I walk into the light.
“Evening, Kas. Long time no see.”
I should have waited a little longer. He was going through the day’s mail and the moment I speak it all goes up in the air and floats down like New Year’s confetti. He stumbles back and slams into the wall, stays there like a butterfly pinned to a board.
I hold up my hands and say, “Before you reach for the gun under the counter, I’m just here to see how you’re doing.”
He points at me and doesn’t say anything. Finally, he sputters, “Fuck you.”
I approach him slowly because I really don’t want to get shot tonight.
“Everything’s fine, man. Calm down.”
He relaxes a little and put his hands to his head.
“Fuck you, man. Why won’t you stay dead??
??
“Nice to see you too, Kas.”
He leans heavily on the front counter and stares at me.
“Shit. It really is you.”
“It really is.”
“And you’re not here to kill me?”
“When I crawled out of Hell last time I wasn’t exactly thrilled to be back. This time I am.”
He stares a little more.
“How did you do it?”
“Get back?”
I make it to the counter and offer him a cigarette. He takes it with trembling fingers. I light it for him and look the store over.
“I didn’t do it,” I tell him. “Truth is, I didn’t know if I’d ever make it back. It was some other people who brought me back.”
He frowns.
“I don’t mean to sound harsh, but why? It’s been a year, man. Things …”
“Things have changed. You’ve all moved on. I get it and I’m not going to barge back in and expect you to throw me a party. But that doesn’t mean I don’t care about you assholes. I need to know how things are.”
He puffs his cigarette.
“You mean how Candy is.”
“That’s a good place to start.”
“How she is is there’s a big box of your shit in the closet where you used to lock me up. No one goes in there. No one looks at it. You’ve been cleared out and put away. Get it?”
I light my own cigarette.
“I take it that means Alessa has moved into our place upstairs.”