Fear The Worst

I ignored her, and held the music player up to Evan’s nose. “I’ve been listening to Sydney’s tunes the last few days, and guess what just came up? Your little song that you dedicated to her.”

“So?”

“So?” I fired back at him. “That’s all you’ve got to say?”

“Tim!”

It was Susa

“Susa

Now Bob was coming out of the office, squinting in the intense sunlight, wondering what all the fuss was about.

“My dad’s go

Susa

I tried to shake her off gently. “He’s been telling me he hardly ever talked to Sydney. But not according to this.” I held up the iPod.

Evan shot Susa

“You need to listen to this.”

“It’s no big deal!” Evan said.

“What?” Susa

“He’s lied to us about how close he was to Sydney,” I said. “I wonder what else he’s been lying about.”

Bob arrived, slightly winded. Evan said to him, “Dad, get this asshole away from me.”

Bob grabbed my arm, much harder than Susa

“Stop it!” Susa

“You son of a bitch!” Bob said, trying to find enough room between us to land a punch. “Didn’t you get the message to keep the fuck away from my son?”

He caught me with his right in the side of the head, but there wasn’t much power in it. Just enough to make me mad enough to form a fist and drive it into his stomach.

But now Evan was on my back, screaming at me, locking his arms around my shoulders and pulling me away from his father, who now had a clearer shot at me. As Bob wound up, I shot out with my right leg and caught him right where it counts the most. His punch never co

“Stop it!” Susa

I tried to shake off Evan, but he was holding on to me with everything he had, trying to use his weight to drag me down to the asphalt. I managed to get some leverage into an elbow and drove it into his stomach. It made him loosen his grip on me, and I twisted away, stumbled, and fell against the Nissan.

Evan wanted to take another shot at me, but Susa

The MP3 player had gone flying during the melee and was on the ground near my foot. I reached down, grabbed it, and slid it into the front pocket of my slacks.

Everyone took a moment.

Bob, whose face was red and puffy, tried to straighten up, using the Kia’s hood for support. But it was still wet, and Bob’s hand slipped, throwing him off balance momentarily.

“You okay?” I asked him.

“Fuck off,” he said.

“Are you out of your mind?” Susa

“That’s what you are,” Evan said, pointing at me. “You’re out of your mind.”

To Susa

“What?”

“They recorded it, she put it on her iPod. He wrote this song and dedicated it to her.”

Susa

He shrugged.

“I asked you a question,” she said. “Is that true?”

“It was just a song,” he said.

Bob slowly stood back up to his full height, but you could see he was still feeling the pain. There’s nothing like it. He looked at me. “I swear to God I’m going to kill you.”

“Shut up, Bob,” Susa

I said, “Your boy knew our daughter better than he’s been letting on,” I said.

“What are you talking about?” he said.

I took the iPod back out of my pocket. “Let’s have a listen.” I walked back to my car, turned the key ahead a notch, plugged the player back into the auxiliary jack.

When Syd’s voice came on, Susa

Sydney’s and Evan’s voices came out of the car speakers, then Evan went into his lyrics. Sydney followed up with the joke about him wanting to get into her pants.

When it got to the end, I asked, “Anyone want to hear it again?”

No one did. But Evan said, “See? It’s not even a whole song. It’s just a couple of lines, that’s all. We were just goofing around.”

“Christ almighty,” Bob said to me. “This is what’s got your shorts in a knot?”

But Susa

Evan’s cheeks reddened.

“I’m asking you a question!” Susa

“Suze,” Bob said, “don’t get yourself worked up.”

“Fuck off,” she said to him.

“Susa

“You’re an ass,” I said to Bob.

He lunged at me and swung. He caught me in the jaw and I stumbled to the right, tripped over my own feet, and hit the ground.

Susa

She wasn’t using a car hood or any of us for support now. She was standing directly before Evan. Her right leg seemed wobbly.

“For the last time,” she said, her voice now not much more than a whisper, “I want to know what was going on between you and my daughter.”

“We talked some,” he conceded.

“And what else?” Susa

Evan glanced hopelessly at his father. “Look, really, nothing happened. We were just getting along okay, all right? We liked to talk. But not when you guys were around. We figured, if our parents knew that we actually liked each other, you’d start freaking out. You’d think it was like incest or something, but it’s not.”

I think all the adults exchanged glances at that one. Even Bob and I.

“It was no big deal,” Evan persisted.

“Did you sleep with my daughter?” Susa

Ordinarily, that might have been something I’d have wanted to know myself, but I was worried about more than my seventeen-year-old daughter’s sex life.

“I don’t believe this,” Evan said. “What a fucking question.”

“How about answering it?” Susa

“We only, we just, you know, okay, we made out a bit.”

“Great,” Bob said.

“She’s not my sister,” Evan said. “Just because you and my dad are getting it on doesn’t mean I’m messing around with my sister.”

“You stupid idiot,” Bob said to him. He reached over and grabbed Evan by the scruff of the neck. “What the hell were you thinking?”

“You moved me into the house with her!” he shouted into his father’s face, like it was his fault. On this, we were more or less on the same page. “What, you think I wasn’t going to notice?”

I struggled to my feet and looked at Susa

Bob, perhaps calmed by the even tone of my voice, if not the words, released his hold on Evan.

I continued, “But the only thing that interests me right now is finding Sydney. We now know you’ve been less than honest about how well you two were getting along. Okay. Now we want to know if you’ve been less than honest about where she may be.”