Long Shadows

Chapter 11

I’m... um, I’m sorry about your mother,” said Decker as they reached the sand and headed south. Decker had taken off his shoes and socks and rolled up his pants. Tyler had slipped off his flip-flops and was carrying them. Decker was awkward at social encounters like this. As a young man, before his brain injury, he could be empathetic and consoling and even glib. Now, on the other side of his near-death experience, he was none of those things.

“I think I’m gonna wake up and she’ll be there waving at me.”

“I can understand that. So, when was the last time you actually saw your mother?”

“I stayed with her last week, this week I’m with my dad.”

“Tough going back and forth?”

“It was at first, but then I got into a routine. Well, I did with Mom. Dad never has had much of a routine.”

“So you saw her last a week ago?”

“No, I had lunch with her three days ago, at the golf clubhouse where she lives.”

“Wasn’t she at the courthouse then?”

“She had the afternoon off, she said.”

“She seem okay, no problems?”

“Yeah, she was fine.”

“Did you ever meet her private bodyguard?”

“No. When I was with her last week, she didn’t have a bodyguard around.”

That remark caught Decker by surprise but he decided not to comment on it. “But at some point did she tell you that she had one?”

“Yeah, she mentioned it at lunch. I asked her what was up.”

“And what did she say?”

“She said it was over some stupid stuff from being a judge, but she didn’t want to take chances.”

“She wasn’t more specific?”

“No. But she’d gotten threats in the past and nothing had come of it.”

“Were you worried that you might be in danger while you were over there?”

“I’m a big guy, I can take care of myself. But I always worried about my mom. Lots of psychos out there, you know.”

“When you were over there, did you ever see anything weird?”

“Nope. By the time I got home after school, I was pretty beat. Usually ate dinner, listened to some music, did my schoolwork, and then hit the sack.”

“You on a year-round workout schedule?”

He nodded. “We were runner-up for state, so everyone’s gunning for us. The team that beat us lost half their starters to graduation, while we’re still stacked. I was first team All-State as a junior. And even though I’ve got my scholarship offers, my take is I’ve got to be even better than I was last year. Weight room, cardio, playbooks, passing and blocking drills. Never stops.”

“Same way in college. And in the pros, it’s your life.”

“Maybe I’ll make enough money to buy my own team one day.”

“There you go. So you never saw or heard anything else troubling your mother?”

“Except for my dad.”

“What do you mean?” Decker said sharply.

Tyler suddenly looked fearful. “No, hey, I just mean, well, he’s like a little kid who never grew up. Nothing wrong with that. He just loves life, you know?”

“I get that, but was that the reason for the divorce?”

“Yeah, and there was some dumb tax issue that she was really upset about. This was about five years ago, after she became a judge. She filed for divorce pretty soon after that. I didn’t really get it. I mean, blow up a marriage over taxes? They both had plenty of money. Anyway, Mom didn’t like Dad’s lifestyle after the divorce, and she didn’t want Dad having his girlfriends stay over while I was with him. She didn’t think it was right.”

“What did you think about that?”

“Well, I have to admit, it was nice seeing the young ladies running around the condo in T-shirts and pretty much nothing else, or tanning themselves on one of the balconies or by the pool, but it did get old after a while. I mean, it was my dad! And they were only in it for his money anyway. Even though he does keep himself in decent shape, he’s almost fifty. Twentysomething ladies don’t go for that without the cash to back it up.”

“So, you were with your father last night? Here?”

“Yeah. I got home around seven. We had dinner, watched some TV, and I finished some schoolwork. Then I went to bed.”

“What time?”

“About ten thirty or so. I was beat.”

“And your dad?”

“I heard him talking in his office. My bedroom’s right next door. He has clients all over the world, so he operates in different time zones. Kept waking me up when he went on the Zooms. It’s like he thinks he has to talk loud because they’re in Asia and shit.”

“Happen to check the time when you woke up?”

“It was off and on. And I didn’t go back to sleep right away. Once was around one or so. I remember because I was thinking I had to get up at six to go for my run and I was pissed.”

“Okay.”

“And another time was after two. I remember looking at my Apple watch. And then again close to three.”

“Okay.”

“And while I was trying to fall asleep I heard him in his office before then walking around and practicing his pitch, you know, what he says to his clients. He does that all the time.”

“So let me get this straight: You heard your father either on a Zoom call or walking around and practicing his pitch when, exactly?”

“Well, pretty much from like before midnight until almost three.”

“You mean you never fell asleep?”

“Okay, yeah, I did. Around three when I heard him get up and leave his office. So he might have left the condo after that but I don’t think so. I heard him pass my room and then his bedroom door opened and closed. It has a weird squeaking sound. Then I heard his shower start up.”

“He showers at three?”

“Like I said, he keeps weird hours because of his business. And he sweats like I do, especially when he’s dealing with clients. He says they’re very demanding. And the showers help to calm him, let him get relaxed for bed. And he usually has a drink before he goes to bed.”

Decker took all this in. “Okay, thanks for that.”

“He cared for my mom. A lot. This blew him away. He’s been crying all morning and drinking like a fucking fish.” He paused and looked out to the water. “I think part of him is also terrified that he’s the sole parent now. He can’t drop all the responsibility on Mom anymore. She really did it all with me. SAT prep, schoolwork, doctor’s appointments, making sure I was all set for the prom, helping pick out colleges, dealing with recruiters, riding my ass on grades. She never missed one of my football games. And when I was younger I played every sport and she was right there. She even coached one of my Little League teams.”

“Sounds like a superwoman, considering she was a lawyer and then a judge.”

“Yeah, we were all real proud of her when she got to be a federal judge. The freaking president of the United States had to nominate her. I mean, is that cool or what?”

“Pretty cool.”

Tyler shook his head. “Now what’s going to happen?”

“You’re going to finish high school, go to a great college, and make your mom proud.”

“But with her not here, I’m not sure I can keep my shit together anymore.”

“Any time you start thinking that, think about all the things your mother did to get you ready for life. It was worth it to her, so it has to be worth it to you. It shows respect.”

Tyler looked at him funny. “Sounds like you lost somebody close, too.”

Decker eyed the young man and saw in him a bit of his younger self. Supremely confident in his athletic abilities, unsure of everything else.

“We’ve all lost somebody close, Tyler. It’s how we deal with it that counts, because if you mess that up nothing else really matters.”