Chapter 7

Jules and I stayed in a courtyard hotel Friday and Saturday nights. Marcy didn’t want to have breakfast with us, so we drove away before we stopped for gas and coffee.

“We have one more night before it’s back to reality. Do you have any idea how we are going to play this, whatever this is?” I asked.

“Shut up Deacon, Just enjoy our last full day of freedom,” Jules said.

“Change of subject then, I thought Marcy looked good,” I said.

“She does look good, but she is still struggling. A lot of that is thanks to your ex wife. Marty is a disaster for everyone around her. I have no idea why you and Marcy allow her to stay in your lives. I also can’t believe her present husband stays with her.” Jules said.

“She give great head,” I said trying to lighten the mood.

“So do I, and I’m not crazy,” she said.

“Oh I hadn’t noticed,” I said with a laugh.

“You have be around longer than one weekend to discover all my talents,” Jules said with a smile.

We discussed the soup kitchen and her husband’s congregation. I found that we agreed more than we disagree. It was honestly a surprise. The problems were easy to define, just hard to find solutions. Well hard to find one that wouldn’t take generations to implement. The powers that be had tried all the quick fixes. The far left wanted to buy peace, and the far right wanted to force peace. The grown up hippies denied they were living in a pressure cooker at all. I just hoped there were enough of us who were realist to keep coming up with compromises.

Jules and I had found our own solution to race relations. She fucked me and I fucked her. It wasn’t exactly what either side though of when the said fuck you to the other side, but it worked for us. At least at the moment it did.

Just as we had on the trip north, we drove until dinner time during the drive home. We made it into North Carolina before we stopped for the night. Before we checked into a hotel with a beautiful view of the mountains, we had a nice Chinese dinner. I sat on the balcony wanting a cigarette badly. I was able to enjoy the view off the balcony, even without a cigarette. I had quit smoking almost ten years before, but a few things still reminded me of the pleasure of a cigarette. The view was only one of the two things which would remind me that night.

I was still sleepy when the indirect sunlight came through the large glass doors onto the balcony. I fought my way out of the bed, then struggled into the bathroom for a shower. My body was only fifty odd years old, but it had been abused for many of those years. The results of that abuse was catching up with me.

“Hey, hurry up in there,” Jules said.

I opened the door. “You can have the bathroom now, if I can watch?” I said.

“Sure,” she said pushing past me.

I didn’t really watch her. I went instead into the bedroom to find a clean tee shirt to wear with my clean underwear and dirty cut off jeans.

Breakfast was in Big Jim’s Breakfast House which sat in the parking lot. The menu stated that Jim served breakfast and gourmet burgers 24hour a day. The breakfast was not southern style, but it was passable.

“So what time do you think we will be home,” Jules asked.

“In time for shift change at the Lumber Plant,” I said. “That is 3PM for those of you who don’t work for a living.”

“I work. I just don’t get a salary,” she said.

“Surely you don’t call being a preacher’s wife a job?” I asked laughing.

“I would call it the worlds toughest job. It would be much easier being the Deacon’s whore,” she said with a big smile.

“I heard that,” I said with a smile of my own.

We both got quieter as we got closer to home. She even called Michael on the phone before we stopped for gas and hot dogs at a Sheetz gas station. Too soon we were back on the road and the miles began to slip by far too quickly.

“Deacon, you have to forget me,” Jules said. “And I plan to forget you. Just wipe you from my memory.”

“Story of my life. People are always fucking me, one way or another, then moving on,” I said.

“We are both better off right where we are in life. We don’t need each other to be happy,” Jules said.

“I can understand how you would feel that way,” I suggested. “My life is crap right now. I got a break from it for a few days, and I do appreciate that. So sure go back to being you with my blessing. How does the song go, ‘you didn’t have to do what you did, but you did, and I thank you.”

“God, now that is making me feel bad,” she said.

“Good it was supposed to,” I said, then laughed. I looked out the window at the passing landscape. It had gone from mountains to a much less scenic Mississippi landscape. We were getting closer to home and I was getting more and more depressed. I knew that it was temporary, but that didn’t make it any less real.

As I turned the truck onto the access road to the local county road Jules said, “Find somewhere so that you can kiss me for a long time.”

I heard her and I of course thought of the marina’s parking lot. It would be visited mostly by well to do white people out boating, so it was probably as safe as anywhere.

We didn’t do much talking. It was mostly kissing and groping. I supposed it was our way of saying goodbye,. It did not make it any easier, but it gave me another memory.

Jules straightened her clothes and did a touch up on her make up before I drove her home. I helped her unload her bags and then we said a very public goodbye. I even shook her hand. That should have told any observer that something was wrong between us.

I walked away then got in my truck and drove to my house. I wandered around it a while trying to decide what I should do next. I mean the grass wasn’t growing and nobody had called about picking up grandma’s trash. It looked as though it would be a boring day.

I sat on my deck wearing a mild weather parka and sipping coffee. I missed Marcy the most, then came Jules. I even missed Ester and Sarah to a lesser degree. I called Sarah’s store to ask where my SUV was located at that moment,

“You said I could use it, if a job came along. I had a pickup for the store yesterday, and just didn’t get a chance to return it,” she explained.

“Well return it tonight. I’ll driver you home, if you can’t get anyone to follow you here,” I offered.

“I can get my boyfriend to follow me after we close the store, but it will be late,” Sarah offered.

“Okay just leave the keys under the floor mat. I think I’ll be in bed early,” I admitted.

“To much party with Marcy?” Sarah asked.

“No just a long drive,” I said. I didn’t volunteer that Jules was my co pilot for the trip. It really wasn’t any of her business.

Wednesday I awoke early, then went back to sleep. After my shower a couple of hours later, I realized that I still didn’t have any plans. Rather than wander around cursing my life, I decided to build myself a trike like Marcy’s.

The first thing I did was to sort through my salvaged pile of bike frames. I found a twenty four inch bike frame which did not have any rust. Well a bit on the wheels but they were destined for the surplus pile anyway. The frame itself was a dark blue, so I figured a washing and it should do fine. I really did not want to paint it primer black, if I could avoid it,

I cleaned it up with a damp cloth and some window cleaner. When I finished, the frame looked shiny. Of course after I got it clean, it was time to get axle grease all over it. I took the front fork off to grease the bearings. I knew the front wheel would move a lot easier after a finger full of grease on the bearings.

I decided to check my twenty inch front forks to see if one of them would fit. I tried three before I found a pink one that would fit. It fit just like it came from the factory on the twenty four inch frame, of course it was pink so it wouldn’t fool anyone. At the end of the day I had a Twenty inch stretch framed bike, with a twenty inch wheel on the front ... It wasn’t even close to being finished, but it had been a good day.

I decided that it is hard to be depressed while you are creating something. The moment I stopped, I returned to being depressed.

I was heating a frozen entrée when the cell phone rang. It was a man I had worked for the year before. “Deacon, my brother in law has a rental house. He would like to get you to come over and clean it. Just empty it and sweep the floors. That is all he has in mind.”

“Herb, I’ll need to take a look at it before I can give him a price. Usually with that kind of job there are no salvageable items,” I said. “Which means it full price all the way.”

“I’ll warn him. He said he could meet you anytime tomorrow to get your price,” Herb said.

“Tell him noon, just to keep it easy for me to remember,” I said.

I added him to the empty appointment book for the next day. The book was depressing along with everything else in my life. I went to sleep while thinking about my trike.

I looked over the work shop for parts before my appointment with Herb’s friend. There were too many bike parts. Since Sarah started her shop, I hadn’t been working on reconditioning any bikes for my the Saturday Flea Market. Spring was coming so I needed to put some together after I got my trike built.

I couldn’t spend to much time on the planning for the trikes at the moment. I had to meet Herbs friend Jerry. Since I had to drive by it on the way, I grabbed a burger at the window of a Hardee’s restaurant. I sat in front of the small frame house on a busy street in downtown Grenada. It was a two bedroom one bath house much like mine. The similarity ended there.

It was in much worse shape than my house. I saw the bright yellow hummer pull up. “How you doing,” the young man asked.

“I’m fine Mr. Durham. This must be the place,” I said looking at the trash piled under the carport awning.

“To be honest Deacon, I haven’t even been inside. The place stinks inside,” Jimmy Durham said.

“Then this is going to cost you extra and up front,” I said. “In cash. No telling what we are likely to find.”

“Just tell me how much. As long as you aren’t trying to gut me, we can work it out,” he said.

“I need to walk through the house.” I said.

“I’ll wait out here,” Jimmy said to me.

“Weak stomach?” I asked.

“Yes sorry,” he admitted.

There was trash in every room. To be honest I was looking for a dead animal. Like maybe they had tossed a dead dog or cat inside on their way out. What I didn’t expect was a body hanging from the clothes rod in the bedroom closet. It was no suicide, unless the victim wrapped himself in plastic before him hunk himself from the closet rod.

“Shit, I’m likely going to have to throw these clothes away,” I said to Jimmy. It was my way of starting the story.

“Why?” Jimmy asked.

“It’s almost impossible to get the smell of a dead body out of your clothes. It’s most likely mental rather than physical. I mean it’s not like I touched him. You need to call the local cops.” I said at the end. “I would do it, but I don’t even know whose jurisdiction this is. Do you want to see the body first?”

“God no,” Jimmy said.

I stood around answering questions for a half hour at the house. When the cops moved from the house, they drove us both to the police station so we would answer more questions. It was seven o’clock before they allowed us to leave. I caught a ride back to the house with Jimmy’s wife, who drove us both back to get our trucks.

“Jimmy what do you know about the people who rented your house?” I asked while we were in route.

“It was a family. A man, his grown daughter and her son,” Jimmy said. “I gave the cops their names.”

“Good, well just in case you want to know, when the cops give us clearance to empty the scene, I want two hundred to do it. It’s more than usual, but I will include all the dump fees, and any outside labor I have to pay,” I said.

I drove the truck home. Immediately after arriving I went onto the rear deck to strip all my clothes off. I went inside and took a shower in dish washing liquid soap. I used a sponge with a scrubber side to get really clean and in every spot on my body. That smell always bothered me, but this time it was worse. I didn’t know why, but I had wanted to retch for the last eight hours.

I ate a frozen spaghetti dinner with equally frozen garlic bread. I had a glass of iced tea made from a dry mix tea. It was the store brand from Walmart. I had almost finished the meal when the phone rang.

“Hello,” I said. Yes my phone identified it as Jules, but I was careful not to mention her name or our relationship.

“Deacon, are you alright?” she asked.

“I’m fine and how are you?” I asked.

“I’m fine but i didn’t find a rotting corpse in a closet,” she said.

“You forgot the part about the body being wrapped in a shower curtain,” I said.

“Any idea what happened to him?” she asked.

“No, I have no idea,” I said.

“I’m so sorry I can’t be with you,” Jules said.

“So am I but like you, I will get past this,” I said as coldly as possible.

“I don’t blame you for being upset,” she said.

“Good,” I said coldly. “Is there anything else?”

“No, goodnight Deacon,” she said.

“Goodbye Jules,” I said. I knew I should cut her some slack, but the wounds were still open and oozing.

I spent a lot of time on the computer that night. I sent an email to Marcy and one to Sarah asking if she had another bed frames. Then I went to bed.

When the phone rang the next morning, I was in the shower. It was sitting on the charger, and my ass was dripping, so I let it go directly to voice mail. I washed my hair as the phone took the message.

I had an idea who the call was from, so I even prepared my cereal before I listened to it. I ate the bowl of mixed cold cereals, half the bowl was bran cereal. The other half was cinnamon squares just to add some taste to the cardboard. I listened to the voice mail from Sarah as I munched.

“Hi Deke, I don’t have a bed frame, but your metal buyer probably does. By the by I hear you are back playing cop, so who killed old Jasper Sams? Talk to you later.

“Guess I’ll have to buy some metal,” I said to no one at all. Half way through the cereal I squeezed some imitation, sugar free maple syrup stuff on the cereal. It was also Walmart’s house brand. It also made the cereal easier to get down.

When I went to the shed, there was a chill in the air. I started the wood heater immediately. There were a few pieces of wood from a broken end table, which I had sawed into firewood length pieces. The little stove was sealed except for the draft control, and the shop was pretty open, so I deemed it safe to burn the pressed board glue and all.

I was considering an electric wood chipper to turn the pressed boards into wood pellets. I spent so little time in the shop that I couldn’t justify the expense. That and I tended to dress for the weather anyway.

I was cold mostly when I sat planning, or trying to figure out how to correct a fuck up. At that those times I did need more heat. Since I did so little work, I didn’t need extra heat often.

With nothing else to do, I started to lay out the amount of metal I would need for the rear carriage of the trike. I needed two twenty inch long pieces of angle iron for each of the two wheels. That meant I needed two four foot bars just for that. Then i needed two thirty six inch pieces of angle, one for the front on and one for the rear. I didn’t even get to figuring the steel for the push trailer before I decided the bed frame was the way to go.

Yes I had thought that before, but I tended to rethink everything into infinity. So I closed the damper on the stove starving the fire of oxygen, which I hoped would keep the storage building standing till I got back. I drove straight to the salvage yard from my house.

Oscar the scraper was sitting in his yard as I hoped he would be. He told me the location inside his huge and ramshackle building where the angle iron might be stored. I carried the two pieces of the bed frame to the chair where he sat by the stove.

“How much?” I asked.

“Twenty bucks, since it’s you,” he said.

“What would it be, if it was Marcy?” I asked.

“At my age, it would be the same,” He said. “Where is Missy?”

“She went back to law school,” I said.

“Shame,” the old man said.

“What are you going to do? Kids have a mind of their own,” I said.

He took my money and I left. I paid half as much money for way over twice the metal. When I got home, I had only to cut it to lengths to make it useful, I thought.

Before I went home, I drove by the house belonging to Jimmie Durham. The crime scene tape was still up. I was pretty sure it would stay up until the Coroner gave the Sheriff the cause of death. Which might be that morning or next week.

I personally expected it to be death by natural causes. It looked a lot like a couple of social security fraud cases I had worked in Camden. The family depended on grandpa’s Social Security Check to live. When he died the body went into a chest freezer and the checks were auto deposited into the bank. It was a nice scam, if you didn’t mind the sight of grandpa looking like a side of beef every time you went for a steak.

I was a little surprised that the family just left him in the closet though. Something unusual must have happened. The son/grandson might have taken off with the only car. It had to be something like that.

After my check on the death house, I returned home to work on the trike. I had some experience with building the trike, so it went pretty fast and easy. I did have to resupply my nut and bolt inventory. That hardware store visit was very expensive. I’m not saying that I couldn’t afford it, just that it was not at all cheap.

By 6PM I had the carriage built, welded, and painted. In other words I was finished for the day. I closed the dampers, then turned off the lights leaving the paint to dry as the building cooled down.

I put the phone back on the charger before I started dinner. Dinner that night was like most nights something frozen. There were also some dinners which I prepared from a can as a change of pace.

Since I had enough money for classy restaurants, I should eat better, I thought. The truth was that since Marcy moved away, to work on her new life, I had lost my desire to be around other people.

I did still like breakfast at the lake, now and then. I usually ate alone, or with Sarah, so it was no big deal. Once in a long while I even had a pizza at the lake. Again, it was usually a helper with whom I shared it. I mention it only because it was the breakfast by the lake I chose the next morning. I have no idea why I chose it, but I was sitting in the Mcdonald’s drive thru when the phone rang.

I didn’t get the deputy’s name, but I understood they wanted to speak to me before they released the crime scene. Just to be an ass, I requested he meet me at the crime scene.

“I really don’t like police stations,” I explained.

“With your history, I can understand that,” he said. “Tell you what, all I needed was to warn you not to trash anything odd you might find. At least not without calling me first.”

“You probably need to warn the owner as well. I plan to take the trash out. He is going to need to get rid of that smell. Sometimes the owners go a little nuts,” I said.

“Yeah, I’ll call him.” That ended out conversation.

An hour later Jimmy Durham called. “So deacon when can you start the job?” he asked.

I slept great that night. When I awoke the morning after the volunteer dinner I couldn’t help smiling like an idiot. I knew I had a clean out job, but I also knew there was no hurry to get started with the day. Since either Sarah or Allen was going to help me, it would be a late start on the day no matter what I planned.

I almost drove to the lake for breakfast but decided on a bowl of cereal instead. I drove to the 2nd Chance to see who, and how later my helper would be.

After ten minutes both Sarah and Allen arrived. Allen went into the store while Sarah came to the truck.

“So we have a house, this one doesn’t have a corpse does it?” she asked.

“I sure as hell hope not,” I replied,

“You called it on Jasper Sams,” she said

“Yeah, do I get point in heaven for that?” I asked.

“No, but you should. You really are one of the good guys,” she said.

“Oh my, you keep saying nice things and I’ll start to blush,” I said.

“Please do, I’ve been trying to embarrass you for two years,” Sarah replied.

When I didn’t reply she went on. “Tell me what did mom do, or not do to lose you?” she asked.

“Nothing, it just didn’t work out between us,” I said.

“Was it because she gave terrible blow jobs?” Sarah asked.

“I am not going to comment on that. Now lets talk about you and Allen instead.” I replied.

“Okay,” she said. “I hear Allen gives great head.”

“I didn’t need to know that, and I especially don’t want to know that,” I said.

“My God Deke you are blushing,” she said,.

“You should be ashamed for telling that on your boyfriend,” I said.

“It’s not like he hides it. He is Bisexual,” Sarah said.

“I don’t need to know that either,” I said. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“I think I have daddy issues,” Sarah said without a smile.

“Then you need to find someone else to fixate on, or find another job,” I said.

“Deacon, I’m over twenty years old. Way over the age of consent. So why have you and I never done the dirty?” Sarah asked.

“The fact that you asked that explains it,” I said.

Fortunately we arrived at the house where we had to remove everything. I began by sorting out things I wanted and putting things on the trailer. Along with that we place the items that neither she not I wanted.

Sarah had saved all the sheets and table covers. It was a new group of items for her store. There were a couple of items of furniture we both wanted. Sarah wanted Allen to recondition them, and I wanted them for firewood. In the end, I gave her the best looking pieces and I took the ones needing the most work.

“Allen should thank me. The pieces I’m taking for firewood would require a huge investment in time to restore. Even then they would be worthless,” I mumbled to mayself.

I threw myself back into the work. It helped me not to obsess over Jules. The spring weather was coming and I hadn’t decided what to do about Jules. I couldn’t get over the feeling she was playing me. Maybe it was the hidden racist in me, but it was always in the back of my mind...

While I waited for things to move into the next phases, I went back to work on the trike. The parts arrived from all over the world. I had lost interest after the Jules visit, but I just circled back to the trike after a while. I put the pusher motor together and then the bike was complete. During the next month I worked very little so I tested and tinkered with the trike, then retested it. I repeated that over and over. It passed the time and I learned a lot from it. I had learned some things from Marcy’s trike, but I learned even more from experiments with my trike.

When the trike was ready, I rode it at least once a day. I had purchased a 48volt 30ah lithium ion battery. That thing cost me more than double every other component of the bike combined. But it was a wonder. I actually got tired of riding before the battery died. I didn’t make any road trips on it though, so I’m not sure that I ever reached the bottom of its charge. So I could never swear to the mileage available on a charge.

Summer was almost upon me when Sarah suggested a Kayak trip down the Yalobusha river. I was pretty sure I got invited only because I had a truck and trailer to transport the Kayaks up steam.

The next Sunday morning I loaded my Kayak in the rear of my truck, then went to Sarah’s store where I loaded the kids two kayaks. After the trailer was loaded, I followed Sarah to the boat landing where we left her fiat 500. From the parking lot we drove to a spot about five mile from the Grenada lake. The plan was to paddle back to the lake.

We were a rag tag crew in the two faded kayaks and mine with the do it yourself camouflage paint job. I carried only a couple of store bought bottle ofwater, and a couple of sandwiches from a take out restaurant.

The trip turned miserable when Sarah started to whine and bitch after an hour. Shortly after that Allen started to tell her to shut up. I stayed the hell away from those conversations. I drank most of my water during the trip, but after five hours we were insight of our boat landing. I spotted the Fiat only because I had insisted she park it in a spot visible from the water.

Allen asked to be taken back to their apartment. Sarah couldn’t wait to get him out of her car. From her apartment it was a short drive to my truck. We made a quick trip back to the boat landing where I found the three ugly kayaks just as we had left them. It seems no one wants an ugly Kayak, I thought.

“So where do I take the kayaks. To the store or to your home?” I asked knowing full well she didn’t want to take the longer trip we had talked about earlier.

“Where the hell do you think?” she asked.

“Okay I’ll meet you at the shop,” I said.

When I got home I took time to think. I realized that I had enjoyed the trip. Not as much as I would have without crazy Sarah and Allen, but it was still enjoyable. I decided to spend more time doing the things I enjoyed and less of the things I didn’t. I could managed my life fine without worrying about moving money from the paint buckets to the bank every week.

I took one job a week for the next two months. I spent my time on the trike and inside the Kayak. I was having a lot of fun, but it just wasn’t enough. Maybe I needed Jules, I thought. Then I thought maybe I didn’t need anyone.

It was almost exactly a month since my final decision when Ester called me. “Your income for the last month is a joke,” she said. “It’s only twenty percent of your income from the month before.”

“I know. I’m cutting back. I think the term is semi retired,” I said.

“Since that is the case you have time to help Sarah,” she said.

“Ester, I didn’t cut back on my own work to help her,” I explained.

“It’s not lawn work she needs,” Ester said.

“Oh so what exactly does she need?” I asked.

“We need to meet. Do you want to come here or should I come there?” she asked.

“Well it if has to be a meeting tonight, you better come here. I need to take a shower,” I explained. “After that I won’t be going out again.

After my shower I had time to put on a navy tee and white shorts. I wasn’t trying to impress her, it was just what I had already planned to wear that night. I fixed a glass of instant Iced tea and waited by the door.

When I saw Ester I knew something was wrong. “What is it hon, You have been crying.”

“Yes, I have. It was a battle not to cry while I spoke to you,” she said.

“So what is it?” I asked.

“Sarah’s boy friend, Allen has been killed,” she said.

“So what happened,?” I asked almost in shock.

“They had a fight and Sarah went for a walk. When she came home an hour later Allen was dead. Someone stabbed him,” she said.

“That’s terrible is Sarah okay?” I asked.

“The police questioned her. She said they asked her where she was. She said she took a walk. but they didn’t believe her.” Ester said.

“Did they arrest her?” I asked.

“No, but they warned her not to leave town. She is a person of interest,” Ester said beginning to cry.

“What can I do?” I asked and was instantly sorry that I did.

“Would you help Sarah?” She asked.

“I’ll talk to her and see if there is anything I can do. I don’t have any cop friends, so my best advice is to have her ask for a lawyer, if they pull her in again,” I explained. “Where is she now?”

“She is at my place now,” Ester said.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

She immediately called Sarah’s Phone. She looked up at me, then said,” It’s gone to voice mail. I’m sure she just turned it off.”

“Okay, go home, if she isn’t there call me,” I said. Tell her to stay away from her apartment until further notice. Also look for a cop to be following her. Tell her to also take he battery out of her smart phone and stay off of it.

Ester, she can’t afford a lawyer have her ask for a court appointed lawyer. No sense in you wiping out your savings over this. The lawyer they get won’t be great, but he will be good enough until this goes to trial, if it ever does,” I explained. “If that happens you can pull out all the stops.”

“Will you help her now?” Ester asked.

“Ester, I don’t know what I can do till I know what the cops have,” I explained.

“Right now the worst thing seems to be her alibi walk. We need to prove she was taking a walk,” I said.

“Yes the cops are zeroing in on that,” Ester replied.

“Okay get a list of where she went and who she saw. Tell her to be specific,” I suggested.