Page 90 of Damnation
I turn slowly to face the person who, up until just a few seconds ago, I thought was a creeper. He puts his glasses on the top of his head and keeps talking. “Your sister told me you’d be here today, but I wouldn’t have bet a single dollar on you coming back. I’m impressed.” The man shifts his gaze to me and smiles. “My apologies, I didn’t mean to frighten you. I’m Robert, this troublemaker’s uncle. But youcan just call me Rob. You’re Vanessa, right? My niece told me a lot about you.”
Oh. His uncle. This is Thomas’s uncle. The owner of the shop I was attempting to take refuge in. I give him an embarrassed smile.
“Yes, I’m Vanessa.”
Rob steps forward and shakes my hand with a smile. I shake in return, and I have to admit that I’m starting to feel a bit overwhelmed. In the space of just a few hours, I’ve already met three different people who each, in one way or another, represent an important part of Thomas’s life.
With both of his hands clasped around mine, he looks me in the eye and says seriously, “Thank you for all you’ve done.”
“What…what did I do?”
“I know perfectly well that if my nephew is here today, you are the person that I have to thank.”
“Can we cut the shit?” Thomas breaks in, giving him a sharp look. He pulls a cigarette from the pack and brings it to his mouth, frowning. “What are you doing here?”
They stare at each other a long moment. Then, Robert raises both hands. “Came to see my nephew, didn’t I? I knew you’d come find Ryan. You look good,” he notes, patting him on the shoulder.
Thomas snorts. “If you say so…” he mutters, cigarette clenched between his teeth.
“Were you headed somewhere? Can I get you a drink? There’s a bar around the corner,” his uncle suggests.
“No, we’re busy,” Thomas says shortly, and I give him a glare. But his uncle seems used to his disposition and doesn’t appear to pay it any mind. In fact, he seems to have expected it. I’d always imagined, from the few stories that Thomas told me, that his uncle was something like a mentor to him. Yet, Thomas seems irritated by his presence now. Though, not to the point of just walking away and leaving him here as he would have under different circumstances.
“Thank you, maybe some other time,” I answer politely.
He smiles at me, nodding, and then shifts his gaze to Thomas. “So…have you already been by to see your mother?”
Thomas shakes his head, looking at an undefined point to his right while exhaling cigarette smoke.
“Are you going to go?” his uncle asks him with a grave look.
“That’s what I’m here for, right?” my boyfriend mutters, putting out his cigarette under his heel.
Not feeling the need to say anything else, his uncle approaches him and pats him on the shoulder again. “Everything will be fine, don’t worry.”
“Yeah, all great,” he answers angrily, grabbing my hand. “Come on, let’s go.”
Robert steps back to let us pass, but just after we say goodbye and leave him behind, he calls us back. “Thomas, wait!”
We turn around.
“Don’t you want to know which hospital he’s in?”
I feel Thomas’s hand squeezing mine, hard enough to make me squirm a little. When he notices that, he drops my hand immediately. He moves slowly toward his uncle, seeing red. “Are you joking?”
“Thomas…with the state he’s in, there’s a good chance he’s never leaving that hospital.”
“And you know how much I fucking care!” he rants.
Some passersby on the sidewalks turn to look at us. Robert squeezes his arm tightly, as if to communicate to him that he’s trying to tell Thomas something particularly important and he needs to listen. “Has it ever occurred to you that it could be good for you? Not for him—screw that bastard—but for yourself? To free yourself from the weight of all that—”
“How dare you come here and say that to me,” he interrupts, jabbing a finger at him. “That weight you’re talking about isn’t going to go away if I have a heart-to-heart with that son of a bitch. Save the feel-good speeches for my sister, not me!”
For a moment, we all just stare at each other in silence.
Robert shakes his head, and I spot a glimmer of regret in his eyes. “Do you think this is easy for me? Do you think that, after what I found out, I don’t want to—”
“And what did you find out?” Thomas lets out a derisive laugh, cracking the knuckles on one hand. “You think you know everything, but you don’t. Do you seriously think alcohol was his only problem? That it was just the drinking? And the accident was the trigger? No, but that’s what she wanted to you to believe. Because she was terrified of what he would do to her if people knew the truth. But deep down, you always knew that something was wrong, didn’t you? All those questions you’d ask JC and me when we were kids, all the extra attention you gave us…I didn’t understand it until later. But like the coward you are, instead of taking action and doing something about it, you just put your blinders on instead. I get it, making enemies of the cops in this country is scary. But she was your sister, your blood. You should have done more.”
