Chapter 16

14:30 August 26, 1983

Packing and Papers

After a quick stop at the Five and Dime for my packing tape, we went by the Crookshank’s house so Julie could get clothes and her bike. Then it was back to the house I grew up in so I could pack and move. The first thing we did was unload all the groceries. The girls and I unloaded the back of the station wagon while Mom waited in the kitchen to put everything away. For reasons I couldn’t understand, we would not complete the shopping trip until all the items were unpacked and set in their places. The only things not unpacked were the bags of my groceries, and they went into the fridge until Pap-pap came to get my boxes.

I had just under two hours to get packed, so I quickly grabbed the boxes. Then the girls and I went up to my room. Mom made sure that I understood the rules still applied, even if I didn’t live here anymore. As long as the door remained open, I was allowed to have a girl (or more than one girl) in my room.

I quickly put three boxes together and got the girls packing the things in my dresser, telling them to stay out of the top drawer. I’d pack my underwear, thank you very much. They both giggled at the thought of my tighty-whities. Wouldn’t they be surprised if they went to sneak a peek? I didn’t wear tighty-whities except at school. I was partial to boxer briefs, but since they were pricey and only available from Armani in the 80s, I only had boxers. The 90s couldn’t come soon enough for me when Calvin-Kline released their version.

Looking at the three posters on my wall, I was tempted to leave them, but Brooke, Catherine, and Christy had been my girls long before Rhyll came into the picture. I went looking in the hall closet for an empty Christmas wrapping paper tube. Rhyll was talking to Julie when I came back. “Watch, he went to get something to put his pin-up posters in. He seems to forget he’s got two real girlfriends now and doesn’t need those posters.”

Wait what? When did I get a second girlfriend? Did Rhyll mean both she and Julie were my girlfriends? I’d started the day with one and now I had two? Who knew? Not me, but like always, the man is the last to know. Was I supposed to make out with both of them now? I’d have to talk to them both about that as we were delivering the papers.

Packing went quickly, and I only needed eight of the ten boxes, so I took the last two and put my groceries in them, and then called the farmhouse. Granny informed me Pap-pap would be here in about ten minutes. He didn’t work afternoons because it got too hot for him nowadays. He’d gotten the field cut and it would dry and then he and I would run the baler and flatbed out this weekend and collect the bales of hay. We’d unload them into the hayloft of the barn for winter use. Until then, they made a great place to make out on the soft hay with a flannel blanket to keep from getting hay in our hair.

Not that I’d had the occasion to take a girl up there this time around, yet. But I still remembered using the hayloft several times during my first time through. With two girlfriends, if Rhyll was serious about that, I might have a couple of firsts in the hayloft this time around too. Hey, a guy could hope, right?

Pap-pap arrived just about the same time as the paper truck did. I helped Pap-pap load my ten boxes into the back of the pickup and the girls did me the favor of rolling the papers and loading my bike and carrier bags.

I told Pap-pap the two un-taped boxes contained food that Granny and I had talked about, most of which needed refrigerated, and he could leave the rest for me to unload after I got home. I told him about our supper invitation and why we were going. He agreed that since I’d taken on this role of protector of the innocent; I needed to meet this Tabitha Hornsby and gain her trust.

“When you take on a mission, you don’t do it halfway, do you, Harrison?”

I shook my head. “No Sir, I’m an all-in kinda guy. I told you before Pap-pap, I go big or I go home. This girl, Tabitha, what they did to her is atrocious. If I can help restore some faith in the male species, how can I not be there and take her as part of my protected people? We owe a debt to her family, and I’ll try to make up for it in whatever way I can.

“I think tonight when you get home, you’ll have to explain that a bit more for me.”

“There’s a lot we need to talk about. How about we do that in the morning during first breakfast?”

He laughed. “There ain’t no first breakfast, boy. That bowl of oats ain’t breakfast. Think of it as my early morning snack.”

I laugh with him. “Fine, we’ll talk over our morning coffee and your morning snack. But you ain’t gonna like what I have to tell you. It all is a serious shitstorm that Robert Parker has brought on our family name. Oh, and we need to open a new bank account for me tomorrow before Granny’s TV debut. It appears the one I had has been closed.”

“The hell you say! He closed your bank account, or did you close it?”

“He closed it, after emptying it of all my birthday and work money. When I tried to confront him, he told his secretary he didn’t have a son. When Mom tried to cash a check on their account to give me my money, she found out he’d restricted her. She can’t make any checks out to herself or cash, without his signature on the check.”

“The man has gone off the deep end, Harrison. I don’t understand him at all. How much did he take from you?”

“Don’t worry about it, Pap-pap, Mom got it back. She went to ACE’s Check Cashing and made him pay twenty percent for forcing her to do it that way.”

Pap-pap smiled at that. “Good on her! I swear boy, your Mom is more Parker than my own son is. Granny would have done the same, only she’d have used the Biblical Repayment, and made him pay you seven times as much as he took.”

I shook my head. “Mom knew I wouldn’t take a dime more than what was in my account. I didn’t want him to have me arrested for stealing from him next.”

We spoke for a few more moments and then the girls loaded the papers. With that, Pap-pap slapped me on the back. They’re gettin’ ya trained up, boy. Purty soon yer is gonna be answerin’, ‘Yes Dear’ and jumping to do what they tell ya.”

He started laughing as the girls both giggled. He gave me a knowing look and murmured, “Ya know, both of them will be giving ya orders, right?”

“Well, they informed me a while ago that they are both my girlfriend, so I reckon yer right.”

He looked at them and winked. “Both ya say. Hell, boy, most men can’t handle one woman. Any more than that and they gang up on ya and run a man ragged.”

He cackled as he climbed into the truck. “See ya at the house.” Then he looked at the girls. “You ladies keep that boy in line, ya hear?”

Amaryllis nodded. “Don’t worry, Pap-pap, we already are. Tell Granny we’ll be out tomorrow. We want to spend as much time together and with Harrison as we can before school starts. With all of us in the new AP Program, we will be busy after that.”

“Well, iffen you want ta spend time with Harrison, bring some chore clothes. He’s got some farm work to be doing tomorrow.”

Amaryllis smiled. “Ok Pap-pap, see you tomorrow then. It won’t be as early as you get started or even when we were there today. It’s the last week of summer and Julie is staying over tonight, so we will probably stay up late.”

“Well then. I’ll see you tomorrow, Amaryllis, when you finally get up and drag yerself out to our place.” He nodded to Julie. “It was a pleasure meeting ya, Miss Julie. Yer welcome out at the house anytime as well.”

He put the old truck in reverse and was gone before I even got on my bike.

As we started out to make my deliveries, I had Amaryllis riding on one side and Julie on the other. “All right girls, let’s have it. How did I end up with two girlfriends? I don’t remember agreeing to be Julie’s boyfriend, not that I’m complaining, just curious about what you are both thinking.”

Amaryllis looked at me for a second. “Harrison, Julie is my best friend. We agreed to share everything, and that includes you. Look at her, she’s pretty, isn’t she? She’s also shorter than you, so that’s good, too. But it also means that she could get picked on. So I decided to share my heroic boyfriend with her.”

I sighed. Why argue with them? They were fine with sharing me, so who was I to complain? However, I wanted to make sure I knew the rules. “So Rhyll, you expect me to treat Jules just like you?”

She looked at Julie, who was wearing a big smile on her face. “Of course, she’s your girlfriend, Harrison. You know she is, too.” I almost missed pedaling with that statement. “I do?”

“Yes, you do. Otherwise, why did you give her a nickname?”

The three of us all grabbed a paper and ran up to the next three houses, laying the paper in front of the doors. Then came back and did the next three and continued that way. “I don’t know, it just seemed right. If I was going to call you Rhyll then I should call her Jules.”

Rhyll nodded, her smile widening. “See? You are already acting like her boyfriend.”

“Just to be clear here. I don’t want to mess this up, or your friendship either. You both expect me to hug and kiss you and make out with you?”

Julie blushed. “Yeesss!”

I looked at her as we headed to the next three houses on my route. “Julie, has a boy ever kissed you before?”

She blushed again. “No, I’ve never had a boyfriend before. I’ve had friends who were boys, but not a boyfriend.”

“Are you sure you want me to be your boyfriend? We can be friends without you being my girlfriend.”

She looked sad and stopped her bike in the street. “You don’t want to kiss me and hold me and make me tingle all over like you do Amaryllis?”

I stopped and got off my bike. Walked up to where she was standing and took her face in both my hands. “I want to do those things with you, Jules. Not a single question. I’d love to hold you and kiss you and make you tingle. But I never want to be like Kent or his friends. So I need to make sure that you want those things, too.”

She smiled. “I very much want those things. Thank you for making sure. I think that’s why Rhyll says we have the best boyfriend in the whole wide world.”

How did you follow up on a statement like that? I don’t know what anyone else would do, but I didn’t waste a second longer. I leaned in and kissed her.

A little more than a chaste kiss, but not a passion-filled one, either. I guess you would have to call it a kiss with promise. It was a kiss that promised there would be many more kisses and other things as we grew closer. Then I walked over to Rhyll and kissed her the same way.

I looked back at Julie and she was standing there, her hand on her lips. She looked up to see me watching her. “More, please.”

I laughed. “Later, right now, we need to get the papers delivered so we can go meet a new friend. I looked at them both. Just a friend. Two girlfriends are enough, thank you!”

We continued delivering the papers and completed them just before six. If we turned around now, we’d arrive at the Hornsby’s right after six, just like I’d told Henry earlier.

*****

18:00 August 26, 1983

Supper with Tabby

We parked our bikes up against the side of the Hornsby’s house and walked up to the door. Once there, I stepped back and let Rhyll and Jules go first, just in case Tabitha answered the door. I didn’t want to be the first person she saw. I thought she’d feel safer if she met the girls first. What shocked me was the cute little kid who opened the door. “Hi, are you here to have supper with my daddy?”