Chapter 5 #3
“I’ll be doing the same thing that I’m doing now.
There’s no change in my job. I’ll have to ask Melbourne what the rent will be, but he’s a fair man and I’m sure it won’t be much.
” He looked around the room that they’d been sharing.
“It’s close to downtown, so we can walk wherever we want to go.
The library is just a block away, and the store is just another couple of blocks down the street.
We will have neighbors, too, that we can make friends with. ”
“You’ve already told him that we’d take it, I assume.” He asked her why they’d give up something that they could live in over being in an abandoned home. “I’ll have to see it before I decide to move in. And if it’s not up to my standards, what will he give us to go someplace else?”
“There isn’t anyplace else to go. I asked him about the place and he said we could stay there.
And I’m going to even if you decide that you don’t want to.
” She asked him what he’d said. “You heard me. I’m sick of living here and sleeping on the floor.
I’m going to go to the place tonight and sleep there.
I think it will be nicer than staying here and sleeping on the floor, don’t you? ”
“I’ll have to see it. But if it’s too small or dirty, he’ll have to get us something better.
I’m not taking something that’s going to need a lot of work to make it livable.
” He asked her if she wanted to go now. “Now? Why are you in such a hurry? There isn’t any reason for us to go tonight.
I’m betting either the rent is going to be too high or the place is going to be infested with some kind of bugs.
I won’t have it, Allen. We might as well stay here if he’s going to be unreasonable.
Just tell him we want something bigger than just a couple of rooms. That’ll be all right with me. ”
“I’m going back over there tonight so I can have a warm shower in the morning and sleep in a good bed.
” She told him he was not. “I am. You just want to complain about everything. Remember what our parole officer said, we needed to establish ourselves in a residence, or we’ll be put in the halfway house somewhere else.
I like being here, where I have a job and get to see my daughters once in a while. ”
“What are they going to think when we invite them over and don’t have enough room to turn around in?
I’m sure that will make them want to not help us.
” He told her that he didn’t want his daughters to bail them out.
“Why not? They’re the reason that we were in prison in the first place.
The least they can do is take care of us. ”
“You mean like we did them? I think we’ll be lucky if they want anything to do with us after the way we treated them.” She said that they’d paid for their crime. “Only if it isn’t something that we do again will they have anything to do with us. I’m sure of it.”
“You’ve been talking to them, haven’t you?” He admitted that he’d had lunch with them today. “Lunch again? How dare you? And how dare they want to have lunch with you and not me?”
“I didn’t set it up. Melbourne did when he bought me lunch; he invited them over to have lunch with us, too.
It was a very tense meeting. And Justine is so afraid that I’m going to hurt her again, she could barely eat her lunch.
I promised them that I’d never hurt them again.
” She asked him why he’d do that. “Because I don’t want to hurt them either one again.
They’re good women with a job and education, too.
I enjoyed just learning about them and what they’d been up to.
Did you know that Sammy went to college and got a business management degree?
And Justine works from home doing stuffing mail envelopes for companies.
We should be proud of them for what they accomplished. ”
“You bastard.” He didn’t understand where that had come from and stepped back when she looked as if she was going to hit him.
“First, you tell them that you’re not going to be hurting them anymore to make me the bad guy.
What if that’s the only way we can get anything out of them?
Did you ever think of that? Then secondly, you want to shame us by living in a too small building on someone else’s mattress while they’re no doubt living the high life.
Did you even bother to demand money from them, did you? ”
“Why would I ask them for money when I have a job on my own? Also, there is one for you, too, if you want to take it.” Belinda said that there was no way she was going to take a job out of pity.
“There’s something wrong with you. I’ll ask you this again: we have to have a place to live before we see our parole officer again, or they’ll take us out of here.
That’s including a job each. What are you going to do if you don’t have a job and he makes you go to a halfway house?
Because I have a job and I like it. I’m not going to do anything that I’m not supposed to do to keep seeing my daughters. ”
“Well, laud dee da for you.” He asked her what that was supposed to mean.
“It means that if I have to go to a halfway house, then so will you. You’re my husband, and I demand that you get money from our kids so that we don’t have to work anymore.
You must look like a fool walking up and down the street marking things on a map.
I won’t do anything. I’m not working either.
If you’re so cozy up with our daughters—not just yours but ours—then you get money from them before I have to beat you too. ”
“They’re not going to help you at all if you don’t behave around them.
” She said that she would make them pay for sending her to prison.
“Then I wish you luck with your life, Belinda. I’m going to go live in that place because it’s better than living here with no roof over our head and no running hot water. ”
He turned to leave and felt her move rather than see her. When she shoved him down the stairs, he was headed down to go away. His last thought was that he was going to die, and he’d never gotten his daughters to trust him. Christ, he didn’t want to die.