Chapter 21: 1992-1994

Waiting on the nurse to call me, the family stealer showed up. Playing the concerned father role all the way I figured. My daughter might not consider me the equal of the big assed money man, but well, it was what it was.

“Chase, Valerie clued me. Thanks for being well, willing to help out,” he said, just like her, I thought.

“Willing to help out?” I said, “That’s just what your wife said. I guess she had some doubt, you know, like you obviously do that I would be there for my daughter.” He gave me a startled look, but just then the nurses, two of them came and fetched me.

Over the next while, I was stabbed sliced and diced; but was finally released from custody minus a quart of blood and a pound of flesh and allowed to go home. I would be hearing from them, well, doctor Lees, soon was the word.

The faux father was waiting for me when I came out of the torture chambers.

“Okay, if I give you a ride home?” he said. I bit my tongue but nodded in the affirmative; I still didn’t have a car.

The ride home would be taking about thirty minutes. And this ride would not be a silent ride.

“Uh, Chase, about before, I didn’t mean to imply; well, you know,” he said. I shrugged.

“What the fuck ever, asshole. You and my ex must’ve been cast from the same mold.”

“Really,” he said.

“Like I said. But after they get done with me, I want to be left alone, by the lot of you. Okay?” I said, “You disgust me.”

“Chase really...”

“I know I’m out of the running as per my fatherhood. And I’ve come to terms with that truth. But I would appreciate it if I could just be left in peace! I deserve that much respect wouldn’t you goddamn say?”

“Chase, Valerie and I know how you feel. But truth told we have tried our best to do right by you. Yes, me making a move on her while you were still inside; well, that was bad; we’ll own that. So, okay, you got it; we owe you. That said, I can’t speak for Jillian, she’s an adult and will make her own decisions. But Valerie and I will, reluctantly, agree to do as you wish. But, I do hope that you will at some point have mercy on us and change your mind. Anyway, we will be hoping,” he said.

“Good,” I said. “Hope the hell outta yourselves, just do so in vain!”

“He what?” she said.

“He wants to donate, but once everything is taken care of, meaning Jillian’s operation, he wants to be left alone. He really needs to have his fatherhood recognized, and he means the way he wants it to be recognized. But since he’s certain that that will never be, he is stepping out of the picture or so he says,” said Herbert. “I told him that we would still be holding out hope that he would change his mind. So...

“Damn it!” she said.

“And I made a huge mistake,” he said.

“Huh? Mistake? What mistake?”

“I just said that it was good of him to be willing to come to her rescue. I didn’t mean anything by it. But the way it sounded to him...”

“Jesus, I can just imagine what he’s thinking!” she said, “but as for you making a mistake, I did too, and the same one. And I didn’t mean anything by it either, but him hearing me, us...”

“Yes,” he said. She was nodding.

“Probably sees it as us thinking that he is only donating under some kind of duress or to gain favor with Jillian. Damn it!” she said.

And doctor Lees did contact me with the results of the tests. I was a damn near perfect match; in fact, there was no “damn near” about it. Assuming there were no complications during surgery, with either of us, Jillian was looking at a likely lifelong cure, a very rare thing with transplants even with identical twins, so I was told.

The operations, both mine and Jillian’s, were done a few days later, and on the same day, literally just hours apart. And then I was in a hospital bed and told I would be in it for a week, and then I would for sure be able to go home.

One thing I haven’t mentioned was the fact that my boss at the Javelina was okay with my taking two weeks off. I knew I’d be needing that much; I was sure. The doctor said, that when I was released, I would be able to go back to work but to avoid any heavy lifting or be trying to run any marathons. I promised to do as he said.

During my week in the hospital, I never saw my ex or her husband even once. And of course, not Jillian either; well, she was laid up too. But I did get a visit from Martin Paris, the rich guy’s lawyer supreme. He brought me papers to sign. I was being offered fifty million dollars. I tore the papers in half and dropped them on the floor. I would never take money for helping my daughter, never! His offer was, for me, an insult beyond telling!

And then I was released from my medical incarceration, and I was back on the job, sans any harassment by the Cooper clan. I knew that they’d do something to screw things up for me sooner or later; my hope was it would be a lot later. Well, hope did spring eternal.

Something else that needs to be mentioned here is that I was no longer a janitor at the Javelina. I was now a bartender. The boss had had to hire a new janitor for the graveyard shift because I was out of the lineup for too long. But he knew what I’d done and appreciated it to the point of deciding that I could learn to tend bar, and now that is what I was learning to do. And it was lighter work in general, so that worked for me especially considering my limited mobility.

“So, Chase, you’ve been promoted to be my intern,” said Lindsey Shelby, head bartender at my place of work.

“Yes, mister Milton thought so much of me that he decided to give me a chance. Well, I have kept the toilets in good working order,” I said. Lindsey laughed.

“Yes, well, I’d noticed.

“You don’t say much, Chase. In all the time you’ve been working here, more than two years now, I think I’ve heard you say a total of four words; and all of those have been some form of hello,” she said.

“Yes, well, I guess I just haven’t had a lot to say, and well, I just wanna stay out of trouble.”

“Well, you’re gonna need to be a bit more sociable now you’re a barkeep; it’s part of the job.”

“I will,” I said.

I’d been out of the hospital for some weeks. I was fine, I guess. My daughter was good; I also guessed. I hadn’t heard anything different. I hoped I wouldn’t. Well, the clan had promised to leave me alone. And so far, they’d been honoring their promise.