Chapter 4 #2
“Yeah, it was. My parents were very generous and I know they loved us, but they weren’t good with stuff like rules or punishments.
No boundaries. So, one of my cousins refused to use a toilet and he went in the backyard, even in the winter.
The neighbor kid was selling drugs from our bedroom.
He had kept up with his dad’s former connections,” Ronan explained.
“My brother got the hell out as soon as he could but I made myself comfortable in my dad’s shop.
When I got older, I slept there most of the time and that’s how I got started working on cars. ”
“I guess the way you grew up had some benefits.”
“Sure,” he agreed. “Not just me learning a trade, either. I found out a lot about packaging weed for purchase and residential burglary. Do you have siblings?”
“No,” I said. “There’s just me. I have an aunt and cousin but we don’t ever talk.”
“You want to live alone because that’s what you were used to,” he extrapolated, but I shook my head.
“I was never alone because I was with my dad,” I said. Except for one summer when he’d let me go stay with that aunt, we had always been together. “I hated it. He was the dirtiest person you’ve ever seen.”
“He was a welder. You do get dirty when you—”
“Yes, and that’s fine,” I interrupted. “But after work, you shower. He didn’t like to do that, hardly ever unless I forced him.”
Ronan self-consciously rubbed his hand over his head, where his brown hair was still damp. Unlike the picture on the Junior Woodsmen website, now he wore it short, almost a crew cut but a little longer on the top. “I wouldn’t have enjoyed living with him, either.”
“No, especially because we usually shared a room,” I said. “He traveled around to different jobs, big stuff like working on bridges and refineries, or once he did repairs at a nuclear power plant. He didn’t care what we rented as long as the price was right and it was always awful.”
“Jobs like his usually make good money,” Ronan pointed out.
That was true. But if you had bad habits, like gambling and taking up with women who fleeced you, then you didn’t bank much of it. “We could have afforded something better,” I agreed. “Where do you want to go eat?”
He already had an idea in mind, a diner that I’d passed before and had thought about trying. It was probably more fun to go there with a companion, though. We talked about cars as we ate, what he did at his job and how I took care of mine.
“I do the regular stuff,” I explained. “Brake pads and rotors, oil changes. I replaced my alternator and spark plugs when I got it. The hardest thing I did was swap out the clock spring, but that was only because I was afraid of messing up the air bag. It wasn’t hard.”
“That’s impressive.”
“No, it was just necessary,” I corrected him. “That’s how most people learn, because there’s no other choice. I had always helped my dad so I wasn’t scared of tools or trying new things.”
“That’s nice that you did that together. My best memories of my childhood are working with my dad in the garage, him talking through repairs and telling me stories. He’s a funny guy, always looking to find humor in life.”
That reminded me of his son. “Do you still see your parents?”
He nodded. “One of the first things I did when I started playing pro was to help them out, not just giving them money but taking charge of what they were doing with what they had. My brother’s really smart, a lawyer, and he and I manage their financial crap now.
We got them an RV, fully loaded, and they’re driving around the country and loving it.
” He smiled. “They came up here to visit last summer because it’s so pretty. I can’t think of a nicer place to be.”
“It was ok when I showed up in the fall, but I didn’t care much for the winter.” I shivered a little, although I had replaced my workout clothes with another sweater and I was wearing a lot more clothing than Ronan was.
“Has your dad been up here? Or your mom?”
“He died,” I stated. “My mom was never a part of our lives. They weren’t married and right after I was born, she met someone else and took off.” My dad had thought that they were going to Brazil but I was never able to confirm it, because there was no evidence that she ever had a passport.
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“It was probably for the best for all of us,” I answered. “Want these?” I offered him my fries and he finished not only those but the rest of my burger, too.
I was tired of talking about my parents. “Tell me more about Ed,” I requested.
He seemed surprised. “What do you want to know?”
“Why does he stay working at that place? It’s obvious that no one listens to him and it’s like Sisyphus.”
“Come again?”
“He was a king in Greek mythology who ticked off Zeus, which was never a good idea. Once he was dead, his punishment was to push a boulder up a hill in Tartarus. Every time he got to the top, it would roll back down and he’d have to start again.
That story reminds me of Ed painting over water stains on the walls but the ceiling keeps leaking, or dealing with the vermin every year because no one blocks their tunnels. ”
Now we both shivered. “It’s a thankless job, much like pushing a big rock,” Ronan agreed. “But he loves the team. He used to play for the Juniors.”
“He was a football player? Really? He’s not very tall.”
“Eddie was a running back,” he explained. “Most of them are shorter and more agile. They’re also built like brick shithouses. He’s still so damn strong, but he’s getting older and I keep trying to convince him not to do everything himself.”
“He needs help with that place,” I agreed. “It’s too much for one person.”
“It wouldn’t be if the Woodmen back office would keep up with the maintenance.
They swoop in with emergency repairs right before their team arrives for the preseason in the summer and then they disappear again for another year.
Like Santa, but dicks,” he explained. “I like the man in the red suit but I don’t like those people half-assing their jobs. ”
“Mmhm,” I answered.
He watched me. “What are you thinking about so hard? If your eyes were plasma cutters, they’d have bored a hole right through me.”
“I guess you’re lucky that they’re just eyes,” I answered. I was not going to tell him, again, what I thought about people giving half-assed performances because the last time I’d done that, I had insulted him. Instead, I stared at my empty plate, sitting on top of his empty plate.
“Mmhm,” he echoed. His tone made me look up again. “I know what it is.”
“It’s nothing.”
“You’re thinking that it’s weird how I’m so into Christmas, and that I half-ass my way through my job, too.”
“No!” I answered immediately. “No, I’m not.
After what you said about how hard it is to make it as a football player, I looked up the statistics about the number of college athletes who go on to play professionally.
I had no idea that it was such a tiny percentage.
I agree that it’s nearly impossible to make a team like the Woodsmen.
There are almost insurmountable odds against it. ”
He started smiling. “But you think I should try.”
“I don’t know,” I hedged. “I was reading about you, too, though. One guy was gushing about the old Junior Woodsmen quarterback and he went on to say that before last season, the only thing the team had was a defensive end who didn’t quit. He meant you.”
“That can’t be true.”
“Why would I make it up?” I asked.
“I just can’t believe that anyone takes the time to write about us,” Ronan explained.
I shook my head. “He thinks that you’re really good and I bet that he’s right.”
Now he started to laugh. “You’ve never seen me play!
” he said, and that was true. It was also true that even if I had watched him, I wouldn’t have known whether he was good or not because I’d never paid attention to football in the past. Even as a Woodsmen employee, I hadn’t bothered to go to their games.
“What would it take for you to make the Woodsmen team?” I asked. “Just hypothetically. Do you have to be bigger and stronger? Faster? Have better eyesight? Jump higher? Shoot farther? Aim better?”
“I’m trying to figure out if you’re talking about football or basketball.
Or target practice.” He was smiling again as he shook his head.
“The Woodsmen are on another level with everything. Every single facet of their game is better, so yeah. I need to type faster, learn to whistle, bake a decent pie, and play amazing football.”
“You can’t whistle?” I asked and in response, he pursed his lips and blew nothing but air. It was sad. “How do you improve at football?”
“If you can answer that question, let me know. We can bottle it up to sell and split the profits. I’ll be the face for advertising and you’ll be the brains behind the operation.” He looked at me closely. “Nah, you should also be the face. You’re a lot prettier than I am.”
I shook my head, dismissing all of that. I thought that he was cute—not cute, because you didn’t call a mountain “cute”—more like strong, attractive, and imposing. Anyway, he was only teasing. “I obviously don’t know what I’m talking about so I’ll stop.”
Ronan was quiet for a moment, which could have been because he was reading over the dessert menu.
But then he returned to the former topic.
“If I wanted to try to improve before next season, there are things I should do. I already know what they are,” he said.
“There’s no magic potion to put into a bottle.
I know we all wish there was.” He discussed food and his diet, not trying to lose weight, but just eating healthier in general.
As he talked, he looked at our empty plates and replaced the dessert menu in the metal clip at the side of the table.