Page 14 of Rough Start

“Tell me something I don’t already know.” Her breath caught in her throat as Henry raised his fist to backhand her, but he stopped himself short.

“That’s a warning,” he said, pointing at her. “You don’t talk to your father like that.” Eliana could think of a million things she wanted to say; instead, she bit her tongue so forcefully that she could taste blood. Henry’s face softened, and he placed both of his hands on her shoulders. “Listen I-I’m going to pay the water bill…”

“Gas bill.”

“That one too, okay, don’t you worry about anything. You just study real hard and keep chasing your dream of getting into Harvard, and I’ll take care of everything.” His sentimental sincerity made Eliana feel momentarily sorry for him. Henry was as much a slave to the bottle as the bottle was to him.

“I got in,” she muttered.

“What?”

“I got in. I was accepted. I was on the wait list for months, but a few others had dropped so… I got in. I’m going to Harvard in the fall.”

“My Liana is going to Harvard?” Henry asked in breathy awe. “My baby girl!” He wrapped his branch-like arms around and hoisted her into a bear hug. “You did it! Harvard! That’s wonderful!” He swung her around, and Eliana had to squirm for a minute before he set her down. “My little saint, we’ve done it,” he praised as he held her face in both hands. Eliana felt increasingly uncomfortable. “I’m so proud.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

“Come on, let’s go celebrate! Let’s get ice-cream! We’ll go to Joan’s Diner and get hot fudge sundaes with extra cherries like we used to when you were little. Remember your first report card with all A’s? We ate so much ice-cream I got sick. Remember?”

“Yeah, Dad,” she replied, but clearly his memory wasn’t as good as hers. Henry hadn’t gotten sick off too much ice-cream, he’d gotten sick because after two sundaes he’d gone to the bathroom, taken a detour at the bar next door, and after an hour of searching, Eliana had found him with two of his work buddies who were sporting seven empty glasses between them. “I’m not much for ice-cream these days.”

“No?” he asked and looked a little dejected. “Okay, well… I’ll just go pick something up. Yo-you clean the kitchen, and I’ll bring something home for dinner. Burgers? Fries? Want a milkshake?”

“Sure, Daddy,” Eliana said, feeling she needed to humor his momentary need to be a real dad. “Can you get vani-”

“Vanilla, yes, your favorite! See, I know my daughter!” he congratulated himself. Kissing her on the forehead, he discarded the urgent piece of mail, and left through the front door. Eliana watched from the window above the kitchen sink as he stumbled into the driver’s seat of his blue truck and backed out of the driveway.

“He won’t be back tonight,” she admitted to herself and turned on the hot water to fill the right side of the sink. With a little dish soap, she began scrubbing the dishes that had piled up over the last few days.

Letting out one long and forlorn sigh, Eliana forced her mind to her ‘happy place’ as she called it. She imagined the day she got on the bus to leave, how it would drive across the one bridge that led in and out of town. Promising herself to not look back, not even once, she’d never return to Pine Hill. She’d make a beautiful home of her new apartment that would be full of plants and books and maybe even a fish. She’d never owned a pet before. Eliana imagined herself sitting in the lecture hall of her pre-law class. She’d sit in the center of the room, dressed in a Harvard sweatshirt, and she’d raise her hand to answer all the questions.

Looking at her hands that were covered in soapy bubbles, Eliana sighed again but with much more optimism. Maybe one day she’d be standing over a sink like this in a house of her own, washing dishes her children had dirtied. They would never grow up without a mother, with an alcoholic father, going to school smelling like booze and stale cigarettes. They’d laugh and dance and smile, read and imagine, and they’d love each other.

Maybe one day Eliana would look down at her hands and see a simple but beautiful wedding ring given to her by a man who loved her above everything and everyone else. He’d be handsome and kind, he’d make her laugh more than cry, and he’d hold her like he never wanted to let go.

The way Kye had held her…

Grier and Kye were still laughing and shoving each other’s shoulders when they entered the clubhouse. They’d returned from a weekend away on business and based on their ear-to-ear grins it had clearly been a success.

The Demon’s Den was still bustling with their out of town chapters who’d attended church earlier that week. While they were busy preparing to depart, they would likely spend another two or three nights in Maine before leaving.

“Boys,” Max greeted from his seat at a round table. He held a fat cigar in one hand and a deck of cards in the other. A bleach blonde with hardly any clothing on her voluptuous body was draped over his lap like a doll. The two other men at the table were the chapter seniors, Simon “Red Dog” Kratz from Vermont and “Nickels” from West Virginia.

“Boss,” Grier greeted and stood to Max’s left.

“Sing me a song,” Max instructed without looking up from his deck.

“Went off without a hitch, boss,” Grier began. “We met with the dealers in Waterville and Lewiston. Got in good with the distributors who work the streets. We got them to agree for resale at fifteen percent.”

“What?” Max asked and in his surprise, he nearly dropped his cards and the woman on his lap. “No legit dealer is going to distribute for less than twenty-five, who the hell did you meet with?” Max had forgone his hand of cards for a fist full of Grier’s shirt.

“Max, it was with the guys you set up! Honest!” Grier said, his usually tawny face a stark pale now. “Ask Kye, he knows! He was the one who got the discount.” Max looked between the two younger boys for a moment before releasing Grier. With a shift in his chair, the blonde got the hint and stood, her long legs carrying her toward the bar but not before she cast one last look back at Kye. She offered him a flirtatious wink while she was at it.

“That true?” Max asked, drawing Kye’s attention back. “Boy, you’d better have one good story for me. I don’t like it when plans go awry.”

“Grier and I had double-timed it to Lewiston. Grier has been teaching me some maneuvers on the bike, how to look for side roads, you know? In case you ever need an extra driver…” Max waved his hand impatiently. “So when we got there we decided to fish around, see if there was any competition with other suppliers. Heard rumor around one of the campuses that some recent manufacturers were diluting their last batches. When we met with the dealers from the west side, we used that as leverage.”

“How?”