Chapter 4: Confusion Everywhere

cabin tents rented for $25 a day
trailer rentals: larger $75 mid size $60 small $50
John Boyd 28yrs old
Gabby Boyd 25 yrs old.
Alice Boyd current owner of the Gatehouse
Edwardo world famous catfish chef (according to mom)
Joy and Jen wait staff for Alice Boyd’s catering
Jasper Amos hunter, guide, knife make
Sylvia Amos sheriff’s detective lieutenant
deputy Angie Davenport
Marion davenport Angyie’s mom
Clyde Summers suicide victim
Edward Gaines suicide victim while serving time with John
Max Bork gabby’s fancy man

Gabby and her fancy man stood outside the Circus Tent where I was washing down the stainless steel table. That table had been rescued from the local urgent care clinic. The clinic had moved to a larger office in a more suitable neighborhood. It had obviously out grown the strip mall location. The examining table wound up in the 2nd chance junk store outside Greenville Mississippi. That is where I rescued it from being cut up as junk metal. I had spent several hours scrubbing it, before I dared use it to strip the skin off catfish. It also had one leg shorter than the other three which caused it to wobble just a little.

“So Gabby, two visits in the same year?” I asked for an explanation.

“First of all, this is Max Bork,” she said.

“I would shake hands, but trust me you would never get the smell off,” I said without a smile to ease the tension.

“Right,” he said.

“Max was a friend of Clyde Summers,” Gabby explained.

“Sorry for your loss,” I said in and unemotional tone.

“Thanks, but it wasn’t that kind of relationship. We were mostly coworkers,” Max explained.

“I see, but I don’t know what I can do for you,” I said to him.

“Gabby said you talked to him a couple of times,” he said.

He sounded a lot like a cop, I thought. “That’s right,” I replied.

“So what did Clyde have to say?” he asked.

“Nothing really. He just wanted to talk to Gabby,” I replied.

“Did he think she was trying to avoid him,” he asked.

“I have no idea what he was thinking,” I replied. He waited hoping I would feel the urge to share more. I went back to washing down the table with bleach. I know all about how interrogations worked, so I decided not to play along.

“We all worked together. So of course our boss would like to know what happened,” Gabby said.

“You were there you saw what happened,” I said. “There is nothing more I can add to it.”

“Well I guess we will head on over to mom’s house,” Gabby said.

“You guys have fun,” I suggested.

As soon as they were back in Gabby’s BMW, I had a feeling they were not going to stay with mom. They might visit, but all they really wanted had been to see me. They wanted answers to the fancy man’s questions. Gabby had looked uncomfortable while the questioning was going on. Most likely she was under some scrutiny about the whole incident. I would like to help her, but I wasn’t going to lie to some mobbed up dude.

My grand plan was to simply ignore them all. I proceeded to check out the campground to make sure all the guests had made arrangements to pay. When I finished, I returned home to watch TV. Even with a hundred channels there was nothing I wanted to see.

I got a call from Gabby. “John what did Clyde tell you about us?” she asked.

“I told your friend Max the truth. Clyde’s only concern was to talk to you. I have no idea what he wanted to talk to you about,” I explained. “As far as I know, he could have wanted to talk to you about the size of his prick.”

“Trust me John, it wasn’t about that,” she said.

“Well you better come up with something. These guys don’t give you severance pay when they terminate you. When they terminate you, it can be a real termination,” I explained.

“John I know who they are, but it isn’t that bad,” Gabby said.

“No Gabby it’s worse. I do not want to know what he wanted. I just want you to make it go away,” I said.

“I want you to make it go away,” she said.

“All I can say is; tell them what you think will work. Just leave me out of it,” I said.

“I don’t think they will believe me. Clyde wanted to go to the FBI about something in the accounts. I left him a message on his phone. I told him to forget it. I have no idea why he came looking for me unless they found that message and he was trying to warn me.” she said. “I didn’t want to hear it. I didn’t want to know what he knew, what he did, or what he was going to do.”

“Well you better come up with a plan. If your fancy man isn’t part of this, watch what you say around him. This is most important; TRUST NO ONE.”

“Is that how you live?” she asked.

“Bet your plastic ass it is,” I said.

“It’s silicone rubber,” she said with a laugh.

“Okay, but for God’s sake be careful,” I demanded.

“I love you,” she said.

“Love you more,” I said. Since it is what we said as kids, It brought a tear to my eye.

It lasted only a moment before I was back to watching TV. Since there was still nothing on TV, I switched to the computer connected to the internet. I had bookmarked a site supposed be a site for ex-cons to vent. I read the stories of achievements and failures. I felt extremely lucky that I wasn’t dealing with any of that nonsense. There was a request for donations at the bottom of the front page. Since I didn’t have a credit card, I couldn’t safely donate. That could turn out to be a good thing. I was sure the site was managed by an ex-con guilty of computer crimes. I could see someone hacking my credit card. I also expected more spyware and malwear to show up on my computer, but I really didn’t care since I didn’t do business over the computer.

After Gabby’s departure life went back to normal. That meant a wedding on Sunday afternoon at an old mill’s outdoor venue. Edwardo and I were right at home with the truck kitchen in the parking lot.

The wait staff included two of mom’s casual laborers. Both of them were guys who handled the table setups, and helped with lugging the food. Since there was minimal outdoor lighting the service ended shortly after 8PM. The two men continued to pour wine until they ran out shortly before 8:30.

I was home by 10PM.

Since Edwardo insisted I keep the phone turned off during my shift with him, I had two telephone messages when I turned it on again. One was from Angie, and one was from Gabby.

Angie’s was a demand for more take out, which had become code for sex. The demand was to call her since she had a long break coming up.

Gabby’s message was much more complicated. Well it was not initially. The first one was a text which just read. ‘BURNER and then ten numbers’.

I answered Gabby first. I sent a text to the burner number ‘10-4 run?’

One of the good things about me was that I knew my limitations. I had no idea how to help Gabby. I did however know someone who might be able to help her.

“Mom I need you to come over,” I said into the phone and then immediately broke the connection.

When she came, I took her cell phone then walked her outside without either of our cell phones. There were a few large stumps a few yards from the Circus Tent. Keith had connected two of them with a two by eight board. Mom and I sat on the home made bench.

I explained everything I knew about Gabby’s situation. Then I said, “If you know how to get in touch with Uncle Keith, send him her burner number had beg him to help her.”

“I can’t get in touch with him directly,” she said. “I can leave a message for him on an Alaskan message board. I’ll try that.”

She left without asking me any more question. She just accepted it at face value. I did the same. I went back to the gate house and the terrible cable TV offerings. I found time to answer Angie. Since she was probably working, I sent her a text. It said, ‘I’m sitting on dead ready.’

After that text I went back to surfing the web and ended up back at the Pros&Cons website. I enjoyed hearing about the victories and defeats of ex-cons. I stayed there longer than any of the other sites.

Finally I got tired enough to sleep so I did. That Monday morning was chilly, so I dressed before I took a shower. The outside toilet was about to get old. Even though it was only five steps and was warm enough inside for a two minute piss, I decided to make some kind of change. I just didn’t know what the change would be.

I spent most of Monday morning trying to decide where to put the indoor toilet. For sure the easiest thing to do would be cut the back out of the outdoor toilet. It was almost attached to the interior anyway. The back wall of the gatehouse almost touched the back of the tiny outdoor toilet. It was just hard for me to work out the connection and layout.

I made the run up river to run the line at 1PM. It was at the warmest part of the day. After I finished skinning and filleting the catfish, I called Jasper Amos.

“Jasper, John Boyd. How would you like me to owe you a favor?” I asked.

“Since Wild Boar hunting season is coming, I would love it. What can I do for you?” he asked.

“Give me the name of someone who can help me move my outdoor toilet before winter comes,” I said.

“You are going to pay him right?” Jasper asked.

“Yes, but I’m looking for a deal,” I said. “I’m not getting rich here.” I said it even though mom would take the money from the company’s operating fund.

“Okay, I have a hunting buddy who can do plumbing,” he said. “I can help you do the framing and hang that vinyl tenting stuff.”

“Gatehouse has real vinyl sheets not the tenting,” I said.

“Yes but it’s still PVC plumbing pipe for a frame you are going to need a second set of hands. Let me get Ted to stop by this afternoon and we will take a look. We can give you a price for doing the job,” Jasper said.

“Call first,” I said.

I hung up just about ten minutes before mom called me. “Gabby is MIA, or will be before the sun goes down. I don’t know where and neither will you.” Then she hung up.

I didn’t say it but I thought, I hope Gabby can learn to live off the Grid. I had a strong feeling she would be doing that. When and if she returned, it would likely be as someone else, I expected.

I fixed a chicken salad sandwich with canned boneless cooked chicken. It was pretty good stuff when made into chicken salad. I had enough left for that night’s dinner.

Jasper came over to discuss the addition. He and his cousin, aka the hunting buddy, talked me into a four foot by four foot addition. With one window. The addition would fit over an existing window in the rear wall. The window would be reused along with about every thing else in the outdoor toilet. The expenses would be a four by four concrete floor slab, the PVC framing material, three sheets of four by eight exterior paneling, some roofing material, some electrical materials, and routine plumbing fittings. The new material he estimated at Three hundred dollars, The labor he estimated at five hundred dollars.

“Jasper, I’m going to have to consider if its worth that kind of money to avoid walking out in the cold to take a crap,” I said.

“Tell you what, how about you doing the grunt work, and we drop the price to six hundred,” his cousin suggested.

He was so quick to drop his price I knew they had planned to screw me. “When can you start?” I asked.

“We can start 8AM tomorrow,” The cousin suggested.

“We meet at home depot at 8AM and I’ll pay for the materials. Then when we finish, I’ll give you three hundred dollars for the labor.”

“That wasn’t the agreement,” Jasper said.

“Jasper, you said three hundred for materials, I figured the rest of the six was your labor,” I suggested.

“I’ll rough in the plumbing and pour the floor slab for fifty dollars labor,” the cousin said. “We can charge you fifteen dollars each for the work after that.”

“Fair enough, but I’m not paying you to stand around scratching your ass, or going to the dinner for lunch,” I said.

“Fair enough,” the cousin agreed.

They were finished with the addition and all of us were happy with the financial arrangement before Angie went on her long break. It was a good thing that I didn’t have to choose between leaving the Amos boy’s alone in the gatehouse or standing up Angie. I have no idea what I would have chosen.

“Angie and I went to dinner at a fancy place in Jackson on a Wednesday night. The odds were very good that we wouldn’t see a soul that either of us knew. We didn’t meet anyone who knew me. We did however bump into someone to whom Angie had written a ticket. She recognized him, but he didn’t seem to recognize her.

I was wearing an old sports coat that was a bit too large for the new me, but I didn’t look to much like an ex-con. Even thought Angie mentioned the ticket man, I wasn’t really worried that either of us would have a problem. I ordered dinner and we had a pleasant evening. I avoided the alcohol, since I really had lost my taste for it. By that time I only drank to be sociable.

We made it into the parking lot before he approached us. When he spoke, he slurred his words and seemed to be a little unsteady on his feet.

“Officer, I want to talk to you,” he said.

“It’s Deputy and I don’t want to have a conversation while you are drinking. So move out of our way please,” Angie said.

My decision was to stay out of it. If the man had curse and moved on I would have. He didn’t though. He chose to grab her arm and twist her to face him. She resisted and he stumbled. I helped him to the ground face first. She held him there will I called 911.