I sat in the truck watching as middle school kids streamed out of the building.
Ruby opened the door and jumped in. “You again, huh?”
“Who else did you expect?” I asked. Part of the question was sarcasm. The other part was legitimate curiosity. Who took Ruby to the doctor and other appointments when Kenzie was at work?
Ruby shrugged. “I thought Kenzie, maybe?”
I pulled a note from my pocket and handed it to Ruby. It was a note handwritten by Kenzie giving medical decision permission to me for the afternoon.
She scanned over the note and looked up at me. “You gonna pretend to be my parent for the day?” A wicked grin crossed her face.
“What are you planning?” I asked.
“Nothing, I promise.” She was a terrible liar. “No, this is good. Kenzie has been a jerk lately.”
My eyebrows went up. Kenzie hadn’t been a jerk, at least not to me. She did seem stressed, but I figured that was all work related.
We sat stuck in school traffic for a few moments until we were released by the cop directing traffic out front.
“Do you think I’m getting this off today?” She waved her cast around.
“It’s been weeks, so maybe.” Most bones took a good six weeks to heal. It had been almost that long since she wiped out in front of me. If she was a fast healer, the cast would come off. If not, she’d get a shiny new cast.
“So, how come you can come pick me up?”
“Because your sister is at work, and I’m not,” I said.
“Right. So, why aren’t you at work?” she asked.
“That’s easy. I don’t work.”
She let out an exasperated sigh. “You’re being obtuse.”
“Oh, big words.”
“Tate!”
I laughed. It was too easy to get her riled up. She was a fun kid to have around.
“I don’t work because I’m retired from the Army.”
“I know all that. But Allan was saying he couldn’t wait until he was cleared to get back to work. He told me you are being super nice and don’t even charge him rent, but he knows he can’t stay here forever.”
I had to think about that for a minute. Allan wasn’t exactly physically or mentally fit for a regular job. I was aware of that, but I didn’t know whether he was. And while in theory, I knew I wasn’t responsible for his injury, as his commanding officer, his injury was my fault. I was just as guilty for Allan’s leg as I was for Calvin.
I clenched my teeth and cleared my throat. That was not what Ruby was asking. There was no reason for my thoughts to take off in that direction. Logic knew the truth. That didn’t mean my heart did or that I was listening to logic.
“Allan has a place with me for as long as he needs it,” I said while successfully stuffing down other concerns.
“That’s good, cause I think he’s gonna need it. But why don’t you?”
“Huh? I wasn’t injured.”
“Not that, why don’t you have to go to work? Allan isn’t in the Army anymore either, but he says he has to work. I mean, you’ve got that house. Don’t you have to pay rent, or the payments to own it?”
I shook my head. “Oh, I see what you’re asking. If I don’t work, where’s the money coming from?”
“Yes, that.”
I pulled into a parking spot near the medical offices at the hospital.
“Let me try to explain,” I started. We climbed out of the truck and headed inside. “If you work for the Army for a certain amount of time and then retire, they pay you money. Like an allowance. It’s called a pension.”
“Doesn’t Allan get a pension too?”
“He gets disability compensation. It’s not as much as I get because he got injured after a few years. I served for twenty years. That time difference influences how much they pay you. But I don’t have to make payments on the house because I inherited it. That house has been in my family for generations.”
“Wait up. I thought you weren’t from around here. How can that be your family’s home?”
I shook my head. “Not home, house. Here we are.” I opened the door to the office and had Ruby tell the nurse at the desk she was here for her appointment.
I continued when she sat next to me. “I grew up in Chicago. When my father died, he left me his properties, including this house.”
She nodded. I took that to mean she understood.
“Ruby Hart,” a nurse called from the door.
We got up and followed her into an exam room. Ruby jumped up on the table.
“Dad, you can have a seat over here,” the nurse said, pointing to a chair in the corner when I took a position leaning against the wall next to Ruby.
“Yeah, Dad, sit down,” Ruby said.
I sat and rolled my eyes. This kid, I swear.
Someone came and took Ruby to get her wrist X-rayed. When she came back, I expected that we would be sitting around waiting until the doctor had a chance to look at her films. But instead, a nurse came in about a minute later.
“Doctor wants to know if you want the cast off now or to wait a week?”
“Can I really?”
The nurse looked at me. “What do you say, Dad?”
“Yeah, Dad, can I get the cast off? Mom said you have to make the decisions today.” Ruby was overly loud when calling me ‘Dad’. I guess she wanted me to hear it. I heard her, all right. ‘Dad’ had an interesting ring to it. I felt it in my chest.
“It’s the doc’s call,” I said. “If he says your bones are healed enough, then sure. Otherwise, the cast stays on.”
“I’ll be right back,” the nurse said as she left.
The doctor came in a moment later. “Another week won’t hurt anything.”
“Oh, come on, not fair,” Ruby complained.
“Leave the cast and I’ll buy you a phone. You won’t even have to work for it.” I blatantly bribed her.
Ruby snatched her arm back from where she had left it held out so the doctor could see it. She cradled her arm against her chest. “Really? I keep the cast for a week, and you’ll buy me a phone?”
I nodded.
“I guess I’ll see you in another week,” the doctor said as he left.
Ruby stared at me and held her wrist close to her chest as I checked her out and got her another appointment. She didn’t say anything until we were back in the truck.
“Phones are expensive,” she said.
“They can be. I’m not going to buy you the most recent model. You’ll have to work to pay for the minutes.”
“But phones are expensive.” This time, when she spoke, her voice was quiet.
I glanced over at her. She had a puzzled expression on her face. Her lips moved, but she only made muttering sounds, no full words. She tapped her fingers together as if she were mentally counting on them.
“You’re seriously getting me a phone?”
“I said I would.”
“Tate, how come you can afford to buy me a phone?”
It was a straightforward question. I guess she hadn’t figured it out yet. “The same way I can pay you and Allan to help me clean up. Money isn’t an issue for me.”
She stared at me with the same confused look. “Only rich people say stuff like that. Tate, are you rich?”
“Is that a problem if I am?”
I pulled into the driveway and parked. Ruby was slow to follow me out of the truck.
“If you’re rich, and Kenzie is your girlfriend, why don’t you give her a phone?”
I had to chuckle. I would shower Kenzie with everything she needed if I thought she would accept it.
“That one is complicated,” I answered.
“What do you mean?”
“First of all, I don’t know if Kenzie considers me to be her boyfriend, and secondly, your sister is a proud woman. She wouldn’t take a phone from me. She wants to prove to the world that she can do it all herself.”
Ruby nodded.
“She doesn’t have to do it all, but she has to learn that on her own,” I pointed out.
Ruby followed me inside.
“You, homework.” I pointed toward the dining room. “I’ll grab you a drink.”
She crossed straight through the kitchen, barely saying hi to Allan. I opened the fridge looking to see if there were any Cokes behind the beers.
“Do you think it would be as easy to cut off my arm as it would be to slice into this roast?”
Allan sounded off. His voice was vacant. It was more of a gut feeling than anything I could nail down, but Allan wasn’t mentally in a good place at that moment. And that arm comment shook me.
I looked up slowly.
He held up a bloody knife. It took me a second to realize it wasn’t his blood, but the blood from the large piece of meat he was preparing for dinner.
“You okay there?” I reached over and took the knife from his hands.
He sort of went limp. “I’m fine. Tired. Why? I think I want to go to bed.” There was just something in his voice, or something missing from it.
“That’s a good idea. I’ll take care of dinner.” I gently led him from the kitchen and followed him up the stairs.
“How about one of your pills?” I went straight to his dresser and found the painkiller that I knew would knock him out the fastest.
He sat on his bed and let me hand him the pill. He washed it down with water from a cup on the bedside table. Allan needed to be away from the knives in the kitchen. Passed out in his bed was good enough for now. But I needed Ruby out of there immediately.
“Ruby, we have to go now. Pack up.” I may have barked a little loudly as I raced down the stairs.
