Chapter 37

I spent the remainder of the day dropping off Styrofoam cups of worms. I did it more to kill time than to fill the inventories of my vendors. They really didn’t care, since sales were very slow at that time of the year. I was selling more worm farms, than fishing worms. Small boys loved worm farms for some reason.

I could only say thank god for the pension checks every month. I had managed to hide my ‘other’ income. Now that I no longer had any growth in that fund, I was careful how I spent what was left of the boot legging profits. I had figured that my pension and the worm farm should pay my expenses. I was realistic enough to expect that emergencies would pop up now and then. Those things were likely to require a visit to the storage locker.

I arrived home around 4PM, so I had time to change clothes for the dinner party/ intervention with Michael. I wanted to wear something a little nicer than my everyday work outfit. I put on a fairly new pair of heavy weight, cotton cord pants and a sweater. I looked a little like an old man trying to impress people with how young he could dress.

To be honest I also expected that Mary Beth had another motive for having me deliver Maurine to her dinner. I didn’t object to meeting a nice lady. During my last hour home I did a little research on Maurine Thompson. I already knew she was a social worker for the county. I found out from her face book page that she had a college student son named Eddie.

I didn’t form any opinions about Maurine based on her social media profiles. I wanted to keep an open mind about her. I told myself it was the fair thing to do.

I arrived in the area of her house at about 6:45. Ordinarily I would head directly for her house. Since she had to come home from work, then make herself ready for a dinner party, I knew better than to rush over.

What I did was stop at a convenience store for gas in the Soul and bad coffee in me. I managed to kill enough time so that I would be fashionably late arriving at her home.

When Maurine opened the door, I got my first look at her live. I’m sure that in a town the size of Vicksburg I had seen her before. Since my memory wasn’t what it used to be, it was like seeing her for the first time. I was wearing a genuine smile when I asked, “Maurine, I’m Ed Rollins your escort for the evening.”

“From what Mary Beth tells me, I’m in good hands,” she said with a smile. “Let me get my bag and I’m ready.”

Maurine was about five and a half feet tall and a couple of pounds less than average weight for a woman on the twilight side of forty years old. Her hair was obviously treated, since there was not a hint of gray. Her most striking feature, other than her large smile, was her large breasts. They were not huge but were large and soft looking.

After the one smile she fell into was was the look of a woman in repose, or the blank stare of a junkie. My guess was that it was a woman in repose look. I hadn’t come across too many career women who were also junkies. Of course in the days of doctor happy, it was possible to be a working junkie, I supposed.

I had spent part of my time at the convenience store vacuuming the Soul, so it wasn’t too filthy inside at least. We remained at her small frame house for no more then five minutes. The drive to Mary Beth’s, much larger and better decorated house, only lasted ten minutes but it was located in a different world.