Comin' Home to You

by Dustin Mcwilliams

  “Scar,” breathed Luella. “I loved Roy. He was my first born. But you know how he could get. He was stubborn as a mule. And you know how much of a bully he was. You know this. He bullied you even when you were a toddler. That’s how he was. He got a kick out of it.”

  Befuddled, Scar’s eyes darted to person to person. “I don’t get it. Are you taking his side?”

  “I will always defend and love my family, Scar. But I see Owen’s side to this as well. He had a little baby girl to protect.”

  “Protect? Roy wouldn’t hurt a little girl.”

  “But did you hear what he said, right son?”

  “Yeah, he wouldn’t know what would happen to his daughter if he died. Convenient excuse.”

  “But a correct one. You and Ben still remain the only Tomkins in Adrienne, correct? Besides your kids.”

  “We’re the only Tomkins in this state as far as I know,” answered Owen.

  “A lot of them changed their names,” added Ben. “Frightened sacks of shit.”

  Luella turned to Scar. “I believe Owen. He killed Roy. He admitted to that. But I don’t think he’s lying. This wasn’t about hatred being families.”

  Scar could only shake his disbelief.

  Owen was tired. A soft pillow and a bed called his name. He crossed his arms, ready for this to end. “I did what I had to do. You live by that same creed, Scar, of doing what you have to. We protect and raise our families so they can live better lives than us. That’s who we are. Men who face their problems head on and get shit done. So let’s get more shit cleared up so we can get on with our day. Clint needs to stay the hell away from Austin and Ali. He is not to have any contact with them.”

  Ali had a puzzled look on her face, but didn’t disagree.

  Stunned, Scar had to stop himself from laughing hysterically. “The fuck? Seriously? You making demands now?”

  “It’s for the best interest of Austin. You know it to be true. Clint will stay away from them. Alright?”

  Scar scratched his scruff and gave an unpleasant face. “Fine. I don’t think he would object to that. He never cared.”

  “So you agree with it?”

  “Possibly. What about me?”

  “I don’t like you, Scar. But at least you care about Austin.”

  “I want the best for him, just as much as you do.”

  “I’m sure you do. But he’s eventually going to find out about what you do. I don’t want him going down that same road.”

  Scar took offense. His eyes squinted in irritation. “Seriously? You think I want that shit either? Hell no! I want him to be a professional baseball player or a doctor or whatever the fuck he wants to be. Why the fuck would I want him to be some drugged up dealing lowlife? I never wanted to do it either. I had a full fuckin’ ride to play football at Texas A&M! But I came back when I heard that Roy had gone missing. Left it all behind. And now, here I am, doin’ what my brother does.”

  Luella raised her eyebrow and touched Scar’s hand. “Then stop. Seems simple enough.”

  “I can’t! I want to be the best and…why the fuck am I talking about this? Especially to you? Shit, I can blame this whole mess on you.”

  Owen was in disbelief. “Now that’s a convenient excuse. You still could have chosen whatever you wanted to do with your life.”

  “All I wanted was vengeance. Then I got a taste of the money. There was only one path for me. Then, when Austin was born, and I saw that beautiful face, I knew what my purpose was. I started saving money for him so that whenever I’m gone, he’ll be set to do what he wants. I’ve done a lot of bad shit for that boy, but he’s set because of me.”

  Nicky took a long hard look at Scar, rubbing the hair on his goatee over and over again.

  Ben decided to pitch in his two cents. “Yeah, he’s set. You know, if you don’t get caught by me. Then bye-bye to all your assets.”

  With his mouth agape, Scar was honestly shocked at what he heard. “So you’d actually take away a member of your family’s inheritance? All that money that he could use to be fed and clothed and to go to college, you’d take that all away from him?”

  “He don’t need dirty money.”

  “I earned that fucking money with fucking blood! You’d really screw over Austin like that, huh? Owen, you hearing this shit?”

  “Having a bunch of money by ill-gotten means doesn’t make you happy,” stated Owen. “It wouldn’t make Austin happy either.”

  “You’re both fucking stupid,” piped Scar. “You’d really jeopardize Austin’s future for some bullshit moral code? Owen, you let your girlfriend suck and fuck anyone for drugs, and you’re trying to give me fucking advice? Fuck you. You are both fucking idiots. You’d really risk Austin’s entire future for morality? What about you, Ali? You gonna pass up all that money for him? Shit, he’d have so much that there would be enough for you to keep buying all that meth you love. Fuck you, fuck all of you. I ain’t gonna get caught. Not by you, Ben. Not by anyone. Fuck you.”

  Once again, silence reigned after Scar’s spiel. Luella sensed bloodlust in the air, so she decided to be the one bringing the talks back on track. “So, you just want Clint to step away and we can still have a part in Austin’s life. Is that correct?”

  “As long as your family stays civil, we will too. But Clint will have no more part in his life.”

  “I’ll go to court for it,” mentioned Ali. “File a restraining order. Whatever I have to do.”

  Luella sighed. “I tend to agree with you. I love my boy. I love all my children, but I heard the filthy name he called Ali. I’ve also heard that he can get rather physical. My eyes may not be that great, but I can see some red marks on your arm there, Ali. Tell me girl, where did you get those red marks?”

  Ali didn’t want to say anything, but all eyes were on her. “They’re burns.”

  “Burns. And tell me, where did you receive these burns?”

  “My house. Earlier.”

  “It was Clint, okay?” blurted Scar. “I get it. He’s a terrible influence on Austin. Fine, I agree. He stays out of the picture. I’m sure he doesn’t give a shit anyway. Now, my turn.”

  Owen exhaled. “Go ahead.”

  “You remember where you buried Roy?”

  “I do.”

  “Where?”

  “Lake Fork. A swampy area off the beaten path.”

  Scar moved a step toward Owen. “You best remember. Tomorrow, you gonna take me there. You and me. No one else.”

  Ben interjected. “Don’t do it, man.”

  “Why not? It’s the least he can fuckin’ do for what he did. Roy doesn’t deserve to be buried at that shitty lake.”

  “Owen, it would bring us some closure,” Luella confessed. “I think your mother would want you to do the right thing. She didn’t want any drama between the families either. This is the chance to write a new chapter and move forward. Ben, I don’t want to have to go through some long drawn out legal drama. What can you do? Can you make it seem like a drowning accident so we can close the case quickly?”

  Looking at Scar and remembering that he was being blackmailed if he didn’t comply, Ben heistantly replied. “Kinda hard to do that if the body is buried. Best I can think of is to dig it up, fill in the hole, and bring the body back here inside Adrienne city limits. Then, we can have someone anonymously say they found the body. It’d be easier for me to cover it up if it is the town. I can do that, as long as you get rid of that recording, Scar.”

  “After.”

  Luella cleared her throat. “And if I may make a request, I think you should pay for the funeral.”

  That request made sense as Owen nodded. He committed the murder, so taking care of the funeral arrangements, especially for a nice lady like Luella, was something he could do. He wasn’t sure how he’d pay for it. He’d have to ask Ben for help, but his brother probably wouldn’t mind complying with this request, just to get the monkey off of Owen’s back. But being out in the middle of nowhere with Scar seeme
d a bit risky. But he didn’t see any other choice, as now he added protecting his brother’s livelihood with his decision. “Tomorrow. 11 a.m. We leave from the Shell station parking lot on Main. You can follow me there. Alone. If I see anyone following you, then the deal is off.”

  “I can handle my business myself.”

  Extending his hand crossed his mind, but he decided against it. “Then until tomorrow.”

  Scar nodded. “Tomorrow.”

  Luella half-smiled at both Owen and Scar. She was pleasantly surprised that these talks went somewhat peacefully. Scar turned around, perhaps to talk to Nicky. But Nicky had already left and entered the house during the talks.

  Mulling whether or not he made the right decision, Owen paced back to the truck with Ali and Ben following. His thoughts went a mile a minute. This sounds like a setup. It has to be one. I’m going to get lured out to the middle of nowhere, and he’s gonna put a bullet in the back of my head. It’s obvious. Blood for blood. But I got to do this now. Shit. Is this my last day?

  Ali stopped him and looked her father in the eyes. “What the hell, Dad? You should have talked to me first.”

  “He’s trying to get me alone and kill me.”

  Ben nodded his shaved head. “That’s what I think too.”

  “Yeah, but, damn. Would he really lie like that in front of his own mother? I mean, what if he is actually telling the truth? What if all he wants is to bury Roy?”

  Ali’s face scrunched up. “I think he’d say anything to get his way.”

  Ben looked up to the sky in disbelief. “You gonna put your trust in him? That’s dumb, bro. Dumb.”

  “Dumb? Yeah, probably. But hey, I ain’t got long anyway. It’s worth a shot.”

  Was it actually worth putting his life on the line? Owen asked himself this over and over. Peace between the families? That was almost a make-believe ideal. If he were to die, he wouldn’t even know if a permanent armistice ever existed. He’d rather just stick with his original plan in taking out the two Grayson brothers. But if this peace lasted, then Austin wouldn’t have to live a future knowing that his relatives murdered one another. He asked himself if Scar thought the same. Probably not, but he also wondered if Scar was changing before his eyes, especially when he defended Ali’s honor by striking his younger brother. That still boggled Owen’s mind. If this was all a façade, then Scar was quite the convincing actor.

  “Guys, someone has to cast the first line here,” confidently spoke Owen. “Might as well be me.”

  “Then I’ll go ahead and make the funeral arrangements for you too, bro, because that’s what’s going to happen.”

  “Dad, he can’t be trusted.”

  “Fuck, I know. I know I am flirting with death. But as I told you, I’m already one foot in the grave.”

  “Don’t say that,” Ali pleaded. “You can survive this cur-, cira-, suh-, I don’t know what the fuck it’s called.”

  “Cirrhosis. And you see what I am doing?” Owen pointed at the can in his hand. “I’m drinking beer. It’s not if I die, it’s when. I’m aware of this. So I will be the one to take this chance. Obviously, if I don’t come back, you know what happened. But if I do, then I might have just made a difference in you and Austin’s life.”

  “But Dad!”

  “Let me do this, girl!

  Ben opened his mouth to argue, but it slowly closed. He knew there was nothing else to say. His brother was stubborn and wasn’t budging. He instead conceded with the decision. “I hope you know what you are doing, bro.”

  Owen said nothing. Tomorrow was the make or break moment for his family. It could be the pinnacle of change or the end of his life.

  Chapter 14

  As Nicky opened the front door to the Grayson home, he expected to see a vehement and ranting Clint ready to go to war with his own brother. Instead, he saw Mary sitting on the couch with a cigarette between two fingers in one hand, and a red colored wine cooler in the other. She was watching Wheel of Fortune and mumbling incoherently.

  Nicky took a seat on the couch a cushion away from her. “Mary, where’d Clint go?”

  “Clint?” muttered Mary. “I thought I heard something. I guess that was him.”

  “Do you know where he went?”

  Mary took at least thirty seconds to answer. She was easily distracted by the wheel spinning on the screen, where it landed on the $500 space. She guessed the letter P, though the contestant incorrectly guessed a Y. “You might try the back door. I think I heard it open and close or something. I don’t know.”

  Nicky could tell something was amiss. “You alright there?”

  “Yeah. Good. Fucking wonderful, actually. I took a Lortab a little bit ago. My head’s been hurting, so yeah.”

  “So why are you drinking? Eh, never mind. I don’t care.”

  Nicky rose up from the couch, eager to remove himself from the scene. But Mary half-heartedly stopped him by grabbing his wrist with a silly grin pasted on her face. “Hey wait. Remember when we used to drink beers and make out in the woods?”

  “Yeah. That was like 20 years ago.”

  “It was eighteen years, six months and four days since we had our first kiss.”

  “You have to be fucking kidding me, right? You actually remember that?”

  Mary burst out laughing. “No. Like I could remember that shit. I can’t even remember what I had for breakfast today. I think it was waffles, but now I am starting to think I had a bagel. With a coffee. I definitely had a coffee. I think.”

  Nicky decided now was the time to take his leave. “Yeah, okay. I’m out. Later.”

  Just like that, Mary’s attention was back to the television. She was always weird. Most of her adult life had been spent in and out of jail for drug charges, mainly for possessing meth. But early on in their teenage years, Nicky had a little bit of a crush on her, mainly because she was willing to reciprocate his carnal desires. Whenever he moved in with Scar after fleeing his abusive father, a lot of the time was spent together with her. They would swipe beer that Roy had stocked in the refrigerator and run off into the woods. They would get drunk and experiment sexually with each other. His most vivid memory was getting his feet eaten by ants while performing oral sex on her. But around her senior year in high school and Nicky’s sophomore year, she started to grow distant when she became hooked on drugs and alcohol. Eventually, they stopped talking completely. Today was the first time he had spoken to her in a couple of years. He didn’t reflect on those times too often, if ever. While they were enjoyable at the time, they weren’t exactly worth reminiscing over.

  Once out the back door, Nicky looked around from the wooden porch. Seeing this as a good time as ever, Nicky lit up a cigarette. As he watched the smoke move away from his exhaling breath, he noticed the gray barn about the length of a football field away. His eyesight was slowly getting worse as the years went on, but he could see movement inside of the barn. That was another place he used to play in as a boy. Back then, the barn was used as an actual barn. Roy showed calves through high school and did pretty well, winning quite a few prizes. But it was this location that he and Scar acted like superheroes, jumping off square bales of hay and defeating imaginary villains. They would also get into wrestling matches and mimic their favorite wrestlers, like the Macho Man Randy Savage and Mr. Perfect. Other boys would come over and it would be an all-out free for all melee for the championship belt, which was a leather belt with a gold bull riding buckle on it. He understood why this place brought back memories like a powerful tidal wave. This was where he truly grew up and lived his life as a boy and a teenager. They were memories that could never be forgotten.

  After half of the cigarette was now smoking ash, Nicky walked toward the barn, having a feeling that is where he needed to be. With each step, voices inside the barn could be heard. By the time he got there, his cigarette was spent. Tossing the useless butt on a small fire ant hill partially hidden in the medium length grass, the eyes of Clint, BJ and Bird Dog watched h
im enter the barn.

  “Took you long enough,” nasally berated Clint, his face showing the effects with crusty dried blood under his nose. “Ready to fucking do this shit?”

  “Whoa, whoa. Before you go doing something stupid, I got some info you might want to know.”

  Despite his face looking like a toddler’s terrible attempt at applying makeup, that same intense look he had earlier when he attacked Owen remained. Breathing in a sad and blocked breath through his nose, Clint cracked his knuckles with pressure from his other hand. “What info?”

  “Tomorrow. Around 11 or so, Owen is taking Scar out to Lake Fork to dig up Roy’s bones. It’s gonna be out in the middle of nowhere. So, tomorrow, if we’re gonna do this, it needs to be then.”

  Clint turned to BJ and Bird Dog. “I don’t think I can wait that long to fuckin’ kill that motherfuckin’ brother of mine. We’re doing this shit now.”

  BJ and Bird Dog agreed both verbally and non-verbally, like the henchmen that they were.

  “No. We need to wait until tomorrow. It’s a perfect time to get this done without anyone knowing.”

  “It ain’t about that anymore,” approached Clint. “Nah, it ain’t just about taking out Scar. Me and the boys been discussin’ a couple things pretty hard.”

  Nicky’s interest was piqued. “What are you talking about?”

  “Tell ‘em, boys.”

  BJ was way too excited to be the one to answer. “We’re takin’ over this bitch.”

  Confused, Nicky was wishing he wasn’t so interested. “Taking over what? This barn?”

  Bird Dog took a drink of his beer, disagreeing while the brown glass bottle was on his lips. “This whole operation. We taking it.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “You heard the boys,” proudly boasted Clint. “Scar fucked up, and it ain’t enough to just kill him. So once he’s fuckin’ in the dirt gettin’ eatin’ up by worms, we’ll be runnin’ this shit and making shit tons of money. We’ll be the big dick swingin’ motherfuckers taking control!”