Will Ray's Arc

Chapter 3 of 6

Will came by that evening with a bag of cat food. Aj opened the green door, but she did not smile. Her mother sat inside on the couch. Will had met Barbara Tart once before. She was shaped like a snowman, with thin grey hair and white gloves on her hands. She held a fat envelope on her knee, packed with bills. "You cannot pay your own way," Barbara said. "You never could. You come home now. This is the right thing. I am always right about this." She tapped the envelope. Aj stared at the money and said nothing. Will saw her shoulders fold in, the way they did when her mother spoke. Barbara held the envelope toward Aj. "Take it. Come home. This is the right thing to do." The striped cat pressed against Aj's leg. Aj reached for the money. Will watched her hand move and knew that if she touched it, she would go back under the old roof, and the strings would never cut. Will set the cat food on the floor. He knelt and looked at Aj, not at Barbara. "You already have a home," he said. "You have the flat. You have the cats. You have me." His face stayed still, but his eyes shifted from blue to green. "That envelope is not a gift. It is a leash. She holds it over you every day. You told me you were done with that." Aj's hand stopped in the air. She looked at the cat, then at the bag of food, then at Will. "I fed them myself last week," she said. Her voice was small but sure. "I don't want the leash." She pulled her hand back. Barbara's white gloves closed around the envelope. "You will fail. You always fail. You come crawling back. I am always right." She said it flat, like a machine stuck on one line. Aj stood up. She was short, but she planted her boots. "Go home, Mother. I am staying here." Barbara's mouth worked. She had no new words. She rose from the couch, slow, and pushed past Will to the door. She stopped there. "You will need money. You will call me. I am always right about that." Then she was gone. The door clicked shut. Aj let out a long breath and sat down hard on the couch. The cat climbed into her lap. "She's right about one thing," Aj said quietly. "We don't have the money." Will lit a cigarette by the window. He had won this fight. But he had also slammed the last easy door. No envelope now, no loan, no falling back. The rent came again next month, and the shop still earned nothing. He had cut the leash, and now the whole weight was his to carry.