Cabernet Zin (The Southern California Wine Country Series)

by J Gordon Smith

  Claire breathed, “How much were the parts?”

  “I got them from a guy parting out his truck, relatively cheap. Don’t worry about it.”

  Claire wrapped her arms around him again and kissed him deep, ignoring Leiko sitting on the porch.

  Chapter 21

  Zack felt odd standing on the front porch of the Detroit house he used to live at; knocking to see if his kids could come out to play. The trim work he added along the front of the house two years before still looked good.

  Nicholas pushed the screen out, “Yeah, the kids will be out soon. Lydia is getting their shoes.”

  Zack could smell a mix of mouthwash and alcohol seeping through the space between them. The minute hand of Zack’s watch clicked just beyond ten in the morning. He still had an urge to reach through the screen and choke Nicholas. Then he would fling the creep to the lawn where he could beat him to oblivion, slowly. Zack held back. “I’ll wait in the car.”

  “Sure.”

  Zack stood by the rental car with the rear door open for his children. The huge key fob from the rental company knocked hollow in his fingers as he waited. Then the children rushed out of the house and hugged him. “I’ve missed you two.”

  “Where are we going today Dad?” Grace asked.

  “Off to the zoo, the park, or –”

  Noah interrupted, “Which park?”

  “I thought we could go out to the big state park and do some hiking.”

  “Walking in the woods?”

  “We might see fun animals, if we’re really quiet.”

  “Bears?” Grace leaned forward in her seatbelt with excitement on her face.

  “I don’t think we have any bears. But we could see deer or muskrats, maybe an otter or –”

  “The zoo has bears, Grace.”

  “So you want to go to the zoo then?”

  “YES! I want to see the bears and the tigers and the lizards,” Grace hopped in her seat.

  Zack backed the car out of the driveway, pointing it down the road toward the zoo. “Then it looks like we are going to the zoo.”

  They walked to the monkey pit following the painted elephant feet on the path. Zack remembered them being freshly painted when he was young, now the tracks were nearly faded, a neglected icon. Zack asked the children, “So how has school been?”

  “Fine.”

  “Busy.”

  “In what way?”

  “A lot of homework.”

  “That’s what school is about. You’ve been doing your homework on time and well?”

  Noah shrugged.

  “What’s wrong about it?”

  Noah shrugged again, “I was working on it last night at the kitchen table and Nick had this fight with Lydia. He had a bunch of that brownish drink.”

  Zack reached into his pocket and took out his cell phone as if he was going to check his email or the time, “Go on Noah.” Zack hit record and dropped it in his shirt pocket with the microphone pointing out. “What is this brownish drink that Nick had?”

  Grace said, “It’s nasty tasting.” She made a face as if someone forced spinach on her, shivering, “Then Nick can’t stand up.”

  Zack asked, “Does Nick drink that once in a while? Or more often?”

  Noah said, “Often. Grace and I go down in the basement and play our video games when we see the bottle come out of the cabinet.”

  “What does your mother do?”

  “Oh, she has some too but not that much. She leaves it on the table by the couch. That’s how Grace knows what it tastes like. I don’t like the smell of it.”

  “Yuck.” Grace wrinkled her nose and shook her shoulders. “I tasted it yesterday and it’s still bad. As you told me, I might like Brussels sprouts the second time. Yuck still.”

  “You kids shouldn’t even be trying that.”

  “Does smelling it make you go down into the basement?”

  “No. Nick gets mean when he has that stuff,” Noah pulled his pants belt loop down so his stretchy topped jeans exposed his hip and a large green-black patch, “See? I got it from Nick last week. I wanted to watch that funny video show on television and he didn’t want to even though I was there first. I had turned the television on.”

  “Where was your mother?”

  “She was taking a bath.”

  “Did you cry?”

  “Yeah, I went to the bathroom door and Mom told me to settle down. She needed to finish a chapter in peace and quiet.”

  “You told her Nick hit you?”

  “She said I probably misunderstood or made Nick mad fighting with Grace.”

  “Had you two been fighting?”

  “Earlier, but then Grace was in her room with her toys.

  “Grace laughed at remembering, “My stuffed animals were battling my plastic dinosaurs. Rarrrrgh!”

  “So I just went into my room and read a book on snakes.”

  Zack hugged Noah, “This is all so hard for all of us. I’ll figure out how to fix that. You can be brave and strong?”

  Noah nodded.

  “And make sure you tell your mother if anything like that happens again or you think it’s about to happen?” Zack hugged him again. “Let’s go see what the Arctic animals are up to.” Zack stopped his phone recording.

  Grace stepped away from watching the monkeys, grinning, “What’s an Arctic? Does it eat bears?”

  “Grace, you are a funny little girl. I think you’ll like the polar bear pool.

  Chapter 22

  November

  “How do you two like California?”

  “It’s great, Dad.”

  Zack stuck the thermometer into the leg of the turkey. The dial spun around fast and then slowed as it went into the hundred and forties. “Not quite ready yet.”

  “When will it be ready?”

  “Soon Grace.” Zack closed the oven. “This stove is a little finicky compared with the one back home.” Zack had not cooked enough on the stove in this rental house to know where its quirks lay. “What did you think of flying?”

  “Good. Mom even got us egg rolls while we waited for the plane. I had pork and Grace had a shrimp egg roll. Grace behaved the whole flight.”

  Zack was sure they got extra attention from the flight attendants. “I was nervous about you two but your Mother made sure it worked out.”

  “Daddy, I don’t feel so good.”

  “What do you mean Grace?”

  “My tummy hurts.” Grace got out of the chair in the little kitchen and wobbled out to the living room toward the bathroom. Then she ran.

  Zack followed her around the bend in the house and found Grace standing on her toes, vomit up and down her arms and dripping from her fingers. Grace looked at Zack, “I’m sorry. I didn’t make it to the toilet.”

  Zack grabbed towels and started cleaning Grace and the floor of the bathroom, “It’s ok –”

  Grace lurched toward the toilet flinging more vomit but getting it mostly inside the toilet bowl. She grabbed the edge of the sink to steady herself.

  “How long have you felt this way?”

  “Just now.”

  Noah said, shielding himself with the wall so only his fingers and head showed, “Grace didn’t want much on the plane. She ate two of those egg rolls.”

  “How are you feeling Noah?”

  “Doing ok.”

  Zack felt Grace’s forehead, “You’re burning up and all sweaty. Are you feeling like you wanted to sit down on the side of the tub?”

  Grace nodded and sat down.

  “Let me get a change of clothes.”

  Zack dressed her and took her temperature. It was too high. Zack changed his clothes. “Do you think you can ride in the car? I’d like to take you to the emergency room.”

  “Emergency room?” Noah said, startled.

  “I want to make sure Grace doesn’t have anything really dangerous and that she will get better soon. So Noah, why don’t you get a few things to do, maybe bring your backpack, and I’ll ge
t Grace’s shoes on and we’ll go.”

  Zack washed up carefully and went back to the kitchen. The house smelled of Thanksgiving turkey and everything else. He tested the turkey temperature and saw it safely spiked over a hundred and seventy. He let it set on top of the stove and checked that he had turned everything off. Then he put it all in the refrigerator. He didn’t know how long they might be at the hospital.

  “Dad, my tummy hurts again.”

  Zack searched around and saw a waste basket by the nurse’s station while he asked the nurse at the desk about a container. Grace bent over and vomited into the waste basket. She straightened up and Zack saw her wobble, unsteady again.

  “Here, keep this in front of her.” The nurse gave Zack a deep tray that looked like it came from a mushy paper egg-carton factory.

  Zack called Lydia, “I’m here with Grace at the emergency room. She’s sick.”

  “What’s she sick with?”

  “Projectile vomiting. You’ll need to call their doctor’s office.”

  “Besides having to worry about the kids out there with you, now I have a task to follow up on? Don’t you have their doctor’s phone number? Why don’t you give them a call?”

  “I thought you might be concerned and want to help.”

  “I’m here with my family and Nick and I we are finally having a good time without thinking about you.”

  “Without thinking –” Zack saw Claire down the long hallway go from one of the emergency curtained off rooms to another, following someone the staff pushed in a wheel chair.

  Lydia demanded, “– What do you mean by without thinking?”

  “Nothing. Forget it. Have a great time with your family and I’ll call you later.” Zack hung up.

  The nurse said, “– The doctor is ready to see you.”

  Zack glanced at the waving curtain for a moment then helped Grace and Noah navigate behind the nurse that suddenly moved like a hound after a rabbit.

  “Dad, I think you should get that big stuffed animal for Grace that says get well soon.”

  “Noah, the doctor prescribed these bottles of child electrolyte so she doesn’t get dehydrated along with this medicine. In a day, she will be fine. While that is a nice teddy bear, Grace doesn’t need a bear bigger than she is.”

  “We could lean against it when we watch television.”

  “I thought you wanted the bear for Grace?”

  “Well …”

  Zack saw a flash of a wheelchair in the light sifting through the crowded hallway and Claire’s profile disappear around the corner. “Kids, I see a friend. We will have to hurry to catch her. Can you walk fast?” Zack put the purchases from the hospital drug store into Noah’s backpack. Grace nodded. Zack held their hands and he hurried down the hallway.

  Like any hospital that added to their facility over time, the hallways intersected in odd little combinations producing side alleys and stairs that seemed to go nowhere and everywhere at the same time. Unexpected corners hid elevators. Lethargic gurneys of sick patients shuffled from rooms to labs and back again. Zack kept a careful eye on Claire’s fleeting form. Grace, while marching strong at the beginning quickly faded and Zack picked her up. Zack saw an elevator door close with Claire beyond it. He knew he could never guess which floor she went to nor which direction she might take if he stayed here. The elevator could choose any of twenty-seven stories. He set Grace down and pulled out his cell phone. He focused too hard on trying to catch her he did not think of other options.

  Claire answered her phone.

  Zack said, “I saw you go up the elevator. What floor are you at?”

  “You saw me in the hospital?”

  “Yes. You are following someone in a wheel chair.”

  “– Um.”

  “My kids are visiting me and Grace got sick, she is going to be ok, but I saw you.”

  “I’m … I’m here with my father. He’s not doing very well.” Zack heard another voice nearby but couldn’t understand any of it. “You can come up for a few minutes. Floor fifteen, room eight-seventy-four.”

  Zack pressed the elevator call button and waited.

  Claire met Zack at the door, “This is Grace? Are you the little sick girl?”

  Grace put her thumb in her mouth and nodded.

  Noah held his hand out to Claire, “I’m Noah.”

  “Nice to meet you, Noah.”

  A big football looking man with surfer hair, a deep tan, and a week-old beard held his hand out, “I’m Tyler. Claire’s brother.” He looked Zack up and down as if wondering how he’d fare in a fight. Zack said, “Claire mentioned you teach surfing?”

  “Yeah. I have a class almost every day. I give discounts to hot chicks, so if you know any looking for a class,” he shrugged his shoulders.

  A voice cut out of the room behind Claire, “Claire? Who’s that? Who’s that at the door?”

  Claire turned, “Dad, it’s my friend Zack. He fixed my car.”

  “The married guy?” Claire’s father looked Zack over, “I told you not to get mixed up with him.”

  Tyler said, “Dad, they are friends. He helped her out with her car.” He walked to the bed side.

  “Dad, I’ll be right outside.” Claire put her hand against Zack and directed him into the hallway. “My Dad had a stroke and they found cancer while working up tests.”

  “Very long?”

  “Yes, a while now.”

  Zack said, “You should have told me.”

  “What was there to tell?”

  “I’m going on all the time about my situation …”

  “And you helped me keep my mind off my own problems.”

  “This is a significant problem.”

  “We’re dealing with it. I’ve been staying with him. He got too out of control again though. Broke his arm. They set it in the emergency room and want to monitor his cancer since he’s already here. A big backup for the MRI lab. So we wait here.”

  Her father’s voice rang out, “– I won’t allow such a guy to see Claire!”

  Tyler said, “… Dad, she’s an adult and old enough to make up her own mind.”

  Claire said to Zack, “I better get back in there. I’m glad you called me.” She put up a smile and knelt by Noah and Grace, “And I’m glad to have met you two. You are both very handsome children.”

  Zack rested his hands on the children’s shoulders, “Bye, Claire.”

  Claire nodded, stood, and returned inside her father’s room. Zack saw her wiping tears from her face. His heart hurt for her but he knew he should go.

  Chapter 23

  “I’ve had enough. I’m out of here,” Nick pulled his leather jacket off the lounge chair and swung his arms into its sleeves as he banged out the door. The door thumped against the wall marking it. He didn’t care. He flipped over the jacket’s collar and dug his keys out of his pocket. He wrenched open the car door and dropped to the seat.

  Lydia came out of the house behind him, “Nick. Stay. Please!”

  He cracked the window, “I’m not arguing with you anymore. I’m done.” His car rolled back to the street and he roared away.

  Lydia drew her nightgown closer around herself against the sharp November cold. She went back to the house along the worn concrete walkway, loose stones gouged the bottom of her bare feet at every step but the poor light and her mixed thoughts only found the stones with pain. A thought at the back of her mind reminded her she needed something but it left in the rising anger that drove her forward. She gulped her glass of caffeine and pulled on a pair of black running tights, a sweatshirt, and her coat. She scuffed her feet into shoes then snatched her purse off the floor and dug around in it while the back door closed and she flopped in her car. She drove down the street determined to find Nicholas.

  “Mom?” Noah stumbled out of his bedroom. His hair hung in scruffy tufts. He yawned. Grace sat on the floor watching morning television cartoons. Noah’s favorite would be on in a half hour.

  Grace pulled a fistfu
l of candy coated cereal from the box and munched a bite off the edge, “Mom left.” She took another bite. “I saw her go with the car. I stood on my bed.”

  “Is Amanda here?”

  “No.” Grace laughed at the funny mouse and cat on the television.

  “Dad says we shouldn’t eat cereal out of the box.”

  “We can do what we want. No one is here.” Grace held the box out, “Want some?”

  “I don’t like this. It’s not right.”

  Grace munched on her cereal, “Want to play with the kids next door?”

  “We need to get dressed.”

  “Ok.”

  Noah was hungry. He went to the kitchen and made himself jelly toast with a sharp knife. He watched the knife closely as it came out of the jelly jar repeatedly. “No wonder Dad uses a spoon – this knife sucks,” but he had enough on his toast, and the counter.

  They fought with pillows and raced around inside the house. “Lunch time!” Grace announced as they skidded along the hallway. They rummaged in the refrigerator like a pair of chipper raccoons and made cheese and baloney sandwiches with yellow mustard. Noah remained careful with the mustard. Grace got some on her sleeper, but decided she wanted ketchup on her sandwich instead.

  Noah said, “You should get dressed, especially if we go outside to play.”

  Grace sat on the couch, using her lap to protect the couch from the ketchup, “I like this cartoon.”

  Noah laughed at the whimsical robot, sitting in the big stuffed chair. He poured Lydia’s pop for himself.

  Grace looked at Noah, “Did Mom get ice cream?”

  “Nope.” Noah took the last bite of his sandwich.

  “I want ice cream.”

  “There isn’t any. How about we play outside?”

  “Let’s go!”

  “You need to put regular clothes on. The other kids will laugh if wear your sleeper.”

  “Fine.” Grace went to her bedroom and slid on a pair of green sweatpants and a purple T-shirt over a burgundy sweatshirt. Noah put his boots on over his bare feet, a hat on his head, and zipped up his coat.