Tiny Tim полностью

My anxiety suddenly came back with a vengeance, as my mind made up one worst-case scenario after the other to explain why Claire wouldn’t be able to answer her phone. The fact that Aaron was still at least half asleep when I called, and therefore shouldn’t be in any distress, didn’t even register with me until much later. Aaron not answering right away only fueled that fear until, after a few moments he finally spoke up.

“My Wife, whom I’d prefer to hear you call ‘your mother’, is in the shower after her morning workout.” he answered in a nauseatingly preceptive tone, that wasn’t lessened in any way by his chuckle.

“Well,” I countered, mocking his tone and chuckle, “your son ‘Tiny’, whom I’d have preferred to hear you call ‘Tim’ for the last few years, doesn’t give a rat’s ass about what you want anymore.”

“Son, we... ”

“Your daughter stole my painkillers.”

“ ... What!?”

“At least I think it was her, since she was here this morning. What’s with that anyway? I thought we agreed on you guys hiding out for a few days, and then she shows up to get her damn homework!?”

“What homewo... ” he stopped mid-word and thought for a moment. “Oh, yeah ... Well ... Her grades are important, you know? Last year before college and all that.”

He wasn’t a great actor. Ava had lied about coming back for ‘school stuff’, as she had first put it, and he was trying to cover for his little princess. She probably made that up when she panicked after she took my painkillers. Thankfully I didn’t necessarily need them anymore.

“Sure it is. Anyway, I missed a call from Claire yesterday, ‘cause I collapsed into bed after I came back from getting my stitches out. I was expecting one from your Golden Boy, though. What happened?”

“Oh, Logan tried to call them a few times, but couldn’t get a hold of them. Claire said you mentioned that would be a good thing?”

“Yeah. It means they’re ... they’re probably out of business. Make sure he tries again today. If nobody tries to reach him by tomorrow, it should be safe for you all to move over to Granny’s for the rest of the week.”

“Are you still not gonna join us?”

“No.” I answered. He seemed to expect more of an answer, though, because the only thing I heard for the next few seconds was his breathing.

“Why not!?” he finally asked.

“If they come looking for you, I’d rather know as soon as possible, so I can deter their search. If they come looking for me personally instead, I don’t need you to be in the way.”

“Son, if it’s not safe for us to be home, it’s not safe for you either. Why can’t you just joi... ”

“Because after the shit I’ve been through the last two days, the last damn thing I need while worrying about those guys coming after me, is to listen to you all happily fuck each other! Is that so hard to understand, Aaron!? Be a parent for once in your life and keep your remaining children away from the damn house! If those guys show up, I can’t deal with them and worry about your asses being around!”

Throughout my tirade, I was unable to keep my voice from rising. By the time I hung up on him like I did on Claire the day before, I was sure he was holding his phone a good foot away while still being able to understand everything I said.

The next three days were basically routine. I spent the morning going through my online courses, rapidly working through all the assignments the school had made available to me, then went to work for the afternoon. At work, however, I sat around half the time staring at the safe, thinking about what I was supposed to do with all that money. It was a hopeless task. It was a lot of money, sure, but nowhere near ‘start a new life’ kind of money. Especially since I had no means to spend it on anything more than an expensive TV or another junker car.