Jeff Tait Ch. 02

*Author's Note: Any persons engaging in sexual activity are at least eighteen years of age.

*

2002.

A forty two year old Jeff Tait smiled as he pushed his cart around the grocery store. Tomorrow he was driving down to Kenner, Louisiana to pick up his three year old daughter. This meant he had to stock up on the goodies; juice and animal crackers and other things that a three year old needed.

He stopped to look at the meats and saw his reflection in the long mirror behind the counter. His blonde hair was cut short; his brown eyes had a few crow's feet at the corners that hadn't been there the last time he looked in a mirror. His face was nicely tanned, thanks to the hours he spent on the golf course, his jaw was strong. Daily exercise kept the 'beer gut' from appearing on his six foot three inch frame.

The lawyer had to admit that he wasn't as young as he'd like to believe, but he wasn't as old as dirt yet. He picked up a couple packages of hot dogs and tossed them into the buggy.

"God, do you know what they put into those things?" the blonde woman behind him asked.

"No, and that's the way I like it," he good-naturedly said. "I'm going to get my daughter tomorrow, so I have to pick up stuff she'll actually eat."

"Why not just poison the child?" she asked.

"Well, even though this takes longer, it is untraceable," Jeff said and walked away.

He smirked when he heard her laugh at his comment.

On the condiments aisle, he was pleased to see Clay and Mark, two friends from the apartment complex he used to live in, and affectionately greeted them.

"So, how's the old apartments?" he asked.

"Oh, God!" Clay rolled his eyes. "That odious man, Mr. Simon? His ex-wife died, some horrible automobile accident you know? Anyway, to listen to him, it was the hand of God, coming down to strike the Jezebel down for her sinful ways, and he now has custody of those poor girls."

"And that little shit too," Mark shot in.

"Poor girls indeed," Jeff commiserated.

"That little son of a bitch stands there and tells me we're going to Hell for being gay," Clay complained.

"Tell him he's going to be there to open the door for you, for being a judgmental prick," Jeff suggested and the three laughed out loud.

"And for being a little juvenile delinquent," Mark agreed.

----

Dianne, his ex-wife, was extremely agitated when he arrived. Katherine wasn't ready yet, but Jeff did not argue or give her a hard time, just patiently waited for her and her new husband, who also seemed quite irritable, to get the girl ready.

"Two weeks, right?" Dianne reminded him needlessly.

"Okay," he smiled, which seemed to aggravate her greatly. She slammed the heavy door and he shrugged his shoulders and started up his restored 1965 Ford Mustang.

Katherine was sound asleep when they'd driven the one hundred and twenty miles to Lafayette, Louisiana. She woke up very cranky, but some juice and animal crackers put her in a better mood, and splashing around in the swimming pool had her back to good spirits in no time at all.

At nearly four years old, Katherine looked a great deal like her mother; black hair that hung down to her waist, although Dianne now wore it extremely short, almost in a mannish style, dark almond eyes, and skin a golden hue.

Dianne's skin, though, had looked quite splotchy when Jeff looked closely at her. So had Anthony's skin. Katherine was not fat, but she was a chubby little girl, as any three year old is supposed to be. Dianne and Anthony had looked quite thin, almost gaunt.

When he'd commented on that, Dianne had snapped that they were on a raw vegetable diet.

The two weeks were over far before he was ready and he packed her little suitcase that she loved to carry around with her, and the large suitcase that held all of her clothes and other essential items.

"Ready to go see Mommy?" he asked her as they woke up the next morning.

"And New Daddy," she happily agreed.

It tore his heart out when she referred to Dianne's new husband as 'New Daddy,' but Jeff knew that Katherine was far too young to understand this, so he just let it slide.

He called Dianne, to let her know that they were leaving Lafayette, which would put them in Kenner in about two hours. There was no answer, and the answering machine was too full to accept any messages.

----

"They're not there," Mrs. Aucoin called out as Jeff stood outside of his former home, knocking.

"Oh?" Jeff asked. "Do you know where they are?"

"Jail, I think," she replied, barely masking her glee at this.

She had been an extremely nosy neighbor when Jeff and Dianne lived there and had disapproved of Jeff and Dianne's many backyard parties. While not standoffish or rude to the Audoins, Jeff and Dianne never went out of their way to be friendly to them either.

"Jail?" Jeff asked, mouth open in disbelief.

"Yeah, about a week ago, yeah, last Wednesday in fact, a bunch of cars pulled up and they stormed the place and dragged them out in handcuffs," Mrs. Aucoin related the tale.

Jeff pulled out his cell phone and called the local police department.

"Manufacture of controlled substance, distribution of control substance, possession of drug paraphernalia," the bored desk sergeant recited when Jeff inquired about the charges.

"And both suspects are still in custody?" Jeff asked, trying to walk away from Mrs. Aucoin without getting too far away from Katherine.

"Yeah, both were arraigned, but haven't posted the bail," he said.

"Do you know what the bail is set at?" Jeff inquired.

"No, that's with the Clerk of Court," the desk sergeant said and the call was terminated.

"Well, its Sunday, so there's no way to get through to the Clerk of Court today," Jeff mused aloud.

He called Paul Richards, the senior of Richards & Son, the law firm he worked at, and let him know that he would be detained in Kenner for most of Monday.

"Manufacture of met amphetamine?" he said in disbelief as the Clerk of court let him look over the Arraignment documents.

The bail was set at two hundred thousand each for Dianne and Anthony. Jeff arranged to meet with Dianne, leaving Katherine with Mrs. Aucoin.

Dianne looked horrible, eyes sunken, skin mottled with small scabs, hair greasy and unwashed.

"No, we, we um kind have missed a couple of payments on the mortgage," Dianne admitted when Jeff asked if they could put the house as collateral for her bail.

He did not ask About Anthony's bail; Anthony could worry about his own bail.

Anthony and Dianne had actually missed seven payments and the bank was getting ready to foreclose on the property.

Jeff obtained a key from a locksmith and took all of Katherine's toys and other personal things.

When he'd moved out last year, he'd taken anything of sentimental value to him, so other than Katherine's belongings, he left the rest of the house untouched.

Katherine was very upset and fussy that she did not get to see her Mommy and New Daddy. Jeff endured her crankiness all the way back home.

Tuesday morning, he began the paperwork to get full custody of his daughter. Dianne attempted to fight it, but the Legal Aid attorney she'd been appointed was more concerned about the insurmountable narcotics charges pending against her client than getting custody of a three-year-old girl.

Children are remarkable creatures. Within a month, Katherine had adapted to just having a Daddy and other than including them in her nightly prayers, rarely mentioned Mommy and New Daddy.

Jeff had been dropping Katherine off at his parent's home for the two weeks that he had visitation with her, but knew that his parents, while they adored loved and adored Katherine, also had their own lives to attend to. He found a day-care center not far from the office of Richards & Son.

----

"You know, it's been a while since I've been out on a date," he confided to Claire.

He'd met the petite blonde as he was dropping Katherine off and she was dropping her twin daughters off at the day-care Center.

"Well, I don't think the rules have changed a whole bunch," she laughed. "You take me some place fancy, spend a bunch of money on me, pretend you're interested in whatever I go on and on about, try to get into my pants, then go home frustrated."

"Okay, I remember all of that," he laughed with her. "What I don't remember is, when do I get to bore you about football and basketball and a bunch of other stuff you don't care about, and when do I quit pretending to listen to you?"

"Oh, on the first one, you can start anytime you'd like, and on the second one, when the priest says 'You may now kiss the bride,'" she laughed.

He did not go home frustrated. Claire invited him in for a 'night-cap,' and was sucking his cock the second the babysitter closed the door behind her. She was genuinely pleased when Jeff returned the favor and licked her abundantly furred lit to an orgasm. He did not say anything about the fact that her carpet did not match the drapes. He did not spend the night, either.

They went out on a few more dates, but Claire seemed to be moving toward commitment and exclusivity a lot quicker than Jeff was. The break-up was not very amicable;

He sent her a bouquet of roses and a nice card that wished her well. But he did find a different day-care center for Katherine.

----

"Still trying to poison your kid?" Jeff heard a female voice and turned to look at a large-breasted blonde woman.

"With hot dogs and other toxic foods?" the woman reminded him.

"Oh!" he finally recalled the conversation from four months earlier. "No, no, it wasn't going fast enough. So now I have her smoking crack, let's see if that'll do the trick."

"Well, looking at your basket, you're not relying on crack to do the trick by itself," she sniffed disdainfully.

"Have any children?" Jeff asked her.

"No, not yet," she agreed.

"Well, it's a lot easier to get them to eat Chef Boy-ar-dee and weenies than to eat a salad, or tofu," he said.

"If they aren't given any other choices, they won't know any different," she said. "Melanie. Melanie Daigrepont."

"Jeff Tait," he said and they shook hands.

"My eyes are up here," she said.

"Huh? Oh, I'm sorry, but you have a stain or something right there," Jeff said and blushed.

She looked down at her impressive chest and had to smile; he was right. She did have a splotch of marinara sauce just above her left breast, a leftover from lunch. She followed him around the supermarket and critiqued everything he put into his basket. Depending on what it was, he either defended it, or shrugged his shoulders.

At the checkout, he asked her out on a date and made her laugh when he requested that she wear a blouse that did not have any stains on it.

She lived with her mother, 'just a temporary thing,' she assured him.

He picked her up and she was somewhat impressed with his Mustang. He took her to a new, trendy restaurant that supposedly catered to the Vegetarian and health-conscious crowd.

She was rude and condescending to the Maitre'D, the wine steward, and their waiter. He was grateful that the chef did not come out; she would have most likely spat at him.

The bill relieved his wallet of one hundred and eight dollars, a fact that irritated him; he was still hungry.

They walked outside into the cold November air and she curled her upper lip at something and Jeff looked over to see what new atrocity or inconvenience she was reacting to.

It was a transient, a homeless person. He felt a twinge of empathy; almost twenty years ago, he'd been sleeping behind a restaurant, slowly drinking himself to death. His automatic response was to reach into his pocket for a couple of bucks.

"Jeff, you are not going to..." Melanie huffed in as disgusted a tone as she could muster.

Jeff looked again. The transient had long, greasy, knotted black hair. He or she was huddled in a corner, trying to stay out of the bitter wind. He thought he recognized the person and walked over toward the transient.

"Leave me alone!" the transient screeched loudly. "I ain't doing nothing!"

He looked into the big brown eyes, full of fear and mistrust and his heart dropped into the pit of his stomach.

It was Eve Simon.

"Eve?" he asked. "Eve, it's me, Jeff Tait. I used to live two doors down from your daddy's."

Impulsively, he hugged the young girl to him. At first, she struggled slightly, but then accepted the friendly hug.

"Jeff, the valet's here," Melanie cut in. "Give him your claim ticket."

"Hang on a minute," he snapped. "This is a friend of mine!"

"Jeff! Really!" Melanie huffed.

"Come on, it's too cold to be out here," Jeff said gently and took Eve's hand.

"Really, tell me about it," Eve agreed.

The fact at Melanie was outraged just heightened Jeff's enjoyment of the situation.

"We're going to the Ballet this evening," Jeff told Eve, as if the bitterly complaining Melanie wasn't even talking.

"Oh! The Ballet!" Eve gasped. "I love the Ballet!"

The smell was intolerable; Jeff hadn't noticed it outside in the blowing wind. But the cramped quarters of the car made it quite evident. Melanie helped make it even more evident by rolling down the window, even though it was thirty degrees outside.

Melanie screeched and fussed and demanded that Jeff either put the 'gutter trash' out right then and there, or bring her home. Jeff smiled at her and drove her to her mother's house.

"I'm sorry about that," Eve whispered from the back seat and Jeff laughed out loud.

"I'm not," he smiled and roared away, drowning out the rest of Melanie's screamed insults. "So far, this has been the most enjoyable part of the whole evening!"

The heat of the building brought out even more of Eve's body odor and Jeff was grateful that the University's Ballet Troupe wasn't that big of a draw. There were many empty seats around them.

His own eyes watered and he breathed in and out through his mouth to avoid her stench as much as possible. But she was enraptured as she watched the graceful and beautiful movements of the dancers. She reacted with gasps and sighs as the dancers leapt and twirled and glided through their interpretation of Concertos in C Minor.

"That was so beautiful," she sighed as he led her to his car.

Where to take her wasn't a question; he drove her to his home. The pimple-faced babysitter looked shocked, almost stricken when she looked at the young black girl, but accepted Jeff's money and beat a hasty retreat.

Jeff showed Eve the main bathroom. He grabbed a pair of his sweatpants and a large tee shirt. He had Eve crack the door open and drop her dirty clothes out into the hallway and gingerly carried them to the laundry room. He set the washer to 'Soak' and added a generous amount of bleach to the detergent.

The young lady that emerged from the bathroom was the same beautiful girl he remembered from the apartment complex. Her skin was the color of coffee with a very generous helping of cream added, and was surprisingly free of pimples and blackheads. Her long black hair still had a few knots in it; they'd most likely have to be cut out with scissors, but looked a great deal better. Her brown eyes were large, expressive as she looked at him expectantly.

He had another surprise, though, that her heavy winter coat had hidden from view; she was obviously pregnant.

He brought her into the kitchen and fixed her a plate of eggs and bacon. She probably didn't taste any of it, as quickly as she ate it and greedily gulped down the two glasses of milk that he poured out for her.

When she finished, Jeff got the full story from her.

Her mother had died in a car crash; a drunk driver crossed the median and plowed head first into Jessica Simon. Of course, the drunk survived with minor scratches and was given five years probation. She and her two sisters and Daniel went to live with their father, Jimmy.

Jimmy was still as overbearingly religious and judgmental as ever and still as harsh and strict with the girls, but lenient when it came to Daniel. A good deal of Daniel's wrongs was blamed on the girls, Eve getting the brunt of it since she was the eldest.

On her eighteenth birthday, a schoolmate took her out on her very first date, because it was her birthday. He took her to an Applebee's restaurant (Jeff fought the urge to smirk at this) and seemed really nice to the naive girl.

From Applebee's, he drove her out to the Atchafalaya Basin, a popular make-out spot.

He told her he loved her and she responded in kind. Then he convinced her that if she loved him, she would let him have sex with her. She told him she didn't want to get pregnant, but he convinced her if it was her first time, she couldn't get pregnant.

"Well, guess what?" she bitterly said.

"You can get pregnant, whether it's your first time or your one thousandth time," Jeff said and sipped his gin and tonic.

Of course, after there one and only date, Barry Dumas never looked at her again. When she missed her first period, she didn't really think anything about it; she was always a bit irregular anyway. When she missed her second one, though, she began to worry a little. Then when her breasts began to feel very tender and sore and she felt queasy in the mornings, she put it together.

Barry denied any involvement, saying that since it had been her first time, and he had pulled out and squirted on her stomach, it couldn't possibly be his.

Jimmy ranted and raved, and threw her out on the street, disowning her.

Jeff rethought his position on Capital Punishment to now include both Juvenile Delinquents that deface classic automobiles and boys that lie to girls and then deny responsibility. He also thought of a new category for fathers that turn their backs on their children when their children needed them the most.

He hugged the quietly sobbing girl and she clung to him and sobbed harder. He rubbed her back and crooned comforting words to her and was slightly embarrassed when he began to get an erection. Finally, she stopped crying and pulled away from him.

"Okay, let me show you to your bedroom," he smiled at her and was alarmed at the stricken look she gave him.

"Are you going to want, you know, um, sex?" she asked, the fear evident in her voice.

"What? No!" he exclaimed. "No, Eve! I would never do that!"

She eyed the small television set in the guest bedroom and was elated when Jeff showed her how to use the remote control. Jeff then remembered that Jimmy often railed against the inherent dangers of letting your children watch television; it was the tool of Satan in his eyes.

"Well, maybe if you'd let your kids watch television, your daughter would have known better than to fall for those tired old lines that little shit fed her," he thought to himself.

He checked on Katherine again; she was still sound asleep. Then he went and readied himself for bed.

----

When Jeff woke up at five thirty, he heard the television still playing. At first, this disoriented him, and then he remembered Eve. He did his morning calisthenics, and then got breakfast ready for Katherine.

The smell of French toast did the trick and Katherine came bouncing into the kitchen.

"Good morning, sleeping beauty," he smiled at her and put her into her booster seat.

"Who's she?" Katherine asked as a very nervous Eve peered into the kitchen.

"Her? That's your friend Eve. You remember her, when Daddy lived in the shoe-box? Jeff said.

(The 'Shoebox' was what Jeff called his old apartment, a name that delighted Katherine.)"

"Daddy's silly," Katherine happily told the girl.

"Good morning, Eve, sleep well?" Jeff asked.

"Um, yeah, um, where's my coat and stuff?" Eve asked, looking all around but never at Jeff or Katherine.

"It's in the dryer, why?" Jeff asked and put a second plate of French toast on the table.