Page 51 of Until Landon
He looks defeated and I hate to see it on the face of a man who never was intimidated by anything.
“I can’t explain. It just was.”
His head turns and stares out the window.
“Listen. Do you think if she comes back and stays here, for I don’t know a month or so, you would keep up with the physical therapy?”
Now I have his attention.
“Yeah. Probably. Yeah.”
“You know I eventually have to get back to Memphis. I verbally committed to a job starting at the end of August. It’s a good payday for me, subcontracting for a company I have been wanting to work with. But with you in this condition, I don’t see how I can leave.”
The delivery sounded harsh, but he needs to see the consequences of not doing anything to help himself.
“I wouldn’t want to mess anything up for you, Landon. Go ahead, see if she’s interested.”
“There is no use offering her the job if you’re going to treat her the same way you have the other therapists. It’s abusive, and I wouldn’t have her be in that kind of situation.”
Tilting his head he reads my face.
“I have never abused a woman in my life. I think it’s you who would like the arrangement. Right?”
“Yeah, I’d like it.”
What’s the use denying what is obvious to us both? Besides, it makes the old man happy. Her being here wouldn’t just be for his benefit. We are both needy fucks.
“What could we offer her, money wise? I can’t afford much. And you can’t either.”
“I think if we sell a few things around here that are just taking up space, we could swing something that wouldn’t insult her. It would just be a temporary gig. A month, maybe two at the outside.”
“Sell what things?”
“Like the big lawn mower. You could hire some day workers every few months or so to do the job. And doing it regularly would bring the price down. Or we can take it out and plant something that doesn’t need constant maintaining.”
One crooked index finger sort of points my way.
“Don’t think I’m going to sell the bike. That won’t happen.”
I feel the anger spark inside me. My voice rises.
“I said nothing about the Fat Boy. I know you’re going to try to hold on to it.”
“That’s right. Even if the day comes that I can’t ride it anymore, you know in twenty years or so, I still want to look at it, sit on it. Your mother still likes to sit behind me.”
Man, that about kills me. In my ear I hear her whisper.
“Don’t be so grumpy, Landon.”
So I tone it down.
“The bar is bleeding money, Dad, and we need to upgrade a few things there and here on the property. Things have gone to shit. Why is that, exactly? Tell me how it happened.”
A long sigh precedes his answer.
“I haven’t felt good enough to handle the bar and the property. I had to pick one that had to suffer more than the other. Things will get better now that they fixed my heart. And I will do better with the exercising.”
I take a seat so we can get to the bottom of things.
