Oil of Roses Ch. 20

"Tamara, you may end up sad today… Jessica, prepare to look forlorn… I'm thinking the woman needs to die."

"Eddy, Margo and Carol will not be happy if you kill and eat Kelly. I will not be happy," Harry said. At the counter, Patricia was slicing up fruit. "Patricia, do you have anything Tamara can shove in this maniac's mouth or is she going to have to risk a tit?"

"Fruit coming up, shortly to be followed by breakfast breads of various kinds. Kelly, how fast can you run?"

"Damn fast, why?"

"Go wake up Karen and then evacuate the area immediately before you get caught in the blast."

"How do you recommend I wake her up?"

"Well, I usually tickle her tits until she starts to come around, then I thrust my leg between hers and hug her real hard creating a need to go pee… I don't recommend that method for you. Try shaking her by the shoulder and calling her name real loud until she turns over. Then run."

Kelly bounded off towards the stairs. "This is going to be so much fun!"

"Harry, see, the girl's got a gawddamn death wish, you should let me grant it."

Harry had two pots brewing. "Eddy, mega bad juju if you do."

From upstairs came Karen's unmistakable bellow. "THAT HAIRY NEANDERTHAL SAID WHAT?" Then the sound of Kelly, bolting down the stairs, giggling like a lunatic, filled the kitchen.

"Harry, I'm going to go slaughter one of your housemates now," Eddy said, getting out of his chair and heading towards the living room.

Harry shook his head and went back to the bedroom, deciding that cleanup of the body or bodies could wait until after breakfast. He and Carol met in the living room and walked in to Margo arm in arm. They climbed into bed and Harry and Margo cuddled up to Carol in-between them.

"Baby Girl, I love you and I'm so sorry that you were freaked last night. Please tell me if that happens again, not only because you've been told to but so that I can have a chance to make it right immediately," Harry said, stroking her belly gently.

"As long as we all can talk to each other, everything will be fine, honey," Margo added, hugging Carol tightly. "And there's never any reason for any of us to suffer like that alone no matter what the cause. We're family… we don't let that happen, not to people we love."

"EDDY, PUT ME DOWN OR I'M GONNA HAVE JESS GNAW YOUR NUTS OFF WHILE I BEAT YOU TO DEATH WITH YOUR OWN SEVERED DICK!" came the cry of Kelly from the living room.

"I should've known better, I did know better… it was just at the time it all hit me so hard, I felt like I had no control over it. I was telling myself it was bullshit and that you wouldn't do that to me but all the talking I was doing wasn't changing how I was feeling," Carol said, kissing Margo's wrist.

"Could you have blown a whistle?" Margo asked out of nowhere.

"Blown a whistle? Yeah, yeah I suppose I could have. Why?"

"The whistle Eddy has me wearing got me thinking about it. I've got an old brass British Police whistle I found in a shop in London last time I was there. I had it put on a chain at a shop." She got up and went into her closet.

"EDDY, YOU CAN'T USE KELLY AS A SHIELD FOREVER, SOONER OR LATER YOUR ARMS ARE GONNA GET TIRED!" hollered Karen.

Margo rummaged about for a bit and returned. "Here you go, love."

The whistle was on a beautiful gold chain and Margo put it around Carol's neck, fastening it.

"There now, if you ever panic like that again, you put the whistle in your mouth and blow. We'll come running."

"Listen, this is silly. I shouldn't have to wear a whistle in case I freak out. It won't happen again. I'm embarrassed as hell it happened once."

"No," Harry said, holding her tightly and stroking her hair, "there's nothing at all for you to be embarrassed about. In your place I would've freaked out as well."

"Me too, honey," Margo added, "so don't even think twice about it. The next time you're in distress, you blow on that and we'll come running. With everything that all of us have been through, the occasional panic is to be expected."

"KAREN, LEAVE EDDY ALONE, GET IN HERE AND START BREAKFAST!" yelled Patricia.

"Have I told you guys lately that I love you?" Carol said, cuddled safe and sound between the two of them.

"I love you too and maybe you have but I'd be stupid to get tired of hearing it, wouldn't you babe?" Harry said.

"Anytime you want to say it, I'm happy to hear it because I love you too. And as much as I want a cup of coffee, I think I want to lay here and cuddle with the two of you until breakfast is ready," Margo said.

"BUT PATRICIA, EDDY STARTED IT!"

"HE DID NOT, KELLY WAS PULLING YOUR LEG BECAUSE I TOLD HER TO GET YOU OUT OF BED."

"KEEEELLY…"

"That is, if breakfast ever is ready," Harry said with a smile.

* * * * *

Some time later there was a gentle knocking at the door and Tamara stuck her head in.

"I'm to ask Carol what she wants in her omelet. We have Mozarella, Monterey Jack, Swiss, Cheddar and American cheese available as well as sausage both hot and mild, ham, onions, fried potatoes, bacon, tomatoes and garlic."

"Uh, Monterey Jack, hot sausage, ham, onions, garlic and fried potatoes… thank you."

"You're welcome honey, might want to get a move on, it won't take Karen the wonder chef long."

The three of them wandered in and Harry began another pot of coffee. Karen was at the stove in briefs, sports bra and apron. The room swam in wonderful smells.

"Okay sleepy heads, we got bacon and sausage in the pan here keeping warm, taters in the other pan, breads, juices and fruits on the counter over there. Margo, Carol's omelet's about to be done, decide what you want."

"When the fuck do I get an omelet?" Harry asked, smiling.

"When everybody else besides me has one… sucks being the host, don't it?" Karen replied with a grin.

In short order everyone had been fed and was sitting around feeling full and happy.

* * * * *

"So after those assholes had pulled their sophomoric stunt with the cadavers, my friends and I decided that to win the bet, and to do so with style, we had to get truly creative," Margo said, having a sip of juice.

"I still can't believe that people who wanted to be doctors would dress corpses up and pose them having sex in the Baylor Admin lobby… that's just sick," Jessica said.

"Oh honey, some of the sickest, most disgusting perverts you'd ever want to meet are medical students," Margo said with a smile. "When your business is life and death, I suspect you almost have to develop a dark and macabre sense of humor.

"So one of the women in my study group, ravishing Indian girl named Devapaati, starts letting it be known that not only will we cover any side bets made, but that she would give blowjobs to bettors if we lost. As our opponents were the odds-on favorites at the time, this did stimulate some extra action. Hell, I sold my car and borrowed as much money from my family as I could to put down, above what I'd already bet on us.

"The informal judges' panel, composed of some of the more relaxed professors, was known to prefer elegance to 'brute force' pranks. So we stole almost every display skeleton in the school, got the full 'cock and balls' dildos we needed, the sheets of plywood, the other supplies and retired to a rented storage unit. Soon as we'd get one diorama constructed, Ed would take it in his truck to Paul, who had worked in landscaping all through his college years. Paul would load it up in the 'borrowed' groundskeeper's cart, cover it with shade cloth hanging on the posts on the corners and off he'd go, carefully unloading it as a pre-chosen scenic spot, make sure the base was covered by the cloth and stick up the sign reading "Another New Planting Courtesy of Baylor Medical School Groundskeeping Department". He'd squared it with them, reassuring them it was a prank and that they'd be getting all their equipment back undamaged.

"Still, it took us a lot longer than we'd expected and nobody got much sleep that weekend. But by 4 AM Monday morning, all sixty-four were in place and we then ran around the campus madly removing the shade cloths.

"When students and faculty moved about the grounds that morning they were greeted with the sixty-four positions of the Kama Sutra, lovingly illustrated by skeletons, a white painted anatomically correct dildo designating the male figures, each diorama with a small painted plaque describing the position."

Laughter filled the kitchen.

"We'd gotten pictures of each of them… come to think of it, I still have my copies somewhere in my things… because we thought, perhaps, our opponents might not be good sports.

"We were surprised. Carl Kline, who's now in line to get the Chief of Neurology position at St. Joseph's in Houston, and was head of the other study group, came up to us as we sat in the Student Union Building sucking down coffee and admitted defeat. We all made a nice sum off of it. I bought a new car, paid back the family… never told them what I'd really used the money for."

"Honey," Harry said, "how good are the photos? If they're of sufficient quality, we could have them made into prints, get them framed, put up around the house."

* * * * *

Carol and Tamara gave Karen and Patricia massages in appreciation for the superb breakfast while the rest of the crew cleaned up the remains of the meal. Harry ducked out a little early and when the clean up was finished called everyone into the living room.

"Carol, my darling, please sit down here in the middle of the floor," he said.

Carol, grinning uncertainly, sat down on a cushion he'd indicated. Harry, Margo and Kelly sat down in a circle around her, close to her and holding hands. In a circle around them sat Eddy, Tamara, Karen, Patricia and Jessica, who all held hands as well.

"Baby Girl," Margo said, "you've been avoiding something you need to do. You need to do it for your sake. We're all here. We're all your friends and family. We all love you. We're all here for you."

Harry put the envelope from Tony in Carol's lap.

"Don't you think it's time you found out what he wanted you to know?" Harry asked. "You don't have to share it with us, not now, not ever. But we're here to support you and love you. If you'd really rather not look at it now, that's fine too. This isn't meant to pressure you into something you're really not ready for. But it felt to me like you didn't want to face it alone and you didn't know how to ask us to help. If that's the case, here we are. Go ahead and read it, surrounded by the love of your friends and family."

The tears streaming down Carol's face, past her smile, gave silent testimony to her feelings. Slowly she opened the envelope and in a breaking voice began to read it aloud.

"My Dearest Baby Girl,

I wish I could leave you something more substantial than the remnants of this foolish hobby of mine."

"That was for the benefit of his family," she said. "That's what they thought of his record collecting."

"However, we both know my loving family deserves everything of value in my estate as they have had to put up with so much at my hands over the years. I only wish that my recent losses at the race track had not been so big. I feel terrible about that I've cost them so much money due to an old man's foolishness."

"Harry, this is bullshit. Tony went to the track, sure. He'd even place bets on the bigger races across the country but it was always relative small change. He never bet enough to be a big bettor by any stretch of the imagination."

"But as Vic can attest, in an attempt to increase my estate's value as a final gesture to them, I almost ruined myself. I suspect that by the time my final debts are settled, they'll be left with enough for a comfortable life, although in a somewhat leaner lifestyle than they might have wished."

"Y'all, this is totally screwy. Tony was sad about his relationship with his family but as much as he was able in his final months, he was spending money right and left. He was playing the bon vivant to the last possible moment, never having water if champagne was available, never settling for chicken if there was quail to be had."

"My stupid scribblings on music and such I leave to you as well. They're filed, whenever possible, in the albums of the appropriate musicians. The uncategorizable entries are in their own envelopes. Hopefully you'll read a page or two of them, from time to time, and think of me. Although I'm sure you'd find those horrid CDs easier to deal with, I ask that you play every album at least once. I still have hopes that you'll someday be able to discover what I so treasured about them."

"This is crazy talk. He and I loved listening to his records. Of all the times we spent together, the best by far were listening to his music and often times dancing together."

"Maybe he had gotten a little senile when he wrote this?" Kelly said. "Not meaning any disrespect and I don't know much more than the basics of the story, but could that maybe explain it?"

"No," Carol answered, puzzled, "he was sharp as a tack and all there up to… up to the last time I saw him."

"If anything I've ever done leaves you needing help or advice, go to Niccolo. My godson is a good boy and knows my mind on many things."

"If my greatest wish, to be granted a second lifetime to find you again, can't be granted then I pray my second wish comes true- that you find someone who loves you as you deserve to be loved and can give you what you need to be happy.

"Know that if I can crash the Gates, I'll be watching over you from Above, I love you more than I can say,

"Tony"

The room was quiet but for Carol's soft sobs.

Then she got up and carefully stepped between those seated around her.

"Come on," she said, "I think I need to go take a look at those records."

Leading them to Harry's old bedroom upstairs where Karen and Patricia had spent the night amidst the boxes and crates. She opened the lid of one of the boxes and carefully pulled out an album.

"Alright, 'Me And The Blues', Joe Williams… we listened to this one often."

She gently pulled the polylined sleeve out, reverently placing the sleeve and the record inside to one side on the desk top. With delicate movements she pried open the cardboard sleeve open and peered inside.

"Well, no notes on Joe, although I know he saw him live, so they must be in another album… what's this? Anybody got a pair of forceps?"

"I've got a pair I use as a roach clip out in the truck, hold on," Eddy said as he turned to run downstairs.

"Think the neighborhood's ready for Eddy in his boxers?" Kelly asked.

"Ready or not, they're about to get him," Harry replied.

In the meantime Carol took out the next album.

"Joe Williams, 'A Night At Count Basie's'… okay, here's the album itself… here are at least some of the notes… the same thing, it looks like… something fastened to the inside of the sleeve.

"November 3rd, 1957

"Last night I had to handle something for Carlo. Seemed Joey G. was talking crazy again and since Carlo took over after Albert's unfortunate demise, Joey and Larry have borne watching. Out of town talent seemed to Carlo a good way to do it," Carol read.

"But Joey stayed in, spending the evening at Carmen's, his mistress, so I was able to hand him off to Anthony and head to Harlem. Of course I didn't tell anyone where I was going as I catch enough flack about how much time I spend with 'the coloreds' as it is.

"Harlem, Seventh Avenue and 132nd at night is an eye-opener. The cream of jazz and blues musicians are playing at Count Basie's Bar and yet most whites stay away. Those that do come walk like they expect to be attacked any moment, every step they take and every move they make announcing that they're victims, waiting to be taken. The streets are lit with the neon of the clubs and bars, the night is alive with music from a dozen sources and yet these poor fools walk in their own eternal shadows.

"There are the rare few, like myself, though, who come realizing that they are safe, protected by the holy purpose of their visit. This is the Temple where the Muse resides for now and we who come to worship her and those she has touched are sacred pilgrims, journeying to a foreign land."

The tears in her voice stopped the reading and she put down the pages of notes. Harry reached to her and pulled her into his arms.

"Harry, I miss him so much... I can hear him in every word and I miss him."

"If you can hear him, Baby Girl, then he's here with you," Harry said. "I'm sure if anyone could crash the Gates he did, so he's here with you."

Carol relaxed a bit and then, wiping her face on his robe, returned to her task.

"Here's the next one, Joe Williams and Harry 'Sweets' Edison, 'Together'… no notes… again, something fastened inside."

Eddy's thundering footsteps came up the stairs. "You know, a compassionate group of friends might've thought to remind me that I was still dressed in only my gawddamn boxers," he said, handing Carol the forceps as he pounded into the room, skidding to a stop.

"Jesus Christ, Eddy, you ever clean these?" Carol said, looking about for something to wipe off the tips of the forceps.

"Yeah, about once a month… why?"

"They're disgusting," she said, cleaning them on Harry's proffered robe tail.

"Well excuse the fuck out of me, your highness, you wanna wait till I go buy you a fresh clean pair?" Eddy asked, smiling.

"No, silly man, I'm sorry… I'm just nervous."

She took the forceps and, holding the cardboard sleeve open as far as she felt she safely could, reached in and grasped the object, pulling slowly.

Suddenly it came free and the forceps came out with a fifty dollar bill in them, a piece of tape on each end of the bill.

Her mouth hanging open, Carol moved to the next sleeve, repeating the procedure.

Another fifty dollar bill appeared.

The third sleeve yielded the same.

Carol froze for a moment then sat down on the floor with a thump.

"What's wrong baby? What's wrong with her, Harry?" Kelly asked.

Harry stood, in shock himself.

"She's done the math, Kelly. Over five thousand albums, 'play each one at least once' he said… over five thousand times fifty dollars, Kelly… that's over a quarter of a million dollars."

It was silent in the room for quite some time.