Our Sick Inheritance (editing)

Ch 99 (jose) - To Tell The Truth

Grieving was such a personal and public thing. It was difficult for Jose to imagine losing any of his children even if they did go astray in life.

Jose got to spend time with his family but couldn't get the heart wrenching grief that was written all over Nikki's parent's face out of his mind. It made him hug each of his family a little tighter and hold the new baby even longer than he had intended to for the little Princess was starting to cry for food that only her mother could provide from her breast.

Snow had stopped falling and the roads were still thick and drivable. Jose left his family with a sad pull at his heart for he was heading home to California after he paid a visit to Daryl in Idaho because he still had much work to do, especially now that he got a lead from Nikki's parents. His wife was going to stay in Washington a few more days to help with the new baby then will head back home with their twins where he would meet her for some alone time. They couldn't go more than three days without touching each other intimately and after the visit with their son and family it will have been almost a week since he felt the sweet love of his beautiful wife.

Jose met Daryl in his natural environment where he was renting a place to live. Snow was thick everywhere, but Daryl didn't seem to notice as he was standing on the deck of his modest little house cutting pieces of wood with a skill saw. It looked to Jose that Daryl was cutting out intricate designs to add to a beautiful unstained dresser sitting on blue tarps next to his table. The smell of burning wood was coming from the top of a chimney of his house which always brought joy to Jose's heart for it was one of his favorite scents in the world. Burning leaves was another. Jose had always loved the smell of nature but he was surprised that Daryl was outside on such a cold wet day. If wood got wet, you had to wait until it dried out to do anything with it. Today the sun was out enough to keep the tarps free of moisture.

Daryl was a tall man of around six feet. His long scraggly beard was pointed at the end but he looked clean and well kept. The dark blue thermal shirt he was wearing looked new but the old blue jeans that had a few tiny holes unraveling on the thighs were not. Daryl straightened up when he saw Jose pull up as he was sure Daryl didn't get many visitors this far out in the woods. He turned off his machine and was rubbing the wood with his hand as Jose approached.

"Daryl Thieles?" At Daryl's nod, he continued. "I'm Jose Mendez. I talked to your Probation officer who obviously got in contact with you." Jose said approaching him.

"Yep that's correct." Daryl said indication he was expecting him.

"Thank you for meeting with me." Jose said walking up the steps and shook Daryl's hand. It wasn't a strong handshake, but it was obvious he used them often. Jose looked at the dresser and noticed Daryl did have a delicate touch.

"No problem, I want to set the record straight." Daryl said and laid the piece of wood on the table away from the saw where he started to sand the grain of wood with a very fine piece of sanding paper. For a moment, he wanted to join in on Daryl's fun for he had always loved to work with wood. He built his girls' a giant playhouse in their backyard to help make the transition of moving from Washington to California. He held onto his notebook and pen with both hands to refrain from doing so.

"Well I'm here to find out what happened but it won't change anything legal that has already happened." Jose said.

"As long as one cop hears my story and believes it, the better. I'm no longer in jail and I don't care what y'all think anymore. I'm just telling the honest story and that is it. If that is what you come for then fine. Otherwise I have no reason to talk to you." Daryl stated non-aggressively but direct.