The visit begins a change in Micah, who starts to want more from his narrow life.
Chapter Two
When Micah went on his runs he never wore his glasses.
He hated to feel them bobbing up and down on his nose, was why.
He hated how they grew steamy when he sweated.
This was unfortunate, because in the past few years his distance vision had noticeably worsened.
Hey, he said to Micah, getting to his feet.
“Hey, Micah said.
He veered slightly to the left of the boy as he climbed the steps.
“Um, the boy said.
Micah turned to look back at him.
“Do you live here?
This was a rich kid, Micah saw.
Handsome, in that polished and privileged sort of way.
“Mr. Micah Mortimer?”
The boy raised his chin.
He said, I’m Brink Adams.
Wouldn’t you know he’d have a name like Brink.”
“Well, hi, Micah said, on a tentative note.
“Brink Bartell Adams, the boy said.
Was this supposed to mean something?
The boy seemed to think so.
“How do you do, Micah said.
“Lorna Bartell’s son.”
Micah dropped his hands from his waist.
He said, Whoa.
Brink nodded several times.
How is Lorna, anyway?”
“She’s fine.”
“Well, what do you know, Micah said.
I haven’t thought of Lorna in .
What’s she up to nowadays?”
“She’s a lawyer, Brink said.
Micah said, Really.
Didn’t see that one coming.”
Brink asked, cocking his head.
What did you imagine she’d be doing?”
Micah hadn’t given it a thought, to tell the truth.
“Senior, Brink said.
Actually, no, but Micah didn’t bother correcting him.
Brink still seemed to be waiting for something, but Micah didn’t know what.
He said, So!
You live around here?
“No, I’m just passing through, Brink said.
I thought I’d look you up.
“Well, isn’t that "
“You got time for a cup of coffee or something?
Uh, sure, Micah said.
You want to come inside?
Where’s your mom living now?
Micah tossed back as they descended the outside stairwell.
His voice gave off a faint echo.
“She’s in D.C.”
“Is that so.”
She was a D.C. lawyer.
Had a son with pushed-up blazer sleeves.
Micah unlocked the back door and stood aside to let Brink enter first.
“That’s okay.
He was looking toward the living area beyond the kitchen.
Sorry about the mess, Micah said.
I like to get my run out of the way first thing in the morning.
But he took the ground coffee from the cabinet and started measuring it out.
His coffeemaker was an old-style electric percolator that he’d found here when he moved in.
He filled it with tap water and plugged it in.
“Yes, just.
Micah set the sugar bowl on the table, along with a spoon.
He sat down across from Brink.
His mouth was not Lorna’s, though.
It was curved at the top, dipping at the center, while hers had been straighter and firmer.
“So, Micah said.
Your mom’s a lawyer.
What kind of lawyer?
“She works with Legal Aid.”
In other words, not the high-powered attorney he had been picturing.
But it didn’t explain the rich-boy son.
How about your dad?
“He’s a lawyer, too.
Micah drummed his fingers absently on the table.
The percolator chugged in the background.
“They’re both, like, goal-oriented, Brink said.
They’re always asking what my plan is.
But I don’t have a clue what my plan is!
I’m just a freshman at Montrose College!
And even that is a comedown, as far as they’re concerned.
They were hoping I’d get into Georgetown, where my dad went.
Him especially; seems nothing I do can ever satisfy my dad.
“That’s tough, Micah said.
“Him and me are like oil and water, Brink said.
I’m more your punch in of person.
What do you know about my key in?
“You’re just an odd-jobs guy.
You don’t have a dedicated profession.
Great: he had become a poster boy for layabouts.
How do you know that?
“My mom said.
Lorna kept track of what he was doing nowadays?
Her and you were standing under a dogwood tree and you had your arm around her.
So I took it to her and asked, Who’s this?
and she said, Oh!
Micah Mortimer, she said, and then she said you were the love of her life.
“She said that?
“Well, or she’d thought so at the time, she said.”
My aunt Marissa told her.
oh, Micah said.
That would be Marissa Baird, he supposed Lorna’s college roommate.
The percolator started its final frenzy of gurgles that meant the coffee was almost ready.
Micah stood up and went to take two mugs from the overhead cabinet.
He waited until the gurgles had stopped and then filled the mugs and brought them back to the table.
“Aunt Marissa still goes to all their college reunions, Brink said.
She knows where everyone is.
“Figures, Micah said.
He slid the sugar bowl toward Brink.
“You weren’t very hard to track down, Brink told him.
“No, I don’t suppose I was, Micah said.
Micah Mortimer, Prop.
Like one of those general-store signs in a Wild West movie, right?
“Thanks, Micah said drily.
He took a swallow of coffee.
He looked at the bar of sunshine on the floor.
“Question is, he said, why you would want to track me down.
Brink was stirring sugar into his coffee, but he stopped and raised his eyes to Micah.
Look, he said.
you might see I don’t belong in that family.
I’m a, like, misfit.
They’re all so .
I’m more like you.
“But you don’t even know me, Micah said.
“Genes do count for something, though, Brink said, gazing at him steadily.
“I don’t understand, Micah said finally.
“I think you would if you thought about it, Brink said.
“Excuse me?”
Brink released an exasperated puff of a breath.
Do I have to spell it out?
You and my mom .
you two were this item .
Mom gets pregnant
“What?”
Brink continued gazing at him.
“Surely your mom isn’t saying I had anything to do with that, Micah said.
“Mom isn’t saying anything.
Any time I’ve asked who it was, she says it’s immaterial.”
“Immaterial, Micah said.
He felt an impulse to laugh, but he didn’t want to be unkind.
Okay, let’s think about this for a sec, he said.
How old are you, anyway?
“Eighteen, Brink said.
“Eighteen years old.
And I left school over twenty years ago more than twenty years ago.
Besides which
Besides which, he and Lorna had never once had sex.
He had sort of admired her absoluteness, you might say.
Oh, a lot of Lorna’s appeal had been her absoluteness!
However, this was probably something he shouldn’t get into with her son.
Who was staring at him blankly now.
His face had a kind of frozen look.
Well, that’s .
Wait; that’s not possible.
“it’s possible for you to tell me the truth, you know, Brink said.
It’s not like I’m planning to sue you for child support or anything.
I’ve already got a dad.
Who legally adopted me, by the way, when him and Mom got married.
I’m not expecting anything from you.
“Maybe your dad is your father, Micah said.
Your biological father, I mean.
“No, Mom didn’t even meet him until I was two.”
Brink was looking angry now.
It seemed he’d made a conscious decision to be angry; he suddenly pushed his mug away.
A dollop of coffee splashed onto the table.
It was you, he said.
Who else could it be?
“That I couldn’t say, Micah told him.
“You were the only boyfriend-pop in guy in the shoebox.
“Look, Micah said.
I didn’t even know she got pregnant.
She’s who you should be asking.”
Brink was still glaring at Micah.
I’ve asked a million times, he said.
She just says all that counts is Dad was the one who helped raise me.
“She’s got a point, Micah said.
“But what about my genetic makeup?
What if I need to know about some medical condition that runs in that side of the family?
Only kidding, he said.
Can I top off your coffee?
Brink shook his head.
On the kitchen counter, Micah’s cell phone rang.
He stood up and went over to peer at the screen.
It was an unfamiliar number.
He unplugged the phone from its charger and answered it.
Tech Hermit, he said.
“Is this Micah Mortimer?”
“Oh, thank God.
You’re a difficult man to track down.
Well, I’ve stopped using Computer-Master; they don’t know beans, I’ve learned .
He paused, perhaps to let Micah chime in and agree with him.
And now I find myself in an emergency situation, he said.
I’ve lost every single thing on my computer.
Documents, tax files everything.
Was it backed up?”
“Well, see, I know I should have backed up .
Micah sighed and reached for the notepad beside the toaster.
Okay, he said, where you located?”
The man lived in Rodgers Forge.
Micah told him he’d be there by eleven.
Secretly, he was glad to have an excuse to get moving.
After he hung up he told Brink, Looks like I’ll need to see to this.
Brink nodded and rose to his feet, not meeting Micah’s eyes.
He didn’t seem angry anymore, just dejected.
As he headed for the door he said, Well, anyhow, thanks for the coffee.
“Try asking your mom again, hear?
Micah called after him.
Brink just lifted one hand and let it flop as he walked out the door.
“And tell her I said hello!
Micah added, like an idiot.
But the door was already closing again with a quiet, conclusive click.
Mr. Wayne’s lost files were merely in hiding, it turned out.
Micah located them in no time, and Mr. Wayne was abjectly grateful.
Micah said sternly, and Mr. Wayne raised both palms and said, I know!
I’ve learned my lesson: from now on I’m backing up.
Micah should have asked him how he planned to do that.
Chances were he had no notion how.
But his heart wasn’t in it, somehow.
It was the boy, he thought as he drove down Charles Street.
That boy Brink was still tugging at his mind.
Or once again thought of her fondly, was more like it.
(Their breakup had been an angry one; he’d caught her kissing another guy.)
But she was his first real love, after all.
He had never had much experience with girls.
He’d been considered sort of a loner.
Yet there was nothing shy or humble about her.
She seemed eerily self-contained.
He set his tray on her table and asked, Okay if I sit here?
and she said, It’s fine, without a trace of a smile.
He’d liked how she hadn’t amped herself up at the sight of him.
No sudden flash of teeth or zippy tone of voice.
She was who she was.
A purist was how she had struck him.
The surprise was that she’d gotten pregnant in the first place.
Lorna Bartell, so very, very sure of her principles!
He never would have believed it.
(“Did you see that?
Not even the tiniest jolt.")
The thing about old girlfriends, Micah reflected, is that each one subtracts something from you.
And less there in the one after that, and even less in the one after that one.
After Lorna, he’d dated Zara exotic and dramatic, given to kente-cloth headdresses.
Or maybe it was Wyoming.
Oh, Micah had not had a very good history with women.
It just seemed they kept losing interest in him; he couldn’t say exactly why.
With Cass things were more .
And certainly there was no talk of marriage.
He cut over to York Road to pick up a wall switch at Ace Hardware.
Also, while he was at it, a set of grab bars for the bathroom in 3B.
Then he stopped by the Giant to get the ingredients for his chili.
Pushing his cart past the canned goods, he had a kind of flashback to this morning’s dream.
The baby had been smack in the middle of an aisle much like this one.
Where the devil had that dream come from?
Some might call it prophetic, even if Brink was well past infancy.
Copyright: Excerpted fromRedhead By the Side of the Roadby Anne Tyler.
Copyright 2020 by Anne Tyler.
Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.
No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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