Two Halves of a Half: A Brother’s Story (Part 1)
Thank God for the knock at the door. If only E could stop shrieking like a woman scorned, maybe he’d recognize the tap ta-tap tap rhythm. At least Lincoln had the wherewithal to hear the knock; he pushed off from their conversation and scraped back his folding chair to answer it.
His little brother spluttered, apoplectic.
“Oh there you go, avoidin’, evadin’ — get back at my table!”
Lincoln scrutinized the wide-rimmed bar stool E called a table.
“Uh-huh.”
With the shadow of E’s screeching slung over his back, Lincoln rounded the corner, walked the short hall to a phlegm-white door, and turned its rusty handle.
“Took you long enough,” he whispered.
Shoulders squared back and braids bunned up, the young woman at the door beamed with the confidence that comes with knowing your place while expanding your territory. Still, the loud bangs from E pounding on that bar stool and raving, cursing, almost summoning Lincoln back to him with crude, black magic…it made her jump. Would make anyone jump.
“He’s that mad?” She raised an eyebrow at him, an accusation that said you didn’t tell him right, did you?
“F’you’d been here on time, he woulda controlled himself from jump.”
“Well, I’m here now. You ready?”
To steady his heart, Lincoln took a breath and donned a mask of innocence, preparing himself for the show to save all shows.
He glanced at the duffle bags in her hands.
“Yeah. Ready.”
Loudly, a bit too loudly, Lincoln addressed the visitor: “The hell’re you doin’ here?”
The woman winked at him and barged right in.
“The hell’re you doin’ here?”
That caught E off guard. Before, he’d been a blubbering toad croaking his discontent, or else a thin bubble squeezed by water pressure, a breath away from going pop! Now, he rubbed the tear streaks dry in a hurry and righted his shirt collar as Evelyn waltzed out of the hall. His ex-love plopped down on his only good recliner, sinking into coffee brown cushions a shade lighter than she.
E thanked everything that was, is, and would be that he’d skipped his first class of the day to catch his best barber on the clock. Not just for the sage-sweet, perfumed specter of Evelyn. For his brother, too. For the bar stool court case itself.
In lieu of judge’s robes, a crisp line-up says, “I’m worth more than what you gave me.”
E licked his lips as Evelyn pulled a slip of paper from her purse and unfolded it.
“Eve, uh…”
Still unfolding.
“Now’s a bad time… ”
“Yeah, get out,” said Lincoln, lips zipped like he’d sucked a bad lemon. If E wasn’t so disgusted with his own nasally voice, he might’ve thanked the man for cutting him off. Might’ve popped him for it, too. Might still do that second one. There’s nothing like a swift slap on the neck to relieve bad stress, and Lord knows E’d had enough of that served up to him today. Everyone could take a plate.
“Either y’all forgot or we left off on worse terms than I recall,” Eve drawled. With a flick of her wrist, a map spread over her plaid skirt.
“We gotta choose a route, from home base — ” She pointed at Austin, “ — all the way to Lee’s new place in Moore.”
Her fingernail looked rough, bitten. After a summer of silence and cold storms, E might be doing better than her. Huh.
“We’re still leavin’ tonight, right?” asked Evelyn, all wide eyes and ignorance.
Lincoln sat and rubbed his bearded chin in thought. E had often wondered how Lee had grown such a healthy mane at 25 while his own face remained baby-bottom, shoe polish smooth well into age 21. In four years, would he catch up?
E doubted it.
“Oh yeah, tonight,” Lincoln muttered. “I, uh, forgot y’all wanted to see me off. That is, if you still do? Oklahoma’s far off…”
All eyes went to E. He shrunk back because Eve was here! Right here! At least Lincoln had the decency to look pitiful and stand with him as the entire affair pinched his heart like fire ants. Eve’s very presence heaped stress upon secrets best kept to the chest, but to send her away? A hellish, uphill campaign.
And yet, his brother hadn’t corrected her. He still planned to leave.
E yanked Lincoln up so fast his folding chair collapsed.
“Can I talk to you?”
Smiling over his shoulder at Eve, he pulled his brother into the hall by the front door.
“You were gonna drop this and bounce?”
“E, you have school, I have work .”
“That’s funny, that’s real funny from you — ”
“Hey!” Eve peaked her head around the corner. “If you’re arguing about bringing me along, I won’t have it! Lee’s like family. I’m seeing him off to Moore whether you like it or not. I swear, you two argue worse than the sea with the shore.”
“You never seen a beach in your life,” E scoffed.
Still, his pulse died down to a steady thrum. Logically speaking, cancelling their trip with Lincoln would look some type of way to Eve, who might as well have joined the Clarke family after two and a half years with him, three Thanksgiving dinners, and a Christmas gift to Momma that had quickly become her favorite tea kettle. Now Lincoln owned that kettle.
If this trip could buy him more time with Lee before he left…
“Not everything’s about you,” Lincoln said, jabbing a finger at Evelyn. E slapped it away and settled the matter.
“Don’t mind him, we’re still going all together. Now gimme that, you know you can’t read that.” The younger brother took the map from her red-brown hands into his high yellow ones, and he noted that Eve must’ve gone out of her way for a brand new one––in bold ink, the key read 1996. “Let’s take the 35 West up to Moore, get you to your new crib, and turn back in time for Monday’s classes.”
“Really?” Lincoln asked, gaping like a catfish. He was bewildered, leaning toward giddy. The audacity.
E gave him a don’t push your luck kind of look, a don’t tell Eve anything look. His brother got the message and grabbed the map. Even his dark hands’ snatching seemed more like a hesitant, ginger tug than usual.
“35 West has turnpikes,” said Lincoln. “If we go East, it’ll take longer, but it costs nothin’.”
“Now that’s more like it!” Eve nodded in approval with her whole body. Yeah. That’s how E remembered her.
“You packed?” she asked. E blinked.
“Not really — ”
“‘Course not. I packed for you.”
“I’ll swing the van around,” Lincoln cut in. “We leave in an hour. Grab some food, lock up.”
E watched Lincoln kick up dust jogging out the door. You better watch out, he thought. If Eve left the two alone for even a second, he’d have his brother’s hide for every lie by omission.
To be continued.
In Part 2: As the truth is confronted, the road trip North devolves from friendly jabs into a hotbed of bitter discontent.
