Lana had her, ‘I’m going to make the best of it,’ expression on and she managed to smile at him and said, “I know. I’m glad you’ve found some peace in your life. And I’m sorry about Mimi. She was a fun lady.”
“Yeah, she was. A real card.” He chuckled and then moved the box a bit, opening the flaps up. “She has everything labeled. Some of it’s from my great grandpa. Didn’t want to risk mailing it.” He lifted a cuckoo clock from the box, the weights resting on a decorative shelf at the bottom. He carefully let the weights hang and held up the clock. “Not exactly exciting for teen boys, I know. This was my grandma’s. She always had it hanging over the fireplace and when Mom got it, she kept it in our living room. Still works.” He passed it to me, and I caught a whiff of attics, dust, and mothballs. I wrinkled my nose before I could catch myself and Rod said, “I know it’s not fancy, but it was something from my childhood—”
“It’s not that,” I said when Lana gave me a frown. “Mothballs.” I leaned in like an idiot and sniffed and Lana shook her head.
“It’s cool, Rod. I’ll bet Jackson will really like it. He loves old things.” She patted me on the knee like a zookeeper trying to calm a nervous elk.
I almost giggled at the elk bit and had to duck my head to keep from grinning. Lana mouthed, ‘What is wrong with you?’ and I shook my head.
Rod kept talking, hopefully oblivious. “Good. He’s so tall now.”
“Yes, he is.” Lana shifted so she couldn’t see me as well, couldn’t see me hiding my grin like an idiot. “Six feet now.”
Rod and Lana exchanged some trivia about the boys, stuff Rod would have known had he gotten his head out of his ass and took the trouble to stay in their lives. I moved the clock to the coffee table and stood when April came in with the refreshments balanced on a tray. When I offered to take it, she let me and passed out the glasses while I held the tray. “Rod says you’ve been with Lana for thirteen years?”
“Yeah,” I said, “but we’ve known each other a lot longer.”
“Wow. My mom and dad didn’t even make it that long. Did you get married when Obama made it legal?”
I wasn’t sure what to say, but I figured correcting her would just lead me down a road Lana wouldn’t approve of, so I just said, “Yep,” and hoped she wouldn’t ask more.
“Rod and I met in treatment.” My poker face wasn’t working well because she said, “I know, it’s a general rule that you can’t get into a relationship with another addict for at least a year. We’re really quite happy, though and we keep each other sober.” She waggled her glass, making the ice tinkle. “Learning to love tea together.”
“Good for you,” I murmured, unable to muster much enthusiasm for their romance. I had compassion and a half for the kids I worked with, many of whom were also addicts. Pretty much, it was just Rod I couldn’t feel happy for. He was an ass, for all that he had changed his life around.
April sat on the floor at Rod’s feet—something else that made me want to wrinkle my nose—and gazed up him as if he were everything she’d ever wanted.
Ick.
More things came out of the box, knives, rocks glued to cardboard and labeled in an old fashioned script, an old ball and cup with a frayed string, and a couple of those creepy porcelain dolls that featured prominently in horror movies. Leave it to Rod to give us haunted shit in the guise of being nice.
“Don’t you think so Dee?” Lana asked, her voice tight.
I nodded, not sure what I was supposed to think. “Sure,” I said, and I knew I was going to hear about it when we got back to our hotel room. I thought I was doing pretty good—I hadn’t hit the guy yet.
She gave me both dolls and so I sat there with two expressionless faces staring up at me. One of them had teeth, creepy teeth that looked sharp as hell. They both smelled like mothballs. I managed not to twitch, and the conversation moved to the boys. “Jackson is a straight A student. Tucker gets As, Bs, and Cs. He’s more interested in sports than grades, but he keeps them up so he can play. And Jackson already has several scholarships for his trombone and a few for theater and, of course, academics.”
“That’s awesome. Where’s he going for college? UNO is good,” Rod said with bald hope in his voice. I wasn’t sure why he thought Jackson would move halfway across the country to live near a man who didn’t give a good goddamn about him for most of his life, but he did. Hope sprung eternal.
“I’m sure it is. He hasn’t decided on any place yet, but I’ll tell him what you said about UNO,” Lana said, diplomatic as ever.
“Thanks.” Rod cleared his throat and glanced at April, who gave him a little nod and I groaned internally. What the hell was he working up to? “There’s another reason why I asked you guys here. I know I don’t have the right to ask, but April encouraged me to just spit it out and hope for the best.” He licked his lips. “I was thinking that, maybe, the boys could spend this upcoming summer here, with April
