“Are you still going to come to our birthday?”
Richard smiled sadly.
“If your mom and dad say it’s okay.”
I answered before the boys could worry.
“Of course you can come to their birthday, Richard. We just need everyone to respect the same rules.”
He nodded and said, “I understand.”
I wasn’t certain he fully did yet.
But he had listened, and that mattered.
Over the next few weeks, Richard made an effort.
He came over for dinner without criticizing how much the boys ate. When they asked him to play a board game, he joined them without joking that they owed him a prize.
Carol told me later that he’d been unusually quiet after his apology.
“He asked me whether Michael really stopped wanting to spend time with him because of those little things,” she said.
“What did you tell him?”
“That little things don’t always feel little when you’re a child.”
