Josh read his mother's message again that evening.
He was sitting on the couch with his phone in one hand.
I was folding laundry nearby.
He looked up.
"She wants me to come over."
I nodded.
"Are you going?"
He shrugged.
"I don't know."
I placed a folded towel on the stack.
He looked at the screen again.
There was no mention of Dad.
No mention of the hearing aids.
No apology.
Just an invitation to visit.
I knew Cindy probably wanted things to go back to how they had been.
She liked having Josh around.
She liked their usual conversations.
And she probably wanted to talk about her birthday.
But Josh wasn't ready to pretend everything was fine.
He put the phone on the table.
"Maybe I should call her."
I told him that was up to him.
He picked up the phone again.
This time, he called.
I couldn't hear Cindy's voice clearly from where I was sitting.
But I could hear Josh.
He greeted her.
She asked how he was doing.
He answered.
Then there was a pause.
He listened.
Finally, he said that he was calling because he didn't want their relationship to remain uncomfortable.
I stopped folding.
He listened again.
Then he spoke.
"Mom, we still need to talk about what happened."
Another pause.
He rubbed his forehead.
"I know you think it was a joke."
He listened.
"No, I'm not trying to attack you."
He turned slightly away from me.
I could hear his voice becoming firmer.
"Dad could have been injured. His hearing aids were ruined. We had to replace them."
He listened again.
Then he said something that made me stop completely.
"We aren't asking you to pay for them. We just want you to understand that it wasn't funny."
He was quiet for a long time.
I returned to folding the laundry.
I didn't want to listen to a conversation that belonged between them.
Eventually, Josh ended the call.
He sat without moving.
I asked whether she had said anything.
He nodded.
"She says she didn't mean for him to get hurt."
I sat beside him.
"Did she apologize?"
He looked down at his phone.
"Not really."
I didn't push him.
He explained that Cindy had talked about the cruise again.
She wanted to know whether there was any possibility of arranging another trip.
Josh had told her that the money was gone.
He also told her that he wasn't going to replace the gift simply because she was disappointed.
I looked at him.
He gave a small shrug.
"I don't want this to become about the vacation."
Neither did I.
But it was difficult to ignore that she kept returning to it.
She hadn't asked how Dad was doing.
She hadn't asked whether the new hearing aids worked.
She hadn't asked whether he had been frightened.
She wanted to know what happened to the birthday surprise.
I felt disappointed.
Not surprised.
Just disappointed.
The next day, I went to see Dad after work.
He was sitting outside when I arrived.
There was a small radio on the table beside him.
He had the volume turned low.
He smiled when he saw me.
"Come sit for a minute."
I pulled a chair beside him.
He asked how Josh was doing.
I told him Josh had spoken to his mother.
Dad nodded.
"That's good."
I asked whether he wanted to know what they had discussed.
He shook his head.
"Not unless you want to tell me."
I appreciated that.
He wasn't asking me to report every conversation.
He was trying to stay out of the middle.
We sat quietly for a while.
A bird called from somewhere near the fence.
Dad tilted his head.
Then he smiled.
I watched him.
The new hearing aids were small enough that someone who didn't know him might not notice them.
But I noticed.
I noticed every time he adjusted them.
Every time he turned toward a voice.
Every time he smiled because he heard something clearly.
Before I left, I asked whether he needed anything.
He said no.
Then he looked at me.
"Tell Josh I appreciate what he's doing."
I promised.
When I got home, Josh was in the kitchen.
I passed along Dad's message.
He nodded.
For the first time in several days, he looked genuinely relaxed.
He knew Dad wasn't angry with him.
And that mattered.
Click here to continue reading: PART 15: I Thought Replacing the Hearing Aids Would Be the Hardest Part, Until I Realized How Much the Family Had Changed Since That Afternoon
The Afternoon Everyone Watched My Father Fall Into the Water, and Nobody Knew What to Say
Part 14 of 20
