Settling Old Scores: BWWM Second Chance Romance (20 page)

Then,
in 1962, as a political response to criticism, they changed the name
to AFDC. The "Families with" making it sound like they were
helping families as opposed to splitting them up which was the big
criticism of the program. Then in 1968, the Supreme Court got rid of
the "no man in the house" requirement.

Kevin
was hooked. He thought about how you could sit in a classroom, listen
to a professor, and read out of a book. Alternatively, you could sit
down with an old black guy, have a cup of coffee and get authentic
truth. Mr. Bailey was a bit of a grump, but he was the real deal and
knew his stuff. They talked for several hours. As he was getting up
to go, Mr. Bailey directed him back in the house to get something off
a refrigerator magnet in the kitchen. It was the address and phone
number of Clarence Washington in Lumberton.

Kevin
came back out and thanked Mr. Bailey for the address. Mr. Bailey
smiled back and waved him off. "I don't even know if you wanted
it. I kind of thought maybe he was your dad. He was real high yellow.
You got the dark eyes and curly dark hair. You are tall and thin like
he was."

Kevin
laughed, "I been mistaken for just about everything you can
imagine. Greek, part Indian, Jewish, but never mixed. Not that I care
too much. Everybody has to be something." Mr. Bailey seemed a
little disappointed that he hadn't helped Kevin find his dad, so
Kevin told him that it was his girlfriend's dad he was trying to
locate. That brightened him back up again. They said their goodbyes
and Kevin assured him he would be back.

When
Kevin pulled off the curb at Mr. Bailey's house, he looked at his
watch and decided to cruise down English Avenue. To his surprise,
there was a squad car out front and crime scene tape was being put
up. "Holy shit!" said Kevin to himself, "They didn't
waste any time."

Kevin
headed back down to his apartment. When he got there, he pulled out
the address Mr. Bailey had given him and compared it to the address
he had of Clarence Washington in Lumberton. Sure as shit, the address
and phone number were exactly the same. He had discovered the
brothers’ location.

Kevin
sat down for a second and thought real long and hard. Then he made a
call.

After
that, Kevin had even more to think about. As he sat there pondering,
the phone rang. It was Willie calling. He said that something big was
going down. There was a rumor that they found a body buried in the
basement of one of the McCann houses on English Avenue. They were
calling for crime lab workers to work overtime. That only happened
for a limited number of reasons. The district attorney's office was
buzzing and reporters were starting to hang out at city hall.

Kevin
didn't say anything, as he was instructed. "If everything plays
out the way it usually does, the Mayor and Chief will be having a
press conference at the end of the day. Turn on your TV, this could
be big," Willie said.

About
that time, Pat came home. Kevin motioned for her to turn the TV on.
Then he hung up the call from Willie. "Pat, the police have
found at least one body over on English Avenue. There is going to be
a press conference shortly," said Kevin.

He
caught Pat up partially, as fast as he could. The press conference
started. The Mayor started by announcing that two bodies had been
found beneath the basement of a house on English Avenue. They were
working to identify the bodies. Then the reporters got to ask
questions. Some were good, some were just plain stupid. Many of them
were the type that searched for nuances in parsing, trying to get
more information.

Finally,
they cut away to another reporter who mentioned one of the bodies was
thought to be that of then nineteen year old Sylvia Greenberg, a
freelance prostitute that lived in the area. They flashed a picture
of the gorgeous girl on the screen and said that she had disappeared
without a trace during the riots on the Avenue a decade ago.

Pat
put her hand to her mouth in shock and sucked in her breath. "You
had something to do with this, didn't you?" she said. Kevin told
her all that had transpired between him and Matt that day.

29.
Matt turns Comic

The
next morning, they got up early to listen to the daybreak news. There
were no new details. The investigation was continuing. As they sat
with their coffee in hand, Kevin put his down, turned to Pat and said
very seriously, "I have one more thing I want to tell you while
you are sitting down. I have an address and phone number for your dad
in Wilmington, North Carolina."

Pat
put her coffee down and covered her eyes. Finally, after a long
pause, she took them away from her face. "I knew you were not
going to let up on this. Did you talk to him?" she asked.

"I
would never do that. It is not my choice to make. It is yours. You
have the option to do what you want with the info. I am just making
it available to you," Kevin said gently as he rubbed her back.

"So,
how did this come about?" Pat asked.

"I
found your uncle Clarence through the guy that took over the paper he
had. I called him and got the number of your dad using a little well
intentioned, harmless deception. He has no idea what I was up to.
Your dad is still working everyday and apparently healthy," said
Kevin.

"So
you don't know if he remarried and has kids? Do I have half siblings
and a stepmother?" asked Pat.

"I
don't know that. You don't have to decide anything Pat. You got by
the last 27 years without talking to him or seeing him. You could
easily continue in that vein if you want," replied Kevin.

"This
is too much all at once. I need to think real hard. I am scared for
you, and for Matt. Now, I have this to consider," said Pat.

"Pat,
settle down. Nothing is going to happen. Matt has no phone number or
address. His parents haven't seen him in years. As a precaution, I
just need to get him to stop panhandling on the street. Nobody will
be able to find him then. I was not even going to tell you for a
while that I found your dad, but I won't operate that way with you.
You said the other day that I was your biggest cheerleader. I am your
partner, too. Together, we will get through this," said Kevin.

Pat
embraced Kevin and said, "I am not sure why you are trying to
find my dad. I don't know if I should be thankful or mad at you. Your
timing is just plain lousy. I know your intentions are good. Did you
ever think that if I wanted to find him, I probably could find him as
easily as you did?"

"Look
Pat, when tried to box there were two kinds of fighters. Fighters,
that came in the gym mad and worked off their aggression, if they had
any, as they trained. They came in charged like a capacitor and
safely discharged their surplus baggage as they did their business.
Then there were the ones that came in and got angrier as they
trained. These fighters channeled their anger into a rage, almost.
They were frightening."

Kevin
took a deep breath and continued, "In the short run, they were
the better fighters. However, in the long run, the anger always got
the better of them. They never stayed the course or even reached the
full potential they had like the capacitors did. They usually ended
up in a bad place, worse for the experience than when they started.
All I am saying is that I don't want you to end up like the angry
fighter. You think about it. Ali and Frazier were a classic example.
It took thee fights, but in the end Ali came out better than Frazier.
After the last of the three fights Frazier was burned out, and very
bitter. Don't get me wrong Ali could be brutal. Once he hurt his
oppenent and started the stalk you could see the look of someone
going for the kill. But he only dug for it when he needed it. Frazier
wore his as a almost perpetual look.”

"Do
you think I play an angry violin, is that it?” Pat asked.

"Love
the music, not the anger. I can sense that just like some people love
drama, you love your anger in a way you find comfort in. I can see it
when you play certain pieces. Don't get me wrong. There is a place to
really tear into some of it. There are places though where that
emotion isn't right for the piece. Places where the love for the
music should shine through and it doesn't always surface like it
should," Kevin said.

Kevin
reminded her again that she had time to think about if she wanted to
meet her dad, call him, ignore him, or simply sit on the info for a
while. He didn't tell her she should probably talk to her mom too. He
knew enough about those two to know that was going to happen within
days at the most.

Kevin
put his coffee cup down and stood up. He said, "I need to get
going and get Matt. We will see what he prefers to do. I am going to
get my tool box and get going."

"Now
you have given me even more to think about. Be careful, I will see
you tonight," she said, rather glumly.

Kevin
headed out to pick up Matt at the hotel. The early morning foot
traffic was just starting to pick up. Kevin found a place to park and
headed up the street to the hotel. Matt was standing out front as
Kevin walked up. The morning air was crisp and you could start to see
your breath in the morning air. "Let's go eat where Janet works
today," Kevin said.

They
walked in and saw Janet. She made a little fuss over them and stuck
them in a booth in a back corner. "You been eating somewhere
else on me the last couple of days?" she said with a smile as
she poured them some coffee.

"We
found us a little Greek joint and Matt was enchanted by the owner's
daughter for the last couple of days," Kevin said, tossing the
ball to Matt just to see what he would do with it.

"Yeah?
I'm not pretty enough for you Matt?" asked Janet.

"No
Janet. Although she was fine, it wasn't the daughter. It was that the
food was better," Matt chimed back at her.

"That's
good, but I guarantee you boys no young Greek girl gonna outdo old
Janet when it comes to making a man happy," she said as she
walked away with their orders.

Matt
laughed, "I bet she just spoke the truth about that."

Kevin
agreed, thinking how great it was to see little glimpses of the Matt
he knew before his army days. Then, they started to talk about what
had transpired. There were no TVs in the rooms at the flop house.
Matt did catch the 10pm news on the TV at the hotel lobby, though.
They speculated about if they were in danger. They agreed that they
could be if their names got leaked out.

Janet
came with their orders. As she put the plates down, she said, "Ain't
that something about the McCanns? Sam & Donnie got themselves a
trip downtown last night. They picked them up for questioning. I
talked to Tammie. She said the police came in the bar and got both of
them right out of there."

Matt
and Kevin looked at each other. "Them plenty bad medicine,
Kemosabe. I bet they killed more people than that in their day,"
said Matt with a smile.

Kevin
couldn't get over it. If Matt was worried, it was making him into a
comedian. Kevin asked Janet if they closed the joint down when the
cops came in. She told them they did not. The McCanns called their
personal attorney to meet them at the jail. He had represented them
before in the numerous scrapes they had gotten into over the years.

Janet
hoped aloud that they would close the strip joint. Kevin warned Janet
to be careful what she wished for. Tammy would most likely go
somewhere else and strip. "Lone Ranger Silver bullet solutions
just don't happen. Believe it or not, the new bosses could be worse
than the old bosses," Kevin said. Then he asked if Tammie had a
boyfriend. That got Janet off on another rant.

"She
is living with a guy right now that don't have no job. He is the
other kind of pimp taking advantage of girls. She also has no
shortage of men friends that would do her if they could. One even
works in vice," she said.

"Janet,
that would not be good if the McCanns found out," said Kevin.

"Well,
actually, they introduced him to Janet. They told her he wanted to
meet her," said Janet.

"Oh
shit! That definitely is bad. They want her to keep him happy,"
said Kevin.

Janet
said she knew it too. She said if she heard the guy was pressuring
Tammy too much, she would tell Willie. Then she headed back to her
other customers.

Kevin
pointed out to Matt that they had more insiders than they realized in
this whole thing. The whole Smith family, for one thing. Perkins, for
another. Matt told Kevin that he had called the VA. He said they had
his records. He also said he was cleared for some disability pay and
now he thought it would be a good time to go in for treatment.