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Marge looked at me blankly for a moment. “And that’s it?”
“I told you, she cost me my chance.”
“You tell me you didn’t play a football game…” She laughed. “And then you turn that into a sequence of events across the years that are all her fault? That’s like me saying your mother took my bicycle to the store one day and that’s why she married your father instead of me.”
“You wanted to marry Dad?” I asked.
“Uh-uh.” She wagged a finger. “Don’t you try to change the subject, young man.” She repositioned herself in the chair. “It sounds like you’re envious of this Lebow boy and looking for someone to blame. Maybe it was never your destiny. Have you asked Rose?”
“Not Rose again,” I complained.
She shook her head and pursed her lips. “Call me dense, but I want to understand this butterfly-flaps-wings-and-causes-hurricane series of events. So start at the beginning. How did she get you—supposedly get you arrested?”
“The morning of the game,” I began, “Chief Pollock showed up and arrested me. He kept me in his jail all day, and I missed the game.”
“Arrested you for what?”
“He said that Angela and her father saw me drive a stolen tractor into the lake, and the chief wanted to charge me with stealing it. But at the end of the day, he released me, and it never came up again.” I pointed a finger. “And if you’re wondering, I didn’t steal any damned tractor.”
My aunt nodded thoughtfully. “And when old Earl let you out, what did Angela say about it?”
I swallowed. “We didn’t talk about it.”We didn’t talkwas a euphemism for I hadn’t mentioned it or asked.
“All this over something you never even had the guts to talk to her about?”
“I did ask,” I countered.
“When?”
“Just the other night, when we replaced Stacy’s water heater.”
Marge stared at me, daring me to go on.
“She denied it, of course, but you can’t go by that. Her father’s a crook.” Just saying that reminded me I hadn’t determined whether he was also back in town. Because if he was, I’d need to double-check the store’s alarm system.
“And the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, in your opinion?” she asked.
“Exactly.”
“Yet you’re choosing to believe old Earl rather than Angela? Tell me, is a Lerner family member more or less of a liar than a Pollock?”
I rolled my shoulders without an answer for that, trapped. I had believed what the chief had said then over what Angela claimed now, and it ate at me.
“Personally, I’d put my money on old Earl making it all up just to mess with you and your father. And, while we’re on the subject of a family tree determining one’s character, did you know that your great-great-grandfather robbed trains for a living in Kansas and was hung for his crimes? So, tell me, what does that say about you and your word?”
I gulped. “I hadn’t heard that.”
“And her father’s reputation makes Angela’s word less reliable than that of crooked old Earl Pollock?”
Once again I’d been humbled by Marge calling me on my shit. Marge stood. “You said you wanted to talk to your father. His phone is probably still on. Don’t forget to tell him what you think of him now that you know his great-grandfather was a train robber.” My aunt had a nasty habit of rubbing things in an extra time or two.
I escaped toward the door.
“Oh,” she called, getting me to turn around again. “And if you’re still hell-bent on getting Angela to leave, there’s an easy solution to that.”
I wasn’t getting out of this yet. “What?”
“She’s at dinner at The Boathouse, something about arranging an escape from this town. If you just agree to watch the dogs for her until Grace and Dirk get back, she’ll be out of your hair in two minutes flat. As hospitable as you’ve been, I wouldn’t blame her. She’s an honorable soul, and her commitment to take care of the dogs is the only thing keeping her here. Simple as that. You watch the dogs and be rid of her, or wallow in your self-pity for another three weeks as you blame every bad thing that’s ever happened to you on that poor girl. Your choice the way I see it.”
