CHAPTER 33 34 35 36 Epilogue
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The words took the wind out of Eddie’ s sails. He had imagined his mother inviting his father, every once in a while, into her bedroom. His father was getting old and Eddie noticed that for the first time. He had always been there. They had gone fishing a lot and hunting once. Eddie didn’ t like killing animals. The one and only time he killed a rabbit he cried.“ It’ s just a rabbit,” his father said. Eddie could not point the rifle and pull the trigger again. He didn’ t mind a good steak but that was different.
“ Why did you stay?” Eddie asked.“ We were friends before we married. You came along and we stayed friends. We both loved you, and I took your mom for better or worse.”“ What about forsaking all others?”“ I did the best I could. Your mother knew. She didn’ t care as long as I came home and was a good father everyday.” Sitting in the car, even if they were not going anywhere, put them in a place they could talk. Eddie tried to remember any of the conversations he had with his father. They always happened when they were going somewhere, but the talks never seemed to be about anything of real importance.“ We never talked about relationships, love, or sex,” Eddie said. Randolph smiled at his son.“ What information could I have passed on to you? I honored all my marriage vows for six years. I was nineteen when I married your mother. I didn’ t know anything. What I found out our wedding night was I hurt her with this thing between my legs. It took all of fifteen seconds. I was twenty-five when a woman finally taught me about making love. The only conversation I could imagine with your mother at that point could only cause more pain. For the next ten years my ego would not allow me to tell her, now that I understood what sex was, maybe we should try it again.
After sixteen years we just fell into our own comfortable routines. About the time I figured you and I should have that birds and the bees talk, I was fixing a drain for a neighbor who was about to sell his house and move out to the country. He discovered the reason his daughter was very popular with the neighborhood boys. I kept the thought to myself that she would probably find guys to bed her, even in the country, if she was determined to have her fun. He even noticed that pretty new bike of yours parked behind his garage a few times,” he explained.
The bright yellow ten-speed bike was the first in the neighborhood. Eddie asked his mother for the newest rage. It was a memorable fourteenth birthday. The bicycle even had a speedometer that he had managed to push to fifty-five miles an hour, peddling like a madman, down a hill. Eddie’ s picture was broadened by facts he never knew.“ I guess you didn’ t talk to your father,” Eddie said.“ He was a mean drunk who beat my mother. I swore I would never hurt my wife and the first night of our marriage...” he paused and shook his head.“ The only way I could touch your mother was in a way I knew I could not hurt her. A hug or a kiss or just holding her hand,” he said and looked much older to Eddie.“ I didn’ t know,” Eddie said.“ I guess we didn’ t really talk. I’ m sorry.”“ Let’ s get back. They are probably wondering where we went by now,” Eddie said.“ Nice car,” Randolph said.“ I’ d take you for a ride, but my head is about a million miles away.”“ Best not to get behind the wheel. Some other time,” his father nodded and opened the car door.
They locked the shop and headed back to the house. Everyone tried to make it seem like a holiday. The simplest routines felt forced because a piece of the picture was missing. Sam drove the family back to their home. Three vehicles sat in the driveway. Eddie produced the window stickers the officer had given him and placed them as explained. He hadn’ t looked but knew he would see the same emblem displayed in Sam’ s car. And knew, if he checked, there would be one in Frank’ s and Rodney’ s vehicle.
Tanya’ s car had three times the amount of bird droppings adorning it’ s exterior than either his or Nicole’ s. Eddie remembered the reason he had installed the automatic garage door opener. The birds made her car their favorite target. They made the mistake of parking it in the driveway with the top down once. Eddie spent that afternoon removing dozens of bird bombs from the leather seats. Climbing behind the wheel, Eddie hit the button