Chapter Twenty-Nine
Selling Dreams
Menace
I hadn’t seen my niece in a few months, and you could tell. That girl hardly came up for air all the way through dinner. As we sat around the living room relaxing afterward, she told us about her field trip to Chicago and described a large dinosaur skeleton she’d seen.
“It was the coolest thing, Uncle Menace. The absolute coolest. That thing was so tall.” She stressed the last two words. “And the food is the best up there. They have all these different types of authentic food. Will you go back with me so I can show you, please? You’ll love it. I know you will!”
“That part I could almost take the trip for. As to the dinosaur bones,” I canted my head.
I’d take her. If I could, I’d pack her up and take her to see anything she asked. At this rate, I just hoped to be around to see the eagles’ nest one more time.
“What do you have against dinosaur bones?”
“Nothing. They’re alright, I guess.”
“You haven’t ever seen one.”
I laughed, guilty as charged. “I saw a thing an owl hacked up one time, in biology class. We picked it apart and had to lay out the rodent bones inside the– well, nest of upchuck.”
“Gross,” Rumi said with more approval that I probably could have gotten out of a boy her age.
“Yeah, that’s about all the animal bones I can see myself admiring. Those eagles that nest along the river road, though–”
I tried to steer her off topic, ’cause it was bringing me down a little.
“They just left. They’re only around from December to March,” she pointed out.
“It’s a date then, December.” I smiled.
Octavia glared at me. Sammy stared at her ice water.
“You missed my awards ceremony.” I zoned out as she talked about some cheerleading award or other.
I blinked, feeling something bump my hand and realized she was handing me her award certificate. It was a cardboard-type paper or something with a bit of weight to it. There was a gold sticker in the center with an official embossing around it.
“Oh, wow,” I drawled, admiring the fancy scribbling on it. “So, you can finally do all the tricks huh?”
“I think it just means she has the loudest mouth and smiles the most,” Octavia teased.
“Hey,” Rumi protested with a guilty laugh.
She whipped around and pinned me with a squinted gaze. “Promise you’ll be there for my first cheer next season?”
Octavia sucked in a breath, cleared her throat, and sat up, “It’s getting late, you should get your bath, Mija. Do your homework and get laid down. You have school tomorrow.”
Rumi shot toward me and flung her arms around my neck.
“Please, please…” she whispered.
“I wouldn’t miss it, love.”
She laughed, gave me another hug and tore off for the bathroom. Octavia glared at me.
“Menace, I’m gonna say this one time. Do not sell my daughter dreams. She deserves better than that.”
I felt Sammy tense beside me as the mood around us turned frosty.
“I’m not selling anybody anything.” I denied, unwilling to back down.
“No? You’re actin’ real fuckin’ pendejo, you know that? You ain’t goin’ to no damn game and you know it. So, stop building her hopes up for people who ain’t gonna be there, and shit that ain’t gonna happen. She’ll be dealing with me not being there. She doesn't need your bullshit on top of that. You ain’t gonna be free that long, is all I’m saying. So, stop.”
My gaze narrowed on her, and I knew from the tension in my jaw, she could see every nasty sentiment I’d managed to keep from spewing as it was etched plainly on my face. I’d always been terrible at hiding shit like that!
“I wish you both a good night,” Octavia said, her gaze flicking to Sammy.
She hurried off to the little room where the washer and dryer were kept and shut the door behind her.
I sighed, and Sammy’s hand blanketed mine.
“Sit by the pond with me for a while?” she quietly asked.
“Yeah,” I rolled off the sofa and held out my hand for her, “Let’s get some fresh air.”
I stared at the door of that laundry room, but somehow managed not to go after Octavia and tell her how wrong she was. Instead, I led Sammy out to the pond.
The moon was full, but the clouds were thick. It was warm for a Spring evening.
“Gonna rain,” I mused.
“I like rainy nights.” She smiled and sank onto a log.
“Me, too,” I agreed, watching the distant lightning. “The storms were about the only thing that blocked out the sound of my mom entertaining her men or fighting with ‘em. Always slept good those nights.”
I sank down on the log beside her and reached out to give her knee a squeeze.
“You think Griz has lost his shit yet?”
Her head snapped toward me so fast I thought she meant to spit, “You’re stuck on that guy.”
“Which one?” I teased, flinching my brows a little.
She shook her head and grinned, “I’ve no idea whose bike is in those pictures. I posed on a wedge in her studio. After I left, she photoshopped the wedge into a bike, because I told her you were a Savage. I didn’t know she’d use a local bike, let alone a Savage’s bike for the picture. She showed it to me, but– I don’t know one bike from the other. I just knew it was green. “
“You really never even met him?” I laughed.
She shook her head and lazily raised one shoulder. “I don’t think so. That’s how it is with most of them, though. I didn’t even know which one you were, like your face. If I were at say the county fair, I could look around and be like oh, that guy drinks with my dad sometimes, or he is wearing a similar jacket, but–”
She raised both shoulders this time, “I don’t know names, or positions, whatever it is the patch says.”
She ran her finger across the top of her chest where my Road Captain patch sat on my vest.
“Oh,” I was a little surprised by that admission, her being the president’s daughter and all.
“Yeah. I mean– I know who Henny is, but that’s just because he drank at the house with my dad when I was in High School. I remember his patch said, Vice President.”
“Huh,” I leaned in and kissed the side of her head. “The pictures were beautiful. I regret that I didn’t get to bring them with me.”
“They really tried to kill you?” she whispered.
I raised a brow and met her eye, “You closed my chin–”
“You escaped a county jail. Any number of things could have caused that.”
I dismissively sniffed and nodded, her question bringing more emotions than I realized I was packing about the matter.