Toby by Todd Babiak Read Free Book Online

contact with his parents or allow them the time to stand up for a hug. Alicia took his hand, and they walked out of the hotel, straight to her Mercedes, and headed to her house on Strathcona Avenue.
    Edward called from inside the bathroom.
    “Yes?” Toby placed his ear on the heavy door, opened it a crack. “Let me fetch the nurse for you.”
    “Just help me up.”
    “But—”
    “Please.”
    His father was on the toilet seat, trying to lift himself. There were two stainless steel support bars, but Edward lacked sufficient strength. Toby did not know where to stand. In front of his father? Behind him, somehow, straddling the toilet? He held his breath.
    “It doesn’t smell good.”
    “No, no, Dad. It’s fine.”
    “Go call a nurse, if you want.”
    “We’ll just lift you up here and…”
    Edward raised his arms like wings.
    Once he was standing, Edward had to catch his breath before he could reach down and pull up the hospital pants that had been cut into shorts. He tried to reach them, but his miniature boxing gloves were too thick, his fingers too tender. Toby did not want to injure his father’s pride by lifting the shorts for him, so he waited. He waited out two more unsuccessful attempts.
    “I’ll just grab those, Dad.”
    “No. I will. I will when I can.” He tried again, squeaked in pain, and failed. He worked his way into a cry. Father crying.
    Toby reached back with his free arm and snatched a handful of tissues. For two minutes that passed like twenty, he held his father, naked from the waist down. Though he had only seen glimpses of it in his peripheral vision, Edward’s unfrocked, quivering penis might as well have been displayed, by projection screen, on the wall before them. Eventually,Edward placed all his weight on Toby, and together they lowered themselves to the floor so he could pull up his shorts.
    “You did it. You did it, Dad. Way to go.”
    Edward breathed some more, and stared at him. The fire stare, a toddler gathering secrets.
    Once his father was back in bed, Toby collapsed on the adjacent chair. There was a faint burning sensation behind his eyes. For at least thirty years he had gone without seeing his father naked. “I didn’t sleep.”
    “Then sleep.”
    “You saw the clip. My boss—”
    “If you don’t want to think of something, you just up and don’t.”
    Already, the pre-sleep nonsense was creeping in. A roller-blader. Scooby-Doo. “Just a few minutes.”
    “Lie back.”
    It was a startlingly uncomfortable chair.
    “We love you, no matter what you do, or say. Everyone does.”
    “Thank you.”
    “You never have to worry.”
    “Hmm.”
    “You want me to sing ‘You Are My Sunshine’?”
    “No, no, no. Shh.”
    “You are my sunshine.”
    “Dad, I’m going to buy you a scarf, at Holts.”
    “My only sunshine. You make me happy.”
    “Thank you. Thank you.”
    Sleep came down on him like a mountain of silk.

Three
    Toby had met Alicia five years ago, on the day he tried to quit. He had applied for the job of temporary weathergirl, while the weathergirl went in for a tummy tuck. Going weathergirl, even for a week or two, was an indication that management considered you a personality, local celebrity material, the possible subject of a billboard. Dwayne came by the office Toby shared with a rotating series of producers, and together they walked through the studio. He motioned toward Alicia, a new hire, a long-legged, black-haired beauty, rich and reportedly smart, who was taking a lesson on one of the computers. He confided in Toby that he would like nothing better than to tap that. Toby thought nothing of this. Dwayne was married, with two sons, yet he often expressed a desire to engage in anal intercourse with interns, production assistants, public relations consultants, and reporters.
    It had not been an easy decision, but Dwayne had concluded that Alicia—given her uncommon hotness—was going to be temporary weathergirl. What could he say? Look at