Chapter 25

I was on my second brew just kinda chillin’ as they say. When they came in: the both of them. They nodded and came over to my booth.

“Thought you might be here tonight,” said Rodney.

“Okay?” I said. “So?”

“Okay, if we sit?” said Riley. I shrugged.

“I guess,” I said.

“We hear you have a new woman. Emma gave us a heads up,” said Riley.

“Yes, she shopping or she would be here. She shops Friday nights, well, most Friday nights. But...?” I said.

“Just wanted to say how happy we are for you,” said Rod.

“Okay, thanks,” I said.

“Emma, is also involved with helping out Horace. He had a case, a client, who needed to get out of Perryville. Evidently the young lady was hurt real bad inside. Reminded us of the trouble you had near the end of your sentence,” he said.

“We haven’t met her, Horace’s client, but Horace and Emma have asked me if I could help her out with some medical problems and maybe hire her or get her a job. Of course I will do so,” he said.

“Yes, I met her last week. Her name’s Parker,” I said.

“Yes, we heard. Been inside quite a while. Has a kid she hasn’t seen since she was sentenced,” said Riley. I was nodding.

“Okay,” I said.

“So Emma says that your new woman is older?” said Riley. I nodded, but did not respond. I was not liking what I was hearing, or beginning to hear.

“So what?” I said. “With my baggage, I’m lucky a quality woman like Willa would even waste her time on me.”

“Hah! You are a winner, Mister. You could have your pick if you would just let us give you a hand up,” said Riley.

“Really,” said Rodney. “After all you’ve suffered because of us, well, we really need to do something to help you. Maybe make things, if not exactly right, at least better.”

“Maybe you didn’t get what I was saying. Willa is my way of making things better. I trust her and she trusts me. There ain’t that many women out there that I can say as much about, in fact there aren’t any,” I said, and I was staring right at Riley when I said what I said.

Riley’s face, look, went cold. “What about that woman Horace is helping out?” said Riley.

“What about her?” I said.

“She’s young and gonna be real good looking when the med stuff is done, so Horace assures us,” said Riley.

“Truth here, please,” I said. “Is this woman that Horace and Emma are putting out there part of a set up by you people?” Riley looked down. I knew, was pretty sure, I had hit on it, what they were about.

“We haven’t even met the woman,” said Rodney. “Heard some stuff about her is all.”

“That isn’t the answer to the question I asked,” I said.

“A set up? No,” said Rod. “But, a while back, I did ask Emma to keep an eye out for a woman that maybe might be a good match for you.”

“And this Parker woman is the so called good match for me,” I said. “Yes or no?”

Their looks said it all.

“How many times do I have to ask the two of you to leave me to my own choices and not to interfere?” I said.

“Adam, you deserve better than some aging ex-prostitute,” said Riley.

“What did you say!” I said, and said loud.

“Adam, Riley and I have screwed up so often and so badly that I just don’t know what to do but try to make things as right as might be.”

“And you come here and insult my woman behind her back, and think that that might be the right way to handle things, to make things right? Are you fucking crazy!” I said.

“Adam, really, can we bury some of all the bad stuff of the past and start over?” said Riley.

“No,” I said. “I don’t trust you. For some reason you keep wanting me to join the two of you in some vague familyesque idea of get-along-ness. I can’t think of a single reason why that would be useful on any level for me to agree to,” I said.

“Do you hate us so much?” he said.

“Is that serious question?” I said.

“Really, Adam, we love you. We want you in the family. That is the absolute fucking truth,” she said. “Why are you being so hard core!”

“Oh, I don’t know. Sacrificed my life for you. Spent twenty years in an eight by ten cage for you. Got my ass kicked regularly for you. Was raped and forced to suck stinking cocks regularly for you. Was denied the truth that I had been betrayed for the whole twenty years I was inside. Insulted and talked smack about behind my back by the both of you—likely a lot. And treated like some kind of useless piece of shit that the two of you would rather see disappear than be forced to be around; in spite of your oft expressed overwhelming desire to have me join your family! Are those enough reasons? Oh, and I almost forgot; kept my fatherhood of James from me until he was twenty some years old! And in case there is any doubt in your minds, that is a serious question,” I said.

“Jesus!” he said. “Adam, you have a gripe...”

“Oh, really, do you think?” I said.

Riley had started crying, but it was her turn to make her case.

“Adam, everything you say is true. Well, except neither Rodney nor I talk smack about you like you think. Yes, we’ve made some untoward remarks between us on rare occasions, thoughtless remarks, but at no time did we see you as any kind of second-class person or member of the family.

“We were and remain frustrated because we can’t seem to get you to come in out of the cold. I especially need you to be around us, and again, me in particular. I still love you, Mister, not in the same way I once did, and I did, but truly. You were robbed of a big piece of your life because of my stupidity. I will never be able to express to you my love for you and gratitude to you for what you did for me. How could I? How could any woman!”

“And that means what to me,” I said. “Oh, and I do not believe that you do not talk smack about me and that regularly. I am of the sincere opinion that you will be doing so in the car on the way back to your castle tonight. Oh, and you feel frustrated? You have no idea what the meaning of the word really is.”

“Jesus, Adam, we’re brothers. Yes, I fell in love with ‘your’ true love, and I could not help myself. I betrayed you. But there are women out there, quality women that would sacrifice their left tit for a chance at having a man as great as you,” he said.

“Hah! And you just happen to be so right, Mister Barnes, Mister rich guy. And, I have found such a woman. And soon, if she’ll have me; I’m going to marry her. And, just so you won’t have to be embarrassed by that ‘old’ lady, you won’t be invited to the wedding.”

I smiled and took on a sincere tone of voice and an introspective demeanor. “But really, other women? Their left tit? You really think other women, lots of other women, would be willing to make sacrifices, any sacrifice, to be with a man with my baggage?” I said.

“Absolutely,” he said, and it seemed as though it really was what he really thought.

But then I was again snorting my anger. “The two of you, the both of you, after I finally got out of prison, called me whiny, a loser. Then, you, Riley, added that I was not only a whiny loser but also essentially dickless. Just for the record, there is nothing you could have said about me that was crueler than that. I did not deserve for you to say that!”

“Adam, I know, and I am so sorry for saying something so mean and cruel as that,” she said.

“Well, as it happens, as mean and cruel and hurtful as your words were; they were accurate; well, they are now, have been for a long while,” I said.

“Huh?” she said.

I stood and dropped my pants.

“See what I mean?” I said. The two of them stared—long.

“Adam,” she said. Her husband was looking ... something.

“Rodney?” I said. There was something telling about his look.

“Huh?” he said.

“Did you already know about this? The truth please.” He nodded but said nothing; he didn’t have to.