It was a wrenching look into the past. Not everything was bad, not by a long shot! Especially when we were little, and before Hamilton and I hit our teens, there were a lot of smiles on our faces. Young Jack was absolutely awestruck when he saw the photos I had taken of Suzie when I gave her that tandem skydive in Fayetteville, which made me laugh all over again. There were some shots of her at college, and on the occasional trip out to see us. Then they all stopped suddenly. She collected the pictures and put them away.
“Why did you change your name?” he asked.
She sighed. “I wonder that myself at times. I had to move away. It was just too crazy at home. Maybe someday you’ll understand better.”
He turned to me and said, “It was your fault, wasn’t it?”
Suzie gasped and John looked angry. I just answered, “Yes, it was.” I held a hand up to forestall the others. “This is going to be hard to understand, but as you get older, it will make more sense. My brother had a disease, a mental disease…”
“You mean he was crazy!”
“Yes, that’s the easy explanation.”
“Like on TV, right? Brothers are always crazy on TV!”
I snorted a laugh at that. “Wait a few years, and I’ll tell your brothers you said that.” That earned me a big grin. “Anyway, my brother was very sick, and one day he came to my house and tried to kill my wife and my baby. I mean, could you imagine somebody trying to come into your house and trying to kill your mom and your brothers?”
Jack’s eyes widened. “Whoa! For real?”
“For real. They weren’t home, though, but I was, and then he tried to kill me. I had to stop him.”
That got us another, “Whoa!”
“Jack, I think it’s time for you to go to bed. We’ll talk some more tomorrow, okay?” said Suzie.
He looked at me. “So, it’s your fault, but it’s not? That’s what you meant?”
“You’re a smart guy, Jack. We’ll talk again,” I told him.
The boy headed out of the room. His father looked after him, and then glanced at Suzie and me, and then followed his son up the stairs. “Why did you leave?” I asked my sister.
“I had to get away from Mom and Dad. You know that. They were as crazy as Hamilton and you were involved and I had lawyers chasing me about it, making me pick sides. It was easier to just move away and start over again.”
I nodded. “I know that, but why change your name and never call? It wasn’t any easier for us than it was for you.”
“Carl, you were always the strong one in the family! You made me strong, not the other way around! I had to leave!” she cried.
“You couldn’t even send a letter? Not even to your godson?”
At that she broke down and began crying. I sat down next to her and put an arm around her shoulder, and she began crying into my shoulder. That’s how her husband found us a few minutes later. She looked up as he entered and went to him and began crying onto him. I looked at him and just shrugged my shoulders. Now what?
She sniffled to a stop and said, more to him than to me, “I got all caught up in the lies. Once I changed my name it was easy to pretend I had a new life. Each lie led to another, and then another, and there was no going back, and I was ashamed to admit it. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry!” She started crying again.
John Rottingen nodded towards the door, so it was time to take my leave. “Can I visit again, tomorrow, before I go home?”
Suzie silently nodded. “Come over after lunch tomorrow,” said her husband.
I nodded and collected my driver, and we headed out. It was too late to call my wife, so I simply went to bed. I slept late, and then called Marilyn mid-morning.
“How did it go?” she asked.
“Okay, I guess. She fainted dead away when she saw me at the door, but her husband already knew she had been lying about her background, and he married her anyway. I guess that’s a good thing,” I replied.
“It means he loves her, you nincompoop!”
I chuckled at that. “I guess it does. I’m to go back after lunch.” I told her more about the conversation last night, and Marilyn reiterated that I was to invite her and her entire family for a visit, as soon as possible. I promised I would do so, and gave her my love, and then we hung up. I cleaned up and dressed, and then headed downstairs. I was able to get in a workout in their Nautilus room, and then went back upstairs, showered and shaved, and dressed. I called my driver and told him I planned to have lunch and wanted to be picked up at 1:00 at the front entrance.
By half past I was back at the Rottingen’s. Suzie was looking a lot calmer, although I don’t think she had slept much. She told me, in fact, that she and her husband had stayed up half the night talking.
The years had been relatively kind to my sister. She was still blonde, but it looked like some of the highlights came from a hairdresser. She had put on about twenty pounds, but it was fairly evenly distributed. Her face was a little puffy, but that could have been because she had been crying so much in the last day or so.
Today I was invited into the family room. Suzie showed me around the first floor of the house. I could tell she was proud of her life and her family. John warmed up to me a bit more, especially after I asked how he and Suzie had met. “I got sideswiped in my cruiser and broke my arm, and ended up on her floor over night. She was my nurse.”
I smiled. “That sounds like a really cheesy made-for-TV movie,” I told him.
“Pretty much!” he admitted. “I asked her out on a date, and she said yes.”
“That was in 1983?”
“March 1984. We got married in December.”
“And a baby the next fall?” I commented, looking over at Alex. “Fast work!”
He nodded and smiled at her. “It was worth it.”
Suzie blushed deeply. She turned to me and said, “I can’t believe I haven’t asked about your family yet. How are Marilyn and Charlie? Did you have any more children?”
“Marilyn’s fine. She keeps getting prettier every year. Charlie’s eight now. He races motorcycles, if you can believe that!”
“Oh my God! You let him?!” she gasped.
I laughed at that. “Remember my friend Tusker, the biker? He owns a couple of cycle shops now, and his son races them, too. They got Charlie into it. In 1984 we had twin girls, Holly and Molly…” I pulled my wallet out and passed over a few photos.
“Twin girls! Oh, I’d die to have a little girl!” she exclaimed.
“Fine, come on over and I’ll sign the paperwork,” I responded.
“Forget it!” said John. “One would be bad enough, but no way do I want two!”
“There’s always the old fashioned way,” teased his wife.
“Three kids is about three too many!” he replied.
At that moment Alex commented loudly that Harry was stinky, which made all of us laugh. Suzie took care of that problem, and then came back over. “How are Mom and Dad? Do you see them anymore?”
I shook my head. “No reason to. Were you aware that they disowned me after the wedding? I haven’t heard from either since the craziness after I shot Hamilton. Mom tried to sue me, but I think you know that.”
“I didn’t know they disowned you. I guess that’s why you didn’t get a wedding present,” she replied. Suzie had to explain all of this to her husband, who simply stared in horror.
I got us off the topic, saying, “Marilyn has ordered that you come and visit us, all of you. I was thinking maybe you could come see us for the holidays. You’ll need to come to sign the papers, anyway.”