Chapter 40

We’d arrived back in Phoenix on the 25th. We’d been home a week; it was march 3rd. We, well I, got the visit. It was Saturday around 3:00 p.m. I answered the door.

“Zoe Hardy!” I said genuinely surprised. I think I’d accidentally stung her by recognizing her as a Hardy. She decided to not make anything of it.

“You could have let us know,” she said, as she passed by me uninvited into the Wyatt inner sanctum.

“Know?” I said, as I wheeled back inside and she closed the door. And yes, I knew what she meant, but it was my turn to not make anything of her words.

“That you were getting married,” she said.

“Oh that. Well, I’ve had enough of big weddings and all. We just kind of eloped,” I said. “You understand.”

“Amarillo?” she said. I wondered how she’d found out. Had to be Cherry talking to Penelope. I’d be asking.

“Yes,” I said.

“I hear it’s cold back there,” she said.

“Yes, had a bit of snow on the ground actually,” I said.

“Got a little time to talk?” she said. I shrugged.

“I guess,” I said. “There’s coffee in the pot. I just put it on a bit ago. Help yourself.” She did so.

“And Cherry?” she said, heading back into our mini-dinette.

“She’s shopping,” I said. My sort-of daughter nodded.

“Just wanted to drop by and congratulate you. Cherry’s clued mom and well, we were all kinda surprised,” she said.

“Okay,” I said.

“Dad are we okay?” she said.

“It’s relative, but yes, more or less, I guess,” I said.

“You’re my father, not more or less my father,” she said. I didn’t say anything.

“Dad?” she said, obviously waiting for me to say something.

“A person only has one dad. Sometimes there’s a stepdad in the mix, but there can only be one actual dad. And you’ve made it plain more than once that it’s the other guy,” I said.

“I didn’t mean to make it seem that way,” she said. “But, yes, I do consider that I have two daddies.” Again, I didn’t say anything.

“You aren’t ever going to cut me any slack about that are you?” she said.

“No,” I said. She nodded.

“I guess, I understand,” she said.

“Probably not, or, you just don’t care,” I said. I was being not nasty, but I was being cold and kinda standoffish,

“I do understand. And I do care,” she said.

“Really,” I said.

“Yes,” she said.

“Your mom and I had you. But she and your ‘dad’ hid it from me that you even existed. And when I did find out, by accident, I heard them dissing me in a public place and talking about how bad it would be if I ever found out that I was a biological father, you know, of you. And, just so you know, adding insult to injury, they were talking quite loud enough for people to hear. I know that’s true because I heard.

“Then, again by accident, I saved your life and the life of the man who stole my family; and what do I get from him? Nothing. And from you? I get outright lies and inconsequential status as an ‘and too’ daddy. And you figure you understand? You figure you can sell me that you give a rat’s ass about me let alone care about me? Excuse me, but I don’t believe you.

“So, why are you really here? I’m fine. My wife and I don’t need any of you Hardys or your lies and nonsense. So again, why are you really here?” I said.

“I came here to try and sell you, as you say, on the truth that I do consider you my real dad, not just some add on or whatever. Yes, I do consider Grant Hardy to be my dad too. You need to get that and accept it as he does the truth that you are my dad also,” she said. “Oh, and my name is Dorne not Hardy.

“Yea, yeah, I forgot. But I don’t think about you a lot, so maybe you can understand that,” I said, and now I was being nasty.

“Daddy, I guess I mainly came to beg your forgiveness for lying to you before, and making it seem like I didn’t care about you. I do. I was actually afraid at one point that you would try to take my other dad’s place, and I just couldn’t allow that. I think that that is why I lied to you that time. That motive is still a true motive. I do not want you to try and take my other dad’s place in my heart away from him or me. But I do want you to have me in your heart; because believe it or not; you are in mine,” she said.

“I don’t believe you. I believe you feel guilty. I believe that you will go back to your husband or your mom and diss me behind my back. And the truth really is, on my part, that I do not think of you much anymore. So put that in your pipe and smoke it,” I said. She was crying.

“Okay, but you’re in the wrong in all of this,” she said. “You may be justified in your bitterness, but you are in the wrong.” And then she got up and left. We’d barely touched our coffees.

It was Sunday. It was the 4th. And the Clantons and McLaurys were marching toward the front door of our place, AKA the OK-Corral! Probably sent by Sheriff Zoe Behan. I had to assume they were armed, but I wasn’t. Talk about suckee situations.

Cherry was standing beside me when they pulled up. Everyone was smiling, how sincerely would have been a question.

“Well if it isn’t the cowboys: Grant, Ian, Herman, and Ronald. Let me guess, the sheriff sent you all,” I said.

“Husband mine, these are the good guys. Be nice,” said Cherry. I wanted to argue her universally applied “good guys” remark, but I kept my mouth shut, well, for the moment.

“Won’t you all come in,” said Cherry. We’d been standing at the door. I was kinda forced to wheel backwards into our castle’s foyer.

“Coffee anyone?” said Cherry. It was a bit after 2:00 p.m. kinda late for coffee unless you were an addict like me, but all of the men opted to have some. Ian followed my wife into the kitchen to help secure the elixir of life.

“So?” I said, to the visitors.

“It was Glory and Penelope that asked us to come by and kind of gang up on you,” said Grant.

“Okay, and to what purpose?” I said.

“Really?” said Grant. I waited for an answer to my question. Herman picket up the gauntlet.

“Dad?” he said. “We, all of us including our wives, want to kind do what we can to encourage you to maybe mend some fences with my wife.”

“Okay, so?” I said.

“Well, Zoey says you are maybe a little bit to, well, uncompromising, in your requirements,” said my son-in-law.

“Uncompromising, am I?” I said.

“Well, that’s what she says,” he said. I was nodding.

“Well, I have to say that as far as that goes, she is dead on,” I said.

“Lee, I am willing to give you whatever you want. I know what her views are, and while I feel honored that she feels the way she does; I also completely understand why you feel the way you do,” said Grant. I nodded, but said nothing.

“Lee?” said Grant.

“What?” I said.

“What can I do to make things easier here?” he said. I shrugged.

“Nothing. The only one that might have been able to do anything didn’t, so it’s a moot point.”

“Lee, she’s a kid,” said Grant. He got a general nodding from his spear carriers.

“She’s not a kid. She’s twenty-eight years-old,” I said. “If you, all of you, have come here with some idea that you might be able, with your numbers to get me to compromise; then you’ve wasted your time.”

“Lee, my God we are not here to bully you. Everybody here owes you—a lot. We are only encouraging you, not making demands or anything like that. My God we are not,” he said, more general nodding.

“Lee, how about if she were to admit to being in favor of you being the number one daddy—by far the number one daddy—just not the only daddy,” posited Ian.

“No,” I said. “Grant is a stepdaddy who hid from me my fatherhood, essentially stealing it from me. Now I’m expected to be the good guy and forget all about that. Just let me say, put it this way: not happening. So, if that’s all the lot of you’ve got, you can all leave and not return, like ever.” I think steam was coming out of my ears.

I looked around. There was a mix of stunned disbelief and looks that were all questions. No one said anything. I turned my chair around and wheeled myself into the back room and slammed the door shut.

There was a cacophony of indecipherable noise and voices from the front room. I did hear Cherry trying to reassure the herd that I would calm down but that I was not going to be compromising. She was right about the second thing, but not the first. I was never going to calm down, not about this.

It was a full five minutes before the tribe left us. Cherry came back to where I was; she was looking a little concerned, and joined me. We would be talking.

Well, one good thing about the Hardy dinette was that the table seated eight. That was a good thing because that was how many chairs were needed. For the four husbands and four wives seated around it.

“Well, it’s a good thing that Lee and Cherry aren’t here, or we might have had to go to Walmart to get a bigger table,” said Grant.

“Not funny, Grant. So, what else did he say?” said Penelope.

“No compromise, no visits from any of us ever again, Oh, and I think he was actually beginning to cry when he turned his chair around and literally broke speed records heading down the hall to his room,” said Grant.

“You forgot to mention that he slammed the door when he got there, to his room,” said Ian.