Chapter 8

Tommy rushed home after work so he could show his truck to everyone. Regina seemed as excited by the vehicle as he was.

“This is far out Tommy, if Melody can come over later, will you take us for a ride?”

Tommy instantly agreed, “Sure Reggie, meanwhile, I’ll take Bucky and Rex for a spin.”

It was a toss-up as to who was happier, as the three amigos motored sedately through Brantley. Bucky and Rex both ended up riding shotgun as Rex sat in Bucky’s lap with his head out the window. Tommy honked and returned the waves of everyone he passed. When Tommy drove back into the driveway, Betty Lou was home from work. Tommy ran into the house and practically dragged her out to see his pickup. Betty Lou oh’d and ah’d appropriately, as Tommy beamed in delight. Betty Lou climbed in the passenger seat and put on a fake pout.

“When do I get my ride Tommy? I can’t go now because I have supper to finish, and Regina said you were taking her and Melody out after we eat.”

Tommy figured she was probably kidding, but her question did give him an idea.

“I guess your first ride will be when I take you to the movies Friday night,” Tommy replied.

Betty Lou was startled by his suggestion and unnerved by her lack of objection to it. Bucky and Regina would be at their paternal grandparents from Thursday to Sunday, so she would be at loose ends anyway. Betty Lou reasoned there was no harm in them seeing a movie together.

“I think that’s a wonderful idea,” she replied.

It was seven-thirty by the time Tommy had the supper dishes washed and put away. Regina and Melody had even helped him with the kitchen so they could leave sooner. When they hopped into the truck, Melody slid across the seat to sit in the middle. Regina had not snared the prized cowgirl seat because she had to stop by the edge of the house and grab the blanket she’d secreted there earlier. Even though Regina gave her plenty of space, Melody stayed pressed up against Tommy’s side. Melody’s machinations were not lost on her best friend.

“I get the middle on the ride home,” Regina huffed.

Regina and Melody both were amazed that their over protective parents let them out of the house with a man this late on a school night. If the male had been anyone other than Tommy, it never would have happened. Tommy won over Melody’s father Charles, when the man pulled him aside at the feed store one day and point-blank asked what Tommy’s intentions were.

“Melody’s my friend, Mister Graham, just like Regina, and I like her a lot. She makes me laugh and she helps me figure things out that I don’t understand. I don’t think it would be a good idea for us to date, because my body is lots older than hers and my brain is a lot smaller. Maybe when my brains come back and she’s out of school, we could date ... only, gosh, she is so pretty, she’ll probably have a million boyfriends by then,” Tommy said earnestly.

Charles was so flummoxed by Tommy’s speech that he just nodded and walked away. When he relayed the conversation to his wife Claudia, she told him that she trusted Tommy much more than she did their daughter.

“I’d rather see her with Tommy any day, than with some of those so-called nice boys with a future,” she said.

So now Melody had more freedom than ever, but only when Tommy was involved. That was just fine with Melody, so she stopped being such a witch to her parents. Melody was a very smart young woman, she knew that in less than a year she’d be at least half a state away at college, and she could do whatever and whoever she wanted. In the meantime, she had two safe playmates in Tommy and Regina, who were helping her decide what that ‘whatever and whoever’ was.

Tommy pulled out onto Spring Street and headed toward the town center. He did not have a destination in mind, but figured the girls would at least want to cruise Dairy Queen.

“Where to ladies?” he asked.

“Cherry Hill,” they squealed in unison.

Cherry Hill was the name the local teens called their make out spot. Brantley teens had been going there for generations. Some wag once observed that probably half the women in Brantley lost their virginity up there, and half the children born were conceived there too. Oddly enough, it was the first trip to the spot for any of them. For all her talk, Regina had avoided the place like the plague. Melody would have been there already except her father had promised every boy she dated a thrashing if the guy even drove by the place.

Tommy pulled up under a cottonwood tree with a nice view of Lake Brantley and killed the truck’s engine. It was a school night, so the three had the place to themselves. Regina hopped out of the truck and spread the blanket on a patch of grass in front of the truck. As soon as the girls were seated on the blanket, Tommy turned on his dome light, reached into his glove compartment, and brought out the neatly wrapped presents he’d picked for them at the PX.

The girls excitedly ripped open the packages and started a new round of squealing when they flipped open the velveteen boxes. Tommy had put some interesting charms on each bracelet, but the only ones he pointed out to them were the T-M-R initials. That touch earned him some smoldering kisses. And smoldering kisses led to some serious mutual groping. The high point of the evening was when Tommy showed Melody and Regina the pleasures of oral sex, both giving and receiving. The girls were tentative and shy the first time they tried it on each other, but they forgot all about that when it started feeling good.

They played around for a long half hour, then straightened out their clothes and sat there chatting. Melody and Regina were full of questions concerning from whom he’d learned that trick, and had he learned anything else he could teach them. Tommy replied that the who wasn’t important, but yes, he had a few more tricks up his sleeve.

Melody whooped “Goody,” but Regina floored him with her next comment.

“You should use that trick on Betty-Lou. She’s been the grieving widow long enough and she needs a man. Besides, I’ll bet you ten dollars no one has ever done that to her.”

Tommy sputtered trying to formulate a reply, but Regina laughed and slugged him on the arm.

“Don’t even try to act as if that idea had never crossed your mind, Tommy Bledsoe. I am not blind, you know.”

Tommy had the girls home a few minutes before their nine o’clock curfew, and retreated to his basement room. He was tired enough that his left leg was dragging slightly. The occasional limp was one more lingering after effect of his head injury. Tommy stripped down to his boxers and crawled into bed, thinking about Regina and what she’d said about Betty Lou. Tommy loved Betty Lou. Next to Momma Rita, she was the nicest, sweetest woman alive. He loved Regina too, but the puppy love he had for her when he first arrived had turned to loving her like a sister. He was glad he and Regina were friends now. Tommy did not have romantic feelings for either Regina or Melody.

At noon on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Tommy was sitting in his truck, munching on a ham and cheese sandwich Betty Lou made for him. Betty Lou packed a lunch for Tommy nearly every day. Tommy had the little note pad he always carried flipped open, and he was studying a column of numbers he’d jotted down. The numbers were the balances of his three bank accounts. The first number was the amount he had in his checking account. That was the account where he deposited his check from the feed store. It wasn’t a large account, but even considering his truck payment and the insurance for it, he would still be making more than he spent.

The second number was the balance of his savings account at the Fort Sam Houston Credit Union. All of his accumulated military pay and allowances from when he was a patient at Brooke, plus his retirement checks since then, resided there. After buying everyone gifts, he still had over twenty thousand dollars in the account.

The third number was what his sister Beth claimed his balance was in his bank account where she lived. The number she gave him was an unbelievable one hundred-ten thousand dollars. Beth said that the money was his savings, plus his share of his parents’ estate and insurance. Beth gave Tommy a portion of her share of the insurance money to buy out his half of the family home. Tommy felt strange about that big pile of money, because the only memory he had of that account was depositing money he made from mowing lawns in it. Back then, he had been proud when he passed two hundred dollars.

Tommy was not doing all that figuring just to count his money. Nope, he had an idea for it. His idea was actually the result of a conversation he overheard between Rita and Harold Fricke. In the conversation, Harold was lamenting being turned down for a small business loan to expand the feed store into a complete farm equipment and supply center. Harold had discussed the idea with Tommy on a couple of occasions, and Tommy thought it was a swell idea. To Tommy, the solution was simplicity itself: the Frickes needed money and he had plenty of it. His only problem was figuring out how to get his money from Florida.

Tommy had just decided to let the good folks down at Brantley Savings and Loan figure it out, when a Chevy El Camino honked and pulled up next to where he sat. Tommy smiled and waved when he recognized his new friend Conchita as the driver. Tommy hopped out of his truck and walked over to her driver’s side door. She rolled down her window as he approached her truck.

“Hi, Connie, what brings you to town?” Tommy asked.

Conchita’s eyebrows twitched at the name he called her.

“Who is Connie?” she asked in return.

Tommy grinned and leaned down to kiss her cheek. He liked the way she looked today with her hair in a long pony tail and her face freshly scrubbed.

“You are. I give everyone a nickname and Connie seemed just right for you.”

“Okay,” she laughed. “Connie it is, now hop in and I’ll take you for that milkshake.”

Tommy looked at his watch and nodded.

“Sure, but first I have to tell the Frickes I’m leaving. Come on in and say hello, or you’ll hurt Momma’s feelings.”

Rita was not surprised in the least to see Conchita Delgado walk through the door. She had even made a bet with Harold about it. Rita smiled at how wholesome Conchita looked. The hair and minimal make up went well with the dark brown corduroy knee-length skirt and bulky pink sweater she wore.

“Nice to see you again so soon,” Rita said with a smile.

Conchita knew Rita was referring to her prediction that Conchita would be looking for excuses to spend time with Tommy. She actually blushed before she answered.

“I pick up mail from my post office box twice a week. Since I was in town already, I decided to buy Tommy his milkshake for helping me with my cat,” Conchita hurried to explain.

Rita winked at Conchita and said, “Whatever the reason, we are all glad you did. Now you two get out of here so us old folks can eat in peace. When you come back, drop by and let’s have a little chat, just you and me, okay?”

Tommy loaded Conchita into the passenger seat of his new pickup and zipped over to the Dairy Queen.

The DQ was near Ben Crawford’s filling station, right on the corner of Main Street and the State Road 931 bypass. Texas 931 ran through the far western edge of town and was the main highway up to Brownwood.

Tommy lived almost in the exact center of town, as Spring Street was only two blocks south of Main Street, and Betty Lou’s house was one block east of Brantley Avenue. Brantley and Austin Avenues bracketed the court house and the city’s memorial park. Both the Piggly-Wiggly and the library were on Austin Avenue, between Spring Street and Main Street. Conchita and the Frickes lived east of town, off of Route 836. State Road 836 passed through town, east to west, as McCulloch Street, and was one block south of Main Street.

The Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe (ATSF) Railroad ran through the northern side of town. Brantley Feed and Seed was a block off the train tracks and a block from the big stockyard. Hundreds of head of cattle moved through Brantley each week on their way to meat packers in the upper Midwest.

Conchita had a wonderful time at the Dairy Queen with Tommy. It was the chilliest day of the year so far, so they ate their ice cream treats in the truck and yakked up a storm. Tommy made her laugh more than any man she’d ever met. He had a wicked sense of humor and an uncanny gift for mimicry that kept her in stitches. When Tommy looked at his watch and said it was time to go, Conchita was shocked that forty-five minutes had gone by so quickly.