He explained briefly to his boss, ran to the parking lot, and fought traffic out to the development Laura met him at the door.
“How is he?” Charlie asked.
“He’s all right.” She passed the back of her hand over her forehead. “I guess I shouldn’t have called you, Charlie, but when I heard him go tumbling…”
“I know. What does the doctor say?”
“That my father is a very lucky man, or indestructible.” Her face twisted, giving it a strange expression Charlie had never seen before. “The doctor just left.”
“Is he coming back?”
“Not today. He wants me to bring father into his office tomorrow morning, just for a check-up. ”
She’d need the car, then. That meant riding the bus to work. Schedules out here put Charlie either fifteen minutes late or forty-five minutes early to the office.
He sighed. “Well, I guess I better look in on him.”
“Charlie—”
“Yes?”
“Don’t get him…I mean…”
“I’m the soul of patience,” Charlie assured her, a touch of bitterness in his voice.
Charlie opened the old man’s bedroom door softly and stepped inside. The old man had his eyes closed. His bones made creases in the covers and that was all.
As Charlie neared the bed, the old man opened his eyes and looked at him.
“How are you, sir?”
“I’ll survive,” the old man said softly. “I’ll survive a long time.”
“We hope so. How did it happen?”
“I fell down the basement steps.”
“I know. Laura told me that on the phone.”
“I could have been killed.”
“But you weren’t, and we’re grateful for that. The doctor said you’re fine.”
“Could have been killed…” the old man said, as if Charlie hadn’t spoken. “All because there was a carton of old shoes on the steps. Right near the top. ”
Charlie tried to understand the old man’s feelings. “I meant to take them down last night.”
“But you didn’t,” the old man said in that soft voice that sounded like a whisper from an eternal tomb.
“No, I… Laura asked me to… Listen, what am I explaining every detail to you for!”
He caught the glint of warped satisfaction in the old man’s eye. He felt awkward and foolish. His quick anger drained to be replaced by something else.
“You hate me,” the old man whispered.
And it was true. For the first time, Charlie knew it was true. The old man seemed to have a profound knowledge of it.
“You’re a little upset,” Charlie said through stiff lips. “You know we care greatly for you.”
He turned and went out. He found refuge in the shop, turning on a lathe and letting the chips fly.
Finally, he realized that Laura was calling him from the house. He switched off the lathe, turned off the heater, and hurried across the backyard. He had no right to act childishly toward her, to pity himself because he lacked the manhood to be the head of his own house.
He waited until late that night, until he was certain the old man was asleep and wouldn’t come creeping in. He cut the legs for a cocktail table without his mind being on the task. When he came into the house, he washed his hands in the kitchen, thinking of what he would say.
Laura was on the end of the couch, feet curled under her while she watched TV. Charlie felt a great reluctance inside of him as he approached her. The word “showdown” came to his mind, frightening him a little.
He eased down beside her. She looked at him and smiled. He really did love her, he thought. Under different circumstances, with some kids around…
“How’s the table coming, Charlie?”
“Fine.”
“Can I have a look tomorrow?”
“Sure, if you want Laura…”
Thundering hooves and banging six-guns filtered into the space between them.
“I wanted to talk to you,” he said, his collar feeling tight.
“About father,” she said “Yes, I guess so.”
“You want him out.”
“I’m afraid I do,” he said.
“Why be afraid, Charlie?” she asked, almost gently.
He stared at her, again with that feeling of strangeness.
“I’m not afraid, Charlie. I’ll be glad when he’s dead.”
“Laura…”
“Why deny it? You feel the same way. I’m not surprised. He taints and kills everything he touches. ”
“Then we’ll put him in a home?” Even with her attitude, which had surprised him so, the words sounded callous, cruel.
“No, Charlie, we won’t put him in a home. I knew from the beginning this was something we’d have to discuss.”
“But if we keep him here…”
“That’s what we’re going to do, Charlie.”
“But you just said…”
“That I’d be glad when he’s dead? I mean it. We’re going to keep him right here, right with us, until the day he dies.”
“I see,” he said glumly, although he didn’t see any solution at all.
“You think I’m choosing between duty to a father and love for a husband, Charlie?” She stirred with a faint rustling sound of her clothing against the couch upholstery. Her hand reached to touch his cheek.
“I love you, Charlie. And I don’t feel any duty toward him. His miserliness and meanness killed my mother and ruined my childhood. If the question were so simple, there wouldn’t be any problem. ”
“I don’t think I understand, Laura.”
“Of course you don’t. You’ve never been told that he’s a rich man.”
“Rich?”
She leaned toward him slightly. “He’s worth over a quarter of a million dollars, Charlie.”
“But that gloomy old barn you lived in before we were married!”
“I know. But it isn’t so strange or unusual. Not as extreme as those cases you read about where some recluse dies in filth, with a million dollars glued under the wallpaper or tucked under the mattress. My father’s a miser and always has been. I didn’t know he was worth so much myself until my mother died. There were some papers I had to sign. I made inquiries, and when I found out—well, Charlie, right then and there I began waiting for him to die. I’m his only heir, you know. It will all come to me. ”
The walls seemed to tilt a little, and the TV
