Free They by J. F. Gonzalez Page A

about? She got really spooked when I asked her about they. Almost as if she knows something more than she’s letting on .
    When Lillian returned to the living room her features were more composed. She looked as if nothing had ever happened. She sat back down in the easy chair next to Vince and took a quick sip of her iced tea as Vince tried to steer the conversation back to his mother. “You know,” Vince began, choosing his words carefully. “I really dreaded coming back here when I heard the news. Especially after all that I went through with mom. We…didn’t really see eye-to-eye on a lot of things in the end.”
    Lillian reached her hand out and touched his knee lightly. Her blue eyes locked with his. “I know things were hard for you. Especially the last few years you were here.”
    “It was worse when I left,” he murmured.
    Lillian’s hand rubbed his knee lovingly, bringing the warm touch his mother never would have bestowed. “Your mother was…very upset with you in the end.”
    “But why?” He turned to her, his drink forgotten on the table. “I never thought leaving for college or getting married would make my mother hate me.”
    Lillian sighed heavily, as if contemplating the delivering of bad news. “At first I didn’t understand it, Vincent. Your mother’s always been…set in her ways, I guess you could say. And I know that you had it harder than most teenagers when you were growing up. I know your mother wasn’t the most understanding person. But there was one thing she was strong in, and that was her faith in the Lord. Your mother walked the closest walk with the Lord than anybody I’ve known in my life. That’s something to be admired about the woman.”
    Fuck my mother’s walk with the Lord , Vince thought, his jaw set in a hard grimace. If abandoning your child’s emotional needs when they’re growing up is part of walking with God, then I want no part of Him . He tried to keep the anger out of his voice. “So she never spoke about me after I left, right?”
    “Far from it,” Lillian said. She picked up her glass of iced tea. “She spoke of you often. Prayed for you all the time.”
    “Prayed for me?”
    “Yes.” Lillian took a sip of iced tea.
    “Why?”
    Lillian hesitated. “Are you sure you—”
    “Yes,” he almost snapped. “Just tell me!”
    Lillian blinked in surprise, as if taken aback by Vince’s sudden outburst. Vince closed his eyes briefly and took a deep breath. He exhaled and opened his eyes. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I…I didn’t mean to snap at you like that.”
    “It’s okay,” Lillian said. “You’ve been through a lot lately.”
    More than you’d care to imagine , Vince thought. He ran a hand through his hair, took a sip of his iced tea, and leaned forward on the couch, ready to go head-to-head with whatever revelation Lillian had. “Why did she pray for me all the time?”
    Lillian sighed. “She believed you were walking with Satan.”
    The tension that had been building up in Vince’s limbs evaporated. He let out a breath. Was that all ? According to the way his mother interpreted the Bible, he pretty much expected her to believe he was one of Satan’s minions. Lillian’s confession wasn’t a big surprise. “Why did she think that?” he asked.
    “Because according to her, you’d abandoned the Christian faith she raised you in.” Lillian’s eyes were open, gentle. “You didn’t believe. You chose to cloak yourself in worldly things, which the Bible says is aligning yourself with Satan. Are you familiar with the Gospels, Vincent?”
    “Yes,” Vince said. He took another sip of his iced tea.
    “Then you know what Jesus said about choosing to live in the world, by the ways of the world. That Satan rules this world and its ways are his.”
    “That’s all I heard when I was growing up,” Vince said. He set the glass of iced tea down on the table. “I suppose that despite the fact that I didn’t share my mother’s