Chapter 2
Homecoming
itsmeocean@hotmail.com
Joe plopped down on the couch after the short drive from Callie's house to Frank's swanky condominium in downtown Bayport. Frank shook his head at his brother who was exhausted after a long drive back home. Nothing was said on the way to his condominium about Joe's solo life for almost seven years- in fact, if anything, Joe behaved like he was only gone for a week. They joked around like before, talked about movies they had seen. When they drove through the bustling downtown area that had definitely expanded since Joe's departure, Joe yawned.
Adjourning to the kitchen, he stuck his head out briefly to ask Joe if he would want anything to drink.
"Milk? Soda? Water? Beer?"
"Water." Joe answered back lethargically. "I'm thirsty, hungry and sleepy."
"Nothing's changed." Frank mumbled as he poured Joe a glass of ice-cold water and took out a can of Coke for himself. When he returned back to the living room, Joe was already half slumped on the black sofa with his eyes closed and the side of his blond head resting on the armrest. Frank placed the glass onto the transparent coffee table, hovered over his brother and shook his shoulder.
"Hey! Wake up…"
"Yah… yah…" Joe struggled up with great efforts as he waved Frank away. He blurrily looked around before smiling at the glass that Frank brought out for him. Taking it, he took a long drink as Frank sat down next to him and pulled open the tab off the Coke can.
"Ah…" Joe threw his head back on the couch and sighed contentedly. "You'll think I spent forty days in the desert."
"Nope. I will know you spent seven years away from home." Frank griped. "Where have you been? You were always evasive when we talked on the phone."
"Got a divorce then annulment. Fell into depression and out of it. Next, I finished high school, left Maryland and put myself through a community college in Chicago, got a degree in Criminology like you did, with honors but second upper, not first class and set up a private investigating firm with a neat freak who's more psychotic about germs and dust than you. I guess your calling never changes no matter where you are. In between, I make sure I visit California very often to remind my daughter of my existence." Joe arched a cynical brow at his own accounting and smiled bitterly. "But now I'm back… came for my old partner." Making eye contact with Frank, Joe raised his glass in a mock toast and finished up his water.
Frank poured some of his coke into Joe's empty glass. "Depression? You never told us."
"Depression is a good word to mask through various issues." Joe replied off-handedly. "It's all in the past though. I'm all right now. Told ya I needed to straighten myself out. Now that I've done so, I think I can face mom and dad again… you know. You have a nice place… much nicer than mine. It's nothing like the old apartment you rented when you're in college. I can't believe you were so proud of that hole that you had to take so many photos of it and email to me, exploding my whole inbox." Joe looked around approvingly. "Mine had been uglified."
"I resent that! It was my first apartment, and, in my eyes, the best. Let's talk about you. PI firm, college. You know, Joe, dad and mom miss you a lot. With Andrea breathing down his neck and mom's tears keeping us awake at night, Dad was under a lot of pressure when you and Vanessa split. Made me feel guilty for being your accomplice. He turned down all the cases, even the very lucrative ones, and concentrated on seeking the both of you out until you called us two months later and even then he never gave up… Joe…"
His kid brother raised a hand up to stop him. As he did so, his sleeve slipped behind and Frank noticed a tattoo peeking out. He nodded at it and Joe rolled up his right sleeve and there was the name, "Hallie", tattooed onto his forearm in Old English script.
"The love of my life…" Joe smiled wryly. "I made a lot of mistakes but Hallie wasn't. She's the best thing that happened to me."
"I know… no one said otherwise. She's lovely beyond belief."
Joe nodded and the look of a proud father graced his sullen face, lighting up the shadows under his too-bright eyes instantly. "Yah. I know about how Vanessa sometimes left her with mom and dad for a week or two a year. I'll have to be extremely cautious when she grows up. Have to kill all the boys who want to get close to her."
"I hope you're joking because if all fathers think like you, you would have died before you hit fifteen because as I recall, you fit the description of one of those boys that fathers would never let their daughters touch." Frank set the can down and Joe chuckled lowly.
"Of course I was kidding… but I'm going to have lay ground rules for her. No dating until she's eighteen. No mini-skirts ever. No bikinis too though tankinis will do… you know. I bought her a pepper spray…"
"Pepper spray for a six-year old girl? What if she sprays her own eyes?"
"We're living in dangerous time. Never too early to teach them to be cautious." Joe downed his coke. "You're still living on this stuff, huh? Caffeine overload?"
"Nope… don't change subject. You're the subject now. What's this about the PI firm? Why didn't you attend my graduation? Why didn't you tell us about yours? We will be so honored to attend, Joe."
"It's nothing… a community college in Chicago where I went to after she married Greg Bunnyhead or whaziname… nothing much really. And the cases that I and Elle took on were mere… ,well, petty crimes in companies mostly. Enough to pay the rent and feed ourselves. And I attended your graduation…" Joe bit down on his lower lip. Frank saw that familiar expression of guilt and knew that nothing really changed after all. "I just never… never stepped away from the tree I was hiding behind. You gave a great speech about justice and mercy and the importance of the crime investigators' role in seeking out the real guilty parties. I actually shed a few tears."
Frank put an arm around his brother and sighed. "Aren't you ever tired of running away?"
Joe let out a soft laughter and shook his head. At that very moment, the tough-guy demeanor vanished and Joe looked like someone who finally realized he was not so strong that he needed no one. "I am. That's why I'm back. I want to come home. Now… you'll have to break the news to mom and dad for me. I don't want them to die of heart attack."
Nodding, Frank noticed the pronounced shadows under Joe's eyes, most likely from the lack of sleep. His cheekbones were weathered sharp and defiant but his eyes were tired and jaded beyond his years. Feeling some pity for his kid brother, Frank understood that Joe needed rest now and not an interrogation though there were so much more he wanted to ask Joe. He wondered about Joe's PI firm and if Joe was coming home for good or for a brief sojourn.
Already an idea sprung into Frank's mind. Maybe he could partner up with Joe and the girl called Elle. They could build up a striving investigative firm and it would be he and his brother side by side again, busting criminals and righting the wrongs. "You can sleep in my room for now. I don't have a guest room as the bigger apartments here are too pricey for me. But you do have a room back at the Tudor house in Elm Street. You know that."
"Where's Spidey?" Joe asked suddenly, looking up on the mantelpiece which displayed nothing but photos of Joe, Callie, Fenton, Laura and him. "Have you discarded it?"
"Nope. It's in a safe hidden away in a nuclear holocaust hide-out twenty feet underground." Frank rolled his eyes. Trust Joe to still be able to remember his favorite toy.
"C'mon, tell me. I missed it so much… they don't sell figurines like that one anymore… so detailed and expertly painted by me." Joe stood up and, as usual, without asking for directions, threw open the door to the room that he assumed was Frank's. "Whoah! Bro! Weapons of Mass Destruction! You practice your martial arts in here? Hey! Nice punching bag! Hmm…your guitar looks out of place … why not we dump everything here somewhere so I can move in with you for a while?" Joe's kidding voice drifted softer as he explored further into Frank's training room. Frank walked over and leaned against the door frame as he watched Joe picked up the guitar, sat down on the stool next to it and started plucking the strings, singing softly to himself.
"When I was young I knew everything, and she a punk who rarely ever took advice, now I'm guilt stricken, sobbing with my head on the floor, stop a baby's breath and a shoe full of rice… can't be held responsible…"
"Cause she was touching her face…" Frank joined in softly, strolling over and then sitting down cross-legged on the floor next to his brother as they hum along to one of the few songs they could agree on before. It felt like a trip down memory lane as he and Joe often jammed together when they were teens as they good-humoredly insulted each other's vocals and favorite songs. At that very instant, it seemed as if the seven years absence was bridged and Joe had never left them at all. "I won't be held responsible… she fell in love in the first place…"
"For the life of me… I cannot remember, what made us think that we were wise and we'd never compromise. For the life of me… I cannot believe… we'd ever die for these sins…we were merely freshmen..." Joe set the guitar aside and turned away. Frank caught him quickly wiping at his eyes.
"I wished I had mom and dad with me… give me some idea of what to do… how… how a couple should respect and support each other. Now the vagrant son returns… with nothing under his belt. No wife, no daughter. Nothing."
"Spidey's in your room. Mom cleaned the pigsty up after you left and never threw away anything. She's waiting for you… as we all are."
Joe smiled grimly. "How come you never ask me how I know you're at Callie's?"
"Slipped my mind. So, Watson, how did you guess?" Frank cocked his head and arched his brows. Joe's body bobbed slightly along to the rhythm of the song still playing in his mind.
"I called you but you're not here. Then I plucked up some courage and called home. Dad picked up the phone and I asked for you… pretending to be Phil but he saw, or rather, heard, through me. Told me you're here and we talked for a while. They don't know I'm back yet."
"You want to go back now? Or do you want to sleep?"
"I want to sleep in my room. Not yours." Joe grinned and stood up, stretching himself. "Your apartment's all fine and dandy but I'll only mess it up. I might as well mess up my own room."
Frank's eyes crinkled up with quiet joy. "I'll drive. I can't believe you left the black van behind in Chicago."
"I can't believe it too." Joe's eyes were downcast. "I guess there are some things we just have to leave behind to trudge ahead."
*****
[Song that Joe and Frank sung together- Freshmen by The Verve Pipe in their album, Villians. It can be listened to, with an interview in the beginning, at .Real audio player needed.]
