The Time in Between by David Bergen Read Free Book Online Page B

She shrugged. “He’s all right.”
    “You know about your sister?”
    Ada said she did.
    “And Jon, he knows?”
    Ada nodded.
    “So, I’m the only one in the dark here. Is that it?”
    “Del was worried. She figured you might strangle Tomas.”
    “That’s the goddamn truth.”
    Ada said that there wasn’t anything they could do. Del had made up her mind. She faced Charles and said that he shouldn’t do anything stupid. “Tomas pays you for your work. You need him.”
    Charles was astounded by his daughter’s matter-of-factness. He said, “It’s like I’m selling her then.”
    “That’s ridiculous. This has nothing to do with you, Dad.”
    “Sure as hell does.” He stood and pulled on his boots. Went outside and got into the pickup and looked out the windshield at the gray sky. Ada was watching from the kitchen window. He could see her profile and the fall of her hair. He started the engine, backed out of the drive onto the gravel road, and climbed toward Tomas Manik’s house.
    There was no one at the house, so Charles slid down the muddy path toward the workshop. He didn’t knock, just walked in. Tomas was working and listening to jazz. The sound system he had was big, and a high whining clarinet filled the space. Charles stood in the entrance and watched Tomas work. He was welding, his back to Charles, and there was the flare of the welder and a brightness against the far wall. Tomas pushed his goggles up and turned and saw Charles. He put his tools down and walked over to the stereo and switched it off. He said, “Charles.”
    Charles stepped forward. He was breathless and he rummaged about for the words that would penetrate Tomas’s smooth ease. He wondered where in this shop Del and the man would have had sex. Perhaps they went into the house.
    “I’m here about Del. She’s been coming here, to see you.”
    Tomas sat on a stool. He lit a cigarette and motioned at a free chair but Charles shook his head. Tomas said that it was true, Del did come to visit. However, he said, every time Del walked the mile and a half to his shop, she was choosing to do so and there was nothing he could say or do to stop her.
    “You’re fucking a minor,” Charles said.
    Tomas raised his eyebrows. “She said that? Or you?”
    Charles stepped back. “I could kill you,” he said.
    Tomas shook his head. “You won’t do that. Not because you’re incapable. I can see what kind of man you are. I have known men like you, and normally they frighten me, but you, Charles Boatman, won’t do such a thing. You love your daughter too much.”
    Charles looked around at the sculptures and the drawings and paintings. He said, “I bet you figure you’re a pretty good artist. That this is real art. Big art.” He swung his arm out at the space and said, “I figure you love this work.” Then he said that it was dangerous to love something too much. Especially something inanimate. He walked over to a sculpture of stainless steel. It was a man, ten feet tall. Testicles of ball bearings and a penis of solid steel, turned slightly, with a circumcised tip of hammered copper. Charles had milled the metal for the piece and delivered it three weeks earlier. He touched the ball bearings and said, “I could castrate this fellow for you.”
    He looked over at Tomas, who was no longer smiling.
    Charles patted the hollow thigh of the sculpture. “If you hurt her, I’ll kill you,” he said. Then he turned and walked to the door and stepped outside and walked back up to his truck. Sat in it and thought about Tomas and thought about Del. His hands were shaking. He started the truck and drove home and found Ada at the kitchen table. She’d done the dishes and made herself toast and eggs. She asked if he wanted some, and then, not waiting for an answer, she got up and turned on the element. Fried him eggs and laid them out on a plate with buttered toast.
    Charles ate and watched Ada watching him. Finally, he said, “You wouldn’t do