Chapter 4

Author’s note: If you’ve been following the story so far, the first two chapters are essentially identical to previous postings in Community 3. I’ve moved them here.

If you haven’t been reading, then this is little bit of a nice guy trying to be a nice guy, with a girl who’s taken a wrong path, but wants out. Tommy’s an engineer in search of a solution to a problem. Mimi’s the problem.

Mimi’s turn:

Tommy took me back to the shelter after the Saturday night bash. New one for me. I’ve never been in a gathering like that before. The Saturday night parties I’m used to, well, there were all sorts of recreational substances. The only thing I saw there was beer, consumed in responsible amounts by sane adults. There wasn’t a single whiff of grass anywhere. Nobody seemed to comment, so I didn’t even ask.

‘Nother thing. Smoking. Nobody. That’s okay with me. I was a spotty smoker before Tommy picked me up. The one time I asked about it in his car, he said he’d rather I didn’t, and the way he said it just struck me as different, not condemnational, just that it wasn’t what he wanted in his car and...

When I got to the shelter, I just didn’t ... I mean, cigarettes are five bucks a pack ... I looked around. I hate to be judgmental, but just eyeballing some of the other women in the shelter, I see that the ones who’re out on the porch smoking are the ones less, shall we say, likely to be pursuing positive changes.

Mimi. Positive changes. I gave up on that last half a pack. No more for me. Like I said, I was intermittent, at best, social ... So I dropped it. Tommy asked me about it. I told him, just what I’ve said.

But then after I’d heard about Tommy’s job, about how it was more than a bunch of people who showed up at work for eight hours, after I’d met several of them, he said it was a date, taking me to that Saturday social.

It was just plain fun. I dragged up a word you don’t hear very much any more – wholesome. That described the whole thing better than any other words I can come up with. No drunks. No dopers. Everybody sober and friendly and smiling and treating ME like I was long-lost family.

“If Tommy brought you, you must be special,” this pre-teen blonde girl said.

“That’s my boss,” Tommy laughed, introducing me to Terri Addison. “The pTerridactyl. Terri, this is Mimi.”

“HI, Mimi. We’re glad you’re here. Tommy’s exaggerating. He really works for Cindy,” Terri said.

Oh, that makes me feel MUCH better, because Cindy –uh, Doctor Cynthia Richards, PhD, is MY age. And as Tommy pointed out when I said she was crazy, she’s not crazy, she’s eccentric. Also disarming. And charming. But there’s this undertone that’s hard for me to put a finger on. It’s like she sees what a person is capable of, then expects it.

We sat together for a while. She asked the expected questions – how long did I know Tommy, was I working, stuff like that. Never sounded like she was looking down at me. The girl’s MY age, got a doctorate, and according to Tommy, she’s a millionaire.

And I’ve financed the last segment of my life by selling sex to truckers. Still, these people are like Tommy to me. They see me and they smile and ask me to join in.

When we left, Tommy asked me, “So, something you’d do again?”

“I loved it,” I said. “But I’m not a part of this, Tommy.”

“Yeah you are,” he countered. “You’re my date...”

“But if we weren’t dating?”

“Uh, are you breaking up with me? After ONE date?”

“Well no, but, come on ... I’m not exactly in that league.”

“Oh, come on, Mimi. That’s part of the charm. There is no league. You saw Henry, right?”

“Yeah, you introduced me.”

“He started out as the YARD GUY! His wife and her sister, they do the cooking for the big feeds, that is, if somebody doesn’t shoulder ‘em aside because they feel a need to cook something their own way ... We don’t have a league. The guys who do the janitorial work, they’re there.”

“But my whole connection is YOU.”

“And okay ... I’m not planning on dating anybody else. Are you?”

“I didn’t want to date YOU,” I said. “You told me that if I wanted you to drive me to Birmingham, I had to come on this date.”

“And what were we doing for the last couple of weeks, Mimi?”

He’s pushing me into a corner. “Hangin’ out...”

“Okay, then this wasn’t a date. We’re still just hangin’ out.”

“No, I think I liked this being a date. I dunno if I ever officially dated a guy.”

“Well, I liked having you with me, but I worried that I was making you do something you weren’t comfortable with.”

“I was worried,” I said. “Got over it. Cindy says she can help me with my education. Is she serious?”

“Cindy’s serious about everything she says, baby,” he said. “And as far as education, she’s got lines out to the university and to the local school board and ... Well, the Munchkins were being home-schooled...”

“Munchkins,” I smiled. “They’re almost as scary as Cindy...”

“I know. But again ... I’ve seen ‘em working with kids who aren’t little brainiacs, and they temper their actions. Help. Herd. Encourage. You should see ‘em in action.”

“I saw Terri in action – dancing with Jerry. That’s a couple, you know...”

“Everybody knows.”

When Tommy dropped me off at the shelter, I kissed him. Or he kissed me. Or we kissed each other.

The next morning, though, I felt my world start to cave in. The shelter administrator called me into her office.

“Mimi,” she said, “you’re pushing four weeks here. Staying here much longer...”

“Mizz Lindemann,” I said, “I really don’t have any options ... Jobs ... a place to live...”

“We can work with you on that some more, but we just can’t keep you here indefinitely. Do you have any ideas?”

“I’ll see what I can do. I just don’t have a lot of support here. I’m from out of town and I only know a few people.”

“I’m sorry ... Our board ... rules...”

“I know,” I sad sadly. “I knew it couldn’t go on forever ... But...”

“A week. Two, tops, Mimi. I’ll see what I can do, but be thinking...”

“Yes, ma’am.”

I wasn’t able to get my mind into the group session that afternoon and I tossed and turned all night. I knew there had to be a solution that didn’t involve me hitting the street again.

Per our agreement, Tommy was waiting outside at six thirty the next morning. I got into his car.

“Breakfast,” he said. “Do you mind a drive-through?”

“That’s good,” I replied tersely.

“Something wrong?”

“Tommy, I’m in trouble.”

I heard him suck a breath in, hard. “You’re PREGNANT?”

“Oh, HELL no! Trouble, though...”

“Law? What?”

“I’m running out of time here. I’m supposed to be moving out. They said four weeks. I’m there. She’s gonna let me have another week, maybe two ... Tommy ... I don’t have options.”

“There are always options, Mimi. If nothing else, I have a spare room.”

“That’s very sweet, Tommy,” I said. “But I’m tryin’ to change my life, and moving in with you ... you’re a great guy, but I’m not ready for that. I don’t think you are either.”

“Strictly platonic,” he said. “We could do that.”

“Tommy, last resort, okay?”

“Okay. Let me give this some thought. We have people who can help.”

“You have people. I got shit,” I said. I felt my world swirling downward. But Tommy ... Nothing I’d seen from him gave me even a hint that he was going to try to force me into anything. Maybe his offer was the best I could do.

Don’t get me wrong. Tommy’s attractive. I thought about being with him. I have. But I don’t want it to be because he’s feeling sorry for me, and I don’t want to push him into something. He has to decide and I have to decide. Until then, he’s my friend. Truth be known, he’s the best friend I’ve had since I was twelve.

I feel very confused. Conflicted. Tommy’s a great guy. Intelligent. Moral. Successful. He deserves better than what I’ve been.

As he said, we went through a McDonald’s drive -thru and got on the road to Birmingham, each munching on a McMuffin.

“I can promise you a better breakfast one day, Mimi,” he said. “We’re sort of goal-oriented today.”

“Yeah, I know. This is great. You should’ve let me pay for mine.”

“Save it. Now, let’s talk about what your options are.”

“Cindy says she can get me a GED. I need a GED.”

“Cindy’s the one that can put you where you want to be,” he affirmed. “Wait’ll eight o’clock, then we’ll call ‘er.”

“D’ya think she might be able to help? In two weeks?”

““We’re talking about Cindy. She’s the eternal optimist, and I know something will happen.”

“I’m sorry, Tommy. I brought shit into your life.”

“Mimi, you didn’t. I’ve been very happy knowing you. I’ve been glad to hang out with you, and Saturday was a great day. Fine date.”

I looked at him. Profile. Not a bad looking guy at all. “You mean it?”

“I mean it.”

I changed the subject. We talked about the things we saw on the drive. I’m thinking, too, about what this trip is about. I’m being checked out medically. Main thing is sexually transmitted diseases. There’s a clinic that will accept me as a former sex worker. That’s a sterile term for ‘whore’. Being a whore, that’s not particularly sterile, though. I did require condoms. Every. Single. Time. Even for blow jobs. I’ve heard that you can catch stuff that way, too, and I also know that condoms are not a 100% solution.

I tried my best to be clean, for my own sake. This checkup? I have to know. And if I’ve got something, I only hope they can fix it. It’s not a subject I want to discuss, though. I can’t even begin to think about how to talk about it with Tommy. He knows what the trip is about, though, so...

“Is it too early to call Cindy?”

“Nah ... I don’t see her as one of those ‘sleep haf the day’ types. Here’s my phone. Hang on.” He pulled his iPhone out. “Hey Siri. Call Cindy Richards mobile.” And he handed the phone to me.

It rang three times, then “Hi, Tommy. What’s up?”

“Cindy, it’s me – Mimi. I’m using Tommy’s phone.”

“Okay, then. Hi, Mimi. What’s up?”

“Saturday night you said to call you if I needed any help.”

“I did say that,” she said brightly. “So what can we do together?”

“I need rescuing again. Tommy rescued me the first time. Now I need some more...”

“And what would the ‘more’ be?”

“Just about everything,” I sighed. “Cindy, it’s a mess. Mostly MY fault, but it’s still a mess.”