Chapter 13
“Is Daniel going to get in trouble?” says Braedon.
It’s the next day, late Sunday afternoon.
Clay has just explained to Braedon that the bike given to Daniel by the older boys is stolen.
Most likely by those boys. Clay and Braedon are in the truck, headed to Judd’s for Sunday dinner.
Only this one will be different because Teddy won’t be there unless he shows up from wherever he’s been, and Mei, Judd’s girlfriend, will be.
They’re going to meet her for the first time, something no one is comfortable with.
“No,” says Clay. “Daniel won’t get in trouble.
I told the police what happened. That the boys gave it to him, and Daniel had nothing to do with where it came from.
But Daniel will have to turn in the bike.
I just want to figure out a way he can do it without those boys thinking that Daniel ratted them out. ”
“Yeah,” says Braedon. “That would be bad.”
“Really? What else do you know about those boys?”
“Nothing,” says Braedon. “I don’t know anything about them. I don’t know any kids other than Daniel.”
“Don’t worry. You’ll meet plenty of kids when you start school in the fall. And you’ll meet more local kids, too, I bet. It’s good to have different friends in different groups of people. It helps you understand people better.”
Braedon lets that sink in but he’s not sure he agrees.
He spent the first eleven years of his life in Europe and the last few months here in the United States.
It seems to him that people are people. Same everywhere.
But maybe that’s his dad’s point. Knowing that one group of people isn’t better because of where they were born.
Or what school they go to. Or a whole bunch of stuff.
Still, he knows if those boys stole a bike and painted over it, they must be trouble.
And he’s worried about his friend Daniel being on the wrong side of them.
“Dad, how can Daniel give the bike to the police without those guys knowing he ratted them out?”
“We’ll have to work something out. Like Daniel rides it and parks it somewhere and the police find it that way.
And I think Chief Jensen will do us a favor.
Get the bike back to its rightful owner but not arrest the boys.
She’ll just keep an eye on them so if they steal another bike, she can arrest them for that one.
Daniel will have nothing to do with it.”
“Why would the chief do that?” says Braedon. “Are you guys friends?”
“I don’t know,” says Clay. “I just met her yesterday when I talked to her about Teddy. She’s a nice person. I think she’ll help us out.”
They drive in silence for two minutes, then Braedon says, “Do you like her?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, do you like-like Chief Jensen? Are you going to go on a date with her?”
Clay doesn’t answer right away. He doesn’t answer because he doesn’t know. Finally, he says, “How would you feel if I did go on a date with her?”
“Fine,” says Braedon without hesitation. “You have to go on a date with somebody sometime, otherwise you’ll end up like Grandpa Judd and not have a girlfriend-woman-friend whatever you call it until you’re sixty-three. What’s the point in that?”
“Cut your grandpa some slack. He loved Grandma Pam very much. It’s not easy to start dating when you’re in love with someone else. Even if that person isn’t with us anymore.”
“Is that why Grandma Pam still lives in a jar on Grandpa’s fireplace?”
“It’s called an urn. And yes, I think so, Brae.”
Braedon considers this for a moment, then says, “Well, you shouldn’t wait until you’re sixty-three to get a girlfriend because I’ll be long gone by then.”
“You will?” says Clay through a laugh. “Where’re you going?”
“I don’t know,” says Braedon. “Maybe I’ll go to West Point like you did. Or I’ll go back to Ireland to live with my friends.”
“Maybe I’ll go with you,” says Clay.
“That’s fine,” says Braedon. “You can do whatever you want.”
“Appreciate that.” Clay turns onto the road toward Judd’s house. The corn in the fields is about shin high. It’s supposed to be knee high by the Fourth of July. That’s the saying, anyway. Looks like the farmers are off to a good start.
“Have those boys given bikes to anyone else you know?” says Clay.
Braedon shakes his head. “I don’t think so.”
“Let me know if you ever hear of anything like that.”
“I am so pleased to meet you, Clay,” says Dr. Mei Hsiao.
She is sixty-four years old, one year older than Judd.
But if Clay didn’t know that, he’d guess she was closer to fifty.
Straight dark hair just past her shoulders.
Round wire-rim glasses in green. Her build is slight.
She wears a button-front jumper of indigo cotton over a white T-shirt and green shoes that match the rims of her eyeglasses.
It’s something a child might wear, but it suits her.
Clay finds Mei engaging and interesting and attractive.
He understands why his father decided to end his long streak of being single.
Judd had the occasional date over the years.
At least that Clay knows about. He assumes there’s plenty about his father’s love life that he doesn’t know and doesn’t want to know.
But one thing Clay is sure of is that since Pam died, Judd has not had a long-term relationship.
Not once in the last thirty years. If he had, Teddy and Deb would have known about it.
Hell, it’s Riverwood. Everyone would know about it.
“Very nice to meet you, Mei,” says Clay. He wants to say he’s heard a lot about her but that’s not true. Judd has been tight-lipped about Mei. All Clay knows is that she’s a cardiologist up at Mayo. “Thanks for driving down to Riverwood. We’re thrilled to have you here.”
Clay notices a proactive warmth between them.
He assumes Judd told Mei of their fractured father-son relationship and that it goes back to well before Pam died.
He guesses there’s some sense on both their parts that she could help heal that fractured relationship.
If they both get along with Mei, maybe they can find a way to get along with each other.
They’re sitting in the living room of Teddy and Deb’s doublewide.
When Judd was chief of police, he confiscated the doublewide in a meth bust. After its occupants were convicted, the home went to auction.
Judd couldn’t just take it for himself. But he did exaggerate its drugginess by mentioning in the auctioneer’s listing that the doublewide had been used for the manufacturing and storage of methamphetamine, its ingredients, and processing equipment.
That was true except that the bust happened before the actual manufacturing took place.
Police found cases of pseudoephedrine, boiling flasks, Bunsen burners, rubber tubing, baking dishes, and other chemicals and accoutrements all neatly stored in their original packaging.
Still, Judd added to the auctioneer’s listing: “May not be safe for human habitation.”
It was plenty safe. That’s how he bought it through a proxy for eight thousand dollars.
He paid another two grand to have it towed onto the five-acre parcel of land Deb had inherited from her grandmother.
That was fifteen years ago, and it was the only way Deb and Teddy could afford to actually live on that five-acre parcel.
From their seats, Clay and Mei can see into the kitchen where Deb cuts a watermelon into cubes and out to the deck through a sliding glass door, where Judd teaches Braedon the art of grilling.
Burgers on one side of the grill. Brats on the other.
Buns on a rack eight inches above the grill, splayed open, toasting face down.
A plate of sliced cheese sits off to the side waiting to be put into the game.
Mei offered five times to help Deb in the kitchen, and Deb refused every one.
It seems the whole family thinks or at least hopes Mei can help bring peace between Judd and Clay.
Even Clay thinks it’s possible, especially after Braedon said he’d be okay if Clay dated Zoey Jensen.
It forced him to reconcile with his own long-buried wish for a family of origin.
A real family. Not just him and Judd. If anything, it was Deb and Teddy and Sue Lodermeier who gave Clay the feeling of family.
Now he’s wondering if that’s how Braedon feels.
That Clay isn’t enough. There’s no critical mass to make a family with just two of them. Clay gets a sick feeling in his gut.
“You’ve led a very interesting life,” says Mei. “Your father told me how you applied to Dorset-Cornwall without even telling him. And West Point. And about playing professional soccer in Europe. I hope this isn’t too personal of a question, or insulting, but why did you come back?”
Clay offers Mei a warm smile. “Not too personal or insulting at all,” he says in a tone that can only be interpreted as earnest. “I just felt it was time to come home. And by home I mean the States. I had applied for a number of coaching positions. Some universities and in Major League Soccer. Dorset-Cornwall had been courting me for a while. They made a nice offer. My dad and Teddy and Deb aren’t getting any younger.
I figured it wouldn’t be a bad idea to reacclimate to life in the States in a place I know.
And to have Braedon get to know his family better.
What about you?” says Clay. “Where are you from?”
“I’m from Monterey Park outside of Los Angeles,” says Mei. “It’s like a suburban Chinatown. But I went to university in upstate New York and to medical school in Connecticut. I worked at Johns Hopkins for twenty years, then I moved to Rochester. I’m very happy at the Mayo Clinic.”
“Do you ever miss Calif—”
“Clay,” says Judd.
Clay looks over and sees his father stepping inside the open sliding glass door. “Yeah?”
“A word, please.”
Clay hasn’t heard that tone from his father since he was a teenager. It triggers a fight-or-flight response, but he has the skills to cloak that from Mei. “Sure,” he says casually and without concern. “Excuse me, Mei.”
Judd offers Mei a smile and says, “This will just take a minute.” He grasps her hand, gives it a squeeze, then heads for the front door, leaving Braedon to man the grill solo. Clay follows Judd outside.