"Yeah," he whispered hoa.r.s.ely. "Yes, I"ll be right there-"
"Deh ..." The touch came again, insistently. "Deh. Sss."
Brendan looked down. A bulbous-faced puppet stared back up at him, black b.u.t.ton eyes and enormous nose, little cloth arms capped by longyears like crudely sewn mittens. Its face was uneven, b.u.mps and ridges where the papier-mache had refused to smooth out, spots where the paint had globbed together and dried unevenly.
"Deh," the voice came again. A low voice, hoa.r.s.e, as the puppet nudged his chest. "Deh-"
It was Peter.
"Deh," he said.
Brendan stared at him, the boy"s pale blue eyes gazing at his father from behind the puppet"s head, for just a fraction of a second. Then Peter looked away again, back at the puppet in his longyear."Ssss? Oog buh." The puppet thrust upward into Brendan"s face, so close that he could smell it, flour and newsprint, tempera paint. "Deh," the boy said, impatiently. "Oog buh!"
"Peter?" Brendan dropped to his knees, his longyears shaking, his head; all of him. He stared past the puppet at the boy who held it. "Peter?"
In the room behind him Eileen gasped. The twins squealed, Kevin made a low sound.
"Peter?" cried Teri. "Did he-?"
"Peter," said Brendan. "Oh, Peter."
The boy glanced away, smiling faintly, and bopped him with the puppet.
"Oog buh," he said again. "Sss, Deh? Sss?"
"Yes," said Brendan. "Oh yes."
He smiled. Through his tears he saw them all above him, framed by bits of green plastic greenery and the flickering outline of the TV screen, Teri and Kevin and Eileen and the twins in their halos of lace, Peggy with her longyears pressed against her head and beside her Tony, grinning and nodding, the plastic bag and torn wrapping paper dangling from his fist; and last of all his son, still thrusting the puppet at him and chattering, the sounds so thick they were scarcely words at all but Brendan knew, he could understand, suddenly he could see- "Sss, Deh? Sss?"
"Oh yes, Peter, that"s my boy, oh Peter," Brendan gasped, hugging him and laughing even as he wept and turned to the rest of his family. "I do see it. I see you now. I can-I can see it all."
The End