Son for Hire: Chapter 94 (Patreon)

My heart is in my throat as I slowly look up into the chiseled stony face of my lover’s husband.  Alan was here!  And he chose a time when Evelyn was out for the evening.  What was this all about?

Once the initial shock settles a bit the first thing I notice was his strange wardrobe.  Instead of the usual stuffy up class casual look he generally wore around home he was currently wearing dark blue coveralls, like those a mechanic would wear.  It was of the highest quality, spotless, and not a single wrinkle marred its fabric, but it was still an odd thing to see Alan wearing.  Why would he of all people be wearing an outfit designed for dirty jobs?  My panicked imagination jumps immediately to gruesome images of Alan slaughtering Kitty and I then butchering my body to grill up a surprise meal for his cheating wife.  The second thing I notice is a very uncharacteristic slight smile on his rugged features.  That unsettling smile did NOT ease my worries one bit.

“Alan!”  Kitty pops off of the sofa and hurries over to join us.  “This is a surprise.”

“Kit.”  He nods to her and then to me.  “Donny.”

“H-hey big guy.”  I stutter as I strive to sound calm despite my rapidly beating heart.  “Wh-what’s up?”

“It’ll be easier to show you.  You two busy?”  

“Not at all.”  Kitty answers before I can say a word.

“Good.”  He says as he steps to the side and extends an arm back up the stairs.  “Come on.”

Oh Jesus save us!  Did he have a murder room already set up?

“Ha ha.  Cool.”  Her brown curls bouncing Kitty, without even bothering to grab shoes or sandals, was already on her way up.  “I love surprises.”

“Come on Donny.”  Alan says with a warmth in his voice that only unnerved me more and a strange look in his storm cloud gray eyes.  The dude had found out the truth and had snapped.  He was being way too nice right now.  I was surely a dead man.  His smile grows.  “I promise.  You won’t regret it.”

“Ha.  Yeah, yeah of course.”  I say, trying hard to keep my cool.  “Just…let me get on some shoes.”  As I tie my laces I frantically try to think of a reason as to why we couldn’t go with him.

Kitty was no help as she calls from the outer door.  “Come on slow pokes.”

Seeing no good way out I start up the stairs.  Alan closes the door behind us and follows close behind.  I consider grabbing my sister and making a mad dash away but my more rational side still had a tenuous control.  Alan wasn’t going to just murder us…I hoped.

He brings us around to the front of the house where I see his cherry red Porsche parked out in the driveway.  Kitty whistles at the sports car, duly impressed by the high performance machine.  He opens the garage door.  With Evelyn’s car gone and his parked behind us the garage was empty except for the big dusty covered shape of Evelyn’s grandpa’s hobby car.  Alan walks straight up to it, grabs the tarp and heaves the covering off kicking up a great cloud of dust.  As the dust settles the huge faded shit brown vehicle it reveals is…well, it’s…

“Oh my God!”  Laughs Kitty as she skips forward.  “It’s hideous!  What is it?”

Alan tosses the tarp to the side and dusts himself off.  “A 1966 Ford Thunderbird hard top coupe 428 V-8 Cruise-o-matic.”

“WOW!”

“Gramps bought it to tinker on.  He wasn’t near finished though.”  He says.  “He passed it onto me.  The only thing I ever got from the crazy old miser.”  His chuckles were as deep as his voice.  Chuckling was not a sound I was used to hearing from Alan.  “It’s not actually running but he got the parts it needs.”  He waves to the nearby shelves above a work counter.  “And as you can see the paint needs work.”  He glances over to me.  “I heard you’re a painter Donny.”

“He sure is!”

“Uh…I mean…yeah, not like this though.”

“Mmm.”  He nods.  “Chrome’s good, vinyl’s good, interior immaculate, tires are good, electrical is mostly good.”  The way he was talking it almost sounded like he was trying to sell us the monstrosity.  He comes up to tower behind the wide-eyed Kitty.  “Very little rust too.  Gramps found himself a real gem.”

Hesitantly I walk forward to join the pair in the garage.  The car looked as big as a battleship and just as heavy.  Even though it was well past its glory days the faded auto still held a certain beauty in its long classic curves…even if it was hideous.

“Are you working on it tonight?”  Kitty asks.

He shrugs.  “You were asking me about that car you took a picture of near the cafe.”

“The ’61 Jag, yeah.”

“I thought maybe you like classic cars.  I thought you might like it.”

“I do!  I do!”  Kit squeals excitedly.

“And I thought…”  He pauses as he looks over to meet my eyes.  “…I though maybe you two could appreciate it more than I can.  I don’t have the time to really sink into it, nor the love.”  He motions out to his car.  “German cars are my thing.”

I shake my head.  “We can’t really afford…”

“I’m not selling it Donny.”  He says.  “I saw you walking around today dropping off resumes.  It’ll be a lot easier to find and keep a job with some wheels.”

“Are you shitting me right now!?”  Kitty exclaims before she remembers her cover as a sweet middle class gal.  “Er, I mean, are you serious?”

“Yeah.”

“For free!?”

“No.  It’s going to take some time and elbow grease to get this old gal purring again.  You might need the odd part but I’ve got almost everything you’ll need to work on it here.”  He laughs.  “And with fuel prices as they are driving this old V-8 definitely won’t be free, trust me.”

“Oh my God!”  Kitty claps.

Alan waves me forward.  “Could you pop the hood Kit.”

“On it.”  She opens the door and plops down on the plush glossy black vinyl seat and finds the latch.

Alan opens the massive hood to reveal the huge engine within.  Struck speechless I slowly walk around to stand beside him.  Taking a wrench from the wall behind him he places it my hand.  I hold it in a light grip struggling to make sense of what was happening.  Why was Evelyn’s cuckolded husband acting like this?  Why was he being nice?  What was his game?

I look down at the wrench as if it was some great mystery.  “I…I don’t know how to…”

“It’s alright Donny.”  He says.  “I do.”

“Ohhhh Donny.”  I hear Kitty as she begins to explore the interior.  “It’s like a living room in here.  You gotta see this.”

Alan and I couldn’t see my sister with the hood up but we could hear her as she peeps and hoots excitedly at all of the little discoveries she was finding.  I didn’t like how high her hopes had gotten.  We hadn’t agreed to anything yet.  In fact…I didn’t like this.  Any of this.  My heart burned with caustic guilt at Alan’s gesture.  This wasn’t how this was supposed to go.  He was the enemy.  He was my rival.  He was the big stupid idiot that Evelyn brazenly cheated on with me.  He was supposed to be the bad husband and the asshole.  None of this was as it was supposed to be.  He had to have an ulterior motive.  He wanted to put me into his debt or something.

His voice low and quiet Alan says for my ears only.  “Kitty told me.”

“Told you?”

“Mmm.”  He nods and shifts stiffly.  “She told me that you two lost your…um…”  He sighs, his stern face softening.  “She told me and I’m…I’m sorry to hear it.”  He swallows hard, emotion simmering just below the stoic surface.  “After Eugene we, um…shit.  Let’s just say that I understand how you’re feeling right now.  It’s hurts like nothing else.”  He takes a long breath.  “It’s crazy how badly you can mourn for somebody that you never met, huh?”

No, no, no.  NO!  Why in the fuck did Kitty tell him that we lost a baby that never existed in the first place!?  I didn’t want sympathy from Alan.  I didn’t want to have sympathy for him either.  I didn’t want kindness from him.  I didn’t want ANYTHING from him.  Evelyn was the generous one, not him!  Evelyn was the nice one, not him!  I just wanted him to be the villain.  I liked it that way.

“The car isn’t because of that.”  He clears his throat and continues.  “I hate this thing but I’ve never had the heart to get rid of it.  Her grandpa meant a lot to Evelyn.  I think she’d be happier knowing that you two had it.”  He grins, a warm genuine grin.  “She really likes having you two around.  I can see the difference in her.  You two are good for her.”

Guilt, jealousy, anger, and pure petty spite roil in my soul.  How dare he care about Evelyn!  She wasn’t his to care about…she was mine.  MINE!

Kitty gets out all smiles and bobbing curls and comes around to see what we were looking at.  “Ha!  Look at this thing.  Isn’t it amazing.”

“We…we don’t need it.”  I whisper.

“The hell we don’t!”  Kitty chirps.

“I know you need it kid.  I was young and broke once too.  Go ahead Donny.  Do something.  Anything.”  Alan says.  “I can’t be here all the time but I can show you some things and teach you what you need to know.”

“Teach…me?”

“Sure.”  He says.  “Go ahead and try something.  I’ll let you know what to do as we go.”

“Uh…”  I look over the old engine without really seeing it.

His big hand comes to rest heavily on my shoulder.  “It’s okay son.  Whatever you break we can fix again.”

Rage!

“I’m not your son!”  I snap.  “I’m not your fucking son, okay?  I told you before not to call me that.  You’re not my fucking father.”

“I…I didn’t mean it like that.”  He says.

“I never had a Dad, I never wanted a Dad, I never needed a Dad.”

Alan pulls his hand away.  “Alright Donny.  I won’t say it again.”

I spin toward him, wrench gripped tightly in my hand.  “You don’t have to be nice to me Alan.  I don’t WANT you to be nice to me.  We don’t have to pretend.  I know you don’t like me, okay?  It’s cool.  Okay?  I don’t like you either.”

“Donny!”  Kitty gasps.

Alan holds out a hand toward my sister.  “It’s okay Kit.  Let him talk.”

“I’m done talking.  I don’t need your pity!  I don’t need your fake kindness!  And I don’t need your fucking car!”  I shout.  “I’m not a fucking charity case.”

“I never said you were.”

“Donny…”

I turn and unleash my anger on Kitty next.  “And you!  How could you tell him…that!?  What were you thinking!?”

Kitty’s eyes go wide as I seethe at her like like I never had before.  “Donny…I…I couldn’t continue to let him think that I was…”  Her eyes flit to Alan, scared to say too much in front of him.  “I thought he should know.  He was so nice about…”

“He is not nice Kitty!  It doesn’t matter what he thinks anyway.  He is an asshole and he’s purposely trying to…”  I bite down on my bitter words.  “We’re done here.”  Alan stands with an infuriating calmness to his dumb bearded face.  The bastard was still empathizing with me.  He thought he understood me.  He didn’t know shit about shit.  Little shrimp-dick mother fucker!  I was sorely tempted to tell him right there and then what Evelyn and I were doing while he was away every day just for the satisfaction of seeing his reaction.  I don’t of course, opting instead for a simple.  “Fuck you.”  I start to march from the garage.  “Come on Kitty.  We’re leaving.”

Even more confused than Alan she looks back and forth between us.  “But…I want the car.”

“We don’t need the car.  Come on!  We’re leaving!”

Kitty bristles back, her brows furrowing in anger.  “No!”  She says.  “You’re the only one being an asshole here Donny.  Again!”  She says, calling back to my last jealousy fueled blow-up in Eugene’s room.  “I’m staying.”

“You’re going to say that to me?  After all we’ve…after all I’ve…”  I huff and throw up my arms.  “Fuck.  Stay then.  See if I care.”

“Donny…”

“Let him go.”  Alan says, his low steady voice gentle yet strong.  “Give him some time.”

“You think you know everything.”  I glare.  “You don’t know shit old man.”  With that I storm off toward the street.  I didn’t know where I was going, just anywhere but here.