Dana

by Kathi S. Barton

  “No, you got that all wrong. The least I can do is turn my back on you and walk away. But I’ve made a promise and I aim to keep it.” He asked what sort of promise. “Mr. Tucker, husband to the late Elizabeth Tucker, and her parents are here. They want to see the monster, their words this time, who took their first grandchild and then murdered their little girl.” “No, I’m not going to go see them. First of all, I have things to do today. As soon as you help me with my bail money by giving me that girl, I’m going to leave town. Remember me promising you that, Danburn?” “We’re not friends. Don’t call me by my given name again.” Melville couldn’t understand what the big deal was. They were going to be partners in this thing; he’d give him some of the gems and Danburn would make some cash. Not that he needed it. From what he’d seen, Danburn— “You’re going to jail, where they’re waiting for you.” He wasn’t going to jail, damn it. Melville wanted things to just once go his way. And when he was put into the cruiser to drive the less than hundred yards to the jail, not a single thought went through his head on how to get out of this situation. As soon as he was let out of the cruiser, he saw Mel standing there. “Where the hell did you get that kind of money? And why are you wearing a suit? Somebody die?” He said his mother did. “Besides that; and it’s not like you even knew her. For all you know I could be the one telling the truth and these men are lying to you.” “They’re not. I’m here to meet my dad and my grandparents. I’m twenty-five years old, and I didn’t know anything different than what you said to me. Now I have a whole family that, thankfully, doesn’t include you.” Mel looked him up and down before sneering at him. “You killed any chance I had in having a normal life. One where you didn’t lie to me every day.” They entered the building that housed the cells that he was being led to, but also the lost and found, he’d figured out, and a plethora of other small-town things. He was walked by a couple that looked like they were old enough to be Mel’s grandparents, and another man that looked very wealthy. Melville thought that before this was finished, he’d see about getting a reward for bringing their little boy into the world and away from the druggie. He was going to come out smelling like a fucking rose before this was done. The woman stopped his progression to the cell. “You the one that took my grandson?” He said that he was the one that saved him. Then she spit on his face. “You deserve whatever hell they can put you in, you murdering son of a bitch. You killed my daughter.” “No. Like I keep telling these guys here, she was full of drugs. I could smell them on her. And she was high as a kite when I took the baby. What was I supposed to do? Just leave it there for the other heathens? I saved his life, and that is what you should be thanking me for.” She spit on him again. “Listen lady, I can understand why you’re upset, but there isn’t any reason for you to keep doing that.” “They found no drugs in her system when they did the autopsy. Not only that, but the cut that you slit across her throat, you mother fucker, didn’t kill her until she bled out. You took her child from her while she was still alive. Then you just walked away. Had you checked her medical bracelet and given us a call about any of the things that happened that day, not only would I have my grandson, as we should have, but my daughter as well. You took them both from us.” “No drugs?” That wasn’t right. There had to be drugs in her system. He’d seen her when she was begging him for a fix. Now that he thought on it, even after all these years, she did try to tell him that she needed a hit, not a fix. To him it had been the same thing, but perhaps she’d been telling him that she needed a shot or something. “Well, I’ll admit to making a mistake on that one, but how was I supposed to know? I knew nothing about her sickness.” “You would have if you had read her medical record.” He asked when he was supposed to do that. “The facts were on the bracelet that you stole. I’m assuming that it was you that took it. Right?” He had, but said nothing to the man now. “You monster.” “Now look here. I did bring the baby into the world. I did raise him to be mine. I did that, but you got no reason to be calling me a monster. I’m a person, just like you are, who made a mistake about something. You can’t be blaming me for that, making a mistake. Nor can you go about calling me a monster. I’m just a man.” “You killed her.” He looked at Mel and rolled his eyes. The dummy was going to speak now? Just what he needed. “You murdered her as surely as you’re going to jail for what you did to me.” “Oh my, you look just like I did when I met your mother.” The man, he had no idea what his name was other than Tucker, hugged Mel to him like he was his long-lost son. He supposed he was, really, but that wasn’t any call for him to treat him the way he was. Mel had never hugged him. Not that he’d allow that. He didn’t really care for him, not really. “He’s a dummy. Can’t read nor write.” The grandma asked if he was dyslexic just like his mom was. “Yeah, that’s what they called it, but he can’t read. It’s why he’s lost so many jobs and such. You should have seen his grade cards before the state put him in the special classes.” “Your mom had to be helped that way as well. They didn’t know as much then as they do now about dyslexia. We’ll get you some help and you’ll be right as rain.” Mel hugged the elderly couple and Melville wanted to puke. But he was taken to his cell and was actually glad for it—the less he saw of them all fawning over each other, the better he liked it.

  Chapter 10

  Mel was at work the next morning after meeting his grandparents and dad. He wasn’t sure what to call them, nor what to do with them. He’d given them a hug, just to see his—whatever Melville was to him—just to see him getting jealous. But now he was at a loss. “You think you’ll go and live with them?” Mel told Denny he didn’t think so. “Did they at least ask you to come see them?” “Yes. But I don’t know. I told them that I’m trying my best to get my life together, and I love it here.” He said he did too, that Sapphire was good to work for. “She gave me an advance on my next check for that new suit. She said that I have to make a good first impression—you don’t get a second chance at that. This keeps up and I won’t have a next check.” He knew how much he was making an hour, but he didn’t have any idea how that would compute into his checks. Numbers were worse than letters in getting them all messed up. He supposed it was all right. Now not only did he have a roof over his head and a place that he could call his own, but he had a car. It was old and sometimes had to be sweet talked to in order for it to start. It had been Kendrick’s before she married Danburn. It had surprised him to find out that she’d been as broke as him when she’d married the king of dragons. “You get them plants in the dirt over there and then we’ll call it a day. I’m beat. And Sapphire told us to get to bed early, because of tomorrow being the grand opening and all.” He was supposed to wear his dress shirt not his tee tomorrow, so that people would know that he was important. “I’m going to be working over here on the last of the trees. You holler if you need me.” He loved working with Denny. He was kind, and his wife had been just as nice as anyone he’d ever met. Every day that Denny and he worked together, he’d have a nice lunch from Mrs. Denny. That’s what he called her, Mrs. Denny, and she got the biggest kick out of that. But tomorrow was going to be a big day, and he didn’t want to mess it up. He thought he’d do much better knowing that his dad was put in jail. Melville had killed his mom. How he’d done it, Mel wasn’t sure. He’d heard two different stories. One, he’d shot her up full of drugs and taken him. The other, he’d cut him from her belly after cutting her throat. He believed that Melville could have done either one, but he believed the second one more than the first. It was like him to kill someone over anything. Melville had been good to him, he supposed. He’d only cuffed him a couple of times in all their time together. Once he’d lost his temper with him and had put him in the hospital for a week when he’d gotten in trouble over his learning at school. Melville had wanted him to believe that it had been all his fault, but he knew better. He was a mean drunk, and a mean sober man too. After getting the flowers in the barrel the way he liked them, he went to help out Denny. The man was a wonder at orga
nizing things, and he just put things where he wanted them. It was his way to do things, and since he’d never messed with his way of doing things, they got along just fine. After that, they headed to their homes. He got the car to start on the first try. As he was driving home, careful of each stop sign and the town’s single light, he thought about his life up until meeting Sapphire. She looked like she was about his age, maybe just a little older, but he knew her to be well older than even his grandma. She aged well, she’d told him when he’d asked her. Like that was a reason she was so beautiful. But instead of acting like his sister or something, she treated him more like she was his momma and he her son. It was a good feeling knowing that if he messed up, she’d protect him first, then tell him what a screw up he was later. Not that she did things that way, but that was what he felt like. She was his teacher, mom, and protector all rolled up in a pretty woman that loved him. And he loved her too. He’d not said that to her. And he never would, he thought. She was good to him, and he didn’t want to mess that up with emotions. Emotions, he knew, could get you into deep shit. Or so that’s what Melville had told him. So far, the man had been a wealth of misinformed information, he was figuring out. Bullshit, that’s what he knew that Sapphire would call it. The knock at his door startled him. When he went to look see who it might be, he backed from the door at the woman standing there. Why would his grandma be coming here in the middle of the evening? Opening the door, he didn’t invite her in, but it seemed moot since she came right on in anyway. Then his dad came in. “I wanted to try and convince you to come and live with us. It’ll be so nice having you there.” He said that he didn’t know just yet what he was going to do. “Yes, you do. You just don’t want to tell me. You want to surprise me. Ask anyone I know, I hate them. Surprises, I mean.” “I don’t know anyone you know.” That took her back, he could see it on her face. “I’m not sure that I’d fit in with you all. I like things here, and since Melville is in jail, I think I’ll be just fine. I’m glad that we’ve found each other, but—” “You just don’t understand. It’s been twenty-five years, and I want my grandson to come home with me.” He glanced at his dad, who never said a word unless he was asked something directly. And he never spoke to Grandma. “Roger, tell him that I need for him to come home with me. I need to have him there because of my daughter.” “You should listen to your grandmother, Mel. Did you know that we were going to name you William? It would have been Will too, not Bill.” Grandma told him to shut up. Then she seemed to remember herself or something and asked him to please not babble. “Anyway, you should listen to her. It’s easier.” The last was said very low. Like he knew she was hard of hearing and didn’t want her to know it. Looking at her, at the woman that had given birth to his mom, he realized two things; she was a bully, and she wasn’t nice to anyone. Not really. “I want to stay here. It’s my home and I have friends here.” She started to cry, and he looked at his dad again, who just barely shook his head. This was the strangest conversation that he’d ever had. “I think I’d like for you both to go on home. I have a big day tomorrow, and I don’t want to mess it up by being tired.”

  “You don’t have to work. I have money.” Not we, but I. He’d noticed that too about her. She was very possessive. “Come on now. You don’t want to live like this when you could have everything you ever dreamed of. Now, let’s get you packed up. Roger, see if he has anything nice to wear home. And see—” “I’ve decided that I want to stay here.” But she ordered Roger around like he was her maid or something. “Did you hear me? I don’t want to go with you. I want to stay here. I have a job, and this is my home.” “You’ll see. Once you get to my house, you’ll see all that you’ve been missing.” He said he couldn’t miss what he didn’t know. “You’re being obtuse right now, and I don’t care for it, Elizabeth.” The room seemed to just pause in that moment, like the house knew what she said but it was waiting for someone to confirm it. When Roger stopped moving toward his bedroom and stood next to him, he thought for sure they were going to just take him away and not care a fig for his opinion. “You’ve done this, and he said no.” Dad’s voice had gone hard then. Before it was all buttery, like a stick of it that had been out in the sun too long. “You and I should go. He’s made himself perfectly clear that he wants to stay here.” “But he’s my only connection to my daughter.” Mel told her that he wasn’t the daughter but a full-grown man. “And that man, that monster, took her from me. I want you to come home with me, damn it. I have a lot of years to make up for.” “I’m not a dog, lady, that you can take home and paper train. I’m a man who has a job, a house, and all the stuff that I love. The person that I work for, Sapphire? She’s been the best for me. Giving me a chance when nobody else would. I didn’t need you in my life before, and if you’re going to try and bully me around, I’ve already had that. And so you know, I don’t need a keeper. I think you should go home now.” Mel went to the door, his back feeling like it was stronger than he’d ever had it feel. Even his mind was clear on what he was doing. He was standing up for himself, something that he’d not had a lot of practice in for his entire life. When he opened the door, he stood there while she cried. He wanted to tell her that tears didn’t bother him. But the truth was, they cut him to the quick. “I just don’t know what to do.” She sat down on his couch, but he didn’t move. “She was taken from me, and we’d had a fight. I don’t remember what it was about.” “Yes, you do. You fought with her about me.” Dad sat down on the couch too, and he thought about just going to bed but wanted to hear this. “You have never liked me, Beth. Never even after it was figured out that I didn’t kill my wife. You still blamed me.” “You should have taken better care that she didn’t get killed.” Dad stood up then and came to stand in front of him. “Roger, please, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.” “I’m glad you did.” Dad looked at him. “You’re just what I had hoped for in a son. A good man, a better man than I am. You keep right on standing up for what you want and what you believe in. And if you’d not mind, I’d like for you to meet your halfsisters and brother.”

  “I’d like that too. I’ve been an only child for all my life.” They laughed. “You know where I live, you come on back and see me anytime. But call first. I’m going to be making some money now, and I might be working.” Hugging his dad felt different this time. It was meaningful. He hugged him a second time when he started to release him. And when they parted, he noticed that he was crying like he was. After shaking hands, he left him there. His dad wasn’t coming back to make him go with his grandma and would probably leave town as soon as he got his things. That’s the way it should be, he thought. “Grandma, I want you to go home.” She started crying again. “Won’t work on me. I told you, I don’t know you all that well, but I have my own life, and tears from you aren’t going to make me change my mind.” “I just wanted to be a part of your life.” He told her no she didn’t. “Yes, I did, Mel. I really wanted to make you happy.” “You wanted to run my life, and we both know it. You would have had me all dressed up in a suit every day, meeting people that you know and doing what you wanted. I don’t want that, you do. You want to be a part of me, then you have to realize I have my own thoughts and ways of doing things.” She nodded. “Your head is saying yes, but I can see that you’re not going to give up. I’m not going back with you. I love what I have here. You have to get on with your life, Grandma, or you’ll be a sour old woman that nobody wants to be around.” “When she left that morning, I was so mad at her. She and Roger were going to move to California for a year. I’d not see you in the first year of your life.” He wanted to point out that she missed more than that, but didn’t. “I told her that I never wanted to see her again if she was going to be like that. That she should...that she should just move away and not send me pictures or anything. Little did I know that all that would come true.” “I’m sorry.” He was too. Who knew what sort of person Grandma might have been if his mom hadn’t been killed? “If you want to be my friend, I can do th
at. But I’m not going to go with you. I’m not going to be someone that jumps when you tell him to, either. And what you did to Roger? You should be ashamed of yourself. That man lost his wife and his baby, me. You treated him terribly, and that’s not right either.” “I’ve blamed him all these years because he was the one that wanted to move out there. It was for his job, and he would have come home. He did come home after the year. But I broke him too, just like I did my daughter.” Mel asked her about the other children. “He kindly, even after all I did to him, offered for me to be their grandmother, but I turned him down. They don’t like me any more than you do.” “You really are a screw up, aren’t you?” He didn’t even regret the words after saying them. “Are you going to be able to live with yourself if anything happens to them? I mean, you lost your daughter with harsh words. What happens if you never get to know his kids? You have to remember, he lost as much if not more than you did, right? I’ll tell you, you’ll die a lonely old woman with no one to mourn your passing. Is that what you want?”