Chapter Two
Man to Man
"You never could handle your whiskey. Always makes you nasty. Now for me whiskey made me forget about everything."
He gets up from the couch. "What the hell?" He shakes his head. "This is too weird. I'm going to bed." He walks past the figure.
"Leaving so soon?"
He turns to face the figure. "I know I didn't drink that much. This is fuckin' nuts." He turns to leave.
"Don't have the balls to face me?" Bobby stops in his tracks. The figure walks closer. "I didn't think so. As I recall you always did have a big mouth."
As he turns toward the figure he says, "What? What did you say?" He walks closer.
"Do you really want me to repeat it?"
He slips his hands in his pockets. "Ok I'll play along." He pauses and steps back a few feet. "What are you doing here?"
"You wanted to talk to me, well here I am, let's talk."
"Talk?" He shakes his head and chuckles. "Oh man."
The figure walks around the room. "I like the way the house looks. Your Mom must be proud of the way you've been taking care of it."
"She hasn't seen it in awhile."
The figure sits down in the recliner. He points toward the bedroom upstairs. "She's very cute. She must really love you to put up with your shit."
Bobby stands in front of the figure. "What shit? I treat her great. What the hell would you know about it anyway?"
"I just know how many times you've fucked it up. Don't do it this time."
"Like you are one to give me advice? Oh, that's right. You've had so many women, no wait that's not the right word, women." He rubs his face. "More like whores, and one shanky bitch after the other, only to proud to give it away. I'm surprised your dick didn't fall off."
"You're one to talk. You've had your share of screwing around. You can add plenty of shanky ones to your conquests."
"Yes that's true. I've never been married. Anyway that was a long time ago." Bobby sits down on the couch. "I was just a kid then and I was usually drunk at the time."
"That's not an excuse, but it does sound familiar."
Bobby smiles for the first time as he points his finger in the direction of the figure. "You're good ole man. I'd forgotten how smart you are. But I haven't forgotten what you did."
"I couldn't handle it. Is that what you want me to say?"
"No. That's not what I want you to say. That's too easy." Bobby scoffs as he repeats what the figure had said. "I couldn't handle it. That's pretty fuckin' lame ole man. You can do better than that."
The figure stands up and walks around the room. "When I married your Mom I had so many conceptions of what marriage and family was about. You work hard you have kids. Go on vacations, spend time as a family, and grow old together, hopefully. Not spend half the night arguing with a woman who forgot to take her medication and the other half trying to stop her from destroying the house. I couldn't handle her." He shakes his head.
"I would just yell and that never helped, but you." He looks Bobby in the eye. "You were able to talk to her and get her to calm down. I should have thanked you for doing that but I never did." He pauses and looks away. "She was not your responsibility. I never should have expected you to do that."
Silence fills the room for about a minute.
Bobby speaks. "She still talks about you."
"I can just imagine the things she says."
"She was never one to talk bad about people behind their backs. She talks about when you first met and got married, the kind of guy you were. Not the man you turned out to be."
The figure sits back down in the recliner and shakes his head. "When your mother and I broke up do you think she was the same woman that I married?"
Bobby says. "No."
"She is your Mom but she was my wife." He pauses and points in the direction of the bedroom. "That cute little one up there. She is to be your wife?"
"Yes she is."
"You take her as she is now and then in a few years she gets a disease, a disease that most people associate with criminals. It's not life threatening but has no cure. And there isn't a damn thing you can do about it."
Bobby stands up and begins to pace. "I understand that. I'm not naïve I know that people get divorced everyday." Raising his voice, "But most fathers remember that they have children! Why did you leave us there? Think of a good bull shit line for me now ole man."
"After all these years, you still hate me."
Bobby exhales. "I don't hate you, I don't like you." He bends down to catch the figure in the eye. "Tell me one thing about yourself that would make me like you?" He pauses. "And then you can answer my question."
The figure just shakes his head. "I was ashamed. Ashamed of my wife and……….families were not supposed to be that way. No one understood her, me included." He pauses. "Except, maybe you." The figure stands up and begins to pace around the room. "I was certain that because you could relate to her so well that you………………"
"I thought as much." He shakes his head in disgust. "Say it you son of a bitch. Look at me and say it to my face."
The figure slowly turns in Bobby's direction. "I thought you were going to be just like her."
Bobby sits back hard in the couch. "Thinking it all these years is one thing but actually hearing from you is another."
He voice gets angrier and louder. "You are just a selfish, uncaring bastard. I'm your son, Goddamnit! You should have put my life ahead of yours. That's what fathers are supposed to do, not run away and leave you alone."
"I'm sorry. I am so sorry. I left you alone because I couldn't watch the same thing happen to you. It was ignorance on my part. I didn't understand the disease and I didn't do anything to learn about it. I just wanted to ignore it." He pauses. "And you and your brother, all of you."
The figure starts to pace around the room again. He scratches the back on his head.
"I want to ask you a question."
Bobby shrugs his shoulders. "Sure go ahead." He says without much enthusiasm.
"What do you think would have happened to your Mom if I took you boys away?"
"Oh give me a break, ole man. Don't pull that martyr crap on me."
"I'm not trying to say I was a martyr and you didn't answer my question."
Bobby hesitates as he exhales. "She would have fallen apart."
Silence fills the room for about a minute. The figure walks over to the window and pulls the curtain. "Not much of a change in the houses." He steps away from the window and returns to the middle of the room. The figure walks closer to the couch and stands in front of Bobby.
"One man's actions always affect many people. I hope now you can understand what I was feeling and maybe why I did the things I did. I am not trying to make excuses. I'm trying to say that I am so sorry for everything."
He pauses as he turns away. "I hope one day you will be able to forgive me."
He turns to face him once more. "Bobby." He doesn't look up. "I am very proud of you. You grew up practically on your own. You're a good man and I wish I could take the credit for it."
Bobby looks up. "Dad."
Midnight
Alex rolls over in bed and is a wakened by the emptiness. She squints to see the time. "Midnight."
She finds him asleep on the couch. She sits down next to him and taps him on the arm. "Bobby, wake up."
He slowly moves and turns to face her. "Hey. What time is it?"
"A little after twelve. If you sleep here all night your back will be hurting tomorrow."
Alex is looking around the room as he sits up and rubs his face. "Do you smell that? Gees that's weird."
"What? What are you talking about?"
"It smells like Old Spice. My Dad used that when I was a kid."
Bobby gets up from the couch. "Yeah mine did……………"
"I know you don't use it, besides, you forgot to shave yesterday morning."
Not able to look at her, "I don't smell anything."
Alex starts to walk toward the stairs. "Weird."
Bobby walks slowly around the room. Alex looks back. "What are you looking for?"
He looks up at her and smiles. "Nothing." He says but he continues to look around the room. She walks back toward him and grabs his arm. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah I'm fine." She pulls him.
"Come on lets go to bed."
A Bronx Apartment
2 AM
"Frank, wake up and come to bed."
"I just closed my eyes during a commercial and I must have fallen asleep. What time is it?"
"Ten after two."
He notices her looking around the room. "What are you looking for?"
"Since when do you use Old Spice, my God I haven't smelled that since I was a little girl."
TBC
