Chapter 1
Charlie
“Your sister is going to be back in town tonight. I was really hoping that you would stay around until then at least Charlie.”
“I don’t know if I can. Work has been hectic and I need to get back into the city.”
My mom looked at me like she didn’t believe me or didn’t think that it was important enough to blow off what she was asking. It wasn’t work that was going to hold me up. It was the fact that I had other things to do. It wasn’t the 9 to 5 job that kept me busy, but the one that I did on my own time that she didn’t know about that was giving me so much grief. The one that she wasn’t supposed to know about, but always suspected something when her gift cost a bit too much during the holidays. I was still trying to keep her in the dark about work, so it was never a good idea to try and use it as my excuse.
“You are going to have to make time for Sherry. I haven’t seen her all year and it would be nice to have both of my kids back in one place. You know that she is never here long. Don’t you miss your sister?”
Here comes the guilt and I knew I was going to be lost in it if I didn’t find some reason quickly why I couldn’t come. “I do miss her, but she is going to be back for a while I though. Isn’t she taking off a little time before she goes back? Besides, I was supposed to meet Rex later.”
“Well tell him to come over. I haven’t seen him in a while either. I never see you since you moved to the city. I hope that Sherry doesn’t do the same thing. You guys go off to college and don’t come back. You are supposed to come home after you get your degree.”
“I had to go where the money was. No one around here wants to pay anything, so unless you want me pumping gas at the station, there isn’t anything for me here.”
She was rocking back and forth in her wooden rocking chair, a tea in her hand. The porch afforded a good view and mom was enjoying the breeze. What I didn’t understand was why everything had to come down to this. Why was it that she couldn’t see it was miserable in this small town for anyone under the age of fifty? There were no jobs, no people that I really wanted to hang around. Hartford had always been the kind of place that you wanted to leave. It didn’t matter how you got there, it wasn’t an end game place. It was a jumping off place for me and I didn’t want to ever get back to the slow life that I had here. I preferred the fast-paced life that I had made for myself in the city.
“I know son. I just wish you were closer and weren’t so busy…”
“I will try to come out more. The drive isn’t so bad.”
She smiled to herself and we both knew that she had won. Mom got what she wanted by her gentle suggestions because Sherry and I knew that it was her way of manipulating us to do what she wanted. Even though we knew about it, it didn’t change the effectiveness of her tactics after all of these years.
“Good I would like to see you more and for once I would like both of you kids to be home at the same time. We will have dinner. I miss that. If you guys would start having kids of your own, I would have grandkids to keep me occupied.”
“Okay, you win. I will stay till Sherry gets back, but I am not talking to you about grandkids. I don’t even have a steady girlfriend right now, so that is going to have to wait.”
“What about Tina? She seemed like a nice girl.”
I chuckled to myself and shook my head. Tina was a great lay and sucked me off like her life depended on it, but she wasn’t really the type that I would want to marry, if there was even such a thing out there. She was a rebound and I had only mentioned her before to avoid a similar conversation about my love life. It was never what I wanted to have with my mother.
“It just didn’t work out. I am only twenty four. No one that I know is married yet. It is better to find the right one, isn’t it?”
“I guess, but don’t wait too long. I am getting old and your father has five years on me. I would like to see them before I leave this world.”
I smiled at her and shook my head. It was hard to be aggravated with her and at this moment I just couldn’t be. She got her way, she always did and there was nothing that I could do about it. I was told by those who knew us both, that I got that specific trait from her. Not even the devil could refuse me. Well she was the one person that I couldn’t convince.
“Okay, well then I have a couple of calls to make and then I am going to go pick up Rex.”
“Just be back for dinner. I will make your favorite.”
She was bribing me with food now. Roselyn would use anything in her power and since she had always been a great cook that had always been on the blackmail list. I couldn’t say no to her lasagna and she knew it.
“I will be here by six. Dad will be home around then, right?”
Rosalyn nodded her head. “Like clockwork. I wish you would get something like that so that I would know where you were and when to expect you.”
“Okay mom, I got to go. I will be back in a little bit.”
I got off of the porch before I was pulled into something else. I really needed to get back to the city like now, but I was just going to have to wait and see how it went. There was no getting out of dinner and then I would see Sherry. Sherry was like my mom. She would rope me into something. It was what she had done before heading across the country for college. I doubted that anything had changed. The only difference I seen in the summer when she was back was that she was more annoying than usual.
Getting in my little red car, I peeled out of the driveway, but not enough to turn an eye from the older woman on the porch. She would tell me if she thought I was being too rowdy. I looked back in my rearview mirror and I swear that I could see the scowl on her face.
Sighing to myself, I thought about just not going back, but I knew better. I knew that the next time I seen her there would be consequences. It was just one dinner, right? I would be in and out in no time. Rex and I would just have to drive in when it was all over. I had business that had to be taken care of tonight, one way or another. If not, I would have to figure it all out when I got back. I hated to leave the club unattended for too long, especially on a Saturday night. It was like asking for trouble.