by H. M. Mann
Gloria stretched out her left hand and took Johnny’s right hand. “Johnny, what I’m trying very badly to say is that I think … I know I’m ready for the next step.”
“With whom?”
Ooh, that sarcasm is starting to get to me. “Just some guy. He delivers pizzas and has strange beliefs about toilet roll placement.”
“He sounds like a real piece of work.”
“He is.”
“And what if it doesn’t work out?” Johnny asked. “You have a backup plan eating pizza in the kitchen right now? An archaeologist with a car that doesn’t suck. It doesn’t even make a sound. Is that how you like your men to be, Gloria? Silent as an overpriced, eco-friendly hybrid?”
Oh my God! She dropped Johnny’s hand. “Johnny, geez. I haven’t seen him in five years!”
Johnny stood. “I knew you liked those foreign guys, Gloria. Sven, Antonio, and now Paul. You said one thing, but you meant another. He’s taller, faster, stronger, and has hair that probably glistens in the sunlight. Nice paycheck there, too. I could sell his car out there and buy twenty Vegas.”
Gloria stood. “You think that I would choose—”
“I’m not sure what I think anymore, Gloria,” Johnny interrupted. “I do know I’m in kind of in a weird place right now. I don’t like weird places, Gloria. I’ve been in too many weird places in my life, and until now, this house wasn’t a weird place.” He shook his head. “How long is he staying?”
“I don’t know. He hasn’t even looked once at me. And we haven’t talked at all, remember?”
“How long do you want him to stay?” Johnny asked.
I never really wanted Paul to arrive! “Till Angel conks out I guess. Maybe ten. Could you at least call me later? We really need to talk.”
There’s that phrase again. I am so unprepared for life tonight. “I left my cell back at the apartment. I’d have to go get it, charge it up, and it’s not exactly on the way to work.” I might get it though, and maybe I’ll even scoop up a ring just for the heck of it to make this holocaust complete.
“Well, if you get it, call me, okay?” Gloria asked.
Johnny nodded. “Might be pretty busy. Thursday night with all the lazy people watching ‘must-see’ TV.” He looked into Gloria’s soft brown eyes. I shouldn’t have looked. I used to see my future in her eyes. He looked away. “I’ll try to call you, okay?”
“Thank you.”
Johnny took a step toward the door.
“Wait,” Gloria said.
Johnny waited.
She took the four presents from under the window. “We each got you a little something for Christmas.”
“But there are four presents,” Johnny said, balancing them in his arms.
“The last one is from all of us.”
“I, um, I don’t feel right about opening them now, I mean, could I leave them here? I, uh, I can come back another time.”
“Tonight?” Gloria’s eyes glistened.
“I don’t know,” Johnny said, handing the presents to Gloria. “Sometime, okay?” When the Frenchman isn’t around acting French and holding Angel’s hand.
“Okay.” At least I know he’ll be back. That’s something. “Drive safely.”
Johnny left the house, got in the Vega, and closed his eyes. I have just left my first real love in her house with her baby’s daddy, and he’s eating the pizza I brought for them to eat. He’ll be there working a puzzle with the little girl who was just starting to accept me six weeks ago—
How much more messed up can this night get?
35
“And you know what, Angel?” Paul asked.
“What, Daddy?” Angel asked.
“We found no pottery,” Paul said. “Caral was a pre-ceramic society, almost five thousand years old. It was as old as the pyramids. And you know how we dated the site?”
“No, Daddy.”
“We used shicra bags.”
What in the world is a shicra bag? Marion wondered. And why is Angel nodding as if she knows what they are? I have to cancel her subscription to National Geographic.
“In addition to fish,” Paul continued, “they also ate squash and beans, Angel.”
“Really, Daddy?”
If that child says “Daddy” one more time, I will smack her, Marion thought.
“And in Egypt, we found the pyramid of Queen Sesheset, who was the mother of King Teti, the founder of Egypt’s sixth dynasty.”
“Wow, Daddy,” Angel said.
Marion almost raised her fist.
“And soon,” Paul said, “I will be returning to Caral to resume my excavations.”
Say what? “You’re leaving again?” Marion asked.
Paul nodded. “I have gotten a grant, and they are very difficult to get. The expedition is fully funded, and I will be leaving in May after the semester ends.”
“But you just got here, Daddy,” Angel pouted.
Of all the nerve! Marion thought. You don’t tell the child who calls you “Daddy” that you’re leaving her within the first hour of meeting her!
“It is only for the summer, Angel,” Paul said. “I will make sure I have satellite Internet set up with a web camera so you can see what I am doing at all times. We can talk every day if you like. And until then, I will visit you every day.”
Gloria entered from the hallway shaking her head. “Um, Paul, perhaps we should talk about that.” She nodded at Marion and raised her eyes to the ceiling.
“Okay,” Paul said. “We will talk about that.”
Gloria kept raising her eyes from Marion to the ceiling.
Marion looked up. What’s she want me to see? More butter?
“We’ll be going outside to talk, Paul,” Gloria said, now staring hard at the ceiling.
Oh, I get it, Marion thought. She wants us to go upstairs.
“It’s kind of stuffy in here, isn’t it, Mama?” Gloria asked.
Marion shrugged. “It’s actually kind of cozy.”
Gloria rolled her eyes. “I’d like you to air out Angel’s room, okay?”
Now I get it. Go upstairs, crack a window, and eavesdrop. Marion winked. I would have done that anyway … “Sure thing. Come on, Angel, let’s go air out your room.”
While Angel and Marion went upstairs, Gloria and Paul put on coats and stepped outside onto the porch.
“She is an amazing child,” Paul said. “It is as if she understands my every word.”
“She does,” Gloria said. “She’s extremely gifted.”
“Yes, she is.” Paul seemed to hug himself.
Narcissistic fool. “I don’t know if it’s such a good idea for you to visit Angel every day, Paul.” Gloria heard a window opening with a little squeak. I hope they can hear everything. What am I saying? Mama can hear through brick walls. Superman should have her hearing.
“I will visit her every day, Gloria,” Paul said. “She is my daughter. A father should see his daughter every day he can.”
“You’re not her father, Paul,” Gloria said.
Paul whirled around. “I’m not?”
Geez, I have to give him a lesson in semantics. “You are her daddy, not her father, and they’re not the same thing. A father sticks around.”
“Ah,” Paul said, “but does not a father also know he is going to be a father before the child is born?”
Gloria sighed, her breath a plume of vapor. “We’ll get to that in a minute, okay?” I have to get good and worked up first. “You will see her when it suits our schedule, not yours.”
Paul stuck out his chin. “And if I disagree with your schedule?”
“You really don’t have a choice,” Gloria said. “Mama and I have raised Angel for five years without you. You can’t expect to come in here and play daddy all of a sudden.”
“I would not … play the daddy.”
“You’ve just said you’re leaving in May, vanishing again for the summer. What’s to stop you from vanishing for five more years, or ten more years? Are you
going to show up at her high school graduation and expect her to be happy to see you? Did you see Angel’s face when you told her about your grant? It’s as if you just gave her the best present on earth and ripped it out of her hands.”
Paul sighed. “But we will still see each other on the Internet every day. We will stay in touch. I will call her and write to her—”
“Like you promised me five years ago?” Gloria interrupted. Sorry, Angel. Your daddy here often says things he doesn’t mean. I hope you’re listening.
“But it was one night,” Paul said. “I said things I did not mean.”
Bingo.
Paul paced the porch. “It was the excitement of it all. I was leaving for Caral the very next day. I did not expect to be with you. Caral would be my first real fieldwork. It was what I had been prepared for, what I had dreamed of doing since I was a boy. I was in no position to make promises to a person I had just met in a bar.”
Gloria stuck a finger in Paul’s chest. “If you make a promise to that child that you do not keep, I will hunt you down, skin you alive, and bury you inside a pyramid for someone to find in five thousand years. And I will find you. It shouldn’t be too hard to find a longhaired Frenchman digging up rancid anchovies in Peru.”
Paul stepped away from Gloria’s finger. “I will keep my promise to Angel. I will help to raise her to be a great woman.”
“You can’t help to raise a daughter who is here when you are in the jungles of South America, can you? It isn’t fair to her, and as for her being a great woman, she’s already well on her way to greatness without you.”
“You would have me not go?” Paul huffed.
Well, yeah. Duh. “You have to make sacrifices when you’re a parent, Paul. I’ve already made plenty.”
Paul shook his head rapidly and sat in Marion’s chair. “Yesterday, I am a single man hoping to see a girl I once knew, maybe go out to dinner, maybe become friends, maybe more. Today, I am a father, not a daddy as you say, a father hoping to see my daughter as much as I can. You cannot expect me to … digest all this in one night.”
“I not only expect you to digest it,” Gloria said, “but I expect you to eat it up and ask for seconds. We’re talking about a little person you helped make, Paul. I don’t care if you’re confused.”
Paul threw back his head. “You are crazy. I am surprised Angel is not crazy like you.”
I’m crazy enough to skin you alive if you hurt my daughter in any way. Gloria nodded. “You obviously have no interest in me, right?”
“I do not think of you,” Paul said. “I did not think of you for five years, and I only think of my daughter now.”
“Whom I raised pretty well, thank you very much,” Gloria said. “Angel is an exceptional child, and she was raised by an exceptional mother. And don’t go thinking you had anything to do with it. Angel is brilliant thanks to me and her grandma. What have you ever done for her? Huh? Did you teach her how to read? Did you supply her with books? Did you take her to the science museum even once? Have you nurtured her in any way, Paul?”
“I will catch up. Yes. I will catch up quickly. She is in a private school, yes?”
“No.” Gloria sighed. “I can’t afford that, but Angel will be brilliant no matter where she goes to school. She has many gifts.”
Paul jumped to his feet. “See? That is where I come in. I can afford to send her to the best schools. I only want what is best for her.”
Oh really? “I want what’s best for Angel, too, but I don’t know if shipping her off to some private school will be what she needs. She’s only five. Maybe when she’s older.”
Paul puffed out his chest. “I was in private school when I was her age. And look at me now. I am a doctor, a professor, and have my name on major archeological findings. I have made my way in the world because of my private school education.”
So why’d you go to UVA? Gloria thought. They must have been hard up to get a prick like you. I’ll bet you put forks in electrical sockets for fun.
“Angel will see that being around other gifted children will only increase her knowledge and improve upon her gifts.” He smiled. “Yes. My Angel will go only to the best schools from now on.”
“She will go where I say she goes,” Gloria said. “And there will be no discussion about it.”
“But you will ruin her future!” Paul cried. “You must—”
“I will raise her as I see best, and that’s all there is to it.” Gloria smiled. “Humor me a minute, okay? If Angel didn’t exist, what exactly were your intentions for your visit this evening? Hypothetically speaking.”
“I do not live in your hypothetical world,” Paul said. “Angel does exist, and I would have no intentions for you anyway. You are a woman who was irresponsible and got pregnant by a stranger she just met. No. I have no intentions for you.”
I could knock him out with a single uppercut to that arrogant chin of his. “You think I’m an irresponsible woman.”
“I do.”
Lord Jesus, I haven’t thrown a punch in a long time. Is this a test? “And you haven’t been irresponsible in any way.”
“I have not.”
Gloria shrugged. “You didn’t have unprotected sex with a strange woman?”
Paul started to answer and stopped. “What we had was a momentary lack of judgment on my part. If I had known what kind of woman you were, I never would have spoken to you that night.”
Gloria heard Marion hissing “I’m gonna kill him!” and smiled. “Did you have even the slightest feelings for me when we made Angel that night?”
“Of course not,” Paul said. “You were certainly not the first.”
Maybe a shot to the stomach after the uppercut. Nah. He’d probably puke pizza on the porch. “So I was just one of your many conquests, huh? I was just another … excavation.”
Paul looked away, spewing a string of French. “You are a crude woman, not fit to be raising Angel.”
Gloria laughed. “Well, at least I’m not a two-faced, lying, arrogant prick who says he’ll do something and then doesn’t do it.”
Paul blinked.
“At least I’m not a pompous ass who thinks he knows what’s best for the daughter he just met today!” Whoo. I am getting worked up now. “You know, Paul, I want you to leave right now.” Mainly so I don’t punch you out, you puke, and my mama kills you while you’re retching.
“I wish to spend more time with my daughter this evening,” Paul said. “We are working on a puzzle.”
“She doesn’t need your help to do a puzzle, Paul.” Not tonight, anyway. I may need him monetarily in the future, so I can’t burn this bridge entirely. “Look, I’m a little angry with you right now, okay? Maybe once I cool off, we can discuss this again.”
“How can you be angry?” Paul asked. “I should be the one who is angry. I have missed my daughter growing up. You did not try to find me!”
And here I was cooling off. Didn’t they teach him logic in private school? You don’t raise your voice to an angry, somewhat spiritual, no drama hot mama. “You said you would keep in touch five years ago. ‘I will keep in touch,’ you said. Do you remember saying that?”
“It is only a phrase.”
So is “death by grandmother.” “Did you keep in touch? No. I gave you my address at school and my address here. You said you would write to me. ‘I will write to you,’ you said. Did you write to me? No. I would have told you about Angel if I knew where you were. But honestly, would you have left all that excitement, fame, and glory, settled down, and helped me to raise a child?”
“I cannot answer that because it did not happen that way.”
I hope Mama uses dull knives. I don’t want this man to die a fast death. “Let me put it another way. If you knew five years ago that you had a child in the United States, would you have come back to the United States to help raise her?”
“Again, I cannot answer.” He stared at Gloria. “I have a feeling just now that you have trapped me.”
>
No. A fast death will suffice. God, send a lightning bolt! Give him leprosy … something!
“I have read about this,” Paul said. “I have read that lonely American women trap foreign men with babies.”
Maybe I’ll just kill him and Mama can clean up the mess. It will be good therapy for us both. “Paul, Angel is your daughter. Your name is on her birth certificate. Legally, you are her birth father, and also legally, I can have your wages taken to pay back child support to the tune of about twenty thousand dollars.”
Paul frowned. “You see. It is a trap. It is all about money with you Americans.”
“It’s about freaking obligation!” Gloria shouted.
“So coarse.” Paul smiled. “But I am not a U. S. citizen.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Gloria asked.
“Your government does not have an agreement with my government for child support,” Paul said. “I have checked. You can get nothing from me.”
Gloria blinked. “How many children do you have? Or do you even know?”
Paul looked away. “It is none of your business.”
There are more children with his big teeth and bad eyesight out there? “What, do you have children in France, Peru, and Egypt, too?”
“As I said if you had been listening,” Paul said, still looking away, “it is none of your business.”
At least Angel isn’t an only child, but wow! I hope they never let him into Asia or Australia. Then Paul would have kids on every continent. Gloria stood in front of Paul. “I can get something from you.”
“No, you can’t.”
Good thing I researched all this legal stuff five years ago. “You’re right and you’re wrong, Paul. True, the U. S. doesn’t have any agreements with France for back child support. But you know what? The state of Virginia does, and since you work for a university in the state of Virginia, and you live in the state of Virginia now, I can get your money, you filthy French freak!”
“Amen,” Marion said from the window upstairs. “Preach!”
Paul tried to get up, but Gloria stepped closer and blocked his attempt, her hand firmly on his chest.