Mrs. Avery

Chapter 31

She arrived at Big Chris's with the same intention she always had. She was going to give Pam a break and fight with Big Chris over checkers. She was constantly forcing him to talk and in all honesty it pissed him off a lot.

After he quit fuming over her last instigated argument, she came after him with something that pissed her off quite a bit.

"Chris what in the actual hell is your problem? You know your wife and son are terrified of leaving you alone, but you're fucking fine from what I can see."

"Watch your m- m-" He huffed in frustration and closed his eyes as he concentrated. "mouth."

"Absolutely not. This is getting old. You're only going to get better at speaking if you do it more. I've told you over and over, but it just isn't sticking. Look how far you've already come."

"You think" there was a jumbled mass of words that followed and he caught himself and slowed down. "You think, they would think I am any better off?" He said slowly. He started another jumbled mess and then sighed in frustration. "I don't need them looking at me with anymore-" He froze searching for the word. "p-pity."

"Chris for the love of God. They think you can't speak or care for yourself. You don't think that trying would change their outlook."

He huffed, but she could tell he was eyeing her thoughtfully.

"You do what you want Chris, I can keep coming over to do this and we can up it to a few times a week. Pam needs a break anyway. She watches you like a hawk, when you're as far from handicapped as I've ever seen you." Agnes questioned if she was pushing him too hard to speak, but it had been so long since his stroke and he clearly could speak.

They sat in silence and played for a while.

"Even you cried the first... time I" He paused working it out. "talked to you. You, you weren't at the," he paused again. He rolled his hand for Agnes to help, but it took her a moment too.

"Hospital?" she asked.

"Hospital." He repeated. "You... didn't see the worst."

She shook her head. "Chris, I cried because I was still your girl after all these years. And when you said it. I didn't feel like an outsider for a moment. I felt like I was a kid and I was right where I was supposed to be for the first time in a long time. Like back before all this awful stuff happened. I didn't expect to find that here and it caught me off guard after a hellish day."

He thought on that for a long time while they played.

"I don't want to be the fool." Chris said quietly when he was moving a checker piece. He said the sentence flawlessly like he had worked on it long before he attempted to say it.

"I don't think you ever could be and I don't think you realize how much things could go back to normal, if you just tried speaking with them. Show them you're still the same man. You're all there... you just have a speech impediment now." She eyed him playfully.

"Like that." He spat out. "I-I can't tell if I'm the fool." He looked dejected as he sat back in his chair. "It's like I ..." He paused for a long time. "can't tell anymore."

"Chris, no one in this family would be malicious with you. And if you need someone to hint to you whether it's a joke or not then, I will stand by for exactly that."

He shook his head at her.

"Do whatever you want," She said giving up the argument. "but then I'm just going to keep coming here to fight with you. I won't baby you like the rest of them."

"I would ex-" He paused. "expect nothing less from my girl." He smiled at her as he took out another one of her pieces.

"Wow... you old bat." She teased him as she tried to figure out what to do. "If we're going to keep doing this then tell me how to reseal a bathtub."