Michael Kiesow Moore

Tru has her baby. The whole time she’s at the hospital, Dean and I are in his bed. I know exactly what’s going to happen so I hold on to the minutes like they are years. Only thing is minutes don’t work that way and they are gone and Tru stands in the bedroom holding her little girl baby. She and I both know how this is going to go. Dean is the only one surprised. She says she has to pee and practically throws the baby into Dean’s arms and goes to the bathroom. I know it is over right then.

I watch Dean’s face. It is something to see: the anger turning into shock and almost right away to wonder. It’s amazing what babies can do to a grown man, even to men like Dean. Babies are the most helpless creatures on the planet and the most powerful. It is a dichotomy they are content to live with.

I feel sadder than I thought I would. I always knew my affair wasn’t real for Dean, that it wasn’t his true love. He only had that with Tru. But on my side it is true love. To this day I’ve never felt for any man what I felt for Dean.

Tru is a classy woman. She knows the score, that I am in love with Dean. She won’t come back into the bedroom until I pull myself together and let myself out. I appreciate that. This will be the worst moment of my life. The spotlight of Dean’s attention has been on me and now it will switch to the baby in his arms just as it will encompass Tru once more. It will never shine on me again. When Dean will look at me, it will be as if nothing happened.

I slowly put my clothes on and as I’m about to go, I turn one more time to look at the man I love. On the radio they play Queen’s “We Are the Champions.” I don’t believe it. If life was like a movie it should be something like “Another One Bites the Dust,” or about any song by Lou Reed. Dean sits at the edge of the bed, naked, holding the oh so tiny baby to his chest, staring at her with besotted adoration. As much as my heart breaks, that is one beautiful sight.

© 2008 Michael Kiesow Moore

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