Page 11 of Turkey Trouble

“Bet theirfamilieswish they could have three more months.” I frown when Micah and Felix cut right, stalking under the driveway overhang where ambulances pull up to offload their patients. Then Minka follows, disappearing from my sight and heading inside the building below me to cause trouble.

They’ll make the news in the next twenty minutes. I just know it.

“It’s just you and me up here right now, Phil. But there are a fuck ton of cops and firefighters down there. Once they come up, this is all over and you’re gonna be in trouble.”

“I’m gonna be in trouble because of you!Youturned this into a whole thing. If you’d let me jump, it would all be over by now. No hospital bills. No jail time for me. And my baby will be insulated from what would have been the worst three months of her life.”

“You being dead doesn’t insulate her! It just means her grief begins sooner. It means she’s robbed of a chance to choose you. It means no closure. No opportunity to say goodbye. No chance to tell you she loves you, or worse, to hear you say the same back.”

“Idolove her.” Fresh, fat tears burst from his eyes. “I love her more than anyone else on the planet.”

“And to express that, you pancake yourself on the concrete on Thanksgiving? So now you’re not only giving her daddy issues for the rest of her life—why didn’t he love me enough to stay? Was he mad I went to live with Mom? I’m so sad I never got to tell him I love him—But oops, there go the holidays, too. She can’t enjoy those. For the rest of her existence, Thanksgiving and Christmas will be a time of grief. So you fucked those up.”

“You’re supposed to be nice to me! You’re supposed to tell me I’m valued and loved andblah blah blah.”

“I never pursued a psych degree, and I was the son of a murderous motherfucker who showed affection with his fists. I’m more of a tough love kinda guy, so here’s how things are gonna go…” I hold his stare. “I shoot you. But it’s the non-lethal kind of shot. I drag you off this ledge, put you back in the hospital, rack those bills up, and head home to enjoy the holidays with my family. I bet I have turkey and booze waiting for me, and I know for a damn fact my wife will be there to ring in the holiday.”

“You suck at this.”

“Maybe. But I’m the realest person you’ll ever meet. I could be blowing flowers up your ass and telling you all sorts of pretty things. But that would be a lie.”

His eyes swing across our audience. To the ground. To the additional cop cars that scream into the street.

“Would you rather be shot by a liar?” I ask. “Or by a dude brave enough to give you the truth?”

“I mean…” He clears his throat. “I don’t wanna be shot at all.”

“Why not? You’re dying anyway. Better a clean bullet, through and through, than broken legs, a shattered pelvis, maybe even a crushed skull if it bounces off the concrete. You can be here and have one more Christmas with your baby, or you can die in pain and all alone and with a little girl who thinksyou’re weak and selfish. Either way, I get to bang my wife just as soon as I sign off on the incident report.”

“You’re not my friend.” He leans forward, glancing over the ledge and scowling when the firefighters roll out a massive landing pad. It’s not yet inflated, so if he jumps, we’re both fucked. “My daughter can remember me how I am now.” He sniffles and sits back again. “Alive. Healthy. She doesn’t have to know about the cancer, and she never has to see me waste away to nothing.”

“She’ll see you splattered on the street. She could sit with you over the next three months, maybe read you a book and bond with you in the quiet. That’s way better than peeling you off the ground and never being able to understandwhy. If you do this, she’ll know she chose right in the divorce. It’s clear your ex-wife is more able to regulate her emotions and make safer choices.”

“That bitch slept with my best friend! Then she told the cops I hit her, so they kickedmeout ofmyownhouse, slapping me with an order not to go back. All because I caught her sucking his dick!”

“Makes her a strategic woman,” I smirk. “The house belongs to whoever plans ahead. You’re mad because you didn’t think of it first.”

“You’re the worst fucking person to sit with a suicidal man. You make me want to jump.”

“You make me want to shoot. So I guess we bring the best out in each other.” I shrug and peer down again as firefighters run around hooking up air pumps. “I can be nice, or I can be truthful. But you can’t have both. And I was born into a world where I got neither. This is the best version of me you’ll ever get.”

“I was coming here for the quiet,” he snarls. “You ruined my peace.”

“Shucks.” I lean to the right and tug my phone from my back pocket. “Guess that makes me the monster. Should we callyour daughter? Give her a chance to say goodbye. Then you can jump.”

Horrified, his eyes come back to mine. “What? No! Why would you do that?”

“Because she deserves closure.” I unlock my screen, but I don’t dial. Because I see the woman I want to talk to, staring up at me in front of her soldier husband. But I don’t know her number. She’s never thought to give it to me. “Call me!” I wave my phone and shout over the chatter of cops and firefighters. “Soph! Call my cell.”

Unimpressed with being singled out, she flattens her lips and digs her phone out. Then she dials and brings the device to her ear.

“What are you doing?” Phil trembles at my side. “W-who is that?”

“Thelastperson you want to know on the planet.” I swipe to answer and set our call on speaker. “Hey, Soph. How’s it going?”

“What do you want?” she deadpans. “We’re notchit chatpals, Malone.”

“Why are you in Copeland, anyway? You don’t live here.”

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