Dad didn’t like it, but he just nodded. He turned back to me and asked, “When did you get out?”
“About a year and a half ago. I had a bad landing, Dad, and blew my knee out.”
“It was more than that, Carl,” interjected Suzie. She turned to Marilyn and asked, “Did you bring it?”
“I made sure to pack it,” answered my wife. I looked at Dad, and then the two of them, and wondered what they had cooked up. I didn’t have a good feeling. Marilyn handed Charlie to Suzie, and then rooted around in his gigantic diaper bag, strapped to the back of his stroller. She pulled out a large package, wrapped with some gift paper, and my stomach dropped. She handed it to my father. “This is for you. It was from Carl’s last drop.”
“This is a mistake,” I said quietly.
My father looked at me for a second, but then turned away and opened the package. It was what I suspected it to be, a duplicate of the plaque that Marilyn had made for her family, the one with the photo of me getting the Bronze Star and the commendation underneath it. He looked at it and then looked up. “What is this?”
“That is from when your son was awarded the Bronze Star. Carl saved his men…”
Dad’s head swiveled to me, and I interrupted Marilyn. “That’s classified, honey. I can’t say anything about it.” I just wanted this to be over. This was just a horrible mistake.
“You won the Bronze Star?”
It was too much. I watched the rest of it like watching a car crash in slow motion on television. Practically screeching, Hamilton yelled, “You shouldn’t be here!” and then grabbed the plaque out of my father’s hands and dashed it to the ground, where a corner broke off. “GET OUT!”
Mom stared in shock. Dad simply roared, and backhanded my brother across the face, viciously. Hamilton went flying off his feet, as everyone around us turned to stare. Dad advanced on him and looked like he was going to kill him, with his arm brought back for another blow, and Mom blocked his path. “Charlie, get them out of here before they cause any more trouble!” she demanded.
I thought for sure Dad was going to hit Mom. He had never done this before, not even when he got Alzheimer’s and got aggressive and lost his mind. He brought his hand back to strike her, and then stopped. Around us I noticed several men debating whether to get involved. “Shirley, I’ve had it with him and I’ve had it with you! They haven’t caused any trouble. He has and you have!” He was pointing at Hamilton, cowering on the ground. “Thanks to you two I’ve lost a son, and now I’ve lost a grandson. I don’t want to see either of you again.” He turned on his heel and marched away.
Suzie was utterly dumbfounded, crying as her wonderful plans collapsed. Charlie was crying too, scared by what was going on. Marilyn tried to comfort him. I looked at the shambles, and kissed Suzie on the cheek. “I think it’s time we left. Call us when you get home.” I motioned Marilyn to start for the parking lot, and pushed the stroller away. I left my mother and brother behind with Suzie, and the broken plaque I left on the ground.
What a fucking disaster.
Charlie calmed down once we got him into his car seat. It took me several minutes to work my way out of the crowded parking lot, and get on the highway. Marilyn was crying quietly on her side of the car. Once it was safe to do so, I reached out and took her hand. Every fiber of my being wanted to scream out, “I TOLD YOU SO!” but I refrained. After a bit, Marilyn stopped crying, but she looked miserable and ducked my gaze. It was a long and silent drive back to Hereford.
We got home in the early afternoon, and while Marilyn made something for Charlie, I made something for Marilyn and myself. I simply did up a couple of ham and cheese sandwiches, and cracked open a couple of bottles of beer. We ate in the living room, which I normally was loathe to do. We had done that a lot in my first life, and I had learned my lesson. The dining room is there for a reason — use it!
I was half laid back in my La-Z-Boy, when Marilyn set her plate down and came over. I looked up at her and she said, “Move over.” I smiled and she crawled onto my lap and laid her head on my shoulder, sighing as she did so. It wasn’t romantic; she just needed a cuddle. Across the room, Dum-Dum spotted an opportunity and leaped into action, running across the room to stare at the remainder of my wife’s sandwich, and then grabbing it before anybody could say anything. Marilyn sat upright and cried out, “Why you little… oooh, nothing worked out today!” She lay back down against me. I just quietly rubbed her back.
Eventually she said, quietly, “You were right.”
“Hmmm?”
“I said you were right, about the graduation.”
“I heard you the first time. I just wanted to hear you say it again. It might never happen again in my lifetime,” I teased her.
“Very funny! Do you want to get punched in the nose?”
I hugged her and laughed. “I just wish I had a tape recorder going. I could play it back over and over, for the rest of my life!”
“You are really asking for it!”
I laughed some more. “It’s just too easy. You know what else I want to do?”
Marilyn snorted and nudged me in the side. “Say ‘I told you so?’”
“Bingo!” That got me another nudge to the side. “Nothing to do about it now. Suzie will call us sooner or later, and let us know what’s going on.”
Suzie didn’t call us later, she came over that night! Dad had dragged Hamilton up to Newark the day before graduation, for the nurse’s pinning ceremony (I guess nurses get a special pin for being an RN) and had brought up a U-Haul van to take her stuff home. They had loaded it and left it overnight. Hamilton would follow Dad home after graduation, driving the van. After the disaster following the graduation, Dad had stomped off to the parking lot and left Hamilton and Mom behind. Mom was reduced to riding home with Suzie, with Hamilton following behind them in the van. Suzie dropped Mom off and peeled out of the neighborhood before Mom could stop her. Dad wouldn’t let either her or Hamilton back in the house!
We let Suzie stay the night, in one of the spare bedrooms. She drove back the next day and Dad helped her move into her apartment. He told her he had thrown both Mom and Hamilton out, and was calling a lawyer on Monday.
What a clusterfuck! The road to hell may be lined with good intentions, but in this case, I was the one going to hell, and my sister and my wife had the good intentions. I didn’t want to find out where this was all going to end up, but I didn’t like any of it.
Chapter 77: Reunion
Saturday, June 25, 1983
Intellectually I knew that my family’s meltdown was not my fault, but rather the fault of my insane brother and his equally culpable mother. I was as much a victim as anybody. Emotionally, I knew otherwise. They were all the same people as on my first trip through, only I was different. That made it my fault, ipso facto, ergo sum, quod erat demonstradum, etc. etc. etc. Intellect had nothing to do with it.
Marilyn helped me. She simply couldn’t understand my family; she had no idea how to react to them. Her family was so much closer. It was one of the things I found so appealing on my first time around. I had spent far more time with them than my own family.
Over the next few weeks things continued to fall apart back at the Buckman homestead. Dad had been absolutely serious about not letting the pair of them back into the house, and Mom had to load Hamilton into her car and spend the night at a motel. They stayed there until Monday, and then snuck in when Dad went to work. He got home and then threw them back out on the street. I heard from John Steiner that Dad was going a bit loco himself, and wanted John to be his divorce lawyer. John had refused and had given him the name of a good divorce lawyer in Towson. Dad didn’t back down and Mom was served papers by the end of the week. John did mention that he didn’t think Dad knew anything about the Buckman Group, so presumably Suzie was keeping her counsel on that.