Jake and Rachel came home to find Eugene watching TV. They stopped, studied him, and Eugene said without turning, “I’m fine. The car won’t be ready for a few days. Rachel, you got a call from Truman. Call him at his home.”
“What did he want?”
Eugene shrugged. Rachel picked up the cordless phone and walked to the bedroom. Jake sat down next to his brother, who asked, “Where were you two?”
“Rachel was helping me with something.”
“With what?”
Jake said, “With checking something out.”
Eugene glanced at him, then turned back to the TV. He flipped through the channels. Jake heard Rachel murmuring in the bedroom. Eugene cleared his throat. “You wouldn’t happen to have some extra cash to lend me, would you?”
Jake wasn’t sure he heard his brother right. He said, “What?”
“I’m liquidating my IRA, but it’ll take a few days. I need a few thousand. I can pay you back next week.”
“What’s an ira?”
“I.R.A. My retirement account.”
“Are you having money problems?”
Eugene said, “A little.”
Jake sat back. Eugene was asking him for money? He had trouble digesting this. “How much?”
“This car repair’s going to be more than I thought, and I’ve maxed out most of my credit cards—”
“How much?”
“Thirty-five hundred.”
“For the car?”
“Also for some smaller bills.” Eugene waved his hand. “Look, it’s no big deal. Forget I asked—”
“I can write you a check now, or get you cash tomorrow.”
“A check is fine. I can pay you back next week.”
Jake nodded and went to the guest room to find his checkbook. These were still the temporary checks the bank had given him, and he wrote one for four thousand dollars. He returned and handed it to his brother. Eugene glanced at it and said, “It’s more.”
“I like even numbers.”
“Thanks.” He folded it and slipped it into his breast pocket.
“Who’s Truman?” Jake asked.
“Guy at her old job. I think they want her back.”
“The bank?”
Eugene nodded. “Maybe she’ll go back now that things are different.”
“You mean splitting up,” Jake said. He glanced at the boxes. Rachel hadn’t made much progress since yesterday. “Where will you live?”
“I don’t know.”
“How soon do you need me out?”
“A month.”
“All right,” Jake said. “How’s your job search?”
“What job search?”
“Aren’t you looking?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
Eugene said slowly, “I’m not ready.”
“Don’t you need money?”
“Are you going to get on my case?” Eugene said.
Jake shook his head.
“Let me worry about my problems. You worry about yours.”
He said, “Sorry.”
After a minute, Eugene said, “I remember the charts. I had forgotten about those.”
“The ones about Dad?”
“Yeah. I’m surprised you remembered them.”
“I liked that you did that. It was somehow steadying.”
Eugene nodded. “I did it until high school, and by then I had a pretty thick book. But I never tried to analyze them. It was too much data.”
“What’d you do with them?”
“I think I threw them out when I left for school.”
“Threw them out? All that work?”
Eugene said, “There was no pattern.”
“How do you know if you didn’t analyze them—”
“There was no pattern.”
“If you say so.”
Eugene nodded. “I say so.”
Jake glanced at the clock. He thought about calling the numbers Chih’s wife had given him. He pulled out his cell phone. “Gotta make a call.”
Jake began to walk out. He felt Lomax’s warranty certificate still folded against his waist.
“You know,” Eugene said. “You can always go straight. Maybe I can help you find a decent job.”
Jake stopped. “And make me a millionaire like you were?” He shook his head. “I wish she hadn’t mentioned that.”
“I’ll be fine.”
Eugene said, “Are you sure about that?”
“No, but I’m doing okay.”
“If you say so.”
“Of everyone I know, and that includes you and Rachel, and even Dad, I seem to be the only one not hating what I do.”
This made Eugene pause. “Maybe.” He was quiet for a moment, then asked, “Did you ever visit Dad at work?”
“No.”
“I did once.”
“Yeah? When?”
“When I was doing the messenger job with Vid-Pro.”
“When you biked all over town?”
“That’s right. I had to deliver something to a production company near Pacific Point Boat Repair.”
“One of the places he worked at,” Jake said.
“I thought I’d look in,” Eugene said, shrugging. “He had a small corner with a water tank for outboard engines. When I went in the other guys there were looking at a hull. Dad was in the corner working. They called him ‘Chinky’ and asked him to check out the hull.”
Jake tensed. “Did they,” he said evenly.
“Dad looked pleased and went over there. He looked at the hull and the guys asked him what he thought. They said, ‘So what’s your big engineering degree tell you?’ And Dad said something I couldn’t hear but the others laughed. One of them said something like ‘You’d sink the boat, you idiot.’ Another one told him to go back to his jap engines. He was just a big joke.” Eugene shook his head. “No wonder he hated his goddamn job.”