Chat - Archer Mayor [69]
His colleague extracted the flask from his inner pocket and waggled it in the air. “I’m getting sick of this, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Joe didn’t laugh. “Maybe this angle’s not such a great idea.”
Willy’s face tightened. “Maybe I can handle it.”
“Did he talk about Andy at all?” Joe’s mother asked, changing the subject.
Willy gave Joe an extra hard look before answering her politely, “Around the edges. What I got is that Dan is a shitty substitute for the apple of his eye. Sorry.”
“That’s all right,” she answered him. “On that score, E. T. is absolutely correct. Dan has never amounted to anything worthwhile.”
Willy eyed her appreciatively and paused a moment before asking her, “Did you know Andy? I mean, well enough to help me open the old man up?”
She nodded. “Oh, yes. A very sweet young boy. Loved by his father, hated and envied by that useless brother, and, until he went to prison, slated to take over all of E. T.’s business.”
“You know that for sure?”
She smiled again. “It’s a very small town, Willy.”
He got her point. “Did Dan go after Andy regularly?”
“As a bully?” she asked, before answering herself. “I think that oversimplifies their relationship. Dan was all of that—still is—but Andy also looked up to him because of it, the way an abused child runs to his abuser for protection.”
“Which explains why Andy might’ve taken the rap for Dan,” Joe suggested.
“You know that,” Willy said, “but would E. T.? He’s no shrink. What happened to the mother, anyhow?”
“Two different mothers,” Joe’s mother said, adding, “The first one—hard as nails—left; the second one—a gentle soul—killed herself, which helps to explain the personality differences in the two boys. And you’re right about E. T. not being a psychologist. But he does know men. He has to hire them and fire them all the time. I think he was aware of how his two sons interacted. That’s why he tried to protect Andy to a certain extent—sent him to a better school, rode him harder to keep him out of trouble. Dan he let grow up on his own—the wild child of legend.”
“But the old man wasn’t there when the two boys were together in Brattleboro,” Joe said. “And that’s all it took.”
Willy passed his hand through his hair. “Yeah, except, if that’s true, why didn’t E. T. raise hell when he heard Andy had covered for Dan? He could’ve reamed Dan a new . . . Anyhow, he could have set it right.”
“Dan was facing the Bitch,” Joe reminded him.
His mother laughed at Willy’s quick glance in her direction, and added, “Dan is his firstborn. That matters to a man like E. T. I remember hearing at the time how everyone was stunned when Andy was sent to prison. That part wasn’t supposed to happen.”
Joe was nodding. “Meaning, our theory was probably right. The whole family gambled and lost.”
Willy considered that for a moment, his eyes drawn to the flames in the woodstove. “That must be tearing the old man up,” he finally said. “He threw his baby boy to the wolves for a loser who’s using his business to sell drugs.”
There was a silence in the room as the resonances of all this settled in, including one note Joe was surprised that Willy then addressed.
“Mrs. Gunther,” Willy said, sitting forward to look her in the eyes, “I wanted to say how sorry I was to hear about Leo. How’s he doing?”
She allowed for a sad smile and shrugged under the shawl draping her shoulders. “I don’t know. No one does. We can only wait, and hope, and see what happens.” She paused and then reflected, “Which is more than E. T. has right now, and for that, I guess, we should all be grateful.”
Mandi144: U cumming up?
JMAN: lol – there’s a word I lik
Mandi144: me 2. My rules, tho
JMAN: rules?
Mandi144: no cars, no reel names, not my home
JMAN: no cars? Y?
Mandi144: fantasy I hav. Saw it in a movie. 2 complet strangers. Luvd it
JMAN: wat movie?
Mandi144: never nu the name. But he came off a bus. They never even talked.
JMAN: we cant talk?
Mandi144: lol. Sur we can. But everything else stays.
JMAN: kool. Where we meet?
Mandi144: motel
JMAN: I lik