The River Leith (13 page)

“Oh yes, that. Well, it was years ago. When I first came to New York and had no income.”

“I thought you got your start with what Mom left you.”

“Come on, you know as well as I do there was barely enough there to last six months
—
much less the year it took me to get Joseph’s Teeth up and going. And, for the sake of full disclosure, it was actually men I slept with for money. They pay more.”

“
What
?”

“Yes, yes, so what? I’m sexually flexible. Ambi, omni, bi, queer
—
whatever it’s called. Why call it anything? I don’t see the point. Sex is sex. Leith, you used to know this, and you generally found it amusing.”

“I did?” Leith scoffed. It didn’t seem all that amusing to have his brother’s humiliating personal business splashed across the front of a trashy newspaper.

“The important thing is that my current girlfriend’s family knows about it all, too, and they’ve accepted it. Well, accept might be a strong word. It’s more like they’re resigned to it. Actually, they loathe me. Whatever. Miyoko and I have been able to work it out.”

“So, let me get this straight, although I guess that’s not the right word to use. You used to be a
male prostitute,
and now you’re in a relationship with a woman I haven’t met yet
—
or ever heard about
—
but you’ve sorted it all out?”

“Exactly.”

“Why haven’t I met this…what did you say her name was? Miyoko?”

“It wasn’t serious until very recently, and you weren’t really in a position to be meeting a lot of new people because you were so busy meeting old people.”

“Arthur, what the fuck?”

“She’s younger than me. Legal, though! She’s legal!”

Leith stared at Arthur. “How legal?”

“She’s twenty. Next month. Besides, it doesn’t to me. The only people who really care are her parents.” He sniffed and flicked his hair out of his face. “I’m ten years old than her and own a bar. Where she works. I’m not her parents’ ideal, that’s for certain.”

“You’re dating a nineteen-year-old employee. You’re her
boss
.”

“You make it sound so tawdry. Zach’s her boss too! Look, I didn’t exactly plan this, but Miyoko’s…” His gaze went distant, and he smiled softly. “She understands me. I always thought she was hot, but after your accident…she really helped me. We didn’t even hook up for weeks
—
it was just…talking.”

“Talking? It must be love then,” Leith bit out.

“It’s been stressful trying to make her parents understand my intentions toward Miyoko without seeming like even more of a…well, you know. But the heart wants what it wants. She wants me, and I want her. Her parents’ disapproval of course means nothing to me.”

“Of course.”

Arthur sighed, his shoulders slumping.

“And this has been going on the whole time I’ve been here? Why you didn’t mention it before?”

Arthur shrugged. “I didn’t want to burden you. You’ve had your troubles. I’ve had mine.”

“You say potato…” Leith said, shaking out the gossip rag again. His eyes took in the words, and as his brain supplied their meaning his stomach went cold and solid, like it was suddenly filled with stones. “Father addicted to gambling, and Wenz himself spent two years in prison for promoting an unlicensed boxing match and causing grievous bodily harm to a minor.”
Two years in
prison
.

Shame swept over Leith and he closed his eyes. “None of this is anyone’s business but ours. This information is personal.”

Arthur sighed and snatched the paper from Leith’s hand. “It’s all just
words
. What do they even mean in the end? I don’t care.”

Leith jumped up from the bed and grabbed it back. “You might not care, but I do.” Of course Arthur had known he’d care. That was the reason he was telling him now instead of leaving it for him to discover later. Leith read further and scoffed. “‘At the age of eleven the young boxer’s mother killed herself?’ Arthur, that’s libel. That’s an outright lie.”

“Actually, Leith,” Arthur began, gently.

No.
Leith didn’t want to hear it. He shoved his bag off of the hospital bed, his clothes and meager belongings spilling across the floor.

Leith shook the newspaper at Arthur and yelled, “That’s a lie. Don’t! Just shut up!”

“Leith, before…before the accident you already knew this. I told you when you got out of prison. Dad hadn’t wanted you to know. You were so young when it happened. But after his death, I thought you had a right to know the truth.”

“The
truth?
”

“She was depressive. It wasn’t her fault.”

Arthur had his hands up and a look on his face that made Leith want to punch him. It was a sympathetic, brotherly expression that made him nauseous, because if Arthur was looking at him like that, then it was true. Then his mother had actually
—
no, it was too much for him to imagine. He’d just been a kid
—
a little boy.
Why
would she do that? How could she do that to them?

As Leith started to pace by the bed, Arthur’s voice came through the haze of building rage.

“It was pills. She left a note. They didn’t kill her right away, but the damage was done, and her organs shut down.”

Sweet Easter bread, and cool fingers on his forehead when he was sick. A new pink swirly dress that she’d worn while she danced and laughed with him in the street when he was ten, and purple flowers she’d saved in a vase until they were withered and brown because he’d picked them for her on his way back from school.

All of these things and more crested in his mind like a rushing wave, and he slammed his fist against the mattress. But it didn’t hurt enough; it didn’t make a dent.

“Leith, it’s
—
”

Leith shoved Arthur, drawing his fist back to strike. “Shut up! You’re lying! Don’t say it again!”

The firm grip on his arm came out of nowhere, and Leith whirled around, his fist flying blindly. He registered Zach’s face just as his knuckles connected, and the crack of fist on jawbone and teeth clattering together echoed in the room. Zach crashed to the floor, and Leith’s stomach plummeted.

He dropped to his knees beside Zach immediately, reaching out to him. “Zach, no. No, no, no. I didn’t…no.”

Zach held his hand against his chin, and his face was twisted with pain. But the worst was the expression in his eyes: fear. Leith crept back until he was pressed against the wall. He closed his eyes and waited. Nurses streamed in, and there was a great deal of animated talking and shuffling around. He couldn’t look at Zach. He couldn’t look at anyone.

“He’s got quite a swing, doesn’t he?” Arthur said.

Zach made a quiet, hurt sound, and Leith squeezed his eyes even tighter.

“Come on, Mr. Stephens,” a nurse said. “Let’s get some ice for that.”

More footsteps came and went, and Leith covered his ears and pressed his eyes against his knees, trying to block out the world. Muffled though it was to his plugged up ears, the next voice he heard wasn’t unexpected.

Calm as ever, Dr. Thakur said, “I’ll handle this now, Mr. Wenz. Don’t worry. Everything’s going to be fine. Why don’t you and Mr. Stephens leave the room now? I think your brother could use some space to breathe.”

When Dr. Thakur knelt beside him, Leith opened his eyes. He saw Zach and Arthur being pressed through the doorway by a nurse. Both looked over their shoulders at him. Zach held an ice pack on his chin, and his eyes were greener and brighter than Leith had ever seen.

“We need to get you examined, Mr. Stephens,” the nurse was saying.

Zach, supported on Arthur’s arm, turned his back on Leith and left the room.

Dr. Thakur dismissed the other nurse and the security team. “He’s not a danger. He calmed himself as soon as he realized what he’d done.”

Leith covered his face with his hands. He breathed in and out, waiting like he’d learned to wait in prison, and tried to stop his body’s shaking.

“Well, Leith, what do you make of this situation?” Dr. Thakur asked when they were alone.

Leith whispered, “I don’t think I’m ready to go home.”

“No, it looks as though you’re not.”

Dr. Thakur put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, and Leith bowed his head to cry.