“So, tomorrow, then?”
“Tomorrow,” he agreed. “And, Bear?”
“Yeah?”
“You know that everything is going to be okay, right?”
I thought for a moment. “I think I do,” I said slowly. “It may take a while, but it looks like it’s going that way, huh?”
“Whatever it takes, man. You know?”
“I do. Creed, I don’t think I’ve said thank you for having your parents pay for the law—”
“You don’t have to,” he interrupted, his voice gruff. I wished I could have seen his face. “You just ask, and you know I’ll do whatever I can for you.”
“I know,” I said quietly.
“Later, Papa Bear.”
The next time I spoke to him, he was panicking.
THE Kid didn’t like that I was staying home but grudgingly agreed with my reasons to do so. He forgot his frustrations when I told him I would be going over to see Otter tomorrow to try and get everything back. He jumped into my lap and babbled happily into my ear.
I decided to make him whatever he wanted for dinner, and he went online and found a gross-looking vegetarian thing that appeared to have been scraped from the underside of a wet log. I told him we didn’t have any of the ingredients for that. He told me that’s why God invented grocery stores. I told him God didn’t invent grocery stores. He told me that I had no proof of this, and wouldn’t I feel stupid when I died and went to heaven and saw God’s Food Mart? I told him that was a dumb name for a grocery store. He told me that I couldn’t do any better. I told him God’s grocery store was named God’s Amazing Food Emporium and that they had weekly specials on the Body Of Christ Sourdough bread loaves. He told me I was sacrilegious. I told him we weren’t any kind of religious.
We had just left the apartment to head to the store when Mrs. Paquinn stuck her head out. “I’ll watch the Kid tomorrow when you go over to Otter’s. Should we say around nine?”
I stared at her. “How did you—goddammit, did Creed call you already?”
“Don’t be difficult, Bear. It’s unattractive.”
My eyes narrowed. “You did talk to Creed.”
She smiled. “Tomorrow? Around nine.”
I rolled my eyes. “Yes, that should be fine. Do you want to come over for dinner?”
“No, thank you. I need to get to bed early so I can make sure I am up and prepared to watch Tyson. At nine.”
“I got it, Mrs. Paquinn. I got it.”
WE GOT to my work, and I let the Kid go with a list while I went to the office to check the schedule for the coming week. I was off tomorrow and didn’t have to be in till the afternoon of the day after. That was good. It either left me with enough time to grovel on my knees for forgiveness from Otter, which would hopefully lead to me needing to be on my knees for other reasons, or it would give me enough time to find the nearest bridge to jump off of when he rejected me.
It has to work, I thought.
“So I’ll be over about eight forty-five tomorrow morning,” Anna said, startling me. I hadn’t heard her approach. I watched her swipe her time sheet as she clocked out.
“Tomorrow?” I asked, confused.
“Well, Mrs. Paquinn said that she’s watching the Kid, and Creed says you’re going over in the morning, so I figured I can drop you off and pick up Creed.”
Jesus Christ. “I just had these conversations. How the hell did you find out already?” I groaned.
She smiled and shrugged. “Creed called me, and then I called Mrs. Paquinn. It’s really not that hard of a concept, Bear.”
“Well, I’m so glad you all are taking such an active interest in this,” I groused.
She flipped her hair. “Well, it does kind of affect all of us, you know,” she pointed out.