Weekend with Rick

"Griff, don't ask me. I don't have any family who can afford that school. In my family, if there is an emergency, we just walk down the hall to tell our kids."

"What the hell is that some kind of reproach?" She was angry. Her anger was different from her disdain. Mostly it was in the fact that her language had slipped. "You don't know a damn thing about me or my family." There were tears forming in her eyes.

"You got that right Griff, I just know about my family. Our kids stay with us and we take care of them. We don't farm them out." I was losing my temper. I was known far and wide as a man who didn't lose his ability to think, even when he was in a rage. I managed to make sense even while screaming obscenities.

"Why you overbearing asshole," she shouted. "What the fuck makes you think that being poor gives you all the answers. The only difference between us is I make more money. We both put on our shoes the same way."

"Ah, let me call my brother to see what time the maid comes in the fix breakfast for my niece." I was angry, but I was also loving the encounter. "Maybe we can get some breakfast there."

"Fuck you Rick," she said angrily.

"So breakfast with my brother is out. It is probably a good thing. I doubt the maid could make the drive in." I was still being a prick, and I didn't care a bit.

"Shut up and let me think," she said.

"Just who the hell do you think you are talking to?" I asked angrily.

"I am talking to the man who charged me a hundred bucks for a short ride. You took advantage of me, so don't get all high and mighty on me." I couldn't decide whether she was on the verge of tears or hysteria.

"Lady, if I was going to take advantage of you, the price would have been five hundred."

"Sure, what would it have been, if my car wasn't broke down?" she asked.

"The price for me to get out of bed in the middle of the night to make this miserable drive would be exactly the same," I said.

"This was a business deal damn it. A business deal does not give you the right to preach to me." She almost shouted it.

"Lady, what the fuck are you talking about preach to you?" I asked.

"That farming out of my niece shit, that is what," she answered.

"You are pissed at the school. Stop taking it out on me, or I am going to throw your ass out in the snow." I was angry as hell and about to lose my world famous cool.

She suddenly began to cry. I don't mean a sob. Hers were gut wrenching moans. The tears almost didn't come because she was choking so badly. I let her gasp for breath until she was in control again.

"Come on let's get you a cup of coffee," I said.

"Where?" she asked obviously trying to deal with way too many issues at once. She was going into overload.

"Hell I don't know. I am not usually up this time of night." I drove the Sammie. slowly through the streets of the tiny village. The village had been a coal mining town even before the school was founded in the abandoned community hospital.

The Blue Moon Bar and Grill wasn't exactly open. The beer and pizza signs were dark. I expected that Stella or her husband Eric would be in the place still. The frame building was in need of paint again. Everything in the whole valley was in need of paint.

I crossed the wooden porch then knocked on the door. I had demanded that Mrs. Griffith stay in the Sammie. until I tried the door. I looked through the smoked glass of the door. I could barely make out the figure of Stella washing glasses. I knocked on the door long and hard.

"Rick, what the hell are you doing here at this hour?" she asked as she cracked the door.

"Stella, I got a problem. I got a city woman in the car. She had a wreck up on the mountain. She is trying to get somebody from the school down the road. They are locked up for the night. I need a place nearby to dump her."

"No, you don't Rick. I don't take in no damn strays." She wasn't angry or smiling.

"How about, if I just bring her in out of the cold. She really needs a cup of coffee Stella. She is really upset about something."

"The coffee is still hot. I am going to be leaving in about half and hour. You and her gonna have to be gone by then."

"You are a dream Stella," I said as I kissed her on the cheek. I quickly moved from the warm bar to the cold car.

"Come on Griff, we got a warm place to have some coffee. We can stay a few minutes anyway," I explained.

The large Styrofoam cups were sitting on the low bar when I reentered. Mrs. Griffith took a seat in front of one. She didn't look as though she were interested. Stella looked at her as she cleaned the counter behind the bar.

"You okay honey?" Stella asked her. I have no idea why but she broke into the gut wrenching sobs again.

"Honey has this freak done anything to you?" Stella asked it but she smiled over at me. It was her way to start a conversation without prying. She knew the answer would be no.

Mrs. Griffith began to laugh and cry at the same time. It took her several minutes to get control of herself. When she did manage, she returned to the question asked by Stella.

"He is a freak I think, but a harmless one." Mrs. Griffith said.

"Yeah, that's what all the ladies say," Stella was grinning. "Are you hungry honey?" It was all Stella knew to do, I suppose.

Mrs. Griffith shook her head.

"Well I am," I admitted.

"Rick, I don't think I will be feeding you in the middle of the night. Hell, if it hadn't been for the lady here, I would never have let you in." She did give us a big ole smile to break the harshness of her words.

"Stella, why you treatin' me this way?" I grinned at her since I knew damned well why. Griff seemed to be listening intently.

"Rick, you know damned well why. You are a lay about and a womanizer. If it wasn't for your brother, you would probably be in jail now."

"Well, he did rescue me," I admitted.

"Damn, I hate that I am such a push over. I got some homemade vegetable soup. I can nuke a bowl for you." She almost turned away before she asked again. "Honey, are you sure you don't want a bowl."

When Mrs. Griffith tried to answer she gasped. The best she could do was to nod.

"Good for you honey, there is nothing better than soup on a cold night."

"Damn Stella, you make the best soup in the world." I made the comment after I tasted her latest concoction.

"You better say that after I let you in here in the middle of the night." She smiled at Mrs. Griffith. "If he don't treat you right honey, you let me know. I can get his big brother to whip his butt."

"You wouldn't say that, if your husband was around." I was grinning at her again.

"Rick, so help me I am gonna have J.T. tie a knot in your ass." She still grinned at me. It was no secret that she and J.T. did the dirty. I knew it and probably half a dozen others did. I didn't expect her husband or J.T.'s wife did.

"Ah Stella, you know I am teasing. Mrs. Griffith will be gone soon. She couldn't care less about our little peccadilloes."

"Our what?" Stella asked.

"It means shortcomings," I replied.

"Honey, ain't nothing short about your brother." She burst into laughter. Mrs. Griffith choked on her soup. She actually spit a large amount back into the bowl.

"Look what you done," I said to Stella.

"Honey, are you all right?" She asked Mrs Griffiith.

"I am fine. Did you two ever get along?" She asked Stella.

"Are you kidding? Rick here is the second love of my life. His big brother is the first. Hell, those two are the only real men left in this holler." She paused as if in thought. "On second thought J.T. is the only real man. Rick here is something else again."

"Hey take that back about me not being a real man." I was kidding and both women knew it.

"Oh honey, I know you got the equipment and know how to use it. You just don't know nothing about working every day and raising a family. You got your daddy's sense of right and wrong. You just missed the part about taking care of anyone else."

"I think that is about all I want to hear." I said it with a smile.

"We have a lot of those in the city. We call it the Peter Pan Syndrome. Guys who don't want to grow up," Mrs. Griffith said.

"That is a good description of Rick. He wants to play cowboys and whores forever." Both of the women laughed at me. I had to laugh along with them. Nobody much likes to hear that kind of thing, even when they know it is true. Even if it hurt, I had to laugh to keep up appearances.

"Well you two I really got to get to bed. The coffee pot is over there and it is full. Just sit where you are, the day people will be here in a bit. Rosa won't call the cops on Rick. Probably wouldn't, even if I told her too." Stella smiled as she went for her coat. She was out the door before we hardly had a chance to say goodbye.

"What a sweet lady," Mrs. Griffith said.

"Stella is okay," I replied.

"Come on Rick, she loves hell out of you."

"She loves hell out of my brother. Me, she tolerates," I replied. Mrs. Griffith made no reply at all.

"So, you are a womanizer?" she asked with a smile.

"Don't take that too seriously. I am between wives, so everybody thinks I am a womanizer."

"Are you?" she asked.

"Depends on what the definition of is, is." I replied with a big grin. The room fell into a long silence. It was one of those silences so deep that only a serious comment could break it. Either that or one so silly that it shattered the mood. I opted for leaving the silence in place.

"I'm between husbands myself," she said. "I would be in the city tonight alone with my computer, if it weren't for my drug addict sister."

I was barely smart enough to keep my mouth shut.

"She is the reason I am here. My other sister and I pay for this school. We took Emily when she was ten. We tried for years to help her but she needed more than we could give. We tried counseling and group programs all over New York nothing helped. We finally sent her here hoping they could do something."

"Are they?" I asked it because the world behind that fence was like another country to us locals.

"I don't know. She hasn't run away in the six months she has been here; that is a good sign."

"If you say so. So what brings you here in the middle of the night during a snow storm, all not well in the ivory tower?"

"You know you are charming, until you try to be witty. I came because my sister is back in jail. The lawyer is going to contact Emily. He thinks her presence in court will make a favorable impression on the jury."

"So you are here to take her home to be on display during the hearing?" I asked it with evident distaste. It smacked of a different kind of child abuse.

"Not on your life, I am here to make sure she doesn't budge from this place. I intend to see my sister in jail, damn it. It is time she answers for her life style. She has always slipped through the cracks. It is time she stood up and took her medicine like the rest of us do." Griff said.

"I wish you luck with it." I suggested.

"Why, do you think I am wrong?" She asked.

"What possible difference could what I think make?" I asked it seriously. "I don't mind giving you my opinion. Hell, I give my worthless opinion all the time. I just don't see you giving a crap what I think. I am just a country boy with a four-wheel drive."

"I am beginning to think maybe you aren't just that. Come on Rick, point out the fallacy in my thinking."

"About the sister, there is none that I can see. Jail wont help her. I would guess that, if you are spending this kind of money on the kid, you have tried everything with her too."

"We have. So why the look when I mention Emily?"

"That school is about as cold and sterile as the hospital that used to be in that building. I can't imagine anybody short of the criminally insane being helped there."

"She isn't insane, but she is uncontrollable. I mentioned that she has run off before?"

"You did in a way yes," I replied.

"Last time we found her in a motel outside a marine base. She was making her way in the world selling her body." She didn't look at me when she spoke.

"How old is this child?" I asked.

"At that time she was fourteen," she replied. I simply shook my head. I tried to think of something to help, but it just wouldn't come.

"Is she getting counseling at that place?" I asked it because I didn't know anything about the academy.

"Yes they say all the girls there get counseling. The prices they charge had better include counseling."

"I suppose you are rich?" It was a question. She recognized it.

"Depends on what the definition of is, is."

"Fair enough, so if this doesn't work, what is next for Emily?"

"Prison I expect. Oh her grandmother will do anything to keep the family name clean. She will keep her out of prison for a while anyway. Thank god that Emily is not playing around with drugs, at least not yet."

"Too bad I don't have a pocket full of pixie dust. I could make it all work out."

"You tell me what will make it work out Rick, and I will make it happen." The tears were back but not the choking kind. She was simply leaking tears. It seemed as though she was all cried out."

I refilled the coffee cups. I had to put them into the microwave since Stella didn't trust me to make sure the coffee machine didn't burn up. It didn't matter. The coffee was fresh.

"Griff, I want you to know this is not about you and your niece, but I am whipped. I need sleep. I am going to take my coffee over to that booth. There I am going to discover, if I can sleep sitting up. You are welcome to join me."

"Since there is a table between us, why not?" She slipped into the booth across from me.

I took about two sips from the coffee cup before I drifted off to sleep. I woke to the sound of Rosa shaking the door as it opened.

"Hey Rosa, it is me Rick," I shouted as she opened the door.

"What you doing here? I know you ain't robbin' the place." She had been startled for only a second.

"Nothing here worth stealing anyway," I replied.

"True, the food is good though. So who is the lady in the booth with you?"

"Her name is Griffith. She is here to see her daughter at the academy across the street. Ran her car in a ditch, so I am babysitting her till they open."

"Did that no good J.T. rope you into it?" Rosa didn't care much for J.T. It had to do with J.T. and Stella. Rosa was a member in good standing at the First Zion Baptist Church of the Missionary Position.

"Well he sorta did. How are your kids?" I asked it because Rosa had three kids and no husband. The husband she once had, ran off with a younger woman a few years before. That, as well as the church, was probably the reason she hated adultery.

I fell back asleep. At least until Rosa made so much noise in the kitchen that I could no longer sleep. Somehow Mrs. Griffith managed to sleep through it. Rosa scrambled a half dozen eggs for us. She did them up the way I liked them, all mixed with cheddar cheese. The thing that separated it from a silly omelet is that it contained no veggies. It did contain sausage bits though. Rosa dumped the eggs on two plates for me. I carried them along with more coffee to the booth.

"Hey Griff, wake up and you can have breakfast."

"Thanks, this place better take plastic. You got all my cash."

"Not to worry, it is on me. All part of the service," I said with a smile. I was trying to let her know there would be no strings. "It will soon be eight. The school should have someone there by then. Hell the kids are probably already having breakfast, even if it is Saturday."

"Good," she replied.

"Yes, you should be rid of me in a couple of minutes." I smiled at her.

"No, I meant the eggs. You are the one who can't wait to get rid of me." Mrs. Griffith gave no indication of how she felt about that.

"Oh well, I expect you will be just as happy to see the end of me." I said. She didn't answer at all, Instead she kept right on eating.

"God that was good, of course it was filled with animal fat. That one meal might have robbed me of a year's life."

"My God, if you are all that careful, you will only live to be ninety nine now."

"When you say it like that, I have to wonder about those damn bean sprouts." She looked amused at her own remark.

"Let us get you back down to the school. See if we can't get you in to see your niece."

"Rick, I want you to know that I am sorry about being such a bitch earlier. Would you just mark it up to city girl paranoia?"

"Sure why not," I replied.

"The visit won't take long, would you wait for me please?" She was pressing her luck, but I had gotten to the point of being able to tolerate her.

"Sure, I have to get home anyway, I might as well drop you at J.T.'s place." I smiled at her so as not to let her think it was personal.

"Two rides for the price of one. It must really be my lucky day."

"Well, let us see how you do at the school first. Emily might ruin what has started out as a good day." I smiled knowing I had brought her back to reality.

Five minutes later I watched her speak into the intercom again. Almost before she could get back into the Sammie. the gate opened. I followed the drive to the main building. I say main building because the old hospital was used as both dormitory and classroom building. There were a couple of other buildings which had been added since the school conversion.

I followed the guests' arrows to a parking lot at the rear of the building. Entrance to the building was from the rear.

"Why the hell are we using the servants entrance?" I asked.

"The front entrance isn't used by parents. The old lobby is used as the dining room. I suppose it was the only room large enough."

"That would make sense," I agreed. "You know I was born here." I said it to lighten the mood.

"Ah then, you must know the place from the old days." It wasn't really a question.

"I was a little young at the time. I must have been remarkably healthy since I never came back here."

We were up the granite steps by that time. I tried to push open the door. It seemed that it was locked. Mrs. Griffith found the bell. She was also the one who rang it. It was cold but we waited on the snow-covered porch since we had no choice. Our entry was noted by the buzz of the electric locking mechanism.

I guided Mrs. Griffith to the shallowest part of the deep puddle just inside the door. We passed through a second set of double doors before we were truly inside the building. Seated behind a desk just inside the second set of doors was a man in a security guard's uniform. I had never seen anyone wearing that particular uniform before.

I looked silently to Mrs. Griffith for some kind of answer. She shook her head while shrugging her shoulders.

"My name is Mary Ellen Griffith. I am here to see my niece Emily Evans."

"It don't see you on the list?" the youngish man said.

"What list would that be?" I asked.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"That is none of your fucking business. The lady is the legal guardian of that child. You better either get her down here, or someone who can." He looked as though he wanted to jump up and hit me. I smiled at him. I think, he sensed that I would be thrilled to clean his clock. I had gone without sleep way to long for him to give me any trash. Like Stella said, J.T. had kept me out of jail all right. Without a word he picked up the phone.

"This is Officer Smith on the door. I got a couple here who claim they are here for a visit with a child. No, they are not on the list but they are most insistent."

"You are going to have to come back at ten," the rent a cop said. He still held the phone.

"You want me to use your phone to call the Sheriff or do I use her cell phone. It don't make a bit of difference to me." I smiled again. "Just for the record, refusal to produce her constitutes false imprisonment and that my friend is a felony. You would look mighty good going to the prom with Leroy as your date."