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Chapter 4. Investigating
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     The plane was to leave at 6:30 that evening. I had an early rehearsal the next day and Fred needed to get back in time for a game. We really didn’t have any time over for playing detective.

     Fred was still in deep thoughts one hour later, even though I’d tried to bribe him with a chocolate bar and some coffee. Not that I was expecting it to help, but sometimes even the simplest things can make him cheerful. Although, this was more extreme than just an average bad day at school.

     “Should we just… ignore it?” he pondered.

     “And see if it goes away?” I added. “Things rarely work out that way.”

     “Should we go talk to her?”

     “Maybe if we ask her straight out, she’ll give us an honest answer. We could’ve counted it wrong. Maybe she meant he was born July sixteen the year after that?”

     “Wouldn’t he be a little too old for that?”

     “No. He said he was two. She said he was two and a half. None of them seem to know what age is accurate,” I snickered. Fred tilted his head to the side, not amused by my effort to make a joke. “Oh, come on! Let’s just go ask her.”

     I dragged him back to where we had seen Catalina and Jack last. It wasn’t too hard to locate Starbucks from there. Catalina was serving some customers and Jack was nowhere to be seen. Fred, who had worked up some courage, walked straight up to Catalina. “Is he mine?”

     “What?” she said; surprised to see him again. “I’m working, Fred.”

     We had to wait impatiently while she handed out coffee and napkins. Every time she seemed to have some time over, a new customer intruded, wanting to order. Eventually Fred lost his temper and took the coffee away from Catalina, handing it out himself. “Look, we’re all done,” he growled when there was nothing more to serve. “Who’s the father?”

     “It’s not you,” she rolled her eyes.

     “Are you sure? Do you even know yourself?” Fred snapped.

     I put my hand on his arm. “Calm down, Fred. Just listen to her.”

     Fred opened his mouth to object, but Jack interrupted us when he came running out from behind the counter, throwing himself around Catalina’s leg. “Hi!” he exclaimed.

     “Am I your dad?” Fred asked.

     “Fred, don’t be stupid!” Catalina muttered. “Don’t ask my son such questions.”

     “I’m not stupid!” he almost shouted. “And he seems to be the only one who actually knows anything around here!”

     Catalina leaned down to pick up the boy. If you’d ask me at that point, I’d say it was possible that Fred was the father. Jack looked similar to how Fred looked as a child, at least according to my mind just then. Of course, I could’ve just been fooling myself into believing that, because it seemed so likely.

     “I’m sorry, I don’t want to argue with you guys,” Catalina sighed. “I knew this would happen if you found out. I just didn’t expect to run into you here, of all places.”

     “Can’t you just tell us the truth?” Fred begged. “I need to know. If he’s mine…”

     “He’s not. I promise to God. It’s not your son. Look at him, does he even appear to be?” she asked.

     Fred gazed at Jack for a while. “Yeah!”

     Catalina sighed again and handed Jack to me. “Lex, honestly.”

     “I don’t know. It would be much easier if you just told us,” I agreed with Fred. Jack fixed my wedding ring with a stare, probably because it was shiny. “He’s a really great kid. I’m sure we can work this out, if we only knew…”

     “Look at his eyes.”

     I turned my head so I could get a glimpse of Jack’s curious eyes. He kept looking around so much that it was almost impossible. “They’re not brown,” Fred replied instead.

     “I know,” Catalina said sternly. “My eyes are brown. Your eyes are brown. His eyes would be brown too if you were the father. The easiest DNA test in the world.”

     “Does it work like that?” Fred whispered to me.

     I nodded. “In most cases.”

     “How big is the chance…?” he began.

     “A few percent,” I cut him off before his brain could make any quick connections.

     “You said he was born in July. That’s October minus nine!” Fred babbled incoherently.

     “He was born seven weeks premature,” Catalina muttered, folding her arms together. “May I go back to work now?”

     Fred tried to force a smile upon his face, but failed utterly. “I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m really sorry. We shouldn’t have distrusted you.”

     “That’s okay,” she replied. “If you’re ever around again, stop by to see us. I’ll… You’ll always have free coffee.”

     Jack ran off again as soon as I put him down, so Catalina went to find him. That didn’t give us any time to tell her goodbye in a more proper way. Fred and I strolled back to our seats, and I was quite sure I wouldn’t see either of those two again.

     I stopped abruptly. “Fred?”

     “Yeah, what is it now?” he asked tiredly.

     “What color eyes did he have?”

     “I don’t know. Not brown,” he replied thoughtfully.

     “They were green,” I mumbled to myself.

     “What?”

     “Green. His eyes were green. That’s really rare if the mother is brown eyed.”

     “Yeah? So?”

     I snorted out a laugh, before the shock dawned on me. “It’s Jeff’s son.”