Grimaulkin by L A Jacob

Author:L A Jacob [Jacob, L A]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781944412791
Publisher: Paper Angel Press
Published: 2017-06-01T07:00:00+00:00

We drove to a high-rise apartment complex that sat on the banks of a river in a town called Cumberland. It was an idyllic place, except for the high-rise. We parked near an area that had benches and small square concrete tables. They overlooked the river and some woods to one side of the big building.

After unfolding myself from the back seat of the car, we walked to the main entrance with a foyer. Mounted on the wall was a list of people with their last names on a board. Below the list was a small number pad with a speaker beside it.

Dom entered a code on the number pad and then pressed the button next to the speaker. “Dad, it’s me.”

I heard a buzz, and the glass door in front of us unlocked. Dom held the door for Evie and me to enter. We went past two old ladies, past more old people, and it hit me that this was housing for the elderly.

“How old is your father, anyway?” I asked.

“Seventy,” Dom said quietly. He seemed embarrassed. I didn’t press him.

After getting off from an elevator on the sixth floor, we turned left down a corridor.

It smelled like old people here, I don’t know how to describe it — a combination of mold and decay with a hospital smell overlaying it all. We arrived at a white door with the number 612 painted on it in gold. Dom pounded on it, loud enough to echo through the hallway.

The man who opened the door was angry. At least he didn’t look happy at seeing us.

He glowered at Dom. “What do you want?”

“To say ‘Hi’, Dad.”

He grumbled and stepped away from the door. I could hear the TV in the other room.

“Who is it?” yelled a woman’s voice as we stepped inside.

“Dominic,” said the father.

“Who?”

“DOMINIC.”

Dom entered the room while Evie and I stayed in the kitchen area.

“Hi, Maggie,” he said.

“Hi, Dominic! Where’s your little lady?”

Dom stretched his hand out, and Evie stepped forward.

“Oh, hi, Evelyn.”

I snickered. Only mom called her Evelyn. Evie didn’t see me do it, though.

Evie glanced at me. “I brought my brother.” She had to yell it to Maggie.

Evie beckoned me, and I stood beside her.

“Hi,” I said in a loud voice.

“Hello.”

Both his father and the woman studied me. While his father was a short, dumpy guy with a gut that hung over his belt, the woman was waif-like thin, with thin bones and long arms. Her thinning hair was tied back in a bun. She wore thick bottle-bottom glasses and a housecoat that just barely covered her knobby knees.

I must have passed the father’s test, because he turned to Dom. “Get a job yet?”

“Dad,” he said with a sigh, “I have a job.”

“Does it have health insurance? Time off? A steady income?” I thought his father was going to keep on going. But he ended his tirade with, “Then it’s not a job.”

“It’s hard to get in the journalism business, dad.”

Maggie started to rise. It took her a long time for her to get to her feet, and I wondered if I should go help her.

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