had come largely
to get the rest of the story I’d promised her about my relationship
with Ed, but to her credit she ate nearly half a breadstick before
asking for details.
“So you went cop and he went con,” she said. “That’s all you gave
me this afternoon. Now I want the rest.”
I gave her the rest while we ate the pizza. She sat on the couch
with her legs curled under her and didn’t interrupt with questions
until I was done, which is unusual for Amy.
“Man,” she said when I was through, “that had to be hard on you, Lincoln. Sending your best friend to jail when you’d actually
set out to help him.”
“Had to be hard on him,” I answered, “being sent to jail by his
best friend.”
“Did you really believe he’d talk?”
I nodded. “I was sure he would. Maybe that was because Allison
did a good job of convincing me, but, yeah, I thought he’d talk to
stay out of jail. Don’t get me wrong, I expected he’d be bitter at
first, but I thought maybe later …” I shook my head and sighed.
“What?”
“I had this vision of how it would go,” I said. “There’d be a tense
period, sure, but then he’d clean his act up and we’d begin to relax
again. Things would get back to the way they used to be. He’d
marry Allison, and sometime, maybe a couple of years down the
road, we’d be out having a few beers, laughing, and then he’d turn
serious. He’d lift his beer to me and say …” I stopped talking.
Amy set her pizza down. “He’d say?”
“I don’t know. Thank me, I guess,” and even as I said it I felt
small. It had come out as if in my mind the situation had been
more about me than Ed. Or was that not just in the way I’d
phrased things?
“It sounds like this neighborhood is a tight little community,”
Amy said. “Kind of unusual now.”
I nodded. “It’s damn unusual. And most of the neighborhood
isn’t that tight, at all. It’s a pretty transient area, now. But there are
a few families scattered around that are vestiges of what it used to
be. That’s the group that stays close. Ed and Scott Draper were
both third-generation in the neighborhood. Everyone that had
been around for a while knew their families well. I was an outsider
at first; we didn’t move into that neighborhood until after my mom
died. But my grandpa had lived in that neighborhood for most of
his life, and my dad grew up there. When my mom died, my dad
pulled a career change, became a paramedic, and said he wanted to
live close to MetroHealth, because that was where his ambulance
ran out of. I think in reality he just wanted to go back to familiar
ground, because he was feeling a little lost. It was kind of like going
home to him.”
“How’d your mother die?”
“Killed by a drunk driver.”
She winced. “I’m sorry. I knew she’d died when you were young,
but I never knew how.”
“Right. I was only three when she died.”
“You remember her at all?”
“Vague things. I can still hear her laugh in my head even now,
but the only really clear memory I have of her face is the way she
looked the day I fell down the stairs. I nicked my head on something,
and it just bled like crazy. I can remember her standing at
the top of the steps and looking down at me with this utterly terrified
expression. That one’s just frozen in my memory.”
“I didn’t know your dad was a paramedic.”
“Yeah. He’d been working as a plant manager in Bedford, making
good money. Decided he wanted to do something else, and that
was what he picked. We ended up back in the city, and I fell in with
Ed and Draper, grew up around the families that had been around
there for generations, and for a while I was part of the club. In a
way, it was like growing up in a time warp. The neighborhood I got
to know was more like the neighborhood of the fifties and sixties,
before all the blue collars moved to the suburbs and the houses
around there started turning over faster than apartments.”
“And you’re not part of the club
to get the rest of the story I’d promised her about my relationship
with Ed, but to her credit she ate nearly half a breadstick before
asking for details.
“So you went cop and he went con,” she said. “That’s all you gave
me this afternoon. Now I want the rest.”
I gave her the rest while we ate the pizza. She sat on the couch
with her legs curled under her and didn’t interrupt with questions
until I was done, which is unusual for Amy.
“Man,” she said when I was through, “that had to be hard on you, Lincoln. Sending your best friend to jail when you’d actually
set out to help him.”
“Had to be hard on him,” I answered, “being sent to jail by his
best friend.”
“Did you really believe he’d talk?”
I nodded. “I was sure he would. Maybe that was because Allison
did a good job of convincing me, but, yeah, I thought he’d talk to
stay out of jail. Don’t get me wrong, I expected he’d be bitter at
first, but I thought maybe later …” I shook my head and sighed.
“What?”
“I had this vision of how it would go,” I said. “There’d be a tense
period, sure, but then he’d clean his act up and we’d begin to relax
again. Things would get back to the way they used to be. He’d
marry Allison, and sometime, maybe a couple of years down the
road, we’d be out having a few beers, laughing, and then he’d turn
serious. He’d lift his beer to me and say …” I stopped talking.
Amy set her pizza down. “He’d say?”
“I don’t know. Thank me, I guess,” and even as I said it I felt
small. It had come out as if in my mind the situation had been
more about me than Ed. Or was that not just in the way I’d
phrased things?
“It sounds like this neighborhood is a tight little community,”
Amy said. “Kind of unusual now.”
I nodded. “It’s damn unusual. And most of the neighborhood
isn’t that tight, at all. It’s a pretty transient area, now. But there are
a few families scattered around that are vestiges of what it used to
be. That’s the group that stays close. Ed and Scott Draper were
both third-generation in the neighborhood. Everyone that had
been around for a while knew their families well. I was an outsider
at first; we didn’t move into that neighborhood until after my mom
died. But my grandpa had lived in that neighborhood for most of
his life, and my dad grew up there. When my mom died, my dad
pulled a career change, became a paramedic, and said he wanted to
live close to MetroHealth, because that was where his ambulance
ran out of. I think in reality he just wanted to go back to familiar
ground, because he was feeling a little lost. It was kind of like going
home to him.”
“How’d your mother die?”
“Killed by a drunk driver.”
She winced. “I’m sorry. I knew she’d died when you were young,
but I never knew how.”
“Right. I was only three when she died.”
“You remember her at all?”
“Vague things. I can still hear her laugh in my head even now,
but the only really clear memory I have of her face is the way she
looked the day I fell down the stairs. I nicked my head on something,
and it just bled like crazy. I can remember her standing at
the top of the steps and looking down at me with this utterly terrified
expression. That one’s just frozen in my memory.”
“I didn’t know your dad was a paramedic.”
“Yeah. He’d been working as a plant manager in Bedford, making
good money. Decided he wanted to do something else, and that
was what he picked. We ended up back in the city, and I fell in with
Ed and Draper, grew up around the families that had been around
there for generations, and for a while I was part of the club. In a
way, it was like growing up in a time warp. The neighborhood I got
to know was more like the neighborhood of the fifties and sixties,
before all the blue collars moved to the suburbs and the houses
around there started turning over faster than apartments.”
“And you’re not part of the club
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