Simple Man

- TWENTYFOUR -

    Rowan opened the screen door as he said his goodbyes to Oz when he felt someone run into him. "Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry I wasn't looking up, I was counting the jars— Wait—"

   Rowan knew who it was as soon as she opened her mouth to speak. Justine.

   There was a silence that stretched what felt like the entire length of the fourteen years he had been away.  There she was. Beautiful as the last day he saw her when he broke up with her on those bleachers—but somehow sadder. Oz broke the silence with his cane as he slowly meandered toward the pair who were staring at each other. Justine looked away first as she noticed Oz approaching and seemed grateful for the interruption, "Justine, you're a dear. You remembered. But you didn't have to come by this early to deliver my preserves."

   "It's eleven thirty, hardly early. I was up anyways because I needed to run by the office and go over the list of kids going on the mission trip. Belinda was going to meet me there. This year we should be able to go to the Dominican Republic."

"God is good." Oz said.

"All the time." Justine replied smiling as she handed the basket of preserves to Oz.

   Oz tapped his cane on Rowan's chest, then nodded at the preserves in his hands, "This on toast. Life changing."

   Rowan shyly smiled at Justine who just looked dazed like she was looking at someone who had been long dead and wasn't sure how to process it, "Justine had always been a great at all things confectionery."

"Rowan, is that really you?" Justine whispered, staring him up and down in awe.

"No, I'm a clone." Rowan replied, casually leaning his weight on the screen door handle.

"No, you're an asshole." Oz said, hitting him in the shin with his cane.

"Ow!"

"My goodness! It is you!" Justine said giddily as she threw herself at him to embrace his neck—practically hanging off of him. He had expected to be slapped in the face but this was a surprisingly welcomed development.

"Nice to see you too Justine." Rowan said, awkwardly patting her back.

"My mom told me about Bill, I'm so sorry. If there's anything I can do please don't hesitate. Tommy said he was going to go to his memorial service this week. I hope you've found peace, I know he wasn't your favorite person in the world but the fact that you are here shows what the power of God and his forgiveness can do in someone's life."

  Rowan felt an most inconvenient swell of rage color his vision, tinting everything in red, "Forgive him!? Is that what you think this is!? Forgiveness!? I wanted to see for myself the bastard was dead! He is and I'm elated! I'm just upset he won't feel the flames that char his rotting corpse to ash so all I can hope for is he surely feels all the flames in hell for the rest of eternity! If God makes that happen then he might actually be worth praising for once!" He shouted in Justines' face, then stormed passed her toward his motorcycle.

Kahuna jumped off his stool to stop Rowan, "Hey man, you got to calm down!"

"No, fuck you! I don't got to do shit!" He said, pressing his finger in Kahuna's chest, then looked back at Justine, "I don't know about God so much, haven't seen much of him in my life but I know about the Devil, his name was Bill Wolfe. Judge me. I don't give a fuck...If any of you were me, you'd feel the same..."

   Rowan turned back, walking toward Claude. He knew without looked at him that Oz didn't approve of his outburst. Especially shouting in a woman's face like he did was something a true gentleman would never do. He also knew Oz understood more than any of them. God. Forgiveness. Healing. These were so foreign he'd need the Rosetta Stone to translate what they meant. It wouldn't matter anyways, where he was right now emotionally and mentally even if he understood their concepts he'd likely reject them.

   He mounted his bike, put the keys in and with a turn of the engine brought Claude back to life. Everyone was staring at him as he pulled out of the carport and drove down the dirt road toward town. He hated himself for losing his cool like that but it certainly wasn't like he planned on it. The Justine he knew wouldn't have said something like that to him. She didn't know what all went on in that house but she knew Rowan hated his step-father to the core. He had shown up at her front lawn  many a long night, black and blue from a earlier thralling, throwing pebbles at her window.

   She would come down, let him in, grab a bag of frozen peas before setting him up on the couch in the living room. She would stay up with him, not saying much but she would hold his hand in silence as he pressed the frozen peas to whatever part of the body hurt the most. They would end up falling asleep, Lorraine would wake up to see ones' head on the others' shoulder and both their mouths agape. Something that probably should have made a mother mad seeing her daughter in her pajamas sleeping next to a boy but she would see the terrible bruises on Rowan's face and body and understood it wasn't like that.

   The boy felt safe at her house and she wasn't going to wake him up screaming just to risk him feeling like there was no where for him to go. He needed somewhere. He needed someone. As Rowan was approaching the welcome sign he remembered Lorraine offering that he stay there with them permanently but he had refused. He wasn't going to be anyone else's burden. He wasn't a charity case. He didn't need pity, he just wanted peace. Staying with Lorraine and Justine wasn't going to give him peace, sure it would mean no more beatings but he couldn't move out on the trauma he already accumulated. He didn't want to darken the doorstep of one as untouched as the Browning residence.

  He shook off the encounter with Justine and his thoughts wandered to Meghan, her ethereal presence, her attitude and her honesty intrigued him more than he wanted to admit. He couldn't help feeling a pull to her but what would be the point? Even if Meghan's attitude toward him had been more inviting he shouldn't be open to any ridiculous notions like him and her. He wasn't even suitable being by himself let alone being with another human being. Honestly, what could he offer a woman like Meghan but the dark, twisted fragments of a scared boy and an angry man?

A woman of her caliber deserved more.