Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Landon
“Motherfucker! Are you shitting me, Hunter?”
The tourists at the end of the bar are rethinking their visit.
The pressure in my head builds and my temples actually beat.
“I wish I was. I’m so sorry, Landon. Both of us are. We wanted to tell you right away.”
“What the hell were you thinking?”
“They seemed normal, and we were just going to get cleaned up then go get something to eat.”
“Oh yeah! You were going to get a snack! On your way to church. Who do you think you’re talking to? It was the pussy!”
The lady wearing new leathers gathers her things and slides off the stool. The man puts a twenty down for an eleven dollar tab. They make for the door.
“Well…”
“Well nothing! Son of a bitch. So are you feeling alright? Is Bing okay?”
“We’re fine.”
I don’t know what to do or ask first. A hundred questions pop in my mind.
“Does your mom know yet?”
“Um, no. We wanted to talk to you about that.”
“What about it?”
“We think it would be so much better if the moms don’t find out.”
I am pissed beyond belief, but the kid’s idea of the man code is comical. I hope he can hear my sarcasm.
“I bet you do. But that isn’t gonna happen.”
“Wait! Before you make up your mind, Bing and I are one hundred percent okay. As far as we can tell, the most expensive things they took were our phones and an iPad. We will pay you back every cent of the items they took. Every cent. Even if it takes a year. It’s a promise.”
“Stop. I’ll give you fifteen minutes to get your shit together and tell your mother. Fifteen. Got that, Hunter? After that I’m calling her. And tell Bing that goes for him too. Fuck!”
“Just hear me out!”
“I heard you the first time. And I need a minute to figure out what to do. We don’t even know what they took at this point.”
“You’re right. We don’t.”
“Are the televisions still there?”
“Oh yeah. They didn’t take those. I guess they were too big.”
“I’m pissed that you guys were so fucking stupid. I get how they did it though. You were targeted. Easy marks. They could rely on your dicks to make the bad decision. And I’m the one paying for it.”
“I know. You’re right. But, can’t we come to some agreement about not telling Mom?”
I calm my voice the fuck down and get clear.
“I’m not going to lie to her, Hunter. Not even to save your hide. I’m not your bro.”
The kid doesn’t have an argument against treating his mother right.
“Okay. Shit. We are going to be in so much trouble.”
“You think? Good.” Then it dawns, and I realize things can get worse. “What about my tools? Did they take them?”
My stomach sinks with the thought and stays there when there’s no response for a few beats.
“I don’t know. Where were they?”
“In the garage. If those are gone, I can’t work. Some of those tools are irreplaceable. You haven’t checked the garage yet?”
“No. We forgot.”
“Go see and come back and tell me. There’s a red tool chest against the wall, and a smaller metal one next to it. The small one is locked. Go.”
“I don’t think they went into the garage.”
“Really? Because all they had to do is go down A FUCKING FLIGHT OF STAIRS! What makes you think it didn’t happen?”
“Uh.”
“Right.”
“Okay, we’re going. Want me to call you back?”
“No! Do it now. I’ll hold on. Christ.”
He puts the receiver down, and I hear him whisper through clenched teeth, “We forgot about the garage!”
“Crap!” Bing’s one word response sums up my thoughts exactly.
Itty and shitty take off, and I am left rolling the story around in my head. They’re still kids. In grown-up bodies. That is what made the con work. The girls used the boys’ inexperience and predictability to their advantage. And I let two kids have free run of my new house.
Kim needs to know and make the decisions about her own son.
Dominque needs to handle Bing. I have no authority here.
If I did, I’d handle him like my father handles me.
Expecting respect and giving it. But backing the whole thing up with consequences for bad behavior.
Right now, I’m too pissed to think straight, which I am sure is required.
I have never been on this side of the problem. Never had to be an authority figure to a kid. It is harder than I thought. It comes down to you. It’s a little scary.
They may need to see a doctor, although they both sound their normal selves. Are they telling the truth about their condition? That’s another mom decision. If it was me, I would make them go just to be safe. Shit. I don’t know what I’m talking about.
Heavy footsteps coming up the stairs sound, and my stomach twists. The tools are there. The tools are there. The receiver is picked up.
“Oh man,” Hunter says with fear in his voice.
“Spit it out.”
“We can’t find the metal box. And the red one looks like it was gone through. There’s one drawer that’s pretty empty.”
“Oh, God.”
“But they couldn’t pick up something as heavy as the metal one, right?”
“Then they had accomplices. Of course they did. They’d need muscle. The girls most likely opened the garage from inside and the guys loaded up their car.”
“Oh shit.”
“We need to file a police report. Hold off for now. I want to talk with your mother after you do. I’ll be there in about five hours. We will decide then.”
“Okay. I’m so sorry, Landon!”
“I don’t want to talk right now. I’m too fucking pissed.”
“Just one more thing I need to tell you.”
I can hear the cringe in his voice.
“What?”
“The old bicycle you put in the corner.”
“Yeah?”
“They took it. Mom said it was special to you. I’m really sorry. We fucked up good. Don’t know why they left the paddle board. I guess it was too big.”
I heard nothing after they took it.
My bike. Mom loved that I hung on to it. Anger swells, and I want to go off on the boy-man. On both of them. But I reel it in because I might say something that cannot be taken back. I’m thinking of Kim mostly, and how this will disappoint her.
“Call your mom. Now. I take back the fifteen minute offer. That was a bad idea. I don’t know if you two need to see a doctor…”
“We don’t!”
“Neither one of us can make that decision. Your mother will know what to do.”
“Okay. I’ll call her.”
“I need to figure this out. I’m supposed to fly to Kentucky day after tomorrow. I’m meeting Mabel and her family. Now I have to come there first, figure out the losses, and file a police report.”
“We’ll be here.”
“And don’t move anything! Maybe there are clues the police will...”
“Oh shit. We already started cleaning up!”
In an expression of my general mood, I disconnect without saying goodbye, and wait for the rest of the shit to hit the fan.
The initial kick in the gut has settled by the time I pull up in front of Dad’s. Good thing Stacy is here. That’s the one lucky break. She and Lex can oversee plans for the party while I’m gone. We only have a week and a half. I’ll be gone in three.
Things are moving too fast. I’m not ready. It’s not like I am going to Outer Mongolia. Four hours. That’s all. The entire thing is out of my hands now, moving on a conveyer belt of time. But it doesn’t feel like I am going toward something. I am going away from everything.
The front screen is pushed open with force, and an agitated Kim walks out to face me. She has been crying. I’d like to cry too at some point, if it didn’t make it look like I’m a big pussy. As I get out of the truck, she is already talking.
“I am so deeply sorry, Landon! It’s awful. How those two could let strangers into your home, I don’t understand. I thought I raised him better than that.”
Now I see tears roll down her face, as I climb the steps. She is an ugly cryer, and for the first time since it all came down, I want to laugh. But I don’t.
“Can you ever forgive me…”
I take her in my arms, as much for me as for her.
“It’s not your bad.”
“Your bike! And the tools!”
For some stupid reason, I feel calm. Maybe it’s being here with her, or maybe I am still stunned it all happened. I look at her face and my mother’s words echo in my mind. They’re just things.
As the thought settles I see the big truth there that I never fully grasped before. Just things don’t compare with what is really important. The lasting things in life. Like love. No matter how much you treasure the inanimate object, it is only a passing thing.
“They are just things.”
Shit. I sound like a calm person. Kim is just as surprised as I am.
“Why are you taking this so good?”
“I took the hit already. I’m pissed. Oh yeah. But, and don’t ever tell them this, I understand how it went down.”
“You do?”
“They’re almost twenty years old! Not even twenty yet. They are being led by their dicks. Like all boys are. I could have been in the same kind of situation back when I was that age. So what’s the latest since we talked? Did you pack that bag for me?”
“I’m going with you to Memphis.”
She lowers her voice so no one inside the house can hear.
“I was thinking about it. We could drive to Kentucky tomorrow or the next day. If you don’t fly, you’d have to go through Memphis anyway.
Instead of going back and forth here, you could head out from there.
And I could drive the truck back if you buy the car.
If something happens to the car on the way back, I would be there with the truck. It’s a good plan.”
“I don’t know.”
“One more thing. I want Hunter to come with us.”
She sees the exaggerated eye roll, takes my hand, and leads me to the far end of the porch.
“Hear me out. Let me make my case. If we present as a unit to Mabel, it might make a difference. You told me even though she never drove the car herself, she kept the car of her first husband. Who keeps a car they never drive, through another marriage and two kids?”
“And neither girl wants the car. It must not be their father’s. They said they would rather their mother have the money.”
“It doesn’t hold the same memories to them. That car is symbolic to her. That’s what you need to understand. It’s not the money she wants to see. It’s the love for the car. Like that first husband had. For her, the value can’t be monetized. It’s emotional.”
“You’re right.”
“If we bring the photograph of your mom and dad, it could make a difference. And if we come along, she would see it means so much to you, you brought your family all the way from Tennessee. She doesn’t know we’re not family.”
That last comment kinda stings. It shouldn’t. It is a fact. Have to admit she figured it out. I’m warming to the plan. A big smile appears on her face.
“And the bonus for having Hunter come along? He would be trapped in a car with us for at least two days. Having to listen to whatever we want to lecture him about. Asking anything we want to know. And as the piece de resistance, we would choose the music. I love Abba and soundtracks of nineteen fifties movies. You are into jazz. It would be torture for the boy. That’s how his summer vacation will end. All because he was an idiot.”
I chuckle for the first time since it all went down.
“And I bet he will be very happy to return to college. Two birds, one stone.”