My Daughter's Boyfriend

by Cydney Rax

  Moments later I sensed the presence of a person standing next to my window.

  I averted my eyes. Had no time to play “eye tag.” Got somewhere to go.

  But their presence broke my concentration and I removed my hand from the steering wheel.

  I heard a light tap on the window.

  I froze. Took my foot off the accelerator.

  They tapped again; one, two, three more times.

  “Tracey? Tracey, it’s me.”

  I looked up.

  A man who looked just like Derrick Hayes was peering at me through the window. He was standing there wearing a Houston Astros hat, a black T-shirt, and some jeans.

  What was he doing here?

  “Open the door,” he yelled.

  I poked out my lips and shook my head.

  This time the optical illusion surprised me by pounding on the window. I jumped and quivered in my seat.

  “Tracey, open the damned door,” he said.

  Feeling like what-the-hell, I grabbed the door handle and counted.

  Ten, twenty, thirty.

  The door opened slightly; he swung the door open all the way and I gasped when he grabbed me.

  He reached for me and lifted me out of the car, pressing my weakened body onto his.

  I let him pull me against his chest; he was warm, strong, and determined enough to keep me from further trembling.

  He stared into my eyes. Never flinched. Those penetrating eyes were quite gentle and warm, making me feel comforted. I stared at him like he was the knight on the horse.

  Thing is, I didn’t even know Derrick knew how to ride a horse. Didn’t even know.

  DERRICK MERCIFULLY PRODUCED a pair of jumper cables and attached them to my battery. I was sipping on some lukewarm soda from a six-pack he had stored in his trunk.

  “Tracey, when I say ‘now,’ I want you to pump the accelerator and start the car.”

  “Okay.”

  I sat in the car, waiting for Derrick to give me the word. My head erect and stiff, I mentally sifted through all the drama I’d recently endured. God knows, if you’d asked me what kind of hope I had a few hours before, I wouldn’t have been able to give an answer. The outlook was too dark for me to be optimistic. But now that Derrick had arrived and things were being handled, the nightmare didn’t seem as bad as it had when I was going through it. I shivered just thinking how, even though that experience was extremely trying and difficult, I had still gotten through it. I’d still won.

  “Now!” Derrick yelled, interrupting my thoughts.

  Vroom. Vroom. Vroom.

  The roar of the Malibu’s engine sounded like an elegant melody, like I could hear after being deaf all my life. I rested my head against the steering wheel.

  “Thank you, God. Thank you.”

  Derrick called a towing company. Thought it would be safer.

  We were bobbing along in his car.

  “How’d you know I was here, Derrick?”

  “I didn’t know.”

  I looked at him.

  “Seriously, Tracey. It was so bizarre. I was driving around in the area and something told me to turn left. I wanted to turn right and actually I did, but there was this ringing inside my ear, urging me to go back the way I came. I turned the car around and followed through until I came down this road, which looked like it had water receding from earlier flooding. When I kept driving and saw your Malibu, I then knew why I was led down that street.”

  I said nothing, just stared into space.

  “How long were you out here?”

  “I don’t know. Had to be since . . . I dropped Lauren off around seven-fifteen. It was sometime after that. Seems like weeks, though.”

  “I’m sure it does.”

  I stared at Derrick’s profile. It was so rare that we had been in the same car together, I didn’t even have anything to compare it to.

  Felt weird. Surreal.

  “Have you heard from Lauren?” I asked softly.

  “Yep, she made it. Flight was delayed, but believe it or not, Lauren said the ride didn’t feel any worse than normal. That was shocking.”

  “You’re telling me.”

  “So, I told her I’d pick her up this weekend but she’d have to ice this flying stuff for a while.”

  I smiled. Rocked in my seat.

  “Why aren’t you at work today?”

  “All the roads surrounding the store were closed down.”

  “You’re kidding.”

  “And let me tell you, I’ve been working at that particular branch forever, and that has never happened before.”

  “I can’t believe this,” I said.

  “Me either. Me not going to work is like—”

  “No, I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about this. Us.”

  He looked at me.

  “We’re actually having a normal conversation.”

  “You’re nuts, Tracey.”

  “No, I’m not. We never speak to each other like this. You know it’s the truth.”

  “Well, if you ask me, we could have held decent conversations all along, but if it hadn’t been for some stubborn, cocky—”

  “Watch yourself, now.”

  “Just joking.”

  “And that’s just fine with me,” I said, and stared out the window like it was my first time seeing the world.

  DERRICK HAD OVERSEEN MY CAR being dropped off at the local dealer. He drove me home, and waited on me as I took a shower and changed clothes. Thirty minutes later we were getting some lunch at the IHOP on Sam Houston Parkway near Westheimer. Every direction you turned, you could hear patrons relaying their flood story, or listening to someone else tell theirs.

  “This is just a day of unprecedented occurrences, huh, Derrick?”

  “Tracey, please, you’re taking away all the fun.”

  “Okay, I’ll shut up, but I can’t help it.”

  “Yes, you can. Just chill out, relax, count your blessings, and keep breathing.”

  I ate my plate full of buttermilk pancakes; then I ordered a BLT sandwich and drank two large apple juices. I started to get a steak dinner, but Derrick shook his head.

  “You already got rescued from death this morning, and now you about to come in IHOP and kill yourself from overeating?”

  I laughed and nodded.

  Felt good to be alive.

  HE STOOD IN THE DOORWAY OF MY home. The cool afternoon air sent a thrust of wind through the apartment. I stood with my arms folded under my breasts. Felt kind of awkward. My rescuer was staring at me like he’d never seen me before.

  “Tracey, I’m glad everything’s turned out all right and that you’re home safe. In the past I know I’ve swore up and down if you were ever in trouble, don’t look my way, but I guess you didn’t have to, because I looked yours. We always claim what we won’t do if we’re put in certain situations, but the true test of character comes when you’re in the midst of that situation and you end up doing the thing you never thought you’d do. Don’t look at me all crazy; I’m just as shocked as you are. Never thought I’d extend my hand out to you.”

  “I never thought I’d take your hand. Never knew I’d have to,” I said solemnly.

  “Well, today proves with everything we think we know, sometimes we just don’t know nada.”

  “You’re telling me . . . well, I don’t know how I can ever repay you, Derrick. Hey, thanks for breakfast—”

  “And lunch.” He smiled.

  I smiled, too.

  Derrick turned and started hustling down the stairs.

  I waved at him, but he didn’t wave back.

  Aaron 34

  “Daddy, we love you,” I said aloud to his weakening body, because maybe he would hear me and respond. Maybe my dad would act like the one I always knew: vital, concerned, and supportive. Right now he looked like none of those things. He looked more like a kid than a dad. His face was parched and his cheeks sunken. His five-foot-ten body had shrunk to about half that size.

/>   I was standing near his hospital bed. Tan walls, white sheets, and tiled floors. My dad looked like a little ball drowning in a sea of nothingness. And I felt guilty. Something I rarely feel.

  “He hears you, baby. I know he does.” That was Mom. Nethora Oliver looked a breath away from death herself. Her normally sparkly eyes were dim and darkened. She had new wrinkles, and her smile hadn’t been seen in weeks. At least not the smile I was accustomed to seeing. I squeezed my mother’s hand. She nodded, but refused to look at anything besides her husband.

  “You really think Dad can hear us?” I asked.

  He was in a coma. Had been that way for the past few days. I was so grieved I hadn’t been able to sleep. Sleep would have been like a thief. I had to talk to my dad, or hear him talk to me, just one more time.

  “I know he can. Sometimes I see his eyes twitch even though they’re closed; and plus hearing is always the last sense to go . . . not that Lendan is going anywhere.”

  Her voice was strong, determined. She didn’t have to put on for me. But I hoped she really believed what she was saying. It was going to take faith to believe something that didn’t agree with your vision.

  I laughed inside, feeling overwhelmed and incomplete, bewildered, with an unusual urge to weep.

  “Why don’t you go and get yourself something—”

  I shook my head violently. Who could eat at a time like this? Dad wasting away, and I’m pigging out? I didn’t think so. Fear had killed my appetite. It would take a miracle to resurrect it.

  “Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m getting a bit hungry,” Mom declared. Her weary voice was left teasing the air, so I rose to my feet.

  “What you want, Mom? I got it.”

  “Get me a veggie plate. No dessert, no dairy products either.”

  “I know, I know. Be right back,” I said, and glanced at my dad’s body. I was saying it for his benefit as much as hers.

  I made my way down the hall, and just when I was about to get on the elevator, I looked up and noticed the pay phone. Smiled. Fished around my pocket for a quarter and two nickels. It had been a while since I’d used a pay phone, but my cellular was almost like an afterthought these days. I’d probably tossed it underneath something at home.

  I dialed her number. It had been so long.

  Pick up, pick up, I thought when the phone rang three times.

  Her recorded voice spoke from the answering machine. I started to hang up, but instead cleared my throat.

  “Hey, you. I’m here at the hosp—”

  “Aaron?”

  I closed my eyes and laughed.

  “Why are you screening your calls, Tracey?”

  “I’m not screening. Didn’t get to the phone in time . . . how are you, baby?”

  “You don’t want to know.”

  “Oh, but I do. I wish I could be with you. I want to see you so bad. Hold you in my arms. How’s your father?”

  My chest heaved.

  “Well, Tracey. He’s uh . . . he’s in a coma.”

  “Oh, no.”

  Silence.

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s . . . uh, it’s something that we kinda knew might happen, but didn’t really want to face. I mean, no one knows if he’ll pull out or if we’ll be talking to his body for another week or another six months. We just don’t know.”

  “Oh, Aaron.”

  “Yeah, it’s like that . . . sometimes I wonder why, though. Like, is it my fault?”

  “Aaron!”

  “No, Tracey, remember what we discussed a while back? That karma stuff? Maybe this is my karma.”

  “Oh Jesus. Aaron, truly you cannot think that your dad is suffering . . . because of us.”

  “Well, why not? The good Lord might use the closest things to you, the most important things in your life, to get your attention. Well, I can tell you this much: he definitely has my attention these days,” I said, and blotted a thin film of grease from my forehead.

  “That’s it! Aaron, I want to be with you. I have to. We gotta talk. We have to—”

  “Well, I don’t know if it’s a good time, Trace.”

  “When is it ever a good time? I’m coming. I’m coming.”

  “But my mother—”

  “What about her? You don’t want your mother to know I exist?”

  “I just don’t think it’s a good time to make these new introductions about my personal life right now.”

  “Aaron, weren’t you the one who said a true friend is a friend always?”

  I wet my bottom lip with my tongue.

  “Well, I’m your friend and I want to be there. I don’t care what your mother thinks. She has a lot more things to worry about than me. I have you to worry about.”

  I smiled. Felt a cry caught in my throat. It had been so long since I’d felt that way, I’d almost forgotten how a man’s own tears can startle him. Yet the things that I was feeling seemed natural. Like even though they were rare, they were still acceptable.

  I sat up in my seat.

  “Okay, Tracey. We’re on the seventh floor, but I’ll meet you in the lobby.”

  “Thanks, Aaron.”

  I WAITED FOR HER IN THE LOBBY of the hospital. The vast room was dotted with spaced-out looking visitors who were either pacing or slouched on the burgundy fabric seats. I was too hyped to be still. Kept jamming my hands in the pockets of my too-small jeans. The fashion police would have handcuffed me that day. It was like Hilfiger didn’t matter anymore. I walked up and down the hallway like it was a treadmill until I saw the familiar shape of Tracey’s head as she entered the lobby.

  She looked to the right and to the left. Then our eyes met.

  Her cheeks spread into a relieved grin. Her slow walk transformed into a sprint, and soon we were in each other’s worlds again.

  “Mmmmm, I’ve missed you so much. I have so much to tell you,” she murmured, covering my cheeks with wet and wild kisses.

  I knew I was blushing, and it didn’t bother me as much as I might have thought. I grabbed her hand, gripping it tightly. She squeezed me back, searching my eyes for signs of life.

  “Missed you too, love. You just don’t know.”

  “I do, I do, believe me I do. I’ve been through sooo much.”

  I shot her a look.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry, you have too. That’s one reason why I’m glad you let me come. We need each other, Aaron. We really do.”

  Tracey and I then took a seat in some chairs near the grand piano. I was glad she was there with me, easing some of the pain, reducing some of the loneliness.

  Her eyes traveled the scope of my attire. I waited for her to ask, “What’s wrong with your clothes?” but she simply smiled.

  “You look good, Aaron.”

  “Uh-huh. Well, what been up with you?”

  “Oh, it doesn’t really matter. How are things with your dad? Your mom?”

  “Same ole, same ole. I’m getting tired of this.”

  “Oh, Aaron, why you say that?” She looked stressed. Shocked, I guess.

  “I’m sorta feeling a bit cynical these days. I can’t get over what you said a while ago. That girl named Karma.”

  “Not funny, Aaron. I don’t wanna hear anything like that. If anything, think positive. You gotta think the best, not the worst. You are not to blame for what’s going on with your father, Aaron.”

  Her tone was sharp. Eyes ablaze. We were no longer holding each other’s hands. I felt abandoned just that quick.

  “WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG, SON?”

  I stood in the middle of the doorway to my father’s room. Tracey was right behind me. I felt her firm breasts pressing against my back.

  Took a deep breath.

  “Mom, there’s someone I want you to meet.”

  I stepped aside like a curtain unveiling a scene on a stage.

  Tracey walked tentatively into the room. Mom’s eyes bored into her with curiosity.

  “Hi, I’m—”

  “Mom,
this is my . . . this is a close, close friend, Ms. Tracey Lorraine Davenport.”

  Nethora Oliver nodded her small head and inspected Tracey from the top of her hair to the tips of her leather boots. Managing a smile, my mother stepped forward. “Nice to meet you.”

  Then Mom looked at me like Why didn’t I know about this one before now?

  I tapped Tracey hard on the shoulder, and we stepped next to my father’s weakened frame.

  I smiled, but it held a hint of bitterness. “That’s him, Tracey. That’s my dad.”

  She reached out and stroked Dad’s arm, rubbing it and rubbing it like she was a mechanical device.

  “Hi, Mr. Oliver. I’m Tracey, Aaron’s friend. I want you to know you have a wonderful son.”

  I punched her.

  She jerked her shoulder.

  “You have nothing to worry about, you’ve raised a fine young man.” Her warmth embraced me as she smiled, her pupils a sea of water. I blinked like my vision was about to disappear. Never wanted things to be like this. Never thought that the first meeting between the lady in my life and the man in my life would be under these circumstances.

  I glanced at Tracey again. This time her eyes were shut tight; I could see her mouth moving like she was mumbling. Her voice a faint whisper, but then, like the clanging of a church bell, her words began to rise:

  The Lord is my shepherd

  I shall not want

  He maketh me to lie down in green pastures

  He leadeth me beside the still waters

  He restoreth my soul

  Then Mom’s voice began to layer on top of Tracey’s. Two women strong. The words of God filling up the hospital room, filling my dad’s soul, mind, spirit, and body. I wanted to join in, but couldn’t recall all the words.

  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me

  All the days of my life

  And I will dwell in the house of the Lord

  Forever.

  Amen.

  I closed my eyes briefly and repeated, “Amen.”