Tenure Track

by Victoria Bradley

  From what Lewis knew of Mandy’s mother, it was hard to imagine her ever married to Darryl, much less him being the love of her life, as Mandy optimistically imagined. Father and daughter were a different story. Despite their differences in grammar, manners, and overall countenance, it was easy to believe that Mandy came from Darryl’s loins. Lewis noticed that, not only did they shared the same hair, eyes, and nose, but they also used many of the same mannerisms when speaking—a certain way each raised a hand, flicked a wrist. Lewis had noticed Mandy making such gestures hundreds of times before. Now he could see that they were traits she had inherited from her absentee father. Evidence of nature over nurture, he thought. DNA is a curious thing.

  Darryl introduced his companions as Tiny (a misnomer if there ever was one), the band’s bass player, and Tammy, their lead singer/pianist and Darryl’s girlfriend. They had already completed the mike check and were just taking a quick break before their set began. All three band members focused the conversation on Mandy, asking all about school, her summer job, friends, etc. Lewis was happy to be ignored, but still felt relieved when the time came for the trio to take the stage.

  Their band was pretty good. Tammy had a soulful, though not exceptional, voice that did a fair job of covering old tunes such as “Me and Bobbie McGee.” At one point when a few observers hopped up and started dancing, Mandy impulsively dragged Lewis to the center. He tried not to look too ridiculous as he shuffled around. He much preferred watching Mandy bounce around with loose joy, a self-confident ease. Lewis wished he could feel that comfortable in his own skin. She seemed to be able to move effortlessly between worlds, just as comfortable in a stuffy law firm or the state capitol as she was in a seedy biker bar. It was a gift Lewis wished he had.

  Shortly before ending their set, Tammy turned the mike over to “her old man,” for a special performance. Darryl took center stage with an acoustic guitar. “I usually don’ bother gettin’ up har to sang. I like Tammy’s voice better’n mine. Dontchyall?” He continued amid applause for the lead singer. “But tonight I wanna sing ya’ll one of my favorite songs. Done first by the late, great Conway Twitty, it give me the name for my one and only baby girl. Well, at least the only baby I know’d of.” More laughter among most of the crowd as Mandy’s face registered a mixture of slight embarrassment combined with awe.

  “Anyways, my baby girl, Mandy Rose, is in the audience tonight, so I wanna dedicate this song ta her. Baby, this one’s fer yew.” Darryl then launched into a soulful, bluesy version of “Amanda,” that had several female members of the audience in tears, including Lewis’s date. No matter what mistakes Darryl Taylor had made in his life, everyone listening that night knew that he loved his daughter.

  The performance seemed to put everyone more at ease. At least, Lewis felt more comfortable, complimenting the trio when they returned to the table. Tiny soon went off with the other musicians as Darryl and Tammy both rested their voices by lighting up menthol cigarettes. Loosened up by dancing and two beers, Lewis tried to engage Darryl in conversation. “So, Mandy tells me the band is just a part-time thing for you.”

  “Yep, kinda a hobby, ta blow off steam. ‘Minds me of my younger hell-raisin’ days. Me and Tiny gotta shop just outsidda town—motorcycle repair and tattoo parlor. I fix the bikes, and Tiny does the tats.” Lewis wondered if Tiny was the artist behind Mandy’s tattoo, but the thought made him a little uncomfortable. He tried to change his focus.

  “Did he do your tattoos?” he asked, admiring Darryl’s arms.

  Darryl nodded, sipping on a cola. The professor thought a compliment might help. “They’re very good.” He turned to Mandy and pointed towards the image on Darryl’s right arm. “Is this one you?”

  She blushed and nodded slightly.

  Darryl raised his bicep, glancing at the rose. “Tiny done it when we was in prison. He used the only picture I hadda her. Wearin’ this made me thinka what I had ta live fer while I was gitten straight.”

  Lewis fidgeted in his seat. With one statement, the father had managed to remind the boyfriend that he had been in prison and that his baby girl meant everything to him. All that was needed was a shotgun and Lewis could have been living a country and western song.

  About that time, Tammy excused herself to go to the restroom. In typical female fashion, she asked Mandy to accompany her, no doubt to quiz her about Lewis. As the ladies shuffled off to find a restroom, Darryl’s expression changed as he switched from fun-loving biker musician to father alone with daughter’s boyfriend. He shot Lewis a skeptical stare. The professor took a large gulp of beer, then attempted to break the silence with small talk. He chose to go with, rather than against, the flow of the conversation.

  “So you and Tiny met in prison?” he asked.

  Darryl leaned back in his seat, resting a hand on his waistband. “Yeah. He was in fer ag assault, but he’d done been saved. We got together over music and he helped me get my act together. That’s why we’s brothers of the soul. ‘Still kill anybody who hurt the other.” He darted his eyes menacingly.

  Point taken.

  Now Lewis tried to swim against the flow. “Tammy seems nice. How long have you two been together?”

  “Long enough. How long yew been with my daughter?” Darryl asked quickly.

  Lewis knew better than to respond with the same vague answer. “Uh, since May, I guess. A couple of months.” He would not press further for a definition of “been with.” He didn’t have to.

  “So, yew fuck a lotta yer students?” Darryl asked.

  Lewis choked down a swig of beer. “Uh, e-excuse me?” he sputtered. Apparently Darryl’s level of salvation still allowed for a colorful tongue.

  “Yew heard me.” The older man’s stare bore a hole through the professor. “Yew make a habit a this?”

  Lewis regained his composure. “Uh, no. No, sir. Mandy’s the first student I’ve ever dated. She’s really special.”

  The father’s face remained stone cold as he assessed whether his daughter’s suitor was being sincere. Years of experience working with addicts had perfected Darryl’s internal bullshit meter. He was pretty good at differentiating between someone who was telling the truth, lying, or just lying to themselves. He was still trying to figure out which category fit Lewis when he fired the next question. “Yew love ‘er?”

  Lewis felt the blood rush from his head. “Excuse me, Sir?”

  The hardnosed biker was getting tired of the professor’s same response to every question.

  “Yew heard me. Do. Yew. Love. Her?”

  “I-I don’t know,” Lewis gulped. “We’re still getting to know one another.”

  Darryl harrumphed from his chest. “From what I understand, yew’ve known ‘er almost a year. ‘Met when yew was still married.”

  A drop of sweat fell from the nape of Lewis’s neck all the way down his back. “Yeah, yeah. Well, w-we were just friends for a long time. Colleagues. I mean, nothing was going on when I was married. We didn’t start dating until after my divorce was final. I promise.” He raised his hand as if taking an oath in court.

  Darryl now rocked back and forth in his chair, folding his muscular arms across his belly. “So yer not gitten back with yer wife or nuthin’?”

  “No, no sir. We are divorced.” Lewis assured him. “Totally clean and clear. I hope I never see that woman again.”

  “So watcha doin’ hangin’ ‘roun’ with a buncha kids fer? Why dontcha go find yerself a nice gal yer own age?” Darryl pressed.

  That was the same question Lewis had been asking himself ever since his visit with Ben, but still could not articulate an answer. The fact was, he knew he probably should be looking for someone closer to his own age, someone who was not a student at his college. Perhaps he really was making a fool out of himself by hanging around Mandy and her friends so much, but it made him happy.

  “I enjoy Mandy’s company,” he admitted to the imposing father. “And I like her friends, even if they are a bit younger than me. Matur
ity-wise I think they’re probably older.”

  Now Darryl reared back in laughter, agreeing that was true of most male-female relationships. “Good!” he declared, slapping Lewis on the back. “But I hope yew ain’t jus’ usin’ mah girl to git over that other gal. I know ‘bout that stuff. I hurt a lotta people in mah time, ‘specially Mandy’s momma. She hates mah guts and I don’ blame ‘er. I don’ ever want nobody ta hurt mah baby like that. She still has a sparkle to ‘er. Ya know? I don’ wan’ no boy ta take that away by breakin’ her heart. Yew been around awhile, yew know how it goes. Yew do right by ‘er, ya hear? She’s jus’ a girl.”

  Lewis nodded. Although he disagreed with the description of Mandy as “just a girl,” he agreed with the sentiment that he did not wish her to get hurt. At this point, however, it almost seemed inevitable.

  Lighting another cigarette, Darryl tipped back in his chair and squinted his eyes at the professor. “Yah, know, the best thing I ever did in mah life was ta make Mandy. And the second best thing I ever did was ta leave her and her momma.”

  Lewis looked at him quizzically, interrupting his beer sipping.

  “Yah see,” Darryl said, leaning in closer to his prey, “I was just a messed up kid back then. I didn’t know nuthin’ about nuthin’. All I ever done was get loaded and imagine I was gonna be some kinda rock star. Kathy had it goin’ on, ya know? I’s scared shitless when she tole’ me ‘bout Mandy, but I wanted ta do right by ‘er. I didn’t have no money, so I stole one a my Daddy’s shotguns and sold it to buy the ring and license. We run off ta get married over Christmas break. Ya know what my Daddy done when we got back and told him we wuz married ‘n’ havin’ a baby?”

  Lewis shook his head.

  “He broke mah jaw for stealin’ his gun,” Darryl said, rubbing the side that had absorbed the greatest impact. “He wuz a mean son of a bitch. That’s what I knowed about family. Kathy’s parents, they was salt a the earth. Best people I ever knowed. They took us in, let us live with ‘em while Kathy went to school and I healed up.”

  “So why’d you leave?” Lewis asked.

  “I told ya, I wuz nuthin’,” Darryl repeated. “‘Couldn’t hold a job, couldn’t even talk for months with my mouth wired shut. I just laid around feelin’ sorry fer myself and wantin’ ta get high. Kathy wuz workin’ her butt off goin’ ta school. I loved that gal more’n anybody I’ll ever love, but I wuz just dead weight, draggin’ ‘er down. I didn’t know what ta do when Mandy come along, she was such a helpless little thing. I knew they’d be better off without me, so I left.”

  “Didn’t you think she might need a father?” Lewis bravely asked.

  “That’s what I’m tryin’ ta tell ya,” Darryl said, waving his burning cigarette for emphasis. “I wadn’t no kinda father back then. It wuz better that she didn’t know me ‘til I got straight. She was better off bein’ raised by Kathy’s folks. And Kathy, look what all she wuz able to do without me draggin’ her down. That woman may hate me until the day I die, and that’s okay, ‘cause I know she hadda better life without me. I may’ve been screwed up, but I loved ‘er enough to know that. I done the right thing.”

  Lewis started to respond, just as Darryl greeted the women returning from their bathroom excursion. As he smiled at them, he gave a knowing glance towards Lewis, as if to advise, Yew think about what I said, ya hear?

  Later, as they were driving home, Mandy asked Lewis what he and her father had discussed while she was away from the table. He edited out most of the content. “His business sounds interesting,” Lewis commented. “Bikes and tats.”

  “Mmhmm,” she looked at him with mild amusement.

  “So . . . did Tiny do your tattoo?” he asked.

  “What if he did?” she replied coyly.

  “Oh, j-just curious,” he answered. “Your dad said Tiny did his tattoos, so I was just wondering. The one of you was really good, especially considering he did it in prison. They probably don’t have the best equipment there.”

  Mandy grinned knowingly. “You’re wondering if Tiny saw my ass, aren’t you?”

  “I’m sure he’s very professional,” Lewis responded, somewhat defensively. He waited for an answer that never came. “Well?”

  She laughed out loud. “Well, just to ease your mind: his wife did it.”

  He breathed a slight sigh of relief, but tried not to let it show. “I bet your mom loved that!”

  “Oh yeah, she had a conniption,” Mandy admitted. “Of course, she was even madder ‘cause I didn’t tell her about it. She just happened to see it a few weeks later when I was wearin’ a bathing suit. Oh, she called Daddy up and ripped him a new one. I think she took it as a sign of his corruptin’ influence, like I was gonna run off to become some biker dude’s old lady. Of course, I was over 18 at the time, so there really wasn’t anything wrong with it. She chilled out after both my stepsisters admitted they have tattoos only their husbands can see.”

  Lewis chuckled. “So when do I get to meet Mom?”

  Mandy shifted nervously. “You’re not missing anything. Believe me, Daddy’s a lot easier to take.”

  Sensing she preferred he not press the subject, he redirected back to Darryl. “Well, I can tell one thing about your dad: he loves you very much.”

  “Yeah,” she agreed wistfully. “Although he always embarrasses me with that stupid song. It’s so sappy. At least it’s not the Barry Manilow one. Yuck!”

  “Oh yeah.” A mischievous grin broke across his face as he burst into an out-of-tune chorus. “Oh Mandy, well you came and you gave without takin’! But I sent you away. Oh, Mandy!”

  “Shut up!” She playfully tried to cover his mouth with her hand, which he smothered with kisses.

  Chapter 23

  Confessions

  Dana was now seeing Phyllis Smith for counseling two afternoons a week. She never told her parents what was discussed at these sessions, but they seemed to be helping lighten her mood. She was doing well on the court, too. Coach increased her playing time and she met the challenge, producing some of her best games ever. The team won regionals and made it to the state private school playoffs before losing in the first round.

  Her parents never asked again, and Dana never indicated anything was amiss between herself and Coach. After a few weeks with no word from the principal, Jane had tried to call him about their complaint, but only received an official letter stating that “a thorough investigation revealed no misconduct among any of our faculty.”

  Dennis was keeping busy painting the house and preparing for spring gardening. His mother intended for him to work off his sentence by creating an outdoor showplace. Since he had to do it anyway, he took the opportunity to practice his engineering skills, designing and building a fish pond in the backyard surrounded by environmentally friendly xeroscaping. Mitchell Tighe was expelled for the rest of the semester and prohibited from contacting Dennis or creating any new Web pages if he hoped to make up his work over the summer.

  With things seeming to be going well, Jane was a little surprised to receive a call from Phyllis Smith a week before Spring Break requesting a family session. Dana never said anything about it, even though Phyllis indicated that it was her idea.

  Dana and Dennis arrived first, straight from school. Jane and Mark were a few minutes late, having gotten stuck behind a major wreck on the interstate. Phyllis’s office was set up like a living room, decorated with plush, comfortable furniture to give a warm, inviting feel. As Jane and Mark entered the room, they both detected the faint scent of roses in the air. The twins were sitting next to one another on the couch when their parents entered. Phyllis introduced herself to Mark and greeted Jane, offering them both coffee, which they declined. For perhaps the first time ever, Dennis looked a bit nervous, constantly picking at a food stain on his pants. Phyllis invited Jane and Mark to sit down in two chairs on either side of the couch, while she reclined in another on the other side of the coffee table, facing the twins.

  “Well, I’m glad you could
all be here today,” the counselor began. “As you know, Dana and I have been visiting together for a few weeks now. And we’ve finally reached the point at which she asked me to set up this meeting so that she could share some things with you all.”

  As Phyllis spoke, Dennis reached over and grabbed his sister’s hand in a show of support, resting their intertwined fingers on his knee. Their parents only grew more nervous as Phyllis quietly explained the ground rules. “If Dana is comfortable with it, I’d like her to talk first. And I’d ask that no one interrupt, or ask questions until she’s ready. Okay?” Everyone nodded in agreement.

  Phyllis beckoned Dana to begin. The teenager shifted in her seat, and cleared her throat. Her pleading eyes looked only at Phyllis. “Uhm, I can’t remember what I was gonna say.”

  Jane’s heart broke for her child, who was obviously in emotional pain. She glanced at Mark, who just looked confused. Following the ground rules, they let the trained counselor guide the conversation. “Why don’t you start by talking about what really happened the night of the party in November?” Phyllis suggested.

  At this, Dana looked at Dennis, as if to get his permission to speak. He gave her hand a little squeeze and nodded in approval. “Well . . .” The teenager cleared her throat again and looked down at her knee as she rubbed one hand up and down her own thigh. “Uhm, I was at that party that night.”

  “We know that,” Mark interrupted, receiving an admonishment from the counselor.

  “Yeah, well, there were some things I didn’t tell you. Like, I was there for awhile, and I got pretty plastered that night. I mean, really, really drunk.” She paused to take a deep breath. “Anyway, I didn’t get caught ‘cause I flew out a window when Coach showed up. Mom knows some of this.” She looked at her ignorant father, who was now shooting glances at his wife. “I ran across the golf course and cut my arm on some wire when Dennis came to get me. It’s not his fault. He was just tryin’ to help me.”