Day Twenty Two

Elliot took his phone out of his pocket and stared at the screen for what felt like the millionth time. When saw the screen empty, he shoved it back in his pocket and put his hands behind his head. Closing his eyes, he was dimly aware that his heartbeat had become irregular and was echoing in his eardrums. Look at what you do to me, he thought to himself. Maybe he was going to have a stroke. And then the phone vibrated.

Fumbling the phone from his pocket, he took a steadying breath then looked at the screen. It was her.

“Amanda!” He tried to sound nonchalant but knew he had failed miserably. It was amazing how just her number flashing on the screen of his mobile could be such a turn on. Listening carefully for a few moments, he looked over his fingernails before taking a tentative nibble on the jagged skin surrounding his thumbnail. Without thinking too much about it, he ripped the skin away then spat it out onto the floor. “Are you sure?” he asked. “I’ve already bought the tickets a few days ago.” He brushed his receding hair from his forehead and gritted his teeth. Saying goodbye as nicely as he could, he ended the call and then hurled the phone across the room in a fury. What was he going to do two box seats to the game? He sure as hell wasn’t going to sit there like a lonely old has been like his father.

 

Alfie watched his son as if he could read his thoughts. When Elliot had been a child, he had seemed totally unable to express anything other than bland neutrality or raging fury. More often than not, Elliot would fly off the handle for absolutely no reason that anyone else could fathom. Lucy and Alfie had often fretted over broken crockery and cracked glass in picture frames trying to work out what had set him off. They could only conclude it had been some girl, some conversation or some event that had resulted in hurt feelings that could only be expressed via rage.

There had been that time that he had nearly throttled Beth, leaving her with bruises that went all the way around her neck. On the surface it had been because she had been repeatedly cracking her gun as they watched some television programme together and he had asked her to stop but she hadn’t been able to refrain from one final pop. Alfie didn’t see it but judging from the bruises, he knew it had been bad. Beth could not even go to school and Lucy had been terrified someone would call the police.  Poor Beth had to wear a scarf around her injuries for weeks. Of course Elliot had apologised but how do you express remorse over such a thing? Elliot’s only defence was that it had been Beth’s fault for cracking her gum. They found out later some girl had laughed at him because he fluffed at play during a game of football.

Then there was the time when Nathan had pranked his brother by pretending to be a girl on the telephone. To the amusement of the rest of the family, Elliot had hopelessly fallen for the ruse and whispered sweet nothings to his brother for several minutes. There had been no immediate comeback but when Alfie saw the V shaped burn from the iron on Nathan’s arm, he knew it could only come from one source. Nathan had said nothing about and Lucy helped him to keep the wound clear from infection but everyone knew it had been the work of Elliot.

Alfie could have punished Elliot far more severely than he did. Elliot deserved a good hiding but even as a relatively young man back then, Alfie was doubtful he could win a hand to hand confrontation with his son. All the same, Elliot did not dare raise a hand against him or Lucy. That was worth something.

Taking up long distance running had done Elliot a world of good. It gave all that anger a direction and maybe even a purpose. Keeping him in good training shoes and in all weather gear provided Alfie with the carrot on a stick to keep the lad on the straight and narrow.

Still, it had been an awful shock when he brought home the girl he had knocked up. From the very start, both he and Lucy had taken a dislike to her. There was just something about her that seemed dishonest. She was attractive enough but it all seemed so superficial as if her pretty clothes and makeup were hiding something unpleasant. Through all of the drama, with her parents accosting them in the biggest supermarket in town, with the school counsellor insisting they attend “mediation” meetings with her parents and just the general shame of having a son who did not seem to know where to find a condom in this day and age, he and Lucy had held their heads high. They had done their best and they certainly could not be held to blame for their boy’s decision when he had had every opportunity made available to him.

It was hard to face but Alfie had begun thinking that perhaps Elliot’s was the reason his marriage had collapsed. Surely a woman like Bonnie would not tolerate violence. For one, she was most likely capable of doing some serious damage herself. Perhaps she was the one who was violent against Elliot, for all he knew. The thought of such a vulgar woman terrorising his son incensed him. Perhaps Bonnie and Sarah might like to be friends in the afterlife.

But Alfie was only speculating and, as anyone who knew him when he had been alive knew, Alfie was not so great at speculation.

 

Bonnie finished putting on her makeup and then finished dressing. She was not the type of woman who would be happy going out in less than her best. It wasn’t that she felt unattractive if she wasn’t at her best it was more a case of doing the rest of the world a favour by not exposing everyone to her flaws. And she had many and as the years marched on, it became more apparent in ways both great and small.

She knew Elliot was being an idiot and she knew the young girl he was fooling around with was an even bigger one. These kinds of arrangements only ended up with the wife being completely vindicated and looking virtuous while the errant husband and other woman ended up looking ridiculous—as well as the relationship not surviving the embarrassment. Once an affair became public knowledge, the cheating couple almost always could not live with the damage they had done to the wronged woman.

Bonnie was counting on it but she still couldn’t resist a little espionage.

Logging on to a social networking site, she typed in the name of her husband’s little fling to see what she was up to. The whole things of keeping in touch with friends this way seemed so puerile to Bonnie but it was the best way to keep up with what younger people were doing. And there the silly girl was, taking yet another flattering selfie with her bum sticking out comically. When she had been a kid, no one wanted a big butt and now girls were risking slipped disks to get one. It didn’t make much sense. Bonnie just thought this was all part of the process of getting older and losing touch with what was fashionable in the world. Truth be told, she was almost glad.

Flicking through more photos, Bonnie saw one with Elliot and the girl. It was a new one. Clearly they had both had a bit too much of booze and if Bonnie knew Elliot, he had had too much of the Columbian marching powder. What intrigued her was the pose: the girl was standing in front of Elliot, bending at the waist. Elliot was standing behind her in a mock sexual pose. Bonnie right clicked the photo and save it on her computer. It would come in handy during the divorce trial.

 

Marvin sat outside on one of the bleachers, thoughtfully munching one of the cafeteria’s ever so healthy option of greasy burritos washed down with a large bottle of cola. He wasn’t looking forward to the summer like most of his friends. Not a fan of the heat, he preferred to hide away under layers of insulation that he could take off as needed rather than have to wear light weight clothes that revealed the huge perspiration stains over areas of his body he didn’t want to draw attention to.

There had been a few questions about why Caroline had been taken away in an ambulance but he had not been able to answer them any more than anyone else. She never told him anything and barely spoke to him in their house let alone in a public place like school. Truth be told, he was pretty sure she hated him. When he thought no one was looking, he poured a good measure of whiskey into his cola. It just might take the edge off of having to go to algebra. Wishing he had the courage to just skip class, he sauntered off to see what anyone else had to tease him about—as if blowing out the seat of your pants in front of the prettiest girl in school weren’t enough.

No one was more shocked than him to see the prettiest girl in the school waiting for him outside of algebra lesson. She even smiled when she saw him before drifting off as casually as she could to her own lesson. For several seconds, he could only watch her walk away.

“Are you in or out?” asked his Algebra teacher, holding the door waiting for him to make up his mind.

“My dear,” he told her with the confidence of a well-seasoned player, “I’m just off to see about a girl.”