“Chicken snackers,” he said.
“He’ll have the chicken snackers,” I repeated, “a large box, with fries.” I turned to Sam. “You want a root beer or something to wash that down?”
He shrugged.
“A root beer too,” I said.
When we got our food I didn’t take Sam straight home. I needed to get to the bottom of what had happened at school and I knew if I took him home he’d disappear into his room or something.
There was a lookout point above the town where I used to take girls when I was in high school. I drove up there and parked at a spot overlooking the entire valley. You can see for fifty miles from up there, clear to the ocean.
“You see down there, where the river splits?” I said.
He was opening his food but looked up to see. “Yes.”
“That’s my daddy’s vineyard.”
“All of it?”
“All those slopes leading down to the river. The cliffs there. All of it.”
“I thought your dad died,” he said.
“He did. I guess it’s mine now.”
Sam nodded.
The sun was beginning to set and it was bathing the valley in pink-tinged light. The river looked like a ribbon of light. It was beautiful.
Something came over me, an overwhelming sense of love, and I said probably more than I should have said. I should have spoken to Faith first, but Sam was my son, I was his father, and I had to take the reins at some point.
“And after me, it will be yours.”
Sam looked up at me, his bright eyes like jewels made by angels, and he smiled. He knew. Somehow, without anyone ever telling him, he knew everything. It all made sense to him. It was a miracle. How’d he know? I was sure Faith hadn’t told him anything about me being his daddy.
“I know,” he said.
I put my hand on his arm softly.
“Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“I understand,” he said, and he spoke so certainly I knew he understood everything. “I’m your son.”
I couldn’t help it. A single tear rolled over my cheek.
“I’m your daddy,” I said.
And then we gripped each other like two people trying to survive a shipwreck in the sea. I don’t know if I was hugging him or he was hugging me. It seemed to last forever.
It was Sam who broke the silence.
“Can we go there?” he said.
“The vineyard?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you think your mother would let us?”
He nodded. “I know she would. She’s nuts about you.”
I laughed. “Is that so?”
“Yes,” he said. “She thinks I don’t notice things. But I notice.”
“That’s a good skill,” I said.
Sam nodded.
“We’ll go down into the valley,” I said, “but I’ll warn you now, if my brothers are around, they’re tough guys. They might shock you. They’re not civilized like you and me.” I winked.
Sam laughed. “You mean, Grant, Forrester and Grady. I know them.”
“So you do,” I said. “I forgot about that.”
“They’re my godfathers.”
“Are they?”
“Yes, and I wish I was tough like they are.”
“You’re plenty tough,” I said.
He shook his head. “Not tough enough.”
“No one’s tough enough to stand up to a group of guys,” I said. “I saw those guys making faces back in the parking lot. There must have been at least four of them.”
Sam nodded.
“They give you a hard time?”
“Yeah.”
“How come?”
He shrugged.
“Well, let me tell you a few things,” I said. “First off, it doesn’t matter why they’re picking on you. Jerks like that will always find a reason. Hell, guys like that, they don’t even need a reason. You wear red sneakers, they’ll pick on you for that. You wear a Lakers hat, they’ll use that. You switch your sneakers to white, take off your hat, they’ll pick on you for that too.”
“So there’s no solution?”
“Oh, there’s a solution, it’s just not what you think it might be.”
“I have to beat them up,” he said, “don’t I?”
I laughed. “Hold on cowboy. If I remember correctly, there were four of them?”
“Yes.”
“And they looked a little older than you.”
“Yeah,” he said.
“So how in the hell would you be able to beat them up? This isn’t Karate Kid. Trying to use force will just get you in trouble.”
“But it would solve the issue.”
“It might, for a while,” I said. “But trust me, you don’t want to go down that road.”
“Did you go down that road?”
“Yes I did,” I admitted. “I’ve gotten into fights that took me years to settle. Sometimes you can’t help it.”
“And what happened?”
“Well, sometimes I won. Sometimes, the other guy won. That’s how fighting is.”
“So what should I do?”
“You finished with those fries?” I said.
He nodded. I grabbed them in my fist and ate them. Then I took all his trash and got out of the car and walked over to the trash can. He got out of the truck and followed me.