Read Online Father's Day by Simon van Booy - Free Book Online

“Family gotta stick together at a time like this.”
    Jason watched the smoke escape from his mouth through a crack in the window. “You trying to make me feel guilty or something?”
    â€œIt’s the truth,” Wanda said. “Whether you feel guilty about it or not.”
    â€œNone of this is my fault.”
    â€œThat’s right, so you best stay clear of it.”
    â€œI’ve been trying to,” Jason snapped. “But you keep fucking calling my house.”
    Wanda’s sudden laughter surprised him.
    â€œBehind the attitude,” she said, “and the tattoos, and the record, and the foul language, and that god-awful messy house you live in—there’s something about you, Jason.”
    Jason lit another cigarette and noticed his hands were shaking. “Yeah, what’s that?”
    â€œLike how you went outside for a smoke instead of just lighting up in front of the kid.”
    Jason laughed. “That don’t mean nothing.”
    Wanda laughed too. “We’ll see,” she said. “Remember, I’ve been doing this job since you were in diapers.”

XVII
    WHEN W ANDA C ALLED three days later, she put Harvey on the phone.
    â€œHey,” Harvey said.
    â€œHey, kid. Is Wanda right there?”
    â€œUh-huh.”
    â€œDid Wanda tell you to talk to me, or was it your idea?”
    â€œWanda.”
    â€œWell, I hear you’re getting adopted, so it looks like you’ll be okay.”
    There was silence on the other end of the line, then Wanda’s voice came on. “You have time to talk? Harvey’s just about to leave the office with her foster family, and I wondered if we could chat for ten minutes.”
    â€œA foster family?”
    â€œJust until we get her paperwork sorted out.”
    â€œWhy can’t she stay permanently with the foster family here, on Long Island?”
    â€œThat’s just not how it works, Jason—you of all people know that.”
    W HEN W ANDA WAS alone in the office, she called Jason back and asked him some more about his father.
    Jason told her the old man had died when he and his brother were in high school. “He’d been sick for a while,”Jason said. “Some kind of cancer. Hadn’t left his bedroom in months. The television was turned up when it happened, so I didn’t hear him calling or nothing. I sat with the body until Mom and Steve came home from Shop Rite.”
    â€œSo you were there,” Wanda said. “That must have been a tough thing to see, Jason. You said you hated your father.”
    â€œOur whole lives, he pretty much tortured us one way or another—but it was bad when we were kids, until one Christmas the tables turned, and then he wasn’t around much after that.”
    S TUMBLING BACK IN the early hours from the Lucky Clover, Jason’s father was unable to find his front door among the hundred or so in the neighborhood.
    He fell asleep in someone’s driveway, then woke up freezing and walked the few blocks to his own house. His wife was up making coffee because it was Christmas Day. When she asked what happened, he dragged her into the living room and threw her into the Christmas tree. Then he opened a beer and put the TV on.
    Jason and his brother ran out and saw their mother with pine needles in her hair, trying to stand the tree up. Jason’s father wanted them to laugh about it, but little Steve went up and snatched the bottle of beer from his hand.
    â€œGive that back, you little asshole, it’s Christmas Day!”
    But Steve just poured it out on the carpet. The beer frothed and splashed on his bare feet.
    Their father stood quickly, his face tightening, so Jason grabbed the empty bottle from Steve’s hand and swung it at their father’s head. He stumbled backwards for a fewmoments, touching his ear, then rushed Jason and pulled him to the carpet in a chokehold. Christmas ornaments went pop as Jason