“But I don’t wanna live with Grandma Madeline,” Tommy said again. He couldn’t think of anything else to say. “Why you makin’ me?”
“I spoke to a man,” Nolan said, his shoulders sagging, his gaze on the floor. “A lawyer. He told me that because your mother and I never married that Madeline and your father have legal guardianship.”
“But why didn’t you get married?”
“I asked her, Tommy. I asked her every month. But she always said no.”
Thomas thought about the lunch he had with his mother and father. Elton had kissed Branwyn on the mouth before they left. At first she seemed to be kissing him back, but then she pushed him away and after that she spent the day crying.
Looking up at Minas Nolan’s sad face, Thomas knew somehow that he was the reason they could not marry. This knowledge was perfectly delineated by the dimness in his eyes.
“That’s okay, Daddy. I know she loved you. She told me so.”
“She did?”
“Uh-huh.”
Dr. Nolan coughed and turned away.
Ahn made tea and hot chocolate and said very little. An hour later the doorbell rang. Madeline Beerman and Elton Trueblood were admitted, and everyone sat together in the downstairs living room drinking coffee and talking.
Thomas perched on the hassock in front of the big chair where Minas Nolan sat.
5 4
F o r t u n a t e S o n
“Thomas is always welcome to come visit,” the doctor said.
“Maybe after a while,” Madeline replied. “But first he has to get used to livin’ with us.”
“Will you tell Eric where I am?” Thomas asked Nolan.
“Don’t interrupt, Tommy,” Elton told him. “Grown-ups are talkin’.”
“Which one of you will Thomas be staying with?” Minas asked Madeline.
“Where Tommy lives ain’t none of your business, man,”
Elton told him. “I should have called the police on you when you took him out of that restaurant. He’s my boy. Maybe I didn’t do right by Brawn, but I intend to be a father to Tommy.”
“I understand how you feel, Mr. Trueblood,” Minas said softly. “I have a son too. But you see, Tommy has lived in this house ever since the day after he came home from the hospital. I know that you’re his father, but that doesn’t mean I don’t feel concern.”
“You can be concerned all you want,” Elton said. “But he is my son. Here you talkin’ like you care so much. If you loved them so much how come you a doctor and she died right here undah yo’ roof ?”
“She . . . I, I wanted her to go to the hospital,” Dr. Nolan whispered. “I tried to convince her.”
Elton stood up and so did Madeline. Ahn kissed Thomas and whispered, “You remember what I told you about running, running.”
Dr. Nolan knelt down and hugged Thomas hard.
“I love you, Tommy,” he said for the first time that Thomas could remember.
5 5
Wa l t e r M o s l e y
“That’s enough now,” Elton said, and Thomas found himself being dragged from the house and out to a shiny green car that smelled like cigarettes.
They drove for a long time, with Thomas sitting in the backseat and Elton driving.
“You don’t have to be scared, Tommy,” Madeline said.
“Elton’s got a nice house too, and he’s your real father.”
“He don’t have nuthin’ to be scared about anyway,” Elton complained. “He’s lucky he got a real father to come and take him. You know, I don’t have to do this. I could leave you up there with those white people. I didn’t have to take you and make you a real home.”
“The boy’s scared, Elton,” Madeline said. “You don’t have to shout like that. He’s used to that house, and he thinks about those people like family.”
“More than me,” Elton agreed. “Here they got their pet niggah grabbin’ me by the shoulder until it almost break, an’
Tommy didn’t even say to let me go. Here I am his real father, and he don’t even say a word when that man was crushin’ my bones. If I seen somebody do
Thomas didn’t know what a “toobifor” was, but he understood that his father thought that he should have fought with Fontanot. He tried to imagine fighting the giant, but all he could think of was Eric running at him. Then he wondered what Eric would do when he found out that he was gone.
“Do you hear me?” Elton said. “Tommy!”
“What?”
“Are you listening to me?”
