The Great Gimmelmans by Lee Matthew Goldberg

Author:Lee Matthew Goldberg [Lee Matthew Goldberg]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Level Best Books
Published: 2023-10-26T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-Two

Barry decided we should all stay the night, since it was getting dark, and he was as high as the sky. Wanting some privacy, Mom helped carry Barry back to the RV, and they set up in the overhead nook. When I went to go to sleep on my couch/bed, they shooed me away.

“It’s not that we don’t want you here,” Barry said.

“Your father and I need some alone time,” Mom said, with her hand in Barry’s shirt, tweaking his nipple.

“Let me get a change of clothes.” I went behind the sheet partition and grabbed whatever smelled the cleanest.

“Hey, c’mere,” Barry called out, and I crawled up in bed with them. He had a bottle of alcohol clamped in his hand, sharing sips with Mom, who giggled after each swallow. “I was really impressed with you today.”

I thought of the notepad where I’d written his most gruesome act and instantly felt guilty. “Oh yeah?”

“With everyone. This hiccup was no one’s fault.”

“You had a real gun,” Mom said, swaying in place and having trouble propping herself up on her arm.

Barry and I gave each other a quick glance. “No…” we both said simultaneously.

“It’s okay.” She took another strong sip. “I mean, it’s not, but what’s it matter anymore?”

“Sweetie, he’s capable of handling it,” Barry said.

“Well, good.” She was looking out the window. “Look at the moon, so big, makes you do crazy things. I can’t even call my own mother.”

“Jude, we talked about this—”

“Did we? Because I don’t remember coming to a consensus. We’re leaving tomorrow, and you won’t let me tell her we’ve gone.”

He brushed away a strand of hair, blocking her sight. “It’s too dangerous.”

She hiccuped. “You think she’ll call the cops? She wouldn’t do that to us, at least not to her grandchildren.”

“She already knows we’ve gone. We can call from the road once we’re far enough away.”

Mom buried her head in a pillow. “I’m never seeing her again, am I?”

“Sweetness, your relationship was not a healthy one.”

“You lost your parents so early,” she said. “You never had an adult relationship with them. For all her faults, she’s still been my mother for thirty-seven years.”

She began weeping loud enough for Johnny Cash to dart over and mewl, too.

“Come here, puppy, come here.” She patted the bed, and Johnny Cash leaped up, licking her face and blues away.

“We have to be smart, Judy,” he said. “Not let emotions get the best of us. Otherwise, we’re done for.”

Mom wasn’t listening anymore, caught up in Johnny Cash’s love. Barry cocked his head to the side, telling me he wanted a chat. He winced as he made his way down.

“This is seriously a pain in my ass,” he said as he collapsed onto my couch/bed. He patted for me to sit next to him. “I made a decision.”

“Yeah, I heard. Texas.”

“Right. But another decision. I want Troy to come with us.”

“Why?”

“Son, we wouldn’t have been able to pull off that heist without him. We’ll need him for a bigger score. Besides, your sister will go bonkers if we don’t bring him along.

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