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“So, wait. Hehaskilled someone,” the second voice interrupted. “Oh my God, Pamela. Daddy invited amurdererto Christmas. Isn’t that awesome?”
I pulled in a deep breath and decided it was time to stop eavesdropping and get the introductions with Harry’s daughters over with and out of the way. I couldn’t force anyone to feel comfortable in my presence, but the least I could do was be polite and hopefully prove to them I wasn’t a threat. So, I cleared my throat and entered the kitchen to find two blonde women. They looked nearly identical to their mother, and they turned at the sound of my footsteps.
“Girls, I’d like you to meet Soldier. Soldier, these are my daughters—”
“Wait,” one of the twocutin, holding her hands out. “Soldier. I knew a kid named Soldier. He was one of my students, and he …” Her voice trailed off as something dawned on her, and she laid a palm over her chest. “Oh my God, are you Soldier Mason?”
“Um …” I swallowed as it dawned onmethat she had heard of my case. “Yeah, I—”
“Soldier, oh my God.” She walked toward me, her eyes instantly misting with nostalgic recollection and sympathy. “Do you remember me? Mrs. Henderson?”
My jaw dropped at the name as I nodded. A tidal wave of memories flooded back, filled with school-day moments and after-class meetings. “Oh, wow, yeah. You …” Iactually laughed, bewildered and completely blown away. “You were my only favorite teacher. You—” I didn’t think it was appropriate to mention that she’d been my first real crush on a person I knew outside of TV. So, I smiled and chose to tell her a different, less embarrassing truth. “You made school decent.”
That hand remained on her chest as she shook her head. “I had asked if you were okay. And you weren’t.”
I smiled apologetically, like it had been my fault. “No, I wasn’t okay.”
“I’m so sorry. When I heard what happened, I felt like I’d failed in some way, which”—she laughed, her cheeks pinking a bit beneath the kitchen light—“I knew was ridiculous. There was nothing I could’ve done, I don’t think, but …” She sighed and reached her hand out to touch my wrist. “I’m just really sorry.”
Harry, his wife, and their other daughter had remained silent as they watched this unlikely reunion take place.
I mean, come on. What were the chances that Harry’s daughter would just so happen to be the only teacher who had ever truly given a shit about me when I was a kid?
But then, when I really thought about it, I guessed it made sense.
It was fitting for her to be the child of the only man since my grandfather to care about what happened to me. And now, standing within both of theirpresence, I realized something for certain in a way I’d never known it before.
I was going to be okay.
One way or another, that was how it was going to be.
Finally.
***
Harry’s brother Howard owned a grocery store—The Fisch Market, it was called—in a town nearby, River Canyon, and on Christmas Day, Harry asked him if there were any positions to be filled.
“Actually,” Howard said, eyeing me with a hint of scrutiny, “our janitor just left us, and I’ve been having to do all the cleaning myself. If you don’t mind pushing a broom, mopping the floor, and scrubbing bathrooms, you’ve got yourself a job.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle. “It just so happens I’m overqualified for the job, and I’ll take it.”
Howard’s wife, Connie, was the mayor of River Canyon as well as the local real estate agent, and while she was a little hesitant to allow a convict to live within her apparently prestigious little hamlet, she agreed to set me up in a place just within the town limits.
“We have a reputation to uphold, you see,” she said in a voice that was unintentionally snooty, waving around a wineglass that was just a little too full. “And to clarify, it isn’t thatImind you being there or think you’re a threat to our little town. But it’s the others, you understand?”
Actually, Icould tell she did very much mind and was only going along with the plan for the time being to keep the peace among her husband and brother-in-law. It wouldn’t surprise me if she immediately demanded that Howard revoke the job offer as soon as they got home. But still, I was grateful she was at least being kind of nice to my face. Judging from the way she pinched her lips and sucked at her teeth, it wasn’t easy for her to do.
I shrugged and lifted one side of my mouth in a lopsided smile. “I’m just grateful to have a place to go.”
“Then, you won’t mind that it’s in a trailer park?” She observed me with a heavy dose of doubt and the tiniest hint of hope. I bet she would’ve crossed her fingers, too, if she hadn’t been holding that wineglass with both hands.
But I could only laugh. She wasn’t going to scare me away that easily.
“Ma’am, I just spent the greater part of my adulthood sharing a room with sixty other guys. I could move into afreakin’ box, and I’d be grateful just to not have a roommate.”
Harry and Howard both chuckled, but Connie didn’t find it very funny. Instead, she downed her wine in two big gulps as she eyed her brother-in-law with a stony glare.
You owe me big,the look said, and Harry smiled as if to say,Yes, I do.
