I Google the words, hoping it’s just a joke and nothing too serious, but when I see the first headline pop up, I know it can’t be good.
Ali Kat Carter Assaults Five Bar Patrons
Below the article is a video that looks like it’s shot with a camera phone. It starts ‘Ali Kat Carter—also known as Trainwreck Tammy—has a lot of explaining to do…’ but I can’t bear to read any more of it. Not when I know how bad it will hurt Hank.
I hold my phone out to Hank. “Here, there’s a video.”
“Can you-can you just watch it?” he stutters.
“Sure.”
I press play and watch an obviously drunk Ali huddled with another woman. The woman points towards the bar and Ali goes into action, absolutely losing her shit. I want to look away, not being a fan of gossip and other people’s pain, but I owe it to Hank to see it through to the end, so he doesn’t have to.
“She okay?” Hank asks, his voice wrought with emotion.
“Yeah, she’s gonna be fine.”
He exhales in relief, raking his calloused fingers through his shaggy salt and pepper hair.
Hank Carter is as proud as he is stubborn. He cares not for vanity or the fancy gadgets and gizmos of the new world. He doesn’t have a cell phone, preferring to keep his landline, and he has no idea what ‘streaming’ content is. He’ll never get a microwave or allow any diet beverage to be consumed in the Carter household. He’s an old-world man with old-world ideas, which is why it came as such a shock to him when his beloved daughter went off to Hollywood.
“They want me to take her in.”
“Pardon?”
“Some PR kook, whatever that is. They want her to disappear and come here for a month or two.”
“How do you feel about that?”
For the first time since I’ve known him, Hank looks unsure of what to do, which says something. Hank is as consistent as he is stubborn, so the fact that he’s hesitant means there’s a lot of stuff he’s working through.
“When she went away to college, I swear, that was the hardest day of my life, and I’ve had it tough my entire sixty-some years. But it was nothing compared to the phone call from Los Angeles tellin’ us she landed some kind of fancy agent and some role on the big screen. It all just kind of came out of nowhere. No warning.”
“What girl doesn’t dream of becoming a star?”
“Tammy never did. Oh, no. Not my girl. She was gonna be a rancher, a vet, then a marine biologist, that is until she found out that she’d have to move to the coast. She was a homebody.”
I’m familiar with the story, though it’s something the Carters rarely talk about. Tammy Carter went away to college, accompanied a friend to an audition only to get spotted by a talent scout. They flew her to Los Angeles, where she signed a big-deal contract, all without her parents’ knowledge.
It broke Hank’s heart.
“Nope. She’s not comin’ back here,” Hank says with an unfamiliar edge to his voice.
“Are you sure about that? It looks like she might need you.”
“She’s got Hollywood money.”
“I wasn’t referring to money, Hank. Circle the wagons, keep the wolves at bay.”
“Ya see, Garrett, that’s where ya got it all wrong. Circling wagon was to keep the livestock from wandering off, not to keep the critters at bay. We circled too late.”
I picture Ali as I had known her, a slight girl with too big a smile for her girlish face. She grew into that smile, or that megawatt grin as they call it. Back then, she was my sister’s annoying best friend. When she made it big, it never felt like it was really her. She had morphed into some unrecognizable stranger overnight. She lived inside my head as two entirely different entities. Now, looking down at my screen and seeing her in all her chaos, I just wanna bring her home.
Hank turns to leave, his hand on the gold-plated door handle when I call out, “You’re gonna regret this, ya know. Every night, until the day you die.”
He looks back at me, his face a mixture of forlorn shock, his hand still gripping the handle. “You think I don’t already have regrets?”
“Oh, I’m sure you do, but Tammy made her decisions, and you may not have agreed with them, but she did what made her happy. Now, she’s in trouble, and I know you’re not the type of man that can just sit something like this out. No, sir. That would haunt you ’til the day you die.”
“So, you think whenever she gets herself in a bind, I should just bail her out then?”
“I’m pretty sure she can bail herself out. She does quite well for herself, from what I hear. But how many good friends do you think she really has in Hollywood? Friends that will be there for her with her best interest in mind. She needs you now more than she ever has.”
Hank exhales, his whole body slumping. “I suppose you’re right. Get Jake.”
