Page 67 - WTP VOl.VII#5

but, considering the battle royal they had anticipated, having to smell Lucien all the way to Augusta was worth it. Russ popped his third PBR, keeping pace with Lucien, and, regarding how easily they lured him into the Toyota, thought, I wonder if that was too damn easy? No sooner had Russ tried to banish his negative musing than Lucien said, “Being honest now, I have to say, I’m unsure about this Togus option.”
“Option implies choices, like, there must be other op- tions, but there aren’t any for you, Lu,” Dominic said. “You don’t have a Togus option. You’ve got a Togus reality.”
“I have a choice,” Lucien countered.
“You’re my godson and my nephew and I love you, but you’re going to Togus. We’re all here to support
"His father turned around, glaring into
the backseat, reminding Russ of similar moments from childhood..."
you because things are tough, but you’re going, Luc- ien, and that’s good news.”
“Me being in this car don’t mean Togus is predestined, or that I’m prisoner.” His tone was still friendly, but everyone felt the shift. Albie turned the radio down and started glancing at him in the rear view mirror. Lucien seemed as calm as an unoccupied bathtub, the water drawn and then forgotten. “We all got choices, always,” he said.
“Getting philosophical now?” Russ asked, laughing.
Lucien turned his hairy, passive face towards his cousin, and said, “Maybe, cuz. Are you capable of be- ing philosophical? Do you have access to that?”
“Sure. First, though, tell me what’s so philosophical about basically being homeless and crashing in a junked Buick? Riddle me that, Batman, so we can establish your philosophical bona fides.”
“Not everyone needs to walk through this life in the same way, wanting the same bullshit things, chasing consumerism right down the rabbit hole.”
“So how you’re living isn’t homelessness; it’s a prin-
cipled stand against consumerism? Give me a frig- gin’ break, Lu. Can you say that straight-faced?” Russ laughed again. The beer sloshing around in his empty belly was starting to signal that, barring a course cor- rection, drunkenness was looming in his immediate future. Russ welcomed the realization.
“I don’t have to explain myself to you,” Lucien said.
“Nobody’s saying you do. We’re here only offering help,” Albie said.
“I don’t have to explain myself to you, Russ. That’s what I meant,” Lucien said. “You most of all, of every- one here, Russ. Who the fuck are you to judge?”
“No, you’re right. Who am I to judge anybody,” Russ agreed. “This intervention wasn’t for me, though.”
“Maybe that’s you guy’s first mistake,” Lucien cried. “Maybe it should be for you, Russ? Maybe it’s for me because Uncle Dom can’t figure out how to unstuck, unfuck, your fucking life, while all I need is a ride to Augusta?”
“That all you think you need, Lu? Just a ride, and ev- erything else is good gravy? I friggin’ doubt that,” Russ replied.
“You’re nobody to judge, though. That’s my point. I know you. I know how you live, Russ Walker. You racked up that expensive education and then just completely abandoned your student loans. Wow. Fancy-School-Russ. He’s so smart, he doesn’t have to pay that back. Instead, he can be a semester to semester, bottom rung professor-asshole, practi- cally living on the fucking lam. But you think you’re so smart, right, Russ? Ain’t that what we’ve always been told about you? Does the theory of you being so clever square against the rest of your life, Russ? When’s the last time you just answered your phone without checking the incoming number first, or waiting to hear the message begin on the machine?”
“I’m not the focus of today’s expedition,” Russ said.
Lucien grunted, a dismissive half-laugh, as if to say, that’s your best argument? “Hey, Uncle Dom, do col- lection companies still ring your phone every dinner time, looking for this hero here next to me?”
“Looking for Russ? Oh yeah. Not just dinner, either. All the time.”
“That’s not real helpful, dad.”
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