Page 22 of Kinsey (Pennington Family #1)

Walton waited for his turn to talk on the phone.

There were ten of them, and all of a sudden, they were all being used.

He didn’t know how that normally worked as he’d never had anyone to call before.

But today he was going to call his oldest son, Kinsey.

It still sounded like a girl’s name to him, but he wasn’t going to piss him off by having him change it to something more manly.

It occurred to him that he didn’t have any kids named after himself, and that bothered him.

He did wonder why his wife would do him dirty like that.

He had a list of things that he was going to ask his boy for.

First and foremost, he wanted to know if any of them had taken after him and were any good at cards.

He’d never been, but perhaps it skipped a family around, and he was the only one with the bad seed.

Stepping up in line, he was the next one to go until it was his turn.

Money was first on the list. He needed someone to put him some cash in his allowance so that he could buy him a bag of chips once in a while. He’d seen others have some, and he wanted them bad enough to steal them. He wouldn’t; that would get him in confinement, and he didn’t want that.

When it was his turn, he had to ask how to get the number to work.

He’d never made a call in all the time he’d been imprisoned, so he had some difficulties getting the phone operator to call someone for him.

Kinsey said he’d take the call, and he nearly jumped around he was so happy that he’d be able to talk to someone besides himself.

“There are things that I’m not going to discuss with you, and one of them is money.

” As soon as he was on the phone, his kid started spouting off the things he was going to do or not.

Walton told him he was his father and he’d talk to him about what he wanted.

“You go on ahead and talk about it, then I’ll hang up.

And then change my number so that you can’t ever call me again.

Not that I want you to, but today we’re going to see how things go. No money.”

“But I have me a need for just a few bucks in my pot. That way I can get me some chips like I want.” He didn’t say a word. “We’ll come back around to that then. I want to know how you guys are doing. Any of you coming up here to visit me?”

He realized then that he wanted to see his sons.

All of them. And even if he had to be good for a month to get that, he knew he could do it just for the chance to see what he’d made.

Six boys, men now. He’d made himself six kids and he was saddened by the fact that he didn’t know a single one of them.

He wouldn’t even be able to pick them out of a lineup if his life depended on knowing one of them.

“We’re not. We told you when you were in the courthouse that you’re not to expect us to come see you, and I think that Grandma made it clear that we’d not be there either.

What else did you want to know?” He asked about the others how they felt about coming to see him.

“You’re lucky in that I’m telling you that no one wants to see you.

I don’t believe that they’d be so nice about it. ”

That had him rubbing the part of his chest that he thought long dead, to being hurt by someone. His heart really did ache. He asked him about his mom, knowing that she had to have died by now, she’d always been old, but the boy didn’t seem to want to tell him any details about her dying.

“She went to bed one night and didn’t wake up. She’s been gone about eight years now.” He asked where she was buried. “Beside Grandda, where she wanted to be buried. What else?”

“Damn it, boy, don’t you want to talk to me?” He said that he didn’t, not really. “Well, that’s too bad. I want to hear about things, and you’re not telling me snot. Now, should I be expecting any of you to come up here in the system? It would do me a bit of good to be able to know that.”

“Of course it would. Then we’d be no better than you are.

None of us has been in trouble with the law.

In fact, we’ve all served in the Army in some way and have come out better men than when we went in.

We each have an education that has served us well.

” He asked about the youngest. “He’s working at a job that he likes, all right. It pays the bills.”

“What does he do? Maybe he has some way he can quit the job and come and see me. I’d like that.

” Kinsey told him that none of them were coming to see him.

“You keep spouting that off. When was the last time you saw them that you could ask them? I’m betting you never see each other and you’re just making that up. ”

“You and I are on speaker phone together, and they’re all right here, but don’t want to talk to you.

If they wanted to, they could have by now.

” That hurt, too. Right there in the room, and they didn’t want to say a word to him.

That sucked. “They said if you know their names, they’ll talk to you for a minute. ”

“Coyote or something like that.” He didn’t say a word. “His name is like that coyote that was on the cartoons when I was a kid. Forever fighting against the bird of some sort. That’s his name, or close enough.”

“No.” Damn it all the fuck and back. He wanted someone to like him. He was their father after all. Then he heard one of them say that they’d talk to him, but he wasn’t giving them his name.

“You can rot in there for all I care about you. You killed our momma when she did nothing wrong but to tell you no.” He said he didn’t much care for that word to be used around him.

“Too bad. But I’ll say it to you now, No, I don’t want to ever have a thing to do with you again after today.

I’ve been finished with you since you tried to get me to hold my momma down so that you could saw her head off. ”

“The police were coming, and I had to get rid of the body. If you ingrates would have helped, I might not have gotten so much jail time. Now, as it is, I have to be here forever. Don’t that make any of you feel like you did me wrong?

” It sounded to him like they all said no at the same time.

“Ingrates. All of you are ingrates. Won’t even come to see me like a good son would do.

Put some money in my account so that I can have a bag of chips once in a while on my birthday. Do any of you even know when that is?”

“March seventh.” Again, it sounded like they all said it at the same time, but only one of them spoke after that.

“Do you have any idea when any of us were born? Or our names, for that matter? I’m betting not only do you not know, you more than likely have no idea what we look like.

The color of our eyes or anything personal about us.

I’m betting that no one ever called you a good father either. And they’d be right about that.”

He stood there with the phone in his hand for a good two minutes before he realized that they’d hung up on him.

He’d never got to talk to them about his list, nor did he have any idea what they did for money.

Christ, it was like they all hated him or something.

Putting the phone back on the handle, he walked away a broken man.

They treated him like he was dirt. Worse than that, it was like he’d not created him with his own body.

Walton walked back to his room and laid on his cot.

His heart was hurting him so badly right now, he was sure that it was breaking in his chest. Like he’d been popped there with a gun or something.

Like he wasn’t going to be all right again.

Supper was called, and he made his way to the dining room area.

Looking at his food, all he could think about was that they didn’t even care if he had some chips.

What’s a bag cost nowadays, a dime or something?

One of them could have spared that much for their daddy.

Wishing he’d not called them at all, he put his tray in the return shelf and went back to his room without touching a bit of it.

They’d been mean to him, and there was no call for it.

It wasn’t like he left them without anything.

He’d not lost all the land for them. Momma had said they’d gotten it back for her.

Well, he was the next in line and should have had enough for a bag of chips.

He didn’t even care what flavor they were right now.

“Pennington, your son called here right after you got off the phone with him. He said to tell you that you’re not to call him again.” He asked if he’d said anything about the chips. “Chips? No, he only said for you to not call again that they don’t want to talk to you anymore.”

“I don’t want to talk to them anymore either. They were mean to me.” The guard asked him what they’d done. “Wouldn’t give me a lick of information about them. Not even to say about how they were doing. Said if I knew their names, I could talk to them for a bit.”

“Did you know their names, Pennington?” He said that wasn’t the point. “Sounds like it was to me. You have six sons, and you can’t remember one of their names? That’s terrible. You should have known at least the name of the kid that was in the accident, Coyote or something, didn’t you say?”

“That’s not his name—Wylie. Like the coyote. Wylie Coyote was his name.” He asked if he’d called him that. “No, it’s not Coyote either. Damn it, why should I have paid attention to their names when I’m their father? It’s not that big of a deal if you asked me.”

“I believe it was to them.” He moved on, and Walton told himself that he didn’t care anymore. That he’d not eat any chips if they were to bring them to him themselves. He didn’t care if he ever saw them either. Damned ingrates.