Page 39 of True Honey
“Whiskey okay?” Silas asked, and sauntered over to the cabinet, unlocking it and grabbing a bottle.
“Perfect,” I said. I set the plate of pancakes on the island between us and he poured two glasses.
“Does whiskey go with pancakes?” he asked me, sliding onto his elbow as he lifted the cup to his lips.
“Whiskey goes with everything,” I argued gently. “Hold on,” I said, leaving the kitchen to get something from my room. The pack of candles that had been in my purse for years was still going strong and I pulled one out before bringing it back to the kitchen. “Red,” I said, shoving the candle into the stack of pancakes.
He stared at the candle as I lit it, his expression softening as his lips formed a tight line.
“Happy birthday, Silas,” I said to him, raising my glass to him but his eyes were fixated on the flame. “Blow it out, make a wish.”
I could see the gears turning in the back of his mind as the wax started to melt, he had too much on his mind and for once we were on the same page. Eventually he blew it out and gave me a soft smile.
“What did you wish for?” I asked him.
“If I tell you, it won’t come true,” he said, grabbing a fork from the island.
“I didn’t think you were actually superstitious,” I said, following his movements and taking a piece of pancake. They were perfect, fluffy and warm.
“A man has to believe in something.” He chased his pancake with whiskey. “You know… it kind of works,” he said, surprised, then laughed.
“Told you,” I said.
“I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone that celebrates with pancakes,” he said to me, eating more. His gray eyes watched me as I sank lower onto the island across from him and sighed.
“Wherever we were, there was always a shitty diner about a mile away and over time, pancakes became our birthday cake…” I said, remembering all the birthdays we’d spent in different colored booths on the side of the highway laughing and singing together.
It was the fondest memory I had of our relationship. It was the one time I never felt like I wasn’t doing enough, because as long as August had a song and pancakes, he felt loved.
“I think the last time we celebrated my birthday I was eleven and Dad took all of us to a baseball game…” Silas said, clearly remembering details about the day that weren’t as fond as the ones I’d recalled. “It was a Lorette game,” he scoffed, his jaw tightening. “He disappeared half way through and never came back. The Longhorns won that game.”
“How young was Josh?” I asked him and he flinched.
“Can I see the notes that Ella gave you?” he asked me instead of answering. I pushed away from the islands to grab them for him. “This isn’t notes, this is a textbook!” He took the binder and squinted at it for a second before cursing under his breath.
“Do not laugh at me,” he warned, reaching for something in his backpack on the floor. When he returned he was wearing a slim pair of dark reading glasses that highlighted the blue in his gray eyes and made his face look sharper.
I choked back a laugh, and he narrowed his eyes.
“Sorry,” I said, raising my hands in surrender. “I know why they call you Grandpa now,” I teased and he shook his head at me.
“None of them know about these,” he said. “It would only be worse if they did.”
“You look cute,” I offered him the compliment, “very… studious.”
“Cute?” Silas scoffed, “great now I’m blind andcute.Oh how the mighty have fallen.”
“You’re a year older too. Blind, cute, and officially old,” I whispered and he dropped the paper completely baffled by my teasing.
“Kick a man while he’s down, why don’t you?” He joked, reading the paper over, his expression turned sour, “she gave you the polite SparkNotes, which I appreciate but—”
“But?” I waited.
“First of all, Arlo wrote these. The part about Josh is correct but he left out most of the details,” Silas said. “Our father is in jail for a handful of pretty shitty crimes.”
“Same Dad?” I asked. It would explain how uncomfortable his Mother had been at dinner, sitting next to her husband's love child couldn’t have been the easiest thing to do in the world. But they all seemed friendly enough, so it must have been a work in progress.
“Josh’s mom passed in the spring, but my dad kept them a secret until recently.I had no idea I had a brother living half an hour from me my entire life,” Silas explained and the room went cold.
