“Yeah.”
“He was there, unarmed, just like you told us.” He lets out a bit of a chuckle. “He acted like he was expecting us… even invited us in to sit and have coffee. He asked if you were okay, but we didn’t tell him we talked to you. Thought it would be better. You know…”
Silent tears stain my blouse, and I sniff. “So, so, he’s okay?” I don’t want to know any more than this. He is safe, and what happens after this is up to him. My relationship with John needs to be done with this one last question.
“Yeah. If you ask me, he was relieved. He left on the plane with Detectives Tomlinson and Blake this morning. Everything went smooth as silk.” There’s a long, awkward pause. “Again, Dawn, if you ever need anything, you got my number.”
“Yeah. I do. Thanks.”
I can’t think about much in the next days. I’m still digesting the events of my brother’s visit. It hurts that he left so quickly too, a result of police timing. It was a cold and heartless maneuver to get what they wanted. They had to do it, I know, but still I wish it didn’t have to happen with my family… and I miss my brother. I have to accept the way things turned out, as hard as it is. It’s the best that could have happened all around. I am glad for that. Mom keeps the calls coming to make sure I’m okay, but I’m not in the mood to talk much anymore. And when the newspapers expose the details of John’s arrest, I want to disappear from the world’s radar completely.
At the end of the first week of December and days after John’s arrest, another fated call rings for me at the suburban house. Louise is home and hands me the phone. “It’s a man,” she whispers with an anguished look.
It might be the police again. “Hello?”
“Dawn. That you?”
“Yeah. Who’s this? Dad?”
“Of course it’s Dad. Who’d you think? Oh. Yeah, never mind. I guess you got a few reasons to be worried.”
“Yeah. You heard? How’d you get my number?”
“How else? Ha. Your mother.”
I’m not sure what to say. The last time I saw Dad was when he stopped by to visit me in Glendale a couple years after he took off with Pen Ci. They were no longer together. She had taken the green stone and its secrets and left him. Dad spent time doing what he loved to do afterward—backpacking across Southeast Asia. He tried to visit me once, almost two years ago now, between Kathmandu and Bombay, but John kicked him out and accused him of stealing from tenants in the court, as I stood by… helpless. He left furious and cursing John’s name.
“Naw. Now listen. It’s the funniest thing, really. I go to, uh, ahem, sit on the pot first thing in the morning like I always do. I sit down… open the paper, and what do I see but John Holmes arrested on Miami Beach!” He lets a cynical laugh escape. “First thing I think about is—where is Dawn? So I call your mother.”
“No way.” I snicker at the way he is telling the story. “Yeah, things have been pretty crazy, Dad.”
“Yeah. That’s what I thought. So, uh, where are ya, Dawn? Close by or what? I’m in Pompano. You know where that is?”
“Pompano! You’re here? That’s only a couple of towns away! I’m in North Miami. But, uh, I don’t drive, Dad.”
“Yeah, well. I can pick you up. Besides, I wanna hear the whole story. That asshole. I’m glad he finally got… Glad you’re finally away from him, Dawn. Motherfucker.”
“Me too, Dad. Me too.”
“So I gotta let you in on what’s going on with me first, Dawn. I’m married again, and we have a baby girl. Alicia. She’s nine months old and, well, we’re quiet, you know, married folk.”
“Really? Sounds cool, Dad. I can’t wait to meet them…”
I hang up feeling like God has dropped a miracle from the sky. I’m amazed at how welcoming Dad seems. Sounds like the same ol’ Dad!
Dad picks Thor and me up a few hours later, driving straight back to his house in Pompano. He is not too thrilled about my little dog but puts up with him. I’m happy to see he is still cancer-free. The only visible reconstructive surgery on his face is how he wants it—minimal. He has no tolerance for doctors and is satisfied that the flap of skin from his forehead that twists to cover the place where the gaping hole once was gives him a handsome, rugged edge.
Kathleen, Dad’s new wife, is a tall and slender young woman with brown hair and eyes. Stunningly, she is only two years older than me. One look at each other and we know we will be instant friends, nothing like a stepfamily. Alicia, a blonde little cutie, tumbles and bounces on the living room floor till Kathleen calls us in for dinner.
The four of us settle down to our meal, quietly comprehending the queer newness of our relationship to each other. Dad opens a couple of beers, passes one down in front of me, and hands me half a quaalude. “Now. I want to know everything, Dawn. Don’t leave nothing out. We got all night.”
I take a long, hard swig of my beer and find myself stuck, unwilling to spew the garbage that has tainted me since I last saw Dad. I reach down deep inside me and gather the reserve of my strength. “Okay, well, here it goes…”
By the end of the hair-raising tale, my heart is banging against my chest from the adrenaline of the memories that feel like yesterday’s. I am sick to my stomach. Dad stares off into the distance as I recount the details of my history with John. He gets up only to replenish the beer when we run dry and to offer me another “halfie” of the quaalude.
I decline. “I think I’m gonna puke, Dad.” My head spins violently in sparks and blurs.
“’Kay. Bathroom’s over there. Come on. I’ll help ya.” He walks me to the toilet.
I kneel before the stark whiteness of the porcelain pit to heave and retch my guts up… purging the darkness, the pain, the horror and filth… John.
“Well, get it out, Dawn. It’s all over now.” He holds my hair back lovingly. “I’m glad you’re out of all that shit, Dawn. Really. Get yourself cleaned up, and come back in. I got some stuff to talk to you about.”
Back at the table, I sit drained and pale. Kathleen has put Alicia to bed and brings me a cold, wet towel for my head. Dad is sipping another beer and opens one for me.
I think I’m going to puke again. “I can’t, Dad. No more.”
“All right, babe.” He takes a moment to gather his thoughts, tapping his fingernails on the shiny, polished wood. “Listen. I wanna ask you something. Kathleen and I are leaving the end of the week to go to Belize, then Thailand. We’re looking to buy a beach resort. You know, income property.”
“Oh, that’s nice,” I lie, my hopes of finding refuge sinking.
“So, well? You wanna come with us or what?”
This doesn’t seem right. Did Dad just ask me to leave the country with him? It sounds like a dream… a dream I don’t dare think too hard about… that might come true. “Yes! Are you kidding? Of course I do!”
Kathleen, who has been sitting quietly with us at the table throughout the retelling of my ordeal, gives me a friendly smile. “You can help with the baby!”
“All right. That’s it then. You gotta get all your things together real quick like.” I can see Dad mentally making the plans, as he did back in Carol City while playing solitaire. “What about your dog?”
“Thor!” I gasp, knowing he can’t come with us. My little hero’s chocolate head rises up from my lap. A wag of his tail asks silently if I’m all right. My faithful companion. Not my Thor!
“Well, I know he’s your pet, Dawn, and I’m sorry, but you can’t take dogs to foreign countries. Nothing we can do about that.”