The Parent Incident

I woke up with a new lust for knowledge, a burning curiosity for answers. I all but sprung out of bed, throwing open the door and rushing down the stairs. I paused only briefly to hear Sophie in the kitchen. Perfect. She was just what I needed. Ben, on the other hand, was not nearly as eager. He mumbled something I didn’t understand, and wasn’t willing to pause for two seconds and ask about. He’d obviously woken up on the wrong side of the bed, and I had work to do. So, I left him in the room alone, figuring he would be down before I knew it. We had been downstairs for more than thirty minutes, laptop out with facts from that day, Sophie with her pen noting any important information, when he finally stumbled downstairs, barely gracing us with a hello. 

Immediately we paused, the pen still balancing in Sophie's hand as we glanced at each other and then back at Ben. 

“What’s up with you?” Ah Sophie, ever Shakespeare with words. Ben cast her an irritated look before shaking his head and buttering his toast. The butter wasn’t soft enough and he was too frustrated. He cursed as he pressed the knife down too hard, making his toast look more like Swiss cheese. 

I ushered him to the table, starting his toast over while he just sat there, glaring at our page. I had never seen him like this before. The room was filled with an awkward tension as we waited for the bread to pop out of the toaster. My hand shook as I gently scooped the butter onto the bread, trying to press down as carefully as I could.

Finally, after the toast was in front of him and he had a bite, he was ready to talk. 

“Dad called.” Small pieces of food flew from his mouth with each word and he dug his fist into his eye, pressing down too harshly as he tried to rub the sleep out. Sophie and I glanced at each other again, returning our eyes back to him with identical wide-eyed stares. I think we both knew we should say something, anything really, but his demeanor was so different than it normally was that I was sure neither of us knew exactly how to respond. 

“He’s pissed- pissed. God, he was shouting so loud…I thought the whole house would fall apart.” For a second, as Ben hung his head, I could picture him as a child. I wanted to wrap my arms around him and rock him, patting his head until he just felt better but he wasn’t done talking yet and anyways, my surprise left me locked in place. Even if I wanted to move to comfort him, which I wasn’t entirely sure I did, I don’t think my feet would have moved an inch. They felt rooted to the ground, in fact my whole body felt like it was frozen in place. Only my eyes seemed to work as they flashed back and forth from Ben to Sophie. 

“He’s scared shitless something will happen to him…he didn’t say that but I could tell. Dad is never scared. I have never, never, heard dad scared before. Susanna must have told him something…He was ranting about mom, what she would do if he was in jail. My dad, in jail!” He paused as he scoffed, glaring at the piece of toast on his plate. “I can’t handle her on my own…me, watch my mom? I don’t know what to do with people like that! I’d have to drop out of school, give up any dream I ever had,” I reached over and wrapped my arms around his shoulders, shushing him as I buried my face into his back. 

“He’s just trying to scare you.” I said, at the same time Sophie made a connection. 

“What’s he think that we know that will get him in trouble?” Her pen tapped the table as Ben and I both looked at her with narrowed eyes, wondering what in the world she would say next. She clicked through the webpage a little, nodding to herself as she scribbled away on the paper. “Anyways, it’s not true.”

“What’s not true?” His voice was hard as he glared at her, looking at me with disbelief written all over his face. I could practically read his mind. He expected to come down here, worried about his dad, and probably get us to stop, exactly like his dad wanted. And here Sophie was, not letting him revert back to his old ways, moving everything along. 

Classic Soph. 

“He’s lying to you- about your mom at least. The rest, that’s true. He probably is scared, but c’mon. You think a man like your dad cares about your mom, or, no offense, you? Look at where he left you, Ben. None of your cousins got left with the two losers.” She laughed, winking at me as shook her head. “He’d have made your mom your burden in a few years anyways. But, luckily this isn’t the dark ages, they have assisted living facilities. Real nice ones too.” 

Ben blinked hard, shaking his head slowly but not coming up with any words to argue with her points. Everyone at the table knew she was right. His dad had used his mom against him, knowing that was Ben’s weak point, and it had worked. 

I knew I should have been more involved with the conversation, but the gears in my head were already spinning. There was something about what his dad had said, the fact that he had instantly gone after Ben’s mom. No normal husband would do that. Even the worst of fathers wouldn’t weaponize their sick wife against their own son. It was like he felt the net closing in on him. 

I tapped my finger to my chin as I considered. It was awfully coincidental timing too. Yesterday, probably after we had visited my dad, he had gone to the restaurant, the only place I knew of that had proof of his and my mom’s relationship, and stolen the picture. Someone from the prison must have told him we were there. I could buy that. So now he felt worried, like maybe my dad had told me something that I could use to implicate him. But why include his mom? Was it just to force Ben into compliance or maybe… I gasped, slapping my hand to my forehead as Ben and Sophie eyed me curiously. 

“Can I ask something crazy?” I looked at Ben, who shrugged. 

“When did your mom go crazy?” This time, Sophie and Ben shared a glance, both chastising me immediately. I couldn’t believe they were worried about how rude I sounded now! My pulse started racing as I nodded, throwing my shaking hands up in defeat before conceding. “Okay, okay, whatever. She had a mental breakdown. When did it start?”

“I don’t know…” Ben paused, searching my face to try and guess where I was coming from . “She’s always been a little depressed. When I was a kid sometimes I wouldn’t see her for days, she'd just hide away in her dark room.” Ben shrugged, giving me the benefit of the doubt enough to think back. “Probably like a year or so ago.” 

I nodded, glancing back at the trial information we had pulled up. Suddenly, all the pieces were falling together perfectly. The irony wasn’t lost on me either. Nikos had brought this all on himself, all of it. If he had never sent Ben after me, I would have never known there was a conspiracy. If he had never called Ben, using his wife as a weapon of guilt, I would have never realized that guilt should be associated with her. It was like he just couldn’t help himself. 

I’d been looking at it all wrong. We all had.

“I see… I think I know what happened.” 

This earned me even more skeptical glances. Sophie leaned over and looked doubtfully between the computer screen and her paper, shaking her head in confusion. As Ben just stared at me, an unreadable expression on his face. 

“What do you mean?” 

Instead of answering him, I got up and ran up the stairs, taking each step two at a time. It took a second, in all of our running around, we’d neglected to clean the room properly after moving in. I just remembered the picture album Ben had had, we’d just let it fall to the ground somewhere. God, there were so many clothes on the ground! After a few seconds of digging, I found the faded old photograph, inspecting it long and hard before returning back downstairs. Then, before answering, I grabbed a new paper, and started my list over again. 

Clue one: Ben’s mom said “That whore. It's her fault. She stole the gun.” 

Clue two: Susanna said my dad just wanted to protect her. I underlined her in both sentences, glancing up at them to make sure they were following. 

“So who do you think her is? Susanna?” Ben’s voice was laced with doubt as he shook his head. “No way. Susanna was out of town when it happened- I remember because we had to call her and break the news. She was wrecked. She was the only one to talk to your mom after everything went down.” 

I didn’t bother looking at him as I shook my head, my pencil still flying over the page.

Clue three: Dad made a deal with Nikos, said “he said he would stay away from you.” 

Clue four: they were all friends. 

I hesitated before finishing my thought, hoping it would all come together for them then. Still, it felt wrong. Even the suggestion…Ben might never talk to me again. But we’d come this far…I just had to. 

Clue five: Ben’s mom has a mental breakdown around the same time my mom dies.

A hush fell over the table as they both looked at me. Sophie was mostly confused, her head tilted to the left as she examined the paper. Ben was angry, as I predicted, his chest rising and falling rapidly as his fist slammed onto the table. 

“No.” Ben didn’t even hesitate as he shook his head, staring down at the paper, putting the pieces together as easily as I did. 

“What’s going on? I feel like there’s a section of this story that I just missed. Where’d you get this picture from?” Sophie grabbed the picture, squinting as she held it close to her face. “Old ass Polaroid. So what, it’s four adults?” 

“No, look closer.” I took it from her, my finger moving across each face as I named them all. “They were all friends, see. Look who my dad has his arms wrapped around? Both of Ben’s parents. What if she is her?” I pointed to the small woman between my dad and my mom, my finger quivering against the page. 

“So…what are you saying, Liv? That your dad killed your mom for Nikos or his mom or something?” 

“She’s saying my mom might have done it.” Ben’s voice was hard as his head rested in his hands. His shoulders fell as we watched, the anger seeming to slowly seep out of him until all that was left was the hallowed form of a man. I knew I should have reached out and offered him some form of comfort, maybe a hug, at the very least a squeeze on his shoulder. I was high on experiment though, as crude as that sounded. A new vitality coursed through my veins as I pushed ahead. Ben would be okay, I was sure of it. 

“Maybe,” I confirmed, scrolling on the laptop. “Listen, just hear me out, okay? Look at what it says.” I turned the computer towards them as I read out the facts, my voice growing increasingly frantic. “My mom’s body was moved, right? Who moves a dead body after they shoot them? My dad, who never handled a gun before, would probably have shot her and been too stunned to move. My dad is no hitman. And there was gun powder on my dad’s hands, sure, and her blood on his clothes- okay pretty damning I guess. But what if it’s not? What if it’s too much of an easy answer? Look, it even notes right here that the state attorney couldn’t explain why the pattern of blood on my dad wasn’t consistent with blood spatter. He wasn’t splattered with blood- he was soaked with blood. His whole shirt, his pants, they were both soaked. Like he had pulled her onto his lap after the fact. Like maybe he wasn’t right there when she was shot.” 

“Or maybe he was far enough away to avoid getting bodily fluids on him? Come on Livie, think about what you’re saying here. You’re insane.” She glanced nervously at Ben, who still sat with his head in his hands, unmoving. I was about to get up and check on him when he slowly raised his head, his eyes red and his shirt wet from his tears. 

“Go on.” 

“What if- and this is a crazy thought, okay? What if my dad didn’t know about the affair, he never knew. Think about it. He saw these people as his friends. He would have no reason to know, to guess, that my mom was what? Screwing his friend? Who would guess that? We have to figure if they were friends, like they were in this picture, my dad couldn’t have known about my mom’s and Nikos’s past. If he never knew about their past…well hell. Why would he ever suspect my mom cheated on him?” My chest heaved up and down as I rambled in excitement. “No one would have suspected that. Think about it. My dad never went to the bar. Why would he start that night, of all nights? Maybe he didn’t meet Nikos at the bar before, maybe Nikos got involved after. Think about it! For all my dad knew, that was his friend. Right? I mean, look at the picture. You don’t go camping with your enemy. Maybe,” I gulped, my fingers tapping on the table nervously. “What if your mom came over early- before my dad got home. He never heard about any cheating. Something happened- who knows what really- and he comes home to his dead wife and his friend, well probably shocked. That’s probably when your mom entered her catatonic state, I mean, that’s a lot for anyone to go through. She shot someone. She was already a little unstable. So my mom’s dead, your mom is standing there, gun shaking in the air. Can’t you guys see it? Maybe he pulled the gun from her, you know? Got the gun powder on his hand that way. Picked up my mom’s corpse for one last hug. There’s the blood.” 

The room was silent as we processed what I had just said. Neither disputed it, I mean how could they? It was the only time any one of us had been able to piece together a story that made any sense. It was the only thing that could make any sense. Ben had said it before, we were looking at it all wrong. We kept trying to find ways for Nikos to be the criminal mastermind, like he had orchestrated the whole event. We had never considered that that was so unlike Nikos’s character, so out of line with my mom’s character. If a dead child could not have kept those two apart, did we really think some financial argument would have?

Every person I had built up in my head, my dad, Susanna, hell even my mom, all had one thing in common. No matter how much credit I gave them, none of them turned out to be evil, or monsters, or even really spectacular at all. All of them were just, simply put, humans. Why wouldn’t Nikos be the same? We’d spent so much time treating him like a super villain, like someone who was always five steps ahead, that we forgot the most crucial part of the whole equation. Even the most disgusting human in the world was, at their core, simply a human.  

“Yeah, but why would he take the fall for her?” Sophie shook her head before glancing between the two of us and shaking her head once more. “C’mon Ben, you can’t actually believe this. This is insane.” 

“Maybe her dad is the kind of guy who would look at a crazy woman and decide that she wouldn’t last a second in jail.” Ben shrugged, picking up the photograph again with a sigh. “So you think your dad called my dad, his friend, the cop, hoping he’d get him out of this shit?” 

I shrugged, frowning at the paper. “Or…I don’t know. Maybe they came to an agreement. Maybe my dad would go to jail and your dad was supposed to let sleeping dogs die.”

“It's a lie.” Sophie shook her head at me and I smiled a little, giving her a nod. 

“I know. It’s what my dad said, though, and it stuck with me. Maybe he wanted the truth to die.” 

“And that’s why dad got nervous when I mentioned you were in my class.” 

“Isn’t that the biggest irony of it all?” We looked at each other, the reality that we may have finally figured it out seeming to sink in.

“So…” Ben hesitated, glancing first at Sophie, then at me. His voice shook as he asked, “What now?”