"What makes you want to do a genealogy search, dad?" Her eyes were wide with curiosity. Somehow I had lured Tracey to-. Well let me not say lure. I don't lure anyone… anymore. I convinced her to meet me at the pier on that way too hot day, Daddy-Daughter Time's what I liked to call it. Too bad that I found out that Daughter might not have been Daddy's.
"Just wanted to make some quick money." I lied quickly. I knew that I could've cone up with something better, but there was no need. She knew that I had money, but she didn't know how much. I continued, "I was down at the mall and they were gathering a bunch of random people to do some documentary or some shit and they wanted me to get another person to take the test. I thought that since you probably the closest to where I was, I'd choose you."
"Okay," she said before opening her mouth wide with more speed and ease than I would like to admit. Where she had learned to gape like that, I think that I wouldn't llike to know.
"Okay," I said grabbing the swab out of the bag. I felt my hands trembling and stopped. "How 'bout you swab your own cheek?" I asked.
"Fine," she said grabbing the stick and brushing it on the inside of her cheek. She gave it back to me and I put it back into the bag. I gave her a wordless nod of thanks and she responded with the worst question imaginable. "So how much are you going to give me for this? How much are they paying you?"
"500." I came up with a quick answer.
"Then, I want 250," she said outstretching her hand. Well she was always good at math.
"Fine," I said reaching into my wallet and giving her the three bills that added up to two hundred fifty. She almost immediately turned her back to and started to walk away.
"You're no even going to say thank you?!" I knew for a fact that I raised both my children better than that, or at least I tried. I thought for damn sure that I'd at least taught them to say 'please' and 'thank you', shit.
"Why? That's your job." Her back was still turned as she said it, with only her blond ponytail swaying with the wind and her gait. I don't know exactly what angered me more in her last statement. Was it the fact that she said, declared those words as plainly and nonchalantly as someone would talk about a trip to the supermarket or to the bank, or was it that somehow, somewhere I failed to teach them the value of a dollar? Was it the fact that she couldn't even look me in the eye when she spoke?
"No, it is not, Tracey," I said, yelled more like, closing the gap that she made while walking back towards her car that I bought. Somehow, my hand got hooked into the bend of her arm. I became severely aware of the people around us becoming silent. That awareness, however, didn't make me self-conscious, 'cause I ignored it.
"Yes, it is. It has always been your job," she said turning her body back towards me, "You always made it your job. What's stopping you now, Daddy?"
"We spoilt you." Those words were certainly no revelation, but they rang in my ears like breaking news. "We spoilt you rotten and now you don't know that it's time for you to make your own life. You don't know how to make your own life."
"Make my own life?!" She boomed in that low voice she gets when she's angry. "My life was interrupted to may time thanks to you, Dad. Fame or Shame, ruined. My party on that boat, ruined. You have don e nothing but ruin my life and now you want to do it again."
"What the fuck are you-" I wanted to remind her that she got back on to Fame or Shame, despite her being a shit singer and a shittier dancer. She forgot that that party on the boat had some serious drug people and porn stars on it. She must've forgotten being shot at by her 'friends'.
She cut me off before I could speak, "You don't think I know remember?! A few months ago when we moved out, I asked you not to get a divorce and now it looks like your about to do just that."
"Look, you don't need to concern yourself with this."
"Yes, I do."
"I said this back then, and I'm sayin' it now. Mind your own goddamn business," I exploded feeling like there were about a million pairs of eyes watching me. There were only about thirty or so pairs of eyes who were staring, "All of you mind your business too," I shouted again. Most of them scurried away.
"You're my parents, you are my goddamn business. Do you know that last night Jimmy came into my room last night crying, telling me that's you two are probably gonna end it, and crying about some other nonsense about you being disappointed in him and computers or some shit."
"Your brother was wasted and your mother and me getting a divorce or not has nothing to do with either of you. We just have things to talk about."
"Well talk already, all of this screaming shit gets in the way of me studying."
"That's why I moved out," said I.
"Whatever," she said quickly, tersely before walking away again.
This time I let her. I had what I came for, a DNA sample. I was going to send it to the lab, when I got home, or rather to the hotel where I was staying. It would take about two weeks for me to get it back. In the meanwhile, I was going to see if Jimmy was fucking with me when he said that in the car or if he was telling me something important. Whatever it was, it'd have to wait. Dammit, I hated waiting.