Chapter 14
“Why’d you do it?” Davey asked me yet again as we stood looking out the window of his bedroom. Below us, his sister and her two friends were hanging over the railing of the back porch, looking at the river churning in the small canyon below. The room was empty, because we were officially just ‘looking’ at the place while his mother contemplated buying the house with her new wealth.
“Davey…” I started to say but he shook his head and looked at me with sad eyes. He’d barely spoken to me for the last three weeks, and part of me couldn’t blame him too much for that.
“No, Brian.” He said softly. “You didn’t even ask me what I thought. You just did it. What about those people that won the lottery the week after? We took money from them. They were supposed to win all of what Mom got.”
“They still won three million.” I said with a sigh. “That’s still a lot of damn money.”
“But it’s wrong that you took it away from them and gave it to my mom.” Davey said again, repeating the same thing he’d said last time. “Things would have worked out, you know. I had that job at the cannery and now Mom won’t even let me think about working. She wants me to study and do sports and all that stuff. That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.” I answered honestly and he frowned, not expecting me to be so blunt. “That is exactly what I wanted, Davey Jones. I wanted you to be able to concentrate on school, on learning the things to get into a good school where you’ll study the things you need – that we need for the future.”
“You did it so I could follow the damn path you’ve laid out for me in your head.” Davey snarled with a look of anger.
“I thought you wanted to help me, to help make things better in this world.” I said softly and he frowned.
“I do, but I don’t want to cheat in order to do it.” He said in a much softer tone.
“Davey, I learned a lot of things in my last life.” I said gently, catching his blue eyes in mine and holding them. It struck me again how his eyes were blue, like mine, but a different shade, and they practically glittered with his emotions at this age in a way that they almost never did in the last timeline. There was still true innocence there, innocence long since gone by the time I’d ever met him. “One of the things I’ve learned is that sometimes you have to take what you need, even if it causes some harm to others. In this case, yes, what I did took money from people who would have gotten more otherwise. Still, they won, and they won a decent amount. Maybe they won’t be able to waste as much of it as they did in the last timeline, but they still got a lot of money. What your family got from it is going to be used to do a lot more than they ever would have done. With it, we’re going to change the world, make it a better place.”
“But how does that justify it?” Davey asked. “How can we say we’re good people if we stole that money?”
“Davey, I remember the numbers for four lottery drawings in my life.” I said after taking a deep breath. It was time for him to hear this part of my plan. “In five more years, there’s going to be a drawing worth over twenty times what your mother won. We’re going to win that one too.”
“Why?” He asked with narrowed eyes and suspicion in his tone.
“Because the world doesn’t run on good intentions.” I said with a hint of bitterness in my voice as I looked out the window again. It was strange, I’d had nothing to do with picking this house, but like in the last timeline, Pete had picked it out for Sandy, and she had fallen in love with it at first sight. I was certain she’d buy it, and it was in the Downey district. Even Jenny wasn’t complaining about having to leave Ceres, although she was talking about getting a transfer to let her stay in Ceres High, which was almost certain. She’d have a license soon, and her mother now had plenty of money to get her a car of her own.
“What do you mean?” Davey asked me and I sighed.
“In the last timeline, your father ran for President, twice, and he won both times.” I said softly and he made a snort.
“Yeah, you told me about that.” He said with a hint of scorn. “It won’t happen this time, though. No one is going to vote for a convicted child molester.”
“No, you’re right, it won’t happen, but that’s not my point.” I said patiently. “How much do you think he spent on those two campaigns?”
“A lot.” Davey said quietly. “Millions of dollars, probably.”
“The two campaigns totaled over five hundred million dollars.” I told him and looked back to see his eyes widening and he made a slight coughing noise. “Yeah, your father had to raise half a billion dollars to get, and keep the Presidency. All of his campaigns in total probably came to nearly a billion dollars. Think about that Davey. In the decades after his Presidency, he was widely acknowledged as one of the best presidents in our country’s history. He won the Nobel Peace Prize, not once, not twice, but four times. His acts as President, and later, changed the course of history for this country, and our world. I remember our grandchildren coming home from school, laughing and reading the entry on him from their history books.”
“That’s still hard to believe.” Davey said with a whisper and wet eyes. “I can’t believe my father would be so… good.”
“But he didn’t become President because he was a good man.” I pushed on. “Sure, that’s part of what got him in office, and made him the great President he was, but this world is as full of good men like your father as it is full of bad, stupid men. Without having the ability to raise that billion dollars for his campaigns, your father might have never been more than a preacher, or a truck driver. In order to change the world, he had to have money to do it. Think about it though, because he took a billion dollars people gave to him, and because of his policies, billions of people lived better lives, and many made more money than they would have otherwise. That billion spent on him yielded results that can never be measured.”
“Does it matter?” Davey asked bitterly. “That’s all gone now, destroyed by your time traveling.”
“Yes, it does matter.” I said with a sigh. “You may not remember them, no one may remember all those people, but it doesn’t change the fact that they existed or that they had better lives.”
“What you’re saying is that it takes money to make things change, to make the world a better place like you want to do, and we have to have that money.” Davey summarized and I smiled while nodding my agreement.
“Nine million paid out over twenty years won’t do all that much.” Davey said softly.
“No, but a couple hundred million, well around a hundred million after taxes and all that will be enough seed money to make a start.” I said and he nodded. “There are other things, like certain timely investments, that will take that money and turn it into something close to what your father raised for his campaigns.”
“So in order to do the good you want to do, we have to take money from others.” Davey said succinctly. “What do most people do when they win the lottery?”
“Pay off their bills, quit their jobs, and spend it on themselves or their family, maybe some family friends.” I said with a shrug. “We’re going to do more than that though. You and I, if you want, we will change this world like your father did, although I hope to make it last longer than he did.”
“How did he fail to do that?” Davey asked and I smiled.
“Cult of personality.” I answered and he frowned.
“Huh?” He stated.
“It’s something I first learned in college.” I said with a shrug. “Okay, maybe I heard Davey and his father talking about it in high school, but they were discussing Ronald Reagan. But, when I learned it in college was when Davey and I first really started discussing it in the context of our national political history.”
“So you’re saying I need to go to school to learn about this?” Davey asked with a slight chuckle.
“Yes.” I answered him honestly and he nodded.
“I still don’t like it.” He sighed.
“You don’t have to like it.” I said with a shrug. “Most of the time I don’t like it either, taking money from people like this, but it is necessary.”
“How did you get so… jaded?” Davey asked and I had to laugh.
“I’m not jaded compared to some people.” I shrugged and he gave me that look that I now knew to mean he was thinking about time travel.
“How did I get so jaded?” He asked softly.
“You already know the answer to that.” I replied and he stared at me for a long moment before nodding slowly.
“Oh, good, you’re both up here.” Sandy Jones said from the doorway to Davey’s room. My mother was right behind her, and both of them were smiling. “What do you think, Davey? Is this place good enough?”
“I love it Mom.” Davey said with a gentle smile. “It’s like we were meant to live here.”
That bastard! He said that on purpose, since I’d already told him the history of the house in the last timeline. It was all I could do to not burst out in laughter.
“What do you think Brian?” She asked and I had to take a deep breath before answering.
“I like it a lot.” I answered her.
“Good, then I’ll let Dad haggle with the realtor and get the price down a bit.” She said before turning and walking away with a determined stride.
“She’s happy.” Davey smiled softly. “No matter what else, this is making her happy, and your mother… why did they turn down half the money?”
“We don’t need millions of dollars.” I said with a shrug. “Besides, our moms are talking about going into business together and your mom is providing most of the start-up funds for that.”
“True.” Davey said with a shake of his head. “If I didn’t believe you already, I’d believe you came from the future now. Wait, I just thought of something. You said the timeline was already changing. Aren’t you worried the cumulative effects of the changes you’re making will change the lottery numbers of that big jackpot you want to win?”
“Nope.” I answered confidently.
“Why not?” He asked.
“I don’t understand the physics myself, and I know you’re not much on the mathematics.” I semi-answered and he frowned, but didn’t protest. It was true, even after a hundred years of life, Davey was mediocre at best with math. “What it comes down to is that changes can effect the world in a lot of ways, but certain events are largely unchanged unless there’s something really massive that happens. Random events, like the random drawing of the lottery numbers stays random. If you want to change them, your best bet would be to change things so the lottery is outlawed and the drawing never held, for example.”
“Or start World War Three and get everything nuked.” Davey said with a slow nod of his head and I nodded my agreement.
“Yep, like that.” I agreed.
“In some weird way it makes sense.” Davey said with a smile. “So, did I hear right, that the last game of the baseball season is this weekend?”
“Yeah.” I answered the question easily. He often did that, totally change tracks when he felt a particular topic had been fully discussed.
“I think I’ll go.” Davey said and I laughed.
“Sounds good.” I said. “We can do something afterwards, if you want.”
“I’d like that.” He replied with a shy smile. Oh yeah, he was thinking much along the same line as me. I was surprised though when he got a pensive look on his face. “Brian, can I ask you something?”
“Sure.” I said casually, but there was a sudden tightening in my gut. That look on his face meant he was thinking of something unpleasant.
“You’re from a future, but you say the future isn’t set in stone.” Davey said slowly as though he was thinking aloud more than anything. “Some things will be the same, but other things will be different, right? That’s how… that is how you can plan to make some changes, to make the world a better place.”
“That’s right.” I said softly.
“But you can’t guarantee it will work.” Davey continued his thought process aloud. “You mentioned how one of the other timelines the other me created, it ended in nuclear war, which was when they created the timeline you came from.”
“You got it correct.” I confirmed for him. “The same thing could happen here, if we’re not careful, although it’s pretty late in the timeline for something like that. It was other time travelers that really precipitated that war, and their attempt to control the secrets of time travel. That secret’s dead now. I don’t know nearly enough to make another machine. In a couple of years, the Soviet Union will cease to exist, and while there’s still threats of a city being blown up, or minor stuff like that, it’ll be decades before China gets close enough to having the technology to instigate a war that could threaten the entire planet.”
“Yeah, but doesn’t that mean that you can’t absolutely predict certain things?” Davey asked slowly. “You can’t tell me my mom will live to be an old woman, or that my sister won’t die in a car accident, or even that you or I won’t die in an accident.”
“Life would be kind of boring if we knew everything that was going to happen, wouldn’t it?” I asked him and he chuckled softly.
“Uh huh, but really, Brian, what makes us any better suited to changing the world?” Davey asked me in a quiet voice. “Anything can happen, right? How do we know we’ll be happy, and that we’ll do what we set out to do?”
“Right now the Governor of Arkansas is biding his time, waiting for an opportunity to go after his lifelong dream of becoming President.” I said in a firm, but quiet voice. “He’s going to win in 1992, ending twelve years of Republican rule from the White House. There’s many things he will want to do in office and while he’s President, this country – and the world will change from the Cold War era into a new era. He’ll succeed at a lot of things while in office, and fail at others, but in the end his most memorable feat in office will be that he was impeached because he lied about getting a blow job from an intern.”
“You’re kidding!” Davey’s voice cracked and his eyes were wide.
“Nope.” I said smugly. “Well, that’s what he’ll be remembered for if he doesn’t get some good advice and follow it while he’s President. Still, the guy’s been dreaming since he met John F. Kennedy that he would one day be President, and he’ll succeed, but he’ll be remembered for being impeached over a lie, more than anything else.”
“What does that have to do with…” Davey’s voice drifted off while I smiled.
“It means I don’t know if we’ll succeed, but I know we should try, and I know that we should be careful not to get tripped up by stupid things along the way.” I answered. “I also believe that if Bill Clinton didn’t run in 1992, we might have been worse off than we were with him in office. The bottom line is that we have to try, and no, we’re not guaranteed to win, but if we don’t try, there will be no chance that things are better. I can’t promise you anything, except that I’ll always love you, and I’ll always be there for you.”
“Unless you die in a car accident.” Davey pointed out and I had to nod. “Well, I’ll just have to make sure that if you are in an accident, I’m there with you so I won’t have to see what happens without you around.”
“I…” I lost my voice at that and he smiled before stepping closer to me and kissing me on the lips.
“We better go see what Mom’s up to.” He said with an impish grin before walking out. I followed him, thoroughly confused about the whole point of all this talking, but decided to just stop worrying and see what was in store for me.
“This will make a great office for the both of us.” Davey’s mother was saying to my mother as we found them standing in front of the room that I had always thought of as President Jones’s private office. For some reason her words sent a pang of regret through me. I still had not met the man in this timeline, and part of me didn’t want to meet him.
“If you think so, Sandy.” Mom answered with a grin. “This house is wonderful, and it is so close to ours.”
“Good, then it’ll be easy for us to get together here.” Mom said as Pete came around the corner with the realtor trailing behind him.
“You sure you want this place?” Pete asked Sandy who nodded. I knew it was an act on Pete’s part as he sighed before turning to the realtor. “If she’s so set on the place, I guess we’ll take it, but we’re not paying a dime over four-twenty.”
“I’ll have to talk to the seller, but I think he’ll agree.” The realtor said with a slightly oily smile. That was a good thirty thousand less than the asking price, so Pete must have done some good bargaining, but it looked like the deal was made.
“We’d better get heading back.” Pete said. “Mom should be home with the baby by now.”
“Let’s go.” Sandy said before calling out for her daughter. Sandy and Mom took Sandy’s RX-7, while I got to drive Davey and the girls back and Pete took his own van back to Ceres.
“Can we stop at Foster’s Freeze on the way?” Jenny asked petulantly as we neared Ceres. Her and her friends had done nothing but chatter away the entire time, while Davey and I had pretty much remained silent.
“Sure.” I said with a sigh. She was always wanting something extra, no matter what we did, and as I expected, it was Davey who paid for the slushies at the Foster’s Freeze. We got back to Pete and Monta’s house just in time to see a strange man get out of his car, wearing a suit, and walk up to Sandy, who was standing in the driveway talking to Pete and my mother.
“Who’s that?” Jenny asked as I parked and we got out of the car just in time to hear Sandy start shouting at the man, who walked away quickly, holding a clipboard and shaking his head. Davey rushed forward to his mother’s side.
“What’s wrong?” He asked her.
“Your good-for-nothing father!” Pete snapped while Sandy held out a packet of papers to Davey.
“The bastard is suing me!” Sandy snarled angrily.
“What?” Jenny half-screeched.
“Why?” Davey asked as he took the papers and started riffling through them. I looked over his shoulder and read that Sandy was being sued by her estranged husband for half of the lottery money.
“Just because I haven’t gotten around to divorcing him yet he’s saying he deserves half of my money!” Sandy half-yelled, but she was near hysterical as my mother put a comforting arm around her. She turned and started crying into Mom’s shoulder.
“He can’t do this.” Davey snarled angrily as he shoved the papers at his grandfather who was giving him a stern gaze.
“Davey, don’t do…” Pete started to say, but Davey wasn’t listening. Instead, Davey was storming away, half-running down the street. With a glance at Mom I started after him.
“Davey…” I called out when I got close to him, halfway to his other grandmother’s house. She lived right around the corner, and it was a very short distance.
“Don’t try to stop me.” Davey fumed without slowing down as I pulled abreast of him.
“I’m not going to do that.” I said firmly. “Still, let’s walk, okay?”
“Why?” He asked.
“So you have a few extra minutes to think about what you’re going to say instead of just spouting off at him.” I answered. He stopped suddenly and gave me a long look.
“You’re not going to try to stop me?” He asked.
“No.” I answered simply. “I’ve got your back. This is wrong of him to try to do this.”
“Oh.” Davey said softly and then cocked his head as he looked at me. “What do you think I should say?”
“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “The man I knew would never do something like this, so you know him better than me. Plus, I always like to think things through before I do something. You’re the one who things on his feet really well, as long as you take a few minutes to run things through your head first. Me, I’d take a day or two to get something half as decent as what you can put together in a few minutes.”
“Okay.” Davey said with a curt nod of his head. “He’s doing this because… well because money has always been tight for grandma. He’s living there with her, Aunt Bev, Ron, and Bryan, and he’s having to work at McDonald’s, which I know he hates. He thinks it’s beneath him. Mom’s got this huge pile of money, and if she shared it with him, he’d not have to do that.”
“Do you think he’s even talked to her?” I asked Davey and he nodded.
“She told him no way in hell was he touching any of her money.” Davey answered.
“What can you do?” I asked him and he took a deep breath.
“He loves me.” Davey said softly. “Dad hates the fact that we don’t get along like we used to, and that I hardly ever go visit him.”
“That’s not your fault.” I affirmed and he shook his head.
“That still doesn’t change the fact that he misses that.” Davey said. “Okay, I think I know what I’m going to say.”
“Good.” I said as he started walking, but he stopped again and turned to look at me with a little smile on his face.
“Thanks.” He said quietly.
“You’re welcome.” I replied with a return smile. “It’s… I know we don’t talk about… about being in a relationship a lot, mostly because it makes you uncomfortable, but this is what I want. I want us to be able to depend on each other for advice, and to help each other out.”
“I… I think I could get use to this.” Davey said with a husky voice and he squeezed my arm once before turning to walk towards his grandmother’s. “You coming?”
“I’m right behind you.” I said affectionately and he chuckled. Soon enough we were walking up the driveway to his grandmother’s. Her old white and brown Chrysler was parked on the right of the driveway, while an ugly brown van was parked on the left and a boat was in the grassy area next to the left side of the driveway. The little red 1979 Toyota pickup that Davey’s father had bought years ago from Pete was parked on the side of the road in front of the house. It seemed everyone was home.
“Davey!” Davey’s paternal grandmother nearly shouted when she answered his knock on the door. “What a surprise! Oh look at you!”
“Hi Grandma.” Davey said as the woman pulled him into a tight hug. She was shorter than him, and looked a lot younger than the last time I’d seen her in 2007. “Is Dad home?”
“DAVID!” She shouted before releasing Davey. “Oh Davey! We haven’t seen you in weeks! What have you been up to? Who is this?”
“Grandma, this is my friend Brian.” Davey said politely. “Brian, this is my grandma.”
“It’s nice to meet a friend of Davey’s.” She said excitedly to me. “You boys come on inside and let me fix you something to eat!”
“I’m just here to talk to my father.” Davey said firmly, letting his anger show a bit and she frowned immediately.
“It’s about your mother, isn’t it?” She said sourly. “She got her papers today. Well, if that’s what it takes to bring you over here, I say your father should sue her every damn day! I swear, that woman! First she ruins our family, airing our dirty laundry for everyone to see and then she goes and wins the lottery and refuses to share the money like a good wife should! If I had that bitch in front of me right now I’d…”
“Stop it.” Davey growled and she frowned at him.
“Well, if that’s the way you’re going to talk to me, your grandmother, I don’t want you coming inside this house!” She snarled and stepped back as the sound of footsteps could be heard coming down the hallway. Davey’s father appeared behind her, his hair still wet from the shower he must have been taking when we showed up.
“Davey!” He said with excitement and a broad grin while I took in the differences between this man and the one I remembered from another time. This David Jones Sr. was overweight, and had a bushy mustache that he’d never worn in the time I’d known him in that other timeline.
“I need to talk to you.” Davey said firmly, ignoring his grandmother’s noises of distaste and staring at his father. His entire body was tense.
“Who is this?” His father asked, nodding in my direction.
“This is my best friend, Brian.” Davey answered. “Can we talk out here?”
“Uh, sure.” His father said as Davey and I took a few steps back and down so we were off of the front porch. As he stepped outside he turned to his mother. “I’ll be just a few minutes, mother.”
“You put him in his place, David!” She snarled before slamming the door behind him. He shook his head and turned to look at Davey.
“I take it your mother was served?” He asked and Davey nodded. “You want to talk about this in front of him?”
“He and his parents bought Mom the winning lottery ticket as a gift.” Davey said through gritted teeth as he stared his father down. “His family let us use their apartment in the city when Mom was going through her surgery. I’ve stayed at his place for the last few months, and his mother his going into business with Mom. As far as I’m concerned he’s a part of my family.”
“I see.” David Jones Sr. said as he gave me an appraising look. “I appreciate everything your family has done for my son and my wife.”
“She’s only your wife because she hasn’t gotten the nerve up yet to actually file for divorce.” Davey snarled. “Maybe now you’ve finally pushed her far enough she’ll file the damn paperwork.”
“Watch your language young man!” Davey’s father snapped at him. “You’re still my son!”
“You may have sired me, but you’ve long since given up any right to be a part of my family.” Davey shot back angrily.
“Only because your mother refused to…” David Jones started to say, but Davey cut him off.
“She refused to forget what you did to Jenny, how you did what no father should ever to do to his daughter, and she refuses to live a lie just so you can save face.” Davey shot back.
“We were married before God, and you can’t just turn your back on that when things don’t go right.” His father retorted.
“This is a little beyond ‘irreconcilable differences.” Davey snorted. “You don’t deserve her.”
“How dare you say that?” Davey’s father nearly shouted as his face turned purple. “I don’t know how you think you can talk to an adult, much less your father that way but I won’t stand for it!”
“I can talk to you this way because you’ve long since lost any right to deal with me as a parent to his child.” Davey’s voice dropped an octave and his hands balled up into a fist. “When you touched my sister the way you did, you gave up any and all rights to deal with me as a parent. The most you can ever hope for is that one day I’ll be ready to forgive you and we might develop a relationship as adults. When you did what you did to Jenny, you did more than just molest her. You destroyed our family. You forced Mom to make decisions no wife or mother should ever have to make, and you forced me to assume the responsibilities of an adult. Or have you forgotten that it has been me, not you, whose been paying the bills for Jenny’s psychotherapist?”
“I haven’t… you can’t blame me that no one will hire me after it was in all the papers…” His father said weakly.
“Now you try to take what Mom has luckily been given thanks to Brian and his parents?” Davey continued in that low, vicious tone. “Is that how you plan to prove to me that you’re worthy of being a part of my life?”
“What?” David Jones Sr. asked with real confusion in his eyes.
“You do want to earn my approval, my respect, and maybe have some reconciliation with me and Jenny, don’t you?” Davey asked calmly.
“Of course I do…” His father replied, but stopped as Davey stared at him silently.
“Is this the best way to do it?” Davey asked him and the older man stared at his son for a long time.
“When did you get so wise?” David Jones asked his son.
“I did listen, you know.” His son stated in a voice that was void of the anger that had been there earlier. It was still quiet, but there was a softness to it that had not been evident until now. The older man’s head jerked up a bit and he gave his son a quizzical look. “When you were preaching. I listened. When I was younger, I remember you preaching about Jesus and how he acted when the Roman soldiers came to arrest him. Remember in Waterford when Sampson was beating me up? I could have fought back anytime, I could have pummeled him, but I didn’t because I remembered you teaching how violence was not the answer according to Jesus.”
“You did fight him eventually, and you won.” David Sr. said with a slight smile while I stared in surprise at Davey. I’d never heard this story before. “You and he were the best of friends for a long time, until we moved back to Modesto.”
“Yes, but I didn’t fight him until he hit April.” Davey said with a slight chuckle.
“He’s in Modesto now.” David Sr. said calmly. “I saw him the other day. His parents moved to Modesto last year.”
“Oh.” Davey said softly before shaking his head. “My point, Dad, is that I did listen to your sermons. There was a lot of good in them, and I’m a better person for having listened to them. When… when we came back and I was old enough to work, I got a job so we could afford Jenny’s sessions. No, don’t look like that. This is not an attack on you for not being able to pay for it. I do understand why you couldn’t, but because of what I learned from your sermons I didn’t hesitate to do the right thing when it was needed.”
“I… I can’t say how proud of you I am for that.” His father said in a quiet tone and Davey cocked his head to the side while looking at his father.
“Then why don’t you practice what you use to preach?” He asked his father and the older man flinched before frowning.
“I… I… you don’t understand.” David Sr. replied softly. “Your grandmother’s had to take a second mortgage out on the house because of the legal bills, and Bev’s medical bills. Your Aunt was in the hospital for a few weeks there, you know.”
“No, I didn’t, and I should have.” Davey said softly.
“She’d like to see you.” David Sr. said softly.
“Maybe I will, before I leave.” Davey said quietly. “Still, does any of that justify you doing this to Mom?”
“I… no, it doesn’t.” David Sr. said softly. “It’s just… you know how your grandmother can be.”
“Yes, but that doesn’t justify you giving in to her.” Davey said firmly.
“I have to live here, damn it!” His father snapped and Davey did look sympathetic for a moment.
“I’d be ready to kill her if I had to live here for more than a few months.” Davey snorted and his father chuckled softly. “Look, Dad, I didn’t know about the mortgage and all that. Maybe I can talk Mom into helping with that. She loves Bev still, you know.”
“I know.” Dad sighed. “Sometimes I feel guilty because the two of them have been friends since high school and now Sandy can’t even talk to her on the phone.”
“Dad, you don’t deserve half the money, but Mom won’t ignore a real need over here like this.” Davey said in a quiet but firm voice. “Let me talk to her, give me some time.”
“Okay, son.” David Sr. said with a sigh. “Your grandmother might kill me, but I’ll drop the suit.”
“Thank you.” Davey said.
“Now, why don’t you come and say hello to your aunt?” His father asked.
“Brian, you’re going to love my Aunt Bev.” Davey said with a bright smile as he turned to me. “Just be careful or she’ll run you over with her wheelchair.”
“Okay.” I said with a smile of my own while my feet winced in remembered pain. Okay, maybe these feet didn’t remember the pain of her wheelchair running over them, but I did have those memories, and the woman could be quite vicious when she wanted to make a point.
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