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Damien’s cellphone rang. It was Decker. He was probably at the cabin, pissed his brightest cadet ignored a direct order and left a crime scene with a dead teen on the floor.

He dumped his commander to voicemail and turned back to his mother, still confused as to the man sitting next to her.

“Who are you?” she asked.

“You were telling me about your first date.” “I was?”

“Yes.”

“Why don’t you tell it, Earl,” she said to him.

Damien tightened. Earl. His father. Lost was her son and now his mother’s eyes were looking upon her dead husband.

Damien had sworn to himself he’d never be anything like that man. He’d seen the darkness in his father and spent a lifetime running from it. Now he sat in his stead, the wife addicted to romance novels, who looked past his brutality and her bruises, hopeful the man she fell in love with would one day return home.

Today that man was Damien.

“Sing that song, Earl,” she said. “Our song. Our first dance.”

“You know I don’t have a good voice,” Damien said. “Don’t be shy. Go on. Sing.”

“Let’s talk about something else, Dotty. Remember our first date? After I got back from being on the road?” “Of course I do.”

“Tell me about it.”

“You were all flustered, taking me one place, then another. It was almost like you got the night in reverse.”

“What do you mean?” Damien asked.

“You know what I mean, taking me to that place before Rocco’s. I wasn’t that type of girl. You should’ve known that after you tried to kiss me outside of Cowboy Joe’s, but you were stubborn, even back then. I should have known you were trouble from that first date. Would’ve saved me from a world of hurt. But, young love is blind and foolish.”

“You didn’t like where I took you first?”

“Of course not. Not at all happy. You remember.”

“I do, but I like to hear you say it.”

“Say that I almost walked out on you right there in the middle of the field? You had irked me something good, Earl Hill. I was ready to make the five mile walk home, burning with anger for you.”

“I’m sorry,” Damien said. “You said that then, too.”

He tried to determine open fields within five miles of his childhood home. Not now, back then, before the groves took all the open land.

“Where was it?” he asked. “I don’t remember too well.” “Good. Then maybe you won’t make the same mistake twice.”

“C’mon, Dotty. Just tell me. Please. If you don’t tell me now, then I may accidentally show up there again?”

“What are you saying? You saying you got a mistress?”

“No.”

“That you want to take her there?”

“No.”

“Go ahead, take her. Maybe she’s the outdoor type.”

Damien’s phone rang again.

Decker.

Dumped to voicemail.

“Please, Dotty. Forgive me, just one more time and tell me where we went that night. I’ll make it up to you. I’ll take you to Rocco’s as a way of making amends.”

“I do like their garlic bread and tomato dipping sauce.” “I’ll get you as much as you want.”

She laughed.

“I don’t think we can afford that, Earl.”

“You’re worth it.”

“Well, it was an odd choice for a first date. Out by the abandoned phosphate fields. I thought you had a little more romance in you than that.”

“Do you remember where in the phosphate fields?” “Out near Devil’s Bluff. Sluts and prostitutes use Devil’s Bluff, not an upstanding woman like me. I don’t know what you were thinking, Earl Hill. You drove out there like it was going to be something special. You were sweating all nervous like, jabbering a thousand miles an hour. I thought you were going to have a coronary right then and there. You said you had a surprise for me. Well, I didn’t want no surprise near Devil’s Bluff. I was a proper woman. You were lucky I gave you a second look. You kept trying to convince me until I threatened to cut off your privates and feed ‘em to the wildlife. I couldn’t believe I said such words.

You tended to bring out the worst in me. I thought it was over and you’d just drive me home, but you smiled your crooked smile, the one that hid both good and bad times about to come. Then you popped your truck in reverse and took me to Rocco’s, the way you were supposed to treat a proper lady.”

“Thank you, mom.”

“Mom?” She asked, looking at him as if for the first time. “I’m so sorry. I thought I was talking to my husband. I must apologize. I get confused some times.”

“It’s okay.”

Damien leaned over the bed and kissed her on the forehead.

“I love you, Mom.”

As he was about to leave, she reached out with her cold hand and grabbed his arm.

“Would you do me a favor?” she asked. “Certainly.”

“Would you tell my son, Damien, to come see me? He always tried to protect me when things got messy at home. Even when he was a little boy he’d stick up for me, even if it meant a beating was coming his way. He was a feisty one, but special. A special boy. Full of potential. I miss talking to him. I want to tell him I love him before… before I won’t have the wits to remember.”

Damien smiled, fighting back tears.

“I’ll tell him. I’m sure he knows how much you love him.”

“I hope so. I don’t think I told him enough when he was younger.”

“He knew. He thought you were the best mom in the world.”

“He told you that?”

“He did.”

Damien’s mother released her grip and eased her head into her pillow.

“That’s good. A mother can’t help but love her boys.” She closed her eyes, the conversation having drained her. “My precious boys…”

Damien hurried from the room while he still had the strength to leave.