During their session, Emma admits that the second baby was probably Sam's. She had the abortion to keep him from killing her father—so she wouldn't lose him.
"Well, napalm describes my marriage really well. If we weren't arguing, we weren't speaking to one another. We were both in college, and he couldn't understand my vocation. I had a calling to help people. He was in business. He finally came around to the idea of accepting my plans, but he wanted to franchise me, make me a self-help guru like Dr. Phil."
"Didn't get it at all, did he?"
"No. He didn't get me either. You're so lucky to have a man like Sam."
"Is he really that unique?"
"You've no idea how much, Emma. I'll say this for the guys who are here, most of them are like Sam in one way. They care too much, and it gets them into trouble. I know you don't like the idea of family, but these people here truly are a family unit in the greatest sense of the word."
"As long as none of them are my parents, I'm cool with that." Emma's face held acceptance, and Dr. Stewart knew they had made a very significant step.
Sam found Raleigh struggling with a toilet in one of the downstairs bathrooms. It was making him crazy in the extreme and he was using all the words his wife objected to, multiple times, in increasingly creative combinations. Sam stood in the doorway a moment, leaning against the jamb with his hands in his pockets, watching him curse and sweat.
"You're gonna owe Molly about four thousand dollars, if you keep that up."
The wrench slipped, slamming into Raleigh's fingers. He let loose with a few more choice words, throwing the wrench across the room as he held his hand cradled in the other.
"Help me up, smart ass." He reached for Sam with his good had. Groaning, he stood. "God, I feel old today! Molly kept me up most of the night. She's got a hell of a sex drive right now.... Sorry, dude. I forget once in a while."
"No biggie. I been without longer. Got any WD 40?"
"Look in the tool box." Raleigh went to the sink, washing the blood and rust off his damaged handed. "F**k, this hurts like a f**king mother f**ker."
Sam's laugh bubbled forth, filling the tile room with his mirth. Raleigh joined him, wincing as the soap and cold water hit the slice in his fingers. Sam sprayed the bolts with the oil and waited a few minutes for it to take effect. He retrieved the wrench with a contented sigh.
"You kids are doing really well. I expected more withdrawal."
"Emma and I never did the hard drugs, and we only really drank on weekends. It was a pattern, though, and needed breaking. She had to get out of that life, or she was gonna get to a place too low to crawl out of. I had to get free too, or I was gonna end up killing her father." His tone was very matter-of-fact.
He sat down, bending his tall body almost double to get at the bolts holding the toilet to the floor. With a few practiced movements of the wrench, he had the first nut loosened. He went after the second one, the one that wounded Raleigh, with renewed vigor.
"You know you can actually say that without balling up your fists?" Raleigh smiled at Sam.
Sam glanced up from his awkward position to see Raleigh's grin. He smiled back.
"I hadn't thought of it that way, but you're right." With a grunt, he got the other nut loose.
Raleigh stared with awe and a little jealousy. "How the hell did you do that? I've been trying for almost an hour!"
"You loosened 'em up for me."
"Like hell I did! They wouldn't budge!"
"Did you oil them?"
"First thing. I sprayed them down good, and let them sit. Dammit! Don't get me wrong, it's great, but dammit!"
"Now that it's loose, what are we doing with it?"
"Yanking the f**ker out. We have a new one coming. Tim and Glenn went after it."
©2020 Dellani Oakes
No comments:
Post a Comment