Chapter 2

2、

"But I still have work. Can I do it when I get a day off?"

I asked with my head down.

Renee glanced at the time and said, "It's only just past five. Go stand in the middle of the courtyard right now and say out loud everything you did wrong!"

"My blood pressure's off because I don't sleep. Please, Renee, just let me sleep a little longer."

There were no tears left in me, only the wish for them.

"You won't do as I say?"

"Fine."

She pointed at me and started straight for the bedroom. "I'll take your son and jump off this building right now. You just wait!"

"Fine, I'll go!"

I sighed. I didn't even change. I walked out the door in the wet clothes I still had on.

The nosy neighbors trailed behind me, and the police, afraid something might happen, came along too.

I found a spot near the middle of the courtyard. Several times I tried to open my mouth, and nothing came out.

A crowd stood around me. It was too humiliating.

Renee appeared in front of me holding our son. She pinched his thigh hard, and he burst out crying.

"Everard, this is your last chance!"

"Now. This instant. Right now. Shout it out loud, what you did wrong!"

I let out a breath. I couldn't stand to see my son suffer.

"I was wrong…"

"Who are you?"

Renee cut me off sharply.

"I'm Everard, and I was wrong!"

"I shouldn't have taken fifty dollars from the coin jar to buy blood pressure pills!"

"I should have written a request form first, and only bought them once my wife approved it!"

"I was wrong. I hope my wife can forgive me!"

Everyone was looking at me, and every look was tangled with something.

Some pitied me. Some were laughing at me.

To a lot of them, the way they looked at me was the way you look at a man his wife walks all over.

I didn't dare look at anyone. I turned to Renee and asked, "Is that enough?"

"You catch your ride to work at seven-thirty, so you apologize until seven-thirty!"

"You leave one minute early and you'll never see your son again!"

With that, Renee turned and left.

My head was spinning. At least I had my pills on me. With no water, I swallowed them with my own spit, and that eased it a little.

Then I started apologizing again, over and over, without a shred of dignity.

Everyone passing by would watch me for a while.

Some stopped and filmed me on their phones.

I didn't dare stop, because if I stopped, Renee would take it out on our son again.

At seven-thirty I hurried home to change into clean clothes for work.

But at the door I found it hadn't shut all the way, and I could hear my wife and my mother-in-law talking inside.

My mother-in-law was pleading. "Everard treats you well. Can't you stop stirring things up?"

Renee gave a cold laugh. "Treats me well? He has to write a request form just to buy me pads. You call that treating me well?"

My mother-in-law sighed.

Renee went on. "Everything his mother put me through, I'm going to make him pay it all back!"

My mother-in-law sounded helpless. "Everard's a man. You made him apologize in front of all those people, with all of them filming it. How is he supposed to show his face after this?"

Renee's voice climbed higher. "You're my mother. You won't help me, you'll help him?"

I couldn't listen anymore. I pushed the door open and walked in.

Renee glared at me. "You heard?"

I shook my head and changed the subject. "I have to get to work. I need to change into clean clothes."

Renee pointed at the suit hanging outside the bathroom. "Washed and pressed. Around here, laundry runs fifty and pressing runs sixty. Just give me a hundred!"