The Fire Went Wild (Home is a Fire Book 2) Read online

“Good morning, Derek,” he started, warm but cautious, as he removed his sunglasses. Dressed in a t-shirt, lightweight linen pants and shoes with no socks, he looked very much the part of the California beach bum. “Thanks for coming out to meet me. I can imagine that this must feel a little odd to you. It’s all new for me, as well.”

  Before I could respond, the waitress stopped by the table. “Can I get y’all some drinks to start with?”

  “I’ll have a Monster Mimosa, please,” I said, looking up. “And keep ‘em coming.”

  She smiled and made a note on her pad. “And you, sir?”

  “Green tea with soy milk, please.” She nodded and walked towards the bar. “I don’t drink anymore, by the way,” he said to me. “It clouded my judgment. Too many bad decisions.”

  “Well, a few more clouds aren’t going to confuse me anymore than I already am,” I said. “I hope that’s okay for you?”

  “Fine, fine.” He nodded, unsure of what else to say.

  We were stuck, already. This was awkward. Two grown men. Family. And no idea where to start.

  “Listen,” he began, “I didn’t expect for you to run over here with open arms. I understand that. The only expectation I have for today is just for us to have a conversation, see where it goes. I know I made mistakes. I did. Plenty of them. And I can’t make up for all the time I wasn’t here. But if you’d give me the chance, I’d like to get to know you now, if I can?”

  It was a statement and a question and a goal all rolled into one. He was trying. It really was my choice, what happened next. He was smart enough to know that it was up to me to make or break this. But I had to hand it to him. He finally showed up. And that took courage.

  The drinks arrived and I let my mimosa work a little of its magic before I responded. He ordered the vegan falafel platter and an extra side of hummus. I ordered the cheeseburger with bacon and curly fries. We’d definitely chosen different paths there, but learning these idiosyncrasies was part of the adventure, and I made the decision to sign on for the ride.

  “So,” I said, giving in. “Where have you been all my life, stranger?” My Monster Mimosa had kicked in, apparently.

  He smiled, catching the joke and took that as his cue. He started by recounting most of the stuff that I already knew. His and mom’s courtship and subsequent marital breakdown were pretty much just how Barry had described it. A friend of his had moved out to Los Angeles, and when it seemed that nothing could go right for him in Parkville, he ditched it all and followed his friend to the West Coast, as he had always dreamed. He said that he knew leaving us was wrong, but he felt we would be better off without him. Starting over in a new town wasn’t easy, but as my mom said, he was charming as hell, and it didn’t take long before he had a pretty good life. He spent some time on a commune, became a certified yoga instructor, gave up meat and alcohol and smoking. He even studied Buddhism. It turns out that there was a freedom loving hippie on the inside just dying to get out, and discovering this turned his life around. He met a girl and they moved in together and she encouraged him to try his hand at art, as he had always wanted. He found out painting wasn’t his thing, but when he starting sculpting from raw materials, everything just made sense to him. He caught a few lucky breaks and sold some pieces to a few prominent celebrities, and soon enough he had a following. Apparently he was now a fairly well known and respected artist. If I’d only bothered to Google him, I might have known that.

  When his parents passed, one quickly after the other, he took care of all the details from a distance. He said he wasn’t ready to come home. He’d made too many mistakes here, and this part of his life seemed so removed from his current path. He sold his parents’ land, except for the farmhouse, deposited the money in the bank and kept working on his art. He and his girlfriend eventually split, amicably.

  “And then one day I woke up and I was fifty years old. Fifty!” he said. “It’s such a monumental number, you know. I was happy. Content. California’s beautiful, but I suddenly realized it wasn’t my home. Sure, the beach, the desert, the mountains, they’re all beautiful. But that smog and all the driving? It was toxic. It took me two hours just to get anywhere, and I didn’t want to end my life as a recluse, hiding on my compound, ordering everything online. I spent the next few years figuring things out. Before I blinked, I was fifty-five. Then I realized I didn’t want to be there, anymore. I’d had a fun adventure, but it was time to come home. And that’s when I reached out to your mom. Thankfully, she answered the call, and well, we just started talking again. I asked about you, and she told me about New York, that you had moved away, and then eventually returned home. Luke, the whole thing.” He paused, taking a moment to really gather his thoughts. “I have a lot to atone for, Derek. I know that. But I’m not the man I was when I left.”

  I looked him straight in the eyes. “I believe you.” He looked relieved. “Luke and I have this thing we do whenever everything goes wrong. We just hit reset. It goes something like this. Hi, I’m Derek.” I extended my hand.

  “Hi, I’m Johnny. Pleased to meet you.”

  “So, tell me about this sculpture I saw.”

  And we started again, from there.

  11

  BELLE, THE BEAST

  The interim election for mayor took place on a Tuesday, as is customary, and Edward Bellman won by a landslide, capturing 100% of the vote. He was the only candidate after all, so the result was not unexpected.

  What was unexpected, however, was his victory speech. For a man who did as little as possible as principal of Parkville High, he seemed to have discovered a fount of youthful energy in his new position, as he laid out a far-reaching plan to “clean up” Parkville and “save” it from its too inevitable crawl into the debauchery of the twenty-first century. This was a man, suddenly, who believed his own press. Family values? From the crossdresser? I wanted to laugh, but truly, I knew better than to be naive. As my grade school English teacher once taught us, “Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

  “That’s Belle, for you,” said Barry, as he scanned the Parkville Post that morning over his healthy breakfast of cantaloupe and cottage cheese. “I warned you she was a stage hog. Watch out, Dolly. I’m afraid you may be in her sights.”

  He was right. I should be worried. But I always believed that the right things would happen to the right people for the right reasons. Maybe I was a bit Zen, like my father, after all?

  “Where’s Mom?” I asked, reaching for a fresh made biscuit and slathering it with honey and butter. I was happy to see that we all weren’t forced to follow Barry’s strict carb-free diet.

  “Out front, gardening,” he said, looking up from his paper and peering towards the window. “She’s taken to the yard, now that spring has sprung. She’s also spending a lot more time outside with her phone, so I can’t overhear her conversations.”

  “Ouch. We haven’t really talked about that elephant in the room, yet. What are you thinking?”

  He folded his newspaper, removed his reading glasses and looked at me pensively. “She’s my sister. I’m protective of her, of course. But I think we lose our teeth a bit, as we grow older. Injustices from the past get cloudy, and we tend to forgive much more readily than we did in our youth. There’s just not enough time in the world for anger. We learned that at your benefit the other night. Love all, right kid?”

  “Well, maybe we should amend that to ‘Love All, Within Reason?’ You have more history with my dad than I do. I barely know the man. But I really feel like giving him a chance. Am I crazy?”

  “Of course not,” he said. “You don’t have that shared history that we do. That’s a blessing. Trust me. Start fresh and see what happens. But you’ll understand if I’m a bit more cautious.”

  “Well, you weren’t cautious on the stage the other night,” I said, changing the subject. “You brought the boogie!”

  “A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do,” and he sipped his coffee as if it was just anothe
r day at the office.

  “All right, Barry, I’m outta here. Time to face the fun.” I finished off my biscuit and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. I was getting used to the morning ritual of walking past the protesters at school. Rather than be ashamed or intimidated, I tried to have as much fun with it as possible. It reminded me of Steel Magnolias. That which does not kill us makes us stronger, right?

  The CCCP members had actually diminished a little leading up to the election, but after Mayor Bellman’s fiery victory speech sparked the flames of animosity, their ranks were larger than ever. Most of the signs were harmless in their messaging, but other fringe members started to show up, and their slogans were downright hateful. It really pissed me off that they were angry with me for “exposing” their kids to homosexuality, while they were blissfully eager to expose those same kids to such vitriol and hate.

  Remember that scene in To Kill a Mockingbird when Jem and Scout sneak out of the house at night and go to the jailhouse to see Atticus defending himself and his black client against an angry mob of would-be lynchers? The kids diffused the group by treating them like the friends and neighbors they were, and they shamefully dispersed on their own accord, embarrassed of their actions in front of innocent children.

  Those days are long gone. Unfortunately, disagreeing in a respectful tone is a product of the past. It didn’t matter that I greeted the protesters by name or commented on their outfits or attempted to instructively correct the horrid grammar on their signs, they simply wouldn’t break a smile, no matter how hard I tried to make light of this awful situation. So much for levity.

  Thankfully, Love All helped to organize some counter protests, and I was greeted with smiles and cheers from that group. Signs reading “Equality Now” and “Team Duke” helped to boost my spirits. I even spotted Saul and Rachel a few times, and I made sure to thank them, personally. I told them that I only hoped to feel as spritely as they do at their age. They assured me that I would, and I wanted to believe them, but the last few weeks had been difficult, for Luke, me, Bammy, and everyone in our circle.

  Speaking of, Bammy sent me a text saying that she wanted to have lunch with me off campus, so I told her to meet me at Cochon’s BBQ. She didn’t have to say it, but I knew that it was better for her if we weren’t seen leaving together. It felt like we were sneaking around. I hated what this was doing to our friendship.

  Cochon’s was a little barn wood smoke shack just over the county line. It had been there since I could remember, serving up the tastiest barbecued pork you’ve ever had, at a price everyone could afford. It wasn’t fancy, but it was good, and that was all that mattered in these parts. I arrived before her, so I ordered two pulled pork sandwich platters with green beans, coleslaw, hushpuppies and two large sweet teas, with lemon. I claimed a spot on one of the old picnic benches by the big oak tree. Bammy showed up soon after, and I could tell by the distressed look on her face that she was either majorly stressed out or had some bad news to share.

  “Oh, aren’t you a doll ordering lunch? Next one’s on me, okay?” she said as she sat down across from me on the rickety wooden bench.

  “Will there be a next one?” I asked, unsure of what the look on her face meant. Was I about to be fired? Surely she wouldn’t do that on a lunch date? I imagined the CCCP cleaning out my desk and the look of horror as they discovered my men’s fashion magazines. “See! We told you!” I suppressed a chuckle.

  “What are you talking about?” she said, as she dipped a hushpuppy in ketchup and popped half of it in her mouth. “Of course we’ll have more lunches. It’s just… Derek, I am so sorry. Really. This has been hard on everyone. Are you and Luke all right?”

  “Yeah, we’re fine,” I said, stabbing my green beans with a white plastic fork. “It sucks not being able to have much contact with him at school, but in a way this has really pulled us closer together. Common enemy, you know?”

  “I hope I’m not the enemy?” She frowned.

  “No, Bammy. We love you. You know that. I know you’re in a shitty place right now. They’ve tied your hands. I don’t hold that against you.”

  She looked at me and I could see the tears welling up in her eyes. She put her sandwich down, and her whole face fell quickly into her hands.

  “Bammy!” I reached for some white paper napkins and handed them to her to use as emergency tissues. “Honey, it’s okay. Really! I understand. It’s your job.”

  “It’s not that,” she cried, wiping her eyes. She was speaking so softly. “It’s Michael.”

  “Again? Okay…” Now it was my turn to ignore my sandwich and concentrate on my friend in need. “What happened now? You two seemed great at the benefit the other night.”

  “We are,” she sniffed, dabbing her eyes with the napkin. “He is. Great, I mean. But I… I. Oh, shit, Derek. I snooped.” She threw her hands in her lap and looked at me, aghast.

  My eyes grew wide. “Bammy? Are you saying what I think you’re saying? The foster care paperwork? You didn’t!”

  “No! No, I wish. I mean, I would have, if I could have found it. He hid it, but good. Maybe even destroyed it. Oh, Derek, I watch too much TV. You know that! I couldn’t find it, so I did the next best thing I could think of. I went onto his laptop… and I looked at his browser history. I thought it would help me. Give me a clue, you know? Oh, I wish I hadn’t. He’s done so many searches on the same person, over and over and over. It has to be him.”

  “Bammy, you’re scaring me. Who is it?!”

  “Your favorite and mine. Our new mayor. Edward Bellman.”

  “No. Way.” I was stunned. “Are you sure? Bellman?!”

  “It was right there on his computer. Searches for everything. His career as a teacher. Where he lived. His family. Everything. That has to be it, right? Bellman is his dad.”

  “Holy shit. Are you sure, though? I mean, without the paperwork you’re just guessing.”

  “Think about it, Derek,” she reasoned. She had thought it all out. “Michael was born in August. School gets out at the end of May. Bellman was a teacher, then, before he became principal. He had summers off. He could have easily traveled away with his wife, had the baby, then come back and dropped him at the orphanage.”

  “Just like that. But why?” I asked. “Why would they hide that?”

  “Maybe they couldn’t afford to have a family?” she offered. “Maybe they weren’t ready? Or they had marital problems? Or maybe they just didn’t want kids, and Michael was an accident? Who knows?”

  “Wow. Bellman. I think I just lost my appetite.”

  “Derek! That’s awful!” But she started laughing, and so did I. We both needed a good laugh. Even an unexpected one.

  “So what now?” I asked. “Will you confront him? And even so, what does this mean? Does this change anything?”

  “I don’t know,” she said, hesitantly. “I have to think. If it’s true, can we use this? Can this help you and Luke?”

  I didn’t know. This was all just too much at once. One thing was for certain, though. I reminded myself to change all my passwords. You never know who’s looking over your shoulder.

  “Bammy,” I reasoned, “we can’t use this unless it’s true. We have to be certain. And even if it is, what would we do with it?”

  “I don’t know. Go to the Parkville Post? ‘Mayor’s Secret Lovechild?’ That kind of thing? If we can take Bellman down, maybe this whole thing will just blow over?”

  “No way, Bammy. No way. Think about what that would do to Michael. He’d be collateral damage. That’s not fair. And putting aside your whole secondary gig as a secret spy, which I’m gonna overlook, you two have a good thing going.”

  “But if it would help you, Derek… I would.” She looked wounded. Now I wanted to cry.

  “Not gonna happen,” I said, resolutely. “We’ll find another way. Now eat your sandwich, Miss Talbot. We’re gonna need our energy for the rest of the day. We’ll figure a way out of this, but taking your boyfriend down in
order to help me out is not on the list of possibilities.”

  I met my dad after school at Zen Yoga, downtown. I’d tried a few yoga classes in New York, but I was always so busy that I never had any real consistent time to devote to a practice. I wasn’t sure that now was the time to start, with all the hectic things happening at school, but Johnny convinced me that I should give it a go. He said it would “align” me. Plus, he was looking for bonding experiences, and most of my ideas centered around drinking alcohol and eating fried food. I suggested jogging, but he claimed a knee injury, so here we were.

  “Hey, Johnny,” I said as I walked into the door of the studio. I was having a hard time calling him “Dad,” and it kind of made me laugh to call him “Johnny,” so it sort of just stuck.

  He stood up from the couch near the reception desk and gave me a half man-hug and asked, “How was your day?” We took off our shoes and made our way into the main room. We grabbed two mats and placed them in the back towards the corner. If I was going to make a fool of myself, I figured I could at least try to hide my shame in the back row.

  “Oh, you know. Same old, same old,” I said, as I sat down on the mat and began my preliminary stretches. “Made my way through an angry mob with pitchforks, kids harassed me in class, Bammy dropped a bombshell at lunch, and now I’m hanging out with a man I haven’t seen since I was too young to remember. Pretty standard, I guess.”

  He smirked. “Smart ass. You get that from your mother’s side of the family.” He was standing, trying his best to touch his toes and loosen his back.

  “Derek! Hey there!” Tammy walked in the door with a group of girls from Chesty Cheese. Dressed in ripped t-shirts and short shorts that left little to the imagination, they placed their mats in the row in front of us. Tammy reached down and gave me a hug, exposing her best assets a bit too much. I thought Johnny’s eyes were about to pop out.

  “Tammy, this is Johnny. He’s… my dad. Johnny, this is my friend, Tammy.”

  “The stripper,” she laughed, as she offered him her hand. “Derek’s just too polite to throw that part out there. But I kind of like the shock value of it, don’t you?” She winked at him as she said it. She knew how to play to her audience.