Page 38 of Nash Falls

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YOU’RE GOING TO HAVE TOdo something,” said Judith when Nash arrived home. “She’s been in her room all day.”

“She’salwaysin her room,” countered Nash. He still had to pack. His flight was early in the morning and it was already past nine. He’d had to work late and had grabbed a burger and fries for dinner, then ate it on the way home.

“Not like this she’s not. She was going to play tennis with friends and then lunch at the club, but she cancelled.”

Nash wanted to tell his wife that at nineteen years of age neither of them had had the opportunity tocanceltennis and lunch at the country club, because they had never belonged to a country club at that tender age. And ifthatwas having a bad day then bring it on, he also thought.

Instead, he said, “I’ll see if she’ll talk to me.”

He trudged upstairs and knocked on her door. “It’s Dad.”

“Go away! I’m mad at you.”

Okay, that was a grown-up response. Why not drop hundreds of thousands of dollars on a wacky business idea with an immature person at the helm?

He was about to “go away” when the meeting with Dickey reentered his mind. “I met with my father’s lawyer.”

“So?” she called out.

He gritted his teeth and said, “He left you something.”

“What? His ‘Fuck Off’ jacket?” she shot back through the door. Nash had told her and Judith about his father’s profanely named motorcycle club. “You can keep it,” she added.

“No, he left you some money, actually.”

He heard her feet hit the floor and the door opened two seconds later.

Her hair was disheveled, and she wore baggy shorts and a T-shirt with a silkscreen of Lenny Kravitz. “How much money?” she said.

“You want to come down and we can discuss it?”

She followed him to his study like a puppy looking for treats, and curled up in a seat opposite him.

“So what money?” she said. “FYI, I drove past his house one time when I was in high school, and it didn’t seem like he had much money.”

“Why did you do that?”

“I was thinking of Grandma, and, I don’t know. I just wanted to see where she lived. And I missed her even though we didn’t see her all that much when she was alive.”

Nash looked at his daughter and suddenly realized that he was not the only one affected by his father’s bizarre behavior. “He didn’t really have many assets. But he left you some of his Agent Orange settlement money.”

She looked confused. “His what?”

“Agent Orange. It was a toxic chemical the U.S. military used in Vietnam against the enemy. Only they often doused their own troops with it. It causes a host of bad things, including many forms of cancer. Your grandfather fought the government and won a settlement.”

“Wow, cool.”

“It wasn’t cool for him. Agent Orange destroyed his body and then killed him.”

Nash knew that his daughter, while entitled and self-absorbed, was also kind and empathetic. Her happy look vanished. “Oh, I didn’t know. That’s… terrible, Dad.”

“Many former soldiers and their families got nothing because the military wouldn’t do the right thing. You’re lucky that your grandfather never gave up.”

Except maybe with me.

“I’m really sorry, Dad,” she said sincerely. “Stuff like that shouldn’t be allowed. I mean, they all fought for their country and we should take care of them.”