Chapter 4 - THE NAME JULIAN RECOGNIZEDJulian came to the hospital alone.
No Eleanor.
Good.
He sat beside the bed.
For thirty seconds, neither of us spoke.
Then I put the pharmacy receipt between us.
“Who is he?”
Julian looked at it.
“My uncle.”
I stared.
“You have an uncle named Denis Vale?”
“Yes.”
“In fourteen years together, I have never heard of him.”
“I know.”
“Why?”
Julian rubbed both hands over his face.
“Because my mother doesn’t talk about him.”
“She has his pharmacy receipt under a container of powder.”
“I know how that looks.”
“No, Julian. You know what it is. I know how it looks.”
He swallowed.
“Denis is Mom’s younger half-brother.”
“How much younger?”
“Seven years.”
“Where is he?”
“Omaha.”
“Does he come here?”
“Not that I know.”
“Why have I never met him?”
Julian looked toward the floor.
“He has had problems.”
“What kind?”
“Alcohol. Prescription misuse years ago. Theft from family. A lot of instability.”
The irony was so sharp I almost laughed.
“The man with a prescription receipt under your mother’s powder container has a history of medication problems?”
“He’s been sober for years.”
“Then why the secrecy?”
“My grandfather cut him off. Mom kept helping him. My dad hated it. Eventually everyone stopped talking about Denis because every conversation became a war.”
“So you deleted an uncle.”
“That’s not fair.”
“Neither is waking up with a drug in my blood.”
His face closed.
I regretted the cruelty.
Not enough to apologize yet.
“Does Denis take benzodiazepines?”
Julian looked at me.
“I don’t know.”
“Does your mother?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“No.”
There.
At least accuracy.
Then Julian said something that gave me my next bad feeling.
“Denis called Mom last month.”
“How do you know?”
“I saw his name on her phone.”
“And?”
“They argued.”
“About what?”
“I didn’t ask.”
May you like
Of course he didn’t.
That was becoming our family’s specialty.
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