Last One (for now), Marco and I

Marco came in Sunday afternoon, after not having been here Saturday after our talk, and announced he was moving into a small building behind Chepa's house. I said okay and asked if he needed help. He said no, that he and Carly could handle it.
After he took his first load out, Madeleina came into the office/living room where I was working while listening to the Eagles play football.
"Dad, how could you let him go?"
"Well, baby, he's 21 and he ought to go and be on his own..."
"That's not what I mean, you blubberhead. I mean how could you let him go and move into mom's? Just because he'll have to pay rent doesn't mean he's grown up. He's just running away to mom! That's nothing! And when he gets mad at mom he'll come running back to dad! Don't you see?"
"Sort of, baby, but he's a grown man and can move where he wants."
"No he's not. He's a baby and you should have beat him half to death for not getting a real apartment. He's only leaving because you told him he was a liar about the television box and he won't own up to it like a man! That's not moving out, that's running away."
She was fairly livid, and I thought that at lease some of her anger might have to do with her anticipating missing him, so I reminded her that he'd still be there to torture here, he'd just do it from mom's, not our house. And since Madeleina splits time between our houses, what was the difference?
"You will never understand. It's called coddling, dad, and you're being a wimp."
I let her win. She was right, but then I would really have to interfere in his life if I went about beating him or chasing him out of his mom's house. Plus, Chepa can use the extra rent.
In any event, he's settling in there. It'll last a couple of months, maybe forever this time. It is really time for him to be on his own since my insistence on pitching in around here is more than he can take most of the time.
Still, after all of us except Marco went to Italo's college to watch him play a soccer game (they lost; he played hard), and after we drove back and I'd taken them to dinner, and Madeleina went to Chepa's to sleep, it was a very empty house that greeted me. Ah, well.
As Bruce Springsteen once wailed: "Oooohhhhh, oooohhhhh, growing up...."