Chapter 25 - AMES GETS OLD ENOUGH TO BE EMBARRASSED
Ames was fifty-one when Darby showed his hospital slap video to Julia.
Legally obtained family copy? Better not. She didn't have it. Let's adjust: Darby joked about it rather than show evidence.
She described it at dinner.
“Dad slapped him so hard he hit a cart.”
Julia looked at Ames.
“You?”
Ames groaned.
“Can we not?”
Darby grinned.
“Metal everywhere.”
“Darby.”
“What? It’s literally in court transcript.”
Julia tried not to laugh.
Then became serious.
“You regret it?”
“Yes.”
Darby looked at him.
“Still?”
“Yes.”
“Even though he deserved being hit?”
Ames thought.
“I think he deserved consequences.”
“That’s dad answer.”
“It is.”
“Did you want to hit?”
“Yes.”
“Honest.”
“I’m older now.”
Julia said:
“Debatable.”
They laughed.
Then Ames said:
“What bothers me is that I wanted you to see me as the man who protected you.”
Darby’s smile faded.
“You did protect me.”
“I also wanted it to look like protection.”
She considered.
“The slap?”
“Yes.”
Darby shrugged.
“I mostly remember you stood between us.”
That landed harder.
Not the strike.
The position.
Beside the gurney.
Between her and danger.
“That’s what mattered?” he asked.
“Yes.”
Then:
“And you let nurse cut boots.”
Ames smiled.
“I didn’t let her. She was the nurse.”
“You know what I mean.”
He did.
Protection was not domination.
It was making room for the right person to act.
The nurse had medical authority.
Police had investigative authority.
Courts had legal authority.
Darby had authority over her own story where possible.
Ames’s job had not been to become the strongest man in every room.
It had been to stop making Darby manage adults.
May you like
He learned late.
Not too late.
