Sparring Partners(11)

“Must be livin’ on island time,” Harry Rex mumbled, as if he were a real stickler for punctuality. He lit another cigar and blew smoke at the ceiling. Mack finally appeared, from nowhere, and shook hands with his old buddies. He wanted to sit where he could see the door. Harry Rex rolled his eyes at Jake but said nothing. They huddled over their beers and swapped insults about weight gains and losses, different hairstyles, beards, attire. Harry Rex was impressed with Mack’s altered looks—the deep tan, the beard, the longer hair, the funky eyeglasses, which were different from the ones Jake had seen two months earlier. Mack was not surprised at Harry Rex’s appearance. Little had changed and nothing had improved. They enjoyed a few laughs and worked on their beers.

Jake got serious with “How’d you enter the country?”

“Legally, with a passport.”

Harry Rex said, “Jake tells me you’re Brazilian now.”

“That’s right. Brazilian, and also Panamanian, though my Spanish is not that good. And I still have my American passport, which I assume works. Didn’t want to risk it though.”

“So you can buy citizenship?” Jake asked with no small measure of disbelief. He had never thought about it. “Is it that easy?”

“Depends on the country, and the cash. It’s not that difficult.”

They mulled this over for a moment. There were so many questions, so much ground to cover, but only Mack knew where they were going.

Harry Rex asked, “How safe do you feel right now, back in Mississippi?”

“I entered our dear state two days ago, drove to Greenwood to see my mom. Then I left.” And went where? He let them hang for a few seconds. They wanted to know where he was staying, or living, but evidently he wasn’t saying yet.

“So you feel safe?”

“I’m not worried. Should I be? I mean, there’s no active investigation. No one is looking for me, right?”

Harry Rex blew some smoke and said, “Well, we ain’t makin’ no guarantees, you understand? But it appears as if the bloodhounds are still locked up.”

Jake added, “Nothing has changed in the two months since I saw you in the jungle, but nothing is for certain.”

“I get it. I know there’s some risk involved.”

Harry Rex asked, “What, exactly, do you want, Mack?”

“I need to see my girls. I doubt Lisa will have anything to do with me, and that’s okay. The feelings are mutual. But she’s very close to the girls, and if she dies they’ll be in for a rough time. I should never have left them.”

“You want custody?” Jake asked with raised eyebrows.

“Not as long as she’s alive. Who knows, maybe there’ll be a miracle and she’ll survive. But, if she doesn’t, then what? I’m not sure the girls want to live with their grandparents. God help them.”

“What makes you think they want to live with you?” Harry Rex asked.

Jake chuckled and asked, “Or for that matter, what makes you think you want to raise two teenage girls?”

“Let’s take it one step at a time, fellas. First, I’ll try to meet with Lisa, just to say hello. Then, I’ll try to meet with the girls, sort of reintroduce myself. Sure, it’ll be painful and awkward and probably just dreadful, but we have to start somewhere. There’s a financial angle here that needs to be addressed. College is just around the corner.”

They took a break as Harry Rex relit his cigar and blasted another cloud toward the ceiling. Jake sipped his beer, uncertain where the conversation was going. Finally, Mack said, “Jake, I’d like for you to contact the family and tell them that I’m back and would like to see Lisa.”

“Why me?”

“Because it’s either you or Harry Rex and you have a better understanding of how to handle delicate matters.”

Harry Rex nodded his agreement. He had no desire to deal with Lisa and her family.

Jake said, “Go on.”

“The best way to do it is to call Dr. Pettigrew, Lisa’s brother-in-law. Dean’s not my favorite person, never was, a lot of in-law baggage, but maybe that’s all water under the bridge now.”

“You hope,” Harry Rex grunted.

“Yes, I hope. Dean is fairly levelheaded, not a bad guy, really, and I’d like for you to call him to break the news that I’m back in the area and would like to see Lisa.”

Harry Rex frowned and asked, “What comes after ‘hello’? I’d hate to be in that room.”

“Well, you won’t be so butt out. Let me worry about it.”

Harry Rex gulped his beer and wiped a thick mustache of foam from his upper lip.

Mack continued, “You’re not my lawyer, Jake, just a friend, and the Bunning clan will not despise you the way they loathe me and despise Harry Rex.”

Harry Rex shrugged it off. He could not care less. It went with the territory.

Jake asked, “And where might this meeting with Lisa take place?”

“I don’t know. Her doctors may have some restrictions about where she goes and who she sees. Dean will know all that stuff. Just make the first call and hopefully it will lead to the second and third. Nothing about this will be easy, fellas.”

“Got that right.”

Jake said, “The family will have some questions. Like, how long are you staying? Is it permanent? Where are you living? Why’d you leave? How much money did you take? Things like that. You can’t just drop in from the moon and say, ‘Here I am.’?”