Page 97 of Irons

He sniffed himself again. “I guess having breakfast with me is out of the question?”

I nodded in agreement. He looked like shit. “You’re a mess, come on, let’s get you home.” I put out my hand and he pulled himself up, and my eyes were the ones to grow. He was as tall as Drakos, Jesus. “Holy shit you’re tall.” And skinny. “Please tell me you played basketball.”

“Yeah, I did but that’s another story for another day.” He looked miserable, but wiped the seat of his pants off. I grabbedthe bottle and spotted a trash bin and walked over to it and he followed me.

“It’s been awhile since I read dad’s obituary, what is your name again?” I felt weird asking but the whole ordeal was something I didn’t think much about after Wrenly told me.

“Brock Irons.” He answered. “I’m guessing nobody told you about me?” He asked.

I shook my head. “Not until recently.” We started walking the opposite direction of Clint’s place, toward the west gate of the cemetery.

“That’s at no fault of your own. I’m not under some sort of delusion that dad was the best father a kid could have, honestly he was fucked up.” He surprised me.

“In what way?” I wasn’t even sure why I cared.

“Aunt Tricia told me all about life before I was born and obviously I lived to see dad’s end. From what I was told, we had an older brother that was kidnapped. Dad and Paula abandoned you and let the family toss you around for a while. You were closest to Tony, dads brother, then you got into some trouble when he died. Nobody saw you again after that, and dad made it well known that he fucked up by not helping you. Believe me, he made it quite clear.”

“That’s true, but what kind of a dad was he for you?” I genuinely wanted to know, not to punish myself but the kid obviously had some problems.

“I’m not making light of your situation, honestly I’m not, so please don’t take this wrong, but I think you were the lucky one. Dad was a drunk, a functional one when I was a kid but that changed, at least that’s what I’m told. Mom always told me it was regrets that made him that way. She stuck with him, and I neverunderstood why. He was nicer to your mom and her daughter than us. Sure, we had our moments. We went fishing and all, but those times were few and far between. He wanted your mom back for as long as I can remember. He was obsessed with the internet, always looking for you. He thought you would be killed over there, you know?”

I walked with my hands in my pockets as I listened. “You obviously miss him, I did find you sleeping at his grave.”

“Pfft…miss him? Nah, I don’t miss him, I think I have some memory of cussing him out last night. He left us…hell he never wanted us. He made it very clear to me that he lost two sons, and he didn’t deserve to know one of them, the war hero one. I guess all he deserved was me.”

“That was probably addiction talking.” I said.

Brock shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. He kept Paula around, always showing up on their doorstep with gifts for her, your sister. He didn’t come home with gifts for me, hell all the effort he put into me was showing up at my basketball games drunk and being tossed out. It got real bad by my freshman year, I could have had a scholarship, maybe gone pro by now, but that’s not how it worked out.”

“Are you still in school?” I asked.

“Nope, graduated last year, but just barely. That’s what happens when you try to hold down two jobs and take care of your mom. Instead of a basketball career, I took mechanics at vocational school and graduated with a certificate. Now I work at a restoration shop, fixing up classic cars and making them beautiful again.”

I nodded. “That’s an honest job. But, what I saw back there…why? If dad was an alcoholic, why risk it?” I was concerned for the kid.

He stopped walking and scratched his barely there kid beard. “I fucked up a lot, especially near graduation. Almost missed it, got arrested, you know, what else do kids of fucked up parents do?”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “What kind of fucked up?”

“I got tired, okay? Dad didn’t have liver failure, that’s the lie they told everyone. He didn’t have cancer either, neither does my mom. Dad’s life insurance didn’t last long, mom gets social security but it’s not much. Her medicine…” He let out a long breath. “She misses him and hates him at the same time. She’s fucking crazy and she’s sick. It was her fault though, she knew he was married and cheated on Paula. Why the hell she thought he would be faithful to her is beyond me. He made her sick, he lost his job, and we needed the money, so I sold drugs and got caught. Except my mom doesn’t want anyone to know anything, so I’m just fucked up. I’m a bad kid.” He paced.

“What was wrong with him?” I asked. If it wasn’t cancer or liver failure then what was it?

“The subtype he caught isn’t what most people catch. His subtype…the virus moved to aids very quickly. He cheated on my mom with a foreign woman, then he got sick. Made mom sick, but nobody else knows. Not even her family, it’s all on my fucking shoulders. She’s depressed, pissed off at dad and whoever else, his drinking and his lifestyle in general helped progress the disease. Hell, by the time he learned about it, he already had aids. The strain of the virus he brought home to my mom should have killed her by now. It’s so fast with its progression that women go from being infected with HIV then having AIDS within months. Mom is on medication, but it is going to kill her.” He reached up and wiped a tear away. “That’s one reason he never contacted you. He left all the shame thatcomes with his disease and alcoholism on me. You deserved better than a dad who was drunk your entire life then slowly kills your mom.”

“Jesus Christ.” I was growing angry, not at the kid, but dad. “How long ago was he diagnosed?”

“Five years before he died. Like I said, nobody knows, but I’ll be damned if I keep their secret from you. I refuse to let you see me as some druggie fuck up like everyone else does.” He cried. “I was just trying to help my mom. I’m not on drugs, in fact I’ve never even smoked pot. I work my ass off to make ends meet. It was my fucking birthday last night, I had a shitty day, so yeah I fucked up by drinking so much.”

Fuck! I never would have guessed dad’s end came that way. The man fucked another son up far more than he ever fucked me up. Damn, I did get off lucky.

“Does my mom know?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Not as far as I know but those two kept a lot of secrets. I can only presume nobody but my mom and I, plus the doctors ever knew. My mom’s family doesn’t even know about her. They think I’m a fucked up kid and they want nothing to do with me. That I’m sucking the life out of my mom, she’s too ashamed to tell them about herself and would rather I look like the bad guy.”

Holy shit, his parents did a number on him.

“What happened last night?”

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