Chapter 11 #2
The door to the house opens and Arthur comes out with a gun in each hand.
“Is that normal?” Grayson asks.
“Crazily enough… it is,” I say as I watch him go over to the golf cart and get into the passenger seat.
He just sits there, and it’s quite apparent he’s going to sit there until I get out of the car.
I take a deep breath and get out, Grayson and Trav following me. I get into the driver’s seat as the other two get in the back and begin driving.
“You look good,” I say.
Arthur looks over at me with an arched eyebrow. “Of course I fucking look good. You think I was going to look like my bitch ex-wife? All shriveled up and wrinkly?”
“I don’t know.”
“Of course you don’t know, you little bitch, because you just fucked off for no reason,” he says.
“I know you made my son run me to all of those damn appointments. We nearly killed each other twice… a day. And I fucking know he wasn’t doing it out of the goodness of his heart.
You paid him. I know you did, you little piece of shit. ”
I never knew how good it would feel to be cussed at with such conviction.
“He was really awful,” I whisper.
“I told you!”
“But I couldn’t do it.”
“What were you busy doing? Hopefully something useful.”
“No… I wasn’t… I’ve been bad. I’ve been really fucking bad,” I admit, feeling ashamed. “Things got dark but I’m doing better now.”
“So you just fuck off and don’t see me or come to me for help?”
“I couldn’t come back.”
“You couldn’t or you wouldn’t? There’s a big difference there.”
“I was a coward.”
“You still drinking?”
“No. I’m trying not to. I’ve been good. It’s been a couple of months now.”
Arthur scowls. “Then why didn’t you come see me?”
“Because I really am a coward.”
“We already established that.”
“I couldn’t… I couldn’t face you.”
“That’s the stupidest damn excuse I’ve ever heard. I tried for weeks to get rid of you as a child, but you just kept coming back, and then when I’m finally to the point where I’m like ‘Fuck it, might as well accept this,’ you leave!”
“It took you twenty years to accept me?”
“Give or take a year or two.”
I can’t help but laugh. “I missed your meanness.”
“Well, I didn’t miss you,” he says.
“You didn’t miss me, but you tracked down Grayson here and made him track me down?”
“Did no such thing. Grayson, huh? Why’s that name sound familiar? Ah, right. This is the guy you were in a dither about.”
Oh no… “Nope. No idea what you’re talking about.”
“No idea, eh? Frankly, I remember you getting all flustered every time he sent you a text. It was embarrassing. I was embarrassed for you. Every time your phone made an obnoxious noise, your entire body lit up like one of those irritating lights that shine through the window when you want to sleep. But every time you saw it was someone else, your whole body would deflate and it’d make me cackle. ”
“Oh?” Grayson asks.
“Don’t ‘Oh,’ you’re supposed to be waiting in the car,” I say. “Arthur, this is Grayson, a man I am currently only tolerant of.”
“Ah… so you went from blushing bride to playing hard to get, I see. How’s that going for you? Not quite sure that’s going to get you laid.”
“I’m not looking to get laid, thank you very much.”
“Bet I’ve had sex since you have.”
Grayson is laughing up a storm back there and it makes me want to push him out of the golf cart. I should have known better than to let him around Arthur.
“Did you two even date before you got to the post-marriage part of your relationship? You know you’re supposed to at least wait until after the wedding to start the bickering.”
“We kissed a couple of times. Does that count?” Grayson asks.
I turn my head to give him a look. “Don’t you dare join in on this.”
Grayson is all smiles. “Of course not.”
I glower at them both. “None of this shit is happening, you hear me?”
Arthur nods. “I hear ya yapping, but I’ve known you long enough to not listen. And did you forget that I’m mad at you?”
“I thought we were over that.”
“Not in the slightest. You sicced my son on me, so I’m going to be mad at you until the day I die.
He played it sweet for a couple of days.
I saw the way he’d caress anything in my house worth any money.
He’d say things like, ‘Oh, I’d love this.
And this would look fantastic in my house,’ as though he was just waiting for me to croak!
That was until I showed him my will. He knows I have money but he’s getting none of it.
Good test to see if he was there for the money or for me. Clearly, it was the money.”
“What are you going to do? Burn it all in front of him and your ex-wife as you leave this world?” I tease.
“Don’t even act like you don’t know you get it all.”
I freeze before I slowly look over at Arthur. “What do you mean I get it all? I don’t get any of it.”
“Why the hell not? You’ve been a better kid to me than my own kids ever have.”
“Have I? I left you when you needed me the most.”
“Needed you the most? You think I let a little cancer get me down? I’m in perfect health now, thank you very much. That’s not to say that I’m not pissed at you. I’m plenty pissed at you.”
“You were born pissed at me.”
“Nah, I was born mad at you. I became pissed at you.”
I stop the golf cart out in the middle of the field and he stuffs the rifle in my hands.
I carry it out and set up his chair and then the spotting scope in front of it just like the old days.
He used to be able to scout things out from on the ground behind me, but as he got older, a chair made it easier for him.
“I made my shithead of a son move the targets for when you came next,” he says.
“Yeah?” I ask, feeling oddly emotional that he was so convinced I was coming back and wanted me to come back so badly.
“Get your ass in position.”
“I’m getting,” I say as I set my rifle up and lie on the ground in front of him, legs spread.
“I like being close enough I can kick him in the balls if he gets it wrong,” Arthur comments, reminding me why I hate having my legs spread out so he can be close enough to me.
“This is why he’s so damn good with a gun? You kicked him in the balls until he got it right?” Grayson asks.
I don’t have to be looking at Arthur to know that he’s grinning up a storm. “Sure as fuck did.”
“You were in the military?” Grayson asks curiously.
“Sure was.”
“Were you a spotter?”
“Nah. A sniper.”
“Ah, so that’s why Cal’s so damn good at this.”
“Taught him everything I knew and then he ran off and got better than me.”
“How dare he!” Grayson says.
“Right?”
I look away from my gun to send them another glower. “You’re supposed to be directing me, not shit-talking me.”
“Yeah, yeah. Let’s go. You find the ridge of trees?” Arthur starts, giving me a rundown of where my target is by giving me landmarks to work off.
I shift the gun so I’m facing that general direction. “Got it.”
“To the left where the pines meet the ridge.”
I shift a little to the left. “Got it.”
“There’s a dead tree at about four o’clock.”
“Contact,” I say, seeing exactly what he’s talking about.
“The target is about ten feet in front of it.”
It’s now my turn to tell him what the target looks like so we can verify that we’re looking at the same target and not looking at something different. “Target looks like your ex-wife.”
That makes him laugh, even though the target really is just a silhouette.
Once he’s done laughing, I say, “Target is a silhouette leaning slightly to the right. Tall grass on the lower right, sapling to the left. To my three o’clock is another silhouette.”
“That’s your target.”
We used to have to run through a lot more things, but as I got older and better, it became more casual. More fun than technical.
I give him a “Ready” and prepare my breathing.
He gives me a wind call.
And I fire.
“You see, Grayson, I’m not even needed. I just like shouting out demands and making him obey me,” Arthur says.
“You’re needed,” I tell him.
“Did I say you could stop focusing?” he grumbles as he gives my leg a kick.
“I don’t think the spotter is supposed to kick the sniper, are they?” Grayson asks.
“Of course they are. How else do you get them into shape?” Arthur gives me another kick.
“This is a very vulnerable position,” I growl.
“I see no issue,” Arthur says. “You’re letting them balls of yours dry up anyway.”
“My balls have seen far more action than yours have of late.”
“So you think. I go to bingo night not to play but to scoop up the ladies who don’t win.”
“Just stop,” I say as I laugh.
We go through a couple of targets before I stop and bow my head, feeling like I need to get this out there. “Arthur… I really can’t tell you how sorry I am. How much I fucked up.”
“You don’t need to apologize to me,” he says.
“I do. You don’t know how much it meant to me that you were there for me whenever I needed you for most of my life. And the very moment you needed me, I couldn’t be there.”
“You’re acting like I was on my deathbed. I was fine.”
“No. It wasn’t fine. None of it was fine. I really… I really fucked up.”
“The thing about having kids is that no matter how much they fuck up, you just have to keep taking them back. Honestly, knowing that you were in so much pain and I couldn’t help you was worse to me than whatever bullshit I went through.
If you want to talk, I’ll listen. If you want to pretend none of it ever happened, that’s fine too. I’m not a picky man.”
My eyes sting, but I chuckle. “You’re the pickiest man I’ve ever met in my life.”
“Not if you do it right the first time,” he says.
I smile. “Thank you. I really can’t express how much it means to me that you’ve done so much for me and are willing to keep doing things for me.”
“I’m still training you to shoot my ex-wife.”
“You’re not supposed to joke about that with others around. Grayson might think you’re serious.”
“I am serious!” Arthur says with a laugh.
When we finally finish up, it’s getting dark and we really should head back before it gets to be too late.
“I’ll be back…”
“Hopefully no time soon,” he says.
“You’re so mean to me. What about this weekend? I’ll take you out for dinner to that Chinese restaurant you love.”
“You know I hate that restaurant!”
“Well, I love it and we’re going to it.”
“You’re a little shit. Is your boyfriend coming?”
“He’s not my boyfriend.”
“Your friend who is a boy.”
“I think he’s heading home.”
“I don’t have to be,” Grayson says.
“You’re really never going to get laid at this point,” Arthur decides.
“Hey, at least I’m not still fixated on my ex-wife to the point that I want to murder her.”
“Huh… I guess that’s true. If you want your part of the will early, you know what you need to do.”
“You’re awful,” I say as he cackles his way back to the golf cart.