Perri O'Shaughnessy - Unfit to Practice

Poor Kevin, she thought, understanding perfectly. Being a single parent sometimes meant that you did crazy things in the name of making your kids happy, which kept you from drowning in the bottomless well of guilt out of which you could never crawl.

Driving past Caesars, she thought of Paul and the nights they had spent together there, so romantic, in love, in lust, oh, God, she didn’t know what to call it. Paul had never been a parent, and according to him, he would never be. If she stayed with Paul, or married him, she would have to resign herself to the fact that she would never have another child.

Why did she keep thinking about Paul? Why was he, a simple man by his own definition, suddenly such an obsession?

Anyway.

She located Kevin’s place easily on Clubhouse Avenue, not too far from the pool or the highway, on the shady but noisy side of the street. Lisa stood outside shouting at him. Kevin yelled back. The language was not pretty. The children stood behind their dad, clinging to his legs. The little boy, tousle-haired and flushed with emotion, shrieked, eyes tightly closed, a siren without a fire on this clear, cool day. Silent tears ran down the stricken little blond girl’s face. As soon as Lisa caught sight of Nina, she ordered the kids into the car. Kevin kissed them both, wiped their cheeks with a handkerchief, and led them to their mother’s car, speaking softly to them, so softly, Nina couldn’t hear.

“I’m not through with you!” Lisa said, slamming the door on her kids and jumping into the driver’s seat. “I’m not through with either one of you!” Tires screaming, she took off with the children.

Nina parked in a visitors’ spot in the lot beside Kevin’s building and walked up a winding path through dirt and low bushes up to a set of shredding wooden steps. Kevin now stood on the porch looking at the spot where Lisa’s car had been parked.

“You okay?” Nina asked, approaching.

He ran a hand over his short hair. A cigarette burned forgotten in his other hand. Hot ash fell onto the tinder wood of the porch. Nina forced herself not to move, but watched the ash turn from orange to gray before she breathed again. He lifted a Coke can from the ground, poured its contents out into the dirt, and smashed it flat with a fist. “I hate when we lose it like that in front of the kids. Did you see the looks on their faces?”

“Sorry. I really am. It’s rough. I think you ought to have me arrange for a civil backup when you and Lisa are making trades.”

“Have a cop stand by? I’d be a laughingstock. I know everybody. I don’t know what happened, how we exploded. I picked them up from school. I thought Wednesday was my night this week to make dinner and then get them back to Lisa’s by eight. But she came screeching over here insisting tomorrow was the night. I decided to let it go just before you drove up.”

“I looked at the visitation schedule, and Thursday’s your night for dinner with Heather and Joey.”

“Guess I was mixed up. Schedules. Every day something different. It isn’t good for them. And Lisa. I never saw her blow up like that. She’s steamed about Ali.”

“Shouldn’t we go inside?” Nina asked, feeling the eyes of the neighborhood, but Kevin sat heavily down on the bottom step, and after a moment considering the damage that might be done to her suit skirt, but seeing no alternative except to stand officiously, she sat beside him. He tossed his cigarette into the dirt.

“Fuck it,” he said.

“Kevin, before we get any further, did you get a chance to talk with Ali Peck?”

“I called her,” he said. “I asked her what the deal was, with her spilling out the story of our relationship at the hearing. I mean, she knew how much that would hurt me. Well, she didn’t volunteer anything. She said Lisa’s attorney called and woke up her parents first thing Friday morning, then some guy showed up and handed her a subpoena. Her parents called their lawyer. She was told to come to court and she did. She had to tell.”

Riesner. Nina’s teeth ground. How did Riesner know about Ali? Did he really get a phone call? Where was Sandy when she needed her to say something objectionable?

“He suggested that Ali called him,” she said. “He didn’t come out and swear it.”

His lips formed a hard line. “You’re surprised? I thought that’s what lawyers are famous for.”

Nina said with heat, “Do I do that, Kevin? Do I lie and mislead people? I’m sorry to think you have such a low opinion of lawyers in general. As a matter of fact, I’m proud of what I do.”

“Forget what I said, okay? I get those comments all day in my line of work, too. Sorry.”

“Oh, well. Never mind.”

“You know the upshot, and that’s what matters. Lisa’s got her teeth in my kids. You say it’s temporary. I say, I have one more chance to get them back and I’m giving it all I got. Whatever it takes.”

“Does Ali know whether the D.A. is pursuing a statutory-rape charge against you?”

“She said the D.A.’s office talked to her about it. She said she was real honest, and after they talked, they seemed inclined to let it go. She also told them if they went through with it, she’d leave the state. She would never testify against me. She thinks it’s offensive that a mature seventeen-year-old can’t make her own sexual choices without the law butting in.” He shook his head. “Isn’t she something? I believe her, Nina. Apparently, they did, too. So I think that gets me off that particular hook.”

“That’s good to know, Kevin. It must be a relief to you.” This news wouldn’t help him keep his kids, but at least they didn’t have to worry about a wrench flying in from that direction to smash their case.

“Of course, things aren’t looking too good at work now they know about Ali. They’re investigating the situation before they decide whether to put me on probation or fire me. And there’s still Lisa to worry about.”

“Maybe Lisa stole the Bronco. Maybe she did,” Nina said, half to herself, remembering the coldness in Lisa’s eyes as she drove away. Paul had a lot to do but he was going to have to check Lisa out, and soon.

“Maybe she did. I don’t know,” Kevin said flatly. “It’s a fight to the death between us.” Hopelessness drained color from his eyes. “I would like to take back everything that’s happened. I wish I could go back to those weekends. We’d take a paddleboat out of Zephyr Cove, or rent a motorboat over at the Ski Run Marina and take off with a bottle of wine and this sweet honey bread Lisa made. And peanut butter. Have you ever looked at her lips? So soft,” he said. “Malleable. That’s a word, isn’t it? Maybe I thought that meant she was malleable.”

He picked up a forked branch and began to break pieces off. “I thought Lisa and I were together for life. It’s ridiculous, isn’t it? I can’t go on like this, watching my kids cry.”

She saw hostility in his eyes. Representing him in his divorce and custody fight meant she represented all that was going wrong with his life. She took information from the alcohol on his breath. That couldn’t be helping him with his problems. “Since I’m here,” she said, “let’s go over how the visitation schedule works.”

“It’s too complicated. I did crummy in math in high school.” His arms crossed over his barrel chest, as if to defend himself. He must be getting cold out here. She thought, I want to leave. What good am I doing sitting here with this guy? He seemed to be working himself up to something. She hoped it wasn’t another revelation.

“Would it help if we organized a simple calendar for you?” She tried again to find a practical solution to his insoluble dilemma.

“No.”

“What would help?”