The Old Man in the Club (10 page)

“He's the youngest, but he will protect his sister,” Elliott said. “He has that spirit already.”

They represented a happy family, navigating their way through minor crises, enduring financial concerns and growing together. When Elliott was awarded $2.4 million in a settlement in his wrongful conviction, their lives were made. Then it all came crashing down when the kids came home while in the eleventh grade to find their parents in the midst of a fight.

There had been arguments before that the kids heard, but the tone in this one was more volatile. They could only hear fragments, but it was perfectly clear when Lucy screamed, “Just leave, Elliott!”

Then there was silence. Daniel and Danielle looked at each other. “It's gonna be okay,” Daniel reassured his sister.

Daniel was wrong. A few minutes later, Elliott stormed out of the house, a suitcase on wheels carrying some of his belongings.

Fear ran through the children. Some of their friends had divorced parents. They felt sorry for them. That evening they could see that would be their fate, too.

Elliott could afford to live in the residential section of the W Hotel because he had money from the civil suit.

He hardly told anyone about his triumph. He took care of his family and the few who stuck with him while he was in prison. He invested in two small auto dealerships that flourished. He also purchased a few properties that he managed. Much of his money was in interest-bearing accounts.

Financial concerns were not a part of his life. But that fight with his wife started a dissent that led to divorce. And his kids blamed him.

When they asked their mother what happened, Lucy said, “I don't want to talk about it. Ask your father.”

When they asked Elliott, he said, “I love you guys. You know I do. But this is between your mother and me. It has nothing to do with you and I don't think it's a conversation we should have.”

“It has everything to do with us,” Daniel said. “Aren't we a part of this family?”

“I'm saying that the problems your mom and I have do not have anything to do with you,” Elliott said.

“I know what that means,” Daniel said.

“You do? What does that mean?” Elliott asked his son.

“That you cheated on Mom,” he said. “We have money. So why
else would she ask you to leave the house? If it wasn't true, you'd say so. But you're giving us this bullshit about it's between you and Mom.”

“Hey, listen, boy, don't you ever curse at me again,” he said. “I don't care if you're seventeen. I'll kick your ass.”

Daniel started to talk back, but Danielle jumped in. “Daddy, this is messed up,” she said. “Please tell me, did you cheat on Mom?”

“Honey, don't ask me that,” he said.

The look on her face pained Elliott. It told of her disappointment in her father, the man she admired the most.

She got up from the couch, crying as she went into her room. Daniel and Elliott sat there. Finally, Daniel said, “You broke up this family. I hope you're proud of yourself.”

“You don't know what you're talking about, Danny,” he said. “I understand you're hurt.”

“If you didn't do something, why would she tell you to leave?” Daniel asked. “There's only one reason she would do that.”

Elliott wanted to talk, but he could not bring himself to do so. Instead, he rose from his seat and put his hand on the shoulder of his son, whose head was hung. “One day you'll understand,” he said as he walked out of the house.

“No, I won't,” Daniel said.

“Daddy,” Danielle said. She had come back into the living room.

Elliott turned to his daughter, his pride and joy. They looked at each other for a moment before she walked over to him. They hugged.

Daniel came over and pulled his sister from their father's arms. “Come on, Danielle,” he said. “Let him go. Let him get out of here. Let's go check on Mom.”

That was among the last extensive conversations he'd had with
his children. Daniel insisted he and Danielle limit their contact with him. Danielle did not want to go along with her brother, but she did because she sensed the pain her mom suffered. She felt it would be a betrayal of Lucy, the victim in the marriage, to maintain close contact with Elliott, the destroyer of the marriage.

At their high school graduation, the kids were cordial to their father but not warm. He was proud and he was hurt. “Lucy, this is killing me,” he said.

Daniel heard him and told his sister. “He's over there begging Mom to forgive him, talking about ‘This is killing me.' ”

“Maybe it really is killing him, Daniel,” Danielle said. “You know he loves her. You know he loves us.”

“If he loved us, he wouldn't have had an affair and they wouldn't be divorced,” Daniel said. “Look, it's graduation. I don't want to talk about this.”

That summer, before going to Michigan State, Elliott asked to take out Lucy and their kids. They agreed, mostly because Lucy insisted. At Paschal's Restaurant on Northside Drive, they ordered soul food and talked about each other's lives.

“So, Michigan State, huh?” Elliott said. “The Spartans. Great basketball program. I'm really glad you all are staying together in college.”

“Yeah, me, too, Daddy,” Danielle said. “Daniel gets on my last nerves sometimes, but I'm not ready to separate from him yet.”

“Well, your mother and I started saving for your education when you were born,” Elliott said. “Since you all earned scholarships that's taking care of tuition, I'm going to take care of room and board. And you can use that money we saved for your incidentals: fun, food, clothes, whatever you want.”

“Don't do us any favors,” Daniel said.

“What's your problem, son?” Elliott said.

“Daddy, don't listen to him,” Danielle said. “I love the idea. Thank you. Thank you both.”

“It was your father's idea and it's a good one,” Lucy said. “We're so proud of you both.”

“Don't try to make him look good, Mom,” Daniel said.

“Daniel—” Elliott started.

“Wait,” Lucy jumped in. “Daniel, I want you to stop being so angry. We're sitting here having dinner as a family. There is no need for you to be rude to your father. Why would you do that?”

She did Daniel as she had many times before done Elliott: She made him think.

After a long pause, Daniel said, “I don't know. It just feels right.”

“That's a child's answer,” Lucy said. “You're a young man; a smart young man at that. Unless you can express yourself better than that, I say you let go of your hostility and enjoy this family time. You two are going to college in two weeks. I'm sad to see you go. But I'm glad to see you go. It's your time to grow up.”

“I miss you all, and you haven't even gone yet,” Elliott said. “I know it was a busy summer, but I really wish we had seen each other more.”

Everyone braced for Daniel to fire off an angry response. Instead, he said, “Dad, thank you for the room and board.”

It was the first comment to Elliott that was not angry in the year-and-a-half since the divorce. “Sure, son,” Elliott said.

“You don't plan on coming to visit us at school, do you?” Daniel asked.

“Actually, I do,” he answered.

“Well, I'm sure I'll be busy when you come,” Daniel snapped.

“Well, you can hang out with me, Daddy,” Danielle said.

“No, he can't; you'll be with me,” Daniel said.

“Listen here, Daniel, enough is enough,” Lucy said. “Let me tell you what happened.”

“No, you're not,” Elliott jumped in.

“Look,” Daniel said. “He doesn't want us to know what he did.”

“I told you before,” Elliott said, looking around to make sure no other patrons were listening to their conversation, “this was none of your business. Lucy, we agreed that we would deal with this ourselves. The children should not be in the middle of it.”

“You act like we're kids or something,” Daniel said. “Shoot, we know the truth anyway.”

“We're going to continue our meal talking about pleasant stuff, if that's okay with you, Daniel,” Elliott said. “If it's not, then too bad.”

Danielle snickered. “That's funny to you?” Daniel asked.

“This is your last warning,” Lucy said. “You hear me, Daniel?”

“I hear you, Mom,” he said, staring at his father.

There was no more drama the rest of the meal, but the animosity Daniel—and to a lesser degree, Danielle—felt grew over time. Elliott went on with his life, occasionally speaking to his daughter, who did not relay to her brother that she was in touch with their dad.

It ate at him that his relationship with his children was less than great. It was important to him. Elliott had a close relationship with his father. But the toll of his arrest and conviction wore heavily on Walter Thomas, and his health faded slowly and then rapidly while his son was incarcerated.

By the time Elliott was released, his father was a fraction of the active, jovial man he had been. Depression led to physical breakdowns that doomed him, no matter how many letters Elliott sent him from prison insisting that everything would be all right.

His dad's death was a landmark event in his life. It not only
riddled him with guilt because he believed his father would have been fine if he did not get convicted, but it also reinforced the idea that life was short and to live each day as if it were your last.

“Obviously, there is truth to that,” his therapist said to him the week before he saw his kids at Vanquish. “But could it be that you're using that as an excuse to live this lifestyle of a younger man?”

“Maybe I am,” Elliott conceded. “I don't know. I just know it feels like the thing for me to do right now. Maybe it will help me relate better to my kids and can help me rebuild our relationship.”

“What I can say for sure is that you're not going to rebuild the relationship
hoping
to rebuild it,” Dr.
Nottingham said. “Nothing happens without action. So, the question becomes: What are you going to do?”

Elliott was stumped. “You're always asking me questions,” he said. “I come here for answers.”

“I just gave you an answer,” she said. “Do something. If it were me, I would call my kids together and tell them what they want to hear.”

“And what's that?” Elliott said.

“Do I really need to tell you that?”

“There you go again with the questions,” he responded.

Dr. Nottingham looked at him.

Finally, Elliott said, “There are a lot of things I want to say to them. But then my son gets so angry and disrespectful.”

“He's only angry because he loves you,” she said.

“What?” Elliott asked.

“He cannot express his love because he's angry. But through his anger he's expressing his love,” she said. “He could not be so mad at you if he didn't care about you as he does.”

“His sister is mad at me, too, but she's very respectful and available to me,” Elliott said.

“Your daughter is spoiled and the female extension of you,” Dr. Nottingham said. “The doting father to a daughter is almost more valuable than anything she could ever receive. At the same time, her brother is her twin and that connection is usually unbreakable. It's natural for her to go with him, even if her heart is telling her something else.

“For Daniel, his mother is the symbol of life for him, and the older he gets, the more responsibility to protect and defend her he takes on, especially after a divorce. He feels like he's protecting and defending her by being angry with you.”

Elliott left his session convinced he would have to take the lead to end the contentious relationship with his children. He thought he would invite them over for dinner and have a heart-to-heart. But before he made the call, he ran into them at the lounge while with their college friend, Tamara.

He went on that night and the next to have nice times with Tamara, but he was saddled with the thought of what his kids thought of him. He did not feel like meeting Henry for lunch or doing much of anything—sudden fatigue he attributed to post-cancer trials. But it really was mental. He was drained from his lack of a relationship with Daniel and Danielle, and Friday night's encounter only magnified the rift.

Worse, he was embarrassed. It was one thing to philander with women less than half his age. It was another that his kids knew it—
and
were college classmates of Tamara. Caught up in the moment, he pushed aside the awkwardness of the situation. With quiet time to think about it, he was panicked.

He sat on his balcony sipping on an Arnold Palmer and lamented his plight. This was far from the relationship he expected to have with his children. He called Lucy, who lived in Southwest Atlanta, to see if she could offer advice. He had spoken to her on this subject many times over the years.

“I don't know if you have a different solution now,” he said, “but I just want this to get better.”

“Well, Elliott, from what I was told yesterday, it got worse,” Lucy said. “Daniel called.”

He knew his son had told his mother that Elliott was with Tamara. Elliott felt weak.

“Is it true, Elliott?” Lucy asked. “You're dating one of their friends? No, don't answer. I already know. I have heard things from some of your so-called friends over the last year or so about you hanging out at nightclubs, like you're twenty-five or something. So this only makes sense. And it's disgusting.”

“Lucy, I didn't call you to make you upset,” he started.

“You can do whatever you want to do,” she snapped. “Just keep my kids out of it.”

“Oh, now they're
your
kids?” Elliott said. “All I have ever done since this marriage fell apart was protect them. And you know that.”