Page 94 of The Same Flesh
“Do you remember when you told me that evil was just a chain of consequences?”Jem’s voice had a slightly wry twist.“Something like that.”
“I do.”Tean sighed and put his head on Jem’s shoulder.“I miss that Tean.That Tean had all the answers.”
“I loved that Tean,” Jem said.He kissed Tean’s forehead.“But you know what?I think I love this one more.”
“This one is scared all the time.And nothing makes sense to him.And he feels like he’s letting you down because therapy is taking a long time, and he’s not really getting anywhere.”
“This Tean,” Jem said, “is out here in the middle of this fucking thing we call life, and he’s doing it the best he can, just like the rest of us, and it’s the bravest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“I do.And babe, why are you worried about therapy?What’s the rush?There’s nowhere we’re trying to get.”
“We’re trying to get home,” Tean said, because the joke felt easier than responding to what Jem was really saying.
“Wearehome, doc.This is it.You and me.Home.”
The mountains were growing ahead of them, and the last bit of day was gone—nothing but a cinder-line along the peaks.And they drove into the darkness.
“I love you too,” Tean said.“Areyouokay?”
“I thought we already went over this,” Jem said with a laugh.
Tean didn’t answer at first.He traced Jem’s hand.His knuckles.The ones that were bruised and scraped from the punches he’d thrown the other night.
Jem must have been thinking along the same lines.He shifted, not quite pulling his hand out from under Tean’s touch, but readjusting it, like he was fighting the urge to move.“I’m good, babe.Just a weird headspace the last few days.”
And it wasn’t a lie; most of the time, now, Tean could recognize a lie.
But it wasn’t the truth either.
22
When Tean and Jem got home, the curtains were still open, and the lights in the front room were on.
“Get ready for the battle royale,” Jem said as he pulled into the garage.
“Oh my gosh,” Tean said.“Can you handle him, please?”
“I’ll fight him, if that’s what you mean.”
“That’s not what I mean.Although you mighthaveto fight him if he tries to run away again.”
“He’s not going to run away.That was about Ammon, and it was a power play.Now he’s made his move, and he can go back home, and things go back to normal.”
“Until the next time they fight.”
“Well, yeah.”
Tean sat there for an extra moment.Then he said, “Okay.”
He stopped in the doorway because someone was talking.It took him a moment to place the voice as his dad’s.
“—everybody has disagreements with their parents, but there’s nothing more sacred than the bond between father and son.And you’ve got a good dad, Daniel.He loves you so much.You don’t know how lucky you are—”
Scipio was already padding across the room to nuzzle at Tean’s hands, and Tean crouched to let the Lab smell his breath and give a decidedly unhappy whine about the current situation.When Tean straightened, Daniel was already getting to his feet.The sofa had been stripped of its bedding, and his dad sat there now.Daniel’s bag—now fully packed—was near the door.
“Thank God,” Daniel said, snatching the bag as he headed toward the garage.“Can we go?Like,now?”
