Chapter Three

An hour later, Jack's father, Wade Harper, showed up in his battered 1965 Ford Mustang. Once dark green, the car badly needed a coat of paint. Gray primer showed through on both sides and the front bumper was cracked and about to fall off. The engine, however, was perfect, and Wade constantly claimed he was going to get the “old warhorse” cleaned up.

The joke between them, one repeated almost every time they saw each other, was that once the car was patched up, Wade would start showing it at Mustang shows, with all the other sixties guys who made a fetish out of the beloved model. Wade swore he would soon have the best-looking car at Bob's Big Boy's weekly classic car contest. But Jack knew better. If Wade actually fixed the car up and showed it at the old-car contest, that would be a tacit admission that he was sixty-four years old and that he had an “old guy” hobby. By not fixing the car up, he got to drive around like he was some kind of badass looking for girls and hot-rod races.

In short, Wade was having a lot of trouble admitting he was getting old, a lot closer to the end of the line than the beginning.

He lived in an apartment near the farmer's market and spent most of his retirement hanging out at EB's Wine Bar with a raffish assortment of roofers, welders, criminal lawyers, rockers, and wannabe actresses who enjoyed the camaraderie of beer, wine drinking, gossip, and occasional romances that flowered after a few too many drinks. Still good looking and fairly trim, Wade was dating a forty-eight-year-old ex-dancer named Billie Stone who taught elementary school at Carthay Circle. She was crazy about Wade, but he worried that she secretly thought he was too old for her. Whenever Jack asked him if was going to marry her, his father would say, “If I do she'll get all my money. I mean when we get divorced in two or three years. You know how that goes. Then what am I going to leave you and Kevin?”

You could get her to sign a prenup, Jack said. But his old man just sighed and shook his head.

“Any good attorney can find ways to break one of those. Nah, I'm finished with marriage. Been there, done that. I'm fine living alone. Can't stand women more than three times a week anyway.”

Jack laughed. Maybe being a fucked-up renegade ran in the family. Maybe the scientists were right. It was all in the genes and there was little you could do about any of it.

As Jack packed for his flight to Albuquerque, he went over the rules with his dad.

“I want Kevin in bed at ten. Not staying up all night listening to your stories.”

Wade took a sip of Wild Turkey and laughed at Jack.

“You don't trust me to take care of my grandson, then maybe you ought to hire a professional babysitter!”

From the bedroom, Kevin gave a horselaugh.

“Yeah, like I'm a baby. I'll be sixteen soon, Grandpa.”

“That's right,” Wade said. “You gotta let the boy become a man, Jackie.”

“All in due time, Dad,” Jack said. “Ten o'clock bedtime for you, Kev. I'm not kidding.”

“No problem,” Kevin said.

“Yeah,” Wade said, lighting a Marlboro. “And if he's five minutes behind schedule I'm going to go in there and spank his butt!”

There was a mocking laugh from the other room.

“Right,” Kevin yelled. “I'll kick your butt, Granddaddy!”

“Hey,” Wade said. “If you hit me and I hear about it, I'm gonna really be pissed off.”

Jack laughed and shook his head. His dad had used the exact same lines on him when he was Kevin's age. It was comforting to hear the old saw, and Jack felt relieved that Kevin had laughed at the joke. Maybe he was feeling a little less furious at Jack for leaving.

He went into his son's bedroom and found him lying on his bed reading a manga called Death Note.

“Hey, Kev,” Jack said, sitting down next to him, “I'm sorry I have to go right now.”

It's that woman you talk about sometimes, Michelle Wu, isn't it? Kevin asked.

It is, Jack said.

“Why do you have to fly off to save her butt? Isn't she a criminal?”

“Yeah,” Jack said, “she is. But she also saved my life about two years ago.”

“You told me already,” Kevin said.

His tone was filled with doubt.

“It's true,” Jack said. “She really did. I owe her.”

Kevin put the book down and Jack took the opportunity to give him a hug.

“I'll get back as soon as I can, Kev, Jack said.”

“I know,” Kevin responded, “I just wish you had more time for me sometimes, Dad.”

“I'll make time, Kev. I promise,” he said.

But even as he spoke the words he felt as though they were a lie.