Chapter 21

It was decided that I needed to keep away from the country club for at least two weeks. Part of this decision was to allow Mr. Chalmers to return before allowing me outside in public again, and part of it was that Mrs. Parsons wanted to try to help Mrs. Connor and Brenda to come to terms with my not being sent away to the orphanage. Mrs. Parsons waited until Wednesday before calling Mrs. Connor. She asked about Brenda, but then said her main reason for calling was to ask Mrs. Connor to join her for a round of golf and a late lunch on the following day. I was sitting in the living room, right next to Mrs. Parsons when she made the phone call.

At first, it seemed that Mrs. Connor was saying she couldn't make it, but Mrs. Parsons kept her talking until she finally agreed to come play and eat with her. Mrs. Parsons could be very persuasive when she wanted to be. When she got off the phone, she turned and gave me one of her big hugs, telling me that she felt like everything was going to work out.

On Thursday, while her mother and Mrs. Parsons were playing golf, Brenda phoned me at home. She had to be careful speaking to me she said because Richard was at home too, and she didn't want him to know that she was calling me.

"Kenny, I'm so sorry for how everything turned out for you. I was so afraid you were going to tell my dad that it was my idea as much as yours. That would have really fixed things for me if you had. I didn't mean for him to find out anything, but I was so upset when I got home that I couldn't stop crying. My mother started asking me a lot of questions, and I wasn't thinking about what I was saying. I didn't know my dad was behind us listening, until it was too late. Are they really sending you away?"

"We have to wait for Mr. Chalmers to get back before anybody finds out. I might go to a boarding school instead though. What did you tell them we did?"

"I told my mother about what you said, about me not being a virgin. She asked me how that topic came up. I tried not to tell her, but she tricked it out of me, and I told her that you put your finger in me. That's when my dad started yelling and threatening to do terrible things to you. Before that, I didn't even know he was at home. It wasn't just you he was yelling things at either. He slapped Richard in the face three times, telling him he should have been there to protect me from you. He pushed my mother when she tried to make him calm down and stop hitting Richard. He said I was as big a slut as Claudia. He told me that if he found out that I had any part in leading you on, he was going to spank me until I couldn't stand up anymore. I never saw him so mad. He hit Mr. Parsons for no reason at your house. I think he was going after you when he did it."

"He must have forgotten that Mr. Parsons boxed in college. I saw him when he knocked your father down, but I didn't see your father when he punched Mr. Parsons. I saw his cut lip, and the blood though. I knew something was going to happen to us, Brenda. That's how it always is with me. I can't seem to not ruin things whenever something good comes along."

"I didn't get to play in the mixed with Ron either. I tried to call him, but he'd left already. I called the club later, and he had to withdraw. The Edgar's won again. My father won't let me even go to the club anymore, not unless he and my mother are with me. He says I've proved that I can't look out for myself. He told my mother they should just sell their membership and take up a different hobby, like fishing or camping or something. He's worried that Mr. Parsons is going to stop buying from him too. Is he?"

"I don't think so. He did tell me that he could get another supplier with five minutes of phone calls, but he was talking about if your father tried to hurt Mr. Parsons company by not delivering his order. He isn't going to do that is he?"

"Not hardly. He's trying to figure out some way to get back on Mr. Parsons good side again. I told you how afraid he gets about losing your family as a customer."

"It isn't the family's business anymore, because they sold it with the merger. Mr. Parsons just works there, except he's on vacation this week. I can't go to the club anymore either. No more golf lessons, or using the pool or the tennis courts. No more seeing you at all."

"Kenny I'm sorry that I got us both in trouble like this. If I knew this was going to happen, I'd have just told you the truth in the first place. It wouldn't have been as bad as this is."

"What do you mean?"

"About what you asked me. About it not hurting if that was my first time. When I was thirteen, Claudia and I both did something with our hairbrushes, the handles. Her handle fit up inside her, but mine hurt when I tried to push it in. She told me it felt a lot better up inside, and she showed me how to push it in me. After, it hurt a lot, and I bled on my hairbrush, and inside my panties too. I was mad at Claudia when she had me do that. She knew what would happen, and she wanted me to be like she was. That's why it didn't hurt when you did that."

"Was that when you stopped being friends with her?"

"No, that was later. She was supposed to come to our house to spend the day with me, but she spent the whole time in Richard's room, with Richard and Darryl. She knew if my mother came home early that we'd all get into trouble, but she did it anyway. That's when I stopped being good friends with her. We still say hi when we run into each other, and I've been talking to her on the phones sometimes, if she calls me, or if I need to ask her about something. We're just not good friends now."

"I wish you had told me about that hairbrush, Brenda."

"I do too now, but when you asked me that, I guess I got flustered. Plus, it's embarrassing, telling someone that I did that. It sounds pretty common to be doing that. I don't do it anymore."

"How come? Doesn't it feel good?"

"I guess it does. I do it sometimes, but only if I'm sure I'm all alone. With your fingers, you can just pull them away, and no one would know, but with a hairbrush, it could get stuck or something. I'd die if my mother walked into my room sometime when I was doing that."

"I don't see how it could get stuck. how big is it?"

"Not stuck, but if she came in at just the wrong time, like if I was just finishing? I might not be able to stop before she noticed what I was doing."

"That wouldn't be good."

"Now that I told you, are you mad at me?"

"No, I'm not mad. If you told me at the pool, I'd have been glad that it wasn't going to be me that had to hurt you the first time. It would be different if it was another boy who did that to you. I can't be too jealous of a hairbrush." We both laughed at that.

"I told my mother part of what really happened, the next day when we were both home alone. I told her it was me that let you do that. I didn't tell her about me seeing your snake though. You know what she told me?"

"No, what?"

"That she had been curious about seeing one too, back when she was a girl around my age. She said she got a boy to show her too... I asked her to tell me who, but she said it was a long time ago and it didn't matter now who it had been. I wonder if it was that Mr. Chalmers. I hope it wasn't."

"Mr. Parsons told me he got twenty two million dollars for his part of the company. Guess what else? He said Mrs. Parsons had ten times as much money as he does. That's two hundred and twenty million dollars. I think Mr. Chalmers must have as much or even more than Mrs. Parsons does, because he works too."

"God. I knew they were rich, but not like that. Where did it all come from?"

"I don't know. I think they always had it. Mr. Chalmers told me that he and his sister were both born rich. They're pretty old now, so I guess their money just kept growing. I told Mr. Parsons that he should give all his money to his wife, but he thinks I'm crazy."

"I do too. Why should he give her his money, especially if she already has so much?"

"I don't know. It was an idea I had. He could show her she's more important to him than his money is."

"Would you do that for me, Kenny? Give me your money to show me that?"

"You mean what I have now, or if I had twenty two million?"

"Twenty two million. What do you have now, fifty dollars?"

"About that, maybe a little bit more. It's the most I've ever had, and I'd give that to you if you asked me to. Twenty two million? I don't think so, but only because I'd prove that I loved you in other ways."

"I'd rather have the money. If you gave me the twenty two million, I'd split it with you."

"I'd rather have someone who loved me without me giving her my money."

"You don't have any money."

"That's what I've been telling you. I'm glad you finally believe me."

"But, you will have it someday, and you have everything right now, just like you were rich already."

"It's too late now, because they'll never let us see each other again anyway. Guess what else? Mr. Parsons offered to give me a million dollars if I can do something for him."

"A real million dollars?"

"I don't think he meant counterfeit, of course a real million."

"Are you going to do it?"

"I will if I can, but I won't take his money for that."

"You'd turn down a million dollars?"

"I don't need it. Didn't you already tell me a hundred times at least that I was rich already?"

"If we were married, Kenny, I'd make you take the money. We'd need it all for the nice house, and all the other things I'd want us to have."

"Brenda, if we were married, there'd be other things I'd want for us besides a nice house. If we were married, I'd have Mrs. Parsons let me move to the big guest room that Mr. Chalmers only uses once in awhile. My room now is pretty big, but that room is at least twice as big, and it has a balcony with a big sliding door. You can go out there and you can see everything from there. I bet I could see your house from out on that balcony."

"My mother would probably let me marry you if you had a million dollars. She cares about money more than I do. Maybe not more, but as much."

"Did she care about it when she was young like you and her father had a lot of it?"

"I don't know. Maybe not, because she says that people with a lot of it, they don't need to think about it, or worry about what things cost. That's what I want too, not to ever have to worry about money."

I think your mother is wrong. Rich people worry too. They pay people to make sure they don't get cheated. Mr. Parsons worries too. He worries about everything, plus he works all the time. He's on vacation right now, but he's in his study, working on something. Hans and Gerta live better lives than he does. Having money is just something else to worry about."

We talked for a little while longer before Brenda whispered that she had to hang up. I was glad she'd called me. The only thing wrong with talking to her, was that it made me miss her more than I had been. Talking to her gave me some hope. Mrs. Parsons was trying to fix things too. It was about twelve o'clock, and I was bored. I wished that I had my golf clubs, then I could go out in the back and hit some chips and pitches at least. It was still almost a week before Mr. Chalmers came back. I went to Mr. Parsons study and knocked on his door.

"Come."

"Sorry to disturb you. Is there someone I can call at the club to see if they can put my golf clubs in the trunk of Mrs. Parsons car when she gets done playing today?"

"Probably. Why don't you ask Hans to drive out and pick them up for you? If you can wait for a few minutes, I'll drive you out there myself. I'm almost finished with the new forecasts anyway."

"How come you work on vacation?"

"I wasn't working. I was reading. Bertie always tells me the same thing. I don't like novels or any of the drivel on the television. It is relaxing to me to read over reports and projections. I lets me keep my finger on the pulse of the business too. It isn't work. This is passive. Work is an activity."

"To me it looks like you're working. Today's Thursday. You have been in here everyday since you came home. You call it a study, but it's like your office when you are here. Don't you ever like to do something different?"

"Kenny, everyday it's different, new challenges, new opportunities. It is competition, and the stakes are so high at the level we're playing at. The past five months were exhilarating, from beginning to end. I was disappointed to have the merger over with, resigned to having it all slow back down to the former pace. Less than a week later, I get a phone call from New York, wanting to know whether my division would be able to absorb a new acquisition. We are a national presence now, not just a regional player. I feel like I've finally made it to the big leagues. I'm going to need to adjust my sights upward for the future."