Don't Know Why

~~~~~2008~~~~~

**********

Egon felt oddly unbalanced and extremely happy at the same time. He and Aiden had worked on rigging up a PKE meter with a magnetism device. It wasn’t working, but they’d tried it anyhow. Knowing Aiden was his son added a level of pride to everything the boy did. He couldn’t wait to reveal the truth to Aiden. He just hoped Aiden was as pleased to be his son as Egon was to be his father. He’d hardly been able to sleep once he’d got Aiden settled in to one of the empty beds. He’d kept checking on him. Finally, he’d just got up for good. He had a trunk of belongings in one of the storage rooms, and he dug it out. He hadn’t gone through the trunk in a very long time. He found some old photographs of himself with Ray and Peter, and there was one from New Year’s Eve 1992-3 at Ray’s house. It was a picture of Ray’s parents, but in the background Becca was leaning against the doorjamb leading into the kitchen. She wore a beautiful smile as she looked up at him. He wasn’t in the photo except for his hands holding a plate of cake. He remembered exactly what she’d just said to him. She’d told him she had made a New Year’s resolution to keep him supplied with all the sugar he wanted. He’d gulped nervously as she winked at him, and then she’d handed him the plate. She’d graced him with that smile just as Ray had taken the photo of his parents. Egon shuffled through the rest of the photos, a stack of his old term papers and a stack of some of his lesser degrees. He finally found what he was looking for. It was a cedar jewelry box that held his grandmother’s jewelry. It also held the red velvet box with the engagement ring he’d bought so long ago. He inspected the ring, hoping it was still to her liking. He took the ring into his lab and cleaned it until it sparkled. A thread of excitement had wormed its way into him. He didn’t know how to deal with it, so he cleaned and reorganized the lab. He was taking the garbage out to the dumpster when he heard Aiden’s alarm clock going off. He hurried upstairs to prepare breakfast for his son. His son. He smiled as he climbed the stairs. He wasn’t much of a cook, but he felt responsible for feeding Aiden a nutritious breakfast. The problem with that was there was nothing very healthy in the kitchen.

When Aiden came out of the bunk room he was still wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt with blue flaming skulls on it. His hair stuck up, and he was yawning. "Good morning. Did you sleep well?" Egon asked him.

"Yeah, once you quit checking on me every five minutes." Aiden smirked.

"I.. I just..."

"It’s okay. Mom still checks on me, too. She can’t wrap her head around the fact that I’m not two years old anymore. Do you have any frozen waffles? I can make us some peanut butter waffles." Aiden replied.

"Your mother made those for me once." Egon remembered, getting out the waffles, peanut butter and syrup. He popped waffles into the toaster.

"Did you and Mom used to date? She told me you two were very close. Plus she said she loved you yesterday." Aiden asked, getting them glasses of milk to go with the waffles.

"Uh... yes, for a short time." Egon answered.

"What happened?"

"What do you mean?"

"Did you dump her, or did she dump you?"

"Neither, actually... we can discuss it later."

"Do you still love her?"

"Yes. I’ll always love her." Egon admitted.

"Good. She deserves to be loved. I’ve tried to take care of her, but she needs a boyfriend. She gets lonely easy, and I’m going to be too busy with school to spend as much time with her. She acts tough, but she’s not." Aiden said.

"I know, and I can take care of her. I want to give her everything she wants and needs..."

"Good. Just don’t hurt her, and I think you and I will be great friends." Aiden said, accepting the plate of waffles.