"Did you say that?" Louis asked incredulously. "You didn't really say that, did you?"
"That and more," Irwin Goldman said, "I always knew it would come to this-this or something like it. I knew what kind of a man you were the first time I saw you." He leaned forward, exhaling Scotch fumes. "I saw through you, you prancing little fraud of a doctor. You enticed my daughter into a stupid, feckless marriage and then you turned her into a scullery maid and then you let her son be run down in the highway like a... a chipmunk."
Most of this went over Louis's head. He was still groping with the idea that this stupid little man could have-"You said that to her?" he repeated. "You said it?" "I hope you rot in hell!" Goldman said, and heads turned sharply toward the sound of his voice. Tears began to squeeze out of Irwin Goldman's bloodshot brown eyes. His bald head glowed under the muted fluorescent lights.
"You made my wonderful daughter into a scullery maid... destroyed her future took her away... and let my grandson die a dirty death in a country road."
His voice rose to a hectoring scream.
"Where were you? Sitting on your ass while he was playing in the road? Thinking about your stupid medical articles? What were you doing, you shit? You stinking shit! Killer of children!
Chapter 2
There they were. There they were at the front of the East Room. There they were, and Louis saw his arm go out. He saw the sleeve of his suit coat pull back from the cuff of his white shirt. He saw the mellow gleam of one cufflink. Rachel had given him the set for their third wedding anniversary, never knowing that her husband would someday wear these cufflinks to the funeral ceremonies of their then-unborn son. His fist was just something tied to the end of his arm. It connected with Goldman's mouth. He felt the old man's lips squash and splay back. It was a sickening feeling, really-squashing a slug with your fist might feel something like that.
There was no satisfaction in it. Beneath the flesh of his father-in-law's lips he could feel the stern, unyielding regularity of his dentures.
Goldman went stumbling backward. His arm came down against Gage's coffin, knocking it aslant. One of the vases, top-heavy with flowers, fell over with a crash. Someone screamed.
It was Rachel, struggling with her mother, who was trying to hold her back. The people who were there-ten or fifteen in all-seemed frozen between fright and embarrassment. Steve had taken Jud back to Ludlow, and Louis was dimly grateful for that. This was not a scene he would have wished Jud to witness. It was unseemly.
"Don't hurt him!" Rachel screamed. "Louis, don't hurt my father!"
"You like to hit old men, do you?" Irwin Goldman of the overflowing checkbook cried out shrilly. He was grinning through a mouthful of blood. "You like to hit old men? I am not surprised, you stinking bastard. That does not surprise me at all."
Louis turned toward him, and Goldman struck him in the neck. It was a clumsy, side-handed, chopping blow, but Louis was unprepared for it. A paralyzing pain that would make it hard for him to swallow for the next two hours exploded in his throat. His head rocked back, and he fell to one knee in the aisle.
First the flowers, now me, he thought. What is it the Ramones say? Hey-ho, let's go! He thought he wanted to laugh, but there was no laugh in him. What came out of his hurt throat was a little groan.
Rachel screamed again.
Irwin Goldman, his mouth dripping blood, marched over to where his son-in-law kneeled and kicked Louis smartly in the kidneys. The pain was a bright flare of agony. He put his hands down on the rug runner to keep from going flop on his belly.
"You don't do so good even against old men, sonny!" Goldman cried with cracked excitement. He kicked out at Louis again, missing the kidney this time, getting Louis on the high part of the left buttock with one black old man's shoe. Louis grunted in pain, and this time he did go down on the carpet. His chin hit with an audible crack. He bit his tongue.
"There!" Goldman cried. "There's the kick in the ass I should have given you the first time you came sucking around, you bastard. There!" He kicked Louis in the ass again, this time connecting with the other buttock. He was weeping and grinning. Louis saw for the first time that Goldman was unshaven-a sign of mourning. The funeral director raced toward them. Rachel had broken Mrs. Goldman's hold and was also racing toward them, screaming.
Louis rolled clumsily over on his side and sat up. His father-in-law kicked out at him again and Louis caught his shoe in both hands-it thwapped solidly into his palms like a well-caught football-and shoved backward as hard as he could.
Bellowing, Goldman flew backward at an angle, pinwheeling his arms for balance.