Page 103 of Rev

“Ana. Listen, please. I mean it. I’m not discussing my relationship with Rev with anyone. Not in the way you’re trying to discuss it, at least.” I squeeze her hands again. “Now, I’m going to go talk to Dad. Please don’t do anything to upset or annoy Rev.”

She huffs, but relents, and I go in and take my visit with my father.

14Alien

Rev

Her visit with her father lasts a good half an hour. I doze, halfway between asleep and awake. I’m aware of sounds, people coming and going. Her sister Ana chats with her other sister and brother and her brother’s wife. Her sister June is more like Myka, being a bit taller and less…rounded…than Ana and their mother. Her brother Jordan is an even six feet, lean, fairly fit, blond and clean cut, with Myka’s same crystal blue eyes. Their mother has brown eyes, so imagine they get the blue from their dad. Jordan’s wife, Lou, is tiny. Barely over five feet, dainty, almost cartoonishly so, with a voice very much like Minnie Mouse. She’s very pretty, very quiet, and very pregnant, and seems connected to her husband at the hip. Even sitting in a separate chair, she seems to want to be as physically close to him as possible, both arms curled around his bicep. I notice she often peers up at him while he’s talking, gazing at him like she’s staring at masterpiece artwork.

It’s fuckin’ adorable.

I notice all this while dozing, military-style—alert, but resting, opening my eyes every so often to take stock of the room. You’d probably think I was passed out cold to look at me, though.

This is how I am when Myka returns from her father’s room; I hear her step, glance at her with one eye half open. She seems happy enough, and I assume her visit went well. I think she assumes I’m conked out and moves to her siblings and sister-in-law for a quick conference.

Her gaze crosses the room, and I see her go stiff. My eyes follow hers, and I see a man entering the waiting room. He’s on the shorter end of medium height, thin in the chest and shoulders with the start of a potbelly. He was probably a good-looking guy back in college, but he’s not taking care of himself—his eyes are saggy and blue-rimmed, and there’s that belly. No muscle mass. Just soft all over. Brownish-blond hair, shaved, wearing a dark blue suit with a pale blue shirt and red tie.

Her reaction to his appearance tells me exactly who he is—I hold my position, watching to see what plays out.

He goes right to her. “Myka, you’re home. I heard what happened and that you were back in town.” His voice is unpleasant, thin, reedy.

Myka puts distance between them. “Darren.” It’s cold, an acknowledgment of his presence more than a greeting. It’s also the most unpleasant I’ve ever heard her be.

Her siblings vanish, making excuses about the bathroom and starting the car, leaving Myka alone in the waiting room with me and her ex.

Ana, I notice, only goes a ways away, pretending to be on her phone within sight and earshot but giving the notion of privacy.

Tense silence.

“Why are you here, Darren?” Her voice is frigid, pure ice.

“I wanted to say hey to Ezekiel.” I can hear the lie in his voice. “And see you.”

“See me?” She’s incredulous. A snort of derision, and she turns on her heel. “Goodbye, Darren.”

“Mike, wait.” He grabs her arm, hauls her back.

Her eyes go to me, but I’m still playing possum. So far, this isn’t my business. He puts his hand on her again, it will be.

She yanks her arm free. “Let go. And you don’t get to call me that.”

“I just want to talk,” he whines, in that thin puss voice of his. “Five minutes.”

“I have nothing to say to you.”

“I have things I want to say to you.”

She steps back, puts more space between them. “There’s nothing you can say that I want to hear.”

“Come on, Mike. Five minutes.” More whining.

She was married to this fucktard? No wonder I seem appealing.

“Go away.” Not just ice, but razors.

“We were married for six years, and you can’t give me five minutes?”

“No.” She grabs her purse from the seat and moves around him. “Goodbye.”