Chapter 9

Lester Martin ... the wedding photographer
Deacon Burke ... the retired cop
Janice the waitress at the downtown diner
Juan handy man
Lynne Simmons madam
Cathy Lynne’s employee
George Wells dead highway patrolman.
Roger Heart internal affairs lieutenant
Leslie Wells
Ruth Simpson and Marion Davidson brides
Janice Allen mgr of magnolia manor guest house
Jodie the fifteen year old daughter
Emily the ex-wife.
Deputy Miles Thompson the officer in charge of the drug bust
Simone one of Lynne’s girls
Mike the dead ex-cop
Trudy Deacon’s client.
Eddie Samantha’s ex husband.
Samantha the assistant district attorney

It was Friday of the next week when I had to come to grips with my first problem from my list of things to do. Emily called.

“I checked out everything about tuition assistance from ‘The First Interdenominational Christian Day school.” She said. “We are not eligible for any help with the tuition. Jodie is not smart enough for a scholarship, so we get to pay the complete tuition. You said you wanted everyone to suffer, so here is the bad news. If I cut out some of the perks Jodie enjoys, I can save enough to come up with three hundred a month. That is as thin and as close to the bone as I can slice things.”

“Does Jodie keep her cell phone?” I asked.

“It’s already paid for,” Emily said.

“But the plan is more expensive for a smart phone. She need a basic phone and a pay as you go plan so we can decide how she uses it,” I suggested.

“Les, that just won’t work,” Emily said sounding all pissed off.

“Well I’m not paying more for her to be back to cartoon hair and face jewelry. So either you get control of her, or send her ass back to me. If you get her under control, I’ll spring for half the tuition at the fancy school. If you don’t get her under control, send her back to me. I’ll tell you now, I intend to monitor her from now on as well. So Emily you make the choice.”

When I hung up Emily was going to discuss her position with Jodie. I made more coffee while I washed clothes and considered what I would do if Jodie came to live with me. It meant a minimum of two years spent trying to get her under control. Yes it was a crappy job, but one worth doing. I didn’t figure I could do any worse than her mother had done so far. With those changes in mind, I had a need for more income. It looked as though I would be accepting all the work I could get. Choosing to be selective might be a pipe dream for a while, I decided.

That made the next two days very important. First of all on Saturday I had a wedding. It was a little larger than I liked, but it should involve more profit as well. Then Sunday I had a Booth to set up in Oxford’s welcome back to school festival. I had chosen a space across from the food trucks.

I got a couple of leads, but no signed contracts. The slight over an hours drive each way was more than I usually agreed to do just for a show and tell. Still I figured that it was going to be necessary to branch out somehow. It seemed to me that the secret might be in the geography. Covering more ground might be the way to go. I doubted that shooting dog portraits would be the answer. I did them once a year at the animal shelter. I also gave some 20% off coupons to the vet who had treated Earlene.

Sandra the receptionist at the vets gave them to the first time visitors. I would have made cigarette money on those portraits. I certainly couldn’t make a living from them. However I had decided that I couldn’t turn down any work until Jodie was grown. I would just live on over the counter drugs mixed with a mild prescription pain killer. I still planned to put off the cane as long as possible.

The decisions about Deacon and Samantha was delayed for a while. I was going to stay with the ‘live and let live’ policy for a while longer. I was back scrambling for money, even though I didn’t really have to scramble. I could always just let it happen as god intended. In which case I could force Jodie to come live with me, or at least for her mother to change schools districts.

I spent an hour struggling not to think about Samantha. It had been a week since I had seen her. It seemed that any day when I didn’t see or talk to her was a missed opportunity. One which at my age was something that wouldn’t come around again.

When the lightening bolt of clarity hit me, I was in bed. It was on the Sunday night of the show in the Old Miss parking lot. I realized what had always bothered me about the load of cash, George Wells was supposed to have had in the car, I had absolutely no proof, but I did have a theory that floated. George Wells was not some criminal master mind who ran his enterprise from his patrol car. He was merely a courier for a criminal enterprise. George Wells was a state cop nearing retirement. One who could swing by the over look and take a piss while retrieving the weeks payroll.

The bad guys came up with a man and woman who looked innocent just in case someone was watching. One of them goes into the Porta John to leaves the package. They wait around to be sure the right person picks it up. George was supposed to deliver it to the boss. My guess was the Deacon was the boss. If not the boss at least the recruiter. My plan was still to leave him alone. Mostly because it was just a hair brained theory. I decided to ignore it and concentrate on my own family. Which sadly did not include Samantha the assistant district attorney.

Just when I thought I had a handle on everything, Emily called in the middle of the day. “What are you doing home in he middle of a work day?” I asked on the phone.

“I’m not home, I at the office, but something has come up. Can you come down?” Emily asked.

“You mean right now?” I asked.

“If not now, then as soon as you possibly can. We have to make a decision about Jodie right away,” she said. “The decision has to include her, or it won’t work.”

“What the hell are you talking about. She just turned sixteen last week,” I said.

“That’s the age of consent in Mississippi,” she replied. “Just come down here and bring her birthday present.” Emily also broke the connection with a word of warning. I hated when people did that.

Since it was shortly after lunch on a Wednesday, I had nothing on my schedule. Except as always I needed to tweak the images from my last wedding. I could put that off. I changed clothes and threw a spare shirt, shorts, and underwear into a small overnight backpack. Then I started the Hyundai and drove to Jackson. It was dinner time when I got into town.

“So what’s the emergency?” I asked.

“Nice to see you too,” Emily said. “Come on in.” Then she shouted, “Jodie your dad is here.”

“God damn it Emily. Give me a hint. What is wrong here?” I demanded.

“She should tell you.” Emily replied tearing up.

Jodie came in the room a couple of minutes later. “Jodie what the hell is going on?” I asked.

“I don’t know what the big deal is, girls get pregnant all the time,” she said.

I was overwhelmed with emotion, but I wasn’t shocked. I had a feeling she would confuse having sex with being loved. It happened to a lot of girls with cartoon hair. It wasn’t the hair to blame. It was the reasons that they did that to their hair. Those same reasons caused them to make a mess of their bodies. Emily should have known the difference. Of course blaming the enabler wouldn’t help it was far too late for that.

“Who is the father?” I asked.

“It doesn’t matter,” Jodie replied.

“Of course it matters,” I said. “There are several details he needs to man up and handle.”

“Mom wants me to have an abortion, but I want to keep the baby,” she said.

“Okay, If you are going to be a mom, you have to be practical. How do you plan to support yourself and the baby?” I asked.

“I can get a job,” she demanded.

I fought to maintain control. “Okay, you are a sixteen year old child with no high school diploma. Do you have any idea what kind of job you can get?” I asked.

“No, but I’ll find something,” she said.

“No you won’t honey. You are going to expect your mom to take care of you. Your mom is not able to do that forever. If we can’t come to an agreement on a plan going forth, you are going to have to ask for emancipation. That means we wash our hands of each other. That is the only way to get us off your back. If we do that, you are going to have to ask the father for help. I’m thinking there is a reason you haven’t told your mom who he is.”

Jodie was crying when she said, “I don’t know who he is. Is that what you want to hear. I fucked him after we went out to a club. Julie and I went out. He fucked both of us only I got pregnant.”

“Would Julie know who he is,” I asked.

“She doesn’t know him,” Jodie said.

“Was it rape?” I asked.

“No, we just had too much to drink,” Jodie replied.

“How old was the guy?” I asked.

“He was a grown man,” she said. “But it wasn’t rape.”

“Would you recognize him if you saw him again?” I asked.

“Maybe,” she agreed.

“Let’s discuss our options. Option one is an abortion,” I said.

“Absolutely not,” Jodie said.

“Option two. I can identify the father and make him take responsibility.

“I won’t identify him,” she said.

“Than you tell me what option three could possibly be,” I asked.

“I have the baby and raise it on my own,” she said.

“Exactly what kind of life could you give a baby?” I asked. “You have seen the kids who come from poverty. Most of them end up drug addicts and gang bankers. Is that what you want for your child?”

“It doesn’t have to be like that,” she said.

“No you can convince your mom to take care of you and the baby. In which case all three of you will suffer. Is that what you want? Are you really that selfish?” I asked. Jodie broke into tears yet again. I wanted to hold her and say it will be okay, but that wouldn’t be doing her any favors. This was her wake up call for the rest of her life.

“Next week is Thanksgiving. Why don’t we let Jodie and I explore any other alternatives we can find,” Emily asked.

I bit my tongue before I asked, “What the fuck did you have me drive two hours just to be told come back later.”

“I think we get where you are coming from,” Emily said. “We don’t need you driving it home any more.”

I stormed out the door and stomped to the Hyundai. I stopped at a convenience store/gas station to fill up the kiddie car on the way out of town. With a full tank of gas, a large coffee and two Krispy Kreme donuts, I started my drive home.

When I arrived home, it was almost midnight. I discovered when I got into the house that my phone had been turned off all afternoon and evening. I didn’t remember making that decision, but I was happy that I had.

I had a message from Samantha. I would have taken it, if the phone had been on. Which meant I would have spoken to her in front of my ex and my daughter. They would have twisted her call into something about them.

I plugged the phone into the charger, then went to bed. I slept late the next day. Since it was a Thursday, I didn’t have to face any fallout from having overslept. After coffee and some extra pills I took my phone and went onto the deck to spend some quiet time removing my head from my ass. The birds were still feeding on the corn patch, so the rotating of the earth had changed nothing. The changes to my world had change nothing in the real world.

“Sorry about last night,” I said to Samantha in a text. I chose a text since she was at work. “Do you need something?”

My phone rang immediately. “Where have you been,” she asked sounding a little peeved.

“I had to take an emergency meeting with Emily and Jodie last night. I didn’t get back until 2AM.” I explained.

“Would you care to explain the emergency?” she asked.

“Not on the phone. When you get a couple of hours to yourself run by, and I’ll explain it as best I can. I might even have more information then,” I said.

“Alright, but if you need anything, I’ll make time for you,” she said.

“Thanks, but I’m not in that place yet,” I said. “I may not be far from it though.”

“Okay, just remember I want to help,” she said.

“Thanks,” I said. “Goodbye.”

Even though I slept late, I managed to get to the images done before noon. The images from the weekend wedding required only minor work. The weather seemed to be in a transition pattern. I knew it because I was constantly shifting my position to avoid taking more pain meds. It worked until I ended the tweak fest at 3PM. The all day drive the day before didn’t help my hip any.

I had breakfast so late I skipped lunch completely. For dinner I made toast, then added a layer of pimento cheese and then a layer of Dorito crumbs. I placed the sandwich into a plastic storage box along with a couple of cheap cookies. I made a glass of Iced tea, then drove to the overlook where the cop had died. The parking lot was empty. I was pretty sure that it had been abandoned as a dead drop. I ate my picnic dinner while I watched the sun going down. The days were getting shorter and the weather colder. I wasn’t sure what was causing it, but I definitely had more bad days with my hip. They were also getting closer together.

After I finished eating, I phoned my orthopedist’s office to make an appointment. I never kept any of the scheduled appoints his nurse set for me. I only went in to see her when I wanted something. I had stretched the ninety day prescription for Tramadol to last eighteen months. I was down to a couple of days worth of the pills, so I made the appointment for the next Monday morning. Better a week early than a week late, I decided.

I didn’t have a wedding that weekend, so when I arrived home I searched for a place to meet and greet people. One of the community centers was planning an all day festival of craftsmen. I figured my card catalog would fit nicely. I found that for ten dollars I could rent the smallest space possible. I agreed, then emailed them a debit card check to cover the fee. My Saturday was all planned out with a few key strokes.