“Your father has asked for you to come see him, Gage.”
“Ma. You know how I feel about him. I neither want to see him or talk to him. He’s left us alone since the day I was born—ha. Even before I was born. Why now?”
Here we go. Another mercy conversation. Lord love her but my mother only wanted to see the best in people. Even after everything he’s done to her, she didn’t have a bad thing to say. Just the card she was dealt. I got you and that was the best hand I’ve ever had. Sometimes I just didn’t get her. But then I didn’t get most women. They baffled the hell out of me.
“Gage,” a heavy sigh escaped from her lips and she looked tired. Really tired. “You need to see him. Get whatever it is you’re feeling off your chest so you can live without this thunderstorm over your head, honey. Now sit, have breakfast before going to the station. Another ten-fourteen week?”
“No, mother. Me and the guys work a twenty-four then we’re off for a forty-eight.”
I sat down and let her make me a plate of bacon, eggs, pancakes, biscuits and hash browns. Trust me, if I got up and tried making my own plate, she’s likely to clobber me with a frying pan. I was a smart man. I did what I was told.
“Dang, ma. Gonna feed an army?”
Her laughter rang out as I heard a knock on her screen door. I leaned back in the seat to see cousins and my best friends, Jake Walford and Stephen McKowski walking their sorry behinds in.
“What are y’all doing, guys?”
For as long as I could remember, Jake, Stephen and I had been best friends growing up. We lived in a small town on the outskirts of Houston, in a little town called Beaumont Place. An unincorporated community in east central Harris County. Between Beaumont Highway, more aptly named now, Highway 90 and the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks. It was a tight community in the Sheldon Independent School District.
All three of us graduated from C. E. King High School and while the other two became fireman at Sheldon Community Fire and Rescue, I had left to become an EMT for three years in the greater city of Houston before realizing it just wasn’t enough for me. I wanted more. I wanted to come home and settle down. I was thirty now. It’s been seven years since I’ve come home and settling down still hasn’t happened yet.
Plenty of women in this community and I’ve dated plenty of them but there was just no…spark.
“And miss mama’s breakfast?” Jake said as he came barreling into the kitchen, kissing my mother on the cheek before washing his hands and sitting down. Stephen came in more slowly, but repeated the gesture by kissing mom’s cheek and finding a place at the table.
Unlike Jake’s easy demeanor, Stephen was more reserved and never called my mother anything other than Ms. Marono. Stephen was my age and been my best friend since kindergarten but since we all lived in the same neighborhood and Jake’s family lived next door, we had all hung out at the same time, but Jake felt at home here. Which of course my mother loved. Sometimes even his parents came and had coffee before Jake’s dad, Jake Sr., went to work as the Chief of our Fire Department here in town.
Thing about my mother, her door was always open. My father, Chester Swift had paid her hush money to keep news about me quiet and made sure we moved far enough away that I wouldn’t even be a blip on his radar. That didn’t stop my mother from being a free spirit though. She just took it in stride and carried on. Neighborhood kids were always welcome to the house where she normally cooked for at least six. With all the money he sent us monthly, she thought it would be good to give back. That’s how I met Stephen and Jake. Jake’s parents lived next door in a trailer, and Stephen down the street. A small band of brothers and it stuck. Stephen was engaged to his high school sweetheart and Jake was still a bachelor like me.
We’d been lucky enough that we all got the same hours in the same station.
“How’s Christina, Stephen?”
“She’s good, Ms. Marono. She’s getting settled in her new job as an English teacher.”
Stephen and Christina’s story had a dark spot and they came such a long way since the fire that almost took her life two years ago. It had been touch and go for a while until Stephen finally took matters into his own hands and made her his. Or so he says. But that was a story for another time.
“I’m very proud of her. As are your parents. She’s been waiting for an opening in the district and at least it’s in the classification she has a degree in No need to wait. Very proud.”
“Thank you. She loves it.”
“Lord Almighty, Ms. Marono, when will you ever say yes and marry me?” Jake pronounced as he shoveled food into his mouth.
“Manners, Jake.”
He swallowed, smiled sheepishly before wiping his mouth. “Sorry. But your food is to die for.”
“Thank you, Jake. You know—
“Mother.”
She laid a hand on my shoulder and said, “You need to see him, Gage Blake Marono. You need to take care of it. He just wants to talk with you.”
I placed my fork on the plate, no longer hungry. Stephen and Jake kept quiet. Waiting for my blow up. Not that I would. I never blew up at my mother. Or any woman. She taught me better than that. They both looked at me and I let out a sigh.
“I’ll think on it.”
“Thank you, Gage. That is all I ask. I want you to be happy and I know once you put this behind you, you can focus on your life instead of letting the bitterness against him build and fester. Besides, you never know what will happen. Going downtown just might be what you need.”
“Ha. I doubt it. But alright, ma. If it makes you happy.”
“What will make me happy, Gage, is for you to be happy and hopefully married soon with babies on the way and with a dark cloud hanging morosely over your head that will never truly happen.” She kissed the top of my head and left the kitchen. “Just leave the dishes in the sink. I’ll take care of them when y’all set out to the station.”
“Nonsense.” Jake said as he took a swig from the glass of sweet iced tea my mother set out in the middle of the table. “Dishes will be done before we leave. Thank you for breakfast. Perfectly delicious as always. Just so you know, I’m in the market for a cougar.” He winked at my mother who just laughed before walking off.
“Really, Jake? That’s my mother and I wouldn’t want to have to fuck up your pretty face.”
“Hey, at least you admit I’m the prettiest in this group.”
Stephen threw his head back and laughed. Jake’s smile dropped and he playfully slugged Stephen in the shoulder.
“You’re just jealous.”
“Hey, at least I have a girl to go home to. No jealousy needed. What have you got, cuz?”
“Yeah, Christina is hot. It always makes me wonder what she sees in you.”
We all laughed, knowing exactly how perfect they really were together. Stephen had always been a serious type of guy. Even growing up, he seemed like the world had been placed on his shoulders. But then, his father had been a city cop in Houston and was killed in the line of duty. Then his mom passed and all he had was Christina. Christina, was his opposite in every way, but it worked out perfectly in the end. She wasn’t flighty or indecisive. She had a good head on her shoulders and she seemed to make Stephen a little bit more human.
Now if I could only get that lucky.
“How’s Tiffany?”
Ugh. Tiffany.
She’s been coming to the station, bringing me ‘lunch’ and wanting to chat and stuff lately. As if maybe she was wanting more than what we already had. Yes. I went out with her, but the other day I went out to the town’s only grocery store and heard her talking down about someone, body-shaming and calling the girl bad names. I wouldn’t have believed she was like that until I heard it. She was actually a pretty sweet girl, but the way she talked about whoever she was talking about, well, she had this nasty tone as if that person wasn’t worth her time or space.
And I didn’t ignore her either. When I went up to her, it was like she transformed into this woman who was all sweetness and pure femininity.
Fake.
She became fake. I ended up walking her out saying she shouldn’t be saying mean things about someone and she just patted my cheek, told me I was a sweet guy and that she was just kidding with her friend.
Did I really look naïve to her? I didn’t call woman bad names but it was close.
Since then, I tried to ween her out of my life but she wasn’t getting the hint and I didn’t want to be blunt and rude. But I was almost to that point.
“It’s…uh.” I made a face because I didn’t want to downright call the woman a bitch.
“Yeah, it’s uh? Really, bro?” Jake said, laughing as he got up and took our plates to the sink before rinsing them and putting them into ma’s dish washer. Stephen got up and fixed the table.
Damn, my mother had them whipped. Hell, she had all three of us whipped. But then my mother was the type of woman that you just wanted to be a gentleman around. That helping her out was natural.
“She’s not for you, G.” Stephen said and he stretched his arms above his head before walking back towards the living room.
“Yeah, how do you figure, Stephen?”
“Because you need someone you can be yourself with. I think you should do what your mom says. Go see your old man. Use that black card he gave you and actually put a dent in that account. You know it’s probably full of hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
“Close to a million actually. Mom never used it unless she really had to.”
“We know, bro.” Jake said slapping my back in sympathy as we headed out to my truck.
We all lived in the same neighborhood, close to my mom’s house and they walked as we carpooled to the station. Yeah, I was a mama’s boy in some ways. And come on. I was single. My mother knew how to cook and when she did…we all came running.
“Yeah. A million. Go see him, G. Get that shit out your system. Be done with it and him if you have to once and for all.”
“Yeah.” I scrubbed a hand down my face. Knowing what they were telling me was sound and I should take the advice and just get it the hell over with. I knew my mother would deny feeling this way, but it felt like meeting up with him was betraying her somehow. She was my mother. She taught me everything. Him? Not a fucking thing. He wasn’t anything to me but a father who gave up the girl of his dreams because of some social status upgrade. What the fuck ever man. I had two half-brothers and a half-sister that I didn’t even know and I didn’t know if I wanted to know them either. It’s not like they knew who I was. At least, they’ve never contacted me. I was the oldest. Maybe they don’t even know I exist.
Great. Thirty years of no contact and he wants to talk to me now? What the hell did he want? I mean, hell. It’s not like he was going to put me in his will. Not that I wanted to be in it. I had everything I could ever want right here. I loved Beaumont Place. It was a growing community and it was home. My home. Where I planned to live for the rest of my life. Have a family and raise it right here.
But meeting with the old man?
Fuck.