by Joachim Jean
Eliza saw the look on Danny’s face change when Simon challenged him, the wrong thing to do to a combat soldier.
“The lady asked you to leave. Now you can leave on your own steam, or I can escort you out,” he said quietly, stepping closer to Simon.
“Are you threatening me?” Simon asked, belligerently, fisting his hands.
“Yes,” Danny said, opening the door.
Simon stood his ground.
Before anyone could blink, Danny put him in a chokehold with his arm twisted behind him.
“Now I’m going to walk you out. If you resist, you will break something, either your arm or your neck, your choice, so I suggest you go quietly. Follow my lead,” he said, dead calm.
Eliza watched fascinated and horrified as Simon shut up and followed Danny’s orders. Danny took him outside, released him, and returned to the house.
“I don’t think he’ll be bothering you again,” he said, picking up his coffee cup.
“You could have killed him.”
“But I didn’t. The Army teaches you to defend yourself and I was a good student.”
The calmness in his body and voice, beguiled the stoniness in his face.
Seeing the transition of this sweet, sensitive young man into someone violent shook Eliza. Yet, there was something attractive about a man who could handle himself physically and keep her safe. He certainly got rid of Simon quickly, before the situation got ugly.
“No one’s going to mess with you when I’m around, Sweetpea,” he said, kissing her.
While Eliza didn’t exactly feel threatened by Simon, more annoyed than anything, she did feel safe with Danny, too safe, triggering a new fear.
Don’t get attached! He’s too young for you. He’ll break your heart.
“Danny…two things—one, I don’t want to get married again. And two—I don’t want more children. Last night, this morning, were fantastic, but I’m not a candidate for little wife and mother…I’ve moved my life in a different direction,” she stated, assuming a man his age would be looking for a wife and mother for his children. She didn’t want to lead him on, so if those were his goals it was better for him to move on now before she got too attached to him or fell in love, unable to let him go.
“I hadn’t gotten that far yet. Can’t we just have fun together? Wasn’t that the plan?” Danny said, his gaze shifting away from hers, avoiding her eyes.
“I don’t want to lead you on in any way. I’d guess you’re looking to start a family…I already have one. I want to be clear. It would kill me to hurt you.” She took his face between her hands and kissed him.
“How could you sleep with Simon? What a wimp,” he said, slipping his hands inside her robe and pulling her body close to his.
Eliza searched his eyes, they appeared so innocent looking but she suspected they held many dark secrets. She kissed him and they stayed in a passionate embrace, their lips locked together until the door opened and the twins bounced in.
“Mom!” Kaitlyn exclaimed.
Eliza jumped back from Danny and closed her robe.
“What are you doing home?” she asked, covering her embarrassment by turning her face away from the young women while she retied her sash.
“Who’s this?” asked Sally.
“Danny Maine, a new English professor. Danny this is Kaitlyn and this is Sally, my daughters,” Eliza said, pointing to each girl.
Raising his hand, Danny tried to smile.
“Hi,” Sally said, with a brief wave of her hand. “So much for ‘we must go home ‘cause mom is all alone’, Kaitlyn.”
“We didn’t want you to be lonely,” Kaitlyn said.
“Sweet, but unnecessary,” Eliza said.
When there was a pause in the conversation, Danny moved toward the bedroom. “Excuse me.”
“Mom, he’s half your age,” Kaitlyn whispered.
“So?” She sniffed, turning away from her daughter’s stare.
“He’s cute. Your taste is improving. Boring Simon…what a loser,” Sally said, laughing.
“How long are you staying?” Eliza asked.
“I’m leaving,” Kaitlyn threatened.
“He’s not staying here. Danny has his own house a few blocks away. We can stay there,” Eliza said, coolly.
When she went into the bedroom to get dressed, Danny was ready to go.
“Let’s go out for breakfast,” he suggested, stroking her shoulder.
“Sure. Be ready in a minute. Why don’t you get acquainted?”
“I don’t like to swim among barracuda.”
“They don’t bite,” Eliza said, kissing him and then shooing him out the door.
Danny sat down in the living room. Eliza left the bedroom door cracked open and chuckled to herself as she pictured him sandwiched between the two girls, nervous as a cat under their inquisition.
“What are your intentions toward my mother?” Kaitlyn asked him.
“Why don’t we get to know each other?” he said.
“I’m Sally, the reasonable one,” she said. “I’m leaving soon to spend my last year of college in Paris.”
“You didn’t answer my question,” Kaitlyn repeated.
“What are you doing next year?” he asked her, trying to change the subject.
Kaitlyn sat silently.
“Kaitlyn is coming to Paris with me. We’ll be studying French language, history, art and stuff like that,” Sally said.
“Sounds pretty exciting,” Danny said. Then he stood up because Eliza came out of the bedroom. She was wearing white shorts and an aqua blue tank top.
“You look great,” he said giving her a quick kiss before turning to the girls. “Nice to meet you.”
“You’re on your own for dinner tonight. Danny and I are going to a church supper and square dance.”
“Why don’t you join us?” Danny suggested.
“A square dance? Get real! I don’t think so,” Kaitlyn said, going into her room and slamming the door.
“A square dance? Thanks anyway,” Sally said following her sister.
“I told you,” she said to Danny and laughed.
“Have you ever done an allemande left?” he asked, holding the door open for Eliza.
Chapter Five
Danny and Eliza danced the first set at the square dance. Then Eliza got confused between allemande left and grand right and left so she retired to a seat near the refreshments to watch. But Danny swung his partner, then his corner, doing the grand right and left with the ease of a professional. At the end of the evening, Danny dropped her at her door, stopping to exchange some steamy kisses in the car first.
“Even if I’m not a square dancer, I enjoyed watching you, you’re fantastic.”
“I love to dance. Callie and I used to compete as a couple in dance competitions in high school. We won a few, too. Do you do regular dancing?”
She nodded, putting a big grin on his face.
“Great,” he said, chuckling. “Any chance to put my arms around you.”
“Good night, sweetheart,” she said, touching his cheek.
“Good night, Sweetpea.”
Danny drove home feeling on top of the world. When he got out of his car, he felt a pricking in the back of his neck as he sensed a presence hiding in the shadows near his front door.
Unarmed, he prepared himself for hand-to-hand combat, flexing his muscles and stopping to let his eyes adjust to the darkness before he approached his target. He picked up a handful of gravel from the driveway, crouched down and crept silently around from behind his car, and threw the pebbles against the house. The figure by the door started. When the man came out of the shadows to investigate the noise, Danny jumped on him in a second and used the same chokehold he had on Simon.
“Hey, leggo,” the bony man said.
“Who are you?” Danny demanded, tightening his hold.
“Leggo,” the man coughed out.
“Don’t move. If you move I’ll break your arm or your neck. Who are
you? What are you doing here?”
“Danny…your father...leggo,” he sputtered.
Danny dropped his hold, watching the tall, skinny man with greasy brown hair turn around to face him. The man smiled a mirthless smile, missing a tooth. He recognized his father. instantly and he felt a flush of rage rise in his neck.
“Hi, Danny. Long time, no see, heh?” the old man said, raising his hand, showing his palm in a limp greeting.
“Aren’t you supposed to be in prison?” Danny turned on the outside light to get a better look.
“Just got out. Thought I’d come to see my only son,” Irvin Maine said, a sly grin spreading across his thin face.
“Skip the crap. What do you want?” Danny asked, making his eyes hard, his stance unyielding.
“Can we go inside?” the man asked, gesturing toward the door.
“No. I don’t want anything to do with you, Pops.”
“Aw, come on. You don’t mean that. You ain’t got family. Kyle’s dead, it’s just me and your mama now,” his father pleaded, his eyes darting around as he inched toward the door.
“You can both go to Hell,” Danny snarled at him, blocking the door with his body.
“How can you say that to your loving father?”
Danny spit on the ground at his father’s feet. “That’s what I think of your shit, old man.”
“I’m kinda hard up, ya know,” his father confessed, his tone softening.
“Tough luck,” Danny said, his hand searching his pocket for his keys, his eyes never leaving his father’s face.
“I need the bathroom, son,” he begged, grabbing his crotch.
Reluctantly, Danny opened the front door and let him in; making sure his father was alone first. Following behind Irvin, Danny noticed how thin his father had become. Either he drank too much again or took drugs, Danny figured.
“Nice place,” he said, his eyes scanning the house quickly.
“The bathroom is down the hall,” Danny said, pointing.
The reappearance of this monster from his childhood unleashed the anger he’d been harboring these many years. Irvin Maine had a reputation as a mean drunk. He would get loaded and beat up his wife and Kyle, then Danny, too, when he came along. Kyle tried to protect him, but he couldn’t. The alcohol weakened Irvin over the years, so by the time Kyle turned fourteen, he could subdue his drunken father. His mother drank, too, but she only passed out.
“How about a drink, Danny?” Irvin asked, licking his lips, his hand shaking slightly.
“Are you joking? I wouldn’t give you a drop.”
“Where did you learn to grab someone like that?”
“I’ve been in the Army, Pops, so don’t try anything.”
“Why do you hate me so much?” Irvin asked, playing for time.
“You’ve got a bad memory. Now you can leave,” Danny said, opening the front door.
“Didn’t we have some swell times when you was little? Didn’t we play catch or something?” Irvin lied, a cold smile spreading across his thin lips.
“No. Get out,” Danny said, holding the front door open wider.
“I’m hungry. Can’t you give me a few bucks?”
Danny reached into his pocket and pulled out a twenty dollar bill. “Here. I’m a teacher, I don’t make much money. Don’t think you can hit up on me again,” Danny said, watching Irvin, intently, making sure not to turn his back to the old man.
“What about the money they paid you in the Army?”
“They didn’t pay much, old man,” Danny said, keeping his eyes on Irvin.
“Used your money up on booze and women, huh?” Irvin said, a nasty gleam in his eyes.
“Get out,” Danny ordered.
“You sure turned into a good lookin’ guy, Danny. Bet you got a lot of girlfriends. Can you fix me up? Mama don’t get out for another couple of months. I’m horny, been a long time,” he said, smiling, sidling up to Danny.
“You disgust me. Get out. Don’t come back. And don’t send Mama either. You two are dead to me,” Danny said, shooting a cold stare at the man.
“I hear Kyle’s girlfriend lives out here…somewhere. Maybe she would be friendly. She’s been alone a long time, like me,” Irvin said, a disgusting leer on his lips.
Danny grabbed his father by the neck and slammed him up against the wall. “You leave her alone. If I hear of you contacting her, I’ll kill you,” he threatened, lowering his voice while tightening his grip.
“Let go! Let go, you’re choking me!” he squeaked, his hands clawing at Danny’s skin, trying unsuccessfully to break Danny’s iron grip, his feet almost off the floor.
“I’ll snap your fuckin’ neck in two if you even go near her,” he said, and then he opened his hand, letting his father clatter to the floor in a heap.
“So you know where she is then,” Irvin guessed, rubbing his neck with one hand while pushing himself up with the other.
“I’m not telling you anything. Does your probation officer know you’re looking for booze and women?” Danny asked stepping back from Irvin and the filth his father presented.
“No, no he doesn’t. You wouldn’t go telling him, would you?”
“Try me, what’s his number?” Danny opened up his cell phone.
“I’m going, I’m going,” Irvin said, moving slowly toward the door, his crafty eyes never leaving Danny’s face.
“Remember what I told you. If I see you anywhere near Callie—”
“Callie! That’s her name! I couldn’t remember. Thanks, son,” Irvin said with a vicious smile, his eyes laughing at Danny.
Danny cursed when he realized his mistake.
“You’ll never find her, old man, so don’t try,” Danny said, covering his fear.
“Oh, I’ll find her. I’m not alone. I got a friend. Yep, your old man made a friend in lockup. Fred Wilcox. And he’s smart. He’ll find her.”
Danny grabbed his father’s arm and twisted until the old man cried out in pain.
“That’s an example of what I can do to you. I can mess you up in places you can’t even imagine. And I will unless you stay away from her,” he warned, increasing the pressure of his hand on Irvin’s arm.
“Oh, I see, you’re bangin’ her, eh?” Irvin said with a mean grin, looking right into Danny’s eyes.
Flinging Irvin toward the door, Danny replied, “You’re disgusting. Get out!”
His father rubbed his arm. When Danny opened the door again, he shoved Irvin’s bony body hard. His father went flying out onto the lawn.
“Get out! Don’t come back here,” he shouted as the old man attempted to get up.
Danny slammed and locked the front door and went to the window in the darkened living room to watch Irvin without being seen. His father, obviously in pain, walked slowly to the end of the lawn where an old model black car stopped. Irvin got in and the car drove away.
Five minutes later, Danny sat in the dark and opened a new bottle of scotch.
* * * *
Monday after lunch, Danny went to the gun store and bought a Remington Tactical Rifle with a 6-18x scope, federal gold medal match 168gr ammo and two military pistols: a Glock compact automatic pistol and a Glock subcompact automatic pistol plus ammo. He put the rifle and ammo in the trunk of his car, the Glock Compact in the glove compartment and the subcompact in his nightstand. He had prepared for his father and Fred.
He stopped by to see Callie in the afternoon and told her about his father’s visit, warning her about the black car.
“Should I tell Mac?”
“Is he going to flip out?”
“He doesn’t usually,” Callie said.
“See if the black car turns up. If it does, then you have to tell him. Not safe to keep him in the dark. But if the car doesn’t show, why get him upset?”
“I feel safer with you here,” she said, hugging him.
“If I wasn’t here, he wouldn’t be either. He wanted a handout. That’s why he looked me up.”
Chapte
r Six
Fruit trees were blossoming, pink and coral colored impatiens were blooming in June in Willow Falls, it was graduation time at Kensington State University. Mac and Eliza were busy helping students straighten out their records so they could graduate, preparing speeches, finalizing sabbaticals and figuring out who was teaching what for the summer semester with department heads.
Danny and Callie found comfort in each other’s company when Mac and Eliza worked late. He loved being an “uncle” to Jason and Kitty. He played tag or hide and seek with them, told Jason all about airplanes, helicopters and tanks. Kitty flirted with him and he played “tea party” with her. The children loved him as if he were their own blood relative.
Kitty developed a crush on Danny. She was a strikingly beautiful child who charmed Danny when she turned her smile on him. He secretly wondered what a child Callie would have had with Kyle might have looked like. Except for the dark hair, maybe like Kitty.
Catching up on old times over wine one night, Danny and Callie waited for their partners to return from work. “How did you manage…after Kyle…? I was a college kid. I didn’t know what to do.”
“Nothing could’ve helped. I took a long time accepting Kyle wasn’t coming home. There isn’t a week goes by I don’t think about him. Don’t tell Mac. He’s still a little jealous of Kyle.”
“I’d be jealous of him, too.”
“That’s not fair. You don’t know Mac, give him a chance. He’s a wonderful father and husband,” she said, putting her hand on his shoulder.
“He should give me a chance, too,” Danny said, defensively.
“He has. It was a shock to him when you came along.”
“He hired me.”
“Let me show you something,” she said, retrieving a rose-colored chest from the closet, filled with memories of Kyle.
Danny and Callie sat together on the floor while she opened the chest. They went over all the items in the chest together. His heart rejoiced to find she had not forgotten Kyle. He touched every Valentine’s Day and birthday card Kyle sent her and most of Kyle’s letters, feeling his brother’s spirit living in the words of love written to Callie. He looked at the envelopes, staring at Kyle’s handwriting as if it were alive. He took Callie’s hand in his.