AllFreeNovel
Share Us
PHIL
The last thing I needed was a fight with Hugo, but he had been sulking around all week and by Saturday afternoon, it was clear to me that he needed to have his say. Hugo was cleaning his already spotless studio apartment while I sat on his turquoise sofa and played a game of solitaire on the heart-shaped glass coffee table.
“When Saundra called to thank me for chipping in on that reception hall, I almost told her the truth myself,” Hugo ranted. “This situation has been way out of hand for years but now you’re headed for disaster.”
I flipped over a card. It was the queen of spades. I had been hoping for a king of diamonds. “Damn!”
Hugo sprayed glass cleaner all over one of his mirrored walls and started rubbing it vigorously with a balled up piece of newspaper. “The Crystal Palace. Saundra’s boutique. Evelyn’s retreat. Where is all this money supposed to come from?”
“I haven’t said anything to Evelyn yet.”
“But we both know that you’re going to spring that wonderful surprise on her any day now. You are going to tell her that you’ll pay for half of what she needs to open that retreat, won’t you Phil?”
“Don’t worry about it. That won’t come out of your pocket.”
“You goddamn right, it won’t. We’ve been friends a long time, Phil, but your plan is stupid and it won’t work. So, I’m pulling out of it. The Crystal Palace is the last straw. It’s where I draw the line.”
I was beginning to get heated. “Cut it, Hugo.”
“You can go into debt all you want and spread around all the money you want and in the end, the shit is still going to hit the fan. Why can’t you see that?”
I responded to that by sweeping up the cards, shuffling them hard and starting a new game.
Hugo continued his tirade as I tuned him out and dealt myself seven cards. By the time I flipped over three kings, he had pulled out the vacuum cleaner and turned it on. The noise really fucked with my concentration. He pushed the machine back and forth across the squeaky clean carpet. He was waiting for me to blow up and start yelling. It was this type of shit that caused a good percentage of the domestic violence cases and dead bodies that I had come across in my career.
In fact, it was probably some silly incident like this that caused old man Willis to hit his wife in the face with a heavy ashtray back when I was a kid growing up in Dayton, Ohio. She came screaming over to our house with blood streaming from her nose. Mom couldn’t believe that the mild mannered janitor who worked side by side with Dad at our elementary school could suddenly explode in violence. While Mom put ice on Mrs. Willis’s nose, she issued a command to Dad, who was standing there, his mouth open in shock.
“Maxwell, go across the street and see if old man Willis done lost his mind.”
Dad’s jaw finally started working. “Clara, I ain’t going nowhere up in nobody else’s business. If you want me to call the cops, fine. They get paid to go ask him questions. I don’t.”
All the commotion had awakened my three little brothers—Elwood, David, and Buster. Our little family stood on the porch and watched as old man Willis went off to jail and his wife was taken to the hospital.
I hadn’t seen my family in a long, long time. The thought made a lump rise up in my throat and I needed Hugo to stop vacuuming and take my mind off them.
“You working tonight?” I yelled above the racket.
He switched off the vacuum cleaner. “Yes.”
“Today is Evelyn’s birthday. Her mama is doing a little party thing for her tonight. I’m taking Saundra with me.”
Hugo could read the change in my demeanor. “What’s wrong?”
“Aw . . . nothing . . . just thinking about Dayton.”
“That’s been happening a lot lately.”
“Yeah. I just keep thinking that Saundra is getting married and they should be at the wedding.”
Hugo sat down beside me. “Send them an invitation.”
“Yeah. Right.”
We both knew that was a terrible idea.
“I’m serious, Phil.”
“And how am I supposed to explain them to Saundra?”
