Feedback: Hell, yes.

Please note: I've made Dick about twelve in this story. His parents are still alive.

Play date

Part Two

"C'mon, Dad, you know I'll find out sooner or later. You might as well tell me."

Dick and his father were sitting on a couple of lawn chairs—the cheap, folding kind you pick up at K-mart for about four dollars on sale—they'd set them in the shade at the end of the trailer. The first show wasn't for another two hours and they had plenty of time. If they didn't over do it, they might even have some food before hand. Not much, of course this close to a performance, but something to kill the growling. "There isn't all that much to tell."

Dick knew he had him. "But there's something, right? Sarah was saying something about her mother and Mom being old friends—I thought it was weird you guys were so hot on me going over to hang out with some townies."

Damnit, sometimes Dick was too smart. John gave him a look; there was no getting out of this, Dick wouldn't give up until he found out what was going on and they both knew it. Besides, he was going to find out sooner or later, anyway. "Sue Landon—she used to be Susan Johnston, was your mother's room mate their freshman year in college. They've stayed in touch, it's not a big deal."

"Mom went to college?"

"Just for a year, then we met and she decided to drop out so we could be together." John took a drink from his glass of iced tea. It was still really hot out. "We got married a couple of months later and you happened about a year after that."

Dick gave his father a look, a 'c'mon, cough up the rest' kind of look. "But why the big mystery? I mean, this is pretty standard stuff. You and Mom hooked up, she ran away and joined the circus and here we are. What's the rest of the deal?"

Ah hell, he was going to find out sooner or later and if they were all having dinner tomorrow, it was going to be sooner. "This is Sayersville. Your mother grew up here."

John watched the light bulb light up in Dick's face. "So her family is still here? I thought I'd heard they'd moved away from Gotham, well, the 'burbs, anyway. Are we going to see them?"

"They've been in this area since forever, your mother's visiting with her parents now and, assuming everything goes well, we're seeing them tomorrow. There's also a chance they may be at the three o'clock tomorrow."

"If it goes well?" The light bulb was getting brighter. "So, if she's there and we were at Sarah's house to kill time today and keep us busy, I'm guessing there's some stuff going on between Mom and her parents—they're pissed because she broke out of the suburban box and ran away with a gypsy lady killer?"

"Lady killer? Since when am I a 'lady killer'?"

Dick gave him that big smile, the one that lit up the center ring and the one he'd inherited from the Grayson side of the family. "Since you were born. C'mon, Dad—the roustabouts were telling me about your life before you met Mom. You had a girl in every town."

"Don't even go there. And especially don't go there if your mother is around. You hear me?" John looked slightly worried, Dick could spin a story…

"Oh yeah, I hear you. What's it worth to you?"

"Black mail? You're resorting to black mail with your own father? This is the way you're being raised?"

"Half gypsy, remember? Damn right I'm using black mail."

"You behave yourself if we do this dinner with your grandparents and maybe—maybe—I'll think about that idea you had about getting a surfboard when we get down to Florida for the hiatus."

Dick laughed for a second before his smile faded back to the subject at hand. "So what's the deal with Mom and her parents? She never talks about them."

John hesitated, there was nothing to be gained by telling Dick the truth here; that they hated him and had since the first time they'd met after a performance fourteen years ago. The boy didn't need to know about the arguments and the offers Mary had gotten to come 'home' over the years, about the Christmas presents returned unopened and the Birthday cards sent back. It was her father much more than her mother; as far as the man was concerned John was a drifter, poor and uneducated. He wasn't good enough, he'd use her until he was bored and then drop her in whatever town they happened to be in, probably pregnant. Even after they'd married and Dick was born, her father had refused to bend an inch. Oh, sure, Mary had contact with her mother—letters and calls and sometimes she would even join them for a week here and there after telling her husband she was off with friends to her favorite spa in Arizona for a week.

Caroline, Mary's mother, had been skeptical in the beginning, but after the first year or so and especially after her first grandson was born, she was supportive as far as she could be without endangering her own marriage. She was of the old school as far as that went; the wife supported the husband's decisions, he was the head of the family and that was that.

But Mary was her youngest daughter and that wouldn't change, either, so they saw one another when they could and this time they hoped enough time had gone by to allow a rapprochement between everyone. Lately Phillip had wondered occasionally how Mary was getting on, how 'the boy' was and—good lord!—he must be almost a teenager by now, all gangling legs and worried about girls.

Carefully, Caroline had taken out a fairly recent snapshot of Mary and Dick, the two of them in street clothes instead of the costumes Phillip hated so much. They were standing on a chilly looking beach, jeans and windbreakers not keeping them warm enough, hair blowing but they were laughing, arms around one another's waists and looking almost like siblings instead of mother and son. Mary was just thirty this year, still young.

"Your grandparents weren't happy about us getting married, but you must have picked that up, right? Well, they're trying to patch things up for you're mother's sake, so we may all have dinner tomorrow."

"…That's it?" There had to be more to it than just that.

"That's it."

Dick went quiet for a few minutes, then, "So what are they like, the grandparents?"

John got up to get them both a refill of their iced tea. It seemed pretty obvious to Dick he was stalling but when he handed his son his filled glass and sat back down he was ready to talk a little. "They're…they aren't bad people, they just wanted what was best for your mother."

"And that wasn't you?"

He shrugged. "It's a no-brainer, Dick. I'm not rich, we don't have a big house, I can't give your mother the things she grew up with—skiing the Rockies, expensive clothes and nice jewelry, vacations at fancy resorts—they didn't think she'd be happy after the novelty wore off and she might feel like she was trapped in a second rate show playing the small tour circuit."

"But this isn't a second rate show." Dick didn't get it. Well, okay he got it; he just was having trouble buying it. "And you and Mom are really happy together."

"Yeah, well that's why it might work out this time with the Lloyd's. It's been a while now and we're still, you know…"

"Goodness! What are you two looking so serious about? You'd have thought someone died around here." They hadn't heard Mary coming, walking across the field the trailer was parked in. She ran her hand over the top of Dick's head as she walked by and kissed John on the forehead as she sat on the overgrown grass beside them.

No one said anything for a few quiet minutes until Mary broke the slight tension. "Yes, I saw them and it was fine. We're all having dinner tomorrow after they see the show."

"I thought you said they wanted to come to the matinee." Not that it mattered, but John didn't know what else to say at the moment.

"Daddy said they had some business party they were supposed to go to but it's been cancelled so we'll do a late dinner after." She took a drink of John's tea. "Oh, and they'll be at the show, too. He even said he was looking forward to it." This was big—in all they years John had been in the picture, Mary's father had never seen one of the shows. At least he'd never admitted to it, anyway.

"Mom? Do I have to eat with everyone?"

She gave him one of those 'why are you even asking' looks. "I think it would be nice if you did; they are your grandparents." Period. Case closed. He just nodded.

"I thought the show was sold out because it's a benefit." Maybe they couldn't get tickets. Maybe Dick could get out of this after all. It wasn't that he didn't want to meet them or anything, they were his grandparents like she'd said and…Nah, he didn't want to meet them, okay? They'd make his mother cry and ignored him all his life. The hell with 'em.

"I already spoke to Pop, they have good seats in section three. Sue Landon and her husband will be there, too and I think Sarah will be along so you'll have someone your age to talk with. I expect you to make an effort, Dick—do you understand me?"

Great. "I'll behave."

Sarcasm was not his mother's favorite and he got a glare. "See that you do."

"Which benefit is this, the Cancer Society?" Not that it mattered to Dick; a show was a show.

"Something for the Wayne Foundation, I think."

TBC

3/4/06

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