Saving Becky and me Pt. 02

The bike I disassembled was in awful shape and tossing its individual pieces into assorted trash bins was no loss. I'm now clear of the tools and materials that I used last Tuesday, but now on to Becky?

I know that I feel warm toward her, but how long will she feel warm toward me? I wonder if....

"Mr. Pollock? Mr. Pollock?" a crowd of 5 scouts, with a mother or two in ear shot suddenly surrounded me. "Are you going to be at the meeting tomorrow? We're ready to do the next requirement for Citizenship in the Community merit badge. Are you going to be here? Are you going to be here?"

Looking at these young scouts so energized, I feel humbled. When I was a scout in this troop, I felt like it was having our teeth pulled to do badge work, especially the Citizenship badges.

BBBBBOOOOOORRRRRRRIIIINNNNGGGG.

Boring, boring, boring, boring and more boring.

I think that part of that was that scouts was 'not cool' in the school crowd. Much of that also came from Asshole and his group. Some of it was just from kids being kids.

It's funny, at the end of our senior year in high school; there was an outside event at the High School that was organized and run by one of the Hoffmans. Somebody collapsed and hit the concrete pad hard. He was out like a light. The 'Hoffman adult' in charge was running around saying non-sensible things and directing totally inappropriate people to do medically "stupid shit". "Stupid shit" is the proper medical term. If I was less charitable, it would be medically dangerous.

I was there with two members of the Troop and we three scouts ran over and went into action. We took 4 seconds to come up with a plan and then implemented it immediately. We specifically disregarded the Hoffman that was supposed to be in charge.

Mike started to call 911 telling them of the collapse and requested an ambulance. What we didn't realize at the time that the EMT on the phone was our Merit Badge counselor for First Aid. He remembered us but we were so focused on what to do that we never realized who he was. As he was asking specifics, Dale and I were checking the breathing, pulse, pains, facial color, numbness and more. Every question he had, we did our best to answer or to attempt to find the answer. Our actions, knowledge and familiarity with it all seemed to be second nature.

The man was breathing and not breathing blood. Whew. His pulse was good. Whew again. He fell face first on concrete and his body hit the concrete from his temple to his knees. Not so good. By now he was also starting to come to and began moaning. There were no immediate signs of stroke, heart attack or any of the other first questions we needed to answer. He was not exhibiting the signs of shock. Whew again. To the best of our knowledge, he was stable. We kept speaking with him and the 911 operator while making sure he was comfortable but not to be moved. We monitored his condition closely while continuing to ignore the Hoffman adult. The Hoffman 'adult' was pissed, but we didn't care. Dale went to the parking lot so he could flag down the ambulance to show them to exactly where we were in the park. By directing them to where the patient was from the parking lot, Dale got to ride in the ambulance with the lights flashing. To be honest, except for the man collapsing, we had a great time. On some level it was fun. We were not overwhelmed, panicked or in over our heads. It was only 10 minutes between the time he collapsed and the EMTs showed up.

A week later, an article in the local newspaper talked about a minor mishap at the event that was well handled by the Hoffman in charge. After I became an adult, I found that you can 'buy' fluff articles from small town newspapers. It is not cheap, but small town papers cannot rock the boat. Economically, it's a low margin business and rocking the boat can be costly in so many different ways.

[Aside: I cannot stand liars and manipulators, especially political and news source ones on the national and international scale. ( $787,500,000 ). That's my position in life. You may feel otherwise. I hope that it works out for you.

Speaking of international liars and manipulators, I never thought that Rasputin would end up being my favorite Putin. (Thank you to the comic who came up with this. As a history buff, I am eternally grateful for the honesty in that humor. Ok, back to the story.) ]

"Mr. Pollock? Will you be here tomorrow so we can work on the badge?" Suddenly I was back at a scout meeting with the hopeful faces of 5 scouts staring at me. I had to have some fun with these boys and girls. I've done it before with some of them so I started to drawl out "Well,.... I don't know..." They stood up and surrounded me and gave their best theatrical 'We will not be denied' looks. We've done this countless times in this troop. We all laughed.

"OK, OK, I give up. I'll be here tomorrow." I got a round of 'yeas' as they quickly filtered away. That's when I saw Natalie had been looking over at that group, a group that she was not part of. She was not looking happy. I've been there and done that. But that is not the way with this troop.

I motioned to Natalie to come over. "Are you going to join us for the Citizenship in the Community merit badge? You can start tomorrow and we can do a few things later that will catch you up with the other girls and the boys that are also working on the badge. Would that be OK?"

Eleven years old is sometimes a rough age. She looked conflicted and slightly upset. "You've also really done well starting on the bowline knot. It took me days to get where you are in one day. I'm sure you'll do well and if you need a little bit of help for the badge, I'll be sure that you'll get it. We all take our time on things. Help will be from older scouts or some of the leaders."

She still looked a bit shy and uncertain. That's when I understood. DUH. "I take it that you've not talked it over with your mother?" She nodded no with some fear in her eyes. "OK if I talk with you and your mother about this later tonight? Why don't you go over to the knots group and finish up on the bowline. You'll need to know that for advancement." With a smile, off she ran.

Becky

Natalie was in the middle of another happy dance when she finally saw me. Running to me, I got the biggest hug and a non-stop narration of her time at the meeting and wanting to come back tomorrow. "Natalie, I take it you want to join?" She nodded yes with a huge smile. "Ok, why don't we find a leader and I can get the details and we can..."

Someone had obviously sent a leader over while Natalie was talking to me. "Ms. Grey? I'm Lois Ruiz. I'm an Assistant scoutmaster here."

"Please make it Becky. I understand from my daughter that she is interested in joining your Troop. Could you fill me in on the details?"

"The meetings are on Monday nights and we can always use addition parental help. There are groups of girls and boys that carpool for our combined Monday meetings and..."

Bill

As the room was winding down and scouts and their parents were leaving, I glanced as Becky and Natalia were walking out the door. Natalia was talking non-stop with a smile on her face while Becky looked tired but happy. I think that they'll be here for the regular meeting tomorrow. It'll be busy enough for their first weekly meeting so I won't have to worry about being alone with Becky.

Becky

"Hey Stranger, long time no see. What'll you have today? You did like the new cheese and salsa burger?" Her smile toward me could have powered the town for a year.

This is the 4th time in a week since last Tuesday, Skid's Tuesday, I'm seeing Becky and it's getting harder to keep a little bit of distance or slow things down. This is moving faster than I'm comfortable with. Still, I have to be sure that I don't do anything stupid.

Who am I kidding? Me not do something stupid? Does a pope shit in the woods? Is the bear catholic?

But I look at her and see someone wonderful. She's devoted to her daughter, makes do on her waitressing and has a couple of side gigs when she has the time. There are no extras in her life, and now no drama thanks to a couple of hours of my time last week.

"Well, I'm in the mood... now for something completely different."

She starts chuckling. "Oh boy, a Monty Python fan."

"You too?"

"Yep. Got a complete set of Monty Python DVDs at the last hour of a Moving Sale for $10 a couple of years ago."

"I knew that you were well read, but this is totally outstanding." I paused, and then broke into a smile. "Ok, what's the land speed of a laden swallow?... From the Holy Grail, but I'm sure that you know that."

"African or European?"

I nodded yes and then she added "An alternative is sometimes 'laden with one coconut or two?"

We both busted out laughing. A Python nerd in front of me, smiling at me, melting my resolve..."

"With an answer like that, I have to trust you. Please make a decision for my dinner."

"I'll be back with your normal beer and your surprise dinner love." And she scooted away.

WHAT THE....LOVE? We ain't in merry old England. Where did that come from? This is not looking well to slow things down. Suddenly, there's a beer in front of me, a smile and a touch in my arm.

"Back in a few with your dinner." She disappeared again. Looking around, the place is at near capacity again. So of course, she has to serve the other customers.

As the night went on, she'd stop on by for a minute or two to chat me up, and then she had to run to serve her other customers.

I was pretty tired and decided to call it a night. Seeing her this often, I found myself not getting great sleep. Becky was one thing to have on my mind, but Officer 'Skids' was another.

He showed up in public here yesterday. That's what was reported by John, one of the regulars here. It appears that Skids was in uniform and he was not a happy camper.

I thought that this might happen, so the second part of my plan was going to have to be put into play. Killing or maiming him is not something that I could ever do. Nor would I plant drugs or something else that was morally and legally deadly to him. If indeed I did something like that, I'm sure that the entire power of the Hoffman Family and police forces all around us would be put into play.

The thing that entrenched powers and bureaucracies fear is public ridicule. Ridicule before an election is deadly. This area has been under the Hoffman family's thumb for 20 years. They slowly built up their allies and destroyed any rivals. We've lived under it, but 'Skids' being put in apparent charge as the muscle to keep the peasants in their place, was more than could be tolerated.

Since the 'Skids' incident, a couple of things started happening. The knowledge that it is legal that people can video their interactions with the 'powers that be' has become very well known around the area. Several of the homebound senior citizens are now listening to the police radio so now anytime 'Skids' pulls someone over, he as to report it to the 911 center. The senior citizen group sends out text messages to a large group of people. Several of us also have those senior citizens numbers on speed text in case we get pulled over. Anybody near by the location shows up with their phones recording. It's now happening that groups arrive before the additional dispatched police show up. Just today, the three times Skids pulled someone over were covered by groups ranging from 5 to 11 people. He is starting to lose his power. He's beginning to see that he is now front and center. He's the target now and cannot operate in the shadows.

I'm sure he came to Monty's last night because he knew that was where he was set up. John, my table buddy tonight is one of the regulars that was here yesterday. "Bill, you should have seen it. His face was angry, and his temper was at the breaking point. He needed a victim to serve as an example. What's a bully without a victim as an example to others?

"When he sat down, he looked around and called out loudly 'Get me a drink.' When no one moved he yelled, 'NOW GOD DAMNIT'."

John continued with a smile on his face. "You should have been here. The place was deathly quiet and even the Iron Workers quit talking. We all watched. The manager walked over to Skids and quietly asked him to go over to his office to have a few words privately. Skids burst out with a 'No you sonofabitch. I want a drink NOW.'

"This was the great part. We all watched the manager exhale slowly while he stood tall. The manager has never ever talked about his two tours in the sandbox, but here was one short and generally friendly marine that now stood up tall to Skids. They were nearly head to head even though Skids was sitting down. What a stupid son of a bitch. Never mess with somebody that's smaller than you, that's a marine, that's been in combat and is calm as shit." John smiled and took a sip of his beer. "That's when the manager dropped the bomb and told him loudly that he was directed by the police chief to not serve him any alcohol." John took another swig of his beer. Telling stories is a thirsty business. I took a double sip myself.

"Skids tried to bully his way and yelled 'NOW you sonofabitch, I...' when the manager added that on orders from the police chief, a 911 call went out the second Skids stepped foot in this fine establishment." John drained the rest of his beer, caught the eye of Becky. He held up his beer mug and shook it. The universal sign for another beer.

"After hearing another 'sonofabitch I ought to...' Skid looked around and found that he was being recorded by 9 different cell phones. That was the same time we all heard sirens in the distance."

"Skids yelled out 'I am not finished with you' as he stomped toward the door. From somewhere in the back of the bar we heard a loud male falsetto voice call out 'That's ok grandma. Any runs in your nylons today?' We all broke out in laughter that was led by the dozen Ironworkers."

"It was great. Skids turned around and glared. The crowd snickered while the ironworkers continued to roar. The Police duty chief walked in at that moment. That's when Curtis began to understand. The world had changed for him. He no longer was powerful. He was weakened and could not bully and be protected. Being escorted away, the police brass walked him out speaking to him softly as the door closed.

"John, I'm sure that he's now planning his come back."

The new beer was delivered as John continued. "The bar went deathly silent and we all looked at one another. We suddenly knew that we had the power to improve our town and our lives. I hope to hell that we don't get out-maneuvered by the Hoffman family."

Getting home late, I knew that I had to do something to stop his comeback. I needed to keep him on the defensive. The easiest people that Skids could abuse were the old and the very young. The kids that drink beer in the woods near Monty's were always on his hit list when he needed some 'fresh' jollies.

Weeks ago when I was preparing for Skids' SUV mishap, I bought a case of 24 high quality cans of brown automotive spray paint while I was on vacation. I did it with cash at a yard sale. The grandfather died and his daughter and her daughter were clearing out the garage.

I've also printed all the 100 copies I had of the photo quality printer paper for of that first picture I took of him after his SUV crashed. That was the one with the air bags deployed with him in panties, vodka bottle, nylons and gun in full view. I knew when I took it, that picture was going to be a classic. It actually looked better than the ones the EMTs took. I also made sure that I always wore cloth gloves when ever I've handled anything I was going to distribute.

Taking 12 cans to a batch, I rubber banded 4 copies of the picture to each can as well as attach several pairs of disposable latex gloves. Whenever I've used spray paint, I always carried some paint away on my fingers and I did not want to have the taggers identified. My plan is that for the next two Thursday evenings after midnight, I'd leave 12 cans in an open box in that patch of woods for the kids to find. I have enough for 2 drops of 'supplies'. The first spot will be right at their favorite drinking spot. I'll move it closer to their parking spots for the second drop.

By the Sunday morning after the first drop, every Hoffman Political poster had a new wide brown strip down the middle. After my second and final delivery, cars and businesses owned by the Hoffmans and their cronies started to get the same stripe. What amazed me was that somebody went up to the water tower and sprayed a message in brown paint. The letters were 6' tall. "Mayor Hoffman, Skids boss". The paint on the water tower was a different shade than the one that I bought. The letters were ad quality and appeared to be professionally done, not done by a green amateur.

Becky

"Lois?" I looked at Assistant Scoutmaster Louis Ruiz with a question. I've been going to the Monday BSA meetings with Natalie for the past three weeks and had gotten to know more of the kids and the leaders. I've been working with Louis helping the new scouts attain their first rank.

"Becky, what's on your mind?"

"I was wondering if I could ask you a couple of non-scout questions?" That's when she looked at me with a question on her face. "It's nothing serious, I was just wondering if you could help me with a way to approach things." This got me another question on her face. I exhaled and quietly said, "I'd like to know a little bit about Bill." Her face changed again and I didn't know exactly how to read her. That's when she smiled a broad smile at me and I knew that things were going to be ok.

"Bill. There's a lot to be said about Bill. He was an Eagle Scout here, went to college for a while then came home and a few years later rejoined the troop as a leader. He tends to be a Merit badge counselor. Since they now allow girls, he's been a Merit Badge councilor for a bunch of badges for both troops."

"Lois? Is there anything to share about his personal life? I know that he's shy and very unassuming. We had dinner at my house a couple of weeks ago and he was the most delightful and warm and real person that I've ever met. But he's been shying away from me and I don't understand. He is so wonderful with the scouts. Am I just that scary?"

I was so worried about the answer when Louis broke out in a warm smile and a soft chuckle. "You'll love this." She looked left and right then directly into my eyes. "It's not you, it's him." She covered her face with her hands as she chuckled so she wouldn't be seen by anyone else. "Did you ever think that relationship cliché would appear in your own life? But it is true. Bill had what he thought was a solid relationship at one time. The immaturity of the woman who he was going to ask to marry him destroyed his hopes and him. By the way, she was on her third 'entanglement' here before she left town more than a few years ago. Thankfully, her last engagement was called off by the fiancé long before they got near the altar." She looked to the side and sighed. "I'm going use my superpowers to state that you've been interested in him."

I nodded yes and we both laughed quietly. In a very theatrical way I asked "How did you ever know?"

"We could all see you soften his heart and bring joy to his face when you smiled at him and with him. I'd like to thank you for your interest in him. The leaders here have known him for years we think that you're bringing him out of his shell."

"What can I do? He doesn't take hints well and..."

"Becky, he's never taken hints well. He's a guy. In fact, he's a shy quiet guy. All I can say is that slow and steady and he'll come around. Just keep coming to the meetings and don't put much pressure on him. He's coming around. It'll be gradual." She looked around to try to see where he was. Spotting him in the corner with two leaders and 11 scouts working on a citizenship badge, she turned back to me. "We'll all work on him too. Just take it easy."