Sutter's Bay Box Set

Chapter 1-2

The house Jason grew up in was just a block from the beach. It wasn’t a large house. In fact, there were only three bedrooms, so his sister, Lucy, had gotten her own room while he’d had to share with his older brother, Kent. And the whole family had shared the lone bathroom.

Before he’d come home a few days earlier, his mom had lived there by herself. His father died a few years back. Lucy had called to tell him, but he hadn’t attended the funeral of the man who’d hated him.

He parked his Civic in the driveway and slid his bad leg carefully out of the car. He had to hold onto the car to steady himself, then he closed and locked it, looking out to sea. The evening clouds rolled in, looking vaguely ominous.

He’d always had a vivid imagination. This was not Castle Rock and he was not a Stephen King character.

Jason limped down the driveway to the mailbox and took out the day’s mail. He shuffled through them. Mostly bills. He’d have to handle all this for his mother now.

He watched the simple bungalow-style house from by the mailbox. One lamp lit the front window. He couldn’t help wondering if the neighbors knew the truth of what had gone on inside the Sweet home. As often as Danny’s family had invited him over, he knew they were aware of what Jason’s dad had been like. His mom had tried to keep up the ordinary appearance to the outside world. But the bruises didn’t always cover well.

He glanced up and down the narrow street. Most of the people living on the block were the same ones he’d grown up knowing. A lot of the older folks stayed in Sutter’s Bay. It was a beautiful seaside town with an annual tourist income. Sighing, he headed back up the driveway to the house.

“Ma?” he called when he stepped through the front door.

“In here.”

Jason set the mail on the table inside the door and went into the living room. His mother, mere skin and bones now from the pancreatic cancer, lay huddled on the couch, wrapped in a blanket. She held a paperback novel in her frail, shaking hands.

He forced a smile. “Hey, Ma.”

She smiled back. “Hi, honey. Did you have a nice visit with Danny?”

“Yeah. Actually, Ma, I invited him over to have dinner with us tonight. Is that okay? I can tell him not to come if it’s too much.”

His mother shook her head. “Don’t be silly. I like Danny. It’s nice that you’re trying to get reacquainted.”

Jason nodded. “You want to sit out on the back porch for a little bit? I can bring you a cup of tea and we can just sit there and enjoy the breeze.”

“Oh, yes, that would be wonderful, Jason.”

He scooped her up in his arms, making sure to take the blanket with her. Her arms wrapped around his neck. She didn’t weigh much more than a puppy. His heart twisted.

It should have been a breeze to carry her outside, but with his messed up leg, carrying her to the sliding glass door and out to the covered porch made him break out in a sweat. He winced and set her down on a cushy lounger they’d set up for her earlier.

She studied his face when he pulled back. “I’m sorry. You should have made me walk out here.”

“I’m all right.”

“You are not. That hurt.”

He sighed. “Yeah, it did. But watching you try to make it out here yourself hurts more.” He sat on the edge of the lounger, straightening his leg out before him. Jason closed his hands over hers. “Do you hate me for the years we’ve missed?”

“No, never.” She turned her palm up and squeezed his hand with as much strength as she could manage. “Your father—”

Jason’s throat clogged and he couldn’t speak so he nodded.

“I know you must think I was terrible for not standing up for you or for your brother and sister,” his mother whispered. “And when you told us you were gay…I didn’t know he would react like he did when you told us.”

Jason freed one of his hands and touched his jaw, remembering the pain when his father broke it that day. He’d had to have it wired. His bones had healed, but the heartache hadn’t.

“I didn’t either,” Jason finally managed to say. “It’s okay, Ma. I know it had to be hard to go against Dad. With everything. And I know…you loved him.” That was the hard part to deal with sometimes. Knowing in spite of everything his father did, even to her, she still loved him. He knew all the psychobabble about love and abuse. He tried to understand it. For her sake.

“I did. But I didn’t approve of the way he treated you that day, Jason. I didn’t know he was so against homosexuals until that day.”

“Yeah.” That day his older brother took him to the hospital. He never saw his father again, nor his mother, for that matter, until he arrived here just days ago. The guilt over leaving her with his father ate at him until he thought maybe he had only half a soul. He leaned over and kissed her forehead. “What kind of tea do you want, Ma?”

The smile she gave him was just a ghost of the one he’d grown up with. “The orange spice.”

“Great choice. I’ll have that one, too.” He stood. “I’ll be right back.”

The numbness had nearly returned by the time he poured boiling water over the tea bags in the kitchen. He inhaled the scents of the tea, cloves, orange rind and cinnamon, letting them soothe him. He’d get through this. He’d already survived a lot of crap. This was just more.

Back outside he handed one of the steaming cups to his mother and then sat in the rocking chair next to her lounger. They sipped in silence for a few moments, looking out over her roses and gladiolas.

“I’m sorry about the other policeman.” His mother’s voice was so soft it was nearly carried off with the breeze. “But I’m glad you made it through.”

“Me, too,” Jason said automatically, ignoring the tightness in his chest. “Tell me about Danny.”

“What do you want to know?”

“About his boyfriend, I guess.”

“Maybe you ought to ask him.”

Jason nodded. “Probably, but I can’t.”

She took a sip of her tea and then pursed her lips. “Well, let’s see. He left Sutter’s Bay for a while. Not long after you, I guess. I heard from his mother he went down to San Francisco. I don’t know what he did while he was there. I didn’t really have a lot of contact with him or his mother because your father wouldn’t permit it.”

“Right.” He was proud of himself for not sounding too bitter.

“Anyway, he came back here probably eight years ago now. And he brought a man with him. I never spoke to them, of course, you know, with your father, but I’d see them together at the grocery store. They looked happy.”

“Did-did Dad say things to them?”

She shook her head, smiling slightly. “He just ignored them. Pretended they didn’t exist. I’d say Danny and the other man did the same thing with your father.”

“Danny said they broke up a couple of years ago.”

“Yes, I heard. I don’t know why. I do know the other man, um, Harris was his first name, left Sutter’s Bay.”

Sooner or later most people left Sutter’s Bay, Jason mused. Yet, here he was.

“And you?” she asked. “Don’t you have a-a significant other?”

Jason sighed. “I did. He left me when I got shot. He didn’t want to deal with the aftermath.”

“Well, that’s just terrible.”

He wasn’t sure he wouldn’t have felt the same if he had been in Rick’s position. “So, what do you want for dinner?”

His mother smiled. “Chinese.”

Jason hated Chinese food. “Then Chinese it is. I’ll go get the phone book.”

“Are you sure?” She looked uncertain and afraid. It cracked his heart just a little more.

“Anything for you, Ma. Anything for you.”