Done Adulting Vol. 1 Ch. 64

Rebecca was drying Jamie off after a bath, his second in less than half a day. She was being especially attentive.

“Mom, can we have a boring day today, please,” Jamie asked.

“Heh. Yeah, sweetie, we can do that. Just wanna stay home?”

“If we could, yeah.”

“Sure.” She carried him back into his room and set him on the changing table. She bent down and picked up the bunny outfit he’d discarded after Marsha had left yesterday. “Wanna wear this again,” she said with an earnest smile. “It’s ridiculous how cute you were in it.”

“Maybe we should save it for special occasions. Like whenever I punch a 6-year-old in the face.” She folded it and put it away, then approached the changing table. Jamie laid back.

“You feel bad about that?” She started getting Jamie into a new diaper.

“More and more. It hurt bad enough to justify it at the time, but now that it doesn’t hurt, I feel, I don’t know, at least sorry I did it.” She had his ankles up in the air and was applying cream to his butt.

“Well, that’s because you’re a good person. Really. Not everyone, maybe not even most, would feel sorry for what they had to do.”

“Still…”

“Still,” she cut him off, “his eye will get better a lot faster than your back would have if he hurt you, which he was going to do even if he didn’t mean to.”

She got the diaper fastened and put Jamie on his feet. “You’re a little pink back there still. You need to get some air on there today. This afternoon.”

Jamie blushed. “I … okay.”

“Hey, Mom, when you get a sec, can you come find me?” Amanda appeared in the doorway briefly and walked away. Not like her. Becky put a shirt on Jamie.

“Why don’t you just hang in this for now? Need anything?”

“No, I’m fine for right now.”

Becky found Amanda upstairs in her mom’s room with the TV playing quietly. “Do we tell him?” She gestured at the screen.

“Is that …”

“National TV. And social media.”

“Did they use his name?”

“No. Mine neither, and everyone’s face is blurred out.”

“Why is it on national TV?”

“They deported that family last night. Turns out they’re important back in Ros.”

“How important?”

“Important enough that Ros is threatening to expel Itali businessmen.”

“Shit!”

“The media won’t use names or show faces. Against the law since it involved a little,” Amanda said.

“Still …”

“Think we need to be worried about this?”

“What else do they say about Jamie?”

“Nothing. Just that a big child tried to carry a little away, and the little punched him, and then his dad flew off the handle and he wanted Jamie punished in some way. ‘Injured’ is the word the news is using. ‘Injured’ in some way.”

“They don’t mention he’s not regressed?”

“I don’t think they know.”

“Where did they even get the video?”

“Woman who took it posted it on social media, and a local station picked it up; then when Ros threw their temper tantrum, I guess the local station reached out to the national.”

“Did Ros say anything about Jamie?”

“Not him specifically. About littles who hit bigs; they said it in diplomatic language. Why aren’t they just barred from coming here,” Amanda asked.

“Money, probably. Usually the reason.”

Amanda shook her head in disgust. People from a country that tortures littles being allowed to come to Itali, and why? Cheap labor, cheap goods, cheap commodities? Who knew?

“What if they want to do something to Jamie? Like, they’ll let the businesspeople back in if Jamie is punished,” Amanda asked.

Becky sat down next to Amanda and put her arm around her. “Won’t ever happen, baby. Ever. It’s just people who think they’re tough trying to prove it.”

“Do we tell Jamie?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“And if he finds out on his own?” Becky hadn’t thought of that. He well may.

“Maybe we tell him and make it sort of a joke, so he doesn’t get worried.”

“He’s smart, Mom. See how perfectly he manipulated Marsha? He’ll decide for himself whether to be worried.”

Jamie wasn’t worried. He knew if necessary the agency would get him out of the dimension, but more to the point, he doubted anything would come of any of it. Chest thumping politicians. Jamie didn’t know anything about Itali politics or who was even president, if they had a president, but he knew people. Politicians don’t back down when threatened by anyone except whoever is keeping them in power, and the opposite was equally true. People clapping for him when he left the park made it plain that Italis wouldn’t accept any kind of quid pro quo that involved himself.