Instead, she looks genuinely happy.“Your students are very lucky.”
Coming from her, that’s an incredible compliment.“I don’t know if they’d agree, but, yeah, I love it.”
The captain lights a cigarette and breathes out a heavy trail of smoke.I don’t smell it yet, but I will.
“Sir?Excuse me, sir?”Venus’s voice pulls me away from my beer.She repeats herself until he can’t ignore her.“Could you please extinguish that?My friend is asthmatic.”
He huffs.“We’re outside.”
Her eyes narrow in a challenge.“Yes, but he’s sensitive, and so am I.Please?”
The irritated man grunts as he takes a long drag.He flicks his cigarette into the water, which makes Venus cringe, but she lets it go.
Her eyes shift from him to me and to her drink.She twiddles with her bracelets and thumbs the long, thick surface of the mood ring I gave her when we were kids.It had been in my grandmother’s jewelry box, part of Mom’s inheritance.Going through it, Mom held up the gigantic, gaudy ring and said,“This looks like something Venus would like.”She also gave Venus a box of old scarves to“tame that wild mane.”One of those scarves waves from her hair now, catching in the breeze.Vee’s motherlessness brought out Mom’s generous, sympathetic side.But only to a point that ended whenever Venus caused trouble for me.
That happened often.
“How’s the family?”I ask when her nerves become apparent again.It’s just like Vee to not bat an eye at confronting a large, gruff stranger, but be hesitant about opening up to me.If this were a classroom, I’d group her in the slow-to-warm-up category, requiring extra encouragement to speak.
“Ivy’s in love with Gil,” she reports.“She has a dog now, called Buster.She comforted me during a panic attack today, which speaks well for her skills as a registered nurse.She wants us to be sisters again.I’m not averse to the idea.It feels genuine, not like it did in school.”
“School isn’t a fair representation of the real world.”
“Isn’t it?”She fiddles mindlessly with her bracelets.“She’s still the popular, confident, and pretty one.You’re undoubtedly the same handsome nerd, friend to all that you always were.I’m still….thedifficultone no one knows how to handle.”
She smirks, but I don’t find her words amusing.
“Fuckhandlingyou.You didn’t need handling.You needed to be loved, and Ilovedyou.You left anyway,” I snap.
Her eyes fall to the bar, and she bites her lip.“Yes.I-I couldn’t handle me.”
When she doesn’t explain, I ask, “Why’d you come home?”
Her eyes pinch with my irritation.“Dad’s fallen in love, too.Can you believe it?All that talk about love being inconvenient and unnecessary changed when he met the right person.He and Christie have gone on sabbatical.That left his summer teaching position open.He and Dr.Miner, my former mentor, conspired to have me replace him, and she fired me from our project, leaving me little choice.I feel rather manipulated, especially in light of today.I had no idea he was sending me to you.”
I nod.“Yeah, I believe you.”
“Thank you… How’s your family?Maggie and Fred?”
“They’re good, still at the old house.She’s as anxious as ever, but Fred balances her out.”
“Do you see your father?”
“Once a year at the Greene family reunion,” I say.“He no longer smokes in front of me, thanks to you.”
“Good.He shouldn’t.”
“He always asks the same three questions.How’s Maggie?How’s the Jeep?And how’s that firecracker friend of yours?”
“I’m surprised he remembers or cares to ask.”
“Well, not many twelve-year-olds would stand up to someone’s dad.”
“Someone had to.He belittled you and your mom, and he smoked around an asthmatic child.With my limited experience regarding typical family dynamics, even I knew he wasn’t much of a father.”
I can’t argue.
“I’m a father,” I say suddenly, like the gauge of my most important information has finally tipped into the red zone.“A dad.I have a son.Olly.Oliver Jay Greene.He’s six.”
