Sassafras, Part 53

Joan


I picked up the King of Swords card and looked at it. It didn’t look like Rick, but Billy’s description was pretty close. “Well, I still don’t know if I should stay in New York or move back here. I guess I won’t know until I figure out what the Sun card is trying to say.” I put down the king and picked up the Sun card. A naked blond baby was riding a big white horse, smiling and waving.

“I could tell you what to do. You should move back here. Because I’m not moving to New York.”

“Billy,” I started and caught myself. “Bill, you know you can’t stay here by yourself. I think you would like New York once you got used to it. You have your whole future to think about. There isn’t any future here. Just a bunch of dead end jobs. In New York you could do anything.”

“But I already know what I want to do. When I get out of high school I’m going to join the Marines, just like Dad. Then when I get out I’m going to go to college. I don’t need to move to New York and I don’t want to move to New York and I’m not going to move to New York.”

“Oh, Bill, you’re as stubborn as your father was. Once he made his mind up you might as well forget about him doing anything else.” This wasn’t going as well as I hoped. Even the cards were on his side. Maybe they were right. “You still can’t stay here by yourself. I know you think you can, or that you can just move in with the Kennedy’s. Having you come over and spend the night is one thing, but that doesn’t mean they want you to move in. They already have four kids living there, plus one away at college.”

“Well, if I can’t stay here by myself, I’ll get a roommate.”

“A roommate? Who? Steve or Scott?”

“Actually, I was thinking about asking Rick.”

That stunned me. Holy crap. “Rick? You want Rick to move in here? I didn’t think you even liked him. Last night you wanted to kick his ass. What did he say to you tonight that changed your mind?”

“Nothing really. It just seems like the King of Swords would make a good roommate. He’s dependable, honest, likes to joke around but not a big party animal. Wouldn’t you like him to move in?”

Yes, I would. “I don’t know. I don’t really know him that well.” What kind of game was Billy playing? Was this was some kind of trick to get me to let him stay, or to convince me to move back here? “You can’t ask Rick to move in.”

“Why not? Don’t you like him?”

“I barely know him. You don’t even know him as well as I do.”

“Is there anything wrong with him? Is he an alcoholic or drug addict? Did he hit you? Does he have a limp? What?”

“No, there’s nothing wrong with him. He has all his teeth and that’s his real hair.” This wasn’t going my way at all. I was getting confused. Why was Rick suddenly Billy’s best friend? He wouldn’t really ask him to move in, would he? Would Rick move in if Billy asked him? And why was I trying to talk him out of it? “You just can’t ask him to move in.”

“Why? He’s a responsible adult. He has a job and his own car. You said there wasn’t anything wrong with him. He sounds like a good roommate to me. If he moved in here you could go back to New York and not have to worry about me.”

“I’m not going to New York and leaving you here, I don’t care who you get for a roommate.”

“Then I guess you’re moving to Sassafras because I’m not moving to New York.”

“I’m not going to argue about this with you.” I thought about the promise I made Rick to think about staying. If I was going to think about it I might as well start now. “Look, Bill, if you really want to stay here you need to work with me, not argue with me. Why don’t we make a deal? I’ll get a paper tomorrow and go through the help wanted ads and see if I can find a job. I’ll look for a week, but while I’m looking for a job you do some work around the house to get it ready to sell. Just simple stuff like clean up the yard, maybe touch up the paint, stuff like that. I’ll try to find a job, and if I do, I’ll move back here, but if I can’t find a job there’s no way we can afford to stay here. You would have to move to New York with me. I know you don’t want to, but you don’t always get to do what you want. Sometimes you have to do things you don’t like.”

He picked up the cards and shuffled them in silence for a minute. “You’ll really look for a job? You’re not just saying that?”

“I’ll really look for a job. I don’t know if I’ll find one, but I’ll look. Is it a deal?”

He turned over a card and sighed. A man with a back full of swords lies in a pool of blood. “Okay, it’s a deal. After all, I don’t really have a choice, do I?”

I pointed at the picture. “Is that how you feel? Am I stabbing you in the back?”

“No, it’s not you. It’s everything. I miss Mom. I need to know what happened, and if we go to New York I’ll never know. It feels like we’re giving up, like you don’t care.”

“I do care, Bill. I know how you feel. I want to find out what happened to her, but we might never know. Maybe the police are right. Maybe it was just an accident. I don’t know. Tomorrow Rick’s going to talk to the bartender who was working the night she died. If he doesn’t find out anything I’ll go to the police station Monday and rattle their cage. I don’t know what else to do. I tried talking to people at the wake, but it didn’t do any good. Nobody knows anything, or at least nobody’s saying anything.”