“Hey,” Ike said. Margo looked up and gave him a half smile.
“Don’t criticize my work, Mr. Landscaping Man,” Margo said. She stood and wiped her hands on her jeans. Humming, she gathered the empty plastic tray that had held the petunias. She put a small plastic trowel in her back pocket.
“I ain’t got nothing to say. Looks good to me,” Ike said.
“I figure he could do with some sprucing up. God knows he never did anything with that damn trailer,” Margo said.
“I think he’d like it.”
“Ha! He’d make some smart-ass comment about the colors. Call me Captain America or some other foolishness,” Margo said.
“Yeah, he probably would,” Ike said. Margo wiped her eyes with the back of her hands.
“Lord have mercy. He could be an aggravating cuss, but I sure do miss his ass,” Margo said. Ike took a breath, sucked his teeth, then spoke.
“Yeah. Me too.”
“Well, I’ll let y’all have some privacy,” Margo said.
“You don’t have to go,” Ike said.
“Yeah, I do. I’ll be bawling like a baby in a minute, and I think neither one of us wanna see that. Look, I know you can’t say it, but I gotta ask. He went out fighting, didn’t he?” Margo said. Ike gave her a long unblinking look. She studied his eyes, saw the answer to her question, and nodded her head.
“Okay. Okay,” she said. She turned and hurried down the hill. Ike stared after her for few moments before he faced the grave. The black granite headstone said BUDDY LEE instead of William. When the state medical examiner had released his body Buddy Lee’s sister had reached out to Ike about paying for the funeral. He’d said he would but with two conditions. They had to bury him next to the boys, and the headstone had to say Buddy Lee.
She’d gladly accepted his conditions since it meant she didn’t have to pay for anything.
Ike pulled a can of beer and small bottle of liquor out of the paper bag. He opened the beer and took a long sip. It was crisp and cold as the first morning of winter. He poured the remainder of the can on the grave. He made sure he didn’t get any on the petunias.
“Hey, man. I think I’m gonna invite Margo to Arianna’s birthday party next week. She could probably use the company. Hell, we all could. Tangerine says she is gonna come up with a special hairdo for Mya and Arianna for the party. Them three done got thick as thieves. Insurance man says they gonna start on the house next week. We still staying in that hotel. It’s pretty fancy. Like you would say, ‘it’s like shitting in high cotton.’” Ike blinked his eyes.
“Arianna is smart as a damn whip. Tangy got her counting to fifteen. Mya’s got her studying flash cards with animals on them. She can even tell a dog from a wolf. I’ve been trying to show her how to fight, but Mya keeps saying she’s only three. We play this game where she punches the palms of my hands. She loves it. In a couple years we’ll move up to mitts. Might even get another heavy bag one day.”
Ike felt a lump rise in his throat but he forced it down.
“She’s growing like a weed, man. Anyway, I’m gonna talk to the boys for a minute, okay? I know you ain’t really a fan of Hennessy,” Ike said.
He sat the empty beer can on Buddy Lee’s headstone. He unscrewed the cap on the bottle and took a long swig. It burned going down but settled in his stomach with comfortable warmness that made his upper body tingle. He poured a little bit of the cognac on Isiah’s and Derek’s graves.
“I love you, Isiah. I know it didn’t always seem like that. I know I didn’t always act like it, but I love you so goddamn much. We tell Arianna about you and Derek all the time. We show her the pictures that made it through the fire. We tell her how she’s loved by so many people. Me, her grandmothers. Her Aunt Tangerine. Her two guardian angels.” Ike got down on one knee and took another sip of the cognac.
“She won’t ever have to wonder if the people who are supposed to love her no matter what actually do. I promise you that. She won’t ever have to go through what you went through. What I put you through,” Ike said.
He touched the new headstone. Ran his fingers over the engraving of Isiah’s name, then Derek’s.
“You know how you used to say love was love? I didn’t get it. I didn’t want to get it, I guess. But I understand now. And I’m so goddamn sorry it took all of this, but I really do get it now. A good father, a good man, loves the people that love his children. I wasn’t a good father. I’m not a good man. But I’m gonna try to be a good grandfather,” Ike said. He rose to his feet.