Objects in mirror are closer than they appear

 
by khaleesian

 

The first clue he had that something wasn’t right was when he got out of the shower.

 

A sound had been mingling with the hiss of water on tile intermittently and it had registered on some part of his subconscious. An annoying underlying buzz like an unseen fly. It wasn’t until he’d turned off the taps that he realized his phone was ringing.

 

He sighed and rolled his shoulders and debated spending another five minutes under the water. The phone cut to voicemail. He grabbed a towel off the rail and stepped carefully onto the tile, which was cool just not quite cool enough.

 

Today, the temperature had soared up into triple digits and the sun beat down mercilessly. Inside the garage was shaded but still hot. It felt like his eyes had been in a perpetual squint all day. Sweat had caked dust in the space between his shoulder blades and the heat almost made it difficult to breathe. The only remedy was a long, cold shower which was why he’d been standing under the spray for twenty minutes, trying to steal a lasting chill from the well water.

 

Dom wrapped the towel around his waist not bothering to dry off. He examined himself in the mirror, front and side view, and thought about squeezing in another session with the weights in the garage after sunset. He shook his head, chuckling to himself. He was forty-something; he was lucky his warranty hadn’t run out completely.

 

Just as he was thinking about calling Brian and telling him to pick up some fresh avocados, the phone rang again. He could hear it vibrating against the handful of change in his pants pocket. He ignored it. His phone rang a dozen times a day.

 

Customers called. Potential customers called. Suppliers called. Friends called with plans for the evening or weekend. Dom managed to send Mia a hunt-and-peck email about once a month, because neither of them had a land line anymore.

 

Fresh clothes, fresh clothes. He opened the closet carefully, cautious of Brian’s snorkel gear and flippers which had a tendency to try to leap off the top shelves where they’d been wedged onto the heads of the unwary. He pulled out his thinnest t-shirt and some half-bleached chinos and toed out some flip-flops and thought about calling JT for avocados instead.

 

The phone trilled out of the nest of discarded clothes on the floor like a plaintive baby bird.

 

Brian’s particular ringtone changed every time Dom got a new phone…but he’d had six new phones over eighteen years and whichever syncopated ring belonged to Brian still had the power to make him grin to himself. It was chiming with that tone now and he dropped his towel to reach for it, just as the phone stopped ringing. He glanced at the green screen and then squinted again in disbelief.

 

Ten missed calls. Ten. 1 and a zero. He’d been in the shower for twenty minutes.

 

Dom straightened, feeling a sudden shuddering cascade of anxiety.

 

Just then the phone rang again, the vibration in his hand and the sound in the silent room made him jump. He stared at it dumbly for a second, the little screen just reading ‘JT’. The anxiety didn’t go away, if anything it seemed to squeeze down into his stomach as he pressed the button and said simply, “Jess?”

 

“D-d-dad?” His son’s voice quavered and suddenly, Dom didn’t feel the heat at all. A glacier of frozen fear slid over the back of his neck and through his veins like meltwater.

 

“Jess, what’s wrong?”

 

“Dad, I…Dad,” Jesse’s breath was hitching in that way that Dom recognized as his son’s best efforts not to cry. Jesse hadn’t actually cried in almost a decade, but somehow Dom could still tell that Jesse was close to tears.

 

Dom gripped the phone tighter. Thoughts were racing around his head so fast, it felt like his skull would explode. He made his voice gentle. “Jess, what’s happened? Please tell me.”

 

“Dad, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…”

 

Dom’s voice sank another half-tone and he didn’t bother with gentle. “Jess, just TELL ME!”

 

“Dad, I’m…” Jesse took a deep breath. “I wrecked the Evo. I…Dad, I think might be totaled.”

 

“Jesse,” Dom tried to un-grit his teeth. “Are you all right?”

 

There was a pause. Dom squeezed his eyes shut and focused on just one thought please.

 

“Yeah, Dad, I’m fine. Hit my head a little, but they say it’s just gonna be a few stitches.”

 

Dom took a deep breath and the sudden richness of the oxygen made him almost light-headed. “Are you at a hospital? Where are you?”

 

He was already out the door then he realized that he didn’t have his keys. He ducked back inside, wondering if there was anything else that he was going to need. Money, probably.

 

“No, not yet. They say they’re gonna take me over to Maria Theresa in a minute. They’re towing the car, Dad.”

 

Dom asked, “Cops?”

 

Jesse’s voice dropped down an octave. “Green Angels.”

 

Dom was brought up short as a thought hit him. “Is anyone else hurt?”

 

“No.” Blessedly, Jesse did not hesitate. “Just me and mostly the Evo.”

 

“That’s all right then,” Dom said gruffly. “I’ll meet you at the hospital.”

 

“Dad, uh…”

 

Dom tightened his grip on the phone again, this was the part where Jesse confessed he couldn’t feel his legs or something.

 

“Dad, I may have really fucked up here.”

 

“Baby boy, please don’t worry about the stupid fucking car, all right?” Dom thought about it for a nanosecond and then slid into the Chevelle. Right now, he couldn’t stand to think of Jesse riding around in anything less than a tank, but the Chevelle would just have to do. “We’ll handle it.”

 

“No…it’s…it’s not that. I was…” Jess took another breath. “I was scared. And I couldn’t reach you right away. And I just…panicked a little.”

 

“Oh, jeez, I got a bad feeling about this.” Dom rested his forehead against the steering wheel. Guilt jabbed at his gut and he already knew what Jesse was about to say.

 

“I, uh…”

 

“You called Brian.” Dom rubbed his hand over his forehead and winced. “Where is he?”

 

Jess paused again and said quietly. “He was in Ensenada.”

 

“Well, babe,” Dom sighed. “You’d better just pray that I get there first.”

 

**********

 

After clicking the phone shut, he noticed that he now had thirteen missed calls. He shook his head. He didn’t even have to look at the call history.

 

The phone rang again as he was turning onto the highway. Brian’s tone, naturally. Dom tried to coordinate taking two deep, cleansing breaths while getting up to speed, checking his mirrors and clicking on the phone. “Yeah, I’m on it.”

 

“WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN?”

 

Dom pulled the phone away from his ear with a grimace. “Look, he’s all right, have you talked to him?”

 

“I’ll believe it when I see it.” Brian snarled, uncompromising. “Have you turned on the radio? ‘Evite la carretera 23…Avoid the highway 23 interchange because of an accident with injuries.’ WITH INJURIES, DOM!”

 

“He hit his head, probably snapped it against the door frame. He’s getting a few stitches.” Dom tried out his most soothing tone.

 

“Which could mean that he has a concussion. Bleeding in his brain, Dom. Subdural he-hematoma.” Brian choked the word out like it was a curse.

 

“He says he’s fine and I believe him.” Dom waited for a count of five. “Hey man, are you driving right now?”

 

“I’m at the fifty mile marker.” Brian growled an assent. Brian was probably driving like he was in a rally race. Dom did not point out Brian’s hypocrisy; he was pushing it way past redline himself. “Be there in twenty.”

 

“Make it thirty. Don’t…compound the tragedy, papi.” Dom tried to relax his own tense shoulders so he could project relaxation at Brian. “He’s a tough kid. He’ll be fine.”

 

“Yeah, well, he’d just better be fine,” Brian snapped. “Because I’m going to kill him.”

 

********

 

The Sanatorio Maria Theresa was always full of people but Dom didn’t need more than thirty seconds to find his son. Jess was slumped dejectedly on a bench lining the main corridor, the patch of bandage on his sun-gold skin looking like a flag of surrender. Jesse seemed to feel his father’s eyes upon him; he glanced up as Dom drew near and was on his feet faster than thought.

 

There was a tiny, barely-acknowledged part of Dom that was weirdly grateful for this, for the wreck. Because it had been months since Jesse had turned sixteen, three years since he had become just ‘JT’ and it seemed like an eternity since he would tolerate the hugs that his father wanted to give him.

 

But now Jess didn’t protest when Dom grabbed him into a full-body squeeze with their faces pressed cheekbone to cheekbone. Dom cupped a hand around the back of his son’s neck. He could feel Jess trembling deep underneath and he tightened his arms, wanting to turn himself into a steel shield, wanting Jess to feel all his strength.

 

Jess rolled his forehead against his father’s gratefully. His close-cropped hair tickled Dom’s brow bone.

 

After a minute, Dom pulled back and looked at Jesse critically. He noticed for the thousandth time that he had to look slightly up at his son and it gave him a fierce secret thrill. Jesse was at what Mia kindly referred to as an ‘awkward stage’, but that just meant that he was long and lanky with hands and feet that he still needed to grow into. His frame hadn’t rounded out into Dom’s overt musculature quite yet, but it was just a matter of time.

 

Jess seemed to want and yet not to want to dive back into Dom’s embrace, so Dom slung an arm around his shoulders and urged him down the hallway toward the sunlight. Jess almost tripped over a seated man’s foot and he apologized distractedly in both Spanish and English.

 

“How d’you feel?” Dom asked quietly.

 

“I puked,” Jesse confessed. “Still kinda…shaky.”

 

“That’s all you got?” Dom pointed up at the bandage. “I was kind of expecting more.”

 

Jess silently brandished his left forearm, which was red and raw with superficial abrasions. Road rash. So he’d flipped the car. Dom raised his eyebrows.

 

Jess swallowed visibly. “I was wearing my harness.”

 

“I’d expect nothing less,” Dom said dryly. “What happened?”

 

Jess evaded that question for a moment by pushing open the double doors. They both squinted up into the sunlight for a second and turned toward the red Chevelle which Dom had parked without much regard for the red zone. One of the nicer elements in this part of Baja…no one really minded where you parked in an emergency.

 

When Dom made no move to get in the car, Jess shut the door he had half-opened. He looked at Dom’s face, pressed his hands into his eyes in what Dom always found an oddly familiar, mirror-like gesture and groaned. “He’s coming here, isn’t he?”

 

“What do you think, kiddo?” Dom showed Jesse his beleaguered phone. “How many of these are yours?”

 

Jess blinked at the message count and washed one hand over his face. “Three, maybe? Four?”

 

“So we’d probably better stay put.” Dom squeezed Jesse’s shoulder with a reassurance that he didn’t feel.  When Brian and Jesse fought, the atmosphere in the house soured for days.

 

They heard him before they saw him. The hum of Brian’s engine sounded like a swarm of hornets.

 

Brian was driving the gorgeous gray Infiniti G35 that he was currently customizing for Mia. It streaked into the parking lot like a scalded cat and Brian slammed on the brakes at the high curve of his arc, putting him into a virtuoso sideways slide. Through his own apprehension, Dom had to fight back a grin. Being angry and freaked out always turned Brian’s driving skills up a notch. Which might have been a shame or a good thing, Dom didn’t really know.

 

Brian looked at them through the windshield for a second, like he almost couldn’t pull his vise-tight hands from the steering wheel. His eyes were as intense and unforgiving as lasers. Dom slanted a glance toward Jesse, noting that Jess was now studiously examining his shoes. In contrast with the effortless grace of his driving, when Brian pulled himself from the car his movements were stiff and jerky.

 

Brian walked straight to Jesse and gripped his son’s shoulders. They stared at each other for a long second. Then Brian began to pat Jesse, like he was patting him down, slapping lightly at Jess’ shoulders, arms, chest and back.

 

“I’m fine, papi,” Jesse said softly.

 

Brian smacked him on the back of the head so hard that Dom winced. “And that’s a fucking miracle, for starters. You are so grounded. You might not see daylight until the end of summer.”

 

Jess flinched, but wisely said nothing.  

 

Brian turned to Dom. “I would have been here sooner, but I took a little detour to the scene of the crime. Had a chat with Oscar. Let’s go take a look at your son’s performance art.”

 

Dom snorted. Jesse always became his son whenever he fucked up. Just like Brian was called Brian until Jess needed a little tenderness and then he became ‘papi’. Dom had started saying that half-ironically back in the mists of time. When Jess had been all big eyes and sticky fingers. Dom lost a moment, wishing he could magically have that time back while Brian ranted.

 

When he came back to himself, Brian was pointing at Jess. “You ride with me, JT.”

 

“Nah, we’ll follow you.” Dom ignored Jesse’s exaggerated slouch of relief and waved him into the car. Brian gave Dom the laser eyes for a second and his mouth was a tight line.

 

After eighteen years, Dom was not stupid enough to say something like ‘calm down’ which would have just made Brian erupt like Krakatoa. But he said it with his eyes and after a moment, Brian threw up his hands and almost flounced back into the G35. Dom breathed a sigh of relief when Brian tore the clutch open and vroomed out of the parking lot.

 

Dom followed more sedately in the Chevelle. Jesse cast him a pleading look which Dom manfully ignored.

 

********

 

“I should never have called him.” Jess prodded at his bandage peevishly. Dom caught at Jess’ wrist and gave his hand a quick squeeze.

 

“I dunno,” Dom waved at the proprietor of a roadside stand and traded twenty pesos for a paper bag of avocados. “If he’d found out later, I don’t think I could be responsible for your safety.”

 

“Am I really grounded for the summer?” Jess was obviously trying not to whine, but his mournful tone made Dom have to bite down on a smile.

 

“We’ll discuss it later,” Dom said firmly. He cocked an eye over at Jess. “That car represented a lot of blood, sweat and tears, you know.”

 

“I know, Dad.” Jesse’s silver-blue eyes seemed to shimmer as he blinked his emotions back under control. Jesse’s eyes were a few shades lighter than Brian’s deep blue and sometimes they made him look almost unearthly. “I’ll pay you back. I am really sorry.”

 

“S’okay, kid,” Dom said gruffly. “I believe you.”

 

Up ahead, Brian turned off onto a desultorily paved road and Jesse groaned when he realized where they were headed.  “Why’s he being such a dick?”

 

“I can’t believe that you’re not smart enough to figure that one out on your own.” Dom chided. “That school costs a shit load; just what are they teaching you up there?”

 

“Stuff.” Jess slouched deep into the seat and pushed his knees up on the dash.

 

“Stuff, huh?” Dom nudged Jesse’s knees down with the side of his hand. Jesse shifted uncomfortably and then sat up straight.

 

“Why can’t he be cool like you?” Jesse folded his lip in a way that was almost but not quite a pout.

 

“I don’t think that anything he’s doing is out of line.” Dom returned firmly. “You fucked up, you live with the consequences.”

 

Jesse was quiet then, so Dom said more gently. “Believe me, Brian is right where you want him.”

 

When Jess looked a question at him, Dom said, “On your side.”

 

Jesse looked at Dom appraisingly. “Why are you being so cool about all this?”

 

“Call it the fruits of painful experience.” Dom let himself chuckle. “This has happened to me once or twice before.”

 

Brian was gesturing for the wizened manager to open up the rusted chain-link gate.

 

Dom pulled in behind Brian and said out of the side of his mouth. “Now you just keep your mouth shut and you might live through this.”

 

**********

 

Oscar Hernandez had recently been promoted to sergeant in the Securidad Vial and was also one of Brian’s best friends. Dom never asked too many questions about how they’d gotten acquainted, figuring the story might put him and Brian at odds. But Dom recognized that Oscar was a valuable ally down here where the law was fuzzy yet unforgiving.

 

Oscar was waiting for them, leaning on his dusty car at the edge of the lot. He stuck out his hand and Brian slap-shook it in a preoccupied way. They exchanged a few words, then Brian turned to look at Dom and Jess and jerked his head toward the side of the junk yard that doubled as an impound lot.

 

Dom trudged in silence with Jess trailing behind. The sun made the metal and fiberglass glitter even under their protective layer of dust. Squinting in the merciless light, Dom continued a few steps further on after Brian and Jesse had stopped. He stopped and turned around quickly. When he realized what he was looking at, his stomach twisted like he’d swallowed a snake.

 

No one could blame him for not recognizing the Evo. It was almost impossible to tell that what he was looking at was a car. 

 

He and Brian had fitted a custom split grille about two years ago; that was completely gone. The front left tire was missing, the front right tire was spectacularly blown out. The hood had crumpled like paper and the engine was exposed. One crackled corner of windshield remained, most of the top had been ripped back to the roll cage and the right side mirror had been sheered off along with the quarter panel.  The left side mirror dangled pathetically. The back of the car was marginally better. At least it was recognizable as something that had until recently been an automobile.

 

Green goo oozed from the cracked radiator. It made the Evo look like some alien beast in the last stage of its death throes. Bending down, Dom could see the other dark pools of fluid signifying huge systemic failure.

 

They all gazed in silence at the wreckage.

 

Dom looked down at the driver’s seat which was still flecked with green diamond crystals of safety glass. He said softly, “You know, you’re right Jess. I think it might be totaled.”

 

Jesse bit his lip and scuffed the toe of his sneaker deep into the dirt.

 

Brian folded his arms and scowled. “How fast were you going?”

 

Jesse glanced at Dom and Brian actually growled. Jesse looked almost chalky-white under his tan.  Jesse sighed and tilted his chin up to say, “158.”

 

“And you just…what? Thought you could make a 100 degree turn at speed by just slicing off the corner?” Brian snapped.

 

Jesse stayed silent. Brian nudged him with a hard shoulder and Jesse nodded with a non-committal grunt. 

 

“Great. Just fucking great.” Brian was getting sarcastic which was a short step to bellowing. “10 points for daring. 11 points for stupid. You, of all people, should know better. I cannot believe that an honors student doesn’t think…”

 

Jesse started to shrink further from Brian’s angry pointed fingers and furious voice. Without thinking, Dom cupped the left hand mirror and then jerked it free from the remaining cords. The face of the mirror was oddly un-shattered.

 

“Hey.” Dom’s voice cut into Brian’s infuriated outburst. “Can I talk to you for a second? Alone?”

 

Brian looked like he would be glad to start yelling at Dom too, but at the last second he just clamped his jaw shut and stalked off behind another column of crushed and junked jalopies. After shooting a warning look at Jesse, Dom trailed in Brian’s wake.

 

“What?” Brian’s face was flushed a hectic red that made him look both sunburned and ten years younger. Somehow, his scowl didn’t highlight his growing laugh lines. He spread his arms as if inviting Dom to take a piece, if he could. “Don’t tell me that I’m overreacting. Don’t you fucking dare.”

 

Dom didn’t say anything, and Brian seemed surprised to be suddenly embraced. “I wasn’t going to say that.”

 

Brian was stiff in his arms. His chin poked into the hollow of Dom’s cheek. “So what then?”

 

“I love it that you’re reacting like this,” Dom placated and then ruined it by saying. “I think it’s hilarious.”

 

Brian stiffened up further still and his voice dripped chill like an icicle. “Why’s that?”

 

Dom held up the mirror so that Brian could see his reflection. “Because you’ve totaled three cars just since I’ve known you. You’ve snapped axles, you’ve had blow-outs, and don’t even get me started about when you were learning to drift, Mr. Five-Car-Pile-Up- First-Time-I-Drove.”

 

Brian had tilted his chin down and looked mulish, “That’s d…”

 

“Are you about to say that it’s different?” Dom asked innocently. “Because no one cares about you, the way you care about Jesse?”

 

Brian looked away from Dom’s eyes.

 

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Dom nudged Brian with the mirror until he took it.

 

“He’s our son,” Brian insisted.

 

“And he’s going to have nightmares for weeks.” Dom assured him. “I will too. But he’s a smart kid and I think this is all he needs to learn that he’s not invincible.”

 

Brian still looked doubtful, so Dom continued. “Look, we’re lucky. No one else got hurt and I’ll bet you anything this won’t ever happen again. And all it took was the price of one Mitsubishi Evo.”

 

“And ten years off my life.” Brian grumbled.

 

“Yeah, well, no one gets any guarantees.” Dom folded his arms. “You look like a survivor.”

 

Brian glared at him for a few moments more and then looked down at the mirror. He tilted it until it turned into a spotlight, reflecting the sun.

 

“You’ve crashed a lot of cars too.” Brian said quietly.

 

Dom shrugged. “Very true. Maybe you should ground me.”

 

“You are grounded.” Brian said snarkily, but when Dom jostled him he almost grinned.

 

Jesse was still looking at the car when they turned back and now his waxy pallor was starting to look a little green. He turned when he heard their footsteps and tried to recover a modicum of cool.

 

“Look,” Brian started without preamble. “You’re an adult, or almost. Insofar as you act like one. So you owe your dad $35,000 which is gonna mean a lot of hours of unpaid labor.”

 

Jesse blinked and a flash of hope flared in his eyes.

 

“But I think,” Brian continued. “That we may have had a good four or five years of unpaid labor out of you already. So we have a position that’s negotiable, you understand me?”

 

Jesse nodded vigorously.

 

“But this.” Brian pointed at the metal and glass that had once been an Evo. “This can’t happen again, JT. My heart can’t take it. Got me?”

 

“I got you,” Jesse said softly.

 

Jess touched the edge of his bandage like it itched. Brian reached up to flick his fingers away and Jess cleverly dropped his shoulder so it was easy for Brian to give him a quick squeeze.

 

********

 

“Just how many people did you call?” They’d arrived back at their place to find it teeming with cars. Anxious friends had clustered around the lot, the little clots broke up when Brian pulled up and they were surrounded by a small crowd jabbering in English and Spanish.

 

Brian sighed. “A lot. Trying to find you.”

 

“Well, that’ll teach me to take a shower when Jesse’s in town.” Dom shook his head. “I was going to grill, but…”

 

Brian rolled his eyes as Jesse pulled up behind them, driving the Chevelle like he had loose eggs in the backseat.

 

“Don’t even play like we don’t have enough food.” Brian said. “Like you said before, Jesse’s in town. Plus look--” Brian jerked his chin at half of the women in the crowd. “They brought food.”

 

Dom grinned when he got out of the car. Jesse was already surrounded by the anxious mamas, all clamoring for news. This would be Jesse’s true punishment: having to explain to everyone how he’d crashed his dad’s car.

 

It turned into an impromptu party after everyone had assured themselves that Jesse was okay, then they had to know all about what he was doing at school, what he had planned for the summer, what Brian was working on, what Dom was working on, what Dom and Brian could be talking into working on. Somehow, in a loaves-and-fishes type miracle, Dom always managed to have a beer in his hand and after about three hours, he almost managed to forget that his only son had almost succeeded in killing himself today.

 

“I think you’ve got the wrong end of the stick,” Dom said, dumping a double handful of bottles into a bin. They were alone in the kitchen. The music thumped from the patio where the faded light had been replaced by cool, forgiving darkness. A breeze swept through the screened door.

 

“What do you mean?” Brian folded some used paper plates into a thick trash bag.

 

“Somehow I don’t think that the cars are going to be our big problem.” Dom nodded over to the living room where the party was starting to wind down. Where Jesse was sitting on the couch.

 

Between Linda Hernandez and Marina Cortes who had gone to school with Jess back in those big-eyed, sticky-fingered days. Now the girls were having a conversation that required them to toss their well-groomed hair and put their hands on Jesse’s shoulders and biceps a lot.

 

Jesse’s cuts and bruises didn’t seem to be bothering him at all anymore. Jesse’s grin combined his father’s sincere sweetness with his dad’s daredevil charm. Linda crossed her legs, while Marina leaned in to whisper in Jesse’s ear.

 

Brian took a closer look and groaned aloud, while Dom laughed.

 

 

 the end....?