Chapter 42 #4
She put her hands up for me to stop asking so many questions.
I felt like our mother. “We still don’t know what he sold or what he spent, the car’s still impounded and it’s not like his pockets were full of money when he got arrested.
Anyway, the lawyer is doing everything he possibly can, but he said we need to brace ourselves because the cost of the—” She shook her head.
“Arrangement they’re making is going to be sky-high, not to mention the—” She stopped like she didn’t want to tell me something.
“What? What’s that mean, arrangement?”
“The lawyer’s trying to make a special deal with the judge, so Rory doesn’t serve serious jail time.
It’s sensitive and it’s …” She rubbed her fingers together to show a lot of money was involved.
I felt my face growing hot. “The hope is, this way, he can keep Rory and the Tartts’ name out of the papers, but the whole thing’s looking like it’s going to be very expensive.
We don’t have a choice, though. I’m not letting Rory get thrown in prison. ”
“How expensive is this deal?”
“Very.”
I was trying to stay calm.
I could not wake up Mrs. Tartt. “Did you forget what he did to you? To his mother? Rory is the one who put the two of you in this whole stinkin’ situation!
” Heck, she didn’t even know the half of it.
“And now you’re prepared to bail him out with—what?
With whatever money is left from what he stole from his mother?
” There was more to say about this, but I wasn’t going to say it because it was mean.
“Did he guilt his mother and you into doing this? Did he—did he trick you somehow?”
“No. He—” Frances clammed up again and looked away. “Never mind. I knew you wouldn’t understand.”
“Try me,” I said, too harsh again. I took a deep breath and softened my tone. “Please. Tell me whatever you can, Franny.”
“You don’t know what it’s like to be married, Birdie, or what goes on in the marital bedroom—”
“Please, Frances, I know plenty.”
“From what, romance novels? Picture shows?” She rolled her eyes. “Birdie, you’ve never even had a real boyfriend before.”
I almost laughed. Just wait till you hear what we’re running downstairs. “Tell me why you feel like he deserves this ‘special treatment,’ Frances? After all the lies and the … deception and the …” I couldn’t even finish.
“Fine. But listen because it’s very complicated.” She looked down at her hands, I suppose trying to find a way to explain it. “When a boy grows into a man, he has sexual urges that are controlled by vitamins in his genitals—”
“Jesus Christ, Frances, I am a grown woman.”
“Listen. Sometimes the genitals start to make these other … these wrong sorts of vitamins that put out the wrong signals, so instead of having the urge to do it with a—a woman, Rory has these urges to—” She stopped and waved her hand like she wanted to start over.
“It’s like when Silva gets the telephone wires crossed, Rory wants to connect with Frances but by mistake he gets connected with, say, Bill, and it’s confusing to him and I kept telling him you’ve just got to concentrate, dear, you’ve got to try harder, but …
I don’t know, he just couldn’t …” Her voice started trembling again.
“I didn’t know it was because he’d contracted this terrible disease, which must’ve been sickening for him, so what I’m saying is—” She squinted at the window like she was in pain and said it fast: “Rory wants to do sex with a man.”
“I know, Frances.”
She looked at me. “You did not.”
“Yes, I did. Me and Mrs. Tartt talked about it. That’s why he went to the hospital in New Orleans years ago.”
“You knew my husband had homosexuality and you didn’t tell me?”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know how or … if it’d make it harder on you.” I pulled my legs up and hugged my knees. I probably should’ve just told her.
“So you both knew, and neither one of you told me?”
“Yeah, but I mean, now that you know, isn’t it sort of a consolation? It’s not that Rory wasn’t attracted to you, Frances, he’s not attracted to vaginas at all.”
Frances’s expression told me no, in fact, that was not consoling to her. “Why would you use that disgusting word?”
“It’s not disgusting, it’s medical.” God knows, there were much, much worse words I could’ve used instead. “I still don’t understand why you’d give Rory money when Mrs. Tartt needs that money to live on.”
“We’re not just giving it to him.” She cringed.
“Birdie, when I visited him in that cell … he hugged me—he’s never hugged me like that before.
I could feel his heart beating and he wouldn’t let go.
He sounded so ashamed. He was too ashamed to even talk to his mother on the telephone.
” She looked up at the ceiling with tears welled up in her eyes.
But then, as if she was proud of him, she said, “As part of the special deal, Rory’s agreed to check himself back into the hospital in New Orleans.
It was his idea. He feels sure the treatment will work this time. ”
I shuddered deeply, thinking of what Mrs. Tartt had told me about his first trip there. “What do you think they’ll do to him this time, Franny?”
I watched for any sign that she understood that it would be awful, but she just said, “It’s Rory’s decision. He wants it to work this time. That makes all the difference.”
“What does—what does Mrs. Tartt say about this?”
She shook her head. “I think she’s in shock, Birdie. She thinks it would be better if he went to prison, which doesn’t even make sense. Rory told me he wants to be a normal man. And when he gets out of treatment, he says we’ll have a long talk about our marriage.”
“Do you want to stay married to him, Franny?”
She sat up straighter against the wall. “I don’t want to be known as a divorced woman around town. If that’s what he wants, then I want these doctors to cure my sick husband.”
“Even if it … destroys his soul?” I asked.
She looked away. She didn’t want to know about that.
These last two months had humbled my sister but oh, she still had a long way to go.