Shadow Shepherd by Chad Zunker

Author:Chad Zunker
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781542045544
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer
Published: 2017-09-18T14:00:00+00:00

THIRTY-TWO

Spencer Lloyd barged into his apartment.

“Pop! Where the hell are you?”

The day nurse had called, said his father was acting more ornery than ever. He’d locked himself inside the bathroom, kept calling her a fat pig, among other much worse expletives, and demanded that she get the hell out and leave him alone. The nurse said she was never coming back to deal with his father again. She didn’t need that kind of abuse. It was the third nurse to quit on him in the last nine months. Lloyd was fed up. He didn’t need this crap right now. It was embarrassing even to have to tell one of his superiors that he had to leave a critical strategic meeting to go deal with his stubborn father and his overbearing ways.

Lloyd banged on the bathroom door. “Pop!”

“Go away!” his dad yelled back, his voice hoarse.

“It’s me, Pop. Spencer. Open the damn door.”

“Is that pig gone?”

Lloyd exhaled. “She’s not a pig, Pop. You said you really liked her. And, yes, she’s gone. She quit. You ran off another one.”

“Good. That pig treated me like a little kid.”

For good reason, Lloyd thought. “Are you going to open the door? Or do I have to break it open?”

“Break it open,” he muttered. “What do I care?”

“Pop, open the door now. Or I’m serious, I’ll drive you straight to the old folks’ home. Let them deal with you. Do you understand me?”

There was silence on the other end. Lloyd took another deep breath. It was such a surreal thing to have the roles suddenly reversed in life, to have to treat his father like a child. Lloyd was about to go find a screwdriver to pry open the doorknob when he finally heard the lock click open on the other side. But his father did not open the door. He heard his dad sit back down on the toilet. Lloyd turned the door handle, parted the door, and looked inside. His father was sitting on the toilet, in a gray FBI T-shirt Lloyd had brought home, but with his checkered red-and-black pajama pants still pulled all the way up to his waist. And that’s when Lloyd smelled it. An awful smell. The heinous odor of a kid who had crapped his pants. Except his kid was eighty-nine years old. Lloyd felt his heart sink. His father had obviously accidentally soiled himself and had locked himself in the bathroom out of humiliation. He wasn’t going to let a young and attractive female nurse inside to deal with his mess, even though he needed help. It was one thing to have a nurse check blood pressure and get him to take his medicine. This was something altogether different. There was still some sense of pride in the old man.

His dad wouldn’t even look at him. Lloyd put a hand on his shoulder.

“Come on, Pop. Let’s get you some fresh clothes. Get you cleaned up. Maybe we’ll grab some breakfast at the diner down the street together. You love that place.

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