Her eyes soften. “I’m only worth half, huh?” She swipes the remainder of the cornbread and it hits me. I like her a lot.
“You share the rest of your lunch and maybe you’ll be worth the whole shebang.”
A snicker erupts from her throat.
“What’s so funny?”
“You just don’t look like a man who uses words like shebang.”
“You don’t know me yet, babe, but you will.”
“Who said I want to get to know you?”
“You telling me you don’t find me attractive.”
Her cheeks bloom pink again and I wonder what else I can do to make that color stay.
The end of lunch bell rings. “We’ll continue this conversation later.”
I’m rewarded with her lips curving upward. My heart squeezes in my chest and I shake my head. I don’t know what it is about her, but something keeps drawing me in.
I slip down the hall and out the back. I call up Truth and get his voicemail. “Hey, man. How soon can you do a rush install on a security system for me? Gimme’ a call back when you get this. It’s important.” Next I call up Kurt. A brother who started up his own construction company when he got out of prison some years back. “Yo, Kurt. How’s it going, brother? You got a couple guys available to install a gate?”
“I’m sure I could pull a few guys. What do you need?”
“Jackson dairy farm property. Need a gate installed for the main entrance. I’m paying.”
“I can send them out tomorrow morning say nine.”
“Sounds good, I’ll be there.”
I leave the school and head back to my sister’s to see if she ever rolled her ass out of bed yet for the day.
**
“Marcie, change of plans this week. You’re gonna have to pick lil’ dude up in an hour.”
“You promised. You know the bus doesn’t run on this road.”
“Yeah well, I have something I gotta do so you’re gonna have to suck it up and get up off your ass.”
“I can’t.”
“You just don’t want to. I get it. You’re depressed, but we all lost Denny. Not only you. He was my best friend. You don’t think that fucking sucks for me? What about Gus? You ever think about what he’s going through. He lost his father and he may as well have lost you too.”
“That’s nice. My husband died and I’m the bad guy. Right. What’s her name? Who are you playing hero to this time? You know something, Jag. Not every woman needs you to save her. We’re not all waiting for a hero. So do me a favor and go pick Gus up from school like you said you would.”
“You wanna be mad and say some dumb shit. That’s cool, Sis. I got a lot to say too. If you don’t pull yourself together, you’re going to lose Gus. Is that what you want to happen. You want social services to come into this house and see how trashed and neglected it is. You’ve not cleaned since the day Denny died. This place isn’t fit for a kid. They’ll take one look at the place and walk back out with your son. Then what are you gonna do? Huh? Maybe you want them to take him.”
“You don’t know what it’s like.”
“Then tell me. What’s it like?”
“It’s not fair. It’s not fucking fair. I do try. I go out there and I sit in the car but then my mind takes over and all I can see is his mangled truck. And what if that happens to me? What if Gus is in the car with me and something happens? I can’t lose him too.”
“You can’t keep on like this. You gotta see a shrink or talk to someone. Maybe some medication. It ain’t healthy and it isn’t fair to Gus.”
“You think I don’t know how fucked up I am? I know I’m a shit mom. I was a bad wife. I’m being punished.”