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“Why do I gotta learn this?” Jason asked as he and his dad both got out of the truck. The truck’s red paint shined under the rare sunshine through the typical clouds over Gotham. It was in a better condition than most of the vehicles lined down the street. Most were scratched and bent on the sides, color peeling away, tape around the bumper—sometimes missing said bumper. His dad liked taking care of his truck and took Jason to the mechanic with all his mechanic friends who offered Jason lollipops.
“Because it’s fun,” his dad assured him as he opened the driver side door for Jason to climb inside.
The door closed and Jason situated himself in his seat. Immediately, something dropped in his stomach. Jason sat in the passenger side or in the back and it wasn’t really important to see over the bottom edge of the window. He liked imagining a black Batman silhouette bouncing across the rooftops, cape flaring over the gap when they drove past an intersection to entertain himself. Of course, Batman wouldn’t be out in the daytime, that would be silly.
If Jason sat in the driver’s seat, he didn’t only need to see the rooftops, but the street too.
And he could barely see over the steering wheel.
“Dad,” he said when his dad sat inside next to him. “Isn’t this illegal?”
“Since when have you worried about that, boy?”
“I think it’s really obvious when there’s a kid behind the wheel, Dad.”
“People look the other way here,” his dad said, confident in his answer, but Jason didn’t feel so sure.
“I don’t know…” Jason’s feet grazed over the pedals below. He needed to scoot forward a bit more to apply the pressure needed. The chair was already adjusted the closest it could be.
“Jason, I really need you to learn how to drive just in case, okay?”
Jason looked at his dad who was smiling widely, but his brown eyes were intense and dark. His eyes were like that nowadays, sometimes glazed over when he brought home special drinks he once yelled at Jason to not touch when Jason had been curious. His mom told him it made his dad feel better like the medication she took did, but he really didn’t want both of his parents sitting on the couch, staring at nothing and everything at the same time.
“Okay, Dad.”
“Alright.” His dad sighed heavily. “You know where everything is, right? Just like I taught you?” Jason nodded. “Now point at each one and tell me what it does.”
So Jason did. He explained the accelerator and brake from the levers to flash the turning signals, surprising himself with the knowledge he’d gathered from just listening absentmindedly. When he was done, he turned to his dad. His dad nodded in approval and reached over to ruffle Jason’s hair.
“Good job, son.” He leaned back in his seat. “Now, you can turn on the car and we can start.”
Needles prickled in Jason’s hands as he grabbed the keys. His heart pounded in his ears when the engine roared to life at the turn of the key notch. The truck momentarily shook like it was as afraid as Jason was before it settled to a smooth rumble. Slowly, he stuck his hands onto each side of the steering wheel, making sure it was at nine and three o’clock like his dad said, but Jason liked to pretend his hands were in the same place a cat’s ears would be.
“Any day now, boy.”
“Sorry.”
Jason pressed down on the parking brake to release it and moved the gear shift from park to drive with all of his strength. The truck didn’t move, but Jason made sure it didn’t as he slammed on the brakes as soon as the gear shifted in the appropriate place, heavily breathing.
The dashboard partly obscured his vision. He tilted his head back and it helped a little bit. Now, he could see a sliver of the horizon.
“Just… straight?” Jason asked his dad.
“Just straight,” his dad echoed in confirmation.
They were in a large, empty parking lot his dad drove them to so Jason didn’t have to worry about hitting something other than the light poles, but those were spaced so far apart that one had to be an idiot to run into them. Still, he worried a little because he didn’t want to accidentally trample a squirrel because he couldn’t see properly. Flattened squirrels weren’t nice to look like and he was sure it was a terrible way to go.
Jason loosened the pressure on the brakes and applied some on the accelerator. Maybe a little too much pressure because the truck jerked forward and Jason’s head almost slammed into the horn.
His dad chuckled. “A little eager, are we?”
“Dad,” Jason groaned, rolling his eyes in embarrassment. “Be quiet and let me focus.”
“Alright, alright. I’ll be quiet as a mouse.”
Jason huffed, irritation smudging away a little of the stress of driving. He inhaled and exhaled a determined breath and pressed lighter on the pedal. The truck rolled into steady motion
“We’re just going to do some loops around, get you comfortable, then get you on the street,” his dad said offhandedly. Jason used his other foot—he wasn’t supposed to use two feet, but it was weird and hard using just one!—to hit the brakes.
“What? Street?” Jason cried out. “I can’t drive in the street!”
“Why not?” his dad asked like the answer wasn’t the most obvious in the entire world.
“Imma be arrested!” Jason stressed, his grip tightening on the steering wheel.
“The police have better things to do than to arrest a kid drivin’ his dear, old pops around.” His dad shrugged.
“I don’t have a license!” He tried instead.
“Just get good at driving and you won’t even need to have a license.”
“Dad!”
In the end, Jason drove his dad’s truck into the Gotham City streets. Unfortunately, the streets were even more stressful. They twisted at odd angles where you couldn’t see where you were going until you had already crossed halfway into the intersection. Sometimes, the lines for the lanes suddenly disappeared and Jason didn’t know if he was still driving inside the lines or right down the middle of two individual lanes. A lot of people didn’t even use their turn signals when they suddenly severed their car in front of them and Jason understood why his dad cursed under his breath every few minutes.
The only incident was when Jason used his turn signal and turned into a tight street with vehicles on both sides. He wanted to cry and begged his dad to take over for this. But his dad said he believed Jason would be careful enough and refused to switch. So, Jason drove down the short block in about twenty-five minutes at five miles per hour, foot hovering the brake as he maneuvered between cars.
His dad clapped him on the back with a grin. “I knew you could do it.”
“Yeah…” Jason was shaking and his hands were sliding down the steering wheel from the sweat collecting under his palms. “I’m tired.”
“Alright, I’ll drive us back home. You earned it,” his dad finally said. “Next time, you’re driving us back home.”
“Next time?” Jason screeched.
“Practice makes perfect. Just, uh, don’t tell your mom about it.”
The call came around two in the morning. His mom didn’t wake up, but Jason did. He rubbed his stinging eyes and looked at the cell phone for the name. ‘WILLIS,’ it read. Jason answered.
“H-hello? Dad?”
“Jason.” His name came out slurred in his dad’s raspy voice. “Jason, I need you to come.”
“What?”
“Jason! Just come pick me up.” The tone fell darker and Jason stilled at being yelled at like he always did. “Jason?”
“Uh, I’m here, Dad. I’ll come pick you up.” Jason wasn’t sure what to do, but he started taking off his pajamas and replacing it with his outside clothes he wore the previous day in a rush. “Where are you?”
“Julian’s.” A sharp inhale then a groan. “51st and Reynolds street.”
Jason stopped putting on his pants. “Dad, that’s really far…”
“Just take the damn truck, boy.”
His hands clenched around the device. “I’ve never driven without you.”
His dad coughed on the other end. It took a few long seconds to clear his voice. “Just pretend your old man is next to you keeping quiet, alright? Just like you always tell me to do so you can concentrate. Can you do that?”
Jason nodded, forgetting his dad couldn’t see him.
“Jason, I really need you now.” He sounded more upset at Jason’s silence so Jason quickly spoke up again.
“Y-yeah, Dad. I can do that. I’m putting on my shoes now.”
“Good boy.”
Jason ran out of the bedroom and yanked the truck keys off their hook with a hop because he couldn’t reach it at his height. When he searched for the house keys, he couldn’t find them.
“Dad, I can’t find the house keys.”
“Shit.” A ruffle. “Shit, it’s fine. Just make sure the door is closed real good before you go.”
“But I can’t leave the door unlocked—“
“Goddamn, Jason, just leave it unlocked!”
Jason flinched at the shout, but did what he was told. He mumbled an apology to his mom for leaving her alone with an unlocked door—he wasn’t supposed to ever do that, especially not in Gotham—and hoped any bad guys around ran into Batman’s fist. Jason hurried down the apartment stairwell, cell phone still against his ear, and ran toward his dad’s truck. He got inside and immediately locked all the doors.
“Where are you again, Dad?”
It took a moment for his dad to respond. “…Julian’s.” Silence followed and Jason didn’t want to ask his dad to repeat himself again. He remembered his dad saying it was on 51st and a street starting in R. He might have to drive down the street, searching for Julian’s, whatever it was, and find his dad.
“I’m going now. Can you stay on the phone, please?”
“… of course, kid. Of course.”
Jason drove in silence. He preferred silence; he couldn’t drive with the music even quietly playing through the radio unlike his dad who belted out the words of musical numbers burned onto DVDs, nearly rattling the car windows. But now, every now and then, the silence was broken by a raspy breath, a choked cough, or a pained groan on the other end of the call.
He wanted to ask if his dad was okay, worry a palpable weight on his chest. He decided against it. His dad might yell at him again and Jason didn’t want that. Instead, he picked up speed, just enough a police officer would still look the other way and not notice him if there were any around.
It took almost ten minutes to get down to 51st and another ten to find Julian’s. Luckily, his dad remained quiet and didn’t say anything about how long he was taking. However, when he got close, other men standing around Julian’s Jason immediately clocked as shady noticed his slow arrival. Jason continued by and parked two blocks down.
“Dad, I’m here,” he announced in a whisper. “Where are you?”
“…next to the dumpsters.” His dad had been outside this entire time? He jumped out of the truck and almost forgot to lock it.
Jason kept his pace quick and quiet. It was November so there was a chill in the night air that snuck deep into his bones. His mom would kill him if she ever found out he was out without a coat. In his defense, his dad was the priority here, likely now freezing in this cold. Besides, the coat his mom got him felt embarrassing to wear around the other kids who still wore their hoodies.
None of the men hanging at the entrance of Julian’s saw Jason as he kept in the shadows. He eyed the area, registering that Julian’s was some kind of bar. Maybe his mom would be angrier at his dad for spending their money on drinking than Jason not wearing a coat.
He waited for two men to stagger by to dart into the alleyway where he could see the large, green dumpsters, filled to the brim with foul-smelling garbage. He stayed to the brick wall, avoiding kicking anything aside or stepping on the broken glass scattered about. When he heard a familiar cough, he rushed to the source.
There, sprawled on top of crumpled cardboard boxes, was his dad. The cell phone was still in his hands, fingers loosely holding it to his ear. His eyes were closed, not noticing Jason.
“Dad?”
Dazed and confused eyes—no, eye, because one was swollen shut, stared in a daze and confusion for a moment before recognition finally manifested as he laid his gaze on Jason. Jason stared back. Splotches of bruises covered his dad’s eyes with an array of deep cuts and marks, most of the blood already dried and flaking.
His dad grinned and bloody teeth flashed at him. “Jason. I knew you would come.”
“Dad, what happened to you?” Jason sputtered as he fell to his dad’s side, unsure of where to touch the man.
“Punks were asking for it,” his dad grumbled, tilting his head back, illuminating more injuries to his face. Jason winced. “Talking all that shit…”
“You’re not allowed to say that,” Jason said. “Can you stand?”
“Yeah, yeah… lemme just…”
Jason grabbed onto his dad’s arm, looping it over his neck, and used all of his strength to pull his dad forward onto his own feet. His dad stumbled forward from the force and Jason yelped when the weight of a man over six foot nearly toppled him over.
“Dad! Stand up!”
“I’m trying, boy!”
It took a moment for his dad to regain his balance with Jason’s help. When he was finally upright, he wheezed and coughed. Slowly, step by step, they walked out of the alleyway together. The men standing by the entrance of Julian’s glanced over at them, some saying nothing, others jeering at them with his dad’s name in their mouths. His dad shouted unintelligible nonsense back through the blood despite Jason’s hushed words about not stirring anymore trouble—clearly his dad caused enough. Thankfully, the men just laughed at him and let them pass without issue.
“Where did you leave my truck,” his dad grunted as they waddled down the sidewalk.
“Just another block,” Jason said.
“Another block,” his dad echoed with a groan. “Why’d you park so far?”
“I don’t know…”
His dad stumbled sideways and on top of Jason a couple times on their way back. When they arrived at the truck’s location, parking embarrassingly crooked, but his dad was too plastered to notice, Jason carefully leaned the man against the truck back door. His dad’s knees shook without the additional support, but managed to thankfully stay upright long enough for Jason to unlock the door and push his dad inside.
Jason went around the front and climbed into the driver’s seat, turning on the engine and pulling out of his lousy parking spot. His dad shuffled in his seat, body sagging with a deep groan. He kept an eye on his dad out of the corner of his vision, making sure the man was still awake and breathing. He wasn’t sure how injured he was, if the ruffled coat and jeans he was wearing concealed anything more.
“Should we go somewhere?” Jason bit his lip.
“...go where, Jason,” his dad said quietly. Exhaustion was drenched in his words rather than the alcohol.
“A doctor or somethin’,” he replied. “Uh, Mom said there was—”
“‘m not going to a doctor.”
“Dad, please,” Jason begged. “Mom’s going to freak out when she sees you. You told her you were working late.”
“And I was,” his dad stressed, now more annoyed. “I just need a drink to cool down afterwards.”
“And one became five and a punch to the face?” Jason shot back. He purposefully slammed the brakes at the blinking yellow lights at the end of his sentence to emphasize it, making his dad almost fly forward.
“Jason!”
He hadn’t realized his dad wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. “Sorry,” he half-lied. He didn’t want to injure his dad even more, just show how angry he was without yelling.
“Besides, I don’t think anything is open at this hour.”
“What about Mr. Carlos?” One of his dad’s mechanic friends who walked with a limp and cane, but always goaded Jason into a race around the shop. He’d told Jason he had been an army medic. “I think he can—”
“No,” his dad said sternly, shaking his head. “He wouldn’t want to see me after...” He trailed off and remained quiet for a few moments. “Just take me home, Jason. I can fix myself up.”
“Okay.”
The drive back was only a few minutes and Jason parked the truck in the same empty spot he left behind. Jason helped his dad back onto his feet as he got out. His dad could barely manage walking anymore, feet dragging against the cracked pavement. At the stairwell, the only thing his dad could do was grip the railing with his bruised knuckles as Jason tugged him forward. Each step was a Herculean task.
It was three flights of stairs and by the time Jason got to their apartment door, his forehead was slick with sweat and he was ready to let his dad fall over from how exhausted he was. He patted his pockets before he remembered he left the front door unlocked and just opened the door, stumbling inside.
“Come on, Dad,” Jason groaned, yanking the man to the couch where he collapsed.
“Fuck.”
“Shh!” Jason hushed. “Mom might hear you.”
“Shit—I mean, shoot,” his dad quickly amended. He brought a hand to his face and immediately flinched at the contact like he forgot all of his wounds.
“I think there’s bandages and wipes in the bathroom,” Jason murmured. “Lemme go get them.”
“Jason, wait—”
Jason was already creeping into the bathroom, avoiding all of the creaky parts of the floor. He bent down to the cabinet beneath the sink and rummaged through the cleaning products and extra bathroom stuff. The small, dusty box of band-aids of colorful designs was in the back and exactly what he needed. He grabbed the box and returned back to the living room as silently as he did.
His dad was standing on his own, which made Jason frown because he still felt tired from doing nearly all of the work going up the stairs, over the sink, running a small stream of water and dotting a wet towel to his face. Jason went to his side and tapped his dad’s arm. His dad looked down at him.
Jason lifted the box of bandages towards him. His dad blinked and gingerly took the box for him, examining it.
“For your cuts,” Jason explained, pointing to his own face.
His dad glanced back at him then chuckled. “Wonder Woman, huh?”
“She’s really cool!”
“Not saying she isn’t.” His dad laid a hand on top of Jason’s curls and offered him a soft smile despite the split, bloody lip. His still good eye “You’re a good kid, Jason.”
“Um, thanks, Dad.”
Heat radiated at the back of his neck and he glanced away.
Jason helped carefully apply some of the Wonder Woman band-aids on his dad’s face as the man sat on the edge of the bathtub. He even let Jason touch the alcohol bottles to soak a towel and press it on the cuts on his dad’s face. His dad flinched every time Jason did it and had to reassure Jason it was fine and it was supposed to hurt.
It was almost four when Jason returned back to his bed with his dad. His mom was still sound asleep, oblivious to all they’ve been up to in the last two hours. Jason settled in between his parents, a heavy arm bringing him close to a warm chest in a protective embrace. He waited for the breathing at his ear to become the familiar light snoring of his dad before he closed his eyes and fell asleep.