Word of Honor, Book 2

by Tiana Laveen

  A brief silence ensued.

  “What you doin’ in West Virginia of all places, man?” Marcus asked, his voice drawling.

  “…Away from it all, starting over. I’m here with my woman. I want a chapter one… beginning all over again. I wanted… I wanted to extend the opportunity to you, too, to start fresh.”

  Seconds passed, though it felt like an eternity as silence stirred between the two.

  “So… uh, what’s West Virginia like, man?”

  “Well.” He crossed his ankles and looked straight ahead at the closed door while Musiq continued to serenade him. “It depends on where you’re at, just like a lot of places, but it’s quiet here, peaceful. Lot’s of fishin’.” He turned his attention towards his window. “You’re only like four to five hours away from New York if you wanted to drive over for a weekend trip. We got nice stores and good schools, too… I like it. I’ve had a place here for years; just decided ’cause of all that’s happened, it was time to call it home.”

  “Fishin’, huh? Like what do you catch over there?”

  “I got two boats, man.” Aaron grinned into the phone.

  “Two?!”

  “Yeah, a 25 ft. pilot sports one named Delta and my little, beat up one that does the job, too. I catch walleye, carp, muskellunge, bluegill, and channel catfish, too.”

  “What type of bait you use, man?”

  Aaron began to feel like he was in the midst of some silly inquisition, but it suited him just fine for this was one of his most favorite topics.

  “Simple night crawlers… nothin’ fancy. You fish too I take it?”

  “Yeah…”

  “So, maybe we can fish together one morning….”

  “I.T. job, huh?”

  “Yeah. You could do what you love. I’ll let you have the weekends off ’cept for emergencies. Like I said, I’m no billionaire, but I do well for myself. I have a need, you have a need…it’s simple.”

  “To tell you the truth, Aaron, I’ve been wanting to move for years.” He sighed heavily, as if getting the confession off his back helped him unload crippling weight. “It’s my wife. She don’t want to, and…I…”

  “I understand, Marcus. I know what it’s like to love someone and they want you to do or not do somethin’, but it’s a struggle for you.”

  Marcus laughed lightly. “Yeah, I remember that… I suppose you do. How is she by the way? You two still together?”

  “Yes, gettin’ hitched soon.”

  “Ohhhh man, that’s what up! Congratulations, Aaron.”

  “Thank you.” He smiled into the phone. “Besides my daughter, she’s the best thing that ever happened to me. I’d love for you and your family to be able to attend the wedding.”

  “Well, maybe we will.”

  “I think my fiancée needs some friends. Maybe they could become friends; she doesn’t know anyone up here.”

  “You know what? Not tryna be funny but I don’t think my wife has any white women as friends, Aaron. If by chance a snowball in Hell didn’t melt and she agreed to let me check out this opportunity, as you call it, your wife would be her first!” He chuckled.

  “No, she wouldn’t…”

  “Huh? Yeah she would.”

  “Marcus, Mia, my fiancée, isn’t white…”

  A long, cold silence swarmed in the conversation and apparently rendered Marcus’ tongue frozen solid…unable to move or utter a word.

  “Mexican?”

  “Nada.”

  “Chinese?”

  “Wu.”

  “Wu? Is that ‘No’ in Chinese?!”

  “Yeah.”

  “Yeah she’s Chinese or yeah that’s what it is?”

  “Yeah, that’s what it is.”

  “Is she Japanese?”

  “No, she’s not Asian at all, Marcus.”

  “Laotian?”

  “No, and that’s still Asian…”

  “Taiwanese? Wait, more importantly how the hell do you know these other languages?! Ain’t you supposed to only care about English and Pig Latin?” he joked.

  “No, that would have been foolhardy. I would not call myself fluent in anything but English, but I know just enough.”

  “What? You’re confusing me.”

  “Look, it’s like this. I know many basic words of many languages. I know key phrases, greetings, things like that. I felt it was important for me to know what my enemies are saying, because I believed a race war was approaching. Your opponent needs to be able to be understood.”

  “You crazy as fuck, man! Is she Vietnamese? No wait, that’s still Asian…”

  “Yes, Vietnam is in southeast Asia.”

  “Oh, I know! She’s Dominican or Cuban, ain’t she? You got hold to some Latin fire!”

  “Ninguno de los.”

  “Ninguno de los?! That means no some kinda way, but I just don’t want to believe this! I just can’t! Man, you been…you been dippin’ yo’ swastika in some brown suga and perpetratin’ the fraud?!”

  At this, Aaron burst out laughing once again.

  “…She can’t be, man,” Marcus stated, in apparent complete shock. “She can’t be black!” He cracked up laughing so hard, the sound echoed through the phone. “You mean to tell me while yo’ white power ass was up at Holman stompin’ around wit’ combat boots calling people nigger ’nd shit, and all that time yo’ old lady was black?! You got me fucked up, man!”

  “It’s a long story, Marcus, it’s complicated, but yes, that’s what I mean to tell you!”

  At this, they both laughed so hard he was not sure he’d recover. His stomach cramped as he overdosed on Marcus’ amusement. The man began to cough, as if his lungs were giving out on him.

  “I need some water!” the man screamed between harsh coughing spells. “Oh my God! Ain’t that some shit! Man, if this wasn’t so fuckin’ funny I’d be pissed as hell! Okay, I need the back story, man. I need you to explain how the hell something like this happened.”

  “Are you going to ask your wife if you can take a job in West Virginia?”

  “I might.”

  “Might ain’t good enough. Just promise you’ll ask.”

  “…Alright. I promise. I’ll at least ask.”

  “Okay, here is what happened. One day I was called into Dr. Owens’ office…”

  AARON STEPPED CAREFULLY over the stacked, rough pieces of timber that lay haphazardly in the middle of the new doorway frame. It was lunchtime, and the crew of construction workers sat several feet away clutching bags of fast food and laughing amongst themselves under the dull afternoon sun. He adjusted his hard hat as he looked out towards the open area, surrounded by the open scaffold of the office extension of the new structure.

  The new crew he’d hired for the West Virginia location were hard at work. He’d gotten a great deal on the small building but he desired to have a larger area as his personal office, so he hired a local architect and the wheels were soon set in motion. He stood there, daydreaming about nothing in particular. Suddenly, his cell phone rang. He snatched the thing out of his pocket, looked at the caller I.D., and burst out laughing.

  “What’s going on, man? You got time for your big brother now, huh?” He chuckled.

  “Always time for you, man! Sorry, just been busy… Amy told me you stopped by and gave her a holler. She really liked seein’ you. It’s good you two been talking on the phone a lot, too.”

  “Yeah.” He looked lazily up at the sky then back at the workers as he leaned against the doorframe, careful not to jam his shoulder into a bed of half drilled nails. “It was good seein’ her, too…” His voice trailed. He didn’t want to bring down the budding good mood while speaking to Joe-Joe, but the visit with Amy had left him a bit torn up inside.

  “It got you kinda down, didn’t it? Seein’ her like that?”

  Aaron stood straight once more, cleared his throat, and made haste to avoid the question.

  “So what you been up to? Ain’t heard from you in a few weeks.”


  “I’m thinkin’ about doin’ some party promotions, man! They get paid real good.”

  “Party promotions?! Like handing out flyers and shit? Joe-Joe, come on!”

  “Come on, what?”

  “You and Amy are goin’ to be thirty soon. You are jumpin’ from job to job actin’ like you got all the time in the world to get your shit together and Amy won’t even take her goddamn medicine so she can get the fuck outta that horrible place!”

  “Look, I don’t call you to hear any shit, Aaron! You’re not exactly someone that can be sittin’ around lecturin’ me, anyway. You haven’t exactly been a shining example, a pillar of society! Give me a damn break! What? You think ’cause you own your own company you better than me? You ain’t!”

  Aaron slowly lowered his head and rubbed his forehead in frustration. He closed his eyes, trying to calm the beating of his heart.

  “…I ain’t never thought I was better than you, Joe-Joe. I’ve never said that to you. I’m just concerned, is all. I just… I just want better for you, for Amy, for all of us.”

  “Well, sometimes we just gotta deal with the hand we were dealt, okay? You was real smart in school but pissed it away, so save your lectures. You had the brains, I had the charisma; let me do my thing.”

  “We deserved better, man.” He looked back out at the construction workers, one of whom who was now tinkering with a paint splattered radio. “We… just deserved better is all.”

  Silence stretched between them – long and uncomfortable.

  “Anyway, Amy said you aren’t with the National Socialists anymore? Is that true? Like, you’re really done with that? Shit… I guess you are if your girlfriend is really who Amy said it was…”

  “Yeah.” Aaron sighed. “It’s true.”

  “I can’t even imagine you not a part of that… seems strange. You seem different though, too. When we talked last, I could tell you’d changed… but I guess I just didn’t really believe it. I needed more convincing. I’m glad though, Aaron… I’m real glad about that.”

  “Every day has its challenges, but I’m a work in progress, you know? So, did you get the wedding invitation?”

  “Yeah, I’ll see if I can make it.”

  “You’ll see if you can make it? You don’t have a job! You don’t have any obligations. You better get your ass up here.” Aaron chuckled. “It ain’t an option.”

  “Let me ask you something, Aaron.”

  “Yeah?”

  “This is somethin’ that’s always bothered me, and I never got up the nerve to ask. But since you’re way up there in West Virginia now, and I’m down here in Alabama, ain’t shit you can do to me if I say what I want.”

  Aaron smirked and shook his head. “What is it?”

  “Why is it that you let Mama treat you like that, huh? I’d leave the house when she’d get to goin’, startin’ up. But you’d stay in there and take it, knowing nine times out of ten she was going to beat tha shit outta you for whatever reason she saw fit.”

  “’Cause of Amy, Joe-Joe. Somebody had to stay back and protect Amy… Mama needed someone to lay into, and if I ran off, she might have turned Amy into her whoopin’ post instead. I couldn’t let that happen. Yeah, I knew what was going to happen, but better me than her.”

  “But she all fucked up anyway… didn’t even matter.” His brother let out an exasperated breath. “I’m the only normal one.” He laughed, drawing some mirth from Aaron, too. “Wish that was true… but it ain’t. I been runnin’ my whole life, Aaron…’fraid to keep still. If you keep still, the memories come back and get you, eat you alive. I can’t for the life of me figure out how we still standin’.”

  “As my sweetheart would say, ‘By the grace of God…’” Aaron took a glance at the time on his phone. “You know, just ’cause I moved don’t mean you allowed to ignore me, not be around. Ain’t sayin’ you got to move here, but I need you in my life, Joe-Joe – you and Amy, too. Actually…hold tight. I’mma give her a call. We can talk on three-way.”

  “She ain’t going to pick up, Aaron. She never answers her damn phone.”

  “She’ll pick up for me. I’m her favorite brother,” Aaron teased causing Joe-Joe to snicker. The phone began to ring, and ring, and ring…

  “See, told you,” Joe-Joe stated smugly.

  “Hello? Aaron!”

  “Awwww, man! Amy you made me lose a damn bet!” Joe-Joe blurted, sounding sore and angry as if money were riding on it.

  “What? You complainin’ to Aaron about me not answering the phone in my room? I don’t take your calls; you waste my goddamn time. Now, Aaron, on the other hand, is entertainin’!” She cackled.

  “Whatever…” Joe-Joe mumbled.

  “Is this a family reunion?!” she joked. “I’m on three-way, huh?”

  “Yeah, it’s a family reunion!” Aaron grinned. “Look, Amy, I was talking to Joe-Joe and—”

  “Oh, Aaron, I got the weddin’ invitation. It’s so pretty! I doubt they’ll let me come, but I’m going to save this, put it up somewhere special.”

  He pushed aside his disappointment, knowing she more than likely was right. It was out of state after all, and they were funny about things like that…

  “Amy, Aaron and I were just talkin’ about Mama and Arnold.”

  “No, you were talkin’ about Mama and Arnold and I was just responding,” Aaron corrected. “That’s why I called Amy, actually. Amy and I talked about them when I visited her, and now here’s the topic again. I’m pretty fuckin’ sick of everything revolving around Mama and Arnold.”

  “I got the right to bring their asses up! Arnold slapped me so goddamn hard one time, he dislodged one of my fuckin’ teeth, Aaron! I was only eight fuckin’ years old and he hit me like that!” The rage in his brother’s tone filled the airwaves with something that only the heavens above could sooth. Aaron was all too familiar with it… for it mirrored his own.

  “I didn’t say you didn’t have the right to bring them up, Joe-Joe. What I’m sayin’ is that all three of us have allowed how they treated us to mess us up. It gets to the point where we have to start takin’ responsibility for ourselves, Joe-Joe!”

  “What the hell are you talking about? I do!”

  “No you don’t. You’re just out here, not doin’ anything! That shit can fly when you’re twelve, sixteen, eighteen, hell, maybe even early twenties, but then it gets to a point where you have to say, ‘Fuck them!’” Aaron’s body filled with a surge of heat as he screamed out the words, cursed the two people that had set out to destroy him. “We gotta have the last laugh! I’m so tired… so fucking tired of this shit, Joe-Joe! Amy, it ain’t just him. This is for you, too. You gotta get better, do you hear me!”

  “Aaron, I—”

  “No … no excuses! I know it ain’t your fault, it ain’t none of our faults, but… shit, I don’t know, I just understand now that them two bastards had three great kids and just ’cause they didn’t see us as important didn’t mean that we weren’t.”

  “What you expect me to do, Aaron?” Amy asked, her voice real calm, quiet and low.

  “What do I expect you to do? I expect you to start listenin’ to your doctors, toyin’ around with the medications to see what works for you and what doesn’t, make a game plan, Amy. One you can stick with, live by. You can’t stay in that goddamn hospital the rest of your life, the fuckin’ nut farm. You’re bipolar, okay, fine. They got shit for that… You can still have a good life if you take care of yourself. And you need to get help for your drinkin’… you drink too fuckin’ much, okay?”

  “I know…”

  He’d never yelled at his sister before, not since they were little kids. He’d always handled her carefully, like a tiny, fragile doll, but this couldn’t continue. He saw the potential in her, and he needed her to see it, too. None of this was pre-planned or expected. A chance call from his little brother had erupted his emotional floodgates, and everything came tumbling forward like a mighty torrent.

  “Joe-Joe
, I need you to help, Amy, okay? You and she are twins, but I always spent way more time wit’ her. You two have a special bond though, a special connection. You need each other.” His voice trembled. He tried to not fall apart, but it was becoming damn near impossible.

  “I hear you, Aaron…”

  “Stop runnin’; get yourself a trade. For years you talked about becoming an electrician, Joe-Joe. You never went to school for it, just let it sail on by. You gotta find something you’re passionate about, that you think you’d be good at, and do it… not because you think you could get rich doin’ it, but because you won’t give up until you succeed!”

  “Well hell, Aaron, I’d still like to do that but—”

  “But nothin’. I want you to find a school for it and enroll. I’ll pay the tuition but you better finish or I’ll beat your damn ass!”

  Amy burst out laughing on the other end.

  “He’ll do it, too, Joe-Joe!” She cracked up. “I remember you two gettin’ into it, rollin’ around and gettin’ grass all in your hair. Joe-Joe would be squealin’ and cryin’ and carryin’ on after you’d get him in a headlock!”

  All three were laughing now.

  “If you were lucky, Patti would see you and come break it up. And I’d just stand there with my dolly and cry.” She laughed much louder now…and though he could hear the joy in her voice, he could also hear the pain…

  “You’ll pay for it?” Joe-Joe questioned, as if needing to confirm.

  “Every damn cent. And if you finish and get that degree and a job, I’ll get you a new truck, too…and buy your tools.”

  “Ha! You’re shittin’ me?”

  “No I ain’t. I told you I don’t give handouts. That’s why when you’d call me asking for money all these years I’d say no. I knew you wouldn’t appreciate it. When you do the right thing, I’ll do the right thing. You’d have earned it; and as for you, Amy, once you get yourself together, we’ll have a similar talk.”

  “I don’t even really know what I’d like to do, Aaron… My situation, I just don’t know.”

  “Amy, one step at a time. We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, but I’ve got your back, okay? Me and Joe-Joe got your back and we aren’t going to let you sit on your ass anymore and not work for what you want… make excuses. You could be doing all sorts of things.”