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Now De
His father was still sitting at the dining room table, still in his uniform, still drinking and talking. His mother still sat in her chair. All the plates and pots and food and stuff were still on the table.
His father had started drinking as soon as he had gotten home from work. That was never a good thing. Then supper had been really bad. Half-frozen meatloaf. His dad had taken one bite of it, got a face, then got up from the table, took the plate with the meatloaf to the back door, and threw it out in the yard.
He worked hard. All he wanted at the end of the day was a decent meal. Was that too much to ask? he demanded of De
“Are you stupid?” he asked now.
De
“Not talk to them without talking to me first!” he said, his speech barely slurred despite the fact that he had been drinking for hours.
His dad knew how to hold his liquor.
“Now I look like a fool in front of that prick Mendez.”
“I’m sorry, Frank.”
“And Dixon turns on me like a snake! All these years, and he turns on me like a fucking snake!”
“He should have more respect for you.”
“My record is spotless! Spotless! And that’s not going to count for a goddamn thing because I stopped that stupid little whore and gave her a speeding ticket!” he said. He looked stu
“I know, Frank. It’s not fair,” his mother murmured.
“Dixon took me off the investigation,” his father said to the whiskey in his glass. “Because of De
He turned and looked at De
“Yes, Frank.”
“They have it coming.”
“Yes, Frank, you’re absolutely right.”
“And now you make me look bad. All because you can’t keep your stupid mouth shut.”
“I’m sorry, Frank. I was stupid. I didn’t think.”
“You never think.”
His mother was so stupid. His father was very proud of who he was. He was proud of being chief deputy. People respected him and looked up to him. His mother should have known better than to make him look bad.
His father poured more whiskey into his glass and sipped at it.
“‘Standard procedure,’” he muttered. “‘Don’t take it personally, Frank. It’s just standard op.’ ”
He pushed back from the table and got up to pace back and forth, his too-full glass in his hand. The whiskey sloshed out of it as he moved, spilling onto the hardwood floor.
“Standard operating procedure,” he said. “Fucking spic. I don’t want you ever talking to that fucking little prick again. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, Frank.” His mother’s voice was so soft and trembling so badly, it was hard to hear.
“What?” His father cupped a hand to his ear, sloshing more whiskey onto the floor. “I can’t hear you, you stupid fucking cow. Answer me so I can hear you!”
“Yes, Frank!”
“That little bastard is going to try to pin that murder on me. You wait and see,” he said. “Do you think I’m murderer?”
“No!” she said on a gasp, her eyes going round as she stared down at her plate.
“Look at me and say it,” he ordered. “Do you think I’m a murderer? Huh? ANSWER ME!”
She looked at him, shaking and afraid, tears streaming down her cheeks. “No!”
There must have been something about her face that wasn’t right, because De
“FUCK! FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!” he raged.
As he lifted his head, he looked straight into the kitchen-right at De
“What are doing in there?” his father snapped, struggling awkwardly to get to his hands and knees. He never took his laser gaze off De
“What the fuck are you doing in there?”
“N-n-n-nothing.”
“Are you spying on us?”
“N-n-n-no!”
De
His father got to his feet and came toward him.
“Don’t lie to me, you rotten little shit. You’re standing in here listening. What the hell’s the matter with you?”
“I-I-I don’t know,” De
“You good-for-nothing little smartass brat. I try to set you straight, and you take the finger off a dead woman. What the fuck is wrong with you?”
De
“I asked you a question!” he shouted. “Answer me!”
But he didn’t let De
“Frank! Stop it!” De
His father spun around, redirecting his fury.
De
From inside the house he heard his mother cry out and the sound of plates crashing off the dining room table to the floor.
De
It was harder to get up into the tree than it was to get down. He tried three times to jump up and catch hold of the lowest branch, finally getting hold of it with his fingertips. Groaning and twisting he struggled to get a better grip and pull himself up. If his father came out of the house now he would be dead.
Fear helped launch him up to where he could get his leg over the limb. Then he was in the tree and climbing. It didn’t matter that it was dark. He knew every branch.
He needed to disappear. He needed to go to a place his father couldn’t find him. He would go to his safe place and wait out the storm.
He had to stretch out over space to get hold of the windowsill into his bedroom. If he slipped and fell he would probably die. He didn’t know if he cared.
Flopping through the open window like a seal, he fell to his bedroom floor with a thud. The sounds of a beating came up through the floor. His father yelling, his mother crying. SMACK! SMACK!
De