Chapter 29

The Blue Boar Inn was a fairly upscale bistro, and it had the virtue of not being a place that her ex-fiancée frequented. And, it was also a tad further up the food chain than the Sand Bar. Marian Carton was in a wistful mood. She missed her man Julian Willis. But, throw away a half million dollars? Not happening. She just couldn’t bring herself to do it.

And then it happened, a man, a man she knew plopped down on the bar stool next to the one she was sitting on. She couldn’t believe it.

“I saw you with that Willis guy from the old days,” he said. It was a couple of months ago. I’ve been asking around. You still with him?” said William Carton.

“What the hell! What the hell are you doing here. You took everything and dumped me!” she said.

“Did not. Left you the checking account,” he said, as if that somehow that made a big difference.

“Yeah, $1106 dollars and thirteen cents. Paid the rent for a month and a half after which I was sleeping in my car, which broke down by the way, for the next two months. Thanks, a helluva lot for your generosity,” she said, as sarcastically as she ever said anything.

“Yeah, I made a mistake with that one, didn’t I? But you’ve done well for yourself hooking up with that Willis guy, Julian, right?”

“What’s it to yuh. No, let me answer my own question. It’s none of your goddamn business,” she said.

“Look, I said I was sorry. I mean it,” he said.

“What? You mean even if I’m still titless!” she said. “That’s why you dumped me. A soon as the operation took ‘em you absented yourself as fast as you could! Wonderful husband that you were. ‘Were’ being the operative term.”

“Look, let me buy you a drink. Whaddya say,” he said.

“What do you want, William, I still ain’t got no tits and for damn sure you aren’t after my pussy, so what?” she said.

“Don’t be so sure about that,” he said. “But like I said. I saw you with that Willis guy, and well it brought back old times.”

“Yeah like that’s the truth!” she said.

The conversation went on for some time. Then he hit her with it, the real truth, he needed money.

“So, you need a loan?” she said, sneering. “Is that it?” He looked down. His puppy dog eyes had always intrigued her before, and if asked, she would have admitted that they still did.

“Ten-grand,” he said, surprising her.

“And you imagine I have that kind of money, why?” she said.

“I know Julian Willis ain’t got it, but his brother does. Everybody knows that. I know, that if your boyfriend asked, he could get it. I know he, Julian, was inside for a long time. His brother would help him out, and you too. I mean you’re an item with the brother; I found out that much.”

“Old news,” she said.

“What?” Huh?” he said.

“We broke up. But...”

“But?” he said.

“I might be able to help you out,” she said, and she didn’t know why she said it.

“Really?” he said.

“Yes, but a loan, not a gift, and I will be real unhappy if you try to play me,” she said. “You know like you usually do.”

“No way. I’m a changed man, Marian, really,” he said.

“Hmm,” she said.

Candace Willis drove slowly. She hadn’t exactly memorized how she would approach her father, but she did know, sort of, what she was going to say. She was more than well aware that logic was not exactly her father’s forte, but it was hers and she was going to be a regular modern, and female, rendition of Aristotle for sure. Oh yeah!

“The Hilltop Motel was not a place where a young woman would want to be out and about at night. But here she was. It was 6:30 p.m. but it was still light out this February evening 1996, so she wasn’t too worried. She got out and hurried up the stairs to the man’s room. She knocked.

Julian Willis answered the knock and stared.

“Gonna let me in, Father?” she said. I frowned, but I did stand aside to allow her to enter.

“I thought we’d had our conversation?” I said. I wasn’t being too snide I didn’t think.

“We had ‘a’ conversation, but that was before I knew anything. Now I know everything, well, I think I do, everything important at any rate,” she said.

“What did you say,” I said, and my tone was not friendly. I was certain that my exes wouldn’t dare... ! But had they?

“Julian Willis, I absolutely adore you as a man and as my father. Please believe that and let it set the tone for the conversation that we are about to have,” she said. I didn’t respond. I waited for her to get to the point.

“Today, earlier today, mom and dad and Bea and I had a long meeting. It was the most profound meeting of any kind that I have ever had with anybody about anything. And Father, please get out your dictionary and look up the word ‘ever’ because I am deadly serious when I say that is the only word that fits!

“Today, I learned and Bea learned that twenty-four years ago, you sacrificed your life for your woman, my mother. I have to tell you that in the middle of her, their, exposé I wanted to vomit. I didn’t, but I wanted to. And, in case there is the slightest doubt in your mind I want to right now.

“Father, I am so sorry for the things I said to you, assumed about you, and have said in conversations about you behind your back. Such things will never be said or even thought of by me ever again—that’s ‘ever’ again,” she said. “That said...”

“That said?” I said.

“Oh my, how many things I have to say to you tonight. I hope I can get them all said. You have to let me. You just have to,” she said.

“I do, do I,” I said.

“Yes, I know you did not shoot that bad man, Mom did,” she said. “but there is so much more to this than that humungous revelation. Oh yes.”

“Oh?” I said, now knowing, but not knowing what she was about.

“They said, and I believe them, that they told me and Bea everything except the details of your suffering while you were in prison. They left that part an open question, but I do believe that at some point in time they will tell me, and likely Bea too, about all of that as well. But even that pales in comparison to what you and I will be talking about today,” she said.

“Think so, do you?” I said, still waiting for her to say what she was going to say. My words made her pause and tender me a questioning look. She shook it off, the look.

“Yes, Father. You and I will be talking about us,” she said.

“And what if I don’t want to talk about that,” I said.

“Unless you physically throw me out, you will have no choice,” she said. “But I hope you’ll want to. That at any rate is my goal, to get you to want to.”

“And why would that be your goal. You made it clear the last time we talked about anything that meant anything that he was your daddy and not me,” I said.