Who: Wash What: Wash calls home for the first time Where: Wash's apartment When:Late April Rating/Warning: Lowish - mild angst Status: Complete narrative
Wash hadn’t spoken with his mother in over ten years. The last time they had actually exchanged words had been the night before he had shipped off for basic training. They had argued that night. Even with a memory full of contradicting events all jumbled together, Wash could remember the argument well. His mother had ordered him not to leave her. Pleaded with him, attempted to bribe him and when none of those tactics worked, she had called him every unflattering name under the sun and threw a heavy glass ashtray at him. It missed – hadn’t really come close – and shattered against the wall. The noise prompted Wash’s stepfather to lumber out of the living room, his third beer of the evening clenched in his fist. Wash had expected to be punched in the face when Ralph approached, but was surprised when the man shambled past him and into Wash’s bedroom. He came out a moment later, with Wash’s duffle bag. He thrust it into Wash’s hands and told him to get the hell out and never come back.
So Wash left. He spent his last night in Spokane at his friend Celia’s house, in her family’s spare bedroom. She slept with him that night, her arms wrapped around his torso, her face nuzzled close to his neck. The next morning Celia’s mother drove him to the greyhound station to take the next bus to Seattle where he’d then take a plane to San Diego and start basic.
Wash left Spokane and never once looked back. He never attempted to contact his mother and she never attempted to contact him. He had assumed the marines had contacted her after he’d gotten injured and then again when he’d been transferred to the VA in Los Angeles, otherwise how would she have been able to tell Carolina where to find him? It probably should have bothered him that receiving word that her son had been in a coma did nothing to prompt Nora Jenkins to reach out to him, but in the end, he was glad she hadn’t. There was little the two had to say to each other after ten years. Until now.
Carolina had presented all the evidence. It was all irrefutable, cold hard facts typed in the results of a paternity test. He was her half brother. His father was Dr. Leonard Church, a man he had only met in his Dreams. The Director. He hadn’t allowed himself to really consider that. Not yet. One bombshell at a time.
Despite the facts presented to him he had to hear it from the one woman who had been there. He stuffed down any emotional attachment he may have had for her once, steeled his gut and called his mother.
She answered after the third ring. The first thing she said after “hellos” were exchanged was: “so, that girl found you after all.”
“Carolina.” Wash answered. “Yeah, she found me.”
“And she told you who your father is, I take it.”
“Yeah.” Wash paused, took a breath and asked, “is it true?”
“Of course it’s true.” Nora snorted.
Wash was silent. Her response had been so blunt. What had he expected? Some kind of apology? An explanation? Something other than an answer said in a way that sounded as though she were commenting on some neighborhood gossip.
Nora apparently mistook his silence for judgment of some kind. “I didn’t want to get knocked up,” she informed him defensively. “I was young and it wasn’t easy for me. I had to quit school and come back to Washington. I had to move in with my mother. My entire life changed, you know.”
Wash frowned. “Why didn’t you tell me?” He asked.
“Tell you?” Nora laughed. “Do you think you were going to be able to pack up your stuff and move to Texas to find your daddy? He didn’t want anything to do with me, David. And he sure as hell didn’t want anything to do with you either.”
Wash winced as though he’d been punched right in the chest, but he remained silent as his mother continued to rant at him.
“I sent him a copy of the birth certificate,” she went on bitterly. “I got some money a week or so later, but that was it. No letter. No calls. Nothing. Is that what you would have wanted to hear? Would that have made you feel good?” Her tone was a accusing. “To know that your mother got knocked up by someone who thought he could buy her off? The money was barely enough for a downpayment on an apartment.”
“It would have been nice to know where I came from,” Wash answered softly.
“You didn’t need to know,” Nora huffed. “We’re your family, David. Not some asshole doctor in Texas or his crazy bitch of a daughter.”
Wash felt anger start to crawl up his throat. Family?! Nora’s idea of motherhood had been to dump Wash off with his grandmother while she cruised the bars and paraded around with an endless stream of nameless men. Until she died, Grandma had been the only real family Wash had had growing up. She fed him, made sure he was clean, helped him with his homework, played with him...all the things Nora was too busy being drunk or hungover to do herself. Then Grandma had died and Nora had married Ralph, an even bigger drunk than she was. Their little “family” consisted of Ralph, who should have been Wash’s father figure, but got his kicks from belittling Wash and making himself feel better by smacking Wash around the house at any little infraction, real or imagined. And Nora, Wash’s own mother, did little to stop him. Her concern was whether or not they’d get in trouble whenever Wash got too banged up to be sent to school. She had told Wash that it was his fault for getting in Ralph’s way or for making him angry. Some fucking family.
“I have scars,” Wash informed her coldly. “All those times he whipped me with his belt or that time he came after me with the extension cord? You remember that?”
“We did the best we could,” Nora argued. “It’s not easy raising another-”
“-man’s kid,” Wash finished for her bitterly. He’d heard those words so many times before that at one point he’d actually believed them and that somehow he really had been at fault. “Yeah. I know.”
Nora was quiet for a few moments. “That girl.”
“Carolina,” Wash said.
Nora ignored him. “I didn’t know about her. I didn’t know that Doctor Church had a daughter. I didn’t expect her to show up here. She punched Ralph in the face.”
Wash smiled a little in spite of himself. “Did she.”
“She’s crazy.”
“She’s my sister.”
Nora was quiet again. Wash heard her take several long breaths on the other end of the phone. Soft shuddering breaths. Wash couldn’t tell, but it sounded almost as though she were crying. He said nothing for a few moments, unsure of what he was feeling. “I have things to do,” he said finally.
“David.” Nora called him back, “David, wait.”
Wash sighed and lifted the phone back to his ear. “Yeah?”
“It’s been so long since we’ve seen you,” Nora said softly, pleadingly. “Do you think...you could come see us? Maybe for Thanksgiving?”
Wash didn’t see that happening. Nora had had ten years to attempt to make amends with him, if that’s what this was, and Wash wasn’t all that convinced that it was. For all he knew Nora was upset that she had lost him, as if he were a article of clothing or some knick-knack she’d callously thrown away and now regretted it. But she sounded so small and pathetic, Wash couldn’t find it in him to flat out refuse her. “I’ll think about it.”
“Alright.” Nora sounded a little relieved. “I’ll call you soon.”
Wash didn’t see that happening either. “I’ll talk to you then. Bye, Ma.”