Thunderland (28 page)

“It has to be your decision,” Brains said. ‘We can’t make it for you.”

‘Think about it, man,” Shorty said. “You don’t have to decide this minute.”

“No, I need to make a choice,” Jason said. “If the Stranger keeps busy like he has been, I might not have time to think about this later. I’ll choose now.”

He slipped his hand into the front pocket of his jeans. He withdrew a quarter. He held the shiny coin in the air.

‘What’s that for?” Brains said.

“The way I see it, there’s a fifty-fifty chance that doing the fall will get rid of my memory block. So, there should be a fifty-fifty chance that I’ll agree to do it. The best way to split the odds equally is to flip a coin. That’s what I’m going to do.” He stood.

Shorty and Brains rose. They gathered around him.

Holding the quarter in his hand, Jason said, “Heads, I fall. Tails, I don’t.”

 “Man, I hope you know what you’re doing,” Shorty said.

Jason flipped the coin in the air, caught it in one hand as it dropped, and slapped it onto the back of his other hand. Slowly he took away the hand that covered the quarter.

Heads.

“Look, girl, I’m telling you,” Alice said on the telephone to Linda, “you need to cool off before you dash off to a lawyer and start divorce proceedings. Don’t be rash. Give yourself time to chill.”

“Chill?” Linda said. She held the handset to her ear, pacing the kitchen. “How can I chill when all I can think about how is many nights Thomas spent with that whore? When I wonder about what diseases he caught from her and passed on to me?”

“Girl, you need to think about whether you really want to go through with this divorce thing,” Alice said. “Yes, Thomas made a big mistake, and you’re hurt and mad as hell. But before you do anything, you need to sit down and talk to him. Give him a chance to explain his side. He said he left that woman.”

“He’s lying,” Linda said. “Don’t you see? All he ever does is lie to me.”

“I know what happened,” Alice said. “I bet he dropped that woman and she got pissed, so she figured she’d get revenge by wrecking your marriage. She probably filmed that tape months ago, and was waiting for a chance to send it to you. You’re reacting exactly the way she wants you to, girl.”

Linda stopped pacing and leaned against the counter. “I don’t care about what she’s thinking. I’m only concerned about Thomas. Why did he lie to me? That’s all I want to know. Why didn’t he tell me the truth?”

“Would you have wanted to hear the truth, Lin?”

“Hell, yeah.”

“Please. Now you’re the one guilty of lying.”

‘Well, maybe I am.” Linda shrugged. “I’m just ... I don’t know how I feel. I’m mad, hurt, and still crazy about Thomas all at once. He’s been so sweet lately, everything’s been so perfect.” She ran her fingers through her hair and sighed. “Why did this have to happen?”

“I can’t tell you,” Alice said. “All I can tell you is this: give yourself time to cool off, then sit down and talk to Thomas. Don’t run off and do something you’ll regret later.”

“I’m sick of thinking about this, Alice. Right now I feel like having a drink. If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to hang up now and pour some Jack’s.”

“Don’t overdo it,” Alice said. “And if you have a drink or two, keep your ass out of your car. It would break my heart if I read about you in tomorrow’s paper.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

“Good. I love you, Lin.”

“Love you, too, Alice. As usual, thanks for being my shoulder to cry on. Good-bye.”

Linda hung up. Lord, she craved a drink, thirsted for the tranquility that only getting drunk could bring. She had promised Jason that she would never drink again, but this was a unique situation. It was okay this time. She would only do it once.

Yeah, right. That’s what everyone says when they start drinking again. Who do you think you’re fooling?

She blocked out those disturbing thoughts. On the dinette table, she placed a bottle of Jack Daniel’s, a bottle of Sprite, and a large pitcher filled with ice cubes. She mixed the liquor and soda in the container, going heavy on the whiskey. She poured the concoction into a tall glass.

As she was taking her first smooth sip, Thomas entered the kitchen through the connecting door to the garage.

“Linda, what are you doing?” He came to the table, frowning.

“What the hell does it look like I’m doing?”

“Planning to drink. Too much. Way too much.”

“Congratulations, you smart asshole. Want a cookie?”

She gulped her drink in an exaggerated manner, tipping the glass high, slurping, and then belching. Watching her silently, Thomas didn’t appear half as astounded as she expected him to be. Well, he could kiss her ass. Whether he was there or not, she was going to get wasted.

He pulled out a chair and sat. “I didn’t come here to argue. I came here to apologize.”

“Oh, really? I thought you came to fuck me and record it on video, so you could play it back tonight for your girlfriend.”

He cringed. “I told you, I broke up with her.”

“You’ve told me a lot of shit that wasn’t true.”

“You’re right, I have. I’m not denying it. I’ve been a lying, manipulating bastard, and 1don’t blame you for doubting me. But it’s different now.
I’m
different now.”

“That’s what they all say.” She reached for her glass. When she grasped it, his big hand closed over hers.

“Please, listen to me,” he said. “Stop drinking and listen to me.”

“I told you not to ever touch me.”

“Linda, come on—”

“Get your hand off mine.”

He sighed. He withdrew his hand.

She took another pull of her drink.

“Drinking won’t solve anything,” he said. “Our problems won’t just go away.”

“No, but I wish you would.”

“I’m not leaving, Linda. We’ve been married too long for us not to work this out.”

“I don’t want to work it out. All I want is a divorce.”

“You don’t mean that. You want us to stay together every bit as much as I do.”

“I get it. You’re a mind reader now. You’ve gone from being a complete dog to a sorry-assed mind reader in one day.”

“I know you’re hurt, sweetheart,” he said. “After what I’ve done, you have every right to feel hurt. But all I ask is that you meet me halfway. I can’t do it by myself.”

Why did he have to sound so damned reasonable? So willing to compromise and sacrifice? Why wasn’t he like this before? It pissed her off that he had to be backed into a corner like this before he woke up.

“No,” she said. “It’s too late for that. You had your chance, and you blew it.”

 “Meet me halfway,” he said again. “We’ve been through a lot together, baby. We can grow past this.”

His level-headedness annoyed her. He was too smooth, too practiced. He didn’t really understand what he had done to her, to them. He didn’t understand the depth of her wounds.

“No,” she said. She stood, picked up her glass and the pitcher.

He rose. “Where are you going?”

“To get drunk. In peace.” She walked down the hallway, went inside her office, shut the door, and locked it.

He knocked.

“Open the door, honey. Please.”

She sat at her desk, in front of the computer.

He rapped again.

“Please, Linda. Let me in.”

She gazed at the blank computer screen, arms crossed over her chest.

“I’ll do anything to convince you that I deserve another chance,” he said. “Anything to convince you that I’m sorry, that I really love you, and that I plan to show you that I do, every day.”

“Go away, Thomas. Pack your bags and leave.”

“What if I sing for you, like I used to? There’s not much else I can do from behind this door.”

“Don’t waste your breath.” But he began to sing anyway, and more surprising than his impromptu performance was that he sang her favorite song, which she thought he had forgotten: “If Only for One Night,” by Luther Vandross. Thomas had a good voice, too: deep, rich, and steady. She had forgotten how good his voice was.

He finished the tune. “Do you want me to do another? Or are you going to let me in so we can talk this out?”

Lips pressed together, she stared at her liquor. Alice’s advice rang in her mind.
Give him a chance to explain his side
...
Sit down and talk to Thomas
...
Don’t run off and do something you’ll regret later.

She inhaled a deep breath. She was trembling. Hot tears streamed down her cheeks.

“Please, Linda. I’m begging. Please let me talk to you.”

She wiped her eyes, sniffled. Finally, she got up and unlocked the door.

The elm in Brains’s backyard appeared to stand about forty feet tall. Lush green leaves, filigreed with deep-orange evening sunshine, flourished in abundance. Scores of sturdy limbs and branchesjutted from the ancient-looking trunk, which provided a large array of handholds, stumps, and crevices. Several leafy boughs hung above the ground, most of them well within Jason’s reach.

“I can’t believe I’m going to do this.” Jason gazed at the elm. “Falling out of a tree on purpose. Have I gone crazy?”

Standing beside him, Brains said, “Do you want to change your mind, Jason? If we brainstorm for a little while, maybe we can think of another plan.”

“But your idea of how doing this might work makes sense, Brains. A warped kind of sense. Anyway, I flipped the coin, and it was heads, so I have to do it.”

“All right,” Brains said. “It’s your move.”

“How high you gonna climb?” Shorty said.

“About twenty feet,” Jason said. “That’s around the height I fell from the first time. I want to copy the first fall as much as I can.”

“Twenty damn feet.” Shorty shook his head. “Shit, I wish I hadn’t backed you up on this, Brains. I should have kept my big mouth shut.”

“I didn’t hear you give us any brilliant ideas,” Brains said.

“Yeah, well, your idea ain’t brilliant, it’s stupid,” Shorty said. “You’re gonna get Jason paralyzed or something.”

Anger flaring in his eyes, Brains went to grab Shorty. Jason stepped between them.

“Knock it off, fellas. Sure, Brains thought of this, but
I
decided to do it. Both of you need to step back and let me climb this tree in peace.”

Grudgingly Brains and Shorty retreated to the patio. They watched him, Shorty shifting from foot to foot, Brains clutching his cell phone, likely ready to call an ambulance the instant Jason hit the ground.

Jason walked under one of the drooping boughs, jumped, and snared the branch in both hands. He pulled himself up and onto the tree. Already he was about six feet above the earth. He would not need to climb much higher.

His legs straddling the branch, he scooted toward the wide trunk. Once there, he rose into a standing position. With one hand wrapped around a branch above him, the other gripping a limb beside him, and both feet planted on stumps protruding from the trunk, he climbed the elm as though it were a ladder. Rough bark scraped against his hands. Wind-whipped leaves blew into his face. Ants scrambled onto his body, and two squirrels high above ceased their scampering and regarded him curiously. Grunting, sweating, and panting, Jason blocked out all distractions and concentrated on climbing, pleased to discover that he still had the tree-scaling skills he had developed years ago.