Chapter 23 twenty-three

Louis awoke at nine o'clock the next morning, bright sunlight pouring in through the bedroom's east window.The phone rang, and Louis reached for the receiver and said, "Hello?" Rachel replied, "Hey, did I wake you up? I hope so." Louis smiled and said, "You little bitch, you woke me up." "Oh, your words are dirty, you old bad bear. I called you last night, did you go to Chad's house?" Louis hesitated for a moment and said, "Yeah, went for some beers. Norma was out for some Thanksgiving dinner. I was going to call you guys, but... you know."

They chatted for a while, and Rachel told him about her parents, and Louis didn't care about them, but when Rachel said that her father had a lot of baldness on the top of his head, Louis felt a little schadenfreude. Rachel asked, "Do you want to talk to your son?" Louis smiled and said, "Yeah, I think so. But don't make him hang up like he used to." Louis heard the commotion on the other end of the phone and vaguely heard Rachel coaxing Gage to say hello, Dad. Finally Gage was heard to say, "Hello, Dad." Louis said cheerfully, "Hi son, how are you? How are you doing? Did you yank grandpa's pipe rack over again? Of course I hope you do. Maybe this time he's trashing his stamp album too Alright."

Gage muttered happily for about half a minute, and in his indistinct cooing and gurgling, Louis could hear that his vocabulary was growing, and some words were clear, like Mummy, Allie, Grandma, Cars, trucks, and bullshit. Finally Rachel took the phone amidst Gage's angry yelps, and Louis felt relieved - he loved his son like crazy, but talking to a kid under two was like playing poker with a madman , cards are thrown all over the place, and sometimes you throw them yourself. Rachel asked, "How is your place?" This time Louis said without hesitation, "Fine." But he realized immediately that he had been lying, that he had lied and said he had been at Jud's last night when Rachel asked him if he had been there.What Chad said suddenly came to his mind: Louis, men are harder... Men reap what they sow and reap what they sow.You get what you do.He then said to his wife: "Oh, it's kind of boring, if you want to be honest, I miss you."

"Are you actually trying to tell me you had a bad vacation?" "Oh, of course, I like the quiet, but..." Louis admitted, "it gets weird after a day." Ellie asked her mother through the phone: "Can I talk to Dad for a while?" "Louis, Elle is here." "Well, let her tell me." He talked to his daughter for about five minutes, and she babbled about the dolls her grandma bought her, and grandpa took her to the ranch, and Allie said, "My God, Daddy, those animals stink." Louis was thinking : Baby, your grandpa is not fragrant either.Elle also babbled about how she helped make the bread, how Gage ran away while Rachel was changing his diaper, and went down to the door in the hallway leading to Grandpa's study to take a shit.When Louis heard this, a smile broke out on his face, and he praised in his heart: Good, Gage!well done!

Louis was thinking about getting Ellie to call her mother to say goodbye to his wife, so that at least this morning he would have escaped her daughter asking about the kitten, when Ellie asked, "Daddy, how is Church? Does it miss me?" The smile faded from Louis' mouth, but he said immediately, in a casual tone, "I guess so, I let him out last night after giving him some leftover goulash. I haven't seen him yet this morning." , but I just woke up." Louis said and thought, oh my god, you have such a poise to be one of the greatest killers ever.Dr. Creed, when was the last time you saw that dead cat?He came back for supper, had a plate of goulash, and hadn't seen him since.

Allie said, "Okay, kiss it for me." Louis said, "Yeah, go ahead and kiss your cat yourself." Ellie giggled on the phone and said, "Dad, do you still have to talk to Mom?" "Of course, give the phone to Mom." Louis then chatted with Rachel for a few minutes without mentioning Church, then said "I love you" to each other, and Louis hung up. "It's over," he said to the empty, light-filled room, and maybe the worst part was that he didn't feel bad, didn't feel guilty at all.