The Prodigal Son of McAuley Street

I almost chickened out when I got to the corner. But Jen never would have forgiven me.

At that moment I didn’t care much if Ma and Rick forgave me or not. They were looking plenty happy without me, mingling with some friends I didn’t recognize in the driveway, right on the three-point line Eric and I always imagined for our long-ago basketball games. No sign of their being any worse off for their loss. But Jen would’ve killed me if I got that far and then turned back, and sooner or later I’d have hated myself too. Especially with what she was going through right then.

I held my breath and walked past the Poiriers’ house, which hadn’t changed at all, and Mrs. Tsoupopolous’ house, which had finally been repainted, and told myself they probably wouldn’t recognize me anyway.

I’ll never know if Mom and Rick would have recognized me, because Mrs. Lespere saw me first. “Oh m’lord, Daniel? Is that you?”

“Daniel?!” Mom gasped in that panicked shriek of hers that had a lot to do with my taking off in the first place. She said it to Mrs. Lespere, saw where she was looking and turned in the same direction, and saw me. “Daniel!”

I never could tell if she was going to hug me or smack me in a moment like that. This time I was lucky, and she threw herself at me. “Welcome home! I’m so glad you’re all right!”

“Hi, Ma.” I waited a second too long for an apology for running me off. I knew there probably wouldn’t be one, but after five years it felt only fair to give her a chance to show she’d changed.

One thing had changed. She obviously wasn’t so incredibly private anymore, for all their friends and neighbors - even the ones I’d never seen before - seemed to know I’d been gone. “I always told your mom and dad you’d be back someday if they only prayed for it!” proclaimed a woman I didn’t know.

“Rick’s not my dad,” I said.

“Nice to see you too, kid,” Rick said with that smarmy grin that always made Ma forgive him for everything. The last time I’d seen him, he was throwing a pop bottle at me. “You’re a little shit for what you put your ma through, but welcome home.”

“Yes, you really are, but I’m glad you’re back,” Ma said, kissing my cheek. “Your timing is perfect, too. Your sister’s getting engaged. She and her fiance ought to be here any time.”

“Speaking of fiances, you got rid of that bitch Jen, didn’t you?” Rick asked.

Before I could settle on an answer, Ma said, “Oh, never mind her, that’s in the past - I hope! But you can tell us about that later. For now, let’s get you a drink and you’re gonna tell me all about what you’ve been up to.”

Rick snapped his fingers and called out, “Louise? Where are you?”

I smiled cordially as she appeared out of the crowd in a white blouse and a black apron. “Yes?”

“A glass of champagne for my prodigal stepson,” he said. “He ran away five years ago, but he’s come home!”

“Oh, that’s lovely,” she said. “Certainly, sir, coming right up.”

“She’s a lovely girl herself,” said an older woman, whom I recognized after a long beat as Mrs. Levesque from up the block. “I might have to hire her for my next cocktail party.”

“She came very well recommended,” Ma said. Turning to me, she added, “Sorry, I should’ve explained, Louise is our bartender for the afternoon. And as you can see, she’s a dear.”

“Here’s hoping Eric doesn’t think so,” Rick quipped.

“Oh, stop!” Mom slugged his arm playfully, giving me a nasty flashback to all the times they’d done the same thing not at all playfully. “My boys don’t have a wandering eye!” Then she sighed. “Even if I wish you had one back when you were with that harlot Jennifer.”

“You are rid of her, aren’t you?” Rick asked just as Louise returned with the bubbly. “Your champagne, sir,” she said.

“Thank you very much!” I said, raising the glass and hoping someone would change the subject.

Ma was never one to give up. “Say, Louise, have you got a man in your life?” she asked.

“Yes, I’m still with my high school sweetheart,” Louise said, tucking the tray under her arm. “Everyone said we’d never last, but we have.”

“Oh, well, good for you,” Ma said. “I was just asking because Daniel here had a high school sweetheart of his own and she was bad news!”

“She’s probably the one who put it in his head to run off on us,” Rick added. “And speaking of which, Dan, don’t think you and I aren’t going to have a man to man talk about that later on. But Louise, if you have a sister or any single friends…”

“I’ll keep you in mind, Daniel,” she said. “Any more drink orders?”

“I’d like another orange juice please,” said Mrs. Lespere.

“Right away, ma’am.” Louise spun on her heel and was back off to the makeshift bar, right in the spot where Rick’s busted pickup truck had been parked since I couldn’t even remember when.

“You know, Daniel, you can tell me now,” Ma said, “Is Rick right about Jen? Is she why you ran off on us?”

“Jen isn’t the one who threw that threw that bottle at me, is she?”

“None of that!” Ma snapped at me. “I’m glad you’re home, but in this family we forgive, remember?”

“I forgive you for your attitude about Jen.” I couldn’t help smiling as I sipped my champagne, though I knew I shouldn’t drink in Rick and Ma’s presence. Especially not right now.

“Daniel, if you want back into the family, you’d best watch your attitude,” Rick said.

“And if you are still with that little bitch, I’ll have you know you’re welcome back here but she isn’t, understood?” Ma added.

“Danny, if I might,” said Mrs. Lespere, who had just collected her orange juice from Louise, “Your mother has told me all about what that harlot put you through, and - ”

“Put me through, nothing!” I said as politely as I could stand to. “Jen and I were in love, and her only crime was having a past.”

“Good girls don’t have a past, Danny, at least not at eighteen and not on McAuley Street. We’re a conservative community, and we care about our children.”

“And that is what you were when you ran off on me,” Ma added. “Just where did you go, anyway? I spent months thinking every time the phone rang, I’d have to go downtown to identify your body!”

“Joined the navy,” I said. “I’m still in, but I’m on leave.”

“It wouldn’t have killed you to let your mother know,” Rick said. “She’d have been proud of you.” A lie and we both knew it. She’d wanted me to go to community college and get some boring nine-to-five job.

“Eric’s fiancee is a good girl,” Mom went on. “I had a chat with her and made sure of it. You can find one too, you know.”

“Oh, I’m sure he’s got a girl in every port,” Rick said. “Isn’t that right, Dan?”

“Nope.”

I was saved from whatever stupid comment Rick was planning to follow up with, when a cheer went up behind us. I turned to see Eric and his girl making their way through the crowd, hugging and shaking hands every which way. His mouth fell open when he saw me. “Danny?”

“Congrats, bro,” I said.

He shook my hand until it hurt. “Welcome back! Where’ve you been?”

“In the navy, if you can believe that,” Rick said. “Your wimpy older brother is a hero, how do you like that?”

“Oh, stop!” Ma laughed. “Daniel, this is Karin. She and Eric met in college, like I hoped you would meet someone.”

“I take it Jen is…” Eric didn’t even try to finish that sentence as I shook hands with Karin.

“Dead, we hope!” Rick said, just as Louise appeared over his shoulder with two glasses of champagne. Eric and Karin took the glasses and had the decency to look uncomfortable as Ma laughed long and hard at Rick’s comment.

“Join us over by the fort, Dan?” Eric said.

“Please!” added Karin. “Eric’s told me so much about your backyard games!”

“Is that still there?” I asked, grateful for any excuse to leave Rick and Ma, neither of whom I even looked at as I followed the lovebirds. The hovel of cinderblocks and particle boards we’d scavenged from heaven-knew-where had always looked like the wind was about to blow it away, but it had still stood long after we were too old to bother with it.

“Ma wouldn’t let Rick move anything back there after you left,” Eric explained. “She wanted it all the same in case you came home.”

“I’m really glad you did,” Karin added. “You should hear Eric’s stories about all the fun you used to have. I mean, none of my business and I’m sure you had your reasons for running off, but Eric missed you.”

“Correct on both accounts,” Eric said as we reached the back of the house and I saw the fort was still there, dilapidated but mostly still intact. “But look, man, I get it.”

“Me too,” Karin said. “Hope you don’t mind, Eric told me how Rick treated you, and the way they treated your girlfriend.”

“Thanks. I’m just sorry I left you defenceless against him, Eric.”

“No offense, man, but Rick didn’t abuse me like he did you,” Eric said. “That’s why I was never mad at you for running off. That plus the shit they said about Jen, heck, I’d have run off too. Whatever happened to Jen anyway?”

Karin saved me from having to answer that one. “He doesn’t know, unless she ran off with him, Eric! And didn’t you tell me she didn’t?”

“That’s right, she did come by the day after you ran off,” Eric said. “She was destroyed when I told her you were gone. After that even Ma couldn’t blame her. I mean, she still did, but we knew she was wrong about it anyway.”

“Oh, of course she did.” I chuckled and took a long drink of my champagne.

“That’s why I had to lie and tell your mom I was a virgin,” Karin said. “Eric told me all about what she wanted to hear.”

“I’m so sorry you had to do that,” I said. “She had no business asking you that.”

“Man, no, thank you!” Eric said. “I hate what they put you through, but it meant I knew what she wanted to hear. Karin was a good sport about it, too.”

“We both thought it was all pretty funny, really,” Karin said. “Your mother still hasn’t got a clue, you know.”

“Speaking of Jen,” Eric said. “Has mom noticed the barmaid looks a little like her?”

“You think?” I asked.

“Well, her hair is longer and Jen didn’t have glasses and would never wear plain dressy clothes like that, and no nose ring, but…I don’t know, they could pass for cousins anyway.”

“Mmm, I don’t see it. So what are you guys studying?”

“Engineering,” they said in unison.

“We figure one or the other of us will still be there in three years,” Eric said. “The other one can teach math or something. How about you, you ever going to college?”

“Thinking about it. The navy pays for a couple of classes at a time.”

“Lucky,” Eric said. “Anyway, Karin, this was the fort. Over in the maple tree there was the lookout. Want to go up there?”

“I’m not climbing a tree in this skirt!” Karin laughed. “If you boys want to relive your childhood…”

“I don’t, thank you very much,” I said. “Can I get you two another round of drinks?”

“Yes please!” they both said. With no chance of Louise coming back where we were, I collected their empty glasses and set off for the bar.

She was pouring a beer - maybe for Rick? - when I got there. “I am so sorry about what Rick said,” I said.

“Nothing I didn’t expect,” she said.

“I really appreciate you putting up with this.” I set the glasses on the counter and did my best not to look too familiar with “Louise”.

“It’s worth it,” she said. “If I had to give up a day of your leave, I’m glad to see they got a look at you all grown up.”

“And you as well, even if they don’t know it.”

“You sure no one made me?”

“Eric almost did. But he was on your side anyway.”

“Good to know.” She sighed. “I don’t suppose you could tell them you heard a rumor that your slutty ex got a scholarship and she’s gonna be a nurse pretty soon?”

“They’d want to know how I heard.”

“I still can’t believe they haven’t. This is my third bartending job on this block. The last one, even saw Rick. Through a window from across the street, but still.

I smiled as I watched her pour the refills, and wished I could lean across the bar and kiss her, but that would just have to wait until later that evening. “What can I say? You clean up well, Jennifer Louise.”