by JT Pearson
Stealing Sunday
By JT Pearson
copyright 2013 Joseph Pearson
John and Kim, a married couple in their late twenties pulled up to the monstrous estate owned by John’s father, Bud Newton, a former Texas All American football star and current owner of the largest car dealership in Dallas. Cars were parked at all angles and in positions so tight to other cars that it was a mystery that anyone had been able to open the doors and exit the vehicles. John studied both the driveway and the road that ran past the house before throwing up his hands.
“I told you that we should’ve come earlier,” Kim said, with a sigh.
This was to be expected on Sundays when the Cowboys played. Suddenly there was a knock on John’s window, startling him. He rolled the window down after recovering with a polite smile. His younger brother Danny reached through the window and tucked a football into his stomach with the dexterity of a former quarterback, which he was. Two year starter for the Texas Longhorns. John’s other brother Roger also had played quarterback, a backup at Texas A & M. John wasn’t nearly as big as his brothers who took after their father Bud, standing around six two, give or take a quarter of an inch. John took after his mother Maria who was only five four. He stood five foot eight and had been a kicker in high school. Never able to play in college. All three of the Newtons worked as salesmen for Bud at his dealership where the slogan was, Newton’s: where prices must come down.
“Gonna have to run this one around the outside I’m afraid, John,” Danny said. He waved his arm at all of the cars. “You’re just going to have to get here earlier.”
“I told him that this morning,” said Kim.
“All of the spots on the west side of the house already taken too?” asked John.
“Fraid so.” Danny leaned into the window. He moved a lock of blond hair that had fallen in front of his eyes. “Afternoon, Kim.” He was working a blade of grass over between his teeth, a replacement for the cigarettes that had recently held that position. “That Aikman jersey looks awful nice on ya, Kim.” He winked at his brother. “She looks good enough to tackle.” Danny had the same kind of charm that his brother Roger had inherited from Bud. It was the kind of charm that mesmerized women, and more importantly, it was the kind of charm that sold cars. Both of his brothers regularly outsold John.
John reached out the window with the football and tucked it back in his brother’s stomach hard enough to make him cough.
“Ooof!” Danny straightened up. “Come on, little brother. I’m just foolin around.” He pointed down the block. “I heard that round the corner near where old lady Fletcher lives there are still a few spots left to park. I’ll tell pop that you’re finally here.”
John could hear the pregame broadcast coming from Bud’s back yard where he set up multiple big screens and a sound system that sounded more realistic than if you were actually at the game. He could also smell the pigs roasting on spits. He put the car in drive and headed down the road.
“You going to tell Bud today?”
“I don’t want to but I guess I should.”
“You don’t have to. It’s really nobody’s business but ours.”
“At least it’ll keep him from bringing it up all of the time. All of the jokes.” John stopped while a young couple that were holding hands and dressed in matching Cowboys jerseys crossed the road and walked toward his father’s home. “I can hear him now.” John made his voice low like his father’s. “What’s the problem now, son? Doctor says you got no bullets in your gun? How can that be? Both of your brothers have three boys each. What the hell happened to you?”
“He won’t actually say that.”
“Something like that. How long has he been on me about having kids?”
“Well, we’ve been married ten years and-”
“That’s right. Ten years. He barely waited for us to cut the wedding cake before he started in about children.” John spotted a parking place but his cousin Lester in his candy apple red Dodge beat him to it. Lester leaned out the window and tipped his cowboy hat to him with a grin. John smiled politely again and nodded back. “The only thing pop cares more about than football is those grandkids. He’s already set up college funds for them and is making plans where they might play ball. He’s got Roger Junior signed up for football camp this summer.” John found a spot and backed in. “I mean, come on, the kid’s only four.” He shut off the engine and sat, staring out the windshield.
“You act like your father’s going to all of a sudden stop caring about you just because you can’t have children. It’s not your fault, John, that your little guys are weak swimmers.”
“Can you please not use words like little and weak when you’re talking about…you know?”
“I didn’t mean to be insensitive. You’re a strong, wonderful, capable man, John.”
“That’s not how pop will see it. I always thought that he kind of viewed me as the runt of the litter. This will just fuel the way he already sees me. I wish that we had a baby boy and he grew up to be bigger and stronger and faster than any of my brothers ever were. Pop’d see me differently then. We’d be royalty at these Sunday get-togethers.”
“Life isn’t about being big and strong, John. Or having children that are big and strong either.”
“That’s easy for you to say. You’re almost five eleven. That’s like being six five if you’re a guy. You’re a mountain.”
“Hey!”
“I mean it in a good way.” He reached over and rubbed her shoulder. “You know what my father said the day that I brought you home to meet him and mom?”
“What?”
“He took me aside and said, she’s really something, John. A handsome woman. A powerful woman. Are you sure that you can handle that much woman?”
“He said that?”
“I swear.”
“You never told me that.”
Suddenly a skinny old woman wearing a Cowboys away jersey with a homemade sweater wrapped over her shoulders was headed toward the car with a gallon size jug filled with pickles. John and Kim got out of the car to greet her.
“Hello, Mrs. Fuller. So good to see you.” Kim hugged the old woman.
“Remember when you told me how much John liked pickles, Kim?” She held up the jar. “I remembered. I saw the two of you through the window so I hurried out to catch you.”
“That was so considerate of you, Mrs. Fuller.” Kim smiled and turned to her husband.”
“Uh, yes. Very considerate of you, Mrs. Fuller. I do love pickles,” John said, rubbing his stomach and taking the jar from her.
Mrs. Fuller leaned in close to John. “I was so sorry to hear about your problem…down there,” she said, pointing at his crotch. “I know how hard the two of you have been trying to have a baby and that news has got to break your heart.”
John looked over at Kim and gritted his teeth. She shrugged.
“It’s okay to be upset, John,” Mrs. Fuller went on. “I don’t know how my late husband Harold would’ve been able to handle that type of news if he had gotten it when he was young. He was always so proud of his virility. We had nine children. That man could always perform when duty called.” She looked up at someone across the street. “Oh, I’m sorry. I’ve got to go. There’s Marge Patterson. I’m going to get her some pickles too.” She pumped her fist in the air. “Go blue!” Then she waved at the woman across the street. “Oh, Marge!” she shouted, rushing off.
John looked at Kim. “How many people did you tell?”
“Only a couple. I didn’t think you’d mind.”
He shook his head.
“You were planning on telling your family. Nothing in this town stays secret for long. People were eventually going to find out, John.”
&
nbsp; “I’m going to be known in this town as the man with the broken penis,” he said with a sigh.
They walked toward Bud’s mansion. John shifted the jar of pickles from one hand to the other whenever his arm got tired. They headed around back where Bud was standing near a ninety inch screen and telling old football stories to a crowd of family and friends. He stopped when he saw the two approaching.
“I had to still my heart. When the two of you walked up I thought you were carrying a baby. False alarm, everybody. John just brought us a snack.” Everyone laughed.
John leaned close to Kim’s ear. “I’m not doing it. I’m not telling him. I can’t.”
Kim nodded.
“That’s an awful lot of pickles you’ve got there ,son.”
“Hi, pop. Good to see you.” John and Kim walked up and hugged Bud.
“Don’t you worry, Kim. You’ll get your baby. He’ll get it done one of these days.”
Kim started to say something but John found her hand and gave it a squeeze.
The Newtons shared brats and burgers and rooted for the Cowboys. One of John’s nephews kept wrapping up his legs and trying to bring him to the ground while John’s brother Roger cheered him on. The kid, who was only eleven but already ninety pounds, finally succeeded and John’s pants were stained. Later Bud held a drawing in which John won the prize, two tickets to the Kraft Meet and Greet Legends of the game that was going to take place in Galveston the following week. Everyone teased Bud about a fixed game when John won. The family and their friends ended the regular Sunday routine with a few cocktails during which they passed the babies around and admired them. Only Uncle Justin who tended to drink a little too much and toss the babies into the air wasn’t allowed to pick any of them up. Each time Kim played with a different baby it tugged at John’s heart.
After the party, John and Kim drove down the dark highway, the lights of the dashboard bathing their faces in a light blue glow.
“I called Laura before we left and I told her that we were going to be by to pick up Jonesy in half an hour.” Jonesy was John and Kim’s Golden Lab, still just a puppy.
John didn’t answer right away. He was lost in his head.
“Did you hear me, John?”
“Why do you suppose God chooses to give some folks babies and not others, Kim? Why would He do that?”
“I don’t know. I imagine he has a reason for everything.”
“You’re great with kids. Look at all the love that’s in you. Heck, look at the way you spoil ol’ Jonesy with love and he’s only a dog.”
“Don’t talk about Jonesy like that.”
“What’s wrong with calling Jonesy a dog? I’m not insulting him. He is a dog. You know what I mean. Why couldn’t we have a baby?”
“I think we should adopt.”
“Yeah. We should. It’ll take a real long time. The Martins have been on the list for over four years. We’ll get on the list too.” He stewed for a moment. “Not really the same though.” He ground the back of his molars together, something his dentist continually chastised him for. “Think I did something to get Him mad at me?”
“Who?”
“God.”
“What?”
“You know, something bad enough so that He ignores all of my prayers?”
“I don’t think God is like that. God isn’t cruel.”
“Maybe there is no God.”
“No. God exists.”
“Nobody really knows that.”
“I do.” She repositioned herself so that she was leaning against the passenger door facing John. “I really do. After my mother died, not more than a few months, I was in mass with my dad and I was staring at the tiles on the Cathedral’s ceiling. I wasn’t paying any attention to the priest. As you could imagine, I had been depressed. I was wondering why God had let my mother die of cancer. Just feeling sorry for myself. I told God that I just wanted her back and I told him that I knew he could make that happen if he wanted. And then I told him that if he wouldn’t bring her back then he should just let me die so that I could be with her again. Suddenly it was like the inside of me left my body and shot through the ceiling of the Cathedral and just kept traveling up. I was petrified. Quickly I was above the earth looking down and still moving toward the stars. And then I stopped. I was just floating there in space above the earth. And I was in the presence of this beautiful light and I felt my mother in that light. It was so good, John. It was so good.” Kim’s eyes brimmed with tears. “I could feel her and I had missed her so badly. I wanted to float into that light and hold her.” Kim wiped her eyes. “The light before me was God. I don’t know how I knew but I was certain of it. God spoke to me and said, your mother is fine. She is with me now. You can’t be with her yet. There is more for you to do before you join us.” I thanked God over and over and then suddenly I was back in the Cathedral staring up at the ceiling. “It was amazing and it forever changed my perception of the world.”
“Your mother died when you were fifteen.”
“Yes.”
“Didn’t you do a lot of drinking for a while following her death?”
“Are you actually suggesting, John, that I was drunk in church?”
“I was just trying to rule it out.”
“It happened, John, and I was totally sober,” she said with an edge to her voice.
“Okay, Kim, settle down. I believe you.”
“I never told you that because it sounds completely insane. If it hadn’t happened to me I would have trouble imagining that it could happen.”
“Kim?”
“Yes.”
“Kim?”
“What?”
“You know that I love you more than anything in this entire world.”
“Are you trying to tell me that you don’t believe me?”
“No. I believe you. I just had a thought and I’m changing the subject before I decide not to say what I’m going to say.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t say it.”
“Just remember how much I love you and that I would never want to do anything that would change that.”
“Why are you saying it like that? You’re scaring me.”
“Don’t be scared.”
“What am I supposed to think when you talk like this?’
“Just listen and don’t react right away. Please. I’m about to propose the strangest idea that I’ve ever shared with you and I don’t want you to freak out. Just hear me out until I’m finished and if after that you want to tell me to stick my idea where the sun doesn’t shine then you go ahead and do it, but I just want you to listen to it first. And above all else, know that I love you. And that I would never do anything to jeopardize that.”
Kim agreed and John proposed something beyond her wildest imagination. Consequences, morality, and the future were discussed and when it was all over Kim found herself agreeing to do what he asked.
