Page 120 of Them Bones

Nancy cleared her throat. She was sitting on the couch, making herself available, always within Dustin’s peripheral vision, but giving them space as a family, not crowding them while they worked things out.

“May I make a suggestion?” she asked.

Dustin nodded, looking at her, her sparkling blue eyes clear and determined.

“Lease it out,” she said.

“What d’ya mean?” Jerry asked.

“Don’t sell the piece to Henry. Retain ownership. But lease it out, for a monthly fee. I know Henry, and there’s no way he’ll walk away from this piece. I wouldn’t be surprised if he wanted it moved to his personal residence, to be honest.”

“A lease…” Jerry said, chewing it over.

“Yes,” Dustin said immediately. “Yes, that. I want to do that.”

“I’d suggest a six-year agreement, for $3,500 per month,” she said.

“That’s… $42,000 per year, until he’s eighteen,” Shane said, doing the quick math in his head. “Two hundred and fifty thousand.”

“And then you can re-negotiate,” she said.

“For a flighty little thing you’ve got a mighty killer instinct for this, you know,” Jerry said with a smile.

“This is what you want, Dusty?” Laney asked.You’re sure? You don’t have to do it at all.

But Dustin nodded. “Yes, this is what I want. But I have a question…” he bit his lip, feeling embarrassed.

“Ask away my man!” Shane said, leaning back in the chair, his thumb rubbing Laney’s ring. He was always looking at it, always touching it. So was she.

“When I’m eighteen… I can buy a house, right? Like of my own?” he asked.

“Yes,” Jerry said. “Once you’re eighteen, my trustee status expires and you can do whatever you want with the money.”

“I want to buy a house. For me, and Laney, and Shane. And… I don’t want to buy it here.”

“What do you mean,not here?”Laney asked.

“I don’t want to live here, anymore. In Ontario. I want to leave, buy something somewhere else. Something far away from…” his voice trailed off.

Jerry whistled. “It’s a good idea, kid. Any idea where you want to go?”

“Far,” is all he said.

Jerry smiled at them, his eyes crinkling, and poured them each a finger of whiskey, including Dustin.

“To Dustin,” he said, raising his glass, “and his house in a land far, far away.”

They all raised their glasses and sipped, the funny-tasting liquid burning his throat and his nose. His eyes watered, and he held back a cough, not wanting to seem weak, but when he looked at Nancy again she was spluttering, making ugly choking noises.

She doesn’t like whiskey, either…

He smiled, thinking her eyes looked pretty, even when they watered.

CODY

Shane’s nineteenth birthday was a quiet affair, that September. Cody had gone out bar-hopping for his own nineteenth, finally legal and not having to try to pass off his shitty fake ID or go to dive-bars that he knew wouldn’t card him. He’d gone on a bender for an entire weekend, drunk and high and having a grand old time. Shane, however, just wanted to go camping.

Jerry had rented them some cabins, probably to spare everyone the torture of listening to Shane and Laney humping in a tent all weekend.

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