Chapter Four

Brothers

Frank shakes his head and steps forward. "No, I'm not lost Bobby. My we lease come in?"

"Why?"

"I'd like to talk to you."

"Bobby?" Alex calls to him from the living room. "Who's at the door?"

He turns his head in Alex's direction. "It's nobody."

"What? What do you mean nobody?" She walks toward the door.

Frank steps closer. "Bobby, come on man."

Bobby steps off to the side and waves them into the room. "Come on in." He follows them.

"Bobby. Aren't you going to introduce me?"

"Frank. I'd like you to meet Alex. Alex this is my brother Frank." He points to the woman. "And I have no idea who she is."

"Leslie. This is Leslie Klein." Leslie steps forward. "It's nice to meet you Alex, Bobby."

Alex walks over to the couple and shakes their hands. "It's a pleasure."

Bobby's greeting is very aloof. "It's nice to meet you."

Alex invites them to sit down. "Would you care for a cup of coffee?"

"Yes, thank you." Leslie says.

"Frank how about you?"

"Yes I would like a cup of coffee, thank you."

As she leaves the room, she asks. "Bobby would you like another cup?"

"No thanks."

Frank asks. "Would you please sit down, Bobby?"

"No. I think I'll stand."

"Man, I'm not sure where to start."

Bobby says. "I know. Who's after your ass this time and how much is it going to cost me?"

"No." He shakes his head. "I didn't come here for money."

Bobby looks at Frank and points toward Leslie. "Is she your bank now?" He looks to her. "My advice to you, get out now. In less than a year you'll be broke."

Alex walks into the room with the coffee and overhears his comment. "Bobby!"

"Alex, please. Don't get involved in this. He'll sucker you in with a story that would make Satan cry. Believe me, he's up to something. I've heard all this shit before."

"It's not shit this time. It's…"

Bobby cuts him off. "Do you believe this guy, how stupid do you think I am?" He looks over at the woman who is just about to say something. "I know what you're going to say. Give him another chance." Bobby raises his voice. "No not this time."

Frank says with pride in his voice. "It's been thirteen months."

Bobby glances over at Leslie and she nods her head. "You have never gone that long." Bobby sits down in the recliner. "Is she your crutch?"

"What?" Frank asks.

"Your crutch, if she leaves you'll just go back to the way you were."

"No. Leslie and I met about five years ago. I got a job working at Best Buy and she is the manager. We have been seeing each other for about six months."

Frank waits for his brother to say something but Bobby stays quiet. "I had a very strange dream last night about Dad." Frank says.

Alex and Bobby look at each other and smile.

"It was his ten year anniversary yesterday."

"Yeah I know but I'm surprised you remember, considering you didn't show up at the funeral." Bobby scoffs. "Three days out of my life I'll never get back." He shakes his head. "No if there was one thing he deserved was a decent funeral." He stands up and puts his hands on his hips. "You should have seen the turn out. Every bartender, waitress and bookie in the tri-state area was there."

Frank has to laugh at the comment.

Bobby smiles and looks toward Alex. "One day when I was cleaning out my Dad's apartment." Bobby points toward Frank. "This guy shows up and starts taking things. I called the police and had him arrested."

Frank nods his head. "I deserved it, spent three days in jail. But you bailed me out."

Bobby shakes his head. "No I didn't, Mom did."

"Mom, where would she get a thousand dollars?"

"About twenty five years ago she opened a savings account in your name."

"What are you talking about?"

"She had some extra money and she put it away for you." Bobby is watching his brother's expression. "You didn't get that glint in your eye when I brought up the word money, maybe you have changed."

Frank stands. "Bobby may I please speak with you alone? Would you please excuse us, Alex, Leslie?"

Bobby gets up from the chair. "Sure." He looks toward Leslie and then Alex. "Excuse us."

The women nod their heads. "Leslie would you care for another cup of coffee?"

"Yes I would." Leslie follows Alex into the kitchen. "Leslie, please have a seat."

Bobby leads the way into a room down the hall from the kitchen. He opens the door and Frank enters first. "This is nice. Gees Bobby, you think you have enough books?"

"No never. Come on you use to read a lot."

"Yeah I use to do a lot of things."

Bobby sits behind his desk and he gestures for Frank to sit. "You said that you had a dream last night about Dad."

Frank finds it a little hard to make eye contact with his brother. "Yes I did. It was weird. It felt as if I had really spoken with him." He glances up and Bobby is smiling. "You think I'm nuts don't you?"

"No. The same thing happened to me."

"Are you kidding me?"

"No."

Frank gets up from the chair and starts to pace around the room. "I told him things I have always wanted to say. It felt good but he told me things that I never knew. He was so ashamed of his family."

"He was so disillusioned about his life and his family and the only answer he could come up with was to run away." Bobby stands up and steps in front of his brother to stop him from pacing. "Just like you."

Frank nods his head and sits back down in the chair. "Talk about the pot calling the kettle black, huh?"

Bobby resumes his seat behind his desk. "I want to ask you something? No, matter the answer. Please tell me the truth."

"I will."

"How come you always took his side and not mine?"

"I wasn't choosing sides, man. I thought that if a behaved like him that he might notice me. But all I ended up doing was creating a hole that took me twenty years to get out of."

"I can understand that. What happened or didn't happen, shit maybe we both have brain tumors."

Both men laugh.

"I told Alex last night that maybe I'm in a coma somewhere and this is all a dream."

Frank says. "I like being in a coma better than having a brain tumor."

Bobby laughs. "I realized something, very recently, that no matter what we did, or didn't do, it wouldn't have mattered. We were never the problem it was him, it was all on him."

"Why didn't you ever say anything to him?" Frank asks.

"Me? You were the older one, remember."

"I know but you always had a big mouth and all those questions, Jesus." Frank smiles. "When we were kids I thought you were a pain in the ass but for a brief time in my life you looked up to me and I failed you."

Silence and neither brother can look at the other one now. Bobby breaks the silence. "I must say that I admire your courage. It took a lot of guts for you to come here. I have been waiting for you to come around…………..What the fuck took you so long?"

"Hell I don't know." He pauses. "Yes I do. I would get the idea to visit and then I would hear about a poker game or get a tip on a horse and I would work my ass off scrounging around to get the money together. Damnit! I did it every time. I would always be able to come up with the money. But when I woke up this morning I got this feeling that I had to come here today, not tomorrow, not next week but today."

Bobby stands and walks around his desk. Frank looks up as Bobby extends his hand. First, they shake hands and then they hug. Bobby breaks the hug. "We have never done that before."

"Is it too late?"

"No it's never too late." Bobby pats his brother on the back as they walk out of the den. "Besides I need someone to drive me to visit Mom tomorrow."

"Is there something wrong with your car?"

"No. Alex has been going with me these past few months but tomorrow she is going to a baby shower or a bridal shower, I'm not sure which and I could use the company."

"I wanted to go………"

"Chicken shit, huh?"

"That's one way to put it."

"Come on man. What do you think she'll do? Kick you out of her room, believe me she won't, for some strange reason she still loves you."

TBC