I made him sign up for Master Lu’s judo class for beginners, which started in August. In the meantime, I loaned him every Jet Li movie in my library and showed him some Tae Bo moves. Nadine insisted that Caleb needed to develop an internal dialogue with Capone, and she introduced him to Eastern meditation to aid his journey toward enlightenment. We even resorted to kidnapping him and organizing field trips to find a stimulating activity. Unfortunately, children were not Caleb’s thing, a fact we learned the hard way. I underestimated the number of single mothers who hung around playgrounds. Caleb wasn’t lying when he said he was a fast runner. Mia, Dougie, and I took Caleb surfing. Caleb almost drowned, but recovered in time to watch the sunset with me. We huddled under a blanket and witnessed the day’s demise in Technicolor. I curled beside him, inhaling the ocean breeze and the smell of Tootsie Rolls on his breath. Dougie’s failed turf war with a jellyfish allowed Mia to play boo-boo nursemaid.
