The Big Time

CHAPTER NINE

" HEY, MISTER," HIS MOM said, raising her voice and banging her mug so that coffee splashed out onto the tabletop. "I thought we were over that. I let it slide; now you're tossing it in my face?"

"What am I tossing?" Troy said, bending to flip the chair upright before backing away toward his bedroom. "I've always dreamed I had a dad. I knew he was out there, somewhere. Now he found me. Do you know how good that feels?"

"For now," she said, standing up. "For the moment."

"Why? Why just for the moment?" Troy asked.

"Because I know him, Troy," she said, her hands clasped and her voice almost pleading. "You don't. You saw him pull up in a hundred-thousand-dollar car with a fancy pair of cowboy boots. I know who he is, and I know what he did-to both of us."

"You always say 'forgive and forget,'" Troy said. "What about that? That's only for when it's good for you? What about now? Why can't you forgive?"

"Okay, I forgive him," she said, "fine. That's not what this is about. I do forgive him, but I don't want to let him hurt us again-hurt you."

"I don't care if I get hurt," Troy said, trying not to shout. "I'm hurt already. You don't know what it's like to have people look at you, the kid without a dad. The football player without a dad."

"Don't tell me I don't know," she said, shaking her head so that her hair lay in a crazed web on her shoulders. "I know. I'm the woman with no husband, the woman with a broken family and a troubled son."

"I'm not troubled!" Troy yelled.

"You just said you were!"

"STOP!"

Troy and his mom froze. Gramps was on his feet now, too, and it was the first time Troy had ever heard him shout.

"Now," Gramps said in his normal voice, his hands motioning for them both to sit and settle down. "Both of you. Sit down. We're all on the same side here. We are. And, if you'll listen, I think I've got a solution."