Page 7 of Endless First Kisses

“Why are you not wearing your glasses?” The father asked sternly. He had to look a few times to notice there was something different about his son. The anger inside of him was suppressed momentarily in favor of containing the situation. Praying he hadn’t committed the biggest blunder that could ruin his life and all the promises of the future.

Albert Lloyd was raised in a blue-collar family where his father worked two back-breaking factory jobs and his mother cleaned houses. When he was young, he had resented the fact that he was born into a family of so little means. He had taken all the bullying at school quietly and learned to master the game of the wealthy. Tagging along with his mother on her cleaning duties of big mansions he had no idea could house only one family.

In his young and perceptible ways, Albert had noticed most of the homes were owned by lawyers, doctors, bankers, and famous people. Seeing his own family background, he figured out quickly he wasn’t cut out to be a doctor with his limited interest in mathematics and the natural sciences. Nor a banker coming from a poor family. Being famous was, of course, out of the question. So, he had set his mind he would become a lawyer and succeeded beyond anyone’s wildest imagination.

In the years of his practice as a defense attorney, he knew the key is always finding deniability and introducing reasonable doubt. The two golden keys to freedom. Albert had asked his questions carefully when his son called him out of the blue earlier in the morning.

“What happened?” Albert had asked, he figured something had to have happened. Otherwise, Keith wouldn’t have called him at the early hour of the morning. On a weekend no less.

“Nothing. I think I should come home…”

“What did I tell you before? Every dodgy answer you give me is only delaying the inevitable. Don’t play games with me, son.”

“Something happened.”

“Of course, it did. Why else would you call me?”

“It is about a girl.”

Two quick calculations went through Albert’s mind. One, it was a welcome news that his son would talk to him about a girl. Better a girl than a boy; that was for sure for he couldn’t see any other possibility in his ardently Catholic worldview. He would admonish the extracurricular distraction at another time, he decided. Maybe even celebrate a little for he had started to fear the worst about his son. Two, why would his son talk to him about a girl at such hour of the day. The definite answer was Keith had done something stupid. He could see it coming. Crashing and tumbling down from the pinnacles of great fortune. Keith was still the only hope.

“What did you do?”

“I didn’t do nothing,” Keith responded in agitation, looking on from a far corner and staring at the strobing lights of two police cars that had pulled next to the building.

“Didn’t do nothing? Is that how they teach you at Harvard? Have you forgotten how to speak properly now?” Albert blurted out his frustration. No way would his son stoop to such a vulgar language.

Either bad influence, which wasn’t beyond the realm of possibilities. In Albert’s informed conservative opinion, academic institutions were letting in people who had no business being there. Reaching a level of crisis as he has heard radio talk show hosts railing against it. This was just a proof, in his mind. Gone was the sophisticated and aristocratic language one would expect of such a place. No institution was immune. The disease had infected his son, and he hadn’t budgeted for that possibility. Or, he dreaded the other alternative, his son was in serious trouble and had lost is proper language faculties.

“Sorry, I mean I didn’t do anything wrong. It was just a mix-up... Nothing to do with me… The police are taking her now...” Albert had said trying to control his body from shaking in response to the shock he had witnessed.

Whether it was on the witness stand or in real life situation, nothing frustrated Albert Lloyd more than an uncooperative witness. Especially when he knew there was a truth they were hiding from him.

“What girl? Son, I have no time to play games. If you are in trouble, tell me.”

“Alyson Crawford,” Keith said, putting his right hand over his mouth as he spoke into his flip phone. He feared someone would hear him speak. It occurred to him in that instant it was probably a good thing he didn’t have a smartphone. No chance of being tracked.

The mere mention of the girl’s name had sent a jolt of shock through Albert’s system. The name he knew so well. The name of a daughter he admired from a distance. The name of a girl he wished he had as his own daughter. The girl who belonged to the famous family. Of course, he knew about the Crawfords. Owners of an insurance business that was recently acquired for multi-billion dollars. Who didn’t know? It was his business to know such things.

“Crawford? As in Crawford Insurance?” Albert had asked for confirmation.

“Yes, dad. It was all a freak accident…” Keith answered, his body now reflexively shaking seeing a stretcher getting pulled out of the building and rapidly hauled to the ambulance at the roadside.

“Did you?” Albert had asked. To which the son had answered with complete denial.

Now driving quietly to their modest townhouse, Albert wondered if his son had actually succeeded in doing something with the daughter of such a reputable family. Why else would he panic as much as he did? He looked at him with pride. The pride of a father who was reliving his life vicariously through the only son he had poured all his life and soul into. He wouldn’t know what his son’s world was like having never attended a residential educational institution. Whatever Keith did, it was his duty to protect him. Whatever it was that happened, he wasn’t going to let it destroy them.

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