“Hey, Frank, you okay?”
“Frank’s fine,” I said.
“Yeah, well, he don’t look fine. Whyn’t you let go of his hand there, sport, unless you want me to break your arm.”
“Hey,” I told him, “look at that.” And I held my right arm up in the air. When his eyes shifted up to look at my hand, I let go of his buddy’s wrist for a second and gave the second guy a quick punch in the stomach. He dropped to the floor, gasping for breath. I looked at the bartender and said, “That’s it, I promise. Tommy and I are leaving.”
The bartender nodded and said, “Pretty good punch,” as he put the bat back under the counter. Meanwhile, I hustled Tommy out of the place and into my car, which was parked right outside.
After we’d gone a few blocks, Tommy came to life.
“Hey, Barnes, go back there, man. I gotta get my car.”
“Not today, Tommy. You’ve gotten outside of a few too many beers to be getting behind the wheel of a car.”
“Huh?”
“You’re drunk again, Tommy, and if I let you try to drive, your sister would definitely not be happy about it.”
“So whatta you care?” he said. “Oh, wait, I forgot. You’re sweet on Angie, ain’t you? Yeah, you’re in love with my older sister.”
I turned to look at him for a minute, giving him my stare, all to no avail, of course. The stare doesn’t work on drunks and dogs.
“Tommy, I know you’re too soused to realize what you’re saying, but when you sober up, I might remind you of this conversation sometime.” I don’t think he got all of it, though, since he was already beginning to snore.
During the rest of the drive to his sister’s house, I tried to figure out how many times I’d hauled Tommy out of bars, not to mention tight situations, but I gave it up after just a few minutes. “Angie,” I said out loud, “I hope you appreciate all this.”
Actually, I knew she did. Angie Longwood and I had met in kindergarten, and the chemistry had been there almost immediately. We became best friends. In fact, during recess one day in third grade, she asked me to marry her. I had to say no, though, because the Pirates were playing the Phillies on TV that night. One has one’s priorities.
When we arrived at Angie’s place, Simon Ventura, her husband, was mowing the front lawn. As I helped Tommy out of my car, Simon turned off the mower and wandered over.
“How’s he doing, Jeremy?”
“About what you’d expect, Simon. Where’s Angie?”
“Out back, with the kids. You want me to take him inside?”
“Yeah, I’d appreciate it.”
I watched as Simon half-walked, half-carried Tommy up the steps to the front door of the house. Angie had met Simon in college, at UCLA. Angie went there on a volleyball scholarship, and she’d met Simon her first year. They married during their junior year, but only after she’d made him promise that they would settle in Pittsburgh after graduation. Simon got a job with a commercial real estate firm, and Angie taught 4th grade at the same elementary school the two of us had attended. She and Simon had two kids, a twelve-year-old named Matt, and a nine-year-old named Abby. They were great parents, and they had a life together. Simon was a good man, and I liked him.
As I walked around to the backyard, I thought about what might have been, but only for a second.
Chapter 2
When I turned the corner of the house, I saw Angie and the kids at the far end of the yard, playing with Pepper, the family dog, a mixed-breed mutt that Angie had found at the Animal Rescue League a few years earlier. When Pepper spotted me, he immediately dropped the toy he had in his mouth and raced over to greet me, which in Pepper’s case meant hurling his fifty-five pounds directly at my midsection. I turned slightly and used my arms to deflect him to one side. By that time, the kids had launched their attack on me, and within a minute, we were all rolling around on the grass.
“Hey, Jeremy,” shouted Abby, “wanna see my new video game?”
“Un-uh,” yelled her brother. “Jeremy’s gonna help me learn to dribble with my left hand, right, Jeremy?”
Fortunately, their mother came to my rescue. Pulling the kids off me, she said, “I have a better idea. Matthew, take your sister inside, and the two of you get ready for bed. Then Jeremy and I will come in to say goodnight.”
After a couple of protests from the kids, the kind that kids do even though they know there’s no chance of the adults changing their minds, Matt took his little sister into the house. Angie and I walked over to the patio and sat down in a couple of chairs around a table with a big umbrella sticking up out of the middle. Angie’s about five-ten, with dark, curly hair and a slim figure, even after the two kids. She’d been one of the best all-around athletes to ever graduate from our high school in Pittsburgh.
“How is he?” she asked.
“He’s okay, Ang. Just needs to sleep it off, is all. I gave the guys the money.”
“Was there any trouble?”
“Nothing I couldn’t handle.”
“I know I don’t have to thank you, Jeremy, but, well, thanks, anyway.”
We were both quiet for a minute then. I looked around and saw that she and Simon had been doing some yard work. A few new bushes along the fence that rimmed their property, a red maple tree in one corner.
“Place looks good, Ang,” I said.
“Thanks, Jeremy. Mostly, it’s Simon’s doing. He says that after working with high finance all day, he enjoys getting back to nature when he comes home. If it were up to me, I’d probably put lava rock anywhere the kids weren’t going to be playing.”
After another pause, she looked over at me and said, “When you
