The Atonement (11 page)

“That makes me feel better. Now I won’t have
to put 911 on autodial,” said Tim.

“Hey, make no mistake about it, if I needed
to, I could turn it out. I got skill with the grill,” said
Richard.

“If you don’t mind, I’d rather take your word
for it. Anyway, I want to know what Al means by entertainment,”
said Tim.

“Like think of something fun we can do while
we’re waiting for the food to heat,” said Davis.

“This is right up my alley. You know, before
you all showed up, I was sort of brainstorming different activities
we could do. Tim, if you want, you could work on the decorations
while I plan the entertainment,” said Tamiko.

“Sorry. That’s not gonna work for me,” said
Tim.

“So I bet you’d rather I do decorations?
Right?” said Tamiko.

“Wouldn’t that make more sense?” said
Tim.

“Why? Because I’m a woman and I’m supposed to
like to make things pretty?” said Tamiko.

“I’m not being sexist. I mean you’re a
teacher, for crying out loud. Aren’t decorations supposed to be
your forte?” said Tim.

“That doesn’t mean it’s all I’m capable of,”
said Tamiko.

“Alright, I’ll give you the benefit of the
doubt. Let’s hear your ideas,” said Tim.

“I was thinking charades would be good…”

“Fail! First of all, it’s the lamest game in
the world. Secondly, Jim is coming home with his good arm in a
sling and a broken leg. Chances are he wouldn’t be able to
participate, not that he’d want to.”

“What about pictionary?”

“Once again, I’ll have to call ‘fail’, for
reasons I’ve explained previously.”

“Oh, this is a good one. We could play guess
your picture!”

“Epic-fail!”

“Could you knock it off with the ‘fail’
stuff? You’re not even giving my ideas a chance!”

“What’s ‘guess my picture’ about?” asked
Davis.

“It’s a really cool game. Everyone wears
headbands…”

“Okay, you lost me at ‘headbands’…” said
Tim.

“Just let me finish. Like I said, everyone
wears a headband and the mc puts these different pictures in the
headbands and you can’t see them, but everyone around you can. Then
you have to ask questions about your picture to the others in the
room to help you guess what or who it is. The catch is, you can
only ask a question that has yes or no as the answer. Sometimes I
play this game with my students during choice time and it’s a riot”
explained Tamiko.

“Are you serious?! A game for six year-olds?!
I can’t imagine what else you have in mind. Musical chairs? Freeze
dance? A Piñata?”

“I was planning on changing it to make it
more entertaining for adults! Anyway, what’s wrong with some good
old-fashioned fun!”

“We get all that, shorty but you gotta
remember you plannin’ a big boy party. Turn that teacher stuff off
for a hot minute. You gotta think of something more, uh, uh…”

“The word you’re probably searching for is
‘mature’, ” said Tim.

“Word,” said Richard.

“And what would you suggest, Tim? Hmm? Since
you’re so critical, I can’t wait to hear what you have in mind,”
said Tamiko.

“It’s simple: We have a dominoes tournament
and a movie.”

“I could go for that,” said Richard, “and Jim
does like to play dominoes.”

“And you thought my ideas were lame? Dominoes
sounds so…so… elderly,” said Tamiko as she folded her arms across
her chest and slumped back in her seat. “And a movie! That’s
something he can do anytime. I wanted to do something special. Like
I thought we could even do a little ‘this is your life’ slide show
with old photos and everything.”

“Miko, with everything that’s happened in
Jim’s life, I don’t think he’s going to want to rewind back to the
past.”

“It’s not like I’d be including pictures from
his mother’s funeral. Despite all of the hard times he’s had, there
were good times, too. We had lots of fun together as kids.”

“Yeah, nothing makes a guy feel better than
to have everyone laughing at his awkward kid pics. Sorry, but I’m
going to have to give it my veto…fail!”

“Why are you being so difficult? It’s like
you feel it’s your duty to oppose everything I suggest.”

“That’s because it is. I’m the sanity on this
team. Everyone knows you’ll turn it into a grade school prom
complete with bubble wands, unless there’s someone around to check
you. It’s probably the reason why Al paired me with you in the
first place.”

“You are unbelievable!”

“I know,” he said winking at her.

“Alright you two, chill. You’ll just have to
figure out all that drama between yourselves later. Sub-teams can
meet before the end of the week to iron things out. Then we’ll meet
back at Al’s Saturday morning to get everything together.”

Richard called over a hostess and each of
them paid their portion of the bill, along with the customary
gratuity.

“I know Jim’s going to be glad to be out of
the hospital. After two weeks in Baltimore I was starting to go
stir crazy,” said Tim.

“I’m still wondering how our boy landed there
in the first place. He still ain’t sayin’ nothing? Not even to Al?”
asked Richard.

“Nothin,” said Davis.

“Maybe he’s trying to put everything behind
him. I know I would,” said Tim, “Is it true the police interviewed
him?”

“Yeah, but I don’t think they were looking at
Jim as a suspect or anything like that. I suppose they would’ve
charged him by now if they were,” said Tamiko.

“Not necessarily,” said Davis, “Sometimes
they back off and watch you - give you enough rope to hang
yourself. That’s what happened to my brother. I just hope that
whatever Jim got into, he doesn’t have any plans to go back to
it.”

“Hopefully his recent experience will cause
him to think twice about that,” said Tim.

“They ain’t never caught the dude that shot
him?” asked Richard.

“Not that

I know of. I hope this doesn’t mean Jim could
be in any danger,” said Tamiko.

“He may be more of a danger to himself if
he’s been…self medicating,” said Tim.

“Let’s not get caught up in a lot of
guessing. Basically it’s none our business, and if Jim wants us to
know, he’ll tell us,” said Davis.

“I get you. Besides, it’s over and done with.
Better to look ahead,” said Tim.

“It’s getting late, and tomorrow’s another
workday,” said Tamiko.

“Yeah, we all better be heading out,” said
Davis.

They all bid each other good night and went
their separate ways, each blanketing their reservations about the
past with their optimism for the future. They were determined to
view Jim’s return as an auspicious development. Jim was alive, and
he was back with his family where he belonged. This celebration
would be the beginning of happier times for their friend and for
everyone.

Ten

Allyson gazed raptly at her tablet computer
while she waited for her mother inside a restaurant. It was a
little French eatery just outside down the block from her mother’s
office. She had been summoned here by her mother’s text just the
day before, which read “emergency: important family issue that
needs to be discussed”. Allyson wasn’t alarmed at all when she read
the text. Her mother usually started every text she wrote with the
word ‘emergency’. There was no point in trying to guess what she
wanted because to Eleanor Russell a family emergency could mean
anything from asking Allyson to attend a fashion show with her to
announcing the death of a relative. While she was waiting, Allyson
decided to take the time to work on a school project instead –
adding revisions to an English literature paper she had uploaded on
her tablet computer. It was hard enough trying to juggle,
schoolwork, activities and social obligations without having to be
interrupted by Eleanor’s self-made crises.

She was halfway through her paper, when she
got another instant message from Jason. He had called her two days
after that disastrous morning but let it go to voicemail. He left a
message telling her that he had indeed broken up with the retro
70’s girl. But Allyson wasn’t so sure she should trust him. In
response, she sent him a brief two-word text: prove it. Then for
the next couple of days he was burning up her instant messaging
account with penitent pleas. “Maybe he’s learned his lesson by
now,” thought Allyson, as she was deciding whether or not to delete
the message or send a reply. In the midst of her deliberation, her
mother arrived, talking on her smart phone as usual. She was
dressed in her typical business gear: dark suit with a form fitting
skirt, accessorized with pearls and high heels; her hair pulled
back into an elegant French roll. Eleanor waved to Allyson and gave
her an air kiss as she continued her conversation.

“Yes, that will be splendid. Will the Bretons
be coming? Marvelous, I can’t wait to get a hold of Gabe’s ear. I
know he’s going to love my idea for his firm”

It would be another five minutes or so before
Eleanor actually ended her call. In the meantime, after hastily
transcribing her message and sending it, Allyson put away her
tablet and took out a menu to look at. She had decided on having a
salad and orange seltzer, before her mother finally addressed
her.

“Allyson, your mother is about to get one of
her biggest clients yet!”

“Is that what this meeting is about?”

“Oh, I wish. But before we get to that, let’s
put in our order.”

Eleanor flagged down a waiter who took their
order. When he was out of sight, Eleanor put her head in her hands
as if she was in distress. Allyson was familiar with her ‘oh woe’s
me’ pose.

“Allyson, our family is in serious trouble
and you’re the only one that I can think of that can do something
about it.”

“Why? What’s wrong now?”

“Allyson, how can you ask me that? Were you
not there in Baltimore when we went to the hospital?!”

“So this is about Tim – again.”

Allyson felt she shouldn’t have been
surprised. Seventy-Five percent of all of Eleanor’s ‘family crises’
involved Tim in some way. To Allyson, it seemed that Eleanor was
practically obsessed with making her son adhere to her rigid social
standards. He couldn’t fart without Eleanor checking to see if the
smell met the family standard. It would have been enough to make
Allyson jealous of her brother if not for the fact that she knew
her mother didn’t really care for either of them. With Eleanor
everything was about control and Tim had always been the child that
was more defiant, which was why he always got so much attention.
Tim never directly disobeyed his mother’s requests or advice. He’d
simply ignore her or conveniently forget what she’d said. This was
not to say that Allyson was easier to manage. Oftentimes, Allyson
would ostensibly comply with her mother’s wishes in order to avoid
maternal interference in her life. As long as Allyson appeared to
be a ‘good girl’ in her mother’s eyes she was able to escape
Eleanor’s scrutiny and for the most part, live however she
wanted.

“I know you’re probably just as frustrated as
I am right now. It’s like he is determined to ruin his life and his
grandfather’s good name in the process. It was bad enough that he
was hanging out with those ghetto people, now he’s gotten himself
entangled in some kind of religious cult they have.”

“Well, that’s Tim for you. He will do
whatever he wants, no matter what anyone else says.”

“The problem is he’s been headstrong since he
was a baby. You know the very first word he ever said to me was
‘no’. I’ll never forget it. He was only eight months old and I was
trying to get him to wear a sunhat. Every time I put it on his
head, he’d take it off, throw it to the floor and say ‘no!’ The
only way I could get him to stop was to spank his little hand.”

“Maybe you should try that now.”

“Allyson, be serious! I wish you had been
there when he got his second opinion before the operation. He was
just screaming about how he had been healed. I told him from the
beginning that those doctors at Presbyterian had misdiagnosed him,
but he just wouldn’t listen to reason. I mean he was making a
spectacle of himself in front of all the staff: crying, falling
down, and talking something that sounded like babble, to me –
although one of the orderlies said it was Urdu – whatever that is.
I couldn’t have been more embarrassed. I was afraid that I would
have to have him transferred to the psychiatric hold. And you saw
how his so called friends acted when I cut off communication with
them – the way they stormed the hospital and refused to leave until
they saw him. I’m certain they would have tried to kidnap him if
you and Terrence hadn’t been there with me.”

“Yes, I saw,” said Allyson feeling bored.
Eleanor had gone over this episode hundreds of times since they’d
all come back from Baltimore and Allyson was sick of hearing it. In
her eyes, her brother was just as bad as her mother if not more so:
just as self-centered, callous, manipulative, and pretentious. Just
like the guys she dated and everyone else in the cold, shallow
world she felt trapped in. As far as Allyson was concerned, if Tim
decided to run away with the cult and was never heard from again,
she wouldn’t be sorry in the least.

“Oh, and don’t get me started on that
impudent young woman. I’ve heard them talking and I think her
father is the head guru, as they’re known. I think Allen introduced
Tim to them, and then those two hatched a plan to trap him. They
probably see Tim as a cash cow for their organization and she’s
acting as the milkmaid. You know how weak Tim is when it comes to a
pretty face.”

“Don’t remind me. So he’s in a cult. What do
you think I can do about it?”

“Well you know he’s still upset with me after
the whole fiasco in Baltimore. He doesn’t trust me. But I know you
might still have some influence on him.”