The Garbage Queens

"Let me guess. Should see the other fella?" Bob finally asked.

Which caused Freyja to burst into tears. Linda glared over Freyja's shoulder at her husband.

"I don't know why Kerry's so mad at me," Freyja sobbed, actually heartbroken. "I mean, we were the best of friends and then all of a sudden, she hates me."

"Oh, I'm sure it wasn't all of a sudden," Bob commented, ignoring his wife's glare. "Come on now, think. What could have happened to make Kerry Straughter, a girl you used to call 'fat little pig' all of a sudden start hating you?"

Chapter 24

Amelia had sent both Freyja and Kerry text messages. Neither had responded. Paula had said that neither Freyja nor Kerry had responded to her text messages either.

Linda, Mrs. New was bringing Freyja's homework assignments to Freyja, and Todd was bringing Kerry's homework assignments to Kerry. But after school, Amelia did stop by Mrs. New's home, visited with Freyja for a few minutes.

Even though they were alone; the two foster daughters that Linda and Bob had custody of were not home from Buddy Roemer Middle School yet and Bob and Linda were not home from their jobs, Freyja still whispered as she told Amelia about finally losing her virginity.

"And Kerry was in the..." Freyja slowly stated, realization dawning on her. "And that fat little bitch's in love with Todd King. I don't care what she says; she's in love with..."

"Um! You said 'bitch' and I'm telling!" Sandy, one of the foster daughters gleefully shrilled.

"I didn't say that. Amelia, did you hear me say that?" Freyja said, face a mask of innocence.

"Nope. But I did hear HER say that," Amelia said, pointing at Sandy.

"Two against one; you lose," Freyja said smugly to the now glowering girl.

Amelia gave Freyja a quick hug and gave a smirk to the foster girl. Getting into her car, which used to be her mother's car, Amelia drove home.

Debbie had bought a copy of Milt Duhon's cook book, 'The Cast Iron Stomach' when it first came out. She had even read the recipes in the book, laughing at Milt Duhon's amusing anecdotes that he'd put in with each recipe. And then, the book went on the bookshelf.

Amelia decided to do Milt Duhon's cast iron stir fry with the four leg quarters and quickly assembled the ingredients. The pan Amelia used was a Teflon pan, not a cast iron skillet, but the results were pretty similar to the pictures in the book.

Amelia had their dinner ready by the time Greg Waters wearily dragged himself into their home. He even nodded when she showed him she'd made fried rice to go with the meal.

Greg didn't eat, though. He cracked open a beer the moment he entered the kitchen and drank it down in two long gulps. He popped open a second beer then pushed the food around on the plate.

Amelia ate her meal, never looking up from the plate. The tightening in her gut told her she needed to make a decision, make the decision soon.

"Guess I'm just not hungry," Greg mumbled and opened a third beer.

"Daddy, I'm pregnant," Amelia blurted out.

While Greg's alcohol soaked brain was digesting the news that his baby girl, his sweet, innocent baby girl was pregnant, in a trailer in Jazz Beach, Louisiana, Mrs. Petitjean jerked awake. She'd fallen asleep watching the Rodney Prejean show, exhausted after a full day of taking care of her brain damaged son.

As her mental fog lifted, Mrs. Petitjean realized she could hear noises coming from the kitchen. She gasped, horrified. There were knives and other sharp things in the kitchen, things that Arnold could hurt himself with. There was a hot stove he could burn himself with.

Running into the kitchen, she saw Arnold smearing grape jelly onto a piece of bread. He had more jelly on his hand and on the counter than on the bread, but he was making the attempt. Another piece of bread sat on a plate, very haphazardly covered with peanut butter.

"Baby, what are you doing?" Mrs. Petitjean asked.

"I'm hungry and you was sleeping," Arnold said. "Why the jelly won't do right?"

"I always use a big spoon for that," Mrs. Petitjean said, gently taking bread and knife from his hands.

"Go wash your hands, huh?"

While Arnold's mother was silently thanking God for this little milestone, her son being able to smear peanut butter and jelly onto bread, the King household was sitting down for their supper. A glare from Gordon stopped Mia from attempting to imitate Todd's manufactured belch.

"Hmm?" Gordon looked up from their shrimp stir fry when they heard someone ring the doorbell. "Mia, what'd you do?"

"Me?" Mia was actually surprised. "Grandpa! I didn't do nothing!"

"Hmm? Then it was Uncle Todd. Todd, what'd you do?" Gordon asked, getting to his feet.

"Nothing. And you can't prove it either," Todd quickly said.

"Sweetie Pie, Grandpa's just picking on you," Kelly reassured Mia. "Remember? He likes to pick."

"Uh huh, bet the DNA says different," Gordon said to Todd as a second chime sounded.

Gordon checked the video doorbell and saw Amelia Waters at the front door. He opened the door, then gasped when he saw the girl's fresh black eye and split lip.

"Oh my God, oh Amelia, what happened?" Kelly gasped, stepping around Gordon and pulling the sobbing girl into the house.

"I'm sorry, I, I just, I didn't know where else to go," Amelia cried. "But you and Miss Kelly, y'all always been so nice to me and..."

In Gordon's downstairs office, Gordon and Kelly sat, listening to Amelia's tale of woe. Gordon felt his chest tighten; whether his daughter was pregnant or not, how could a man strike his own daughter?

"That is no excuse," Gordon said tightly when Amelia mentioned Greg's drinking.

"Gordon," Kelly gently admonished her husband, applying the ice pack to Amelia's eye.

She then turned and smiled a reassuring smile at the girl. Despite her tears, Amelia couldn't help but return Kelly's smile.

"So, Amelia, what do you want to do about the baby?" Kelly asked gently.

"Oh God, I, Miss Kelly, I, there's no way, I can't take care of a baby, I mean, shit, no money? No job? Not even out of high school?" Amelia sniffled.

"Mm-hmm," Gordon quietly agreed. "Best case scenario, what do you think should happen?"

"You, I mean, I, y'all take the baby?" Amelia asked hopefully.

"You mean, adopt your baby?" Kelly asked, clarifying Amelia's request.

"Uh huh," Amelia nodded.

"That's a, Amelia, that's a pretty big step," Gordon said thoughtfully. "I, would you mind waiting outside in the hall while Miss Kelly and I talk about this?"

Amelia nodded and got to her feet. Out in the hall, she smiled at Kerry.

The moment the door closed behind Amelia, Kelly squealed, danced in place for a moment, then climbed into Gordon's lap.

"Oh! We're having a baby, we're having a baby, oh my God, oh my God!" Kelly squealed, hugging Gordon tightly.

"And I guess we're finished talking about it," Gordon chuckled.

While Kelly was squeezing her husband, kissing him over and over, in the hall, Kerry pulled Amelia in for a hug.

"Guess we're twins, huh?" Amelia said, pointing to her black eye.

"What happened?" Kerry asked, pulling back and looking at Amelia.

"Freyja's so unhappy y'all ain't friends no more," Amelia whispered into Kerry's ear.

"Oh!" Kerry gasped as if she'd been punched in the stomach.

Kelly called Amelia back into the office. Kerry ran up the stairs in search of Todd.

"You need call Freyja," Kerry sobbed, bursting into the library.

"King me," Mia crowed, sliding a checker forward.

"I'll crown you; how's that?" Todd mock threatened. "Now, why I need call Freyja?"

"She thinks I don't like her," Kerry sobbed.

"Uh?" Todd asked, 'losing' another checker to Mia's maneuver.

"But that, that was just..." Kerry wailed.

'Call me' Todd texted Freyja's phone.

In Linda's nightstand drawer, Freyja's cell phone gave an anemic 'ding' as Todd's message came in. Then, the last bar of the battery disappeared.

As her cell phone died, Freyja was in the bedroom that Sandy and Olivia shared. Linda was cleaning the kitchen; she'd given Freyja her choice of shores. Freyja could either clean the kitchen, or she could help Sandy and Olivia with their homework.

"And they won't let us use no calculators or nothing," Olivia complained.

"But you don't need a calculator," Freyja smiled, letting the girl's horrible grammar slide for now.

"Uh huh," Sandy challenged.

"Okay, it's division. Division is just seeing how much of one number it takes to make the other number," Freyja smiled, getting into the role of teacher.

While Freyja showed Sandy and Olivia that it took nine piles of four pennies each to make thirty six pennies, while Kerry sat, impatiently waiting for Freyja to call Todd, Donald Pellichet returned Gordon King's phone call.

"Hey, uh, Mr. King, uh, why this shit never happen during normal business hours, huh?" Donald joked when Gordon discussed the events of a few moments ago.

"What's the fun in that?" Gordon asked, smiling.

"Oh! And we need to get Dr. Farbacher see you," Kelly was excitedly prattling to a smiling Amelia.

The girl actually laughed a laugh of relief when Kelly hugged her. Even as her eye and her lip throbbed, Amelia felt a sense of calm wash over her.

"Oh, hey, wait a minute. This baby. It's not Todd's, is it?" Gordon suddenly asked.

"Huh? No!" Amelia said. "No, no, that one time we did it? He did me up the, um, you know."

Gordon looked over at his wife's delectable rear and felt his cock begin to stiffen. He jammed himself further underneath his desk.

"And anyway, that was just couple weeks ago," Amelia continued. "Back when he got real sick."

"Yay, you win," Todd agreed as he 'lost' his last checker to Mia.

"Hey y'all? Y'all come down here?" Gordon's voice crackled through the intercom.

"Everyone be quiet," Todd said loudly. "Maybe they'll think we're not here."

"Need be a little quieter than that if you want us think you're not there," Gordon said. "Get down here. Now."

In the office, Amelia confessed her pregnancy to Todd and Kerry; Kelly having taken Mia upstairs for her bath. Kerry gasped, horrified; Todd felt a sinking in his gut as he looked at the beautiful girl.

He had used condoms with the girl. He had even used a condom when sodomizing her. But Todd did know that condoms aren't one hundred percent foolproof.

"Anyway, near as I can figure, I'm about three, maybe three and a half, four months gone so it's definitely Derek's puppy," Amelia continued and Todd let his breath out.

Kerry shot Todd a glare. Gordon, having been told of Kerry's homosexual relationship with Paula Kim, did wonder at that little display.

"And when I told my Dad, he uh, he, well, as you can see, he didn't take it too good," Amelia said, pointing to her injuries.

"Mr. Gordon, she can't go home, huh?" Kerry asked, horrified.

"Nope; we're putting her in your room," Gordon said.

"Oh cool!" Kerry laughed.

"'Course, we don't know where we're putting you," Todd teased Kerry.

"Shut up Todd," Kerry snapped, again shooting Todd a glare.

When Todd, Amelia, and Kerry left his office, Gordon placed a call to Greg Waters. The man was Amelia's father, and, even if he did strike his daughter, he should know his child was safe.

"Don't have a daughter," Greg drunkenly slurred into the phone.

"Fine, fine, Mr. Waters. The young lady that used to reside in your home is safe; just wanted to let you know," Gordon snapped.

"Well, whoop de fucking doo," Greg snarled and ended the conversation.

In the morning, Mrs. Greene silently prepared breakfast for six people, then stoically prepared three bagged lunches. Then, in her best imitation of a smile, asked the newcomer what drink she'd like for her lunch; grape juice, apple juice, or fruit punch.

"Uh?" Todd asked when Mrs. Greene didn't ask him what he wanted and thrust the bag at him.

"You wanted apple juice, you pestered me for apple juice, you now have apple juice, take it and shut up," Mrs. Greene snapped. "Miss Kerry?"

"Grape juice, please," Kerry said, smirking at Todd's frown of unhappiness.

"Thank you, Mrs. Greene," Amelia said.

"Yes, thank you, Mrs. Greene," Kerry echoed.

Mrs. Greene rewarded both girls with her tight smile, and treated Todd to a smirk. Then she abruptly turned and began cleaning her kitchen.

"Do try not to get suspended today, Miss Kerry," Mrs. Greene said as Todd opened the door from kitchen to garage.

"Yes ma'am," Derry couldn't help but giggle.

"Bet you'll keep your smart mouth to yourself from now on, hmm Mr. Todd?" Mrs. Greene chuckled to herself as she heard the garage door slide up.

As they pulled up to the school, Kerry saw Freyja standing with Paula. Her chest tightened and fresh tears came to her eyes. Before Todd had the engine shut off, Kerry was out of the car.

"I'm sorry," Kerry sobbed out, running up to where Freyja stood.

"Me too," Freyja sobbed.

The two adversaries hugged tightly, sobbing their apologies, their love for each other. Todd stood, holding Kerry's book bag and lunch.

"Glad that's over and done with," Todd said to no one in particular.

"Hey Baby," Freyja smiled, reaching out to Todd.

Because he had Kerry's book bag and lunch in one hand and his own book bag in his other hand, Todd was unable to grasp Freyja's hands. He was unable to prevent her from touching him.

"Hey," Todd agreed, cringing as Freyja hugged him.

"Nuh uh, no ma'am," Linda snapped at her niece. "What does the student's handbook say about that?"

"Yes ma'am," both Todd and Freyja agreed, pulling apart.

Then Freyja saw her friend's face and screamed in horror. Moving away from where Mrs. New stood, monitoring the parking lot, Amelia disclosed her pregnancy.

"So you're now living..." Freyja hissed, staring intently at Todd.

""She's staying in my room," Kerry defended.

"Oh really?" Paula hissed, glaring at Kerry.

At lunch-time, Kerry looked up, shocked. There was a box of apple juice instead of her grape juice in her lunch bag. She looked over at a grinning Todd.

"Butt hole," she snapped. "Give me back my grape juice, huh?"

At that moment, Mrs. Greene wasn't celebrating her little victory, though. That morning, there'd been a little tingling, a little numbness in her left hand. She had shrugged it off; most likely arthritis.

Now, after stripping the linens off of Todd's bed, off of Kerry's bed, the numbness had travelled up her arm. She was also finding it quite difficult to breathe.

Turning from the large capacity washing machine, Mrs. Greene suddenly felt quite dizzy. Blackness enveloped the old woman and she collapsed to the floor.

"Grandma!" she heard Mia scream. "Grandma! Mrs. Greene fell down!"

Todd, Kerry, and Amelia returned home, playfully bickering about something Todd had said. Kerry was the first to notice her sister's tears and stopped.

"Mrs. Greene had a heart attack," Kelly managed to choke out.

"Oh my God! She all right?" Kerry gasped.

"She's, she's gone," Kelly sobbed.

Todd turned abruptly and ran up the stairs. They heard his bedroom door slam shut.

An hour later, Gordon came into Todd's room. Todd was sitting at his desk, just sitting. There was no music playing, the computer was not on.

"She was doing what she loved doing; she was taking care of you and of Kerry, Gordon said quietly.

"Todd, she was happiest when she was taking care of you."

"She, Dad, she was my Mom," Todd said. "My own mother ran out on me and there was Mrs. Green... She was my Mom."

Chapter 25

No amount of drugs could numb Derek's mind, erase the horror of what he witnessed. While Ronnie Valpo focused the camera, Timothy 'Becky' Becker screamed in pain.

Rickie lay underneath Becky, his large cock thrusting in and out of Becky's bowels. Barry knelt over Becky, also shoving his fat meat into Becky's anus.

With a groan, both men pumped their semen into the groaning, sobbing young man's colon.

"I sure would like to fist fuck this little sissy slut," Barry said as they pulled their still spurting cocks from Becky's stretched hole.

"I would too; bet he'd like a good fist fuck in that ruined hole of his," Rickie giggled for the camera.

"But suppose our fist won't fit?" Barry smirked for the camera.

"Hmm? Oh, maybe we need to open him up," Rickie recited and picked up a chainsaw.

"Hey! Good idea," Barry chuckled as Rickie started the loud tool.

"Oh my God no!" Becky screamed. "Ronnie, you promised! You promised you wouldn't do this, oh God please!"

Derek wanted to look away. Derek did not want to watch the horrific brutality. But he could not pull his eyes away.

While the tightly bound Becky was being threatened with a whining chainsaw, Todd gingerly fingered the silver and crystal rosary Mrs. Greene had left to him. The beads were now worn nearly smooth; the rosary had been a gift to Mrs. Greene when she'd married her husband, Herman Greene.

Mrs. Greene had knelt and reverently prayed a rosary every night when Todd was in the hospital. When he was released, Mrs. Greene had knelt and offered up a rosary in gratitude.

While Todd sat at his desk, fingers gently rubbing the crystal beads of his rosary, Kerry sat in her bed, again reading the simple note Mrs. Greene had written to her. Kerry had been shocked to learn that Mrs. Greene had left her investments and life's savings to her.

"When I married Herman Greene, may God have mercy upon his soul, I was a prisoner. I had no money, other than what Herman said I could have. I had no choices; we did what Herman said we would do. Kerry, you are far too beautiful, too sweet to ever be a prisoner to a man's whims," Kerry read.

Herman Greene had passed away in 1985, twenty four years after he and Helen Agnes Abernathy had wed.

Duncan White was Helen Greene's investment counselor. In 1985, it had been Earl Chopin of Chopin Investments that had managed the $25, 000 that Herman Greene's life insurance policy had left to Mrs. Greene. But when James Robert Taylor had purchased Chopin Investments after Earl's passing, Duncan had taken over Earl's clientele.

"Two hundred and seventy eight thousand," Kerry said, now looking at the printouts Duncan had given to her.

Climbing off the bed, Kerry left her room. She smiled as she came into the kitchen.

Mia was noisily devouring animal crackers, sounding like a ferocious beast. Kelly was at the stove, preparing their dinner while Mia sat at the kitchen table.

"Well, we don't have to worry about where we going get the money for college," Kerry announced.

"Uh huh, you even applied yet?" Kelly asked.

"I told you yeah," Kerry said. "U. L. D. Their school of nursing."

"You told me that's what you wanted to do," Kelly said, turning down the burner under the marinara sauce. "You didn't tell me you'd gone through with it."

"Well I did. That same day that Mrs. Greene... You know," Kerry said.

"And Kerry, we weren't worried about where we're going get the money," Kelly said, indicating their surroundings with a wave of her arm. "Uh? Look around? We live in the Christmas house?"

"That's not my money," Kerry said.

"Kerry, Sweetheart, you were always going to go to college. Even if I had to sell everything we had, you were going to college," Kelly said.

"Well, now I've got the money," Kerry said.

"Yes. Yes you do," Kelly said thoughtfully. "But you have a big sister that..."

Kelly turned and looked at the clock. The old fashioned schoolhouse clock showed that it would be at least another hour before Gordon would be home.

"...you have a big sister," Kelly repeated. "But not every girl does."

"And she's the best big sister ever," Kerry beamed.

"Wish I'd had a big sister," Amelia agreed, coming into the kitchen. "Miss Kelly? I finished folding the sheets, what you want me do now?"