The three of us drove to the Oregon coast, down Highway 101 to San Francisco, then to Las Vegas, Arizona, Texas, New Orleans, Memphis, and, finally, Fort Smith, Arkansas. Stephen wouldn"t do acid but Vince and I dosed a few times on the trip.
When we arrived in Fort Smith, Stephen and Vince dropped me off at Paul"s house. I hadn"t seen him since broadcasting school and he had since gotten married to a girl in our cla.s.s he"d been going out with. I always thought they were a weird couple. She was a hyperactive New Waver and he was a tobacco-chewing oaf who made fun of the other students even though he could barely speak into a mic without twisting his tongue. When they moved to Arkansas, he dropped out of radio to pursue a window-washing business while she did news at a low-ranking AM station. He"d gotten her pregnant and she had developed this unhealthy infatuation with Reba McEntire. There were posters of her everywhere and ca.s.settes played constantly throughout the day while I tried to read Camus or Dostoyevsky or whatever I was reading back then. Sylvia Plath probably. She also owned a collection of Reba T-shirts.
I soon found out that the radio job I thought had been offered to me wasn"t going to happen and I had to find other work. I stayed with my ex-cla.s.smates in their trailer home and rationed myself a couple of dollars a day before I became officially broke. Most of that money seemed to be spent at a cheap bakery I found that sold glazed doughnuts for fifteen cents a piece. Eventually I got a job at a factory a.s.sembling baby cribs and I was able to move into my own place. That job lasted a month before I became a busboy at a Mexican restaurant called El Chico in Central Mall.
In the meantime, I had bought a used ten-speed and would cruise the small downtown area in search of any kind of youth culture. When I lived in Spokane I went out every other night and I was anxious to find a social life in my new city. I was starting to wonder if moving to Arkansas was a mistake. When I asked people about fun places to go, they"d always say Tulsa or Dallas.
I found out about a place called the 700 Club, a warehouse-type s.p.a.ce where local punk and alternative bands played. They had an open mic night coming up and I was eager to go. When I got there that night, it turned out that whoever had the keys to the place hadn"t show up. So one of the club regulars put the tailgate of his truck down and made that the stage. It was a humid late-summer night and unlike the Spokane open mics, most of the people who came to the 700 Club (or at least its parking lot) were there with acoustic guitars. It was more like a punk hootenanny.
There wasn"t any kind of sign-up list. After someone played a few songs they"d just ask the couple dozen people there who wanted to be next. I watched three or four people strum and sing before I felt like I could get up there. I stood in the bed of the truck and read a few poems. At the time, I was heavily influenced by a Seattle writer named Jesse Bernstein, who wrote violent and funny stories and read them in a crazed scratchy panic. I did my best to imitate Bernstein"s voice as I read my own attempts at dark humor. I prefaced my reading by telling everyone that I had just moved there from Washington State. Afterward, a few people talked to me, mostly to ask about the Northwest. Apparently, the video for Nirvana"s "Smells Like Teen Spirit" had debuted just the night before and a couple of the kids at the open mic couldn"t stop talking about it. They couldn"t believe it when I told them I saw Nirvana play once in a parking garage.
One of the girls there was what I always envisioned a sweet Southern girl would be like. She was warm and pixielike, with dark hair, dark eyes, and a face that glowed with honesty and hope. The only thing missing was the Southern accent. I talked with a few of the guys there and they all acted like they wanted to date her. She had gotten out of a long relationship recently and they were just trying to figure a way to ask her out. After two more open mics, I finally worked up the nerve myself.
We started dating and fell in love. I felt a little weird since she was still in high school, but as soon as she graduated, we decided to move to Portland, Oregon. We ran an espresso cart business and I started publishing more of my writing in magazines. I also met many more writers and began publishing more books by other writers. Even though I was happy, I felt anxious. My girlfriend and I had our ups and downs. There were breakups and infidelities and apologies. There was a miscarriage that I didn"t know how to handle. I was unfairly distant and selfish.
But then we got back together and my son was born.
Zach"s was a home birth, just after midnight on the hottest day of the year in 1994. The next morning, going out the front door and walking to the store, the world did indeed feel totally different. The sky looked larger and gravity felt nonexistent. I noticed every color and every movement around me. I didn"t know much about babies or how to be a father yet, but I knew right away that I was going to do better than my own father.
Aneurysm
Nearly fourteen years after I became a father, I got a message about my own dad. It was from a cousin or aunt, someone I"d never met. She was using that uncertain voice that people use when they"re not sure if their message is being recorded. "Kevin? It"s about your dad. He had a brain aneurysm and he"s in the hospital. They"re not sure if he"s going to last much longer. Your mom wanted me to call some people and tell them. If you want to see him, or say good-bye, you should probably come right away." after I became a father, I got a message about my own dad. It was from a cousin or aunt, someone I"d never met. She was using that uncertain voice that people use when they"re not sure if their message is being recorded. "Kevin? It"s about your dad. He had a brain aneurysm and he"s in the hospital. They"re not sure if he"s going to last much longer. Your mom wanted me to call some people and tell them. If you want to see him, or say good-bye, you should probably come right away."
I knew that this was a call I"d be getting soon. For his last four years he was in a wheelchair and everything about him was shutting down. I would call home and talk with Mom about various things and then she"d hand the phone to Dad. It was obvious that speaking had become harder for him. Slowly and with little volume, he would try hard just to get one sentence out, probably about a ch.o.r.e around the house he would never get to or something about church. The words barely made it above the pained breathing. His voice was an eerie death rattle coming through the phone line.
And now this came through the phone line. I played the message over a few times and then saved it.
I was at home in Portland, a four-hour drive away. I had no desire to go right away. I was about to go to work anyway.
I called Mom and talked to her. She said he was brain dead but still breathing. I asked if he was responding to anything, if he could hear her. The phone line was crackling and cutting out and she couldn"t understand what I was saying. I had been waiting for him to die, and had even fantasized about it, but I couldn"t help feeling anxious now that it was really happening.
"Can he hear you? Can you talk into his ear?" I asked.
"What"s that?"
"Can he understand words?"
"I"m sorry, Kevin. I can"t hear what you"re saying."
"Could you tell him I love him," I finally said. I was starting to cry.
"Maybe you should take some days off of work," she said gently.
I knew I wasn"t going to drive up there until he died. I didn"t want to take the days off work and hang out in Kennewick on a deathwatch. The place made me depressed more than nostalgic. Mom and Dad had moved out of the big house we used to live in, the one we rebuilt after the fire. They bought a much smaller manufactured home out behind Columbia Center Mall in the mid-nineties and Mark was still there too, living with them. He was Dad"s caregiver the last few years, doing everything from getting him out of bed each day to driving him around. Sometimes Mark and Dad got into arguments and Mark would disappear somewhere for a few days. A few times, Dad himself would try to disappear, cruising in his electric wheelchair along the side of some busy road, going who knows where, until a police officer would stop him and call Mom to come pick him up. I had to laugh the first time I heard about one of these runaway attempts.
I decided to stay in Portland and wait it out, pretend business as usual. I wasn"t going anywhere until the heart stopped beating, until the funeral was set.
The Viewing
Dad died a couple of days later and I drove up to Kennewick. couple of days later and I drove up to Kennewick.
The day before his burial, I went to the funeral home to see Dad in his coffin. I went with Dad"s sister Evelyn and her husband, Rolando. I remember meeting Evelyn a couple of times when I was a kid but I had never met Rolando before. They lived around Washington, D.C., most of my childhood and there was some tension on Dad"s side of the family because Rolando was black.
Despite the early disapproval of others, they have been married for more than fifty years and have several children and grandchildren. I heard that Dad"s family didn"t like to advertise that they had a mixed marriage among them. I don"t recall Dad ever mentioning Rolando.
One of Evelyn and Rolando"s children became an airplane pilot though and that fact became worthy of mention for Dad when he talked with others. "My nephew is a pilot for that airline," he would say, as if he had some hand in this success.
Evelyn is very religious and as we walked into the funeral home she was quietly praying and making the sign of the cross. Rolando, a large man with a kind nature, gently touched her back as they walked. Some piped-in music greeted us in the room that kept Dad"s coffin. It was the beginning of viewing hours and I was a little surprised that there was no one else there. Evelyn and Rolando stood back and prayed as I looked closely at my father. His hands looked thin and smudged with spots, as if they had been flattened in some s.a.d.i.s.tic way. His head was like a skull with fake waxy skin molded around it. I thought I"d see some kind of evidence of the brain aneurysm that finally killed him, but I didn"t know what to look for. What little hair he had was swept across his scalp like the faint suggestion of a haircut. His forehead was the only thing that looked strong and real. I looked at him for a few minutes, wondering if I could see myself, but I couldn"t. I moved my hand to his head and watched my fingers rest on his forehead. I petted his forehead and thought how strange it was to touch my father this way. I started to cry a little, though I didn"t want to. My sniffling gave me away and Evelyn came to my side and touched my arm lightly. She started to talk about how he was in Heaven and that G.o.d was taking care of him now, or something like that. I was more annoyed than comforted by her. I looked down at his chest. He was dressed in a dark blue suit with a blue-and-silver tie and the kind of light blue b.u.t.ton-up shirt that he would sometimes wear while working in the yard. His chest looked wide but caved in. I stared there, where his heart would be, and watched for any movement. Any sign of a soul.
No Eulogy
The next day, toward the end of my dad"s funeral service, the priest asked if anyone wanted to say some words or share a fond memory of my dad. I have not attended many funerals in my life, but I know that this is usually the most emotional and interesting part of the service. Some people think that G.o.d lets you watch your own funeral to see what people say before he takes you up to Heaven or gives you to Satan or whatever. toward the end of my dad"s funeral service, the priest asked if anyone wanted to say some words or share a fond memory of my dad. I have not attended many funerals in my life, but I know that this is usually the most emotional and interesting part of the service. Some people think that G.o.d lets you watch your own funeral to see what people say before he takes you up to Heaven or gives you to Satan or whatever.
There was an awkward moment when no one approached the podium. Then one of the two older nuns at the service went up and started talking about how helpful my dad was. "Whenever we needed to use a truck, John was always willing to help," she said.
In his last several years, my father was an usher at the church. I think he even did it in his wheelchair for a while. Most of the priests and nuns and churchgoers knew him. A few days before the funeral, someone from the parish told my mom that the church, which holds about 150 people, would probably be full for the funeral. There were about 30 people there.
As the nun talked more about my dad, she shifted from "John was always there for the church" to "John was also a family man who loved his wife and children." Even under the roof of the church where I had spent so many Sunday mornings, my bulls.h.i.t detector went off. This was a woman, a child of G.o.d, who had no idea.
When she was done speaking, there was another uncomfortable pause in the service. I glanced discreetly at Mom and saw that she had no intention of approaching the altar. Elinda sat next to Mom, holding her hand. I thought about going up myself but I couldn"t think of anything to say.
One of the only good memories I have of my father are of the times when we"d go to some river or creek somewhere and I would gather agates or any other cool rocks. The year before he died, when I remembered to send him a Father"s Day card, I had mentioned these memories. It was one of the few times I wanted to give him something genuine. I knew that he was getting closer and closer to his end.
I stayed seated in my pew, unsure about my ability to speak. I did feel an emotional tug, a burst of tears ready to fall, but they couldn"t make it over whatever hurdles were there in my heart. I imagined myself in the casket. My funeral. What people would say. I imagined all of this selfishly, to bring tears, but that didn"t work either.
Matt sat next to me, also thinking about what he would say. He told me after the service that he thought about getting up and saying that John was a flawed man, a lonely, disappointed person who wanted forgiveness. He thought about announcing his forgiveness. But maybe the silence was more suitable.
My brother Russell eventually stepped up and started speaking. It seemed like he was up there merely to take up the slack for those of us who had nothing good to share. His words were cautious and faintly praising. He said, "John was a good provider." But, I wondered, of what?
After
After the service, everyone filed out the front doors of the church and we each said h.e.l.lo to the priest and shook his hand. Some people thought there was going to be an open casket and a chance for people to see my dad one last time, but the casket stayed closed. I got the feeling that people felt awkward about it and didn"t want to ask if the casket could be opened. There was an anticlimactic feel to the whole thing. everyone filed out the front doors of the church and we each said h.e.l.lo to the priest and shook his hand. Some people thought there was going to be an open casket and a chance for people to see my dad one last time, but the casket stayed closed. I got the feeling that people felt awkward about it and didn"t want to ask if the casket could be opened. There was an anticlimactic feel to the whole thing.
Before the service, Matt, Russell, Mark, and I had to carry the casket from the hea.r.s.e into the church, and now we had to carry it back out. It was heavier than I thought it would be and the handles felt like they were made of hard plastic. They dug into my fingers uncomfortably. It was as if Dad wanted to give us, the kids, one last moment of discomfort. I could imagine him purposely picking out the heavy one with c.r.a.ppy handles.
With Dad back in the hea.r.s.e, we gathered on the church steps to figure out who was driving with whom to the cemetery. Then Mom stumbled down the church steps, and even though I was holding her hand, she fell awkwardly on her side. Some relatives I didn"t know helped me get her up and she said she was okay, just clumsy.
A short line of cars followed the hea.r.s.e out to the cemetery. Like a tragically comic movie, it had begun raining and the wind began whipping around like it does in a desert city. At the cemetery, we again had to carry the coffin, this time to the grave. I hadn"t brought a jacket and I was pretty cold. I could barely hear the last formulaic words of the priest and I just wanted to get back in my car. I saw the backhoe behind the crowd, behind a tree, like it was an animal trying to hide from us.
Olive Garden
That night, a bunch of the family met at an Olive Garden for dinner. I felt a nagging sense of shame that we went to such a cheerful place. Its peppy waitstaff gave the illusion that the world is a fair and happy place and no one ever dies. bunch of the family met at an Olive Garden for dinner. I felt a nagging sense of shame that we went to such a cheerful place. Its peppy waitstaff gave the illusion that the world is a fair and happy place and no one ever dies.
I sat next to my cousin Terry, who is about ten years older than me. I didn"t know him that well. He asked me about living in Portland and said he sometimes visited there to go to bookstores. He was a history teacher at a high school in Walla Walla and had a room in his house just for his library. There aren"t too many people in my family whom you"d call literary, so I was excited to have someone to talk books with. The conversation soon turned to family though. We played connect the dots with the bloodline. His mom was my dad"s sister, Evelyn, who had spent time at Medical Lake, being treated for psychosis at the same time Elinda was there getting shock treatments. His dad was someone he never knew. Apparently, he was a drug dealer who was shot and killed in their front yard when he was a little boy.
He asked me in all earnestness, "How was it growing up with John?" I could tell he knew the answer wasn"t going to be good, and I could also tell that he had his own opinions to share.
"It was kind of c.r.a.ppy," I offered.
He nodded and said, "I used to go to your place a lot when you guys were little and I just wondered how you guys dealt with him. He was a b.a.s.t.a.r.d."
I ordered another Spanish coffee and we talked more as we ate. By this time, I was tired of everyone treading softly and pretending that Dad"s life was saintly. "It"s nice to know that there"s someone here who isn"t full of s.h.i.t," I said to Terry. I was actually starting to feel like Dad"s death would become a reason for the family to open up more. After all, if there"s someone in your family whom you"re always afraid of offending, it can be stifling for everyone involved. Terry told me about being a kid and going to visit my dad a few times with his mom. This was a couple of years before I was born, when Matt was a baby and Mom and Dad were split up. Dad was living in some kind of motel out by the airport in Kennewick and there were Playboy Playboys scattered around. One day, after hearing that he didn"t get a job that he"d been hoping for, Dad got so angry that he trashed the place, knocking holes in the walls and breaking furniture. He grabbed a gun and went outside and shot bullets into the hard ground.
Matt heard us talking about Dad and joined in the conversation. Soon we were joking and laughing about his spazzy temper and creative cursing. Matt and I tried to remember the exact order of f-words and other swears when he smashed his fingers moving the fridge down the stairs. It"s the closest we got to a eulogy.
Hotel
That night, I stayed in a hotel room with my older brother Russell. I was in bed, with the lights out, falling asleep, when Russell said, "I was surprised to hear how negatively you spoke of your dad today." He must have been referring to some of the things he heard at the restaurant. stayed in a hotel room with my older brother Russell. I was in bed, with the lights out, falling asleep, when Russell said, "I was surprised to hear how negatively you spoke of your dad today." He must have been referring to some of the things he heard at the restaurant.
At first I thought he was going to scold me for that, but I told him frankly about how disappointing a father he was. I talked calmly for fifteen minutes about all the reasons. In a way, Russell reminds me of Dad, so I wasn"t sure whose side he would take.
I was surprised to hear him respond with similar stories and feelings. I listened to Russell"s voice in the dark and could feel the pain in the air around us. I had always thought of Russell as the serious-minded, conservative, military, older brother, but now I could see that he was vulnerable too. I told him about how having a bad father made me try to be a good father and he told me about some of the things he, too, learned as a father. He had a son named Charles when he was much younger, with a woman he was not with for long. When the relationship ended, he let her take his son. Now, after years of having not talked to him, he had no idea where his son was.
After he lost contact with his son, Russell fell in love with a Korean woman and married her. She had two children from a previous marriage, a son and a daughter, and Russell became their father. A couple of years into the marriage, his wife was in a car accident and was paralyzed. She"s been in a wheelchair ever since. They went back and forth from Korea to America and maintained a strong and loving relationship. But still, I got the feeling that Russell was regretful about not staying in touch with his son.
We talked for a couple of hours and then fell asleep. At five in the morning, the alarm went off and Russell had to get up to catch a flight. I stayed in bed, half-asleep, and said good-bye to him. He set his bags in the hallway and stood in the doorway. "Well, it was really good to talk to you," he said. "And I want you to know that I love you and I"m proud of you."
"Golden Child"
My brother Mark, the "golden child," is the only one in the family that has never lived outside the Tri-Cities. I think about how soul-crushing that must be. The few times he has driven Mom to visit me in Portland, he doesn"t want to go anywhere or to explore the city. It"s as if nothing interests him. When any of our relatives visit the Tri-Cities, he usually disappears and does not answer his phone. I have noticed that just in the past couple of years, many of his teeth have fallen out and his gla.s.ses are usually dirty and broken. His bedroom, across from the bathroom in Mom"s home, is always riddled with clothes, electronic things that have been taken apart, Budweiser posters, and weird smells. When he is around, it is surprising if he speaks beyond a few mumbled words. the "golden child," is the only one in the family that has never lived outside the Tri-Cities. I think about how soul-crushing that must be. The few times he has driven Mom to visit me in Portland, he doesn"t want to go anywhere or to explore the city. It"s as if nothing interests him. When any of our relatives visit the Tri-Cities, he usually disappears and does not answer his phone. I have noticed that just in the past couple of years, many of his teeth have fallen out and his gla.s.ses are usually dirty and broken. His bedroom, across from the bathroom in Mom"s home, is always riddled with clothes, electronic things that have been taken apart, Budweiser posters, and weird smells. When he is around, it is surprising if he speaks beyond a few mumbled words.
He was the only one I saw crying at Dad"s funeral.
The Day After
The day after the funeral, Mom wanted to have some one-on-one talks with each of her visiting boys-Russell, Matt, and me. Gary did not come to the funeral and wasn"t at our family reunion a few years before. He was living in Ohio and working as a truck driver. I haven"t seen him in twenty years and it seems like he has been avoiding the rest of the family as well. the funeral, Mom wanted to have some one-on-one talks with each of her visiting boys-Russell, Matt, and me. Gary did not come to the funeral and wasn"t at our family reunion a few years before. He was living in Ohio and working as a truck driver. I haven"t seen him in twenty years and it seems like he has been avoiding the rest of the family as well.
I drove Mom to the new Sonic drive-in that opened down the street from them. It seems like every imaginable chain store or restaurant has opened up in the Tri-Cities since I moved away. The landscape has gone from desert to a sickening glut of consumerism. They call it expansion and growth.
We ordered root beer floats and sat in my car and talked about Dad. This is when she told me about her first husbands and how abusive they were. She explained more details about Matt"s dad. She talked about Elinda and why she was sent to Medical Lake and how she got pregnant there. Then she told me what happened between Elinda and Dad.
I sat with her for about three hours, holding her hand and listening to this flood of information. These were all the things that weren"t talked about when I was growing up. Stories kept from us kids.
When we were ready to leave, I tried to start my car but the battery was dead. I had kept my headlights on the whole time. I walked around and asked people in the other cars if they had jumper cables, but n.o.body did. Finally I asked one of the roller-skating servers and they brought out a battery charger. After a quick zap, the car started right up and we drove off, embarra.s.sed but relieved.
The Smoking Room
The first time I went to visit Elinda after the funeral was when she had to get remarried to Chris, someone she thought she had legally married more than twenty years before. But it turned out, as I mentioned earlier, that Elinda hadn"t been officially divorced from her first husband yet. She found this out when her first husband pa.s.sed away with the old divorce papers, unprocessed, still in his possession. I went to visit Elinda after the funeral was when she had to get remarried to Chris, someone she thought she had legally married more than twenty years before. But it turned out, as I mentioned earlier, that Elinda hadn"t been officially divorced from her first husband yet. She found this out when her first husband pa.s.sed away with the old divorce papers, unprocessed, still in his possession.
I drove to Olympia for their small wedding at the courthouse. Mom and Mark were also there, along with a dozen other friends and relatives of Chris"s. When Elinda saw me show up at the last minute, she ran over and gave me a big hug and said, "Look, everyone. My baby brother!"
During the ceremony, the judge started to go through all the various oaths. Elinda fidgeted and complained, "I just wanted to say "I do.""
"Well, okay then," the judge stammered.