“No, I don’t. I do know it was in Indiana, outside of Gary, I think. All I remember is Mother used to say his biggest clients owned newspapers, and I remember that because she used to hit them up occasionally for contributions to her charities. You could ask her.”
“I don’t want to broach the subject of Uncle Nelson with her until I’m ready to open the entire can of worms.”
“So it wasn’t Mother who told you?”
“No.”
“Who was it then?”
“I figured out some things for myself.” It didn’t feel good lying to Bennett, not after the terrific candid discussion they had just had, but he couldn’t betray Shaneta.
“So when are you going to let on to Mother and Father that you know?”
“When the time is right. But not now. I have too many other things to worry about. Can we keep this between the two us for the time being?”
“You got it. And Lee?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m glad we talked.”
“Me, too, Bennett. Me, too.”
* * *
Each of Lee’s guests called that afternoon to check that he was okay. He explained the incident as an unfortunate miscarriage of justice.
He was more open with CJ when she called.
“Hey, Soc. Are you still talking to me?”
“Of course. Why?”
“Because if it wasn’t for me, none of this would have happened.”
“Don’t even think of it that way.”
“He’s such a son-of-a-bitch! I could just kill him. I’m so sorry, Soc.”
Lee told her he was fine and tried to distract her by filling in the details of how DeRam had screwed up and how Bennett had saved his ass.
“What are you going to do now?” she asked.
“I’m more concerned about you.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“Look, this man is desperate, dangerous, and unpredictable. That’s a bad combination.”
“I can handle myself.”
“CJ.”
“What?”
“You’re in denial.”
“It helps me cope.”
“It won’t keep you safe.”
“Yes, sir.”
“CJ.”
“I’ll be careful. I promise.”
“You better.”
“Bye…jailbird.”
* * *
The plans for Lee’s guesthouse were finished at the same time construction for Dr. Rad’s lab and greenhouses was completed. Lee picked up Dr. Rad in a ten-foot rented U-Haul truck, big enough for a few pieces of furniture and all the doctor’s worldly possessions. Per Dr. Rad’s request, his living space had been designed to be small and simple, just one room and a bathroom situated in the back of the lab.
Fifty acres of land had been carved out in one quadrant of the property for Dr. Rad’s operation. Surrounded on three sides by groves of mature trees, the lab and three greenhouses sat near the center of the quadrant, leaving roughly fifteen acres in the front and another fifteen in the back left open for his plantings. It was a substantially larger area than he had ever had before for his research.
After he helped Dr. Rad get settled in, Lee returned home, only to find Shaneta standing in the doorway, obviously agitated.
“Mista Lee, Miss CJ called. She asked if you could come over. She sounded vexed.”
“Vexed?”
“How do you say...upset.”
“Did she say what was wrong?”
“No. She just asked you to come.”
Lee turned around. “Call her back. Tell her I’m on my way.”
All he thought about on the way to CJ’s was what he would do to DeRam if he had hurt her in any way.
He pulled into CJ’s long driveway. CJ met him on her front porch, her eyes red and puffy.
“What’s wrong?”
CJ led him to the corner of the porch to two Adirondack chairs. “It’s Bern,” she said in a voice barely above a whisper.
Blood rose up Lee’s neck. “What did he do?” he asked through gritted teeth.
“He called Wayne. Well, no, he didn’t call him, he called me, but it wasn’t him on the phone. It was some little boy asking for Wayne. The kid said he went to school with him, so naturally I handed the phone to Wayne. Then Bern got on and proceeded to tell him he was his father,” she said through muffled cries.
“Good grief. What was Wayne’s reaction?”
“All I heard him say was, ‘You’re not my father,’ and he handed the phone back to me. I took the phone, prepared to give him a piece of mind, but all I heard was a dial tone. Then Wayne ran into his room and slammed the door. He won’t come out.”
“Have you talked to him at all?”
“Just through the door. I tried to open it, but he’s blocked it with something, probably his dresser.” She swiped the tears from her cheeks. “I wanted to explain things, but I was so upset, I just couldn’t seem to get the right words out.” She blinked back more tears. “I know this has nothing to do with you, and I know it’s not fair to even ask you for help, but...”
Lee took her hands in his. “Where’s Travis?”
“In the bedroom with Wayne. They share it.”
“Let’s think this through logically.”
“That’s why I called you. You think logically. I don’t always.”
“Do you have in your mind the words you intended to use when the time was right to tell them about their father?”
“I thought I did, but now I’m not so sure. And they need to hear it together, but Travis is only six. He’ll be seven next month. That’s too young.”
“Sounds like Mr. Wonderful hasn’t left you much of a choice. I’ll see if I can push their door open. Are you ready?”
“As ready as I’ll ever be.”
Lee pushed the boys’ bedroom door open enough to poke in his head. It looked nothing like his bedroom when he was their age—unmade beds, clothes and a variety of toys strewn about, and several posters crudely affixed to the walls with Scotch tape, the most prominent one promoting a film called RoboCop.
“Hi, boys.”
Wayne turned around. “What are you doing here?”
“Your mother wants to talk with you, both of you. Can she come in?”
“No. We don’t want to talk to her. She lied to us, and we don’t wanna hear no more lies.”
Lee turned around to look at CJ who mouthed, “I had told them their father lived far away.”
He pushed the door open a few more inches and squeezed farther into their room. “Can I tell you something?”
“Do we have a choice?” Wayne asked.
“May I come in?”
Receiving no answer, Lee pushed the door open the rest of the way and let himself in.
“Can I push the dresser back where it belongs for you?”
“Nothing is stopping you, far as I can tell,” Wayne said under his breath.
Lee moved the dresser to its rightful place next to the door. “You guys are pretty strong for your size.”
“Mom says we’re wiry,” Travis said with a lisp, evidence of his missing two front teeth.
Lee sat down on one of the twin beds. “Come over here, guys. Let me tell you a story.”
Wayne rolled his eyes and then sat down on the far edge of the bed. Travis did the same.
“The two of you and me...we’re a lot the same.”
“Yeah, right.”
“Mm-hm. Here I am, twenty-seven years old, and do you know what I just found out?” Lee whispered.
Travis was wide-eyed. “What? Tell us.”
“I just found out the man I called Dad all these years...well, he isn’t really my dad after all.”
“Dag,” Wayne uttered with quiet empathy.
“And my mother?” Lee added.
“Not your real mother either?” Travis asked.
Lee shook his head.
“For real?”
“For real.”
W
ayne’s demeanor changed. “You’re not telling us this just to make us feel better, are you?”
It was hard not to laugh at the innocence of his question.
“Wayne, I would never lie to you. You have my word.”
“Mom says if you lie, it’ll come back to bite you,” Travis chimed in. “Whatever that means.”
“Your mom is right. You should never lie, but here’s the thing. Sometimes parents don’t tell you the truth because they think you’re not ready to hear it yet.”
“Yeah? You’re twenty-seven. How old do you have to be to hear some things?” Wayne asked.
“Now that’s a good point. My case is a little different. My parents kept the truth from me because...”
The young boys sat in silence, waiting for him to finish the sentence.
“Well, maybe that’s for another time. The point is maybe parents don’t always use the best judgment. Sometimes they make mistakes. But in your case, I can assure you your mom thought she was doing the right thing to wait until you were a little older to tell you about—”
“Who? The scumbag?” Wayne interjected.
“Yeah, the scumbag?” Travis parroted.
“Can we call in your mother now? This is a conversation she wants to have with you.”
“Go ahead,” Wayne said, rolling his eyes.
“Will you stay here too?” asked Travis.
CJ appeared in the doorway. “Yeah, can you please stay, Soc?” she asked.
They spent the next hour talking about families, relationships, and the fact that Travis had lost his pet bullfrog in the living room earlier that day and couldn’t find it. At the end of the discussion, CJ asked the boys if they would look for the frog while she talked to Lee on the front porch.
“Thank you, Lee. You made this so much easier.”
“What are you going to do now?”
“About what?”
“About DeRam.”
“He is their father. What can I do?”
Lee thought about Bennett and how much he cherished his children.
“Now this may be a crazy idea, but do you think he would listen to reason?” he asked her. “What if the three of us sat down and talked things through like rational people? And established some reasonable ground rules, for example.”
“First of all, he’s not one to follow rules. Secondly, he’s not a rational person…never was. Third, he isn’t interested in establishing a relationship with his sons, ground rules and everything. And fourth, you’re the last person he’d listen to.”
“He’s never been rational?”
“Never. And resistance only makes him worse. That’s why I let him in this last time. If I had resisted, that would have just made him twice as determined. Bern is someone who won’t stop until he gets what he wants.”
“And he wants two things. You. And me out of the picture.”
“Exactly. And believe me, if I thought it would make a difference, I would tell him there’s nothing going on between us, but it won’t. I know him. You’re a threat because you’re another man.”
It was the first time either of them had made any reference to their relationship. He put her exact words in the back of his mind for the moment. “And what we want is him out of the picture.”
“Lots of luck. He’s a malignant, vengeful person, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.”
“I’m not willing to accept you can’t do anything about it, not yet anyway. Are you okay for now?”
“Yeah.”
“So what are you going to do when he comes over the next time?”
“Keep the doors locked. I won’t let him in.”
“But you just said that will make him even more determined.”
“I don’t know what else to do.”
“I think you need to know what you can do legally. If I find the right lawyer for you, will you do that?”
“I can’t afford a lawyer. I can barely afford to live.”
“Don’t worry about that for now. You can pay me back.”
“You’re a good friend, Soc.”
Lee smiled. “Just remember that when I ask you for something.”
“Saw that comin’.”
“Seriously, I’m glad I was able to help with the boys, but I have to tell you, my stomach was doing crazy flip-flops the whole time I was in there. You know I have no experience in this.”
“Yes, you do.”
“What do you mean?”
“I heard you tell my boys about your parents.”
“Oh, that.”
“So when did they finally tell you?”
“They didn’t. Someone else did, very recently. They don’t know I know.”
“Holy crap! Are you kidding me?”
“My brother Bennett knows I know. He came back to my house after I was released from jail, and we talked.” Lee felt grateful all over again for that conversation.
CJ smiled. “Like I said, looks like the tables have finally turned.”
“You said that to me before. What do you mean?”
“It’s the last stanza of that poem I like.”
One day he can only hope and tables will turn.
Until that day arrives
and his loneliness evaporates he will remain
the one who stands
on the outside always looking in.
* * *
When Lee got home, he found a dead raccoon lying on his back porch. A string was tied around its neck, and attached to the string was a note on an index card.
SOMETIMES A GUNSHOT WORKS BETTER THAN A KICK
24 | Sweet, Like Honey
During the next few days, Lee thought about his conversation with CJ’s sons. If someone had told him a year ago he would be having that kind of conversation with two little boys, he would have called them crazy. Now, he thought it to be completely reasonable. The phone interrupted his thoughts.
He had never heard Dr. Rad sound so excited. He told Lee the Johns Hopkins consultants just left after having visited his facilities. They seemed quite impressed with his work and asked if they could include him in a research grant they were seeking from the government. In addition, he told Lee, he had been contacted by a professor in the Department of Plant Pathology at Penn State asking him if he would be interested in co-writing a paper on crown gall disease. Her focus had been on grapes, and she felt his research on other plant types would enhance the paper and reach a wider audience.
Lee couldn’t have been more pleased. It meant that not only was Dr. Rad expanding beyond what he had originally planned to do on Lee’s property, but it appeared he was gaining respect from others in the research community.
He wished he felt as certain about Shaneta’s future and was beginning to wonder if she had any long-range plans at all. She appeared to be comfortable living in his spare bedroom, maybe a little too comfortable. While he felt he owed her for having the courage to tell him about his parents, and he may have contributed to her losing her job, he hadn’t intended for her living with him to be a permanent arrangement.
Lee decided to broach the subject with her one evening after dinner when they were enjoying a glass of wine on the front deck. The sun had begun its daily journey down the western sky behind the Red Sunset maple trees that lined his driveway, authenticating their name and giving credence to the fact that Lee was where he needed to be.
“They’re going to break ground on the guesthouse next week,” he said to Shaneta.
“Ahead of schedule then.”
“Almost a month. It could be completed by the end of the year.”
“That’s nice. Will it be another A-frame?”
“No. It’s going to be a small three-bedroom cottage. Dennis created plans for one that fits nicely into the landscape but still blends in with mine.”
“Will we be able to see it from here?”
Lee got up from his chair and walked over to the far end of the deck. He looked toward the back of his property to the intended site
for the guesthouse, approximately a quarter mile from where he stood. “Probably.” He paused to gather his thoughts. “We haven’t talked about your plans, Shaneta. What do you want to do?”
“Well, Lee, I had hoped to be outta your hair before Dr. Rad moved in, but he moved in faster than I thought, and here I still am. I registered with an employment agency, but they weren’t hopeful. Sonya said she might know of a family in Lake Geneva lookin’ for a cook, but she hasn’t called me back yet, so...”
“Well, I want you to know you are welcome to stay here as long as it takes. And when the guesthouse is finished, if you’re still here, you can move in there. But I have to ask you, why did you want to be moved out before Dr. Rad moved in?”
She twisted her face as though she had just bitten into a sour grape. “He’s a strange man. Do you know what he said to me the other day?”
“No, what?”
“It was right after he moved in, and I thought I would be nice and bring him a cup of coffee, so I—”
“You walked to his lab?”
“Yes, of course. How else do you think I would get there?”
“Shaneta, it’s almost a mile between here and the lab.”
“You’re tellin’ me that?”
Lee shook his head. “Anyway, what happened?”
“I put the coffee in a thermos to keep it nice and hot, and when I knocked, he said through the door, ‘I’m single, Miss Shaneta, for good reason, but you can still leave the coffee.'“
“What?”
“That’s what I said. And then he said something ‘bout loco bread. That man is a little loco himself if he thinks I walked all that way ‘cause I was interested in him. I just had extra coffee, and rather than throw it out...”
“Well, I’m not sure that was what he meant. Remember he comes from a country with completely different customs.”
“And so do I. And did you catch how he looked at me at the housewarming party?”
“No, I can’t say I did.”
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