CHAPTER 22: YEAH, THEY SUCK
Vincent
After leaving Al at the cemetery, I called Saturn and drove straight to her place on the east side. I needed to see my girlfriend and talk to a sane person outside of my crazy family. I needed to tell her about his new reality and maybe she could help explain how I should feel about it because my head and guts were in knots. After that, my plan was to go see Freeway because he had his own unique way of looking at things and putting everything into perspective.
Somebody upstairs had to be fucking with me on this particular afternoon because on the drive over to Saturn’s place, what song do you think started blasting out of my car radio? Yup. “Papa Was A Gravestone.” WBRW, which did its best to support the local music scene, was plugging our first single. I knew they had been playing our song for a couple of weeks, but I hadn’t actually heard proof of that until now. It was completely bizarre to hear my own voice singing those words, some of which had now been compromised by a little thing called the truth.
If hearing that particular song on the radio at that moment in time wasn’t enough, then I had to endure Morgan’s cheap shot before the commercial break.
“That was the new single by Providence’s own Freeway & the Vin Numbers called ‘Papa Was A Gravestone,’” the voice of Ryan said.
“Yeah, they suck,” Morgan deadpanned then laughed.
“What?” Ryan responded before the commercial kicked in.
At least her sense of humor was slightly more on target than her beer-throwing arm.
Saturn welcomed me into her apartment with a huge hug and kiss. I stuck my head into the kitchen and said hello to her new roommate, a butch lesbian named Shelby with spiky black hair, lots of piercings and man clothes. She sort of smiled and sort of waved. No, she wasn’t nearly as friendly or easy on the eyes as Morgan, but at least Saturn and I didn’t have to worry about her sabotaging our relationship. Then Saturn and I retreated to her cozy bedroom. I plopped on her bed, she jumped on me and we kissed for about five minutes. It was great to get my mind off everything else. Then I stared at the framed photo of her parents on the desk across from the bed and prepared to reveal to her all of my shocking news.
“I don’t know how else to say this so I’ll come right
out with it,” I said before she put her hand on my mouth and interrupted me.
“Don’t even think about breaking up with me,” she said, only half-kidding.
I grabbed her hand and pulled it away so I could reply.
“Never,” I said. “This has nothing to do with us. It has everything to do with my fucked-up family.”
“Excellent,” Saturn said with a smile as she sat up on the bed and looked down at me. “I’m all ears.”
“My father is alive,” I declared.
Saturn’s beautiful eyes popped open as far as they could go and she covered her mouth.
“What the?” she gasped.
“That’s what I said when I found out,” I told her.
“How did you find out and who is he, where is he?” she asked.
“My Uncle Al is my real father,” I said. “My mother had been keeping this a secret from him, me and the whole world since before I was born.”
Saturn just stared at me dumbfounded.
“She spilled her guts to the Power Chord magazine writer and had him tell me in our interview so she could get the fuck out of town and not have to deal with my reaction, Al’s reaction, etc.”
“Wow,” Saturn said.
“Oh, I’m just getting warmed up,” I said. “My mother had an affair with Al while she was married to my former father Frank. She knew I was Al’s baby because her and Frank fought a lot and would go without sex for long periods of time. When she first found out she was pregnant, she started to have sex with Frank more often to try to cover it up. She broke things off with Al, stayed married to Frank, gave birth to me and hoped they’d somehow go on to live happily ever after.”
“Vin, that’s unbelievable,” Saturn said, shaking her head.
“Better than fiction, right? We couldn’t make this shit up if we tried,” I said. “Well, Frank and my mother didn’t live happily ever after. They had a big drunken fight, she demanded a divorce and Frank threatened to kill her. Long story short, Al confronted Frank, told him about the affair, told him to leave my mother alone and …”
I hesitated.
“And what?” Saturn pleaded.
“Frank blew his own head off,” I said. “Al did not kill him as I had suspected. Frank didn’t drown on a fishing trip like my mother told me. My uncle Frank was the gravestone, my papa Al is the mobster, my mother Danielle is the lying stripper and I, Vin Masoli, is now and forever the completely fucked-up bastard child. … So how was your day dear?”
I smiled a little. She did the same. We just looked at each other and tried to let all of my mad-but-true ramblings sink in for a moment.
“Al never suspected you were his?” Saturn finally asked.
“He asked my mother at one point, but she lied to his face,” I said. “And he never asked for a paternity test. My mother didn’t want me to be raised by a mobster, which I can sort of understand. The guy did almost have me killed at the Halloween show.”
“That’s right,” Saturn said, shaking her head in disbelief and glancing at the photo of her parents.
“What a night that was … and could’ve been,” I said.
“My parents are dead, but at least they were pretty normal,” she said, turning back to look into my eyes and hold my hand. “I’m sorry, Vin. This must be so confusing and horrible for you right now.”
“I’m mostly numb,” I said. “It’s so good to talk to you and get this off my chest. You have no idea.”
“No, I really don’t have any idea, but I’m glad I’m here for you right now,” Saturn said, kissing me.
“I guess the good news in all of this is Al and I just had a heart-to-heart talk at Frank’s gravestone,” I said. “I showed him the letter my mother gave the magazine writer to give to me. The letter was kind of proof of the whole thing and Al was blindsided just like me. He started bawling. He felt bad his younger brother took his own life because of what he and my mother did all those years ago. I told him we’ve all gotta move on and live better. Look at this as a second chance.”
“That’s amazing, Vin,” Saturn said.
“What?” I asked.
“That you were able to say that kind of stuff to him,” she said.
“Yeah,” I said. “It almost felt like I was in a movie. None of it seemed completely real. I was even surprised at some of the stuff that was coming out of my mouth at that moment.”
“But he is your father,” Saturn said.
“That’s what it comes down to,” I said. “We’ve gotta go from here. We’ve gotta start somewhere. That’s what my mother was hoping for. She saw the band and the music bringing Al and me closer together, and she wanted to get that secret off her chest. In her mind, I guess, it was the right time to take that chance and finally tell us the truth.”
“Where did your mother go?” Saturn asked.
“No clue,” I said. “She took a vacation and won’t come back until she feels it’s safe.”
“I can understand that,” Saturn said.
“Yeah, she didn’t know how Al was going to react,” I said. “Neither one of my parents is mentally stable. Is there any hope for me?”
“Stay with me, Vin, and there will be plenty of hope for you,” Saturn said, kissing me.
“I believe you,” I said, before telling her about hearing “Papa Was A Gravestone” on the radio and recounting Morgan’s off-the-cuff remark.
“That girl needs her ass kicked,” Saturn said, punching her left palm with her right fist.
What can I say? My girlfriend is usually right.