Transcontinental (14 page)

Roy grunted. “What
about
him?”

“It seemed as though your absence upset him.”

“Boy ain’t visited me once the ten years I been here. Don’t owe him shit.”

“Right,” Ant snapped. “You only created him, murdered his brother, then abandoned him at a young age. What could you possibly owe him?”

“Talkin’ like you know me,” Roy sneered. “I don’t even know if he’s mine. The men Adalynne was with ‘sides me, I can’t count ‘em on two hands.”

Ant did not doubt that. He wasn’t sure whether or not it would be good for Leroy to know this. If Roy
was
his father, his father was a murderer. But if Roy wasn’t his father, things could get complicated quickly for Leroy. He didn’t want to shake the boy’s foundation, even if it was an unhealthy one. The revelation about his brother was enough to deal with. “Regardless of his parentage, you should feel lucky to have a child like him.”

“Funny. Always seemed a bit soft to me.”

“Well if I recall correctly, the last time you saw him he was about five years old. Which is perhaps not the best representation of the man he will, and has, become.” Ant said, feeling flustered. “Leroy is a
fine
boy.”

“See, that gets me wonderin’ what you doin’ with a young boy anyway.”

“Nothing like what you are implying, I assure you. Leroy ran away from foster care. I am simply helping him get where he is going.”

“Then remind me why we chattin’, again.”

“There is a woman in your past.”

“They’s a bunch’a women in my past.”

Ant shut his eyes. “She is not one of them. I hope.”

“Who, then? Quit dancin’ ‘round it.”

“That is what I came to find out.”

“You ‘bout to lose your chance, you don’t get down to it.”

“Right. I am sure you have better things to do.”

“Hey, just keep pushin’ it.” Roy dangled the phone beside him.

But Ant didn’t believe Roy had any intention of abandoning the conversation. His body language certainly didn’t show it. He leaned forward, his gaze now fixed intensely on Ant. For all his bravado and threats to leave, he seemed almost happy to have a visitor.

Ant gave Roy a stern look, and he put the phone back to his ear.

“You do not get many visitors, do you, Roy?”

“I get more’n enough. They all fake, but I get ‘em.”

“‘Fake’ people?”

“Reporters, cops, crazies. Nobody real. One white boy came in here askin’ should he kill his brat like I did mine. What’s the best way, and all.”

“That is reprehensible. What did you say?”

“Told him to get outta my face ‘fore I bust the glass to get to his.”

“So, who
do
you want to see?”

Roy motioned to the woman in the room. “Someone like her.”

“You and me both.” The two men, dissimilar as could be, sat there a moment in agreement. “The woman Leroy is interested in apparently used to babysit him. He claims she was a friend of the family.”

“Ah. Yeah, they was always close, those two.”

Ant’s face lit up. “So you remember her?”

“Course. She and Ada was always together. Night and day, them two.”

“Was she as lovely as Leroy made her sound?” The question escaped Ant’s lips before thought about it. How embarrassing. He could have asked her name, but his first question was for a confirmation of her loveliness—a loveliness his own mind had manufactured. Leroy had never called her that.
 

“She was a sweet young thing. Never did like me much.”

“I have a hard time believing that,” Ant sassed.

“Rehema.”

“Pardon?” Ant asked, wondering if he had just been insulted.

“Rehema Shepherd,” Roy replied, his arms crossed and his eyes facing upward, as if he’d had to dig for the name. “Don’t ask me to spell it. Can’t.”

“Do you know where she went? Leroy said she moved.”

“Ain’t really in the loop, now, am I?”

“I have to say, this has gone much better than I had imagined. I figured you would have no interest in helping. All I must do now is remember that name. Rehema Shepherd, Rehema Shepherd,” Ant repeated.

“Got no reason not to help. I ain’t a bad guy, Antoine,” Roy said, throwing his hands up as if caught by the police. “Just got a hell of a temper.”

Ant smiled. “I believe it.” And he did. He considered himself a decent judge of character, and there were no red flags going off, besides that he had murdered his other son. An uncomfortable feeling resonated through him at the thought of explaining that to Leroy. All things considered, though, Roy seemed a victim of his own flaws more than anything. Ant knew what that was like.

“Roy, is there anything else you would like to talk about before I go?”

“Nah, I’m talked out. Don’t even talk to my cell mate this much.”

So they
did
have cell mates. Ant smiled.
 

* * *

Leroy’s knee bounced vigorously as he grasped the bench, leaning forward. Why hadn’t Ant called back yet? Isn’t that what most people did when nobody answered the first time? If he could make the call at all, he could call again. But he hadn’t, which made Leroy anxious.

The whole situation felt sketchy, the more he thought about it. If Ant was coming back, there would be no reason for him to call Leroy on a pay phone to explain what he’d learned from Roy. He could just do it when he got back. And what was with that promise Ant had asked of him before leaving? That didn’t strike him as something a person would normally do if there wasn’t a crucial reason. He should’ve pressed Ant harder when he had the chance.

 
Wasn’t there a number he could dial to call back the last caller, sort of a reverse redial? His mom had used it when that creepy guy started calling her in the middle of the night. She’d woken the neighbors up when she finally got a hold of that man. He’d never even heard half of the words she used that night. It was one of the few times he could remember being proud of her.

What if Ant didn’t come back? He hadn’t considered it until then, and the prospect of making the rest of the journey alone dismayed him.

No
. He had to stop thinking like that if he was going to make it to her, and come what may, he would. With or without Ant. He could do this.

Leroy shot to his feet. He couldn’t sit down, sit still anymore. Pacing back and forth under the awning, he glanced at the receptionist inside, who had her sights firmly locked on him. It was just a matter of time before they asked him to leave, or worse, called the cops, he convinced himself. They wouldn’t even have to drive far with the prison right there. It’d be at most ten minutes, roundtrip.

Still, he couldn’t risk leaving in case Ant called back. He’d left the first time, and look what happened. Leroy could do this without him, but for the moment, Ant was his way forward. Without the name from his father, Leroy was stymied.

So either Ant came back and they went on their way, or Leroy had some serious planning to do. Either situation required waiting, so he supposed he could kill two birds with one stone and do both. That’s the adult way to handle it, Leroy thought, proud of himself.

He sat back down on the bench, his knee bouncing vigorously.
 

* * *

Ant circled the waiting room, almost frantic. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing — or, what he wasn’t. There wasn’t a public phone in sight.

He approached the woman at a desk in the corner. She had a phone. It wouldn’t provide much privacy, but it was better than nothing.

“Hello. Is there any chance I may use your telephone?”

She gave him a sympathetic look and said “I do apologize, sir, but this phone is for administrative personnel only.”

“I have a call that I
must
make,” Ant insisted.

“That’s just fine, sir. We have public phones available in the main building. After you check out, go down the hall, and it’ll be your second left.”

“That is precisely the problem. I can not check out until I make the call.”

“Oh sure you can,” she replied with a friendly wave of her hand.

“You do not understand, when I check out I will be—”

“It’s a quick process, takes but a minute,” she said cheerfully.

“Of course.” Ant forced a smile. “Thank you for your assistance.”

“My pleasure!”

He took a seat in an uncomfortable chair and rubbed his eyes. So much for helping Leroy. He’d probably never see the boy again after he got hauled off to his cell. Then he’d have to deal with a lawyer, a judge, all that good stuff. He was thinking he’d waive his right to a lawyer and just plead guilty. No need to bother with the formalities.

Then Ant realized something, his hands falling from his face. Every inmate gets one phone call. He could use his to inform Leroy about Rehema.

It was time to check out.

Ant headed over to the door and stepped into the long hallway of old white men. The same humorless guard that had escorted him across earlier followed him silently to the door. Through it, the tall woman who had checked him in welcomed him back.

“How was your visit? Did he give you hell?”

“I think you exaggerate the extent to which he is a son of a bitch.”

The woman smiled at Ant, and that was all it took to buoy him momentarily above the surface of the negativity he’d been trapped beneath.

“I doubt it, honey. But when you got a body like this,” she struck a pose in her baggy outfit, “
every
body’s a son of a bitch.”

“Well, can you blame them?” Ant grinned as he said it, hoping to soften the blow. He could not be a smart ass, or not succumb to his weakness for women, but he couldn’t not do both at one time. That was simply too much to ask.

The look she gave him was cold, but in it Ant saw a glimmer of warmth. Wishful thinking or not, it didn’t matter. For his final conversation with a woman for the foreseeable future, he supposed it was good enough.

He inhaled, looking her in the eye. “I suppose I am ready to go, now.” He held out his wrists. This was it—the beginning of the next phase in his life.

But it was all for the experience. That’s how he had always lived his life, and he wasn’t about to change just because it put him in a tight spot. He’d been in plenty of tight spots before. It was out of his control, and that was what bothered him most.

The woman snipped the paper bracelet hanging from Ant’s wrist.

“Okay. You have a nice day, Mr. Bevilacqua.”

“Is that some sort of joke that you tell people before you arrest them?”

“Why would we arrest you?”

Ant’s eyes widened.

The woman peered at the screen in front of her. “Oh right, because you burned down your ex-wife’s house.”

“Now just a minute, that was my house! Had I not been stupid enough to forego a pre-nuptial agreement, it still would be.”

“Whatever the case may be, Mr. Bevilacqua,” she said, looking up at him with her head tilted down, “charges were never officially filed.
And
the statute of limitations has passed. So don’t do it again. Arson
or
marriage. Now get out of here, ya criminal.” She glared at him half-heartedly.

“I could kiss you right now!”

She looked him up and down. “Take a shower and get back to me.”

* * *

Leroy was about to walk over to that damn prison himself.

After an hour and a half, he was fed up with waiting. Ant must’ve gotten himself arrested somehow. Probably from mouthing off to a cop. That was the only way he could imagine it would take this long, unless Ant and Roy had really hit it off. The thought made him laugh. If his mother wasn’t personable, then Roy was just about anti-social.

Every hour he spent doing nothing was an hour he could’ve been traveling, even if only on foot. But the stakes were high. Ant’s knowledge and experience were valuable assets, so he decided to give Ant until it got dark. Wasn’t more than three or four hours away, he guessed. That was more than enough time for Ant to finish up and get back, or at least for him to call again.

The beef jerky was gone, leaving only a half box of stale granola bars, and his warm water. He could fill up his water bottles at the hospital cooler before he left, but there was nothing he could do about the granola bars.

If Ant didn’t return, Leroy figured the only way to get that name would be to find another adult to accompany him, maybe some kind soul working at the hospital. He suspected the type of person who would work there would be predisposed to helping others. He could catch them on their way out.
 

What if Ant had ditched him? It didn’t seem so unlikely all of a sudden. He would be another in a long line of adults who had abandoned him.

Pushing the thought out of his mind, Leroy concentrated. He could visit Ant instead of his father. But then that was assuming that Ant had visited Roy in the first place. If Ant had gotten arrested, Leroy doubted that would be the case.
 

Of course, he hoped it didn’t come to that. He wished Ant could restrain himself. He wished Ant would call or come back so they could stop wasting time and start progressing. Although now that he thought about it, he wasn’t sure how to move forward once he had the woman’s name.