Chapter 32

Chapter 32

As much as I wish it, Todd doesn’t smack his head on the counter as he falls. He lands on his rear while I stand over him, ready to give him another shot. “I probably deserve that,” he says.

“I was going easy on you,” I say. I desperately want to pummel him until his face is a pile of red goo, but I manage to hold back. “You couldn’t pick up a phone or even send a fucking postcard in almost six months? You think you can just show up here and everything will be hunky-dory?”

“Hey, I’m sorry. I’m sorry about a lot of things.”

“Yeah, you should be.” He tries to get up, but I shove him back down. I’m not going to let him escape so easily.

“Come on, let me up. I have to talk to Brooke.”

“I don’t think she wants to talk to you.”

“I know, but there are things I need to say to her.” He tries to get up, but again I knock him down. “Look, either let me talk to her or I’m going to kick your ass.”

“You wish.” In twenty-two years, Todd and I have rarely come to blows. Our last real fight came ten years ago. I had my first sexual experience while reading a Supergirl comic. When I felt my dick growing hard and pushing against my Spider-Man underwear, I pulled my pants down for a closer look. My dick was pulsing like an exposed artery and growing larger by the second. Not knowing what else to do, I touched my erection and felt a pleasurable little tingle. Next think I know I’m beating off like a madman. When I came, it was like my whole body sighed in relief at a job well done.

Later, Todd threw the comic back at me as I lay in bed. “Nice going,” he said. “You got your cum all over my book.”

“So?”

“So, some of the pages are stuck together. You better buy me a new one or I’m going to tell Mom.”

At twelve, every cent I had was precious; I wasn’t about to waste my money to buy a comic I’d read already. “Mom won’t believe you. She’ll think you’re doing it and trying to blame me.” I threw the comic back at him and turned away, smiling to myself at my victory.

Todd yanked me out of the bed and managed to hit me twice in the face before I got my arms up. I rolled him off with one of my knees and then landed a weak punch to his arm. We grappled with each other for a minute, neither of us getting position on the other. He managed to get my arms up high enough to punch my unprotected stomach. When I doubled over, he hit me in the side of the head. For good measure, he stood up to kick me in the ribs a couple times. “That’s what you deserve, you little perv,” he said. He left the cum-laced comic by my head before disappearing. Any other time I would have run to Mom to get him in trouble, but this time I was too embarrassed. I didn’t replace the comic and he never asked again. He must have figured beating me up was payment enough.

This time I’m determined not to suffer the same fate. I lunge forward while he’s still on the ground, knocking him onto his back. He grabs my wrists as I reach for his neck, keeping my hands at bay. Then I think of Susie, trapped in her mother’s house, forever confined to a wheelchair, and I find the strength to bear down on Todd’s throat. I wrap my hands around his neck and begin squeezing.

He tries to throw me off, but I hold my ground and apply more pressure. I see a pair of white shoes behind Todd’s head and look up to see the ghost of Susie behind him. She sits in a wheelchair, a blanket over her useless legs. Her eyes are large and sad, her hair matted, and her skin paler than any ghost on a Halloween special. The sight of her so diminished and pathetic spurs me to squeeze Todd’s neck harder. “Do it,” she encourages me. “Do it for me.”

“I hate you,” I growl to him. He killed Mom, he stole my chance for a good education, and he led to Susie being shot. Everything I’ve ever wanted or loved he’s taken away from me. I think of him holding Diana. Now he wants to take her away too. After all the work I’ve done raising her, nurturing her through these awful months, and now he thinks he can suddenly waltz in and be her father. No. I’m going to choke the life from the bastard. Then Brooke, Diana, and I will disappear like Todd.

Todd’s skin is starting to turn blue around the edges. He’s not fighting back anymore. Not much longer and he’ll be finished. Then he won’t be able to hurt anyone else again. His curse will be lifted forever.

“Harry!” Brooke shouts. She grabs me, trying to pull me off. I don’t budge. I squeeze harder on Todd’s throat. At last, I’ll have revenge for Mom, for Susie, and for Diana. “Stop it! Let him go!”

“Shut up,” I say. I let go of Todd long enough to shove her away from me. “I’m not going to let him ruin everything again.”

“Harry, please, let him go. Don’t do this to Diana. Don’t take her father away.”

“That’s the best thing that could ever happen to her.” If only I could go back in time to erase Todd’s existence from the universe. Mom would still be alive. Susie would still be able to walk. No, Diana won’t miss anything with him gone. He’s a menace, a blight that needs removed.

Something hits me on the back of the head. My grip on Todd loosens as the world around me starts to spin. I try to get to my feet, but can only manage a step before collapsing in almost the same place as the night of the Trench Coat Bandit’s failed robbery. I see Brooke standing over me with a metal dustpan in her hands. “I’m sorry, Harry,” she says.

“Traitor,” I growl. Then I pass out.

I’m not sure when I wake up, but it’s dark outside. I’m too groggy yet to make out what the male and female voice shouting are saying. I put a hand to the back of my head, feeling the lump Brooke left. Who knew a dustpan could hurt so much? They don’t make them like that anymore.

I manage to get to my feet and stumble into the back room. Todd and Brooke are gesturing at each other and shouting in what sounds like a tape run at half speed. On the desk where I used to do the books, I see Diana still in her car seat. Her face is red and tears are in her eyes. Her cries hit me like a jet going supersonic. While Di’s parents continue to argue about her future, I snatch her from the car seat.

I take Diana next door, where she can’t hear her parents arguing. If I hadn’t been so woozy, I might have grabbed a bottle of formula before going next door to Starbucks. I stagger up to the counter where one of my co-workers raises an eyebrow studded with earrings. He probably things I’m drunk or high. “I got hit with a dustpan,” I say just to see his reaction.

“That happens to me all the time,” he says. Stupid, smart-mouthed punk kid. If Di ever brings home someone like that, I’ll cave in his skull with a baseball bat.

“Just give me a coffee. Plain, black, lots of caffeine, all right?”

I take the coffee over to a seat by the window. The bitterness and caffeine starts to bring my mind back into this dimension. Diana has stopped crying and fallen asleep in my arms. “I’m not going to let him take you,” I say. “He’s not going to ruin your life too.”

The coffee is gone two hours later when Brooke spots me from outside. She runs inside and tries to take Diana away. I turn my body towards the window to fend her off. “No, you’ll just give her to him,” I say.

“Harry, Todd is Diana’s father.”

“Sure, now he wants to be her father. In six months he’ll decide to bail out again when things get tough. Don’t come crying to me then.”

She sits down across from me. Her eyes are still red and puffy from crying and arguing. She looks down at the table with her hands in her lap. I relax enough to turn Diana towards her. “I want to choke him to death as much as you do,” she says. “But what am I supposed to do? He is her father.”

“You keep saying that. So what if he’s the father? He’s going to be a lousy father.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I’m just judging from his track record.”

“You know how I grew up. I don’t want that for Diana.”

“No father is better than a bad one.” I lean forward to whisper, “Let’s go. Right now, just the three of us: you, me, and Diana. We’ll go somewhere quiet and safe. We’ll be happy.”

“Harry, please, don’t talk like that.”

“Why not?”

“Just don’t.” Fresh tears come to her face. “I still love him,” she admits.

“Why? He left you at the altar. He forced you to have Diana on your own. How can you still love him?”

“I don’t expect you to understand.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You know what it means!” she shouts. Everyone in Starbucks looks our way. I might have to quit tomorrow to avoid the embarrassment of explaining all this. She lowers her voice and continues, “You abandoned Susie when she needed you most.”

“Susie didn’t want me around.”

“If you really knew anything about her, you’d know how much she loved you and how much she still does.”

“How do you know?”

“Trust me, Harry, I know.” I’m too dumbfounded to put up a fight when she takes Diana from me. “Harry, I know you’re angry with Todd, but you have to give him another chance. He’s family.”

“I don’t care.”

She gets up from the table. “We’re getting married. On Monday we’re going to the courthouse. I’d like you to be a witness. If you don’t want to, then we’ll find someone else.”

I get up from my seat and stomp away without saying anything. I throw open the door to Alternate Dimensions, where Todd is surveying the damage. He puts up his hands at my approach. “I know you’re still pissed off, but let me explain.”

“Why should I?”

“Because I want you to understand I’m not the same guy who got cold feet. I’ve changed.”

“Likely story.”

“Will you at least let me explain? Then if you want to fight again, we can.”

“Fine, go ahead and tell your little sob story,” I say. As soon as he’s done, I’m going to finish what I started.