Chapter 49

Dad finished his coffee, likely cold by then. “It took the all-white jury twelve minutes to find me not guilty. After, the judge came to my house and said he couldn’t do anything else to protect me. He said he was too old to start over, but I wasn’t. He said, ‘get the hell out of the South.’ Your mom and I wandered a while, I got jobs driving trucks, and we ended up here.”

“Why’d mom leave?” Damn, Brian wanted to cut out his tongue.

“I don’t know. I guess I took too many jobs on the road, and when I was home I wasn’t much at sweet talk and such. I forgot a birthday and an anniversary and was spending a lot of money on the truck and the mortgage. We grew apart, and one day she was gone. Left a note not to try to find her. I contacted her family, but they never liked me.”

Brian moaned. “What about me?”

“I can’t explain it, son. I’m sorry, but I assure you, it was me and notyou who drove her off.”

The next day, Dad drove off for two months. 18