The Talented Ribkins, page 16
“You don’t even know Shayna.”
“I don’t know you either,” Eloise said. “You’re just one part of this family, Uncle Johnny. Shayna told me I’d do best to remember that.”
Johnny squinted. He took a moment to study her expression, tried to see her clearly through all the other things weighing on his mind.
“It’s that pie, isn’t it?”
“No. Well, yes.” Eloise shrugged. “I made it for you. You could have at least tasted it.”
“Well, you’re right of course. I’m sorry about that. But I really wasn’t feeling well.”
“You didn’t even taste it. And it seems like you don’t want me around. I know you’re busy, I know you got your errands. But every time I look up you are already walking out the door.”
He sighed.
“It’s a debt.”
“What?”
“What I got. The reason I’ve been in such a bad mood. The reason I’ve been doing all this digging and sneaking around. It’s got nothing to do with you. Truth is I got to give somebody some money when I get back to St. Augustine. That’s why I was down there at your mama’s place. Trying to dig up money.”
She blinked. “I thought it was for the shop. You lied to me?”
“I did. Little bit. Figured it was my problem, needn’t concern you. Didn’t even want you to see what I was doing so I made you wait in the car. But I’m starting to realize that maybe it’s better to just come out and tell the truth. Because I don’t want there to be any misunderstandings between us. Not going to have you thinking you got anything to do with my bad moods. Because if anything, you are the one thing that’s been making me feel better about my situation, reminding me of all the things I still got to do when I get to the other side of it.”
He put out his hand. “I’m asking you to give me another chance.”
The two of them walked back through the house and said their goodbyes to Shayna and Uncle Bart.
“Got to hit the road. Tell Bertrand no hard feelings. Tell him I had to go.”
He bent down and hugged his uncle. “See you soon.”
Uncle Bart nodded his head and smiled.
“Don’t forget who put you on this road,” Melvin’s voice called out. “Don’t forget you work for me.”
“No, I won’t.” Johnny smiled. “It’s good to see you too, Uncle.”
—
They wound back down the dark hill.
“Shayna said you were a con man,” Eloise said. “When she came in and you weren’t there she said you probably slipped out right quick to run a con on somebody. Did you?”
“No.”
“Are you a con man?”
Johnny shifted in his seat. “Look, girl. I don’t know if you noticed but everybody in that family talks too much. It’s what you call a common trait. Right now they’re upset about Shayna’s divorce. She married a weak man, had all those kids by him, has got to figure out how to feed them on her own.” He searched for her eyes in the rearview mirror. “Try not to do that when you get grown.”
She looked out the window.
“It’s interesting,” Eloise said. “While you were gone I watched those girls pull apart two clocks and a transistor radio, then put them all back together again good as new. And it occurred to me that there are five of them and they have talents totally different from their mother. Yet they all seemed to have pretty much the same one. How do you think that works?”
“I don’t know. Never really gave it much thought.”
“Well, think about it now.” She sounded annoyed. “I’m asking you to think about it.”
“Okay,” Johnny said. But really he had other things on his mind. He was still trying to make sense of all this new information about what Franklin had been up to before he died.
Months had passed since Johnny gave back those pictures and his brother was still not acting right. Staying out all night, not showing up for work at the shop, spending all his time with this new girl of his, Meredith. That was what had been bothering Johnny. Yet whenever he tried to get Franklin to explain what was going on they always wound up talking about Dawson.
“Remember all that stuff you used to tell me about the Justice Committee? I do. I know for a fact there was a time when you never would have considered keeping a secret for someone like Dawson.”
He hadn’t understood the connection between the two things, thought Franklin was just trying to change the subject no matter how many times he told him that it wasn’t that.
“I’m not trying to make excuses, Johnny. It was my fault and I know that. I’m the one who spent Dawson’s money before I knew what it was for. You think I don’t know that was my fault? You think I don’t know all you’ve done for me? All the shit you’ve put up with on my account?” He shook his head. “Sometimes I think about when we first headed out. How you came all that way to find me. I was kind of an asshole to you sometimes, wasn’t I?”
“You’re still an asshole, if it makes you feel any better.”
“I was scared. Trying to convince myself I could handle it, that whatever this world had in store for me, I was ready for it. I think a lot of that stuff I used to say to you was really just me talking to myself.”
He remembered his brother smiling at him. “I love you, Johnny Ribkins. Why, you’re about the truest family I ever had. Probably saved my life, in some ways. But, see, not everybody has got somebody willing to come looking for them like that. I know that now too. And I’m not scared anymore. Whatever I’ve done, whatever mistakes I’ve made since then are my responsibility, not yours. Hear me?”
“Okay.”
“You know what I hate thinking about now? What really bothers me? That after all we’ve been through and all you’ve done for me, somehow I’ve become just another voice in your head, telling you that you got something wrong.”
These memories, and the confusion they provoked, were starting to upset Johnny. He had to remind himself that that was the past and right now he needed to focus on the present, on all the things he had to be grateful for. He had Melvin’s money, his digging was done, and by this time tomorrow he and Eloise would finally be home. He knew he should be happy. But every now and then his thoughts drifted away from him, and he started thinking about Meredith’s picture again. Then he’d have to take a deep breath, shut his eyes for a moment, and try to relive watching it burn.
—
It wasn’t until he reached the bottom of the hill that he saw the red lights, flashing brighter and brighter the closer he got to Popeyes.
He pulled up to the curb. There was an ambulance and a small crowd of people standing in the parking lot, watching something happening on the sidewalk. Across the street was the battered hull of a yellow Camaro, Reg and Clyde standing next to it, watching.
“Stay here. I’m going to check and make sure they don’t need any help.”
Johnny got out of the car and pushed his way to the front of the crowd. A man was sitting on the ground with his legs splayed, two paramedics crouched in front of him trying to fit an oxygen mask over his nose.
It was Bertrand.
Johnny turned around and looked at the battered Camaro. He charged across the street.
“What did you all do?”
“Do?” Reg shook his head. “I had to help him find his pills.”
“What?”
“His pills.” He looked traumatized. “We went to Popeyes to get something to eat. Were just sitting in the parking lot and next thing we know there’s this popping sound like a gun going off; I looked up and saw sparks flying everywhere. I tried to pull out of the lot and crashed into a tree. Your cousin was standing in the middle of the road, shouting something about how he was going to teach us a lesson in respect. Then he kind of just crumpled over.”
“Crumpled over?”
Reg glared at him. “Your cousin has a heart condition. Didn’t you know that? It’s what the pills were for.”
“A heart condition?” Johnny looked back at Bertrand being lifted onto the stretcher.
“Is he going to be all right?”
“I don’t know. How am I supposed to know?” Reg turned to Clyde. “Why didn’t you do something?”
“I did do something. I ducked,” Clyde said. “Then I moved the car. You were so busy messing around with that fool you didn’t even think to move the car, did you?”
“Messing around? Is that what you call it? I probably saved that man’s life.”
“All I know is somebody needed to move the car.” He looked at Johnny. “You thought we hit him with it, didn’t you?”
Johnny stared across the street as the paramedics loaded Bertrand onto the back of the ambulance.
Reg shook his head. “Why did he do that?”
“Old and crazy,” Clyde shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe the pressure got to be too much for him and he snapped. The point is he did it to himself.”
“I understand that,” Reg said. “Still. It’s just sad.”
“It’s like what I was telling you before,” Clyde said. “Can’t keep going on like that, not listening to reason, not paying attention to how things work. There are rules. That’s just the way it is.”
“Yes, I think I got that,” Reg said.
“Good. Because I don’t care how smart you think you are. If you can’t figure out that much you always gonna be more of a danger to yourself than anyone else is.”
They shut the ambulance doors.
“Keep fucking around and one day you wind up just like that fool there.”
Johnny turned around and realized Reg and Clyde weren’t watching the ambulance. They were looking at him.
“Now open your trunk,” Clyde said.
“What?”
“You heard me. You are gonna pay for these damages. Matter of fact, you’re going to buy us a new car.”
“Wait a minute now. I can’t do that. I didn’t have anything to do with this.”
“Yeah, I know. It’s what you said the last time, when your nephew cracked the window. And you just an innocent bystander, just standing there with a trunk full of money.”
“It’s the truth.”
“Maybe. I don’t really care. Which is the same as saying it doesn’t really matter.”
“Look, now. Bertrand did this. He was wrong to do it and I’m going to tell him that. Just give him a couple days to get back on his feet. We can straighten this out.”
“You straighten it out. He’s your family, your responsibility. Or did you not hear what Reg tried to tell you the last time? Keep your family in check.”
“But—”
“You were warned. Take some responsibility. Have some self-respect.”
“But—”
“What did I just say?” Clyde shook his head. “You know what your problem is? You think everything is about you. Think this is your story just because you happen to be in it. But you’re wrong; it’s about us. Reg and me, what we are going to do, the choices we are going to make, and all we been through trying to follow you around in that car. And right now I’m telling you, you are going to open that trunk. Hear me Johnny? Don’t make me hurt you. I don’t want to have to hurt you. In front of that child.”
Johnny looked at Eloise sitting in the back seat of the car, then back at the two of them.
“Just open the damn trunk, Johnny,” Reg said.
What else could he do? He opened his trunk.
Clyde reached in, rifled through Johnny’s things, and pulled out a stack of bills. He glanced over his shoulder.
“Heard your cousin talking about me and Reg, just before he fell out. Next time you see him ask him how I’m supposed to respect him if he don’t respect me?”
He reached back in and pulled out another fistful of bills. “How am I supposed to respect you if you don’t respect yourself?”
He shoved the money into the pockets of his jacket and shut the trunk.
Johnny watched them walk back across the street, then opened the trunk and counted what was left. Clyde had taken all the money he’d dug up since leaving Meredith, and then some. When he pulled out of her driveway he’d needed to come up with $20,000. After all that digging he’d done since then, he was now $30,000 short.
He closed the trunk.
“What was that about?” Eloise asked him as he got back in the car. He sank down in the driver’s seat, leaned his head back, and shut his eyes.
“Uncle Johnny?”
“Give me a minute.”
Part of the reason he’d accepted Melvin’s terms was because he knew the money was there. He’d never doubted his ability to get what he needed, and even after he’d given Meredith the money to pay her mortgage, even after he realized Simone had gone ahead and taken the money she needed to pay hers, it never occurred to him that his situation would not come down to a question of his own endurance. But now he only had three days left. And even if he did have the strength to keep digging the way he had been, the truth was he was running out of holes.
“Uncle Johnny?”
On top of everything else there was a little girl sitting in the back seat. Where exactly did he think he was he taking her? And if he couldn’t pay Melvin back, what did he think would happen when they got there?
“Change of plans.” He swiveled around. “Listen, Eloise. Starting to look like my situation is a little more complicated than I thought. Might be you were right, maybe you should just stay here until I get things figured out.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“Might have spoken too soon.”
“Too soon? What does that mean? You just asked me to give you a second chance.”
“I know. And I still want that. Turns out I might not be quite ready for it yet.”
“So, what, now you saying you don’t want me with you no more?”
“No, girl. That’s the opposite of what I’m saying.” Johnny shook his head. “I don’t want to disappoint you anymore.”
“Then don’t.”
Across the street he heard the engine turn as Reg and Clyde started the Camaro. He watched as they took off down the road, clearing Johnny’s line of sight of the billboard that had been hidden behind the car. It was a VOTE DAWSON sign and it had been defaced.
“Maybe you’re not my daddy’s brother after all.”
“What?”
“You heard me. I mean you’re nothing like he said you were. Not at all. If my daddy’s brother made somebody a promise he kept it.”
Johnny shut his eyes. “How you figure you can tell me what I would do?”
“Mama told me. It’s what daddy told her. Told mama all about his brother coming to find him when nobody else bothered. Told her how one day, out of the blue, Johnny Ribkins showed up on his doorstep and just like that everything changed. Told him he had a talent, that all the people who’d been telling him all his life that there was something wrong with him were just ignorant, that what he had was a gift. And for the first time he started to feel like maybe it was true. Started to believe it, that he was gifted. Started to believe in himself, to feel like there wasn’t nothing he couldn’t do if he set his mind to it. What’s more, he wasn’t alone anymore. Because now he had a brother.”
“That’s what your mama told you?”
“She’s been telling me all my life. Why do you think she wanted me to come with you? You were my daddy’s hero. Don’t you know that?”
Johnny said nothing. She was making him feel bad, reminding him that she was not simply his niece but always also his brother’s child. And that meant any promises made and broken were not just between the two of them. He was also responsible for his brother’s share.
“That’s why he was working so hard to fix that map.”
“What map?”
“Your map. The one that got all busted up. Mama said that’s what he was doing when he got sick. Trying to fix it and then he was going to give it back to you like a present.”
“A present, huh?” He stared at Dawson’s billboard. Someone had drawn dollar signs over the eyes, blackened his teeth and replaced them with jagged fangs. Hanging over the whole thing was the word “sellout” written in an angry red scrawl.
After a while he took a deep breath and said, “Tell me something, Eloise. Your mama ever tell you anything about your daddy leaving some money?”
“Why?”
“Just curious.”
“Well, he left a lot of things in the attic…boxes mostly. One time I found a real nice ring up there. But, no, I don’t know anything about any money.”
Johnny realized that was probably true. If Meredith had had any money she wouldn’t have stayed in Lehigh Acres; if nothing else he believed her when she said she’d been stuck there. Yet only three weeks passed between the time she and Franklin took off for Lehigh and when Johnny got the phone call letting him know that his brother wasn’t coming back. He had a hard time imagining how the two of them could have figured out a way to spend whatever money they’d gotten from Dawson in so little time. So what had happened to it?
“Maybe he hid it,” Eloise said.
“What?”
“I told you my daddy used to hide stuff sometimes. Maybe he did like you did at that fort. Put it someplace he wanted to get back to someday. If you need money to pay off your debt, I bet we could find it. I mean, if we worked together, like a team.”
He smiled. “Pretty quick, aren’t you? You’re a smart girl, you catch things? Not a lot get past you?”
“I guess.”
He nodded. “Catching things” was what she called her talent, but what did that really mean? They’d been riding together for four days and the whole time he’d been so worried about getting Melvin his money that he hadn’t even bothered to try to figure out what her talent actually was. All he’d seen so far was a facility for catching cans and rocks thrown at her head. It would make sense if there was more to it than that.
“Why don’t you go ahead and show me what exactly it is you do. Your talent.”
“Now?”
“Yes, now. Why not?”
They got out of the car, stood in the empty parking lot. Johnny walked backward until they were about ten feet apart. “Go ahead, now. Let me see you catch something.”
