Christmastime at Papa Lee's

by N. J. Nielsen

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  Casey had placed a tray of dirty dishes on the sink to be cleaned when Cherie told him he had a phone call. Wiping his hands nervously on his trousers, he headed to the break room to take his call. “Hello?”

  “Hey, it’s me.”

  “Marty?” the sound of the other man’s voice had his heart jumping all over the place until it lodged neatly in his throat.

  “What do you want? Are you planning on lying to me some more?”

  A deep sigh filtered through the line. “No, I was stupid. I shouldn’t have said the things I did, especially when we both know they aren’t true. I need to make it up to you, and I had to start by saying I’m sorry for lying to you this morning.”

  When it didn’t sound like Marty was going to say more, Casey spoke. “You know we’re going to have to talk about this. We’re going to have to work out exactly what this thing is between us and what we’re going to do about it. You know that, right?”

  “Yeah, I know. Tonight when you get home, we can talk about anything you want. I promise no more lying.” Marty’s voice sounded like he was upset.

  “Marty, what’s wrong? You sound weird.” The silence on the other end of the line told him he was right.

  “There’s nothing wrong. Well, not really. The police are coming around to have a talk with me about what happened. I’m more than a little bit nervous having to think about it all again.”

  “Have they found something out?”

  “No it’s nothing like that; they have to ask me some more questions. They probably want to know if I remember any more.”

  Even though he could hear the words, Casey got the distinct feeling Marty wasn’t telling him everything. He was keeping something back, for what reason Casey didn’t know. Deep down it hurt that Marty didn’t trust him enough to confide in him.

  “Look, the police are here — I have to go. I’ll talk to you when I see you tonight.”

  Before Casey could answer, the phone clicked off until all he heard was a dial tone. Replacing the phone back onto the cradle, he stared at the damn thing, willing it to ring again so he could talk to Marty.

  “Is everything all right, son?”

  Casey jumped when he heard Graeme’s voice behind him.

  He turned to see Graeme place a huge box on the table. A few moments later Sonny came in carrying another one.

  “What’s going on?” he asked, pointing at the boxes.

  “Well, seeing as Cathy has her hands full with looking after Marty, the task of decorating the café for Christmas has been left up to us this year.”

  Sonny grinned. “Yeah, tomorrow is December first. Today the café closes at two pm, and we all pitch in and decorate. Tomorrow we’ll be in the Christmas spirit.” His smile wavered for a moment. “Even if this year we don’t feel like celebrating at all.”

  Memories trickled into Casey’s mind as he realized what they meant. Every year Papa Lee’s opened up on Christmas Day and served lunch to the homeless. He knew this because last year he and Abe attended. It was last Christmas he’d first set his eyes on and had really seen Marty. For the few months before that, Marty was only another person Casey tried to avoid. The less people who knew about him and his circumstances, the better off he was.

  Funny how things could change in a year.

  “Cherie and Karen are closing up as we speak,” Graeme said.

  Looking at his watch, Casey realized he had been at the café for over four hours. Damn! Time flew right by when you’re pissed at the world or even just at your roommate who was lying through his teeth about how he felt for you. At least tonight he would get some answers, but that all depended on whether Marty changed his mind before then about talking.

  “Are you going to help or are you going to stand there?”

  Sonny asked jokingly, and it wasn’t until the man spoke that he even realized Graeme had left the room.

  “Where’d your dad go?” he asked as he stepped up to the table and opened one of the boxes. Glancing inside, he could see it was filled with strings of Christmas lights and smaller, clear boxes packed with ornaments to decorate a tree.

  “Dad’s gone to drop the tree into the main room, then the girls can start putting it together and then he’s going to bring in the rest of the boxes.”

  Casey smiled he couldn’t help it. “Can I ask a really stupid question?”

  “Sure, no skin off my nose. Ask away.” Sonny looked bemused.

  “If we’re decorating the main areas then why do we have the boxes of decorations in here? Why haven’t we got them out in the main room?”

  Sonny opened his mouth to reply when he frowned, closed his mouth, and picked up one of the boxes. “Shut up. There’s a reason we have Mom be in charge of shit like this. And not one word to her or Marty, or I’ll think of something nasty to do to you.”

  As Sonny stomped out of the room, Casey picked up the box he had and followed. If he didn’t know any better, he’d think the Lees were doing this as a way to cheer him up. Christmas wasn’t Casey’s most favorite time of year. It only served to remind him of everything he lost. Passing by the kitchen, he could hear the easy listening music had been traded for Christmas carols to put everyone in the mood.

  Cherie and Karen had already put the tree together when there was a knock at the door and Casey looked up to see Deidre, Adam, Ellen, along with Sally and Lisa, Sonny’s and her children.

  Each carried something in their hands. Placing his load on the table, he walked over and let them in before locking the door tightly behind them. The air outside was freezing, but the snow itself looked beautiful as it covered everything like a giant white blanket. Winter would be the most perfect season if it wasn’t this damn cold all the time.

  Part of Casey wished Marty was here to help them. It would have been fun doing this with Marty by his side, although they would be together if they decided to decorate their apartment.

  Hopefully he could talk the stubborn man into it. He had four weeks to find and buy presents for his new family, and he definitely wanted this year to be special, to make up for the last three.

  Casey’s mind wandered over what he discovered this morning.

  When he checked his bank account on the way to work, he saw there was another deposit of money in the bank from his father.

  Casey didn’t touch it. From now on, he would only use the money which he earned himself through working and would try to get what he spent of his father’s money back into the account in case Astrid found out and wanted the money returned. Casey didn’t want his father to hurt over this. By his calculations, his father deposited three thousand and six hundred dollars into his account over the years. One hundred dollars each month without fail. In the four weeks he had been working at the café he had almost a third of the money back; around a thousand of it at least. Living with Marty, he didn’t pay rent, only needing to buy the basics at home, seeing as they ate a majority of their meals at the café.

  “Earth to Casey.” Karen touched his arm, and Casey almost jumped through the roof. “Damn, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  “No, it’s my fault. My mind was a million miles away,” he said, trying to calm his racing heart.

  Nudging his shoulder, she asked, “Thinking about a certain out-of-commission head honcho, were ya?”

  He shook his head. “Actually I was thinking about my dad. Sometimes out of the blue it hits me how much I really miss him.”

  Karen laid her head on his shoulder. “Have you ever thought about getting in contact with him? I’m sure he misses you just as much.”

  “Nah, I don’t think my dad thinks about me at all. If he did, he wouldn’t have let Astrid throw me out like she did. He would have fought for me.” A hardness filled his voice. “They have their family: Dad, Astrid, Henry, and Robbie. I don’t fit in there. I never did. I remind them too much of my mother.”

  Another set of arms wrapped around him from behind, and he welcomed the gesture of comfort. Ellen
had become like a sister to him, and he loved knowing she was there for him.

  “I’m okay. I’ve had a lot of years to get over the fact they didn’t want me around. Strange as it seems, I think I was actually better off without them. The only thing I truly regret is I never finished high school. I never got to graduate. That was one of the reasons I found it so hard to find a job. I seriously lucked out here when John up and quit.”

  “You lucked out?” Karen snorted. “John quitting was the best thing that happened to all of us. John was one strange puppy. One minute he was up and happy as anything, and the next he was down and mean to everyone. I refused to work with him, though it’s poor Marty who copped John’s mood swings the most.”

  “What do you mean?” Casey asked.

  “I mean for a while I thought John might have had a bit of a thing for Marty. He was always flirty with him, not that Marty ever flirted back. I guess John wasn’t Marty’s type.” A deep flush colored Karen’s face, and she dropped her gaze from his and stared at the half-empty box of ornaments on the table. “Since you started coming in, we all saw how Marty liked you, and we always teased him because he got sidetracked watching you. Over the last six months, we kinda figured out Marty really liked you but was too scared to say anything, and our teasing got ramped up a notch. We were only doing it in fun, but John’s behavior started to change…”

  Casey listened with a sickening dread for what was coming next, and in his mind, the puzzle pieces were falling into place and forming the bigger picture as he continued to listen to Karen.

  “Especially his attitude toward Marty. Most days he was still nice and flirty, but on days when you showed up, I noticed John’s attitude was filled with nastiness.” She finally looked at him again.

  “Honestly, I never thought much of it, but maybe John really did like Marty — you know like-liked Marty. The day Marty asked you out on the date was the day John up and quit. I figured he finally realized he didn’t have a hope in hell with your man.”

  Ellen’s arms tightened around his waist, and Casey could feel the tremble through his body. He patted her hands when a deeper voice spoke beside them.

  “What if John’s the cause of all Marty’s mishaps?” Adam asked.

  “Oh fuck me sideways.” Sonny picked up the phone and called his brother.

  Casey found all he could do was stand there. If this thought pattern turned out to be true, then he was the cause of Marty getting hurt. The man was going to be pissed and hate him forever.

  Chapter Five

  Holy crap! The police had been at his apartment for hours, and he had the overwhelming urge to scream or at the very least throw something. They kept asking the same damn things over and over and getting nowhere. No matter how many times they asked or what words they used his answer was going to still be the same. No he didn’t know who was doing this to him. No he hadn’t pissed anyone off that he knew about. No he didn’t know why this was happening to him. He was almost relieved when his cell rang.

  “I have to take this,” he said when he saw his brother’s name.

  He pressed okay and spoke. “Hello?” The babble of his brother on the other end of the line was hard to understand. “Wait! What about John?” The blood drained out of his face; he knew it because he could feel the coldness that came with the rush of dread which replaced it. “Hold on, I think you need to speak to the police. Yeah, they’re here with me now.” He listened as Sonny asked a million questions. “Sonny, I called them here to talk, but I think they need to hear what you’ve come up with in case it’s relevant.”

  He took the phone from his ear and said. “My family and coworkers have a theory they believe you may want to hear.”

  The tremble in his hands was evident as he handed the phone to Officer Houston. If he wasn’t freaked out about everything which happened to him, he would have thought Officer Houston was kind of good looking in the whole “man in uniform” sort of way. He was neatly dressed with not a thing out of place. His dark hair was parted on the side and swept back, his skin had a fading tan, his lips were full, and his eyes were large and deep blue. And he did absolutely nothing for him, because Officer Houston was not Casey.

  Officer Houston spoke quietly into the phone, asking questions and listening to the answers he was being given. Marty lay back against the sofa, where he moved to after his mother called the police. As much as he wanted this over, he didn’t want strangers in his bedroom. That space was for him and Casey alone. After some nagging and with the help of his mother he was comfortably — as comfortably as possible — sitting on the sofa in the living room. The idea of John being the one to do this to him sounded ludicrous, but thinking back on everything, he was someone who fit the bill as in knowing his schedule, et cetera. Even though they were never really intimate in any way, he considered John a friend.

  The question kept coming back to him: Why would John want to hurt him? What could he have possibly done to make the guy hate him this damn much? He thought they had always gotten along well, at least until he up and quit during his shift a couple of weeks back. It was all starting to sound crazy and was making him paranoid as hell. He wanted it over and done with. He was tired of wondering when they would strike next time, or even if the two incidents were even related in any way. Everyone seemed to think so, but he himself wasn’t quite sure. The first time the guys who beat him up were teens and probably only out to cause him a little bit of humiliation. The second time those guys were men and determined to cause him hurt, if not death. As wussy as it sounded, he was scared.

  How pathetic was he that he was dreading having to go back to work when he got better? He sat there, and it suddenly occurred to him the drone of voices had stopped. When he refocused on the here and now, Officer Houston was studying him, and his partner Officer Baker had left the room.

  “Is there something you would like to tell me?” Officer Houston asked.

  “Like what?”

  “Has there ever been anything between you and this,” he looked down at the note pad he held in his hand, “John Atkins?”

  “No. If you’re asking if there has been any kind of sex between us, then the answer is no. As far as I know we were only ever friends. He isn’t my type.” Marty knew his words were a little cold, as he was slightly pissed off the officer was thinking this somehow might be his fault. “Ask my family. For about the past year, I’ve been infatuated with Casey. I never gave John any indication I was interested in anything other than friendship.”

  Officer Houston frowned. “Do you think your family and coworkers could be right?”

  “To be honest, I don’t know. I never saw him as anything other than a friend. Having said that, John did quit in the middle of his shift the night I was to have my first date with Casey. This could merely be a coincidence.” He gave a slight shrug and regretted it when his ribs twanged in pain.

  “But you don’t think so, do you?”

  “I don’t know what to think. All I know is this time whoever beat me wasn’t out to hurt and humiliate me; they wanted me dead. Like I’ve told you over and over, all I heard was the one sentence repeatedly telling me it was all my fault.”

  “I wonder what they meant by that,” Officer Houston said thoughtfully.

  “I don’t know. Your guess is as good as mine.” And he didn’t know. If it was John who initiated it, then he wanted to know why. Nothing was making sense today. Nothing made sense since it all happened. “Do you think because I’m still alive they’ll try again?” The thought terrified him.

  “Yes, I do.” Officer Houston pinched the bridge of his nose.

  “Though next time they try they’re going to have a welcome wagon in the form of the Clayton’s Bay PD. We don’t take too kindly to people beating the crap out of people, and when we find these people – and we will find them, they will have the book thrown at them. I don’t appreciate what they did on my turf.”

  Marty had to bite his lip to keep from smiling at the protective attitu
de the man had. It was like something out a movie. Holy crap, next thing he knew Officer Houston would turn into some superhero and save the world. The look of pissed-off righteousness on the officer’s face had Marty thinking he was glad he wasn’t the one responsible for what happened to him.

  “Do you don’t think this could be some random hate crime then?” He had to ask.

  The glare he received in return was not fun. “I have always thought this was a hate crime. I believe this is more personal and not random. Whoever did this didn’t stumble upon you by accident; they had to be out there waiting for you. The evidence all leads to the fact that whoever did this stood and waited until you went outside. Your coworkers said at one stage they had all been outside and nothing happened to them.”

  Confusion filled Marty. “How do you know they didn’t come into the parking lot when I came outside? It could have all been a coincidence, you know, wrong place-wrong time kind of deal.”

  “No, whoever did this waited out there. When we processed the area, we found a pile of cigarette butts and enough evidence to believe there were at least five men involved.”

  “How do you know they were men?”

  “Their shoe size. There are enough differences between a man’s and a woman’s shoe.”

  This didn’t sound right. “What if a woman is wearing a man’s shoe? Cherie wears men’s shoes. She says they’re more comfortable. I mean, if you’re basing everything on the fact of a shoe print then I suggest you think again. How do you know who it was? According to Sonny, my family and most of the staff came out when I was on the ground. How do you know it wasn’t their prints you were seeing?”

  A growl erupted from Officer Houston. “Sir, we’re not fools. We have a very adept team of specialists who actually know what they’re doing when it comes to their respective jobs. They have all been very well trained. I need you to believe me when I say we know it was at least five men who did this to you.”

  “Okay, Jeez! I was only asking.” He held up his hands in defeat. “I believe you.”