Chapter 10

As soon as Harold Fricke sat down at his desk after lunch, he saw the envelope Tommy had left in the middle of his blotter. He opened the envelope, pulled out the check, realized what it was and sat back in his chair with a grunt.

“Rita Maude, what do you know about this?” he asked, waving the check in the air.

Rita walked over to his desk and plucked the check out of his hand. She gave it the once-over, her eyebrows arched in surprise.

“I don’t know a thing about it, but it’s drawn on the savings and loan, so I’ll call Betty Lou and find out.”

Harold didn’t answer her immediately, because he had just discovered the receipt for the tentative land purchase.

“What the hell, Rita, there is also a receipt for the purchase of the old lumber yard next door, made out to you and me. I’ll call Leo Dixon as soon as you talk to Betty Lou,” he said.

Betty Lou pulled the cashier’s check log and looked up the check number Rita gave her. When she came back to the phone, her voice was strangely subdued.

“That check was purchased just a few hours ago by Thomas Bledsoe. Where in the world did Tommy get all that money?”

Rita thanked Betty Lou for the help and gently put the phone back in its cradle. She stared at it thoughtfully for a minute, then spun her chair around and faced her husband.

“Tommy bought that check earlier today. That must be the important business he had to take care of. He also purchased one for thirty thousand, so I have a sneaking suspicion that Leo’s going to tell you Tommy bought the property next door.”

Harold called Leo and confirmed Rita’s suspicion. He hung up the phone and looked over at his wife.

“Tommy handed Leo a cashier’s check for thirty grand at noon today. Leo thought we’d sent Tommy over there with the check, that’s why the receipt is in our name,” he explained.

Rita shook her head and laughed out loud.

“Our boy is full of surprises, isn’t he? Let’s go see what he has to say for himself,” she said.

Tommy was building two pallets of assorted grain for the Flying J Ranch, when Rita and Harold walked into the warehouse. When Rita waved to him, Tommy shut off the forklift and walked over to them.

“Hey, Momma, how was lunch?” Tommy asked.

“Lunch was fine, Tommy. Now what can you tell me about this check and receipt?” she said, waving them in front of his face.

Tommy looked at the check and shrugged his shoulders.

“That’s money to expand the store the way Mister Harold wants. I heard him talking about how the bank wouldn’t give you all of the money, so I did.”

Rita nodded and smiled that motherly smile that Tommy lived to receive.

“Don’t you think that maybe you should save this money for your future? Where did you get all that anyway? Don’t tell me we are paying you that well.”

Tommy missed Rita’s attempt at humor and shook his head emphatically.

“You pay me plenty, even though everyone says Mister Harold is so tight he squeaks when he walks. That money belonged to old Tommy. Old Tommy is gone, and I don’t need it, so why can’t I give it to you if I want to?”

Harold and Rita tried to reason with Tommy, but he was adamant about them keeping the money. Rita finally stopped Harold arguing when Tommy started to get emotionally upset. She had an idea that might work for all three of them.

“Tommy, we can’t take your money as a gift, it’s just too much for us to feel right about accepting. But maybe you could invest the money in the feed store and become a partner in it. You are very good with math, so why don’t we go into the office and see how that idea might work?”

Harold looked intrigued at the idea and nodded his head in agreement.

It took the three of them less than an hour to work out an agreement with which they all could live. In the end, Tommy ended up owning twenty-four point nine percent of Brantley Feed, Seed and Farm Supply, Rita Fricke owned twenty-five percent and Harold was the Managing Partner with fifty point one percent.

“I’ll run this down to Glenn Ballard and make it all legal and such,” Harold said when they reached an agreement.

Glenn Ballard was the town’s only attorney, and was married to Harold’s sister Inez. Inez was the Post Master for McCulloch County, Texas, Zip Code 76825.

Harold had an excellent business plan, including blue prints for the expansion he envisioned, and now he had the money to make it happen. He also had five or six vendors lined up who were willing to stock his shelves on consignment for the first ninety days. Of course none of that made a difference to Tommy, he was just tickled that Harold was so happy. He went back to work and put the money out of his mind. He was actually glad to be rid of Old Tommy’s money, and pleased that the new Tommy was doing just fine without it.

Tommy held the door open as Conchita Delgado hoisted herself up into the cab of his pickup. It was five in the afternoon, on Saturday, the six of December, nineteen hundred and sixty-nine. Conchita was beside herself with curiosity as to where they were going on their date. Despite all her wheedling, the only hint Tommy gave her was when he said she should dress western. So Conchita was wearing a nice pair of semi-tight jeans and a plaid shirt that was perfectly tailored to her fabulous figure. She had on red, white and blue cowgirl boots and a stylish white Lady Stetson. Since it was early December, she carried a butter soft, leather bomber jacket.

Tommy took Texas 836 east, then turned north on Highway 931. Twenty-six miles later, and just north of Brownwood, he pulled into the Brown County Fairgrounds. Conchita smiled when she saw the sign proclaiming the evening ‘Championship Night for the Texas Professional Rodeo Circuit’. Leave it to unpredictable Tommy to take her to something she’d never seen before. Putting aside the fact that he aroused her sexually, the more time she spent with him, the more she liked him.

The rodeo events lasted until about nine, then there was an awards ceremony, as the champions for each event was crowned. Conchita and Tommy stayed for everything, including the fireworks display at the end. They were back on the road headed home by a quarter to ten. Conchita scooted over to the middle of the seat as soon as Tommy shifted up through the gears. She sighed contentedly when he put his arm over her shoulder and pulled her against his side.

Conchita Delgado had slept with a lot of men, but she felt a more intimate connection with Tommy just riding in his truck than she had felt having sex with any of the rest. What, she wondered, makes such a thing possible? Maybe she was finally growing up, she rationalized, and as such, she was in the same boat as Tommy. She figured that both Tommy and she were at about the same place socially when it came to relations with the other sex. They were both bright and talented sixteen year olds feeling their way along the rutted relationship road.

Conchita was startled awake when Tommy wheeled onto the dusty clay road that led to her house. She giggled and moved over so he could down shift.

“I hope I didn’t drool all over you,” she said.

Tommy made a production of checking to see if his shoulder was wet, then shot her a grin.

“Not too bad, and I guess it’s okay, because I drool anytime I think of you,” he replied.

His comment was the opening she had been waiting for.

“So stay the night with me, Tommy, and we can do something about that,” she said earnestly.

Tommy shook his head.

“I want to, but we probably better wait a while for that, Connie, this being our first date and all.”

Conchita thought about that for a minute and, strangely enough, she did not take his refusal as a rejection. Instead, she felt good that he respected her that much, and she was not about to do anything to lose that respect. Being thought of as a good girl was something new and alien to Conchita Delgado, in fact, it was exactly opposite of the reputation she’d worked so hard to earn.

Conchita had more to think about when Tommy walked her to her door and laid a kiss on her that left her weak kneed and light headed.

She said, “bye, Tommy,” in a daze, and escaped into her house. She shut the door and sagged back against it as his headlights flashed by her living room windows. She must have stood there for five minutes before her heart slowed down to a normal beat.

During the second week of December, Joe Bob Flagler, the best carpenter in the area, started building a partition wall that would eventually turn half of the warehouse into a show room and sales floor. Once the new wall was in place, Joe Bob and his boys would tear out the old walls to the office and sales area and build shelving for products that were slated to begin arriving within a week or two. Harold was figuring that he could be up and running as a full service farm supply store by the first of February. To accommodate feed and seed inventories until the warehouse was expanded, Harold leased five of the forty foot long shipping containers used for transporting goods either by train or truck. The containers came from the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad switch yard over in San Angelo. The containers sat on the ground behind the warehouse, but were accessible to Tommy and his forklift.

Tommy found something to do with part of the rest of ‘Old Tommy’s’ money that week, when Regina announced at the dinner table that she was filling out applications for colleges and scholarships.

“I am applying to all the schools I’d like to attend, even though I know we can’t afford them. Who knows, maybe I can win some other scholarships to go with the one from Daddy’s union. If nothing else, I can work and attend Central Texas Junior College,” she said.

Tommy’s ears perked up and he joined the conversation.

“Where do you want to go to school if you had the money?” he asked.

Regina didn’t hesitate a second before replying.

“That’s easy. I’d go to Texas A&M. They have the best equine veterinarian program in the country. Melody is going to commit to going there, but then money isn’t a problem for her. I applied there because Melody did, but I haven’t heard from them yet.”

Tommy nodded his understanding and turned his attention back to his plate of spaghetti. He knew that both Regina and Melody were crazy about anything to do with horses. He was pretty proud of himself for acting so disinterested. As soon as he finished the supper dishes, he was going to go to the library and find out how much it would cost for Regina to go there.

Tommy wasn’t quite as sneaky as he thought he was, because Betty Lou picked up on the conversation and Tommy’s sudden abandonment of it. Betty Lou also knew about what Tommy had done for the Frickes. It wasn’t a giant leap for her to guess Tommy’s intentions. She waited until he was up to his elbows in dish water before approaching him about it.

“What were you thinking when you asked Regina about College plans? I don’t want you doing anything crazy with whatever money you have left,” she warned.

Tommy laughed and flicked soap suds off his hands at her.

“I was thinking it would be nice if Rex had his own personal vet. Besides, I’m tired of telling people that it’s not my money. My money I worked for ... and I know where every penny of it is. I might as well have found this other money lying on the ground. Just because I don’t want it, doesn’t mean that it can’t do something nice for my family, though.”

Betty Lou looked at Tommy in consternation and tried again.

“But Honey, that money could help you make a better life for yourself. You could find a place of your own, or travel, or even go back to college yourself...” she tried to reason.

As soon as she mentioned him finding a place of his own, Tommy drew back as if she had slapped him.

“I like my life just fine, thank you very much. I have a good job and lots of friends. Besides, I can do most of that other stuff with my own money. If you want me to move out, though, just say so,” he said stiffly.

Betty Lou realized instantly that she had hurt Tommy’s feelings. He was still not very good at hiding how he felt. She immediately pulled him into her arms, and for the first time she could remember, he didn’t joyfully return her hug. That little omission on his part made Betty Lou very sad.

“I’m sorry, Tommy; I did not express myself clearly. I do not want you to move, and neither does anyone else in this house. I was simply saying that one day, if and when you decide to move out on your own, the money would come in handy. Listen, after everyone is in bed, I’ll come down and we’ll talk some more, okay?”

Tommy nodded, gave her a squeeze and returned to his sink full of dirty dishes. Rex, who had taken in the entire conversation as if he knew what they were saying, put his face back down into his food dish. Betty Lou stood there for a minute, looking at Tommy’s back before she headed up the stairs to get ready for bed. For the first time in her life, Betty Lou was actively planning some make-up sex to heal hurt feelings.

Tommy went out with Ruth Silverman on Friday night. Tommy had to pull out all the stops to make the date happen, because Ruth was working herself to death down at the library. Ruth had yet to find anyone to replace Becky Dierdorf in the evenings, so she was working six days a week, including ten AM until ten PM on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Missus Purdy, the part-timer, worked Tuesday and Friday evenings, and Saturdays during the day. Ruth was off Saturday and worked the abbreviated Sunday shift by herself.