Mommy Was a Whore Ch. 02

Melanie said lunch on Saturday would be fine by her and Gina said noon would be great.

Gina was strolling along Central Avenue when Dr McGeorge returned her call.

"Hi darling. Instead of dinner at the hotel come to the Stables tonight. Both Adam and Fleur know you from the Arts Society they said. Fleur has given me the run of her kitchen so I'm cooking a dinner for four."

"Home cooking? Yes I'd like that. I'd like to see your room, particularly your bed with the bedding turned back."

"Naughty boy. We expect you at 7:00 for drinks."

Gina when upstairs to a coffee shop at the corner of Central and River Road and looked down to the city's main river crossing. As kids they used to dive off the bridge, sending the police into fits because diving was prohibited and identifying the kids was such a problem because there were so many of them and it appeared unfair to the cops to pick out the occasional redhead. Sipping coffee on the balcony deck, despite the chilly wind but being not the only patron prepared to deal with the elements, Gina was astonished to observe just how wide the bisecting thoroughfares were at this intersection. Three of the corner buildings were set back. Only the building occupied by the coffee shop was built to the original building line. Perhaps fifty to one hundred years ago a city office must have recommended the set-backs to apply when buildings were rebuilt to allow for the viewing a street parades. The three newer corner buildings looked no more than thirty years old. It didn't what was the reason; all the council had to do was to get the owner of the building she was in – Gaynor Building – rebuilt back to the amended building line. If the owner or owners refused then the council perhaps could compulsorily acquire the building, redevelop the site and then sell it off.

The elderly couple in the next table began talking to Gina. "I've been coming to this deck since not long after I was born," confined the woman, "and I'm eight-eights years of age. My mother and grandmother brought me here and I used to bring our children here. We would reserve a table weeks ahead and see every parade. The parades would assemble on the Soldier's Reserve on the other side of the Town Bridge that was a military parade ground for more than one hundred years. So we would view the parades coming across the bridge, they would turn right and go down three town blocks to Mellows and turn and come passed us here and turn back again at Wiltshire and turn again over there to cross the river and disperse back at the Soldier's Reserve. We watched the Autumn Festival Parade from here six weeks ago."

The two women chatted; old grumpy remaining silent but watchful.

"I was thinking there's enough room for an imposing memorial to Sergeant Palin out there in the middle of the avenue."

"Oh, nobody would want a memorial to that idiot," the woman laughed.

Old grumpy said, "Would so."

"Who?" demanded the woman.

"People who know history, that's who."

"Don't listen to the old coot dear. He and some of his buddies call themselves amateur military historians. I'm with the historical society and that's how I know Baker Reserve as we know it today, called after a former mayor, was until then called the Soldier's Reserve and was an old military parade ground."

"Look, I'm Gina Lott and..."

"We know who are dear. We get the newspaper. I'm Dot West and this is my husband Harold."

"Hi, lovely to meet you. Mr West, did Sergeant Palin get lost and bring his warning to the wrong camp of pioneers?"

"Who knows? He denied that claim and called it a damn lie right up till he died of pneumonia thirty-eight years later."

"Then nobody knows?"

"Possibly but me and the boys have this theory that soldiers could have been crossing near here to the troubles to the west and the Indians may have spotted them and veered off. The problem is there were lots a troop movements going on and settlers didn't much care about noting times and places thought they always wanted to know when it was Sunday because most were religious."

Gina seized the opportunity. "Mr West could I come and chat to you and the boys?"

"I suppose so. Do you drink whisky?"

"Sometimes. I want more action on Sergeant Palin."

"Why?"

"Because he deserves to be remembered as the town's acknowledged founder as there are no other contenders. I'm thinking of a memorial for him right out there in the middle of that avenue."

"Well that's not you idea."

Amused, Gina asked why not.

"Because when I was a boy there was a move to erect a memorial for him on that very spot. See the setback of those buildings..."

"I already have. How old would you have been then Mr West?"

"Seventeen or eighteen."

"And your age now?"

"Eight-nine."

Gina did quick math. "Old god."

Grumpy and Dot West looked at her.

"Don't you see," Gina shrieked. "That was on the eve of the Great Depression. The project was mothballed and never revived!"

Mrs West drawled, "I think that's a little far-fetched."

Mr West scowled at her. "I don't, the woman is right."

Gina gurgled, "How long has the Palin Post been publishing?"

Mrs West said how would she know; her husband said that date was incorporated in the masthead and published six days a week. "1889."

"Ohmigod, we have the perfect record waiting for us."

"I don't think you should used that expression in public dear," Mrs West frowned.

"Sorry, oh how lucky I am that you two stopped to talk to me. Give me a time and place to talk to you and the boys Mr West and pick a date: 1928, 1929, 1930."

"1929," he said, writing his home address in Gina's notebook. I'm setting meeting details now – our house at noon this Friday. Just bring your pretty looks."

"Bye," Gina said excitedly, kissing them both. "I'm off to find a date in destiny."

After calling Fleur that she was delayed in the city so start the pregnancy research without her, Gina sat in front of the bound volumes of the newspaper and began reading. Later a page she stopped her search over a page in early April 1929. She called Robyn Hudson on her phone. The editor came running.

"Good god, so it's true."

"Yes, announced in this article and then over-run by events and buried by the Depression. Why would there have been no post-depression revival."

"Because that signaled the dawning of a new age and before too long the threat of war in Europe would have loomed. Besides, as you can see here how controversial the project was in the report here of the council debate that led to the project being authorized. See here – an ordinance was created requiring the buildings at the four corners to be set back to meet council requirements for future expansion of the memorial beyond a simple statue. Waterworks and flower gardens were proposed as future additions."

"Oh yeah. Well Robyn. Keep this under your hat. Could you assign reporters on their downtime to compile me a file on every reference about Sergeant Palin in your files and reported in this newspaper up until the time your present clipping and electronic filing systems began."

"We began clips in 1950. Yes, I'll do that for you. I think you should form a committee around you when you are ready to begin campaigning."

"Good idea – do you have time for coffee?

Robyn said no, she had people waiting for her in her office.

Gina called in to the art-framing store to check on progress on her paintings, knowing it wasn't Tuesday but she had no intention of having sex with the proprietor Dick White again. She was cross when she saw the bitch talking to Dick, laying down the law.

"Oh it's Nicci Bergamini isn't it?"

"Oh, it's you. I read that you were back claiming to be linked to this city when all you did was to spend a few days here some summers."

"I remember attending high school here in my senior year and tearing your hair out in the school gym after you tripped me."

"As I remember we were separated before you did any harm in the outburst of temper. You big breasts would have gotten in your way."

"I hear you have been having sex with Big Dick here and have three children."

"Correct and I hear you can't have children and can't even find a husband. You poor darling."

"Well you've still got a fat ass and a flat chest I see. I'm off Dick, I'll call back some other time when you are not busy with trivia."

"You're a nobody in this town Gina. I'm president of the Mothers' Guild, virtually a VIP."

"Very appropriate as you are in the position to advise women uncertain about their sexuality. As Nicci Bergamini you spent much of your last year at high school on your back, working your way through our class."

Dick and his assistant standing closest appeared dumbstruck by this confrontation that blew up out of nowhere. Nicci was standing in silence, out of ammunition.

Gina said sweetly, "Your day will improve when Nicci goes home Dick. Bye."

It was raining and Gina walked home feeling depressed, ashamed of herself for abusing Nicci like that, although the cow deserved it. The point was she's lost control, lashing out in front of other people. She hadn't been in a catfight for years. Why had she lost it so much? Splashing through a puddle she remembered. "Oh yes Nicci fucking Bergamini... Amor Sweetman had me lined up for the graduation ball and you snuck in under my nose, fucked him and he took you to the grad ball. Oh yes. I didn't care about not going with Amor but it did dent my pride."

Gina tried to remember who took her and then the cheerful face of good guy Al Morgan popped into her mind. Ah yes, a great guy. He was killed in a helicopter crash a few years later when training to become a forest park ranger.

She arrived home drenched. After a shower she wrote a letter of apology to Nicci and explained what had set her off. Nicci would feel guilty because she'd dropped Al Morgan when making her bid for Amor Sweetman. She called the arts store and got Nicci's home address and took the letter down to the box for next day's mail collect and went to the kitchen to begin dinner.

To be Continued