Wealth Pt. 04

"I, wow, I just don't, oh God, that was so scary," Harmony admitted.

Suddenly, the hospital's emergency generator came on.

"Oh, we can use the elevator now," Harmony said.

"Bull shit; suppose the generator gets overloaded?" Patrick said and began jogging up the stairs.

In her condominium, Anita squealed as the power went out and hoped that the residual heat of the electric skillet would finish cooking the grilled cheese sandwiches.

"Oh, don't worry, I am here, I protect you," Merita teased, hugging Anita from behind. "I won't let bad men get you."

"Shut up," Anita giggled and turned and kissed the woman

In their bed, Caitlin gave a little squeal as the power went out. Barry laughed and cuddled up with her.

"House is all gas; we'll be fine," he assured her.

"Anyway," he said and began stroking her wet slit. "You got something better to do?"

"We been doing that all day," she giggled but spread her legs wide for him.

Chapter 34

Barry held onto Henry St. Martin as the man sobbed. He didn't mind doing it; it had been this man and his wife that had seen the potential of the eighteen year old Barry Delacroix and had urged the teller to go to college. He owed his success to this man and that woman in that coffin.

But the man had four sons and three daughters in law and one 'friend of the family' or whatever they were calling Andy, their youngest son's lover. At least one of them should be up here, sitting next to their father.

Henry's sons weren't even sitting together, weren't even sharing their grief. Barry wanted to snatch the cell phones out of Andy's, Tara's and Gary's hands and smash them.

"That is your mother! What in the fuck is so important that you have to be on your God damned phones?" he wanted to scream at them.

"And I turned to tell her I loved her too and I could tell she was gone," Henry sobbed for the hundredth time. "And right at that minute, I mean the very second I turned around, the power, everything went off..."

On the other side of him, Caitlin sat and sobbed into her handkerchief. Michael and Briah sat, wiping at their eyes.

"Parran," Patrick said, wiping at his eyes. "Parran, I'm sorry."

Next to him, Harmony stood, looking a little bewildered, a little lost.

"I uh, I didn't really know her, but Patrick says she was the coolest woman," Harmony said.

"Yeah, she was," Henry agreed, hugging his godson tightly.

"I mean, she must have been pretty special if Patrick will actually take off of work," Harmony nudged Patrick.

"Uncle Henry, I'm sorry," Kelli sobbed, hugging the man.

"I know, Sweetie Pie," Henry said, hugging the girl.

Father McNamara quietly approached Caitlin.

"I uh, I understand you've been asked to say a few words?" the man whispered.

"I met Shirley on our first date," Caitlin sniffed from the podium. "We went sailing on Barry's boat."

"Wasn't a date," Barry chuckled lightly.

"Forgot to tell Caitlin that," Henry actually chuckled as well.

"And from that minute, she and I were the best of friends; it just didn't matter that there were a few years between us," Caitlin went on.

"A few?" Andy lisped and Barry felt his anger rise up.

"But that's just what kind of woman Shirley Ann Bordelon St. Martin was," Caitlin said. "Age? Race? How much you got in your bank account? It just didn't matter. If she liked you, she loved you. And she liked me and she loved me and next to my husband, she was my best friend."

A few moments later, Caitlin was wrapping up her eulogy, "Shirley, if my baby's a girl, we're naming her Shirley. If it's a boy, we're naming him Martin. You will never be forgotten and you will always be loved."

Andy made another scathing remark under his breath and Barry again fought down the urge to smash the man's face in.

Anita Lopez finished saying a rosary for the soul of Shirley St. Martin and quietly walked to Henry.

"I am truly sorry for your loss," she quietly said, hugged him and kissed him on his cheek.

She also hugged and kissed Barry and Caitlin , then exited through a side door, avoiding any eye contact with Toni Delacroix.

Stacy Falgout approached Henry, shook his hand and offered her own condolences. She softly patted Barry's arm, then smiled at Caitlin.

"It wasn't supposed to be a date, you witch," she said softly, letting Caitlin know there was no rancor in her words.

"Didn't tell me that," Caitlin smiled softly.

"Congratulations; I hope it's a girl," Stacy said, hugged the girl, then left the church.

Outside, in the brutal chill that still hung over Bender, Louisiana, Stacy fought the urge to go to the nearest bar and get stinking, sloppy , crying drunk.

She hit the number 1 on her cell phone.

"How'd it go?" Precious Jones, her AA sponsor answered.

"I'm the biggest loser in the world," Stacy suddenly sobbed out.

At the University of Louisiana at DeGarde, Dean Sims watched the students begin to line up at the two trailers inside the Quadrangle. The trailers were not even open yet; he checked his watch, there was at least another twenty minutes and yet there they were, braving the cold and lining up. Some were smart and had their girlfriends or buddies camped out on one of the nine benches around the two trailers.

He had been sure Anita Lopez's idea would be a total flop but agreed to let her put two food trailers up. Now he had applications from seven other people that also wanted to rent space on their campus.

"Girl ought to be teaching a class here," the man said and noticed more students racing to get in line.

He nodded in satisfaction; Campus Security had assigned two student officers to keep the throng orderly.

Down in the Quad, Anita let herself out of the 'And the Weiner is...' trailer and nodded with satisfaction as she heard the bolt slide home behind her. Their hot dogs were plumping up nicely under the heat lamps, the homemade chili was beginning to bubble, and the oil for the corn dogs was about ten minutes from reaching the correct temperature. Her friends, Alexis Smith and Jenee Wolfe were inside that trailer, along with Olivia Smith, Alexis' cousin and fellow student at U.L.D.

She knocked twice on the door of the 'Pizzaco' trailer and smiled as Honey Childress tried to make her voice sound manly, threatening.

"Who is it, huh? What you want?" the girl barked from inside the trailer.

"Open the door, you munchkin," she ordered.

"Damn it, don't call me that!" the girl shrilled as she slid the bolt back and allowed Anita entry.

A few months before their break up, Toni and Anita had gone to Casa Ole and Toni had ordered the Mexican Pizza. She ate three bites of it and declared it terrible. Anita, loathe to waste food, slid it over and took one bite and agreed with Toni.

A few days later, Anita carefully fried two corn tortillas, using a spatula to keep the tortillas flat, then topped them with her homemade taco meat, homemade salsa, and grated cheese. Toni wolfed one down and would have gobbled up the second one if Anita hadn't snatched her plate away.

"Now, THAT'S a Mexican Pizza," Toni had declared.

While Honey had been a houseguest, Anita had made four Mexican pizzas, using refried beans instead of meat and Honey, even with her small tummy, managed to eat one, and almost half of a second one.

Now, in the food trailer, a bean pizzaco sold for three ninety nine, a ground beef pizzaco or a chicken enchilada pizzaco sold for four ninety nine, and the fish pizzaco, made with fresh farm raised catfish sold for five ninety nine.

Their ice cold cans of soda sold for seventy five cents and their bottled water sold for fifty cents.

'And The Weiner Is...' sold a six inch all beef frank for one seventy nine, with two heaping table spoons of homemade all beef chili sold for two twenty nine, the corn dog sold for one fifty nine, and their sodas and waters sold for seventy five and fifty cents as well.

Her first day in business, Anita thought maybe she had miscalculated the need for a foods service on campus; they barely made two hundred dollars between the two trailers. Word of mouth, the only advertisement she would utilize, picked up, and the second day they cleared seven hundred dollars. By the end of the week, Lopez Foods Services, LLC deposited nearly four thousand into Lopez Foods Services' bank account.

From his office window, Dean Sims actually heard the rumble of excitement as the flaps for the two trailers went up and the two stands were now open for business.

"But why I can't have..." a Sorority girl was whining to Honey.

"Look behind you, sister, we don't have time for special orders," Honey barked. "Don't want the sour cream? Scrape it off yourself. What you want to drink?"

"Um, you got..." the girl mused.

"Coke, diet Coke, Sprite, Water," Honey said, pushing the girl's beef pizzaco toward her.

"Diet Coke," the girl said and Honey gave her the change.

"Next!" Honey called out.

Anita couldn't help but smile as she and the other two girls scrambled to keep up with the orders. She had grudgingly hired Honey, but was too afraid to have the clumsy girl around the hot oil or the hot oven, so put her at the cash register.

The girl couldn't walk and chew gum at the same time, but Honey kept that line moving and moving fast.

"Two chicken, one bean," Honey called out while grabbing the boy's two sodas.

At the other trailer, Alexis tried to keep their line moving along as well.

"No, our buns are not gluten free," Alexis said to a student. "Hey, Toni, what up girl?"

Toni Delacroix got two chili dogs, slathered on way too much mustard, then stared at a pimple faced boy until he grudgingly got to his feet and offered her his seat.

At one forty five, over the protests of the few stragglers, the two trailers lowered their flaps and bolted them securely shut. Anita grabbed the roll of receipt tape from the register at Pizzaco, stuffed the money and receipt tape into a bank bag and locked it.

She then ran to the 'And the Weiner is...' stand and repeated the process.

Then she made it to Professor Jurnigen's class with only seconds to spare.

"Ah, Ms. Lopez, how is the minimum wage world treating you these days?" the man sneered.

He was a notorious misogynist who truly felt that women, and men, would be far happier if women would simply accept their place in life, to be subservient to men. It truly galled him that the University even allowed women to pursue academic studies.

"Uh no sir, I make twelve dollars an hour," Anita lied, not wanting any of her fellow students to know that she actually owned the two food trailers.

Merita smirked at this claim but held her tongue.

"And how many hours a week?" Professor Jurnigen asked.

"Uh, about twenty," Anita said.

"Uh huh," the man said and scribbled 12 times 20 then scribbled 8 times 40 and shrugged.

"You do the math, Ms. Lopez; you may be better suited to work full time for minimum wage," the man said as he shut the door then launched into his lecture.

At the Delacroix home, Caitlin waved to the mailman and looked through the envelopes and fliers the man had brought.

Caitlin was puzzled to see a letter from Sophia Coutre's office.

She quickly dressed, then drove to Superior Motors.

"Barry, your wife's here," Jack called out.

The nurse that was pondering the purchase of a Porsche looked up, looked at Caitlin and looked again at Barry.

"Excuse me," Barry smiled and opened the heavy glass door for Caitlin.

"Hi Sweetheart," Caitlin said, kissed him and showed him the letter.

"Well, it's the reading of Shirley's last Will and Testament," Barry said.

"I'll take it," the nurse said

"But why?" Caitlin asked.

"Honey, I don't know," Barry said. "Maybe she left you something."

"Oh! I hope it's that cider press! Remember? I told you? It's been in her family for over a hundred years," Caitlin said.

"Um, you heard me?" the nurse asked.

"Yes ma'am," Barry smiled, kissed his wife, than gave her a little swat to her backside.

The nurse's credit was declined and she left, promising she would have the 'misunderstanding' cleared up.

"Declared bankruptcy last year; you're not clearing that up," Barry said to himself, then looked over at Henry. "You know anything about..."

"All I know is Shirley loved that girl to pieces," Henry smiled sadly.

Two days later, Caitlin thanked Polly Chastaine and entered the conference room to find Gary, Frank, Stephen and Richard, along with their wives and Andy, seated on one side of the massive oak table. None of them returned her friendly greeting and Caitlin shrugged and took a seat. She nodded in thanks as Polly brought in a bottle of water.

"Okay," Sophia Coutre, an attractive woman in her early fifties said as she entered the room. "We're just waiting on Mr. St. Martin, then we can get started."

"I'm here, I'm here," Henry said and sat down next to Caitlin.

"Hi," Caitlin said.

"Hi Sweetheart," Henry said and waited to see if any of his children or their spouses would do anything but look bored.

Sophia read through much legal jargon then finally got to the meat of the will.

"Mrs. St. Martin came to me about three weeks before her passing; said she just knew she wouldn't get to see her baby, wouldn't get to spoil it rotten, Mrs. Delacroix, I assume that's yours?" Sophia said.

"Yeah, I guess," Caitlin said. "I mean, we kept talking about where we'd take her; Shirley just knew it was going to be a girl and..."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, you have a working vagina, good for you," Andy sneered. "Could we possibly..."

"Thank you, Andy, you may wait out in the lobby," Henry snapped.

Andy looked at Richard for support, but Richard stared straight ahead.

"Now, Andy, skip along, now!" Henry snapped angrily.

"Anyway, Mrs. St. Martin made the following addendum and did void her previous will which had been tendered and notarized on September twenty ninth, two thousand and nine," Sophia went on as Andy attempted to slam the door shut, but the hydraulic spring prevented anything but a small 'swoosh' to escape.

"Oh Shirley!" Caitlin sobbed out as Sophia read that Shirley was giving Briah Weinstein twenty five thousand dollars to cover the wedding expenses.

"She told Briah if she could snag Michael, she'd pay for the wedding dress," Henry smiled, sliding a check over to Caitlin.

Caitlin grabbed for the box of tissues instead.

Sophia read about the college trust funds that Shirley had set up for Star and Luna Weinstein, naming Caitlin to be the guardian of their trusts.

"Said they were the best flower girl and ring bearer she'd ever seen," Henry smiled as Caitlin used up more tissues.

"Oh, sister! Turn off the water works; nobody's buying it!" Mattie sneered.

"Thank you, Mattie, you may go wait in the lobby," Henry said.

Sophia waited until the door closed again, then continued to read about the trusts she'd set up for Kelli St. Martin, soon to be Kelli Delacroix, naming Barry Jacob Delacroix Junior as the guardian of that trust fund.

There were various accounts set up for Heather, BJ, Michael, Patrick, and Antoinette Delacroix; Henry smiled. He could see that the remaining six were dying to say something, anything to speed up the process, to get to their inheritance. But they were afraid of being told to leave the room.

"To Caitlin Theresa Weinstein Delacroix," Sophia said. "You will never know the joy you have brought to this old woman's life."

"Oh God," Caitlin sobbed out. "Shirley, you'll never know what your friendship meant to me either!"

She hugged Henry tightly.

"I never told her how much I loved her!" Caitlin sobbed.

"Believe me," Henry sobbed with her. "Believe me, she knew!"

Frank stood and clapped slowly.

"And the Oscar goes to... Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, I'm going to the lobby now," he sneered.

Sophia waited until Caitlin was more composed, then continued.

"Oh, I do get the cider press," Caitlin sighed happily.

"She couldn't stop laughing about how it squirted you in the face when y'all used it," Henry chuckled and Caitlin chuckled at the memory.

"My grandmother's brooch," Sophia read on.

"Wait a minute, wait one fucking minute; this bony ass bitch gets the ruby brooch?" Richard shrilled as Sophia named the remaining jewelry items Caitlin was to receive. "I promised Andy..."

"Thank you all for coming," Sophia said and gathered the papers together.

"Wait, what? That's... But there was no mention of Gary, or Stephen, or..." Missy sputtered.

"How very observant of you," Henry said dryly and got to his feet.

"Let me save you the trouble," he snapped. "There's no mention of any of you in my will either. You've siphoned all you will ever get from your mother or me."

"We will fight this," Tara hissed hatefully at Caitlin Delacroix.

"I will provide you with copies of the documents as read today," Sophia calmly offered.

Outside of the St. Martin home, Stacy Falgout took a few digital photographs and smiled when Henry St. Martin pulled up.

"Hi Stacy, thank you so much for coming!" he said.

"Oh no, are you kidding?" she asked. "I, well, our could have knocked me over with a feather when you called me."

She followed him into the house.

"Yeah, well, we had been meaning to sell it for a while now," Henry said and picked up an unopened bottle of red wine. "Now? Too many reminders of her."

Chapter 35

Caitlin Delacroix gasped and shook Barry awake at 12:33 on the morning of March 20, 2014.

Barry kissed her softly, helped her get to the side of the bed, and then dressed her.

Gasping and giggling, she let him help her down their stairs and put her in the car.

"It's our first baby," Barry happily told the nurse and orderly that met them at the door of St. Elizabeth's Trauma Center.

"Oh how wonderful!" the nurse said as she helped Caitlin out of the car and onto the wheelchair. "Oh don't worry, Honey, we'll take good care of you."

Ed Weinstein jerked when his cell phone chimed merrily. He pulled his hand off of Brooke's swollen belly and reached for the phone. In her sleep, Brooke reached for his hand.

"Well, Father in Law," Barry's happy voice greeted him. "You're about to be a granddad!"

"Caitlin?" Brooke asked, now awake.

"Just brought her in," Ed agreed.

"Oh boy!" Brooke laughed as she wiggled and jerked, trying to get out of bed. "I'm sleeping with a GLF!"

"Here, you goof ball!" Ed laughed and helped his wife to her feet.

Seth and Caitlin Weinstein came to the house so that Star and Luna wouldn't be alone in the house, and wouldn't be frightened when they woke up.

"I think I'll make them bagels and lox for breakfast; what you think?" Seth teased.

"Think that's why I'm Catholic and not Jewish, Dad," Ed said.

"Uh hey, after our great granddaughter's born, uh, why not just stick around, see if they got a room for you?" Caitlin teased her daughter in law.

"Three more weeks," Brooke smiled.

"Hey, I'm just saying," Caitlin smiled and stretched out on the couch. "What time the girls get up?"

In his car, on the way to the hospital, BJ looked into the rear view mirror at Kelli's laughing face.

"I dare you, I double dare you call Caitlin 'Grandmaw,' you hear?" he smiled.

"Well, she's married to Grandpaw, what's that make her?" Kelli laughed.

"Drop you off right here," BJ threatened and pulled into the parking lot of St. Richard's Elementary School.

"Daddy!" Kelli screeched. "It's still dark!"

"So? You'll be the first one here," BJ laughed.

"Come on; quit wasting time. Your baby brother or sister's about to be born and you're just fooling around," Heather demanded.

In the car behind them, Harmony slowed and pulled into the parking lot behind BJ.

""We're here?" Patrick asked, confused.

"No, we're at that school, oh wait, he's pulling out again," Harmony said.