“I can see why you like this place,” Lou said to me. “I think I’d be here every night myself.”
“For the love of God,” Jackie said, bringing the beers over and looking at the bandages on my face, “what the hell happened to you?”
I didn’t want to get into it. I just asked the man for a plate of his beef stew and hoped he’d let me be for the rest of the night.
Vinnie came in a little while later. He could have chosen to sit next to Lou or next to me. He chose the stool next to me.
“At least you did come down,” Lou said. He was staring at the label on his beer bottle and he didn’t so much as glance in Vinnie’s direction. “Even if you’re not going to talk to me.”
Vinnie didn’t respond. Jackie fixed him a plate of beef stew and slid over a 7UP. I was pretty sure I’d never see him drink another drop of alcohol.
“I did what you asked me to do,” Vinnie finally said. “I covered for you at the station. I also realize that we all owe you some gratitude for what you did today. So you have that from me.”
“Okay, then,” Lou said. “I’m glad I was able to help.”
“I’m afraid I can’t give you much else. But that’s the choice you made thirty years ago.”
“Just tell me this much,” Lou said, his eyes still fixed on the bottle. “I brought some things with me from Vegas to give to your sisters and their kids. How many are we talking about?”
Vinnie stopped eating.
“I just want to know how many grandchildren I have,” Lou said. “Is that so much to ask?”
“My sisters have two kids each,” Vinnie said. “But I wouldn’t call them your grandchildren. Not if you don’t even know how many there are.”
“There we go,” Lou said. “Now we’re getting somewhere. You got anything else to say to me?”
“Yes. You shouldn’t have come here.”
“You just got done thanking me.”
“I changed my mind,” Vinnie said. “On second thought, I’d rather be back on that island than owe you anything.”
“You’re saying you’d rather be getting sliced up like those people at the farmhouse? Is that what you’re saying? He’d probably be doing that to you right now, as we speak.”
“Gentlemen,” Jackie said, “I’m not sure this is appropriate dinner conversation.”
I looked at him and shook my head. Jackie let out a huff and walked away.
“I’m your father,” Lou said. “I made enough mistakes for ten men, and I paid for them, believe me. But I’m still your father.”
“Fathers don’t leave,” Vinnie said. He was holding on to the rail of the bar and I could practically hear the fizzing sound as his extralong fuse burned away.
“Sometimes fathers have to leave. Sometimes they have no choice.”
“You beat your wife,” Vinnie said. “My mother. That makes you the lowest kind of man on earth.”
Lou took a long breath, nodding his head. “I laid my hands on Nika in anger exactly one time. One time in my life and I had a reason.”
“Don’t say her name. I don’t want to hear her name pass your lips.”
“They made me leave, don’t you understand? Everyone on the rez turned against me. I was driven out. They told me to never come back.”
“A solid idea,” Vinnie said. “I wholeheartedly agree with them. I should go find every person on the rez past a certain age and thank them.”
“Which is it, Vinnie? You can’t have it both ways. Am I supposed to stay away or am I supposed to try to come back? Tell me what I should have done.”
“You should have come back for your son’s funeral,” Vinnie said. “That’s what you should have done. Oh no, wait, you couldn’t do that because you were in prison for murder.”
Lou stood up from his bar stool. Vinnie stood up to face him.
“Vinnie, you’re supposed to be taking it easy,” I said to him, figuring it was finally time to step in. “I don’t think this qualifies.”
“Stay out of this, Alex.”
“You’re right,” Lou said. “I couldn’t come to Tom’s funeral because I was in prison. Not that it would have mattered. I wouldn’t have been welcome, anyway.”
They stood there looking at each other. A log shifted in the fireplace and let out a loud pop.
“He wasn’t my son,” Lou said. “Nika was sleeping with Henry Carrick.”
There’s that moment. The fuse burns out. You don’t hear the fizzing anymore. There’s one second of silence, maybe two. You think the bomb might not go off.
“I know it’s hard to keep a secret on the rez,” Lou said, “so it’s kind of ironic. The biggest secret of all, and only me, Nika, and Henry know about it.”
“No,” Vinnie said. “No.”
“I shouldn’t have hit her. I admit that. They made me leave and I accepted it. I kept the secret all of these years. But now you know the truth. It was your mother who destroyed our marriage.”
Then it happens. The bomb goes off.
He was on him before I could get off my stool. Vinnie hit him once in the face and then drove him to the floor with his shoulder. He got a few more shots in and it looked like Lou wasn’t even trying to defend himself. I tried to pull Vinnie off of him and we both went crashing against the bar rail. I got the worst of it, taking the rail right in the ribs, the same spot where I’d been jabbed twice with a gun barrel when I was being driven to the swamp. I had to hold on and wait for my breath to come back. Instead of launching at his father again, Vinnie walked out the door.
Lou took a while getting off the floor. Jackie stood there watching us and for once in his life he had the good sense not to say anything.
“It’s okay,” Lou said as he slid back onto the bar stool. “He needed that.”
“What in God’s name are you talking about?” I said. “What happened to taking care of him? Letting him recover from his goddamned concussion?”
“It was eating him up, Alex. I wanted him to get mad at me. He needed to get that out of his system.”
“Oh, well then excuse me. I guess you played that just right.”
“You don’t understand,” he said. “I had to do that while I had the chance. Who knows where we’ll all be after tomorrow…”
He picked up his bottle and drained it.
“Was all of that stuff true?” I said. “About his brother?”
“Ask Henry Carrick. Next time you see him.”
“You’re gonna have a hell of a black eye tomorrow,” I said, looking at him. “He really caught you.”
“Good. Like I said. It was a long time coming.”
“You are absolutely insane,” I said, picking up my beer. The muscles in my side were finally beginning to relax.
“I’m going to go. I’ll see you in the morning.”
He stood up before I could say another word. Then he was out the door, even quicker than Vinnie. I heard him start the motor of the rental car. I finished my beef stew, watching a little of the ball game and listening to Jackie complain about things. It almost felt like a normal night for a change. I should have known it wouldn’t last.
I left around ten o’clock. An early night, but probably just what I needed. Until I realized that I had no way to drive home. So I started walking up the road. Good thing it was late summer, so it was only cold and not brutally cold.
As I walked up my road, I saw Vinnie’s truck parked by his place. I considered stopping in and then thought better of it. Instead, I went up to the second cabin, figuring I’d see what Lou was doing. Smoking a joint, no doubt. But when I got there, I didn’t see the car.
He might be on the rez, I thought. He might have dropped in on his daughters. Which would be quite a sight, especially with the newly added bruises on his face, courtesy of Vinnie.