Chapter 37

Cal pulled his car into the parking lot of the Dew Drop Inn. It was nearly ten at night. The city streetlights afforded just enough light to enable customers to maneuver into the parking spaces. Since it was Monday night, there were only a few cars in the lot. Roxie’s car was among them but it was too dark to see if anyone was in it. He presumed that she was waiting for him inside.

He knew that he was late—the Elk’s presentation had gone overtime. He hoped that she hadn’t been waiting for him for long but knew that she probably had been.

He parked and got out of the car. He started heading for the front door of the tavern and saw Roxie hop out of her car. She hurried over to where he stopped and waited for her. When she reached him she stood on her toes and kissed him on the cheek.

“Have you been waiting long?” he asked. “I thought you would be inside.”

She took his hand. They began walking together.

“A little while—not too long,” she answered.

It was nice of her not to complain about the wait, but he knew she was just being polite.

“Sorry, the Elks Club presentation went a lot longer than I expected. You should have gone inside. I would have found you.”

She looked up at him as they walked and shook her head.

“No, I wanted it this way,” she said.

Cal sensed that she meant something important when she said that but couldn’t quite put words to it. He decided that he would figure it out later. For the moment it felt good to switch from ‘Campaigning Cal’ to ‘Cal having a quiet drink with Roxie’.

“I’ve got a feeling you’ve been waiting longer than you’re admitting to,” Cal told her.

“Well, that means they were interested in what you had to say,” she said.

She nudged her body against his as they walked.

“Anyway, you can make it up to me later,” she added.

Cal opened the door to the saloon and they stepped inside. It was almost as dark inside as the parking lot. The source of any light came from two illuminated beer signs at either end of the bar. So, every object took on an eerie color, depending on which brand’s sign was closest. Herb Beale was behind the bar. It was a Monday night, so business in the bar was light.

“Hello, Cal,” Herb said as soon as Cal and Roxie came through the door.

Herb looked at Roxie with what Cal would have described as a puzzled look. It was as though he was trying to remember her name, though Cal knew that wasn’t the reason.

“Hi, Roxie,” Herb added in a more subdued voice.

“Hello, yourself,” Cal answered.

Cal looked for a table for Roxie and him to take. There was a couple sitting at a table in the back of the room. The lone customer at the bar had paid and was getting ready to leave. Cal turned to Roxie.

“Roxie, let’s sit at the bar and keep Herb company for a while.”

Roxie hopped on a barstool and Cal leaned against the bar beside her. Herb came over to them.

“Gin and tonic, Roxie?” he asked. “How about you, Cal?

Roxie nodded Herb reached for a glass.

“Draught beer for me,” Cal said.

Herb set the two drinks in front of them.

“It’s always a surprise to see you in the bar, Cal,” Herb said, “especially on a Monday night, but I’m glad to see you.”

“I just came from the Elk’s Club meeting—campaign presentation. Then Roxie and I arranged to meet here for a nightcap.”

Herb turned to Roxie.

“Haven’t seen you in a while, Roxie” he said. “I heard you got finished working at the Bluebird.”

“Afraid so,” Roxie said.

“Is she going to be your Campaign Manager?” Herb asked Cal with a laugh.

Cal hesitated for a moment. There was something about the way Herb asked that didn’t fit quite right.

“No, Herb,” Cal answered, “George Lambe is my Campaign Manager. I just asked Roxie to come out for a drink with me because I wanted to spend some time with her.”

Herb looked away and Cal knew that he’d embarrassed him.

“I’m his ‘Moral Support Manager’,” Roxie piped up.

Herb turned back with a big grin.

“There you go!” Herb exclaimed.

He began laughing and Cal and Roxie laughed, as well. As he laughed he thought about how he was glad that Roxie was there to bail him out. She seemed to do it with such ease.

“Joking aside,’ Herb asked, “how’s that campaign of yours going, anyway?”

“Just starting,” Cal replied. “The Elks Club meeting went real well. The problem is most of those guys don’t live in my district anymore. But, it’s always good to get the word out.”

“I wish you the best,” Herb said.

“I’m hoping you’ll support me,” Cal said. “The Dew Drop is right in the middle of my district. I’m running on a jobs platform. Remember, you and I spoke about that once.”

“That goes without saying,” Herb assured him. “I’ll do whatever I can to help you. Your problem is explaining why the party dropped you. To a lot of folks, Jack Ross and the party are one and the same. People are saying that you and Jack Ross had a big falling out—that there wasn’t enough room for the two of you. Ol’ Jack still holds a lot of sway with a lot of people.”

“It was over how I handled the Annex Project,” Cal said. “To me, it was the most important thing that we could do for the County. Jack had his mind on other things until events made him climb on board. That teed him off and it was the cause, I guess.”

Cal glanced out of the corner of his eye at Roxie. She was staring at him with her mouth agape, but she didn’t say anything.

“On top of that, my district has been rearranged. I’ve lost a lot of reliable votes and picked up some real question marks. I’ve got a lot facing me.”

“Like what kind of question marks?” Herb asked.

“For one, the College Town area is in my district now and that’s sure to go heavy for Jennifer Davis. On top of that, the trailer park area on the west side of town came into my district, too. In fact, George and I were talking it about this afternoon. We have to pick up a lot of votes out of that area to overcome the College Town vote.”

“I see what you mean,” Herb agreed. “The trailer parks will be tough. How are you going to approach them?”

Cal shook his head.

“I have to be honest and tell you, I don’t really know. All I can think of is to get in there and go door to door and meet them.”

“They’re going to be tough nuts to crack,” Herb agreed.

“Only about twenty per cent of the eligible adults in there are even registered,” Cal lamented, “and fewer than half of those voted last time.”

“Maybe they didn’t have anything to vote for,” Roxie said.

Cal swung his head around and looked at Roxie. He saw that Herb was looking at her, too.

“To tell you the truth,” she said, “I didn’t vote in the last election, either.”

“You didn’t vote?” Cal asked.

Cal knew he shouldn’t have been surprised. It had never occurred to him that a person he knew wouldn’t vote in any election.

“It just seems so futile,” Roxie said. “Half of the time no one can understand what you politicians are talking about—and the half we do understand we don’t believe. It’s not that we’re too lazy to go out and vote. It’s just that by doing it we would be buying into all that nonsense. So, we stay home. It’s our way to say ‘the hell with you idiots’. I guess that’s our way to vote.”

Roxie was looking at Cal, and then at Herb, and then back at Cal. She touched Cal on the arm.

“I didn’t mean you were an idiot,’ she said as she laughed... “It was more of a general thing.”

The three were silent for a few seconds.

“Well, I think he’s an idiot,” Herb declared, “but, he’s our idiot so we love him just the same.”

The three of them shared a laugh again and Herb refilled their drinks.

“Roxie, maybe I should have hired you as my Campaign Manager,” Cal conceded. “What you just said is worth listening to.”

“You can turn them around, you know. You’ve got the Annex Project under your belt and that’s real. And you can prove that you were the one to make it happen. I’d bet that there are a lot of people down in those parks who wouldn’t mind having one of those jobs at the new Annex. It’s real and you’re the one who did it.”

“It’s not quite done yet...” Cal started to say.

Roxie straightened on her barstool. Her eyes widened and she took a deep breath.

“Cal, let me go down there and campaign for you in the trailer parks. They’ll listen to me. I know how to explain everything so they know which end is up. I know I can do it. How about giving me a chance at it?”

“Done!” Cal exclaimed. “You picked your own poison. Come over to my office tomorrow and pick up some campaign material. But, we don’t have any money to pay you.”

“I knew that already. This will be on me, and I’ll have a great time doing it.”

A patron walked into the bar and Herb moved to the other end to wait on him. When Herb was far enough away Roxie grabbed Cal’s sleeve and pulled him over so that she whisper to him.

“Why didn’t you tell Herb that Ross dumped you because you wouldn’t let him shake down that Japanese businessman? I know that’s why he dumped you.”

“I can’t make an accusation like that without proof and I don’t have it,” Cal said. “Bedsides, how did you know about that?

“I was wiping down a table nearby when it happened. I heard everything. I was sure you would go along, but you told Ross to ‘go to hell’.”

“I didn’t know, Roxie.”

“That was the day I knew you’re a real special person, Cal.”

She let go of his arm.

“There’s a lot of things you don’t know, Cal.”

“I can see that,” Cal admitted, “but I’m starting to learn.”

“Even if we were just casual friends I’d still want you to win this election. I mean that.”

“When I saw George today he asked how you were doing. I told him we were seeing each other.”

Roxie grabbed Cal’s sleeve again.

“What did he say?”

“At first it was a concern, but then we decided that hiding it—especially the trip to Maine—would be worse if it was found out. And it’s almost inevitable that someone will find out. We decided that the simple way is the best. We’ll just play it straight. We don’t have to throw it in anyone’s face, but we don’t have to hide anything, either.”

Roxie let go of Cal’s sleeve.

“You mean, like normal people?”

“That’s right, like normal people,’ he agreed.

Cal swallowed down the last of his beer. Roxie was nursing her drink. Cal could see that she wasn’t very interested in it.

“Right now, a normal person would ask his date if she would like to go somewhere more private.”

Roxie started laughing and that confused Cal.

“I thought you said that ‘simple is best’,” she said.

She laughed some more.

“Did you mean to ask if you could come home with me?” she asked.

Cal had to laugh a bit, as well.

“We could go to my place if you prefer.”

“No, we’ll go to mine. I was kind of planning on it.”

She hopped off the barstool and headed toward the door.

“Good night, Herb,” Cal called down to the end of the bar.

They were in the parking lot, about to separate to their respective cars.

“I fixed the place up today so you could come home with me. This will be a first.”

“A first?” Cal asked.

He had to admit that Roxie had surprised him again.

“That’s right,” she answered. “In all my years there with Aunt Flora and all my boyfriends, it will be the first time I ever had a man in my bedroom.”

Cal thought of humorous quip.

“Would Aunt Flora approve?” he almost said and held back at the last moment.

He was glad that he held back. Roxie had told him something important, he was sure, but couldn’t quite understand what she meant. But, he was sure that it was important to her, and that was enough.

“I see,” he answered instead.

“I told you Cal, there are a lot of things you don’t know.”

“I’ll follow you in my car,” Cal said.

“Don’t take any side trips to New York City on your way there,” she called to him from over her shoulder.

Cal was up before the sun the next morning.

“You can take a farm boy off the farm, but never the farm out of the boy,” he said to himself as he poured himself into his trousers.

He had a big day ahead and he still had to go back to his house and shower and change clothes.