“If this is too much, I understand,” Scarlett says. I’m sure she didn’t realize what she was asking for when she requested my story.
“The story isn’t much longer,” I assure her. “My pop was heartbroken. I saw his world crumbling just by looking in his eyes that night. My ma left with her car and my pop paced the house for about five minutes before he decided to go after her.” He made it clear to me from a young age that if a man loves a woman, he shouldn’t let her go, not without puttin’ up a fight for her. He’d tell me that a woman tends to say she doesn’t want to be chased, but when she runs away and the man doesn’t follow her, she’ll just hold it against him later. His advice confused me a lot, but I understand where he was coming from now. I’m just not sure I agree with it.
Scarlett is covering her mouth in preparation for what I’m about to say. It’s as if she already knows where I’m going with this. “Oh no,” she says.
“I told him not to go. I begged him not to go after her. He was upset and exhausted, but when your heart is hurting, there’s no way to think straight, no matter what anyone says. He walked up to me and said, ‘I love that woman, son. As stubborn and thick-headed as she is, I can’t let her go without a fight.’ I wanted to tell him she wasn’t worth it. It’s a real shit thing to think about my own mother, but I was right to think that way.”
“It doesn’t sound like it would have made a difference if you had said that. Love will make a person jump through hoops of fire, or so I’ve seen.”
“Well, my little sister, Alexa, she was a daddy’s girl through and through. If he was going after my ma, she was going with him.”
“No,” Scarlett says, her voice laced with panic.
“I guess they got on the freeway and my pop didn’t yield. An eighteen-wheeler made his truck into an accordion. Somehow they survived with their injuries just long enough to get to the hospital, but by the time I got there, the doctors were working on their last options to keep them alive. I never got a chance to talk to either of them again.”
A hitch catches in Scarlett’s throat. She’s still holding her hand over her mouth, tighter now, to the point where her knuckles are turning white. Her eyes fill with tears, and I have to say, I wasn’t expecting her to well up.
She inhales sharply through her nose and glances up to the ceiling. I hear a hiccup catch in her chest, and I see her fighting back her tears. “I’m okay,” I tell her. “It’s been ten years. I’m okay.”
Scarlett takes in another deep breath and looks back over at me. “I’m—I don’t know what to say, but I think I’m able to put the rest of the story together myself.”
“Yeah, my ma ran off to be with a rich man, and inherited Laurie-Cate as her stepdaughter. I don’t talk to that woman, so she sends Laurie-Cate to be her messenger in hopes that I fall for my—my God—stepsister, so she can get me back in her life somehow. Yes, I’m aware of how screwed up this all is, but now, you probably understand why I’m kind of screwed up too.”
Scarlett nods her head. “You’re amazing.”
How do I tell her that story, then earn a response like that? “I’m far from amazing, darlin’.” I lean forward and move Waldo off her lap. He’s asleep and is none the wiser after being moved, so I pull Scarlett onto my lap and wrap my arms around her. “You know what’s dissapointin’, though?”
“What’s that?” she asks through a sniffle.
“I was sure as hell you weren’t going to cry.”
She slaps my hand. “Don’t be a jerk. I handled it pretty well.”
“I told you my story, Scarlett.” Now, my heart is torn open and exposed, so if I don’t get to keep my arms around this girl for just a little while longer, I might fall apart too.
“And, I think Waldo just told us his story … ” Scarlett says, waving at the toxic air. The fumes from that dog should be considered hazardous. I don’t know if he gets into something when he’s frolicking outside, or if his organs are just old and decayed, but Waldo can clear out a room out in less than two seconds with his farts.
“We should get out of this room before we’re completely gassed and choking to death,” I say as I lift her up and carry her down the hall.
“Slick move,” she says. “Did you train him to do that on cue?”
