Chapter 24: Like Father, Like Son

Chet went up the stairs alone, and I waited a minute before following him.

I stopped at the study door, where I could see the balcony through the glass.

My father sat in his chair by the rail with the blanket still over his knees.

Chet stood in front of him with his hands behind his back.

"Sit down, Chet," my father said. "I'm not going to bite."

Chet sat on the stone step.

My father looked at the water for a while.

"Her father once asked me about my intentions," he said. "I told him I hadn't had time to form any."

"You told me that story."

"It was a lie. I had formed them in the first minute."

"Sir."

"I'd like to hear yours. You've had five weeks."

Chet took a long breath.

"I'd like to stay," he said. "If your daughter will have me."

"Go on."

"I'd like to find a job that doesn't need a lie to do it. I'd like to bring my mother here to dinner, if Mrs. Engstrom will allow it."

"She'll allow it."

"And I'd like never to be my father."

My father turned his head and looked at him fully.

"They'll say it," he said. "You know they will. Like father, like son. You'll hear it at dinners for the rest of your life."

"I know."

"I'm told you're afraid of it."

"Yes, sir."

"My father shouted," said my father. "At everything, for forty years. I turned out quiet, and nobody made me."

"How?"

"I decided one morning at nineteen. I decided again the next day, and I've been deciding for thirty-six years."

Chet said nothing.

"You decided on a stage in front of four hundred people," my father said. "I'd say you're ahead of me."

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