The Weight of Gravity (30 page)

“Got the wrappers, George,” someone said behind them.

Max turned to see Bobby hand George several small items.  George approached Max and Mel.  “This might interest you two.  I found these b
ack by the lake.”  In one hand George had several candy wrappers.  In the other hand he had unwrapped candy pieces.  “They match this candy we found on one of your attackers.”

“Found these on the big fellow,” Bobby said, handing George a stack of business cards. George handed one card to Max.  He read it and gave it to Mel.

“Need to borrow your truck, Mel.”

“Not without me, Cowboy,” she told him.

Fifteen minutes later they pulled to the curb outside the law offices of
Hightower, Hightower and Landsberg.
  Mel followed as Max stormed through the front door, past several receptionists, to the back offices.  He threw open the doors of a conference room where Garner and several associates were seated at a large table.

“Why, if it isn’t the Writer Ma ….” Garner began to say, but Max grabbed his lapels and shoved him into a corner of the room.  Garner upturned a serving table on his way to the carpet.  “I’ll sue your ass!” he shouted, rising from the floor.

“Go ahead and try, you putz!  Keep in mind I have more money than you do.  I’ll stack my New York lawyers up against your po-dunk, small-town ambulance-chasers any day of the week.  Go ahead, and I’ll take that pretentious house of yours in a counter suit.”

“The same way you already took my wife?”

His words caught Max by surprise.  The fight suddenly left him.  He turned and walked out of the room.  Mel followed.  He came face-to-face with Erika, coming through the front door.  Neither spoke.  She looked shocked to see the bruises and blood on Max’s face.

“Max, I’m sorry you got into the middle of this.”  She reached out to touch his face, but he backed away.

His words were measured and calm.  “The most unattractive thing you ever did was to marry that sleaze-ball.  Do you know that?  It makes me wonder about you.  That you’d pick a man like that to spend your life with, to father your child, is beyond understanding.  Did I ever really know you?”  He brushed past her and got into the truck.

“Out!”

“They don’t take orders from you,
dearest
.”  Garner adjusted his coat collar.  He felt the back of his head and looked for blood on his hand.

Erika stared at Garner and his associates.  A young paralegal pulled the serving cart upright and began cleaning the carpet.

“I want to talk to my husband.  Will you all please give us a moment, alone?”  Everyone except Garner moved toward the door.

“Your boyfriend has a temper,” Garner said when everyone was gone.

“He’s not my boyfriend.”

“Lover?”

“What did your henchmen do now, Garner?”

“Not sure, yet … something that got the better of Mr. Max Rosen.  Judging by the damage to his face, I’d say they gave him a message to back off.”  Garner went to the bar and poured a drink.  “Want one?”

“No.”

             
Garner took his drink to the conference table and sat, shaking his glass to settle the ice.  He placed the tumbler on the polished table and turned it slowly, first clockwise, then counter-clockwise.  She knew he was trying hard to find the words to justify the strong-arm tactics of his business associates.  Garner hadn’t always been a heartless man, she thought.  Maybe her actions had led him to change his way of thinking.  Maybe it was all her fault, all of it.  Maybe if she’d been a more attentive wife, he wouldn’t have become such a ruthless person.  She was ready for him to tell her as much.

“Rosen’s faced literary critics before, but probably none who got this physical with their opinion of his writing.”

“Your Chicago friends are dangerous.”

“They’re only dangerous if you get in the way.
”  His voice was soft, almost conciliatory.  “Your boyfriend should’ve known better than to meddle in local politics.  This isn’t his town.”

She watched as he took a long drink of the scotch,
then steeled his eyes and mouth into an intense expression before looking at her. The bad-Garner had won out.  Nothing she did or did now would change what he’d become.

“
Isn’t it time for you to go play a tune for the kiddies, or make your son a scrumptious dinner?  Something like that?”

“Have you talked to Jay since they beat him up?”

“Was I supposed to?”

“Garner, our marriage is falling apart and you’re losing your son.”

He rose from the seat and walked around the conference table to where Erika stood by the windows.  “Our marriage fell apart a long time ago, and you slammed the door when you slept with Rosen.”  He set his glass on the windowsill in front of her and turned to leave.  He stopped just shy of the double doors leading out of the conference room.  “And as far as
our
son goes, he went south when he got into drugs.  I’m not supporting that habit.  If he wants to throw his life in a shit-hole, let him do it.”

“He needs his father.”

“He needs to grow up and get some responsibility.  That’s what he needs.”  He opened the conference room door.  “Now, it’s time for you to leave and for me to get back to work.  What are you doing here anyway?”

She walked across the room. 
“I came to join you for lunch.  I wanted to talk about our son.  He needs us.”

“
Your
son doesn’t warrant anymore of my time today.”  He motioned to the door.  “And neither do you.  Goodbye, dearest, see you when I get home sometime tonight.”

As she walked through the doorway, Garner held out his hand and stopped her.  “One more thing.  Wear something a little more attractive when you climb beneath the sheets tonight.  If I’m in the mood when I get home, I don’t want to dig through that iron-cast flannel crap you wear to bed these days.”

“I may never sleep in our bed again, Garner.”

“News flash, darling, that arrangement suits me fine.”  Erika began to walk away and Garner called out through the open office where people were watching.  “Then you’ll not mind if I bring home a friend or two, right?”

“Good god, what happened to you?”

Instead of answering Doris,
Max went straight to the bathroom and cleaned his face.  He changed, and then joined Mel and Doris in the front room.

“Mel gave me the scoop.  You okay, son?”

“I’ll be fine.  This may sound odd, but all this excitement is exhilarating.  I’ve never had so much fun dealing with my critics.”  He laughed and touched the corner of his mouth to see if the bleeding had stopped.  “But they usually don’t get this physical.  Best part is, I found my old friend.”

“Clay?” Mel asked.

“Yeah.  He’ll probably lose his foreman’s job though.”

“No problem.  He can come to work for Kristoffersen.”

“Thanks, Mel.  I don’t want to see him and Cindy hurt in all of this.  They’re good people.”

“Mel said you put up a good fight.”

Max stared at Mel.  “Yeah, if you call lying face down on the pavement fighting.”

“Another talent Nathan never taught his son,” Mel said.

“Nathan could fight.”  Doris laughed.  “I watched him kick the butt of three guys who chased him out of a bar one night.”

“That’s another thing we didn’t share.  I’m going back to New York where it’s safe to walk the streets.”

“I never thought they’d get this violent, Max,” Mel said.  “You’re a better writer than I gave you credit for.”  She laughed.

“My article must have rattled the cages of the big cats.  I don’t think they wanted to do more than scare me.  And they succeeded.”

“How’s Coyote-Butt Molina?”  Doris asked.  “When he was a boy his mother sent him into Cottonwood for school, Max.  They didn’t want him educated on the reservation.  He was a handful, but I always liked him ... always thought he had great potential.  Was Jessie with him?”

“Yes.  Scared the shit out of Max when he leaned in the window,” Mel told her.

“That’s a big dog,” Max said in his defense.

Mel stayed for dinner.  Later in the evening, Max’s spirit was unusually quiet.  The events he’d encountered since coming to Cottonwood were totally new to him.  He hadn’t felt this alive in a very long time.  Whatever had happened today, and in all the days since coming home to Cottonwood, were having the desired affect on him.  He felt renewed, ready to take on new challenges, ready to write again.

Mel and Max ended the evening sitting in the swing.  Doris had gone to bed and the house was dark.

“Big day for you, Max?”

He took a sip of coffee.  “This is good.  What’d you put in this?”

“Kahlua.  I don’t think you’ll have anymore problems with the local mafia.”

“They’re not going to stop raping the land and the people on it
just because I wrote an article and a few of their strong arms got arrested.”

“I don’t think they’ll try something like that again.  It’s time for Garner and his gang to move on, though.  No one around here’s going to want to hire them anymore.”

“It’s time for me to move on, too.  I’ve overstayed my welcome.  My life and work are not in Cottonwood.”

“I know.  Have you accomplished what you came here for?”

“I was never sure why I came back … only that I was searching for something.  You know, no matter what you and Doris think or what impression I may have given you, I didn’t hate my old man.  But it wasn’t easy to like him either.  I always thought he didn’t understand me.  Fact is, he probably understood me better than I did myself, at that age.”

“I’ll bet that’s true.  You’re a funny man, Max.  But like my grandmother always says ...”

“... looks aren’t everything,” he finished, then pushed the swing higher.

“Do you know, Max,” she said, pulling her legs up under her, “you’re the only man I ever let set the pace of my swing.”

“I feel honored.”

“You should.”

“This could be the start of a beautiful relationship … you and me.”

“I’ve learned a lot about you these past few weeks, Max.  Much more than I thought I already knew from Doris.  You and I tease each other, but your heart is somewhere else.  You and I both know that.”

“Erika?” he whispered, staring out the windows to a moonlit desert landscape.

“You never got over that one.  I don’t think you ever will.  I hope you and I are friends for a long time, good friends, close friends.  But friends are all we will ever be.”

“Ever?”

“Well, let’s just say that until you find the strength to close one door, you have no chance of opening another.  You should have learned that by now.”

“I did, but I was a slow learner.”

“Finish it, Max.  Then maybe we’ll talk, you and I, about becoming something more than friends.  Like I told you, I’m always a sucker for wounded animals."

              “I’m fine.  Will you go, please?  Donny’s here to make sure I don’t get into trouble.”

             
“Just seems lately I’ve left you alone too much.”

             
“You know that’s not true.”

             
Max had stayed close to Doris for nearly two weeks.  He’d check on her every evening before going to bed and prepare breakfast for the two of them each morning.  Except for the trip to the mountains with Mel, when he left Doris in Heather’s care, and occasional trips to the grocery, Max was attentive to all her needs. 

It was hard now to let go and leave her long enough to meet Mel for lunch.  But she was doing amazingly well getting around on her own, and Heather still came in to help.  Max always made sure Doris didn’t push it and got plenty of rest.  Donny carried her outside sometimes, taking her a few yards off the porch.  She’d turn her face to the sun and smile.  In the moments when Doris was down for her frequent naps, Max worked on the new novel.

              “You and Mel have been plotting again,” he told Doris.

             
“Okay, I’ll admit it,” she said, moving toward the kitchen with the aid of her walker.  “I think she’s sweet on you.  She wanted to treat you to lunch before you left.”