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Chris looked at Lou. “See what you’ve done. You’ve woken the dead.”
“Christopher!” his mother scolded.
“I’m kidding. Yes, perhaps we should eat,” he said reaching for the bell in front of his mother and ringing it.
As if waiting for their signal, two people exited the kitchen with plates and placed them in front of us. It was like we were at a restaurant. And the food was good.
While we ate, Lou’s mother and brother engaged in small talk about his plans after law school. Lou’s father spoke up reminding him that there was a job waiting for him at his practice.
“I think I’ll be able to do a little better than that,” was his smug reply.
While his father seemed hurt, his mother looked proud of him. Lou really did grow up in a world I knew nothing about. I loved him even more knowing what he had to overcome to be as great as he was.
After the two of us were done eating, Lou, who hadn’t said a word all dinner, stood up.
“Mother, Father, Chris,” he said with a fake smile.
I stood up after him.
“Thank you for dinner. It was incredibly good.”
His brother looked at me like he hated me being there, while his mother offered me a fake smile without making eye contact.
“Your family really doesn’t like me,” I told Lou when I was sure they couldn’t hear me.
“My family doesn’t like anyone including me,” Lou replied with a smile. “But, Sunday morning, they’ll read the will and it will be my ass they will have to kiss if they want to keep living this way. Things are going to change,” he said confidently.
Returning to his room, we sat on the bed. I looked at the clock.
“So, it’s 8:30. What do you all do here until it’s time to go to sleep?”
Lou shrugged. “I don’t know. Read? Sometimes I would play board games with Grandma Aggie. We could pull out her backgammon set.”
“Backgammon?”
“It’s like an old-timey game where you roll dice and move your pieces from one side of the board to the other.”
“Sounds thrilling,” I joked.
“Then I must have described it wrong,” he said with a smile.
I laughed. “As fun as that sounds, maybe you can give me a tour of the rest of the place.”
“I think I’ve shown you everything.”
“Did I see a pool in the backyard?”
“You did.”
“We could take a swim.”
“You do realize that places like this don’t have pools to swim in. It’s more like a moat to keep the common people out.”
“Well, you did say you’ll be making changes when this place becomes yours, right?”
“I did.”
“Then why don’t we start with the pool.”
