Swollen Feet

How's it going?

"Paul," Merrill stood up and started toward him, "Eddie's home."
Paul continued his gaze at Eddie for another moment, then said to Meryl, "Why don't you get us some drinks?"
Meryl's sigh sounded almost hopeless as she patted her husband's arm and turned toward the kitchen. At the last minute, she turned back to Paul inquisitivly. He simply raised an eyebrow. She knew what he wanted and nodded. Then she turned to Eddie.
"Iced tea is fine," was his reply, and she disappeared into the next room.
Paul turned his attention back to Eddie. Still that cold, hard stare as before, but a worry line appearing on his brow. He was disappointed; who wouldn't be? But even through the daggered eyes, Eddie could still see care. Inside he eased, even if he was still unsure outside.
Paul finally came to sit on the sofa. There was a long uncomfortable pause. Eddie knew what was going through Paul's mind. Paul is trying to rationalize the whole situation, from the frat party to this moment. He was trying to make sense of why Eddie would do such a thing to disgrace the Ibis name, which Paul held so proudly, and hoped Eddie would respect it as he did by bestowing it upon Eddie.
"How's it going?" This was Paul's way to start almost any conversation.
"It's getting better."
Another uncomfortable pause.
"I'm going to get to the point." Paul's tone made me feel like a little boy that had just gotten caught pulling his little sister's hair. "Why?" it was more of a statement than a question.
"I don't know why! It just kind of happened. I had no control over what I was doing. I was drunk for crying out loud! I'm sure you do stupid things when you're drunk, too." The actuality of what Eddie was trying to say was lost in that sentence. Sure Paul did dumb things when he was drunk, but he never killed anyone.
Paul with unbelievably calm. "That's not what I meant."
Now Eddie was confused. "Then what did you mean?"
Exasperated, Paul replied, "Christ, Edwin, it's been seven years! Not a word, not a letter, not even a peep to let us know where you are or what you're doing with your life, just one day you send a letter to tell us that you need your thing and that's it. I thought you had better sense than that. You know that we... both... And I will not have it taken away because of your arrogance and stubbornness!"
Eddie swallowed a lump, and coldly reacted. "You have no idea what it's like."
"Of course I don't. You haven't told me anything!"
"I couldn't possibly describe it to you."
"Then how do you expect me to understand?"
Meryl came back in then with the drinks and interrupted. "Well, now that everything is settled, we can calm down and at least pretend to act like a family again." She glared at Paul and he took a good deep breath and gave Eddie a look to say, "I'm only doing this for Meryl's sake."
She handed the gin to Paul and the tea to Eddie. Her mascara was smudged a little bit under her eyes, but she played it off nicely. For want of a change of subject and something to fill the silence, she brought up Jackie again. "So why don't you tell us more about this lady friend of yours. When will we get to meet her? Please don't wait until the wedding. That's what Uncle Mark did and it just drove my parents up the wall as well as Jennifer and everyone is still bitter about it."
He had to smile at Meryl's ardor. She had this thing about pretending everything was normal no matter what the situation was. "It's the fastest way to return to a normal flow of life," she had once told him.
"There's no plans for a wedding, yet." He said with a slight laugh, taking his eyes and thoughts from Paul. "I did ask her if she wanted to come meet you now, this time, but she has her own thing going on, and it's really important to her." He changed his mind about not telling them what she was off doing. "See, when she was younger, she was a little wild kid, and she had a baby that she gave up for adoption. It wasn't so much of a pressure kind of thing then what she thought was best; she was very young and couldn't take care of the baby. So she gave him up. But she has regretted not knowing her child ever since she did, and so she hired this detective - ironically one of the guys that did the Ted Lious thing; he's a P.I. now - but that's another issue. She hired him to find her son, and he calls her up yesterday morning to tell her he had more or less found him, or at least his adoptive parents and name. So that's where she is." It's a trait trait that he had picked up from Meryl.
When he finished, they both stared at him as if he had a palm tree growing on the top of his his head.
"What?" Eddie asked innocently.
That's what Paul said what Meryl had been dreading, and Eddie could tell by the way she tensed when the words were spoken.