CHAPTER 13
Dilvan
Dilvan sat out on the front deck at his house, listening as ocean waves crashed together. He hadn’t eaten any of the spread Beatrice laid out because his appetite was just like his wife – gone.
“What did you do, Dilvan? What did you do? You’re so stupid. So stupid!” he said, hitting himself in the forehead with a closed fist.
He asked himself that same question over and over again, but didn’t answer it.
He couldn’t. Answering it would mean admitting something was wrong with him, and that wasn’t the case.
He was perfect. Everything he did was for a reason.
That’s what he always told himself, but this time, he couldn’t truthfully answer why he mistreated Gabrielle.
Yeah, he wanted to get back at his mother, but what did that have to do with Gabrielle?
And she’d saved his father’s life. There was nothing he could do to repay her for that. Absolutely nothing.
Beatrice interrupted his thoughts when she came strolling out onto the deck. “Can I do anything fuh ya before I turn in, suh?” she asked.
“No. Thanks, Beatrice.”
“If you don’t mind my nose in your business, suh, I didn’t ‘spect you home ‘til Sunday night.”
“Yeah. I um…I decided to come home early.”
“Well, I hope er’thang is okay.” Beatrice turned to walk away.
“Beatrice,” he called out, then turned to look at her.
She was instantly appalled by his bloodshot eyes and the overall look of despair on his face.
“Um...” he said, trying to find the right words to express what he was feeling. “I messed up, Beatrice. I messed up.”
Beatrice waddled closer to him and pulled out a chair. Never in her four years of working for him had she seen him so downcast. He looked like he was about to have a breakdown.
“Am I a bad person?” he asked her.
“Well, suh...”
“Be honest with me, Beatrice.”
“I think you’re harsh wit’ certain peoples,” she told him. “You’ve always treated me kind, and I ‘preciate that, but you treat lil’ Mrs. Gabrielle like she has a plague. And she’s such a sweet girl.”
“She is a sweet girl,” he admitted, barely above a whisper.
“Don’t think I heard you correctly, suh,” Beatrice said, sounding bewildered because while she didn’t hear him clearly, she caught a semblance of what he was saying. Did he really say something nice about Gabrielle?
“I said, she’s a sweet girl,” he repeated, covering his face with his hands. “Did you know what she did for my father? Everybody else knows. I figured you’d know, too.”
“What do you mean?”
“You remember when my father was sick?”
“Yes, when he needed the bone marrow, and y’all boys were all rallying fuh matching donors. I ‘member that. I felt so bad that there was nothing I could do.”
Dilvan nodded. “Turns out Gabrielle was a match,” Dilvan said, swallowing hard. He dared not cry. “My father is alive because of her, and I hurt her. I hurt her, Beatrice, because I was upset with my mother and I–I took it out on Gabrielle when all she ever tried to do was love me.”
Dilvan hid his face in shame, then stood up, walked down the stairs, and wandered out onto the dark beach.