After the Horses. Jeffrey Round
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drove to the Annex and pulled up the drive of an ivy-covered stone house. Kendra waved from the kitchen window.
“Come in,” she called. “I’m making ma’amoul!”
She set a plate of sugar-dusted cookies on the table. He looked her over, this woman from another culture who also happened to be the mother of his son. An unforeseen occurrence, the consequence of a single date brought about by a crush on her highly attractive brother. Dan seldom thought about it now, it seemed ancient history. The fact was it had happened and turned out for the best all around, though there’d never been any question of their becoming a couple in the traditional sense. Neither wanted it then and it would serve no purpose now. They simply shared in raising the child they produced.
He bit into a cookie. A flavourful wash of warm oranges and dates flooded his mouth.
“Mmm … fantastic!”
She smiled. “You always say that.”
“Only because it’s true.” He popped in the remainder and wiped the powder from his fingers.
Kendra gave him a sideways glance. “You need to talk to Ked,” she told him. “He’s thinking of turning down his acceptance to UBC because of you.”
It was always straight to business with her.
Dan sighed. “I didn’t even know he was accepted. Why doesn’t he tell me these things?”
“He probably doesn’t want to worry you.”
“Worry me about what?”
She gave him a rueful look. “He thinks you need him here. He’s afraid of abandoning you by going off to school.”
Dan shook his head. In light of their relationship, it made sense. Ked had always lived with him. They’d formed a bond against the world, making them a fully functioning unit, though perhaps it was unfair to both of them. For one thing, it kept Dan’s desire for a partner at bay with the excuse that his son needed him more, but that excuse was officially due to end when Ked went away to university. If he went.
Over the past few months he’d tried pushing Ked away gently, but recently he’d sensed resentment because of it. It would be hard to explain his actions to his son, especially since they were deliberate on Dan’s part.
He looked at Kendra. “What do you think?”
“I think he should go where he can get the best training, naturally. The University of British Columbia is the best for his field.” She waited. “I’ve got enough money to help him out, wherever he wants to go.”
Dan nodded. “I’ve got some, but not as much as he’ll need.”
Her jaw line was set. “Then it’s good he’s got two parents.”
Dan smiled. “I’ll say. In the meantime, what do you think I should say to him? Should I let him know you’ve told me this?”
“Don’t let him know we’ve been conspiring against him — that’s how he’ll see it, anyway. Just ask him what his plans are. He’ll tell you when he’s ready.”
She pushed the plate forward and smiled when he grabbed another cookie: men were all children under the skin. They worked best on reward and punishment.
“How’s Domingo?” she asked.
Dan’s look darkened. An old friend, a recurrence of cancer. He preferred not to dwell on it. “I don’t like it. We talk a few times a week, but it sounds like she’s resigned.”
Kendra shook her head. “I’m so sorry to hear that. It’s never good when the patient stops fighting. Did she decide to do the chemo at least?”
“Yes, but I gather this next round is the last, if she makes it. She seems to think there’s no use. She just wants to enjoy whatever time she has left rather than turn it into some heroic struggle.”
“I’m sorry, Dan. I know she means a lot to you. Just be there for her.”
“I will. For now, she’s getting the best help she can. That’s what counts.”
His cell rang as he pulled up in front of his house. It was Donny. He’d held out longer than Dan expected. Friends for more than a decade, Donny had been a constant in Dan’s life, the still point around which his compass revolved. When Dan had passed off a street youth for temporary shelter to Donny several years earlier, the pair had become a family unit: black father and white son. In Dan’s opinion, Donny had never seemed so suited to anything as he had to fatherhood, however convulsively it had begun. It had also seemed to put them on par again, both of them friends as well as fathers.
“You didn’t like him.”
“Is that a question?”
“No, I could tell. You weren’t warm to him.”
“Do lawyers do ‘warm’? I thought they were all cold-blooded.”
“Primarily, yes, but this one is a little different.”
“Because you dated him once?”
“I’m telling you, Charles is a nice guy.”
Dan wasn’t about to let him off the hook easily. “Fine, but I dislike the breed on principle.”
Donny spluttered. “He’s a lawyer, yes, but a lawyer who has never done anything to you!”
“Yeah, but he would for money.”
A long pause ensued. Dan glanced up and down the tree-lined street in Leslieville that he called home. Calm, peaceful. If it hadn’t been for that, he might not have been able to endure the city for as long as he had. It was here he’d given his son the sort of childhood that he, Dan, had never had.
“So will you take the case?” Donny asked.
“Tell him I’m still thinking about it.”
“You’re too much. Really, you are!”
“Many would concur. How’s Lester? I didn’t get a chance to ask you at lunch with all the overriding concern from your lawyer.”
Donny huffed. “Lester is fine. He just got an internship with a poverty outreach program.”
“Great news. Tell him I’m thrilled for him.”
“I will. With all his experience on the streets, he should be good at it. I’m very proud of him. Plus he’s got that band on the side. He’s passionate about his horn. Maybe not quite Miles Davis, but you never know. Still no talk of moving away from home, but now that the bird has wings it won’t be long before he flies off.”
Dan recalled Kendra’s comment about Ked’s unwillingness to abandon him.
“Funny, Ked’s the opposite. He’s afraid to leave me on my own.”
“He knows you too well.”
“Yeah, there’s that.” Dan looked up at the house. “I just got home. Call you later.”
“Think about the case!”
Ked stood watching him from the shadows. These days he seemed to hover a lot, Dan thought. Wasn’t that what kids were always accusing their parents of doing? Ralph, a geriatric ginger retriever, lay on a pillow in one corner. His eyes flickered occasionally from one to the other of them if he heard a word that sounded like it promised food or a walk.
“How’s school?” Dan asked.
“Cool. There’s a science fair coming up. I’m thinking of entering an idea I had for making a sling psychrometer.”
Dan’s expression was blank.
“It’s a device for measuring relative humidity.”
“Great!”
“It’s not as dull