Jake added, “Nothing has changed in the two months since I saw you in the jungle, but nothing is for certain.”
“I get it. I know there’s some risk involved.”
Harry Rex asked, “What, exactly, do you want, Mack?”
“I need to see my girls. I doubt Lisa will have anything to do with me, and that’s okay. The feelings are mutual. But she’s very close to the girls, and if she dies they’ll be in for a rough time. I should never have left them.”
“You want custody?” Jake asked with raised eyebrows.
“Not as long as she’s alive. Who knows, maybe there’ll be a miracle and she’ll survive. But, if she doesn’t, then what? I’m not sure the girls want to live with their grandparents. God help them.”
“What makes you think they want to live with you?” Harry Rex asked.
Jake chuckled and asked, “Or for that matter, what makes you think you want to raise two teenage girls?”
“Let’s take it one step at a time, fellas. First, I’ll try to meet with Lisa, just to say hello. Then, I’ll try to meet with the girls, sort of reintroduce myself. Sure, it’ll be painful and awkward and probably just dreadful, but we have to start somewhere. There’s a financial angle here that needs to be addressed. College is just around the corner.”
They took a break as Harry Rex relit his cigar and blasted another cloud toward the ceiling. Jake sipped his beer, uncertain where the conversation was going. Finally, Mack said, “Jake, I’d like for you to contact the family and tell them that I’m back and would like to see Lisa.”
“Why me?”
“Because it’s either you or Harry Rex and you have a better understanding of how to handle delicate matters.”
Harry Rex nodded his agreement. He had no desire to deal with Lisa and her family.
Jake said, “Go on.”
“The best way to do it is to call Dr. Pettigrew, Lisa’s brother-in-law. Dean’s not my favorite person, never was, a lot of in-law baggage, but maybe that’s all water under the bridge now.”
“You hope,” Harry Rex grunted.
“Yes, I hope. Dean is fairly levelheaded, not a bad guy, really, and I’d like for you to call him to break the news that I’m back in the area and would like to see Lisa.”
Harry Rex frowned and asked, “What comes after ‘hello’？ I’d hate to be in that room.”
“Well, you won’t be so butt out. Let me worry about it.”
Harry Rex gulped his beer and wiped a thick mustache of foam from his upper lip.
Mack continued, “You’re not my lawyer, Jake, just a friend, and the Bunning clan will not despise you the way they loathe me and despise Harry Rex.”
Harry Rex shrugged it off. He could not care less. It went with the territory.
Jake asked, “And where might this meeting with Lisa take place?”
“I don’t know. Her doctors may have some restrictions about where she goes and who she sees. Dean will know all that stuff. Just make the first call and hopefully it will lead to the second and third. Nothing about this will be easy, fellas.”
“Got that right.”
Jake said, “The family will have some questions. Like, how long are you staying? Is it permanent? Where are you living? Why’d you leave? How much money did you take? Things like that. You can’t just drop in from the moon and say, ‘Here I am.’？”
Mack nodded and took a sip. He watched the door, a habit now, but there was no traffic. “I’m living out of a suitcase, hotels and such. No fixed address for the near future. I will not be staying in Ford County so they can relax, and I will not make an effort to see Lisa and the girls without the family’s permission. Promise them that, Jake.”
“Whatever you say.”
“Word’ll leak like crazy and the gossip’ll go nuts, you know that, don’t you?” Harry Rex said.
“Yes. I know Clanton. There’s a ton of gossip when absolutely nothing is happening. I’m sure the place was buzzing when I flew the coop.”
Jake and Harry Rex smiled at the memories. Then Jake laughed and said, “We were in chancery court one morning with Judge Atlee, docket call day, a bunch of lawyers going through the usual dog and pony show. Old Stanley Renfrow from down in Smithfield stood up and said, ‘Judge, I got this divorce case with Mr. Stafford on the other side but he won’t return my phone calls. Rumor is he left town. Anybody seen him?’ Several of us looked at each other and smiled. Judge Atlee said, ‘Well, Mr. Renfrow, I don’t think his telephones work anymore. Seems like Mr. Stafford turned off the lights and walked away. He hasn’t been seen in several weeks.’