Twice Retired Read Online Free PDF Page A

messed him up.”
    “Look, none of this explains why the
old guy lied to us.” Kenny said, harnessing the initial
conversation. “We should confront him. Maybe he has some wires crossed.”
    “It’s none of our business.” Jake
said.
    Kenny thought about it. He knew damn
well that no father-son relationship deserved to die without proper
reason. His dad had hit the bricks, and he still didn’t know why.
He wasn’t satisfied, even though his mom and his friends and the
counsellor at school had told him to move on. How in the hell does
a kid move on after something like that ? Kenny didn’t buy what they were selling-
didn’t even take the free sample. Uh-uh. He was going to find his
dad someday, someday when he wouldn’t have to ask his mom for a
ride. Maybe ask her for the car, but he was going to drive himself.
Show up on his dad’s porch and knock on the door until the bastard
or somebody else answered. He’d sneak past whatever slut it was
that opened the door and scour the house till he found his dad. If
he was going to spend the next seventy years without a father, he
was going to find out why, dammit. He was going to smack his dad
around if he had to, hold him down and kneel on his chest if that’s
what it took- his dad wasn’t that big, and Kenny figured that by
the time he got his license, he’d be bigger than his old man. He’d
smack that chickenshit bastard around and make him explain why he
took off. Make him make his son understand why he wasn’t good
enough to stick it out. Kenny was going to do all this. Now, if he
was thirteen years old and committed himself to this, then no fully
grown men, a son almost forty and a dad almost sixty, should ever
put up a wall without the proper psychological foundations. The old
guy seemed sick… and so old… it would be a shame to see their ends
come separately. Kenny wouldn’t let it happen.
    “You know what?” Kenny said. “It is our
business, Jake. It is. And you know what else? I’m going back there
tomorrow and I’m gonna ask him why he lied. And I’m going to ask
him how he dares to be such a small person that he’s going to let
his son screw off on him like my dad did to me and Jenny and
mom.”
    “I would like to know why he lied.”
Jake said.
    “Me too.” Philip agreed.
    “Yeah, me too. But I want to know more.
More. If he was jealous, fine. But if all this was was a squabble,
a typical father and son fight, then neither one of them deserves
to spend the rest of their lives apart. They’re already missing a
wife and a mother. That’s crap.”
    “I’ll go with you.” Jake
said.
    “Cool. But I don’t want you hammering
on this guy all day about the whole no-hitter thing. It’s not about
that.”
    “To me it is.” Jake said.
    “Just lay off and let me talk.” Kenny
ordered. Jake nodded. Philip nodded too, knowing he’d go along as
well. He’d lag behind through that rough inclined section of their
journey, but he’d go along.
    They spent their early evening playing
video games before Kenny and Jacob returned to their own houses.
Once, Kenny started up a conversation about the whole nickname
issue that the old man had dragged in front of the tiny jury.
Philip waved him off, telling him not to worry about it. He was
cool with the name. Never mind all the crying at the cabin. He
didn’t mind. Really.
    Kenny didn’t buy any of what Philip was
selling, either.
    Before Kenny left at seven p.m., he
cornered Philip’s mom in her kitchen.
    He asked her to stop calling her son
Plug.
    The next day he’d tell Jake the same
thing.
     
     
    ---------
     
    “You little bastard! Do you have any
idea what time it is?” Right out of the bottle, the lemon-gin
spilled all over the sofa, but it wouldn’t be cleaned up. In fact,
it would probably be impossible to find a cloth underneath the
Himalayan Range of Dirty Dishes in the kitchen. Mrs. Gilbride
remained in her half-lying position, propped up by pillows and at
the same time dragged