Chapter 26: 1996

It had been more than a month since my date with Wilma at the Blue Star. And it had been a couple of weeks since she’d pulled me aside and let me know that we weren’t going to make it as a match.

And then there is today, Wednesday, it was 7:00 p.m. And my used-to-be lawyer, one might even say my main man at least on some level, William Golding, was taking a seat at the bar. I was working swing this month: 2:00 p.m. to 11:00 pm: I truly loved my new schedule. I was doubled up with Wilma till I got off at 11:00 p.m. She’d inherited the late show and would be closing the place at 2:00 a.m. We closed at 2:00 a.m. anymore, no more twenty-four-seven, but we did have a janitor working what used to be my old shift. Well, things do change.

“Been a while, Chase,” he said.

“Yes, it has. What can I get you, and it’s on me?”

“A Lite would be good.” I got him what he craved.

He was my only customer at the moment. I decided to hang with him; the dirty glassware could wait.

“So?” I said. “I know this isn’t your usual hangout.”

“No, no it isn’t. Saw you with a lady about a month or so ago. Decided not to bother you at the time. Well, I am better looking than your skinny self, didn’t want to cut your time,” he said, and he grinned.

“Yeah, well, and it pains me to say it, but even a man of your vintage can do better than me. The lady, as you say, gave me the old ‘thanks but no thanks’ goodbye if you get my meaning.”

“Really? She looked to be interested; well, in my humble opinion.”

“She was, I think. That is until she heard my resume. She lost interest real fast after that. Oh yeah, real fast. She’s the one delivering drinks over there right now. I don’t blame her. No woman is gonna be all that interested in a fifty something two-time loser.”

“Jesus! Look, Chase, do not let one bad experience get you down. There are a lot of women out there interested in guys like you, your time inside notwithstanding,” he said.

“Yeah right. But don’t worry yourself; I’m not letting it get me down. I’m just going with the flow. The reality is what it is. And do me a favor; don’t let the Cooper clan know my situation. I do not need them or their pity or their unsolicited advice.” He was slowly shaking his head. And it was telling that he didn’t exactly promise me that he would do as I asked and keep the Coopers in the dark.

“I don’t know, Chase, sometimes I think you are your own worst enemy. You are not in prison anymore. You have got to stop thinking the way you think and just keep on keepin’ on,” he said.

“Yeah, well, okay, I will.”

Zoe ushered William Golding into the inner sanctum of the Cooper mansion.

“So,” said Herbert, smiling broadly at the appearance of his visitor. “Let me guess. You’ve been to see your one-time client.”

“Yes, and it’s not terrible, but it’s not good either. Or, maybe it is terrible,” said William.

“Okay...?” said Herbert.

“On the upside, he’s gained a little weight: he no longer looks like a decaying corpse. But his level of despair is if anything even worse than before.”

“Okay, but what...?”

“Like I say, he’s working and gaining weight; but his hope for anything remotely resembling a relationship has taken a kinda big hit. Maybe a real big hit.”

“And you know this how?”

“I mentioned to Valerie a couple of weeks ago that I’d seen him talking kinda socially to a coworker, a female coworker.”

“Yes, she told me. I’m considering having Rein check things out,” said Herb.

“I happened to see him, them, again, more recently. They were at the Blue Star. He was entertaining the lady. I asked him about it, their date, at his workplace. Evidently, she told him that his litany of legal misfortunes precluded them from ever becoming an item, let alone intimate.

“Anyway, I did some research on the lady. I asked a friend at the courthouse to do some checking after seeing them at the Blue Star to find out who she was before I even talked to Chase. The lady’s name is Wilma Hurt, has a record herself, soliciting, and she is even a year older than Chase. What I mean is, she’s not exactly in a position to be a chooser either, but she evidently rejected his advances kinda definitely; well, from what Chase told me.”

“So, that resulted in the despair issue you referred to,” he said.

“Yes. I did my best to get him to not be taking one rejection too seriously, but I think it was my effort that he didn’t take too seriously.

“Shit!” said Herb.

“About right,” said William.

“Look, no matter what, do not be letting Valerie in on this. She can’t handle it. In many ways, she’s, well, a weak woman, loving but weak,” he said.

“Not that it would even come up with her, but not Jillian either, right?”

“Of course not, even more so if that’s even possible.” The lawyer was nodding his understanding.

The two men did not notice the two women just around the corner in the small dining room when the men greeted each other. Something about the tone of voice of the men caused Valerie and Jillian Cooper to hold up and listen—women’s intuition.

Valerie signaled her partner in crime to follow her out of the dining room and into the kitchen. They’d be talking to husband and daddy Cooper after William left and later to daddy Benedict too—maybe. Oh yes.

“Okay, Will, thanks for the info. Jesus, we have to find a way,” said Herbert. His friend nodded.

“Hopefully,” said William. “At any rate, I have to be going.”

“Okay, keep in touch,” said Herb.

“Will do.”

Herbert Cooper was worried about the mental state of Chase Benedict, but for the moment he was also hungry. He headed for the kitchen. Entering, he stopped, stunned, seeing the two females staring at him, and those stares had not a trace of a smile between them.

“Just to avoid any unnecessary waste of time,” said Valerie, “yes, we heard it all! Herb, don’t ever do that. We’re grownups too. Yes, we’re women and we do tend to get emotional, I suppose, but we have a right to know the details about the problems Chase faces; and yes, both the sall and the large problems.”

The man threw up his hands. “Okay, if you heard it all, then you know that he made to find himself a woman, did, but as soon as he outed himself as to his convictions for murder and assault; she evidently walked away,” he said.

“Yes, we got that part,” said Valerie.

“Dad, what are we going to do,” said Jillian. “I know he hates me, but I need to help him if I can.”

“Jill, he doesn’t hate you. He just doesn’t believe that you will ever think of him as any kind of daddy, and it kills him.”

“Daddy...”

“Jill, I don’t know what to do, not yet. I have to think. If the man would lighten up, I, we, could solve his problem, problems. But you know how that would go if we did not have his consent and commitment.”

The two women looked down.