“No. Sorry, Idon’t. It’s nothing personal, it’s just that whenever my parentshad people over, we told to stay in our room. Plus, there wereusually a lot of individuals hanging around.”
“I’m notoffended. I was very fond of your folks though. They were differentthan a lot of the other addicts of the time. As much as they hadmonkeys on their backs, they were good people. I always thoughtthey didn’t suit the druggie lifestyle. They were intelligent andboth of them had potential to do a lot better in life.Unfortunately, they got hooked on junk and spiraled in the wrongdirection.
“Yeah, tell meabout it.”
“ It’s justhorrible what happened to your mom. She was very kind and verybeautiful. You look a lot like her, except you have your father’seyes,” he smiles.
“Yeah, I missmy mom a lot. I don’t think a day passes that I don’t think of her.I went through a lot of therapy early on to help me cope with thegrief and anger I had from losing her. Now my father is in criticalcondition and I’m afraid I’ll lose him too. I don’t think I couldbear that.”
I’m not surewhy I feel safe enough to say something so vulnerable and personalto Slinky. I guess because he seems sincere when talking about myfolks. I wonder why I don’t remember him? Maybe he looked differentall those years ago. Drugs can shit kick people’s appearance. Maybeif I saw a picture of him and my parents together, I’dremember.
“Do you knowwho it was that attacked him? I mean…did Jim give you any names oranything?”
“Nah, He didn’tsay too much, just that I should come and ask you.”
“I’m not surewhy he would suggest that I would know something about your fathergetting hurt. How could I possibly know about that? Jim has alwaysspouted off about things he knows nothing about. I think he does itto get attention. Regardless, I’m glad you found me.”
“Thanks, I amtoo.”
“Hey, you havea little sister, don’t you? How’s she doing?”
Shit. I am notprepared for this. I feel like I’ve been kicked in the stomach.“Yes. Her name was Abby.” A lump forms in my throat and I do mybest to stop my eyes from watering.
“Was?”
“Yeah. We losther a short while after Mom.”
“Oh no. I’m sosorry. She was such a sweet little thing.”
“So, do youthink you may be able to ask around or find out who the guys werethat hurt my father?” I say, changing the subject.
“I’m just anold man. Nobody tells me much, but I’ll certainly ask around.”
“Thanks,Slinky. I just want to know who they are and why they hurt him sobadly? His skull has multiple fractures and he’s in a coma. Whoeverthose guys are, they laid a horrible beating on him. By the extentof his injuries, it kind of makes me think that they were trying tokill him.”
Slinky reacheshis hand across the table and pats my arm, “Stay positive. Your Dadwas always a very strong man. He’ll pull through okay? You’llsee.”
Thecompassionate and sensitive man sitting across from me is the polaropposite to the suspicious and defensive one I met just a half hourago in the stairwell. Though, to be fair, I guess you can’t trusttoo many people in this area.
“Can I give yousome advice?” he says gently.
I nod.
“Be carefulwalking around these parts and asking questions. People on thesestreets have no qualms about grabbing a pretty little girl androbbing you or…worse. I’d hate to see that happen.”
“Thanks,Slinky. I’ll be careful.”
“Good.”
I finishdrinking my coffee and then tell him that I should be going becauseI have to check in on Dad. He throws a few dollars on the table topay for our drinks then walks me to the door. I shake his hand,thank him for his time and am just about to walk away when he stopsme, “If you want to meet me here tomorrow afternoon, I’ll do mybest to see what I can find out about what happened to yourdad.”
“Really? I surewould appreciate that.”
“It’s noproblem. It’s the least I can do. To be honest, I’ve always feltguilty over what happened to your mom. I don’t know if you areaware but I was at your parent’s apartment that night she wasattacked. Though when I left, they were sitting at the tablelaughing and joking. The next thing I heard was that your mom wasgone and your father was on his way to jail. It was all so crazy.To this day I’ve never forgiven myself for leaving when I did.”
“Don’t beatyourself up over it, Slinky. That was a long time ago and how couldyou have possibly ha known what was going to happen?”
“I guess so. Ifeel bad for John as well. He would never have hurt her. I hope youknow that. It was a set up from the get go. It had to be. My guessis, they just happened to owe the wrong person money, so an examplewas madout of them,” he says shaking his head. “And to think, theasshole that they owed the money is still around today.”
“Fournier?” Iask.
“Wow. You knowabout him? You have been doing your homework, haven’t you?He’s avery dangerous man. Did your dad tell you that too?”
“Yes.”
“For your owngood, stay away from him.”
I smile andthen agree to meet Slinky back here at one o’clock tomorrow.
We walk inopposite directions. Halfway down the block, I turn and look back.He’s still standing out front of the restaurant and watching me.Maybe he wants to make sure nobody tries to bother me. As Icontinue down the sidewalk, I start thinking about everything hesaid, how he cared about my parents and how guilty he felt over mymother’s murder. But mostly, I’m thinking about, Fournier. Slinkysaid the same thing to me that my father did. Fournier is dangerousand I should stay away from him.
* * *
When I’m at thehospital and out of the cold, I sit in a chair in the lobby andcall Katie before I go up to ICU. She sounds preoccupied and busybut takes a quick minute to ask me if I found Slinky. I
