They told him that Mom and Dad both loved him more than anything in the world and always would, and that this would never, ever change. They told him that Mom and Dad had decided to live in two houses, and that he would have a room in both, and would go back and forth, and that both houses would be his home. They told him it was a grown-up decision about grown-up problems. They said it wasn't because of anything he had said or done, and that there was nothing he could have done to change it, and nothing he needed to do to fix it. They told him he could be sad or mad or anything he wanted and ask any question at any time.
Owen listened with his fork in his hand. He asked if he could still keep the treasure box at Mom's. He asked whether Dad's new house would have a yard. He asked if it was close enough to ride his bike to. Daniel told him not yet, but someday. Then he asked whether Mr. Caleb was going to live at Mom's house now. Claire put her hand over his on the table and told him no, and that Mr. Caleb had gone back home to Oregon, where he was from, to be near his family and get better.
Owen thought about this for a while and then asked if he could send Mr. Caleb a picture he had drawn of a truck. His parents looked at each other across the table, and Daniel felt the whole weight of it settle on him, as if the boy had asked him and not his mother. He thought about the welcome mat and the split doorframe and the phone ringing at eight-fifty-four. He told Owen not right now. He told him maybe when he was older, and they could talk about it then. Owen accepted that the way he accepted most things, gravely, with a nod. Then he asked for more syrup.
Daniel signed a lease in February on a two-bedroom townhouse in Chester, eleven minutes from Larkspur Court. It had a tiny fenced square of grass out back and a maple tree. He let Owen pick the paint for his new room, and Owen picked green, the exact green of the hoodie, which was getting short in the sleeves now. They painted it together on a Sunday afternoon with the windows open. Owen got more paint on himself than on the walls, and Daniel didn't care at all.