Page 87 of Southern Comfort
“I am so deeply sorry, Landon! It’s awful. How those two could let strangers into your home, I don’t understand. I thought I raised him better than that.”
Now I see tears roll down her face, as I climb the steps. She is an ugly cryer, and for the first time since it all came down, I want to laugh. But I don’t.
“Can you ever forgive me…”
I take her in my arms, as much for me as for her.
“It’s not your bad.”
“Your bike! And the tools!”
For some stupid reason, I feel calm. Maybe it’s being here with her, or maybe I am still stunned it all happened. I look at her face and my mother’s words echo in my mind.They’re just things.
As the thought settles I see the big truth there that I never fully grasped before. Just things don’t compare with what is really important. The lasting things in life. Like love. No matter how much you treasure the inanimate object, it is only a passing thing.
“They are just things.”
Shit. I sound like a calm person. Kim is just as surprised as I am.
“Why are you taking this so good?”
“I took the hit already. I’m pissed. Oh yeah. But, and don’t ever tell them this, I understand how it went down.”
“You do?”
“They’re almost twenty years old! Not even twenty yet. They are being led by their dicks. Like all boys are. I could have been in the same kind of situation back when I was that age. So what’s the latest since we talked? Did you pack that bag for me?”
“I’m going with you to Memphis.”
She lowers her voice so no one inside the house can hear.
“I was thinking about it. We could drive to Kentucky tomorrow or the next day. If you don’t fly, you’d have to go through Memphis anyway. Instead of going back and forth here, you could head out from there. And I could drive the truck back if you buy the car. If something happens to the car on the way back, I would be there with the truck. It’s a good plan.”
“I don’t know.”
“One more thing. I want Hunter to come with us.”
She sees the exaggerated eye roll, takes my hand, and leads me to the far end of the porch.
“Hear me out. Let me make my case. If we present as a unit to Mabel, it might make a difference. You told me even though she never drove the car herself, she kept the car of her first husband. Who keeps a car they never drive, through another marriage and two kids?”
“And neither girl wants the car. It must not be their father’s. They said they would rather their mother have the money.”
“It doesn’t hold the same memories to them. That car is symbolic to her. That’s what you need to understand. It’s not the money she wants to see. It’s the love for the car. Like that first husband had. For her, the value can’t be monetized. It’s emotional.”
“You’re right.”
“If we bring the photograph of your mom and dad, it could make a difference. And if we come along, she would see it means so much to you, you brought your family all the way from Tennessee. She doesn’t know we’re not family.”
That last comment kinda stings. It shouldn’t. It is a fact. Have to admit she figured it out. I’m warming to the plan. A big smile appears on her face.
“And the bonus for having Hunter come along? He would be trapped in a car with us for at least two days. Having to listen to whatever we want to lecture him about. Asking anything we want to know. And as the piece de resistance, we would choose the music. I love Abba and soundtracks of nineteen fifties movies. You are into jazz. It would be torture for the boy. That’s how his summer vacation will end. All because he was an idiot.”
I chuckle for the first time since it all went down.
“And I bet he will be very happy to return to college. Two birds, one stone.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
