Chapter 7
“What the fuck you mean you putting me in a fuckin’ home? I’m not going to no fucking home! Remedy, you knew this muhfucka was trying to put me away?! I’m not fucking going! I ain’t fucking going!” Ernie bellowed.
Erys had been watching his father for two whole days and now he saw what Remedy was keeping at bay.
Yeah, Ernie had cussed him out. Yeah, Ernie was attached to Remedy but he was attached to her because she was literally his security.
He was safe with her, even in and out of his delusions she’d been a constant.
“Pop, listen,” Erys tried to intervene, only earning a shove. The nurses that came to assist with the pickup stepped up, but Remedy blocked him.
“Do not touch him,” she warned.
“It’s a nice place. You’ll have Remedy tonight, and by tomorrow-”
“Ain’t no by tomorrow, nigga. I said I ain’t fucking going. What if your momma comes back? How is she going to know where I am? Huh? No!” Ernie continued.
Erys was learning there was no reasoning with him, which is why Remedy found space in the world he lived in. Erys had been planted in reality and logic for years and he couldn’t make himself play pretend. But if he wanted to honor his mother’s final wishes, he had to and he needed Remedy to do it.
Remedy pushed the orderly holding Ernie back out of her way and grabbed Ernie’s hands. “Hey, Ernest. Look at me.”
Ernie looked at her with fire darting from his eyes. “You gon’ let them take me?”
“No, I’m going with you. Do you want me to ride with you? Will that calm you down?”
“You can’t leave me, Remedy,” he said, voice broken, tears pricking his eyes and there went Erys, feeling things again. And this one hit him in the pit of his stomach.
“I won’t ever leave you. You hear me? You and I until the end, I promised you,” Remedy comforted him before looking at the director. “Can I ride with him?”
“We typically don’t allow that,” the director said.
“I’m asking you out of courtesy. I’m going. Come on, Ernie.” With her hand clasped in his, she walked him toward the van. Before she got in, she looked back at Erys and shot him a look that read, ‘thanks a lot.’
Getting into his truck, he let out a heavy puff of air and scrubbed his face.
“What the fuck is happening?” he asked himself.
The tightly wound fabric of who he had to be when he was taking lives, whether perched on top of buildings, laying on his stomach on a mountain for days, or walking through a crowded club to drop a body, no longer existed.
That chapter of his life was gone and he was sitting here, watching a father he’d hated for the better part of his life dwindle to nothing.
The pain of that almost mirrored what it felt like to see his mother’s body riddled with cancer.
Two parts of him he never had fully. Two forms of loneliness and abandonment, even at thirty-five, his heart still longed for family.
Mentally, he’d prepared himself to never have it.
But those final words from his mother’s mouth unlocked something.
“Forgive your father.”
The nursing home van pulled off and he forced himself to pull off behind it. Instead of going home or meeting Tone’s cousin in the studio. For the sake of honoring his mother and proving to his father that the knuckle-headed wild boy he remembered was gone.
The ride felt like an eternity. When they arrived, Ernie was calmer, still mad as hell, but calmer.
He held on to Remedy’s hand as if she would run away.
With his bags and hers flung over her shoulder, she walked into the building.
Erys’ parked his truck nearby and roamed in behind them.
Taking none of Remedy’s threats to heart, he took the bags off of her shoulder and placed them on his.
He knew she hadn’t eaten and probably hadn’t slept judging by the redness of her eyes behind the thick lenses of the glasses.
He had to undo some of the chaos he caused.
“Alright, Mr. Moore, are you ready to see your new suite?” the bubbly intake admin asked.
Ernie curled his lip. “Why the fuck would I want to see a suite when I have a house?”
“Ernie,” Remedy’s voice was like a balm. “We promised we were going to try it out.”
“I said that shit to get you to stop talking. I don’t want to be here, I want to be in my damn house,” he grumbled.
Remedy sighed. “Yeah, lead the way.”
She wasn’t lying when she said where she went, he went.
She took one step and Ernie followed in a compliant silence.
In the room, Erys stowed their things in his closet and took a seat nearby.
The intake admin gave Ernie a tour of his space and he wasn’t interested in any of it.
In fact, he sat in a chair and stared out the window.
“Mr. Moore, do you have high blood pressure?” the admin asked, moving on to the next part.
“He does. He’s not medicated for it, I just control it with his diet, every so often I let him splurge. The last time he got blood work, from what I found in his mail, was about two years ago. His A1C was 6.2. He doesn’t smoke, no alcohol. No known drug use.”
“He did coke,” Erys spoke up. “Thirty-five years ago.”
“Oh, well good thing we aren’t running any drug rings here,” the admin said through a nervous chuckle, finding Remedy glaring at him.
“Like I said, in the last year, no known drug use. I don’t know what type of dementia he has. But he sundowns, restless at night if I don’t tire him out,” Remedy shared.
“I’m sorry, I don’t have any spouse listed, are you his girlfriend?” the admin asked, pausing her tapping of the screen.
“What does it matter?” Remedy asked, brows furrowed.
The woman fixed her glasses and chuckled nervously. “Well, typically I can only talk to the patient or the family about health history. You’re not either.”
“She can speak for him,” Erys stated. “You can also put her down as an emergency contact too. Those two are best friends.”
“So as I was saying, he has hallucinations. Mostly in the afternoon. I would assume it’s Lewy Body dementia, but again, I can’t be sure,” Remedy shared.
The admin huffed. “Are you a medical professional?”
“N-no,” Remedy stammered. Erys spotted the sadness flash in her eyes. “I’m not, but I-”
“We should leave the medical diagnosis to the medical team. We’ll just skip over all of that for now. Alright, Mr. Moore, what do you like to do?” she questioned.
“I like ass. I like titties. I like pimping hoes. I like going to the strip club with Remedy. I like going to the diner with Remedy. I like watching TV with Remedy. If that ain’t on your funky ass list, I don’t know what to tell you.
Unless you want to be one of my hoes. You got a smart ass mouth, I can find some use for it,” Ernie said with a pointed look.
“Watch your fuckin’ mouth talking to her, hear me? ”
She nodded. “Yes sir.”
“Apologize, bitch,” Ernie directed.
“Pops,” Erys spoke up.
Remedy looked at him. “We made a promise.”
Ernie huffed and rolled his eyes. “I know. But she’s running her mouth and you’re being soft.”
“I’m being nice,” Remedy exchanged.
“Don’t be fuckin’ nice. I told you about that. Be a fuckin’ gangsta. Tell that hoe she can kiss your ass. She’s probably mad because her ain’t shit nigga spends his money on you every week,” Ernie said, before looking at the admin’s face flush red.
Erys caught it too and muffled a laugh. Had he been anyone else, he would have spent his money on her too. He swiped his hand trying to rid himself of the image of her in the red outfit.
“Yeahhh, that’s what it is,” Ernie said chuckling, nudging Remedy with his elbow. “I told you. Men want a fantasy, not your stuck up ass. But then again, my son might like that shit. He’s a tight ass too. Muhfucka eats egg whites for breakfast. Who the fuck eats egg whites?”
“I get egg whites, Mr. Moore,” the admin commented.
Ernie clapped his hands. “Match made in hell. Y’all go talk about something boring and leave me and Rem alone. I’m tired and she hasn’t ate.”
“I’m married. No offense,” she said.
“Trust me, none taken,” Erys spoke, eyes back on his phone instead of staring at Remedy.
“I think I got everything I need for now. Typically, we suggest family and friends don’t visit for the first two weeks but this seems to be a special case,” she delivered, bouncing her eyes from Remedy to Ernie.
“You’re right. I’ll tear this muhfucka up. You wanna see?” Ernie asked.
“He won’t,” Erys said as she stood.
“I’ll check on you soon, Mr. Moore.”
“Please don’t. I don’t like your ass. Literally, I don’t like it, nothing is there,” Ernie muttered as he stood. “Son, you could’ve found some place where the women are worth a damn.”
Remedy tiredly shook her head. “You need a nap?”
“Yeah, all this bullshit down wore my nigga ass out,” Ernie huffed, removing his jacket and shoes. “Erys, take her to get something to eat and pay for it. Getting people fired and shit.”
“I was about to-” Erys was trying to get out of this space before emotion overruled him.
“About to take Remedy to get something to eat, nigga. I’ll be up in a few hours,” Ernie grumbled. “When I get up, I’m going the fuck home.”
Remedy pulled his favorite blanket from his bag and draped it over him. “I’ll be back, you get some rest.”
Ernie tiredly waved her off. Erys watched Remedy pull in a deep breath before strolling out of the room behind the admin. Alone with his father, he spoke.
“I’m not doing this to hurt you, Pops. I’m doing this-”
“Because you’re embarrassed of me. You always have been.
It’s easier for you to hide the parts of you that you wrestle with.
But I know something that’s going to expose everything you hide and run away from; everything you’re pretending to be.
You’re my son. No one knows what you need like me,” Ernie tiredly shared.
“I needed a father,” Erys shared without filter. “I never got that.”