Free Eureka Man: A Novel by Patrick Middleton Page A

half-brother, Huck, who was the apple
of Oliver's eye, went to live with Ernie Boy the Second and his
mother, leaving June and Oliver living in the house. Ernie Boy
still had belongings there, but the marriage was over and he only
came around occasionally in the middle of the night looking for
June. Right around this time Oliver started to do bizarre things to
capture June's attention and hold it. On Friday nights instead of
taking his girlfriends to the drive-in or to a firehouse dance, he
brought them home. One summer evening June came in early and there
he was lying on the sofa as naked as the day she had pushed him out
of her womb, with a beautiful girl wrapped around him like a vine.
June lit an L&M and said who's your friend, Oliver? Oh, this is
Marianne, Momma. You're very sexy, Marianne, but not on my good
sofa. The kids rose like synchronized swimmers and held hands all
the way to Oliver's bedroom. And June saw him. She saw him. And he
had never been as proud as he was that night when she saw that he
was a man.
    That summer, June began an affair of her own
with a pint-sized bottle of vodka and Oliver saw less and less of
her. She had never been a brood hen and had always enjoyed Oliver
and his siblings when the mood struck her. And moods she had. All
her life she cried off and on for days at a time and wouldn't talk
to Oliver or anyone. But then, just like that, her mood would
change and she would feel, once again, natural and easy and playful
with him. They talked about piano keys and dance steps, perennials
and annuals, cats and stray dogs. They never held grudges, and
there was no winning or losing. On Friday and Saturday nights she
dolled herself up and in his presence alone she never forgot to ask
do I look pretty before she slipped out the door for the evening.
There was more than a residue of interest in her big brown eyes as
she held her gaze toward him while he told her over and over how
beautiful she was.
    There wasn't a damn thing he could do that
Saturday night when Ernie Boy the Second stumbled into the house at
two in the morning and held her hostage in her bedroom. Oliver
could hear Ernie Boy punching her and tearing at her gown and when
Oliver called out her name from the hall, Ernie Boy dared Oliver to
open the door. There wasn't a goddamn thing he could do. After that
night though, June got wise and found her way to Oliver's room,
knowing perfectly well the bastard wouldn't have the nerve to
bother her there. Not in front of her grown son. Oliver, of course,
was grateful to tears to protect her. On the morning after the
twelfth night he had watched her nightgown fall to the floor, seen
the float of her breasts before she crawled into his bed and
spooned up beside him, his grandfather called and told Oliver that
he was welcome to come and stay for as long as he wanted. June
encouraged him to go since they were the only two left in the house
and she was often gone for days at a time. Oliver decided to go,
but not before he held her like a prom date and promised to stop in
every week to see her. He even left some of his belongings there as
a reason to return and as a sign to her that his leaving was only
temporary. After moving out he spent some part of every night
thinking about her living alone in that house. The same house he
used to sneak into just before dawn on those nights when he had
stayed out all night. He had to admit he liked living in that house
when it was just his mother and him. It became his, sort of. A
nighttime possession complete with a beautiful mother who let him
come and go as he pleased, no questions asked. It was the life. And
to think he had traded all that to live on a four hundred acre
tobacco plantation just so he could have a little French car of his
own.
    He had wanted to burn that house to the
ground the day he and Skip stopped in after school and found her
curled up in a fetal position, rocking back and forth as she stared
vacantly at the wall. The boys were terrified.