Page 66 of Angels Fall
“OK, OK, got it,” he says. “So… Shit. How’d that go?”
“Fuckin’ great, man. We hugged and kissed like it was old times. Then we tossed a baseball around like in Field of Dreams. It was a goddamn Thanksgiving miracle.”
Evan sighs and nods. “Yeah. OK.”
“He didn’t recognize me.”
There’s a pause and Evan cocks his head.
“Come again?”
“You heard me.”
I sit down on the edge of the bed. After a second, Evan sits beside me.
“It’s weird,” he says. “I haven’t even really thought about your dad. It never occurred to me that you were bound to run into each other sooner or later.”
“Yeah, I hadn’t really thought about it either.”
“Do you wanna—?”
“Whatever you’re gonna ask… no, is the answer. I just wanna fucking sit here for a second and get my shit together. Fuck! Maddie and I had like a breakthrough, or whatever, and… shit.”
Evan sighs. (It strikes me suddenly that people sigh around me a lot. Like I make the whole fucking world exhausted.) “She was glad to see her folks?” he asks.
I nod. “Yeah. And then she and I talked and… But fuck it. There’s no chance she’s gonna wanna deal with this shit too, on top of everything else she’s already carrying.”
“Well, that’s stupid.”
“Yeah? Is it? If you were her and struggling with all your own crap, how would you like to take on somebody else’s bullshit problems too? I was trying to fucking be there for her. Not make her take care of a six-foot-three-inch man-baby.”
Evan kind of laughs, which sort of annoys me.
“What?” I spit out.
“I’m just picturing you in a diaper. Shit’s funny.”
I don’t know how he does it. I really don’t. But I kind of smile.
And then there’s another knock on the door and it swings open.
“Hey,” says Robert, standing there looking like the most well-put-together guy at the polo club. (I’m not just saying that. I know. I went to a polo match in Dubai.) “Sorry to interrupt,” he continues, “but—”
“I know,” Evan says. “We have guests. I’ll be right out.”
“No. That’s not… Maddie’s here.”
Evan and I both give looks that would best be accompanied by that sound Scooby-Doo makes.
“Seriously?” I ask.
“Yep.” Robert nods. And that’s all he says. (Something I’ve learned about genuinely successful people—as opposed to accidentally successful ones like me—they don’t use five words when one will do.)
I stand. Evan stands. Robert smiles, turns on his heel and heads down the hall.
I look at Evan. He shrugs at me. I start off to follow Robert. Evan stops me. He grabs one of my dirty t-shirts from off the floor, wipes the blood off my hands and wrists, throws the t-shirt down, pats me on the back, and sends me out into the hall.
As I reach the foyer (which I pronounce foy-YAY, because Robert does and I assume he knows), I find Robert standing with Maddie, who looks so beautiful to me that I want to fall on my knees. Because that’s what you do in the presence of beauty.
