Conflict of Interest by Aime Austin

Author:Aime Austin [Austin, Aime]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-944179-24-3
Publisher: Penner Publishing

Nineteen

Augustus

January 27, 2006

It was a pretty silent ride most of the way from Campbell’s house to Spencer’s. I’d picked her up this morning to help tie up loose ends Troy’s death had left hanging. One loose end being Campbell herself.

I pulled over near the corner of Superior and something called Robert Lockwood Drive. This neighborhood had made a one hundred eighty degree turn in the forty odd years I’d been in Cleveland. One minute we were an industrial city, the next minute developers were building the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, knocking down and rebuilding the Browns stadium, and turning old factories into restaurants.

“You okay?” Campbell asked when it became obvious I wasn’t moving the car.

“It’s hard,” I said. I sucked in a breath, let it out through my teeth. Did it again. Then stared my son’s mortality in the eye. “It’s hard going to the place where your son took his last breath as a free man.”

Campbell turned to me, adjusting the white wool beret covering her head.

“It’s hard for me too.” She laid her hand on my arm. “I want you to know, I always loved him. From as long as I could remember. I loved him.”

“Why didn’t you guys ever get divorced? Or why didn’t you stay together?” I asked not caring about minding my own business for a moment. Countless nights Myrtle and I had stayed up turning these two questions over. We never could come up with a good answer between us.

“It was stupid,” Campbell whispered into her scarf. “Do you know how incredibly stupid and insignificant all that seems now?”

“Myrtle and I have always wondered…” why these elementary, middle and high school sweethearts couldn’t hold it together.

“There were a few months when we were fighting a lot. There was a guy I’d gone to college with who was pursuing me pretty heavily.”

“While you were married?” Campbell had gone away to Lincoln University. Even with her brand new Ford Bronco, she’d only come back a few weekends a year. Troy had been a mess that first year.

“He was an asshole…jerk…sorry—”

“Don’t apologize. Death has a way of making cursing feel unimportant. Go on.”

“Anyway, I told Troy that we’d gotten married too young, that my parents were right. I told him we needed a break, maybe see other people, figure out if together is what we wanted.”

I hit the back of my seat. I’d never known they’d taken a break. Maybe that’s why he was so messed up.

“I dated that guy for a minute. But he was as big a jerk as you figured out in ten seconds. Took me a few months though. At the same time, Troy started seeing Lynell. He was going to break it off with her. We were going to get back together and make a real try again. I promised to support him through culinary school. But—”

“Lynell got pregnant,” I said, clarity finally coming from a really confusing few years.

“Lynell got pregnant. I thought I could be Jada Pinkett cool about this, you know.

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