Chapter 17: Monday Evening

When we got up we all took quick showers and headed out. The girls had to put on their old clothes, though. We needed to figure out where we were going to live. We stopped at a Burger King for something quick to eat before we went to the Top Hat. Well, it SHOULD have been a quick meal.

The line wasn’t long and we got our food pretty fast. We were about halfway done eating when a cop car pulled into the lot with its lights flashing. Everybody in the place stopped eating to see what was up. Two cops came in with their hands on their guns, looking around. When they saw us, one came up while the other stood back. I’d done security in the Army, so it wasn’t anything new. If you are paired, one guy has to stay back to be clear if the front man gets rushed or something.

The one who came to our table kept his hand on his gun while he looked at me and said “Keep your hands on the table and don’t move!” Then he turned to Alice. “Ma’am, may I ask your name? Someone reported that you and your daughter may be kidnap victims.”

That’s how it is for a black man in America. The black man is assumed to be a criminal and gets orders and threats. The white woman is assumed to be a poor innocent victim and gets politely worded questions. Of course, I probably shouldn’t complain too loudly since both assumptions are correct, right?

Alice looked at me and sorta shrugged. What ya gonna do?

“Sir, I am Alice O’Donald. This is my daughter Melanie O’Donald. Both of us WERE kidnap victims. We both went through a horrible, terrifying experience. This is Larry Wilkins, the head coach at West Central High School. He rescued us, and we’re staying with him. If you need to arrest him for something, I’m almost positive he’s a criminal, but you’re going to have to arrest the two of us too because we’re not going to let you take him without a fight.”

“May I see your driver’s license?”

“Sure ... no. I lost that, a credit card, some cash, and my keys Saturday night when I was kidnapped and raped. I can show you everything in my purse, but I don’t think I have any other photo ID.”

“Please slowly get your purse and show me something with your name on it.”

While she was doing that he turned back to me. “Sir, can you identify yourself?”

“What she said. I’m Lawrence Allen Wilkins. I’m the head coach and athletic director at West Central High. I was there at the game and was able to rescue these two. They seem to have decided that I’m a good guy and I’m not gonna argue with them.”

“Let me see what Mrs. O’Donald is showing me ... Okay, thank you. You do need to go get your license replaced.”

“Yes sir. I’ll try to do that tomorrow.”

“Now, you, sir. Please slowly get your wallet out and show me your driver’s license.”

I got my license out, but I also pulled out my VA card that said I was a veteran with health problems and was eligible for some services.

He looked at them and you could just see the change in his attitude. Sure, I was still black, but maybe I hadn’t burned down an orphanage in the last couple of days.

“Do you mind if we write down your addresses?”

I shook my head. Alice said “Be our guest.”

“Thank you.” While he was writing he asked “If we have any further questions, can we find you at these addresses?”

I opened my mouth, but before I could say anything Alice said “My daughter and I will be within arm’s reach of Larry for the foreseeable future, wherever he is. We may be at my house, at his house, or during the school day we will be at his office. We do have things to do, though, so we won’t always be at those three places.”

“Can you give me an example of things you need to do?”

“The man doesn’t have any food in his house. We need to get a lot of groceries. And I need to get a new driver’s license tomorrow.”

“Okay, now I know who you are. You are the two ladies who spent the day at the school answering the same questions twenty times. Us, the state police, the FBI, all asking the same questions over and over again. Don’t be surprised if you have even more people there tomorrow asking you the same questions again. Okay, I apologize for bothering you, but when we get a call about the possible location of kidnap victims we have to move fast and we aren’t always polite.”

“We forgive you. Larry, he’s just doing his job.”

“Fine. We forgive you. Only...” I raised my voice some. Of course no one had eaten a bite since the police had rushed in. “Does anyone have one of those instant cameras, that give you the picture right then?”

A man sitting at another table said “I do, in the car.”

“How much do those pictures cost?”

“A pack of ten costs about $30 or $35.”

“Would you be willing to take a picture of us and hand it to the nice policeman here so he can take it back to the station and show it to all the other policemen? I’ll pay you $5 for it. I’ve got a five in my wallet.”

“Sure. Lemme go get it.”

Mr. Anderson, his uniform had his name but I didn’t understand their rank insignia, had finally reverted to ‘dealing with the public’ instead of ‘Dudley Do-Right, savior of the people’. He stepped back some and said “That’s probably a really good idea.”

Alice asked “Can you give him ten, so we can have one, too? It’s our first family picture.”

“Sure. And, I got food in the house.”

“Honey, that’s not food. Did you like the breakfast I fixed you yesterday morning?”

“Oh, yeah. That was great.”

“Did you like the breakfast I fixed you this morning?”

“Well, it was good but it wasn’t anywhere near as good as yesterday’s.”

“That’s because there’s no food in your house.”

“Yes, dear.”

Mr. Anderson laughed and said “You two even talk like you’ve been married forever.”

“We should have been. My husband is not a nice man, but I was young and didn’t know any better. If I’d married Larry twenty years ago instead of Tom I’m sure I would have been much happier. And, I’m sure I wouldn’t have been kidnapped and raped this weekend with Larry protecting me.”

“I know this is racist and I apologize, but you’re willing to marry a black man? A lot of people won’t like that.”

“I know. My parents may disown me, but I swear that before I die my last name is going to be ‘Wilkins’. The only reason I can’t marry him tomorrow is that I can’t divorce Tom until you people find him. Well, that and Melanie would kill me in my sleep.”

Everyone looked at Melanie, who’d been pretty quiet this whole time. By now the camera-man was back and we were standing by one wall. I was in the middle with one of them hugging me on each side. Pretty much the way we’d slept earlier.

Melanie’s opinion was “Bitch gets between me and my man, bitch has gotta go.”

Alice asked the man if he could take two pictures so we could have one. He said sure, it only took a minute or so between pictures. The first one was pretty good. He showed it to us before he gave it to Mr. Anderson. The second one was better, though, because when he said “Ready?” Alice turned her head and stuck her tongue in my ear.

So now our first family picture shows how surprised I was. There was a whole bunch of people laughing when they saw it, because we had to show it around. Everyone in the whole restaurant wanted to see it.

Mr. Anderson thanked me for the picture, and apologized again for bothering us before they left.

“No problem. You guys have talked to me more than once. You know I’m black, and you know I’m a dirtbag. I’m just not the dirtbag you are looking for. This time.”

I gave the camera man a twenty for being so helpful. He said he was glad to help, but his fries were cold now. The manager had been hanging around the whole time, listening in to this police raid in his restaurant, and he offered a free bag of fresh hot fries to anyone who had been trying to eat when the police showed up. Now, that’s customer relations!

It was after nine when we finally made it to the Top Hat Gentlemen’s Club, and there were about ten cars in their lot. I told the doorman who we were and that an ‘Andrew’ had asked me to meet him here between eight and ten tonight. He said that ladies were generally not welcome there. I suggested that perhaps Andrew could come out here to talk, since neither I nor the ladies were willing to be separated.

That was going to become a problem sooner or later. Sooner, probably. They’d both gone to the bathroom at the Burger King after the police and the camera man had left, but I had to go stand in front of the door while they were in there. Considering how their weekend had gone, I had trouble arguing with them.

The doorman asked us to wait there for a minute while he asked Andrew what he wanted to do. Sure. What other options did we really have?

He came back after five minutes or so, and said that Andrew would meet us in one of the conference rooms. He would escort us. Okay, thank you.

Andrew, no last name, was a tall slender older white man who was dressed like he was going to the opera. I would have called him a faggot except he did not act like a submissive. In this place, he was probably a Dom.

He invited us to sit down, then introduced himself as the owner and manager of the Top Hat. They paid the expense of a doorman whenever the club was open because some things that happened inside would upset some members of the public if they saw it. No one entered the club without being invited and spoken for by a member.

He himself was going out on a limb by inviting three strangers into his club but he thought that he should find out what I wanted.