Chapter 28

“Mom, Dad, someone’s at the door. I’ll get it.”

“Bea!” said Candace, answering the door.

“Yes, I was summoned,” said Bea, she was smiling. “Your mom and dad handy?”

“Yes, yes, come in,” said Candace. The young led the middle-aged into the library.

“Bea, so glad you could join us today,” said Ava.

“Yes, for sure,” said Blake. “Let’s eat. Lillian has made something, I know not what, but I’m sure it’s good.” The females all smirked or giggled.

The roast beef sandwiches were already on the table as was the iced tea.

The munching and the belly stuffing were underway in a trice. Conversation was of the mundane variety. It was a gay old time. Ava, was the only one who seemed somewhat detached from the gaiety, and that in an on and off kind of rhythm. Candace noticed but did not think anything of it for the moment.

All present were dabbing the remaining detritus from their lips and sipping their teas.

“Everybody good?” said a suddenly intense Blake.

“Daddy?” said Candace.

“Candace, Bea, over the next while everything you thought you knew is pretty much going to be turned upside down. Ladies—and I mean everything,” said Blake.

“Daddy... ?” started Candace.

“Blake?” said Bea.

“Ladies, both of you need to not talk until Blake and I are done. I don’t know how long it will take, but that notwithstanding, the both of you are sure as hell going to be a lot older, at least on some level, when we’re done, and that’s for damn sure,” said Ava.

“Momma!” said a startled Candace.

“Candace, your mom said it straight. Do not talk until we are done. This is going to be hard for all of us, but mostly for me and my wife. Okay?” said Blake.

The two women nodded.

“Okay then,” said Ava, “I will go first.” For the next moments, nothing, absolutely nothing, was said. Then it was.

“Some twenty-four years ago plus; a great man was convicted of shooting, murdering, a drug dealer, my drug dealer. The court proved that he had shot the man who was pressuring me for sex and wanted me to become more dependent on his drugs than I already was, had been. In my defense, I had stopped using some months before and informed the bad man, Dante Rodriguez was his name, to stay away from me and my intended, Julian Willis.

“Because the bad man was so bad, Julian, our Julian, was only convicted of second-degree murder, not first degree which could have gotten him the death penalty,” said Ava.

“Mom, we know...” started Candace.

“Please, please do not interrupt me.” Her tone was fierce, startling. Candace had looked bored, if that would have been the way to describe her up to that moment, but no longer. And her look was about to change yet again and that abruptly.

“He was guilty all right: guilty of protecting me. Julian did not kill Dante Rodriguez. He’d never met him or even heard of him while he was alive. Candace, Bea, I shot Dante with a small gun that Julian kept at the house. I called my Julian to confess and say goodbye.

“When he came, he shut me up, and well, made me let him take the fall for me. Ladies, Julian Willis took my punishment. A fact that I will never be able to pay him back for or live down, never,” said Ava, and she began to sob, but quickly brought herself under control.

“Momma,” said Candace.

“Ava?” said Bea.

“Ladies, now it is my turn,” said Blake. “And believe me there is a lot more to tell. A fucking lot more!” His use of profanity in the situation at hand definitely got the attention of the visitors.

“Daddy!” exclaimed a shocked Candace. There was a surprised look on the face of Bea as well but no words. Blake held his hand up to short shank any further demonstration of disapproval.

“Up until now, I have kept my mouth shut. My wife, this wonderful lady next to me, had to get her feelings out there. Yes, it was she who pulled the trigger on that scumbag Rodriguez. But it was Rodriguez’ threats and career choice that were at base the cause of it, the shooting. Your mother, Candace, was frightened and desperate.

“Your mother’s life had previously been turned around. Not by me, but by my brother. He it was who sheltered and loved and protected her after she turned eighteen with almost no prospects, and naught but her high school diploma to ensure whatever prospects she might have had. In a phrase, she needed someone and he was there for her. They planned to get married, on Valentine’s Day of 1972 as a matter of fact. How romantic was that,” said Blake, momentarily changing his tone.

“Daddy...”

“But of course, we all know how that turned out.

“My brother, just after his conviction but before he was transported upstate to a maximum-security prison, asked me to watch over the love of his life. I swore to do so, selflessly, well, at the time. And I did. But there were to ensue complications.

“The day before that bad day, my wife, my then future wife, did the deed with my brother. And the result of that union, where, by the way, he lost his virginity, was you, Candace. You were the result of that union. But neither your mother nor I knew it at the time. It was two months after Julian was locked up that we found out. We, your mom and I, Candace, now had two of the aforementioned problems.

“One, should we tell him and thereby add to his misery? And two, if we did tell him, when should we tell him?” said Blake.

“My God!” offered Bea. “Oh my God!”

“Yes, at least that,” said Blake. But that is not even close to being the end of the story.”

“No,” said Ava, “not close to the end of the story. We decided to not tell him until much later. That time would be, we decided, a while after he was released, and of course you both know about that. But that was not all of it either.”

“Mom, really...” started Candace. A stare from her mother stopped her.

“Candace, your daddy, your real daddy in spite of everything, is Blake Willis. He and I fell in love. We didn’t do anything about it for a long time, but then we did. And, like your existence, Candace, we decided not tell Julian of our betrayal, my betrayal, of his love. But after many years, nine years to be exact. We decided that we could not live with the secret of our marriage any longer. So, we, really Blake,” said Ava, nodding in his direction, “did the dirty work and told Julian on a visit to see him in the prison.”