T Is for Trespass

seemed real enough to me and I found myself addressing my questions to her. “Here in California?”
    She turned and looked at him and then looked back at me. Despite her resemblance to a toothless crone, she managed to appear coy. “We’d prefer not to say. I will tell you this. He was such a good boy, he got out on an early release.” Tía bobbed over to him and gave him a big buss on the cheek. He smiled in response.
    “What was he in for?”
    “Oh, this and that. We don’t discuss it with people we’ve just met.”
    “I figured it was a child molest since his daughter won’t let him see his grandsons.”
    “Well, aren’t you quick to condemn,” she said, tartly.
    “It’s just a guess.”
    “He never laid a hand on those little boys and that’s the truth,” she said, indignant in his behalf.
    “Maybe his daughter feels sex offenders aren’t that trustworthy,” I remarked.
    “He tried talking her into supervised visits, but she wasn’t having any of it. He did everything he could to make amends, including a little side deal with some unsavory gents.”
    “Meaning what?”
    Tía tilted her head and gestured me closer, indicating that what she was going to say was highly personal. I leaned down and allowed her to whisper in my ear. I could have sworn I felt her breath stir against my neck. “There’s a house up in San Francisco where they take care of guys like him. Very tacky place. N-O-K-D.”
    “Pardon?”
    “‘Not our kind, dear.’”
    “I don’t understand.”
    “Castration.” Tía’s lips pursed at the word. Melvin watched her with interest, his expression blank.
    “Like a hospital?”
    “No, no. This is a private residence, where certain surgeries are done under the table, as it were. These weren’t licensed medical doctors, just men with tools and equipment who enjoyed cutting and sewing, relieving other fellows of their urges.”
    “Melvin volunteered for that?”
    “It was a means to an end. He needed to gain control of his impulses, instead of them controlling him.”
    “Did it work?”
    “In the main. His libido’s down to almost nothing and what desires he has left, he manages to subdue. He doesn’t drink or do drugs because he can’t predict what Demons will emerge. Sly? You have no idea. There’s no way to bargain with the Evil Ones. Once they’re up, they take charge. Sober, he’s a good soul. Not that he’ll ever convince his daughter of that.”
    “She’s a hard-hearted girl,” he said.
    Tía turned on him. “Hush. You know better. She’s a mom. Her first job is to protect her little kids.”
    I spoke to Melvin. “Aren’t you required to register? I called the probation department and they never heard of you.”
    “I registered where I was.”
    “If you move, you’re supposed to reregister.”
    Tía intervened. “Technically, yes, hon, but I’ll tell you how it goes. People find out what he was convicted of. Once they know, the whispering starts and then the outraged parents march up and down outside his house with picket signs. Then the news trucks and the journalists and he never has another moment’s peace.”
    I said, “It’s not about him. It’s about the kids he abused. They’ll never get out from under that curse.”
    Melvin cleared his throat. “I’m sorry for the past. I admit I did things and things were done to me…”
    Tía cut in, “That’s right. All he wants to do now is watch over the little ones and keep them safe. What’s wrong with that?”
    “He’s not supposed to have contact. He’s not supposed to be within a thousand yards of little kids. No schools, no playgrounds. He knows that.”
    “All he does is look. He knows it’s wrong to touch so he doesn’t do that anymore.”
    I looked at Melvin. “Why put yourself in harm’s way? You’re like a dry alcoholic working in a bar. The temptation’s right there and a day’s going to come when it’s too much.”
    Tía clucked her disapproval. “I’ve told him that a hundred times myself, hon, but he can’t keep away.”
    I couldn’t listen to any more of this stuff. “Can we discuss the deposition? You must have questions.”
    Melvin’s attention remained fixed on the toaster. “If I agree, what prevents the opposing attorney from going after me? Isn’t that how they do it? You testify to something they don’t like and they turn it back on you. Show you’re a despicable ex-con and no one should listen to a word you say?”
    I thought about Hetty