Chapter 24

“Excuse me,” said Herbert. “He said what?”

“To get the hell out,” said Valerie.

“I don’t believe it. I can’t believe it because it can’t be true! The man sacrificed a kidney for her, yes. But now he kicks her out of his place like a cur dog for just trying to reason with him! Val that one is just flat not acceptable.”

“Well, that’s what Jillian said, and Evan backed her up. And frankly, I can’t believe it either. I mean I do, but I can’t!” And Valerie Cooper began to cry.

“Yeah, well me either!” he said. “I’m going to talk to the man. He’s flat lost it; he has. I will be discussing things with our daughter first; but no matter what, that man is going to get both barrels from me. He will never treat our daughter like that again no matter what!”

“Dad, I don’t know what to say. And I was not the one to bring up the topic, my bio-dad was,” said Jillian. They were sitting in the living room of the four-bedroom Carton ranch style in West Phoenix.

“Okay?”

“Yes, I wanted to formally introduce him to Evan...”

“Where is Evan right now?” said Herbert.

“He’s working it’s his regular schedule today,” she said.

“Okay, so go on,” he said, encouraging her to continue with the explanation of what happened.

“Well, I just said: ‘Dad’, I would like to formally introduce you to my husband Evan Carton.” He suddenly seemed to be something, distant maybe. He asked if you were now to be considered my stepdaddy. I just said that we all needed to get by all of that and ... well, then he stopped me with a raised hand and told me, us, to get out of his house. And that was it. I swear. Well, and then we did leave, Evan and I,” she said.

“Okay, I guess I understand. That issue is his line in the sand, Jill. He will likely never budge, not an inch. Frankly, honey, giving it to him, what he wants, would be little enough given all he’s done for this family and all he’s suffered. But in this instance, he went too far. I will be talking to him. But not you, not now, maybe someday, but definitely not now. Am I understood,” he said.

“Yes, Dad, yes. I understand,” said Jillian.

It was Monday, and I was back at work, again on the day shift, and doing good: the place was full, the tip jar was full, and I was certain that I had made an impact on the Coopers. If not, well, then not. But no, I was certain that I had. I’d had to do it. I’d so far failed by just telling them I was not sharing my fatherhood. Now I’d told them with fire in my eyes and dragon flames erupting out of my mouth. They’d gotten the message now, oh yeah, I was certain of that!

One thing I need to mention. I’d been working at the Javelina for a bit over five years since getting the hell outta out of hell in ‘91. It had been a year now, since Lindsey had been made the official manager of the Javelina by mister Milton the owner. Oh, and she’d made me the assistant manager: small raises were added into the mix, so the promotions were not merely nominal. We had four other waitresses and bartenders all of whom were college kids and half-timers. But we were getting busier all the time and needed to add another full-timer. Well, and that figured to be a minor problem as it turned out; that because now, as I was about to discover, they were going to be needing two.

I’d got me a visitor; I was on the job. It was Friday 3:30 and we were getting busy. I was behind the bar. He was sitting in a booth across the room from me. I hadn’t seen him come in, but I saw him now. I snorted. I could see he was going to wait me out. I made my decision. I went over to him.

“I know why you’re here and I don’t give a shit. Just so you know,” I said.

“You got time for a break?” he said. I shrugged. I signaled my college kid assistant to take my place for the next few.

The elder Cooper motioned me to have a seat. I did so.

“She’s your flesh and blood. Kicking her out of your place is not acceptable,” he said.

“Her trading me in for you is also not acceptable, so maybe it’s a wash,” I said.

“No, it’s not. Yes, she’s thirty years-old, but she is still a kid in some ways, and you know it,” he said.

“Just keep her away from me, and the rest of you too. That’ll solve the problem for you people. And it’ll sure as hell solve it for me. I was abandoned for twenty-five years. Another fifteen or twenty before I die won’t kill me; you’ll pardon the pun.”

“Jesus! Chase. You saved both of those women. And they must live with those debts. I can understand your hatred of me. I deserve it. But them...

“Chase they’re women, our women, yours and mine. Yes, you were married to the one and were the sperm donor and medical savior of the other. You are entitled to everything you ask for, yes even your singular fatherhood. Problem is, I can’t give that to you. Only the kid can. But my good luck, she loves me more than she loves you. Kind of natural wouldn’t you say, seeing as how you weren’t around to be her daddy when she needed you to be albeit through no fault of your own. So please just answer the damn question!”

“Just answer the question, you say.”

“Yes,” he said. I snorted. I would answer his question and then maybe we could finally come to some kind of understanding of how things really were. Well, that was my thinking.

“Kind of natural you say? You would be so right if she were actually still a kid, say in junior high school. But she’s not. She’s a married woman of not thirty but thirty-four and totally intelligent enough to be aware of everything you laid out here in these last minutes. So, now I have a question. When the hell is it, do you think, that she’s gonna be grown up enough to deal with the truth that whatever I’ve done, and that for either of those women, is worth giving me something besides lip service?