“Were you trying to get somebody to pay attention to you?”
Ethan’s face collapsed.
Then he nodded.
His mother lowered her phone.
“They were fighting in the car,” Ethan whispered.
He wiped his eyes.
“They always fight.”
Nobody interrupted.
“And then we came here, and Dad was on his phone and Mom was on hers.”
His voice broke.
“Nobody was watching the movie with me.”
He looked toward me.
“When she turned around, that was the first time anybody looked at me all night.”
His mother slowly put her phone away.
Owen stayed crouched at Ethan’s level.
“That’s a hard feeling,” he said.
“When it feels like nobody sees you.”
Ethan sniffed.
“You know?”
Owen nodded.
“Yeah.”
“I really do.”
Then Ethan noticed his shirt.
“You have Spider-Man too.”
Owen glanced down and smiled faintly.
“My wife bought it because she thinks I’m too old.”
“You’re not too old,” Ethan said seriously. “My grandpa likes Spider-Man.”
Owen laughed.
Ethan almost smiled.
Then his mother walked over and knelt beside him.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
She wrapped her arms around her son.
At first Ethan stayed stiff.
Then he leaned against her.
His father stood nearby looking at the floor.
Eventually the mother said,
“Brad, let’s go home.”
Brad walked toward his son.
He looked uncertain.
Then he gently rested a hand on Ethan’s head.
“Come on, bud.”
They walked toward the doors.
Just before leaving, Ethan turned around.
He waved at Owen.
Owen waved back.
When they disappeared through the glass doors, the lobby slowly returned to normal.
Owen remained standing in the middle of it.
I walked over and took his hand.
It was shaking.
Hard.
“Can we leave?” he whispered. “I don’t think I can finish the movie.”
“Of course.”
We walked to the car.
Owen sat behind the steering wheel but didn’t start the engine.
For a long time, he stared at the theater.
Then he lowered his forehead onto the steering wheel and cried.
I had seen Owen cry only a few times during our marriage.
