Interview Location: Jason's Bedroom -- Jason Pritchett
He's sitting on the edge of his bed, backpack already packed by the door. Dressed and ready to go.
"So today's a family day. Manny has a soccer game, which means Gloria is going to yell at everyone within a fifty foot radius and Jay is going to sit in one of those little low chairs and pretend that's not happening. I've been to one of these before. I know how it goes."
He glances at the door.
"I don't even like soccer."
The morning started early. Jason heard Gloria before he saw her, already up and moving through the house with the specific energy she had on Manny's game days, which was basically the same energy she had every day but pointed at something.
He came downstairs to find Manny already in his uniform, sitting at the table eating eggs and reading a poetry book. Normal Saturday.
"You eat?" Gloria asked Jason, same way she asked every morning.
"I'm getting something."
"Sit. I'll make you eggs."
"I can just--"
"Sit."
He sat. He got eggs.
Jay came in already in his track suit, poured himself a coffee and looked at the table.
"Everybody ready?"
"I've been ready," Manny said, without looking up from the poetry.
"You're reading."
"I can be ready and be reading. These aren't mutually exclusive concepts, Jay."
Jay looked at Jason. Jason kept his eyes on his eggs.
* * *
The soccer field was already loud when they got there. Other parents lined the sideline with chairs and coffee cups and the general energy of people who took youth soccer personally.
Gloria took her position near the front immediately. Jay unfolded his low chair and sat, opened his paper. Jason stood a little behind both of them with his hands in his pockets, which felt like the right place to be.
The game started and Manny jogged onto the field and Gloria began.
"Go Manny! Kick it! Don't let him -- kick it!"
Jay turned a page of his paper.
Jason watched. He didn't know that much about soccer but he could tell Manny was trying hard, and also that the other team was better, which was maybe more relevant.
Then an opposing player got the ball and it was just Manny between him and the goal. Gloria grabbed Jay's arm without looking away from the field.
"Get the ball Manny! Stop him, you can do it!"
Manny did not stop him. He got distracted by something off the field, a girl on a bicycle from what Jason could tell, and the other kid dribbled right around him and scored.
Gloria immediately turned toward the opposing sideline.
Jay was already on his feet. Jason took a small step back. This was not his department.
Interview Location: Jay and Gloria's Living Room -- Jason Pritchett
He's on the couch. They've just gotten back from the game. He still has his jacket on.
"I want to be clear that I did not get involved in any of it. I am sixteen and I live in this house and I have a sense of self-preservation. Gloria handled it. Jay handled Gloria. Manny was standing in the middle of the field looking at a bicycle." He pauses. "And then on the way home he mentioned he needed to stop and get his white silk shirt. Which I also did not comment on. I'm learning when to talk and when to just be in the car."
* * *
After the game, Manny jogged over with the expression of someone who had already moved on from soccer and was now focused on something else entirely.
"I'm quitting soccer. It is a game for children."
"You're not quitting," Gloria said. "You would have stopped that goal if you weren't staring at that girl again."
"She is not a girl, she's a woman."
Jay closed his eyes briefly. Jason looked off at the middle distance.
Back at the house, Manny disappeared upstairs and came back down in his white silk shirt, holding a folded piece of paper. Jay looked at the shirt. Looked at Gloria. Gloria looked at Jay. Jay decided not to say what he was thinking.
Jason glanced at the paper. A poem. He kept his face neutral.
* * *
The mall was busy. Jay was in his tracksuit and a low mood, Gloria was still icy from the car ride over, and Manny was walking with the energy of someone who had a plan.
Jason walked alongside them, notebook in his jacket pocket. He'd been turning over a lyric in his head since the morning. Something about the feeling of wanting to reach someone. He hadn't landed it yet.
A woman near the entrance held out a cologne sample.
"Panache for Men?"
"No," Jay said, not breaking stride.
"I will take some," Manny said.
The woman spritzed him. Manny thanked her and told her the color looked good on her. She told him he was a gentleman. He said yes.
Jason watched this whole exchange. Then looked at Jay. Jay had the expression of a man who had accepted many things.
Manny unfolded his poem.
"Is that what I think it is?" Jason asked quietly.
"A poem I have written for Brenda," Manny said, like this was a normal sentence.
"Right."
"I put my thoughts into words, and now my words into action."
Jason looked across the mall to where Brenda Feldman was working at a pretzel stand, completely unaware that any of this was about to happen. He looked back at Manny.
"Okay," he said. "Go get her."
Manny straightened his shirt and walked over. Jason stood with Jay and Gloria and watched.
Interview Location: Mall Bench -- Outside Wetzel's Pretzels -- Jason Pritchett
He's sitting on a bench, Manny visible in the background at the pretzel stand.
"You have to respect it a little. He walked across a mall in a puffy shirt to read a poem to a sixteen-year-old girl he's never talked to. I lost a hundred and five pounds because I was scared to talk to anyone. He just went over there." He watches Manny for a second. "I'm not saying his plan was good. I'm just saying he went."
Manny came back a few minutes later holding a pretzel dog and not holding his poem. His face was doing the specific thing faces do when someone is deciding whether what just happened was embarrassing or just happened.
"She has a boyfriend," he said.
Gloria hugged him immediately.
"I gave her my heart and she gave me a pretzel dog." He looked at it. "That was pretty stupid of me, wasn't it?"
Jay shook his head. Said it wasn't stupid. Said taking a swing like that was the right call, even when it didn't work out. He meant it too. Jay didn't say things he didn't mean.
Jason fell into step beside Manny as they started walking.
"For what it's worth," Jason said quietly, "she's going to remember that. That somebody came over and read her a poem."
"Do you think so?"
"Yeah. It's a better story than most people's day."
Manny stood a little straighter. He offered Jason the pretzel dog. Jason took a piece. They kept walking.
* * *
That evening they drove to Mitchell and Cameron's. The whole family, which meant Jay in the new Ed Hardy outfit Gloria had apparently talked him into, Manny back in his regular clothes, and Jason in the back seat with his notebook open, working on the bridge.
He'd been turning it over all day. The bridge needed to go somewhere warmer, something about making a move even when you're not totally sure. He wrote: just give me the vibe to slide then. Stared at it. Yeah. That was close.
Claire and Phil and the kids were arriving at the same time. The usual overlap of everyone in the doorway. Haley said hi to Manny and Manny told her she looked beautiful and Gloria told him to give it a rest.
Jason found Alex near the door.
"There's a study suggesting parallel universes might interact through quantum fluctuations," she said by way of hello.
"Is that related to the black hole thing?"
"Adjacent."
Luke appeared behind her. "Bro."
"Bro," Jason said.
That was their whole relationship and it worked fine.
Inside, Mitchell kept starting a sentence about having something to tell everyone and kept getting cut off, which was just how this family worked. You had to commit and finish or it was gone.
Then the lights dimmed.
Then the Circle of Life started. Full volume.
Jason looked at Jay. Jay looked at the hallway.
Cameron came around the corner holding a baby girl. Tiny. He was walking in time with the music, arms extended, raising her toward the ceiling like the scene from the movie. Completely committed. Not a trace of embarrassment.
The whole room went still.
Jason's first thought, genuinely, was that he had not been informed this was happening.
"We adopted a baby," Mitchell said. "That's why we went to Vietnam. Her name is Lily."
The room erupted. Gloria said something in Spanish and then said it again in English. Claire made a sound that was somewhere between a question and a scream. Phil said hi to the baby and then asked if Lily would be hard for her to say, which was very Phil. Haley said she was cute. Alex said something to Haley that made Haley give her a look.
Jason stood near the back and looked at the baby.
She was tiny. And completely unbothered by any of it. Cameron was carrying her around and she was just looking at everything with the calm expression of someone taking notes.
Jay reached the baby last. Cameron brought Lily over to him and the room got a little quieter, the way it did when Jay was about to react to something and nobody was sure which direction it was going.
Jay looked at her for a second. Then he took her.
"You're a cute little fortune cookie, aren't ya," he said.
Then he said she was wet and handed her off. But he'd smiled first. Just for a second. Jason caught it.
Interview Location: Mitchell and Cameron's Front Hallway -- Jason Pritchett
He's leaning against the wall just inside the front door. Noise of the family coming from the living room behind him.
"Jay smiled. Like actually smiled when he held her. He thinks nobody saw that. Everybody saw that." He glances back toward the room. "I've been in this family a few months and I'm still figuring out all the layers. But that one I got. He was happy." A beat. "Good day."
* * *
While Mitchell and Claire went to change Lily, the rest of the family settled into the living room. Cameron put music on. Gloria was looking at photos from Vietnam on Mitchell's camera. Phil was being Phil.
Jason found a spot on the couch next to Manny.
"Big news," Manny said.
"Yeah."
"I didn't know."
"None of us knew."
Manny thought about this. "Mitchell was nervous to tell the family. I understand that. Sometimes the people you love most are the hardest ones to be honest with."
"That's actually true."
"I know. I think about things like this."
"Yeah, I've noticed."
Manny nodded. He still had the pretzel dog napkin in his pocket for some reason. He pulled it out, looked at it, put it back.
"Today was a lot," he said.
"Yeah."
"But good."
"Yeah. Good."
From the other room they could hear Jay saying something, then Gloria laughing, then Phil saying something that made Claire say his name in that particular way. The baby was in there too, making small sounds that kept stopping the other conversations for a second.
Jason opened his notebook. Wrote one more line.
Oh, I might make you mine by the night.
He read it back. Read the whole thing from the top.
That was it. That was the whole song.
Interview Location: Mitchell and Cameron's Front Steps -- Jason Pritchett
Waiting for the ride home. Late. He's got the notebook closed in his hand.
"Soccer game, the mall, Manny getting a pretzel instead of a girlfriend, and then a baby appearing out of nowhere to the Circle of Life." He looks at the notebook. "And I finished the song. Last line came to me on the couch sitting next to Manny while Phil was doing something embarrassing in the background." He starts down the steps. "I'm calling Tommy when I get home. This was a good day. Weird. But good."