Outcast by Lewis Ericson Page B

you’re going to be here, you need to make sure that whatever other business you got goin’ on doesn’t come back on Noonie.”
    â€œYou make it sound like I’m gonna do somethin’ to hurt her.”
    â€œJust make sure you don’t.”
    â€œOr what?”
    â€œI’m gon’ be all over your ass.”
    â€œShould I be turned on or scared?”
    Kevin grabbed Tirrell’s arm and pushed him into one of the columns that supported the front of the house. Tirrell tried to squirm free, but Kevin’s grip tightened.
    â€œI’m tellin’ you one more time. Don’t bring your shit up in this house. The sooner your leave is over, the better for all of us, especially Noonie. She’s not stupid, you know. Now, she went to a lot of trouble to prepare this dinner. The least you could do is come in and finish eating it.”
    â€œDaddy.”
    Kevin looked over his shoulder and saw his son peering through the storm door.
    Tirrell yanked his arm away.
    â€œNoonie said for me to come and get you.”
    â€œI’ll be right there, Micah. Go on back inside.”
    The boy hesitated at the door before doing as he was told.
    Kevin turned back to Tirrell. “I meant what I said, bruh! And you may wanna do yourself a favor and take a shower. You dumbass.”

    Kevin didn’t have Tirrell’s temper, but his presence and manner of speech could be as intimidating as both his father and grandfather. By the time Kevin had learned of Tirrell’s existence he was just about to graduate from South Cobb High School. He’d overheard his mother, Gloria, and his father, Curtis, arguing about the “Latin whore” he’d been cheating with. That revelation tore at the heart of the relationship he’d enjoyed with his father, believing that he was his only son.
    Before Kevin went off to college, he was already distancing himself from his father. He died while he was away and Kevin never forgave himself for not being there, and he couldn’t bring himself to forgive his father for what he’d done to their family. Kevin heaped all of his unresolved rage on to Tirrell. It didn’t help that Betty wasn’t particularly impartial when it came to the unexpected new addition. “Tirrell needs me. He doesn’t have anybody else,” she’d say. When Kevin came back to visit for holidays it galled him to see Tirrell living in his grandparents’ house—calling her “Noonie.”
    There wasn’t a lot of conversation that passed between Kevin and Pat on the ride home. She filed through his music collection and found the John Legend CD that he liked and slid it into the player. Patricia Ellis had a no-nonsense way about her that Kevin was attracted to from the first time they met.
    He shot her a side-glance and smiled. “You think that’s gonna help?”
    â€œIt couldn’t hurt.”
    He reached for her hand and kissed it, allowing the easy melodies to pacify him. Pulling into the driveway of their suburban Alpharetta home, Kevin inhaled and exhaled slowly as he lay back on the headrest before turning off the ignition.
    He got out and pulled his sleeping son from the car seat in the back. Pat went ahead and unlocked the front door. Kevin proceeded on up the stairs to put Micah down for the night. The boy barely woke up while his father pulled off his church clothes and slipped him into his pajamas.
    Pat stepped into the doorway of her son’s room. “I can warm the cobbler up if you want some.”
    â€œNo. I’m good.”
    â€œOkay, I’ll put it in the refrigerator.”
    Kevin kissed his son good night. He went up the hall to the master bedroom, pulled off his clothes, and got ready for bed. Pat was half out of her dress when she came back up the stairs.
    â€œCan you believe this shit?” Kevin seethed, climbing into bed. “If I had known all Noonie wanted was to spring Tirrell on