Page 79 of Callow

“Enough that, when or if I want a house, I can buy one. Or open a legit business. Or both.”

“Do a lot of the bikers have legit businesses?”

“They’re definitely branching out. Which is good for the club.”

“To wash the money,” Daph said.

“How do you know about washing money?” Sabrina asked.

“Because this isn’t the nineteen-hundreds anymore,” Daph said, making both her mother and I wince, realizing the 1900s she was talking about were the ones we’d been born in. Albeit the latter end of them. “And everyone knows criminals need to wash their cash to keep the Feds off of their backs.”

“That’s it. I’m canceling all cable and streaming services. From now on, all we watch are history documentaries,” Sabrina said, making Daph laugh.

“Says someone who watches true crime stuff all the time.”

“So I can know how not to be kidnapped and murdered,” Sabrina shot back. “Not to know the inner workings of criminal empires.”

“We all have our interests,” Daph shot back, making Sabrina exhale a little pained sound. “Be interested in economics or something.”

“I mean, criminal organizations do kind of factor into the economy,” Daph said, fucking with her mom, even sharing a smile with me about it.

“You see these gray hairs, kid?” Sabrina asked, gesturing toward her hair that, as far as I could tell, was gray-free still.

“Let me guess, they each have my name on them. Alright. I’m gonna go work on my debate topics. Tell me when the cookies are done,” she said, swiping her book bag off the floor on her way to her room.

“If you think that third-degree was bad, you should have seen her as a kid. We once had to wait in line at a very busy bank where she peppered me with questions. Like how much money I had in the bank, what I weighed, why I didn’t have a boyfriend, and what those little plastic tubes with ‘tissues’ inside of them were in the box under the bathroom cabinet.”

“Hey, it’s good that she’s curious. It’ll make her motivated in college.”

“That’s what I try to tell myself each time I get stressed out about the frat parties, drinking, drugs, and casual sex.”

“Does she have any idea what she wants to go to school for?”

“She flip-flops. The ideological side of her wants to go for literature or writing. The practical side knows she’d also be good as a lawyer. She’s got time, though. I’m not really worried about her major. I just… want her to have the opportunity to go and experience all the things I didn’t do when I was her age.”

“Did you want to go to college?”

“I wanted to go to frat parties,” she said, getting a laugh out of me. “I honestly didn’t give academics a whole lot of thought. I was too busy… living. I’d never been one of those teens who seemed to know what they wanted to do with their lives from middle school on. I was too focused on just having a good time and, eventually, getting out of my father’s house. Though, honestly, I think my plans back then all involved a guy who I wasso surewould run away from town and take me with them.

“I learned pretty quickly how unreliable it was to depend on a guy to get me to a better life.”

“You were a kid. They were… idiots. Didn’t know how good they had it with you. Especially her old man,” I said, nodding toward Daph’s room.

“I honestly never wanted anything to do with him again after he ran out on us. But I’ll admit my heart hurts for her that he never wanted anything to do with her. Even though I know from experience what that’s like, it doesn’t make it any easier to watch your kid go through it.”

“It’s his loss for sure. And she turned out good. Fucking horrible concept of time and age aside.”

“She told me last week that my shoes made me look like an ‘old lady,’” Sabrina said, shaking her head. “I’d like to say you getused to it, but those fuckers know how to hit you where it hurts. Our fading youth.”

“Eh, you’re still pretty young,” I said.

“Tell that to my lower back. I nearly threw it out sneezing the other day.”

“Until you’ve pulled a muscle trying to tie your shoe, think you’re good,” I said, getting a laugh out of her. “So if or when Daph goes off to college, what’s your plan?”

“What do you mean?” she asked as she started to drop cookies onto a baking sheet.

“Well, your schedule would free up, right? Don’t have to be home at a specific time. Don’t have to be home at all if you don’t want to. You got plans for then?”

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