. I only went for Kristy and Sam’s sake. It’s my job.”
“What’s your job?” Watson asked. “Do you mind if I sit?”
Charlie shrugged. “No, I don’t mind,” he said. “Go ahead. Don’t stand on my account.” He sighed. “My job, you know? Being the man of the house?” He shook his head. “I know that you and Mom, you say that I don’t have to, anymore. I just...it’s hard when it’s the three of us against him, and Sam and Kristy can’t see the truth behind his facade.” He sighed again. “Especially Kristy. Sam, I think, he could handle it, but you know how Kristy is...she’s so easily taken by him.”
Kristy had spent the past week talking about how wonderful the visit had been, and how certain she’d been that Patrick and Zoey were going to invite them back to visit, and Watson had wanted to try to bring her back to reality, but Elizabeth had insisted that there would be no convincing her otherwise. He supposed that stranger things had happened. Perhaps Patrick was capable of turning over a new leaf. Watson doubted it, but, he truly didn’t know.
He sat down on the edge of the bed, and tried to collect his thoughts. It was true that he and Edie had told Charlie that he was allowed to be a teenager now that they were married, that he didn’t have to worry about the bills and childcare and where the family’s next meal was coming from, but, Watson wasn’t a fool. He knew that that style of thinking wasn’t so easy to turn on and off, no matter how much he wished it was.
“Listen, Charlie,” he settled on. “Your mother and I will handle Kristy, I promise.”
“He’s full of it,” Charlie said in response. “All of his half baked promises to us, and to Zoey, like any of them will be anything close to reality? We got into a fight,” he added. “He really made me angry, and I reacted badly.”
“You reacted how anyone in your situation would,” Watson corrected, his tone gentle, and he placed a hand on Charlie’s shoulder. “I probably would have reacted the same way, if I was in your shoes. Hard to believe, I know. I was your age once too.” He chuckled lightly. “You’re a teenager,” he reminded him. “A kid, who was abandoned by his father, who has never shown a bit of remorse for his actions. Picking a fight with him is completely normal.”
“Kristy got really pissed off,” Charlie said, after a moment. “Thought you and Mom would agree with her.”
“Kristy can be hard headed,” Watson said. “For what it’s worth, I think you did the right thing.”
“You do?”
“Charlie, there are some days I want nothing more than to go to California and deal with your father in person, myself, as if that would ever make up for what he did to all of you,” he admitted. “Your mother, she prefers to leave things well enough alone. I don’t blame her. I can understand your instincts though.”
“It just bothers me, you know? He just doesn’t get it. He thinks that leaving us for his so-called sportswriter job in California was something that was acceptable to do because he got bored one day.” He sniffled. Watson pretended not to notice, not wanting to embarrass him. “We should have been important to him. And we weren’t and we still aren’t. Some father. You would have never done that to Karen and Andrew.”
“Some people aren’t cut out to be parents,” Watson told him, his tone matter of fact, and not unkind. “I think that it’s very possible your father is one of those people.”
Charlie scoffed. “You think?”
“I do,” he confirmed. “Listen, Charlie. You are not your father. No matter what he, or anyone else, says. His behavior does not reflect on you, even if it seems like it might. It doesn’t.” He squeezed Charlie’s shoulder. “I’ll talk to your sister.”
“What? Why?”
“Kristy shouldn’t be putting words in your mother’s, or my, mouths,” Watson said, with a sigh. “A fact that she is well aware of.”
“Thanks, Watson,” he said. He quirked a grin in his direction. “Wanna go throw the ball around? If you feel up to it, I mean?”
“Sure. I’m up for a round or two.”