Keep the Wolf from the Door

Chapter 32 - A Relative Ending

32.

A Relative Ending:

ONE YEAR LATER

Charlie towel dried himself in the bathroom of his new condo as he listened to the buzzing television broadcast:

"Eighty-seven year old Ivan Pravdin, Russian global crime lord, has died inside the walls of an American prison cell this morning. Pravdin was arrested on several counts of trafficking and indicted under RICO in last year's global mafia crime war. He was tied to the bloody death of nearly forty individuals linked to Russian, Italian, and Irish crime syndicates. We'll have the full updates on the story tonight, including a statement from our newly appointed Governor Schwarzenegger and his plans to clean up the golden coast. I'm Sandy Baker, be sure to tune in later."

Charlie turned off the television.

Only in California would the response to corruption and scandal be to put the Terminator in office. He went back into his room to finish dressing for brunch with his mother.

*          *

            "I've always felt there was something wrong with him, even as a child," Charlie's mother rambled during brunch at the country club. "Well, what can you expect from those corrupted communists?"

            "Ex-communist." Charlie corrected but his mother didn't even hear him.

            "Sometimes I wonder if my sister was not right herself, I mean, they're not like us. And to get involved with one of them, well... We tried to help him, Charles. But he was too far gone, too damaged to be saved."

            Charlie stared blankly. "Too far gone? You kicked him out when he was barely fourteen. Where'd you expect him to go?"

            She paused. "Your father felt it best if..."

            "Did you ever visit him? Call him? Christmas, Thanksgiving, his birthdays, ever?"

            "Charles!"

            "Just shut up and listen to me for once. You wrote him off for the same reason his mother; they didn't fit your husband's country club lifestyle. And you justify abandoning them both with mental illness. My God, is there anything you won't compartmentalize?"

            Therese looked at her son in disbelief. "How dare you? You know you have some nerve blaming me for their shortcomings."

            "His mother was your sister! You grew up in the same apartment in Long Beach."

            "Keep your goddamn voice down, Charlie, you ungrateful little shit. Your father gave us everything, everything you've ever owned and..."