I did the farm work for a few days. Jacob came over when he could to help us out. After a while, Santos was doing okay enough to walk. The vet said the knife hit just the right spot so he could still walk when he got better.
Things were still rough with Eli so Jacob said we could spend a few nights at his house. We stayed for a couple of days, and one night Jacob came in holding a bottle of vodka. Said if anyone’s earned it we have.
I shouldn’t have drunk. None of us should’ve. But we did. At first everything was really funny. We spent a while laughing and joking. But then we randomly got really sad. We fell asleep at some point, cause we woke up in the morning to Jacob’s mom pounding on the door.
“We’re screwed,” Jacob whispered while he tucked the half empty bottle behind a blanket.
I opened his door, probably looking as hungover as I felt. “Oh, Ben,” Jacob’s mom sighed, “can I come in?” She was making that stupid face again.
I nodded and she sat in Jacob’s chair and I sat back on the bed.
“There’s no good way to say this. I just got off the phone with the police.”
My heart was pounding and we all seemed pretty panicked. Did she seriously call the cops on us?
“Your father is dead, Ben. The sheriff got a call last night from a jogger who saw him.”
I nodded. I didn’t know what else to say. I was honestly kind of glad but you can’t say something like that to Jacob’s mom.
“How’d it happen?” I manged to ask.
“They found him on the driveway with an empty bottle of pain pills. Someone peeled the label off but it wasn’t his prescription. Looks like he overdosed a few hours before they found him. They still have to do a police investigation cause they found him outside.”
She made that stupid face again. The one she made when I showed up looking like hell.
Jacob’s eyes got wide. “Does that mean Ben’s an orphan now?”
His mom glared at him. “I called child services. Ben can stay here until they sort something out.”
“What about Santos?” I asked.
“He can stay here, too.” I bet they don’t have child services for illegals. Moms know that kind of thing though. She probably had it all figured out.
She said to let her know what she can do. I felt kind of bad but I asked if she would give us some space and let us talk about it.
“I’ll be back with some breakfast. Get the smell of booze off your breath.” She winked as she walked out the door. Moms are the best.
Jacob and Santos just stared at me. What are you supposed to say, I guess. I had to break the silence though.
“It was bound to happen. Been using pills for years. Never told me where he got them though.”
Their eyes were wide. “Damn” was all Jacob had to say.
We must’ve all been thinking it so I said it: “Serves him right.” Somehow it felt awful after I said it though. Like somehow I was supposed to be sad about it, like I owed it to him to feel as miserable as I did when my mom died.
“You know how they say if you kill someone you die?” I asked.
“Yeah, it’s in the Bible somewhere I think,” Jacob said.
“Eli made my mom kill herself.” Now I was crying. “Serves him damn right.”
We all sat around Jacob’s room for a while. There were a few times we almost had a conversation. We tried talking about all sorts of things and it never worked. Jacob’s mom brought us some breakfast and we picked at it for a while. How are you supposed to eat eggs and bacon right after you hear something like that?