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Burp

12/13/2025

“Are you sure you’re okay, Matt?” His mom asked.

Matt strolled through the Christmas Village with his folks and his brother. “Sure, this is nice. Ooh, is that root beer or birch beer in that keg?”

Harry strode ahead to the festive booth. “It’s root beer, Matt. Want a mug?”

“Sure, would you?”

Dad stepped in. “I got it, guys. Jenny, you want one too?”

“I’m holding out for cocoa. You guys go ahead.” She smiled and looked around for a stand offering hot chocolate. “Oh, look. There’s a church stand. Can we go there next?”

“Sure, hon. Let me get us some drinks and we’ll go have a look.” Dad pulled out his wallet. He looked around to study the fairy lights on the trees and the booths. His breath drifted as a silvery cloud in the darkening afternoon.

Gary held Teddy close under a blanket as he sat on a bench. The baby was sucking on a bottle Abby had prepared for him. “Take it easy, tiger. You’re going to get a belly full of air if you drink like that.”

Teddy’s stunning green eyes tracked his grandfather’s doting gaze. He held the bottle with both of his tiny hands and sucked in an aggressive cadence. Gary waited for him to drain the bottle before dabbing at his lips with the corner of the blanket and slid the bottle into a pocket of the diaper bag. “Ready to go see Mommy?”

Teddy smiled. Mentioning his mom always brought a smile to his face.

Gary stood up and slid the diaper bag’s long strap over one shoulder, adjusting Teddy’s blanket. “Let’s take the long way around so we can see some Christmas trees? Sound good?” Teddy giggled and made a little face.

“Ha, I told you drinking like that was going to make you gassy, kiddo.” Teddy squinted and grimaced.

“I know just the cure for that, my friend. Grandpa will take care of those mean old belly bubbles.” He perched Teddy on his shoulder, planting the baby’s diaphragm against his upper chest. He took bouncing steps to coax a burp from Teddy, in hopes of alleviating his discomfort.

On the way to the church stand, they found a stand offering hot chocolate served with a topping of green whipped cream, coiled to a peak to resemble a Christmas tree.

As they waited for Mom to get her drink, Matt was taking in the sights. The wreaths. The piped-in Christmas music. The lights. The heady scents of seasonal food and drink. The colorful wooden booths. The spicy zing of the root beer pumped from a keg. He was feeling the effervescence more than a usual can of soda when a guy brushed past him.

Matt looked at his root beer. He had consumed enough that he didn’t need to worry about it sloshing out the top of the mug, but it was annoying anyway. He studied the passing figure. Guy with a baby bouncing on his shoulder. ‘Cute kid.’

Harry tracked Matt’s gaze and saw the bouncing baby. ‘Wow, those eyes.’

Matt locked onto those eyes. ‘Wow.’

Harry looked at the baby and back at his brother.

Matt squinted, and the baby smiled at him with two tiny bottom teeth. The two of them studied each other closely and then…

Harry grinned at the burp in stereo before his face slackened.

Matt locked onto those amazing green eyes. ‘Mine.’ He turned to look at his brother. He saw it too. ‘That’s my kid.’

He blinked at Harry. ‘How do I have a kid? I don’t have a kid, but he’s definitely mine.’

Gary pulled Teddy down from his shoulder and congratulated him before wrapping him up in the blanket.

“Was that…?” Matt looked at his brother.

Harry looked at their parents and back to Matt. “I think so, but…”

“Yeah.” He chugged the rest of his root beer and handed the mug to his brother so he could wipe his mouth. “We need to…”

“Dad?” Harry said.

Their dad looked at them. His smile faded. “What’s the matter?”

“We need to check something out.” Harry said. “Whenever they get her drink, meet us at…” He turned to track the man with the baby. “Oh, good. The church stand.”

Matt was already in motion.

Dad watched him stride off. “Sure, we’ll be there in a moment.”

Harry followed Matt to the stand with a sign reading, Jarmark Kazimierz.

Gary walked through the Christmas Village, bouncing Teddy on his shoulder to coerce a burp. He knew it would come soon. They were passing the cocoa booth when Teddy finally let one rip.

“Ha ha, good one. Nice timbre.” He kissed the baby’s cheek and wrapped him in the blanket close against his chest. “We’re almost there, buddy. Time to say hi to Mommy.” They entered the festive little cottage.

“Hey, Dad.” Abby smiled as she restocked a shelf of snow globes with a tiny sculpture of St. Casimir’s in them.

“He had his bottle, and we had a nice burp on the way here.”

She grinned and tickled Teddy’s cheek. She noticed someone entering. Her eyes went wide.

Gary noticed and turned to see who had entered.

A young man with his arm in a sling stepped into the little cottage. He was tall and lean, his hair trimmed high and tight in the style of a Marine. His hair was jet black, and his fair complexion showed a lot of exposure to intense sunlight. ‘The eyes.’

“Hi, Matt.” She set the last of the snow globes out and approached him. “Your poor arm. What happened?”

Harry stepped in behind his brother. “Matt, it’s that girl from the party.” He whispered.

“What girl from what party?” Matt’s head was spinning.

“Your shipping-out party.”

“Hey, there.” He looked at Harry and the baby and Gary and then Abby. “I, uh, got blown up.” He studied her. “I know you.”

She smiled. “Yes, you do.”

“I’ve been thinking about you.”

“Same.” She blushed. “Teddy’s been missing you.”

“Who’s Teddy?”

She took the baby from her dad. Gary was too flummoxed to scowl or resist. “This is Teddy.”

Gabe and Jenny stepped into the cottage. “Harry, what’s going on?” Gabe asked.

“A miracle, maybe?” Harry shrugged.

Matt studied the baby in Abby’s arms. “Teddy?”

“Theodore Gabriel Light, meet your father.” She stepped closer.

“Gabriel is my dad’s name.” He reached out to let Teddy pat his finger.

“Can somebody explain what on earth is going on here?” Jenny clutched tight to Gabe’s arm.

Matt turned to look at them. “I sure wish I could.” He leaned in to study his son. “Ted is my boss’ name back in Djibouti.”

Teddy shrank shyly into his mom’s chest.

“Son?” Matt studied Teddy’s intense green eyes. “How do I have a son?”

Abby giggled and blushed. “Did you skip Health class or something?”

Harry burst out laughing. He doubled over as his mom and Gary scowled at him.

Matt waited for him to catch his breath and shrugged. “Dude, what?”

“Boom! Roasted!” Harry laughed. “She totally got you. Of course, he’s your son. Look at him. He’s like a mini-me of you.”

Gabe squinted. “Can’t argue with that. He looks exactly like Matthew when he was that age, but…”

Jenny smacked her forehead. “Shipping-out party? Matthew Steven Jozsa! Exactly how drunk did you get at that party? And you, Harold! You told me you were going to keep an eye on him.”

Gary leaned on a shelf of handmade crochet wreaths. “Djibouti? Blown up? Were you in that terrible explosion on Monday? What’s a shipping-out party? What the heck is going on in here?”

Abby kissed Teddy’s cheek and handed him to Matt. “I think we’d better find somewhere to talk. Sarah, can you cover the store a while?”

Sarah had been pasted to the far wall, trying not to look like she was eavesdropping. “Um, sure. I’ll call Elka and see if she can cover for you.”

At Hearth and Hollow, Tad Zborowski welcomed them. “What a beautiful family! Let’s find you a table.” He grabbed a handful of menus. “You’re a Marine?”

“Yes, sir. Just got back for the holidays.”

“Thank you for your service, and God bless you.” He led them to a large round table. “I’ll have a high chair brought over right away. Make yourselves comfortable and Sally will take your order.”

They stared at each other, trying to work out the geometry of who ought to sit where.

Should Abby sit next to Matt? Should the parents sit together or across from each other? What about Harry?

Sally appeared with a highchair. “Where did you want this, folks? Oh, look at you! What an angel.” She smiled. “Ooh, you’ve got Daddy’s eyes.”

Abby read the group and waved for the chair. “Big boy is going to sit between me and his daddy.”

Gary took his place on her other side. Harry sat beside Gary as their parents filled the circuit between Harry and Matt.

They sat in tense silence, studying their menus. Abby set some TastiPuffs on the highchair’s tabletop. Each of them looked up as to say something and then back down at their menus.

Jenny sighed. Everyone turned. “Will somebody please tell me how I have a grandson?”

Abby hung her head. “It was a dare.”

“Explain.” Gary snapped.

Harry raised his hand. “I think I need to add some context here.”

“You knew about this?” Gabe demanded.

“I didn’t know about him, but she did it to protect Matt.” Harry fiddled with his napkin-wrapped silverware.

“Keep going.” Jenny’s eyes welled up. “This piecemeal stuff is killing me.”

“Yeah, I’d like to know what’s going on.” Gary grumbled.

“Harry, just tell us already.” Gabe said.

Matt and Abby studied him.

“Okay, look. At Matt’s shipping-out party, everybody was buying him drinks. I tried to keep some control of it, but they kept pulling me aside while somebody else got him to chug another double.” He sighed and shook his head. “He wasn’t drunk. He was blind drunk. He was stupid, blackout, left his body kind of drunk.”

“We get it.” Jenny rolled her eyes. “Where does she come into it?”

Abby frowned and dropped some more TastiPuffs for Teddy.

“Yeah, she was at the gun club. I guess the party drew her in. The vibe was pretty infectious and you know how girls get around Matt.”

“Now, now.” She scowled. “I was there with friends–”

“Drinking at the gun club?” Gary frowned at her. “You were only nineteen.”

“I didn’t drink that much.”

“You shouldn’t have been drinking at all.”

Gabe rolled his eyes. “Can we save that for later? What’s this about a dare?”

“Right,” Harry said, looking around the table. “the more sloppy drunk he got, the more they dared him. Give me some push-ups. Keg handstands. Here are some darts…” He shivered. “They dared him to go off with a girl. I could see there was some chemistry, so I asked Abby to go take him to a room and help him sober up or at least keep him long enough for them to get bored with all the stupid dares.”

“And you just–” Gary scowled.

“It wasn’t like that.” She muttered.

“Babies don’t come from conversation, Abby, or did you skip Health class, too?”

“Dad, not now.”

“If not now, when?”

She looked at Matt. “We talked. Honest, we did.” She searched the table for an inkling of understanding. “Like he said, he asked me to keep Matt safe from the craziness at the party, so we talked.”

“But you were tipsy…” Jenny said.

“And Matt is Matt.” Gabe said.

Matt kept his eyes on Teddy.

“Yeah. Something like that.” She ran her fingers through Teddy’s downy hair.

“When did you find out?” Jenny asked softly.

“Long after he shipped out.” She sniffled. “I didn’t want to make things hard for him, so I just kept it to myself until Matt could come back.”