Chapter 10

I was glad to hear that and then asked about her friend. Erin said, “She might be a bit slutty, but she is really conservative at the same time; a bit of an enigma. She is very anti-abortion and is going to keep her baby, too. She just doesn’t know what to do about school, yet.” I told her to offer my baby sitting services to her. I figured it was the least I could do for my own child!

Erin thanked me on behalf of her friend and said it would mean a lot to her. We talked for a while and began going through all of the things we needed to think about to prepare for what was going to happen in a little over 8 months from now. Before long, we had discussed the highlights and she was ready to take her mind off of things.

As per our usual, she wanted to watch a movie. And she surprised me yet again when she wanted to watch the original Spider Man movie for the 100th time. The movie was playing and I was having trouble keeping my thoughts focused again, but not as bad as last week. Then I realized I never asked her a question that most dads would have asked first. I turned to her and said, “So, you never told me who the father is...” She just looked over at me and said, “Spider Man is the father, Dad...”

I thought that was hilarious but couldn’t let it show too much. I said, “Very funny ... Wait: you do know who the father is, don’t you?” Erin looked at me and said, “Of course I know who the father is. Why would you ask me that?” I figured she wanted to keep the details of her sex life private and was perhaps embarrassed that she didn’t know who the man in the Spider Man costume was.

I explained my questioning by saying, “Oh, no reason, really. It’s just that you said earlier that it was October 31st—Halloween—and then you seemed to not want to answer who the father was when you said ‘Spider Man’, and I thought maybe it was a guy in a costume that you never got a look at. I’m not judging you: I just know college can be a crazy time and we do things that we normally wouldn’t do in another setting—that’s all...”

Before I even finished what I was saying, I was kicking myself for broaching the subject. I feared I said too much and was worried that she might figure it out. She looked at me a few moments and seemed to understand and acknowledge what I was talking about. Finally she said, “That’s not too far from what happened, actually.” I said, “Then you don’t know who the father is?” She said, “Well, I have a pretty good idea of who he is ... I think. But I’m not really sure.”

I said, “I guess it would be hard to ask him if he was the guy you were with at that party a few weeks ago ... that would be awkward if he said ‘no’. She said that was exactly why she hadn’t said anything to him yet. The conversation dwindled down from there and we went back to watching the movie. But I could sense that something was on Erin’s mind. Call it a father’s intuition; or maybe just paranoia.

After the movie finished, Erin went out to her car for a minute and came back in with a brown bag. She asked me, “If I ask you to do something for me, would you promise to do it?” I said, “Of course, Honey; I’d do anything for you.” She nodded and asked, “Will you put this on for me—just for a minute?”

I took the bag from her and looked inside. I was a bit confused at what I saw. Inside the bag was, of all things, a Spider Man costume. I looked at her in confusion and asked her why. She told me to pull it out and I did. It wasn’t until I pulled the costume out that I realized it wasn’t just ANY Spider Man costume: it was MY Spider Man costume!