The Garbage King Pt. 01

Gordon outlined his business idea, admitting up front that he had absolutely no money thanks to his wife's pilferage. He dug the note Donna had left for him and Donald pursed his lips.

"Direct Deposit?" Donald asked.

"Oh shit, she could get next payroll too, huh?" Gordon realized. "I'll take care of that soon as I leave here."

"Okay, Mr. King," Donald said.

"Uh, rather you just call me Gordon, huh?" Gordon said.

This was another thing Gordon liked about Donald Pellichet; he'd said his name once, and Donald remembered Gordon's name. The man was attentive, competent.

"Okay, and you call me Donald," Donald smiled warmly. "Now, you let me be your partner for say, twenty percent? I'll get you a line of credit with First Union; hmm, we're probably going to need about two million, what you think? And then we'll..."

"I think you're a partner with twenty percent equity stakes," Gordon said. "And since you got some skin in the game? We'll do things your way."

"But first, we're filing for a divorce; I assume you want a divorce; we're getting a divorce. Any woman says she tired of sacrificing for her sick child I am not interested in being business partners with that woman," Donald said. "And it is not coming back on us that she gets half, hear?"

"You uh, you could play that c and then the i and l and make child, right there," Gordon said, pointing to Donald's computer screen.

"Aw shit," Donald laughed. And that's a double word score too."

The attorney shook his head and closed the program. He pulled up another program on his computer.

"So, Gordon, any idea where Donna might be?" Donald asked.

"Probably Mumphrey, itty bitty shit hole on Highway fifty two right before you get to Mississippi; her sister lives out there," Gordon admitted.

While Gordon King and his new attorney and business partner sat in the building in Kimble, Louisiana, Donna sat in Paradise Lounge in Mumphrey, Louisiana. She smiled as Gary Thorpe took the seat next to her at the bar.

"Hey," Donna slurred. "Celebrating tonight! Left my old man!"

Gary did not bother pointing out that it was only two o'clock in the afternoon, not night. He smiled, revealing that he was missing an upper front tooth.

"Yeah? I feel like celebrating too," Gary said.

"Yeah, what you celebrating?" Donna asked, emptying her glass of scotch on the rocks.

"Just met this hot piece of ass left her old man," Gary smirked and Donna shrieked with laughter.

Chapter 2

Gordon King smiled as he used the GPS system his son had suggested they install on the boat to locate the ship's location. And they were right on schedule, docking to Platform Nine in the Gulf Of Mexico.

More than one Platform Manager had said that when it's time for King Sanitation to be at their rig, they don't even bother to look, they just start throwing the refuse over the side.

Benoit Waste Disposal did not go down without a fight. For many years, they had been the only game in town. They were baffled when PPEDI suddenly cancelled their subscription to Benoit, but shrugged, figuring that PPEDI was piggy backing on someone else's subscription. And as soon as Benoit found out who was letting PPEDI use their subscription, they would double the rates.

Then Charter also dropped their subscription. Followed by Kendricks' Engineering.

Then Tim Benoit found out, there was a new kid in town, King Sanitation and Disposal, Incorporated. With a tight smile, he made plans to remove King Sanitation & Disposal, Incorporated.

At the warehouse/office in Jack's Creek, Garland Hebert walked around the building, holding his ever present cup of coffee. He heard scraping noises and went to investigate. He stepped behind an office door when he saw four masked figures slinking along the wall.

"Don't worry," one of the masked figures whispered. "There's only one old guy here and he's unarmed.

Garland bristled at that comment; he was only thirty nine years old. And he wondered where the man got the information that he was unarmed; Garland had his nine millimeter securely at his side.

"All right, you take those offices; I'll take this one," he heard the same man say.

Garland let the man enter the office, let him snap the light on, then put a bullet right between the man's startled eyes.

"God damn it, Bobby!" Garland heard another man yell. "Don't kill the mother fucker! Just tie him up!"

"Shit, I thought y'all said no guns," another man said.

"Forgot to tell me no guns," Garland said and shot another one of the men in the heart and swiveled to shoot the third suspect.

"Fuck! Don't shoot, don't shoot!" the man screamed, laying on the floor, covering his head with his hands.

"Don't shoot," the fourth man begged, also laying on his face. "Please, I'm unarmed.

While Garland was securing the hands and feet of the two remaining suspects, Murphy Collins, the night watchman at the Jazz Beach King Sanitation & Disposal Incorporated marina watched three men as they pumped diesel onto first one of King's boats, then onto a second boat.

Murphy called the police to report what he was witnessing as the men dumped fuel onto the third boat. Then he quietly slipped out of the office.

"Hi Guys," Murphy said cheerfully, striking a match and holding it up. "I drop this, y'all are going up in flames. I suggest y'all just stop what you're doing, hear?"

"Murphy, put that out," the older of the two police officers said, strolling up.

The two surviving men at the Jack's Creek warehouse, and the three men at the Jazz Beach Marina sang like canaries and Tim Benoit and his son Tim Junior faced a long list of charges. Kenneth Prejean, their attorney advised Tim and Tim Junior that Gordon King's son was a cancer survivor and the jury would not be inclined to be sympathetic to either defendant.

Tim did accept a plea-bargain, but TJ did not. Tim received an eight year sentence and TJ received a twenty five year sentence.

"Told you," was all Kenneth Prejean said when Tim Junior looked at him, horrified.

But now, Gordon King was the only game in town. Gordon did learn a lesson from Benoit; their customers had been more than happy to leave Benoit when offered an alternative.

So, Gordon kept his prices reasonable and kept his services dependable. And as a result, he was also picking up other contracts outside of the Oil & Natural Gas companies.

And today, Gordon King's son was starting back in school. Todd had done his best to keep up with his schoolwork, keep up with his peers, all the while undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatment.

Todd's cancer was finally in remission and his immune system was now strong enough for him to be around other students.

At Baylor Lake High School, Freyja Wertzin walked down the hall with her boyfriend, Arnold Petitjean, her best friend Amelia Waters, and Amelia's boyfriend, Derek Bergeron.

The quartet spotted a new student putting his books into a locker. The young man wore a baseball cap, but it was obvious that the new student had no hair. This was made all the more obvious when he turned around; he had very sparse eyebrows.

"What up, Roll On?" Derek sneered.

"Roll On?" Arnold laughed.

"Yeah, round head looks like what you'd put on under your arms," Derek laughed.

"Derek, that's not nice," Amelia giggled.

Todd ignored them and entered the sophomore homeroom. A Latin girl smiled at him and Todd ducked his head.

Bonita had not survived. She had been Todd's first serious girlfriend; they'd shared a kiss and promised each other their undying love.

And then Bonita simply did not wake up one morning. The other teenagers, the other children in the Oncology Ward knew what that bell meant when it chimed. Todd heard the bell, bent his head in silent prayer, then wondered what was keeping Bonita.

Todd looked over at the Latin girl again, but she had already moved on to smiling at another young man. Mr. Cousins eased his bulk into his chair and swallowed several times, trying to will his indigestion down without having to reach for the antacid tablets.

With a sigh, Mr. Cousins gave in and reached for the bottle, shook out two tablets, chewed them, then started calling out attendance.

"Kim, Paula," he intoned.

"Here," an Asian American girl squeaked out.

"King, Todd," Mr. Cousins called out.

"Here, sir," Todd said.

"Lose the hat, boy," Mr. Cousins said. "Laramie, Angela."

Several of the students giggled as Todd reluctantly took the cap off. He blushed hotly, eyes fixed on his desk.

"Oh," Mr. Cousins said, glancing up to see what the students were giggling about. "Sorry, son; I didn't realize. You uh, you can put the hat back on."

While Gordon was perusing a proposal from a company located in Mobile, Alabama, while Todd was acclimating to his first day at school, in a rotted old trailer, Donna lay on a filthy mattress, urging the young man on. Donna hoped the nineteen year old wouldn't take too long; Mia was probably already waking up from her nap.

Last time Mia had seen Brandon, the child had innocently mentioned it to Paw-paw and Gary Thorpe had slugged Donna so hard, he'd knocked out three of her teeth.

But where did Gary think Donna got the money for their heroin from? The Money Fairy?

"Be quicker I fuck you up the ass," Brandon suggested.

"And up the ass is twenty five extra; you got twenty five extra?" Donna asked.

"Maw-maw, I got go potty," Mia complained from her bed.

"Be right there, sweetheart," Donna called back, pushing Brandon off of her.

With a sigh, Donna pulled her filthy robe on and waddled to the baby's room.

Just after Nicole and Donna had left Gordon, left their home, Nicole admitted to Donna that she was pregnant. Whomever the father might be was a mystery to Nicole; most of the truckers and bikers had not given Nicole their names.

Pregnancy did not stop the now nineteen year old girl from fucking men, or from snorting meth.

It had been Gary that had introduced mother and daughter to injecting the drug. Nicole loved meth but Donna hated it; it made her skin feel like there were thousands of bugs crawling on her, biting her. So Gary introduced Donna to heroin. She was addicted from the first time she pushed the syringe into her vein.

Shortly after giving birth to a beautiful little girl that she named Mia Donna King, Nicole bought some meth from a friend of a friend of a friend. The friend of a friend of a friend stepped on his meth with rat poison and Nicole went into seizures. The twenty year old woman died, needle still in her arm.

That left Donna to care for her granddaughter. Donna did the best she could while strung out on heroin while turning a few tricks.

"Maw-maw's here, Sweetie Pie," Donna smiled, her missing teeth making her smile a grotesque grimace.

While Donna was helping Mia down from the toilet, it was lunchtime at Baylor Lake High School. Most of the students were crammed into the small cafeteria. Some were in the small library, some were in the gymnasium, and some braved the early spring humidity, sitting outside.

Freyja, who did not eat the school lunches and Amelia, who did not have the money for lunch, sat outside. They sat on a concrete bench, the sun beating down on them.

Freyja did not eat the school lunches; they were, in her opinion, too fattening. Lauren Wertzin, Freyja's mother tipped the scales at three hundred and four pounds and Freyja was deathly afraid of becoming like her mother, so she studiously dieted, religiously exercised. At five feet and four inches, Freyja weighed ninety two pounds.

"Ooh, whose car you think that is?" Amelia asked, looking at Todd's 2011 Corvette

"My new boyfriend," Freyja said smugly.

"Oh yeah?" Amelia giggled. "And suppose it's a girl's car, huh?"

"Hmm. Guess I'd have to start hitting that," Freyja said and the two seventeen year old girls giggled.

"What you laughing at?" Arnold asked, scowling darkly.

"Nothing, God, can't even talk to my girlfriend?" Freyja spat.

"Teach you some manners," the big lout grabbed Freyja's painfully thin arm, jerking her to her feet.

"Arnold, quit!" Amelia pleaded.

But Freyja wouldn't give Arnold the satisfaction of hearing her plead. She just glared at him defiantly.

"There a problem?" Coach Nick asked and Arnold immediately let go of Freyja's arm.

"No sir," Arnold said.

"Ow-uh!" Freyja said to Amelia, rubbing her arm where Arnold's finger marks could be seen.

In the cafeteria, Todd ignored Derek and a few of Derek's friends that taunted him.

"Don't listen to them; they think they're big shots because they're juniors, Paula Kim said.

Todd looked up and Paula blushed. He smiled softly, shaking his head.

"Whole time I was in the hospital, I couldn't wait to get back to school," Todd admitted.

He shook his head again.

"Now? Kind of wondering why?" he said, picked up his fork and tried the school lunch. Paula covered her smile as Todd made a face.

While Todd choked down his unappetizing lunch, at Dr. LeMoine's office, Kelly frowned. Someone had erased Gordon King's appointment from her screen.

"Dottie; you reschedule Mr. King?" Kelly asked.

"No," Dottie shook her carrot orange hair. "Think Berta did."

"Berta, you reschedule Gordon King?" Kelly asked the smirking woman.

"Yeah, Dr. LeMoine wanted me handle him," the woman lied.

It was no secret that Gordon King was extremely wealthy. It also did not hurt that the man was also very attractive, and extremely single. This was not the first time that Berta had removed Mr. King from Kelly's chart. It was the first time Kelly fought back, though.

"Oh? Congratulations; I didn't know you'd passed your certification. That's great," Kelly said with false cheerfulness.

"Uh," Berta said, losing her smirk.

"You are certified to do the x-rays, right? I mean, its right here that Mr. King's due for x-rays," Kelly said.

"Well, Dr. LeMoine, I guess," Berta stammered.

"That's okay, I'll just put him in," Kelly said, rapidly typing out the appointment. "But you're certainly welcome to take Henry Jacoby. Thanks, Berta."

Kelly liked Gordon King. He was polite and attentive. The first time they'd met, he looked straight at her eyes, not at her chest. He did look, though. He had commented on her mother's lapel pin, a gold cross that Kelly wore from time to time. Gordon had also noticed when Kelly wore another one of her mother's pins, an enamel lamb.

Gordon King also asked about Kerry, remembering that Kelly had a younger sister that she was caring for and, he remembered Kerry's name, remembered Kerry's age; approximately the same age as his son.

"Hello, Mr. King," Kelly smiled and he shook his head.

"Kelly, told you before, just call me Gordon," he said as he followed her down the hallway.

Gordon admired Kelly's tight looking rear end in the tight white skirt. When he reclined in the dentist's chair, Gordon did give a quick glance at her impressive chest and noticed that she was wearing an enamel teddy bear pin.

"Oh, was that another one of your mother's?" he politely asked.

"No, Kerry gave it to me for my birthday," Kelly said with pride.

"It's cute," he said, now looking into Kelly's hazel eyes.

After the x-rays and a vigorous cleaning, Dr. LeMoine came in. They exchanged pleasantries.

"Got one cavity, actually looks like you might have had it a little while," the man said.

Kelly sat down to schedule the next appointment. She typed rapidly, then turned to give Mr. King the next availability showing on her screen.

"Let's see," Gordon said, pulling out his phone. "Petroleum Expo next week, convention in Vegas..."

"How's the twelfth sound?" Kelly asked.

"No, next time I'm in town, is the thirtieth," Gordon said.

"Mr. King, really? You can't come in sooner?" Kelly asked.

"Nope," he said firmly.

"Fine, fine," Kelly sighed and scheduled the filling for the thirtieth.

As Gordon left the dentist's office, at Baylor Lake High School, Derek and Arnold looked on with interest as Todd King opened the passenger door of the Corvette. Todd put his books into the passenger seat of the Corvette then got into the driver's seat.

"No shit; that's Roll -On's wheels, huh?" Derek said.

Todd drove home to the mansion he, his father, and their housekeeper, Mrs. Greene lived in. He punched the remote control and watched as one garage bay opened.

"And how was your first day of school?" the old woman asked when he entered her domain.

"It was okay," Todd shrugged, grabbing a cupcake.

"What happened?" Mrs. Greene asked, fixing him with a squint.

"Had to take the hat off, some people laughed," Todd shrugged.

"Some people are going to laugh," Mrs. Greene said, giving him a motherly pat on his arm. "Some people just don't understand what you've been through."

Chapter 3

Gordon King's phone gave a 'ding' and reminded him of his dental appointment. As if they were on relay, Sheila Jakes, Gordon's administrative assistant, came in and reminded him of his dental appointment.

Gordon had been in a good mood that morning and even drove his ruby red Astin Marton Db5 to work. That good mood evaporated when Sheila reminded him of the appointment.

At Dr. LeMoine's office, Kelly stood behind Berta and watched as Berta erased Gordon King's name from Kelly's list. She resisted the urge to lift the woman out of her chair by a handful of her brunette curls.

"Dr. LeMoine just reminded me that Mr. King will need some more x-rays so I know he did not authorize you to do that," Kelly calmly said.

Inside, Kelly was seething; Kerry had come home late last night, lying about where she'd been, and reeking of beer and marijuana.

"Oh, I uh just..." Berta stammered.

"Berta, I am not in the mood," Kelly sighed.

"Fucking tit monster," Berta grumbled as she re-entered Gordon's name to Kelly's schedule.

As her sister was standing up for herself at work, at Northside High School, Kerry Straughters felt absolutely horrible. She'd thrown up last night and her bitch sister had shown absolutely no sympathy. That morning, even though Kelly knew Kerry was too sick, Kelly stood there, stone faced, and made Kerry get dressed and made her go to school.

Emily Lopez smiled sympathetically. Then, with a shake of her head, the fellow cheerleader shrugged.

"Shit girl, two joints and you're out of it?" Emily taunted.

"Uh huh, and them beers," Kerry reminded her.

"Aw yeah," Emily laughed. "Man, David was all like 'bitch drank all the beer!' and I'm all like whatever, you know?"

Kerry could not eat the food that the cafeteria slapped onto her tray, could not even eat the brownie that came with that day's lunch. Kelly really should have let her stay home that day.

While Kerry nursed her hangover at Northside High School, at Baylor Lake High School, Todd King came out of the principal's office, smiling. He'd scheduled summer school for the three classes he would need in order to join the Senior class in the Autumn. The three classes would bump him up and would put him on track to graduate on time with his age group.

Right behind Todd King, Arnold Petitjean scowled; once again, he was having to go to Summer school. The nineteen year old was sick and tired of school, but his dad had promised him a severe ass kicking if he dropped out of school. And his mom had promised Arnold that he dropped out of school, he would have to find somewhere else to live; she would not support someone too lazy to finish school.

Todd scratched his head; hair was starting to grow back and it itched. But at least he no longer felt like he had to wear his baseball cap to hide his bald head.

Todd smiled as Freyja smiled at him; they'd finally recognized each other and had attempted to reconnect, catch up with each other. She'd heard about his cancer and apologized for losing touch with him. Todd assured Freyja that it was fine; most of the time, he had been too sick to receive visitors anyway.