After the Visit
(September 1985)
“Junior, this is Tom” Ennis said. Alma Jr. looked at Ennis and then at Tom and then at Ennis again. Then she smiled her big broad smile.
“Daddy, you gotta come over for dinner tomorrow, it’s been so long. Please, you gonna come, right?” she begged. Then she turned to Tom. “Why don’t you come too?.”
“Well, I don’t know.…” Ennis said, looking at the ground.
“Oh Daddy, please, your comin’ that’s it, and you are too.” Alma Jr. said, then kissed Ennis on the cheek, smiled at Tom, and went back to her car and drove away.
Ennis sat down on the steps of the trailer, and began to pull out a cigarette. But then he put his hands down on the steps as if to steady himself. Tom stared at him, then sat down next to him.
“Whatya doin’ today? Not many of these warm summer days left, we can’t waste it.”
Ennis looked at him and lit the cigarette. Tom went on and said “that’s some girl you got there.”
Ennis smiled a faint smile. “She knows” Tom said, quietly.
Ennis turned and stared. He stood up and turned around as if he was going to go inside, but then he turned again. “What the fuck are you saying?”
Tom sat there calmly. “She knows” he repeated. Ennis glared at him. But Tom didn’t look at him. “You know, will you just make your damn mind up once and for all? Now, there are no strings attached, yeah, I know that, but it just can’t be both ways, it can’t anymore at all.” Tom said in a tone of voice that Ennis never heard before.
Ennis stood there motionless, as if in shock. He looked down the road where he still could almost see the smoke from Junior’s car. Then he turned to the door of the trailer, he started to open it, but he looked back down the road.
Ennis stood there, staring at the road. Then he sat back down next to Tom. “Do you still have any of that strawberry jam? We oughta bring some to Junior tomorrow” Ennis said. Tom turned to him, but for once he couldn’t find the words.
Ennis smiled his faint, nervous smile. “I think she’ll like it” he said.