Chapter 10

Ed didn’t want to admit it, but he was going to be very happy when John returned and started taking care of Beth. The care and feeding of Beth had become a full time job for him and Kelly. It took a bit of effort, but they were able to get her to work where she was very professional. While at the hospital, she distanced herself from her pain and avoided all emotional attachments. As a doctor, that was good. As a person, it was bad.

The past month had been very busy for Ed. Working full time at the auction yard, taking care of Beth, and preparing for school had not left much time for Kelly. The problem was that when he was free for Kelly, she was busy with work or with Beth. He had fixed up the guest room for Beth and Kelly. They now slept there, while he was in his room. They hadn’t made love in weeks and both were feeling a very horny from the lack of sex.

The one time they had tried to show any sexual affection for each other, Beth had come into the room screaming that they couldn’t do that. Her actions didn’t make sense until she had shouted, panic stricken, that it would lead to love and that love hurt. The episode had left Kelly in tears and Ed had spent the evening trying to comfort her. He didn’t know what to do about the situation.

Kelly and Beth were due back from the hospital in thirty minutes. At that point, the house would become a place of tension again. To him, it was amazing how much care Kelly showed Beth regardless of the time of day. Ed decided to take advantage of the quiet in the house and do nothing for a change.

The quiet of the house was destroyed thirty minutes later when Beth and Kelly came home from work. After directing Beth into her room, Kelly collapsed on the couch next to Ed. He put an arm around her as she leaned against him crying tears born of frustration and a slow death of hope. The hope that one day Beth would be her wife was dying a little bit at a time. Each day that Beth pushed away love was another day that love was denied Kelly. Ed could do little, but tell her how much he loved her.

Frustrated and tired, Kelly ordered, “Slave, go to sleep.”

Standing, Kelly turned to Ed and said, “I’m going to take a nap. Would you mind?”

It was easy to see that Kelly was just as weary as he, but he wasn’t physically tired. He answered, “I’ll go down to the bar and talk to Shirley while you sleep. Why don’t I pick up some food from Maria’s Cantina when I come back?”

Smiling for the first time of the day, Kelly answered, “That would be great. I don’t feel up to cooking, and I’m tired of yours.”

Laughing, Ed had to agree. He only knew how to cook a few dishes and they had eaten them almost every day. He said, “Okay, I’ll be back in a little while.”

Walking down the street, Ed greeted his neighbors in a friendly fashion. A few of his neighbors still fled at his approach, but that had stopped bothering him a long time ago. The trip to the bar took longer, now that he was spending five to ten minutes chatting with each neighbor on the way there.

Entering the bar, he sat at the counter watching as Shirley handled the other regulars with quiet ease. She knew what everyone drank and provided it without having to ask, much to the delight of her customers. Instead, she was able to spend the few minutes talking with them about what was going on in their lives. It made the service special and her place seem like a second home. Ed realized it was this that brought him back here, even though he had never had that good of a relationship with Shirley back when he was drinking. As he watched her work, he realized that while she knew a lot of men, only a handful of them was single and they were usually not very nice. He wondered how she would ever meet someone nice to marry.

After serving everyone else, she finally made her way to his end of the bar. As she set the Coke in front of him, she asked, “So how are things at your place? Beth still there?”

Nodding, Ed answered, “Things are the same at home. How are things for yourself?”

Shrugging, Shirley wiped down the bar not really wanting to think about it. She replied, “Every day is the same as the one before. There is a certain consistency in that. I have come to appreciate that.”

Taking a sip of the Coke and appreciating the feeling of the cool liquid in his mouth, he swallowed. Ed said, “I know what you mean, but you must want a day off on occasion.”

She hadn’t had a day off since the funeral and that had cost her a fortune in lost revenue. Even though the idea of a day off was a great dream of hers, Shirley replied, “I’m a business woman and can’t really afford a day off.”

After another sip of his Coke, Ed asked, “Is there anything that I can do to help?”

“No. You’ve done more than your fair share,” she replied. If she had known earlier that he could actually be this nice, she might have been interested in him long ago. Now that he was hooked up with Kelly and taking care of Beth, he was out of bounds. She couldn’t believe that he was taking such good care of a woman that was basically a stranger.

“I’ve done nothing for you,” replied Ed surprised at the suggestion that he had done something for her. He added, “In fact, I’ve made most of your life pretty miserable.”

She smiled and said, “You’ve stopped making my life miserable. And after the little fight that you had with Richard, he’s stopped making my life miserable. In fact, of late most people are drinking less and eating more. I make more off the snacks and stuff than the drinks, so business is good.”

“I didn’t have anything to do with that,” replied Ed in surprise.

The discussion was interrupted when a sixteen year old kid walked into the bar. This was not the first time in the past month that he had come into the bar and Shirley was getting tired of it. All she needed was to lose her liquor license. She turned to the kid and said, “You’re not allowed in here. I’ve told you that several times already.”

Looking around until he spotted Ed, the kid pulled a gun and pointed it at Ed. He shouted, “You killed my father.”

As Shirley backed away from the bar, Ed raised his hand and said, “Another Coke please. Make that two.”

The kid shouted, “Did you hear me? You killed my father.”

Doing his best to look calm and cool, Ed was actually scared as hell. The worst thing that he could do was to make the kid even more scared than he was. Visions of lying on the floor dying came to his mind, his dream of growing old with Kelly defeated by a bullet fired by a dumb kid. He finished off the Coke that he had been drinking and pushed the glass towards Shirley. Ed said, “You can set one of the Cokes at the far end of the bar for the man with the gun.”

Like a fan at a tennis match, Shirley’s head was moving from side to side as she looked first at the kid and then at Ed and back at the kid again. She poured a Coke and set it at the end of the bar keeping her distance from the kid afraid that he would shoot her. Hardly able to accept the incredible bravery Ed was demonstrating, she set a second one down in front of him. Ed said, “Thanks. I find that when I get nervous, I also get thirsty. I imagine the young man is just as thirsty as I am.”

The kid looked at the Coke and then back at Ed. He said, “I’m not falling for that trick.”

Slowly turning to face the kid, Ed said, “It’s not a trick. The drink is at your end of the bar. You have a gun and can fire three times before I could make it over there. So go ahead and take a sip of it if you want.”

Signs of his nervousness were easily observable as the gun trembled in his hand and the sweat broke out on his forehead. He sidled over to the bar and carefully reached out for the Coke. Ed picked up his and held it up as though making a toast. The kid didn’t return the gesture but did drink about half of his Coke. Ed asked, “Would you like some Nachos?”

“Why did you kill him?”

Ed shrugged and answered, “I’m not sure who it is that you think I killed?”

Angry, the kid spat back, “My father, Harry Burton.”

“Oh,” replied Ed knowing the whole time that the kid was Sammy Burton. His attempt to draw out the conversation was beginning to fail. Finally, he said, “Well, why don’t you let everyone leave the bar. There’s no need for them to have to witness my death.”

“What?”

“It’s the considerate thing to do,” replied Ed. He turned to face the rest of the bar and shouted, “All those that want to see the kid shoot me, raise your hand.”

Looking around the room, no one had their hand up. Ed turned to face the kid and asked, “Can I tell them that it’s alright for them to leave?”

Somewhat confused by the request, the kid looked around the room. He saw fifteen faces staring at him, most etched with fear. He shouted, “Go on, get out of here.”

When no one moved, Ed shouted, “You heard the man. Get out of here.”

It took several minutes for the people to clear out of the room. Ed took another sip of his Coke and noticed that Shirley was still standing behind the bar. When he looked at her, she shook her head. He said, “Get out of here.”

She replied, “It’s my place. I’m staying here.”

Looking at the kid, Ed said, “If he starts shooting, he just might hit you. I don’t think that he wants to spend the rest of his life knowing that he hurt an innocent bystander. So why don’t you go outside. After the shooting is over, you can come back in. Okay?”

Giving Ed a dirty look, she came out from behind the bar and went out the front door. He could tell that she was hoping that it was possible for her to talk him out of shooting Ed. Watching the exchange, Sammy stepped away from the bar a little making sure that she didn’t come up behind him. When the place was empty, Ed said, “Thank you. Now that everyone is gone, we can talk about how your father died.”

“Why did you want everyone gone?”

Taking another sip of the Coke, Ed sat there for a moment before he answered, “There are some things that should be said man to man and without an audience. This is one of those things.”

Sammy stepped back a little, making sure that there was plenty of room between him and Ed. He asked, “So tell me your story.”

“Well, I was on a date with my girlfriend. I wanted to take her to Maria’s Cantina so that she could taste some of the best Mexican Food in the state. We had just gotten our drinks and were getting ready to have a nice little intimate chat.” Ed winked at the kid and said, “I’m sure that a man like yourself knows what it’s like to have an intimate chat with your girlfriend.”

Having no real idea what it was like to talk with a girlfriend like that, Sammy put on a show of bravado. He said, “Sure.”

“So your father stops by the table and looks at my girlfriend for a minute. Then he says...” Ed paused to capture the full attention of the kid. As Sammy stared at him, he continued, “Hey, Ed. Who’s the whore?”

Cringing, Sammy recognized his father in the statement. Embittered by a cheating wife, his father had taken to calling all women whores. He countered, “My dad called all women whores. He didn’t mean anything by it.”

Raising an eyebrow, Ed stared at the kid for a moment wondering if he understood that his father did mean something by it. Rather than argue, he continued, “Well, I got furious. The problem was that I was with a real nice woman. In fact, until you came in here with the gun I had plans on marrying her. The last thing that I wanted to do was get in a fight.”

“So you dragged him outside where you could beat the shit out of him without her seeing it.”

“Now, let me tell you my story and then you can kill me. Don’t put words in my mouth that aren’t there,” replied Ed with a little anger in his voice. He took a deep breath and calmed down before continuing. “I looked at your father and saw that he was very drunk. Do you believe that?”

Sammy replied, “Sure. He wouldn’t have said that to you if he was sober. He wasn’t stupid.”

“Well, I know about being drunk having spent a large number of nights that way. The first stage is getting loud and obnoxious. The second stage is getting pale or greenish looking. The third stage is when you start to break out in a sweat. Your father was loud, pale, and sweating. He was also moving directly to stage four. Do you know what stage four is?”

The kid shook his head and answered, “No.”

“Barfing,” replied Ed. He took a sip of his Coke and saw that Sammy was nodding. He continued. “That’s right. Your father was about to barf right there in the middle of the restaurant.”

“That’s no reason to kill him!” shouted Sammy. He knew all of that from what people had said in the restaurant about his father.

Ed said, “Well, the last thing that I wanted was for him to barf right in front of my date. Nothing is worse than that on a date. I ran over to him and put my hand over his mouth. I picked him up by the back of the belt and carried him through the fire escape door. Now, I imagine that if you ask people about what happened that night, you probably have the story to that point.”

Reaching for the Coke with a trembling hand, Sammy said, “Yes. I heard that you picked him up and carried him out.”

Ed watched as the kid took another drink of his Coke. It was almost finished, as was his. After the kid had set his Coke back down, Ed said, “I made it outside just in time. Your father started barfing in a trashcan. He was really sick. I’ve been throwing up drunk before, but your father was in real bad shape. I was really afraid that he was suffering from alcohol poisoning. Do you know what that is?”

Leaning forward, interested in the story, he shook his head. Ed said, “Well, if you drink enough alcohol, you can get more in your body than your body can handle. Even if you throw up, there’s still more getting absorbed. It can kill you and lots of people die of it every year.”

Not quite sure if he believed Ed since he hadn’t ever heard of it, Sammy challenged, “Are you trying to tell me that he died of alcohol poisoning?”

“No,” replied Ed. Sitting back in his chair, he continued his story. “I’m just telling you that I was afraid that he was suffering from it. He was very sick. Normally, you throw up a couple of times and that’s it. Your father was throwing up continuously. At that time the Sheriff showed up. I noticed that your father wasn’t throwing up food or liquor anymore. He was throwing up blood. I’ll tell you the truth, I had no idea what was happening. The Sheriff had already called an ambulance. He and I carried your father around to the front and met the ambulance there. They took him to the hospital, but he died on route.”

Not believing the story, Sammy sat back and asked, “Do you expect me to believe that you didn’t beat my father to death?”