See You on the Backlot by Thomas Nealeigh

mother, and then there was an inquest from the law… and by the time we were free and clear to put our hands on him, Frank was gone.’
    I sat down, then, all the strength gone from my legs. I wanted to crawl into the ground rather than towards Charlie. ‘Why didn’t you say anything when he showed up on the lot after Sam’s accident?’ I asked. ‘Why did you hire him?’
    ‘Dammit, Tony,’ Charlie burst out, ‘I didn’t hire him – you did!’ He wiped his face off, continuing, ‘Frank had already come up to me when we landed on the lot – he told me he had seen everything that happened between your mother and I, and that he knew I was responsible. And that he was going to go to the cops. He’d been inthat town for a while, and he was probably a troublemaker there, too. But he’d been around them, those people, so his word would probably carry more weight than my word or Murphy’s with the law. Especially considering what had actually happened. And there were just too many unanswered questions in the first place.’
    ‘He showed up on the lot demanding I pay him to keep quiet,’ Charlie continued, ‘and I told him to bugger off. Then he was threatening to cause trouble at the show. It was blackmail, of course, but I figured he was bluffing and I was ready to call him on it. Then Sam gets that jolt…’
    ‘Probably something Frank set up to happen,’ interrupted Murphy. ‘He always was a wily one. It could just as easily have been me, or you, Charlie, or even you, Tony, who got zapped that day.’
    Charlie nodded and continued, ‘And that’s when Frank made his play. Like I said, I was going to call him on it, not caring what he said to anyone at that point, but then you step upand make the move to hire him.’ Charlie took a breath, like he was embarrassed by the thought of what had happened. ‘I thought of saying something, but having you there… seeing you talk to him… it was all too much. I just plain lost my nerve.’
    ‘And once a part of the show, thanks to you,’ Murphy said, ‘Frank made good on his threats. He started demanding money from your da. Threatening to injure more people with the show if Charlie didn’t pay up.’
    ‘Still holding the threat of going to the police over my head, too,’ Charlie said. ‘It was just a rock, a hard place, and a fate worse than death.’
    ‘Why didn’t you fight him, Pops?’ I asked Charlie.
    Charlie hung his head a little shamefacedly , then, saying, ‘I just couldn’t. All the memories of your mother – and you – it was just easier to pay up. And when I finally started bucking him a bit – getting ready to give him the boot, and police be damned– that’s when your accident happened. I couldn’t take another risk after that.’
    Now it was my turn to be quiet. I guess I realised that my fire-breathing accident hadn’t been because of Charlie’s mistake, or mine, but because Frank was trying to get at Charlie through me. It was right then that I finally started realising what Charlie had been going through.
    ‘I never wanted anything to happen to you, son,’ Charlie was crying again. He reached for me blindly through his tears. ‘I should have told you. I should have told you,’ he repeated. ‘But I just wanted to protect you.’
    ‘But you didn’t protect me from him in the first place,’ is what I said to him then, the bitterness heavy in my voice. Suddenly, Murphy stepped up and slapped me across the mouth. He had never struck me in all the years he’d been with us – never.
    ‘You watch yourself,’ he said through clenched teeth. ‘If any of us had had anyidea about what he had been doing…’ He left the threat unfinished. ‘And ever since this bastard came on board, again, your father and I have been trying to figure out what to do. A way to get rid of him.’
    ‘But why didn’t you tell me what had happened,’ I demanded from Charlie, beginning to cry a bit myself. ‘Not just about Mum, but about