He was married to a beautiful girl, Katherine Martinez or as he called her, Kathy. They didn't have a very stable relationship, mainly because of the risks of being a firefighter, but they fought hard to make their love last. They kept this fight going for one year... In the process, they brought along a kid... Tim, their adoptive son. Joel rescued him one day from a forest during a vacation in Canada and after hearing the kid's story, he did everything in his might to bring the child to Manhattan. After months of court hearings and paperwork, Tim was brought to the USA to be Joel and Kathy's child.
Joel was the happiest man in the world... He had a son. After months of trying in vain... But it wasn't his fault... The world works in mysterious ways... Cancer never knocks... But now he had a kid, so his suffering came to an end.
Tim was a hard kid... He was diagnosed with autism. He would lose himself in his little world; he wouldn't let anyone in his little safe haven... All he would do is draw. His drawings were too good for a child of his age; he preferred drawing a little kid in blue whose hands were taken by two adults. Many psychologists took this as nostalgia; he remembered his old parents and had trouble adjusting to the new ones. Joel accepted the hard challenge, raising such kind of child.
Day after day, Tim would draw his old parents. They always held hands with the little blue kid, the three standing in what seemed to be a skating rink. Joel would always try to offer the kid his love... First starting with a ball game, but he hated the noise. Then a trip to Disneyworld, but he was scared of the tall buildings and the snakelike roller coasters. Joel's patience was growing thin but he tried to calm himself, he tried to walk in Tim's shoes. It was November and things started to get cold.
The cool breezes of the winter swept through America. Tim would watch with glazed eyes every snowfall... Until one day, his intrusive father made another attempt at bonding. This time, Kathy decided to participate, she thought that her presence might make a difference. Joel took Tim to a frozen lake in the park. He tried to skate with Tim, or at least make a snowball fight... But Tim was unresponsive. He stared at the lake, as if he was remembering something. Joel was starting to get scared, his child wasn't responding to anything... He was oblivious to the world, words passed by his ears, and violent shakings didn't disturb him.
Kathy, seeing her husband's worries, tried to help. She knelt and grabbed the boy's hands. They were really cold, even though he was wearing mittens, so she grabbed them really tight and slowly took the boy away from the lake. At her instruction, Joel took one of the boy's hands while Kathy took the other. Together, they walked out of the frozen pool.
It took a moment but Tim responded. He looked around, confused and scared but when he saw... He saw that his parents were holding his hands. Not someone else's. Tim couldn't contain himself... He broke down crying. The boy hugged Kathy and Joel the strongest he could, and they hugged him back. Tim felt the cold drift away... And a soft sob ran through his ears.
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