Family Matters Read Online Free PDF

letting him know how he failed. She never stopped making him question himself.
    Why couldn’t you have done something? Why couldn’t you have been with him? Why couldn’t you have seen it coming?
    He stood in the center of his Spanish-tiled dressing room and stared into the mirror without seeing. Where had his life gone? What had happened to everything that he’d once held dear?
    Negligence, Michael. He heard her voice as clearly as if she’d been in the room with him. He focused on a snapshot of Cody he had taped up above the light where he shaved. A boy in his Little League uniform. There were other pictures, too. Michael’s mother and father holding hands at the Honolulu airport. Cody in the bathtub, a pointed beard of bubbles hanging off his chin.
    He had taken that one at Christmas. He couldn’t remember the year. Maybe 2003. The only thing he knew for certain was that his wife had been there, standing beside Cody just out of the eye of the camera. They’d been playing Santa Claus, trying to make Cody understand, though he was only two years old.
    â€œYou look just like Santa,” Jen had told Cody as she scooped up another mound of bubbles and let them dribble down his chin. “He’s got a long white beard and he’s going to come on Christmas Eve and bring you everything you’ve ever dreamed of.”
    Everything you’ve ever dreamed of.
    It happens, Michael reminded himself. Some people get what they dream of. Others, well, they have to go a different direction.
    As Michael stood there measuring the fractions of his life, it honestly surprised him how he’d been able to edit Jen out. Five years ago, he had thought cutting her out of his life would be impossible. But he was living on his own now, enjoying an occasional dinner date with a lady friend if he ever found the time, this row of glossy photos and three-and-a-half days a week with his son.
    Michael yanked a comb through his hair harder than he had intended. He’d already been away from Cody too long. He pulled on a pair of jeans and buttoned his shirt. He looked in the mirror and sighed. A sigh that came from the very depths of his soul.

    As Jen watched Andy now, she could tell Cody was exhausted. “Now this,” the therapist told him. “Push your hand against my hand. See if you can do it just enough so I can feel the pressure.”
    â€œCan’t you stop now? He’s getting so tired,” Jen insisted.
    â€œLet me show you this and then we’ll quit. This exercise will make his muscle tone come back. But you must perform it with him at least thirty times each day. Like this…”
    Cody groaned at last. “I don’t want to do any more. It hurts.”
    Jen said, “Please don’t hurt him.”
    Andy stopped and stroked back his hair just the way she had seen his mother do it. “It’s going to hurt sometimes, little guy. And sometimes it might not hurt but it’s going to be uncomfortable. I’m sorry. But it’s the only thing that’s going to make you better.” She sat down beside him on the bed. “I’ve got lots of exciting things planned for you, Cody. In a month or two, you’ll be ready to go into a therapy swim program. Water therapy’s great. My brother’s been working with kids just like you and they have a great time.”
    Just then, it all sounded too overwhelming for Cody. “I don’t want to do all this stuff,” he said as big tears began to roll down his little cheeks.
    Andy encouraged Cody as best she could. But then, “Hey, kiddo,” asked a jovial voice from the doorway. “What’s wrong? What are the tears about?”
    Jen glanced up to see Michael standing in the doorway. She didn’t think she’d ever been so glad to see someone. After all the accusations she’d flung at him he’d stayed the night here, and here he was again, ready to stand beside