Brandon waved a console controller in the air and said, “Here, Uncle Max! You can use this one for the race.”
“It’s not broken, is it? I already know Uncle Jack’s gonna cheat, so I can’t afford any more handicaps here.”
“I’m not gonna cheat, sheesh. I’m winning Cool Uncle fair and square, you’ll see.”
Brandon answered, “It’s not broken, Uncle Max. Here, take it.”
But before Brandon could hand the controller over, there was a knock at the door and it wasn’t the first time that afternoon. As the day progressed, more and more neighbours stopped by to express condolences for Ted’s passing with flowers or food. Jack got the door last time, so Max jumped up for his turn this time.
“I’ll make your character,” Brandon offered, and Jack asked, “How do you change your outfit again?”
Max opened the door as he’d done a few times already that day, but this time he didn’t know what to say.
And for an extended pause, neither did Amy Parker. But eventually she said quietly, “I'm sorry, I didn’t think you’d be here.”
“Dad died, where else would I be?” Between the exchanges at the funeral and now this, Max was getting pretty sick of people assuming things of him.
“I know now’s not exactly the best time,” she began, “but Max, we really should talk. Can I come over to the townhouse sometime soon?”
He mumbled with a weak shrug, “I sold the townhouse.”
“Last summer. There was some construction or something, and it’s not like I had much left there anyway.”
“Why’re you upset? It’s not like you lived there, you moved out way before I did. Real nice temporary arrangement you and Rich cooked up.”
“How do you even know about that?”
But she quickly shook her head. “Never mind. It’s complicated, Max. We have a daughter, and unlike you we’re actually trying to keep our broken family together.”
Max was quite taken back by that. What did she think he was doing right now? Did grieving his father or racing her brother to be their nephew’s Cool Uncle really mean nothing to Amy? Where was she at the funeral? He assumed she stayed away because she knew he’d be there, but it’s not like they talked beforehand or planned it that way. Regardless of Amy’s intentions, past or present, Max was left to manage this side of their family alone. Maybe there was more truth in Beth’s nasty descriptions of Amy than he wanted to admit.
That’s when Jack placed a reassuring hand on Max’s back. “You know she said this same family loyalty guilt trip crap when Mom and Ted got together? Go ride that high horse of yours all the way back home, Amy.”
She warned, “Jack, stay out of this.”
“Tag me in, bro. I can take her.”
“Okay, you know what? I’m not wrong about Dad and I’m sick of you gaslighting me about it. It’s not like there’s much of a difference between Max and Dad now anyway.”
“What was that?” Max asked.
Through quickly forming angry tears, she cried, “You left! No warning, no goodbye, you just disappeared one day just like Dad did. It’s not like you don’t know where we live, or know how to call us, or email. Ben — remember your son? — he actually asked me if you died. So, yeah, forgive me for not seeing much of a difference here.”
Max felt the impact of a shotgun blast shoot through his rib cage but he didn’t say anything. Ben thought I was dead?
But Jack on the other hand, with his own strong sense of justice, and the only one not scared to stand up to his sister’s torment, couldn’t listen to Max’s devastation without saying something.
He pushed Max aside. “Satisfied, Amy? Anything else you’d like to add on the same day this man buried his father? A great father, I might add, seeing as I wasn’t the one too blinded by my own pride to appreciate how much of an awesome dad Ted was. That’s right Amy, there’s more than just one good dad out there. Robert Parker wasn’t special, so stop treating him like he was a god, and stop treating your boyfriend like he’s shit to you!”
The men remained tightly united with Amy as their decided enemy. Her first reaction was anger, of course, because how dare Jack meddle in affairs that he doesn’t have any chance of truly understanding? This was Bonnie at the park all over again!
But her second reaction came in the form of a wispy voice in the back of her mind, telling her, “He's right. You’re the problem. Do everyone a favour and just leave. Now.”
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
Even with a freshly bleeding hole in his chest, Max felt compelled to chase after Amy. He wanted to tell her everything would be okay, brush hair from her pretty face, and kiss away her pain. He could easily imagine the mental torture she was no doubt inflicting on herself right now; he knew neither of them had expected or wanted this to happen, least of all today of all days. Maybe if he could let go of their painful past, like dropping a heavy stone, she’d invite him back to the lake mansion where he could hold Ben in his arms again and prove to everyone that he was not, in fact, a dead dad.
But that heavy stone was all he had left of them anymore. If he dropped it now, he’d lose Amy, Ben, and Richard all over again with the added bonus of learning what he suffered through was droppable all along. Besides, even if he did find the courage to drop it, there was no guarantee that they could figure it out, whatever it was, and skip off into the sunset.
He still had to ask, “What did you tell Ben about me being dead?”
In a notch just above a whisper she said, “I told him you weren’t dead, and then we put our feelings for you in the fridge. We’re hoping they’ll last longer that way, or at least long enough until you decide to come home to us.” She sniffed. “Bye, Max.”
Brandon walked up to his Uncle Jack and asked, “What’s going on? Why’re Aunt Amy and Uncle Max fighting?”
“Boyfriend-girlfriend stuff, you’ll understand when you’re older. Well, I hope not, but hell, probably. Uh, Max won Cool Uncle for the day, okay bud? We’ll just race for fun again when they’re done.”
The young boy didn’t question or push it further, there was no need to from his short perspective, so he simply replied, “O-okay.”
