Chapter 2: A New Start

I got to work and locked my bike up in the office and went right to work stocking the coolers and putting out extra things that we were running low on. Bentley, the new guy, drove in shortly after I started in the cold room. He filled the ice buckets for the 'grab and go' beers, wine coolers, and Cokes, then we both finished up in the cold room. We then relieved Gary and went on with the shift. Jack came in about eight-thirty and told me to come with him. I said sure, left Bentley working the shift, and we went out to Jack's Cadillac.

We sat there in the front seat of his Caddy with the air conditioner running. It was still 98 degrees outside. I let Jack start first.

"Ron, I like you and I want to help you achieve your goals in life, but I also want to help myself as well. You see, I've been married twice, and my second wife, Sybil, is unable to have children. My first didn't last long enough for children to come along. Anyway, like I said, I like you, and you remind me a lot of me when I was much younger. You have the drive and integrity that I had when I was young too. Because of all those things, I would like for you to consider going to school to get a degree in business management. The reason for that is I think that you would make a great new leader of our business. When I say our business, I really mean businesses; my wife and I own five apartment complexes, three condos, and seven gas stations in the Houston area. We have a home here and a vacation home in Colorado. We've been looking for someone like you to come along and be able to take over for us and let us travel. Now, as your next step, if you are willing, we want you to start managing our apartment complexes, but only adding one more right now until you can finish school. Then I would expect that you would take a new one over every six months until you have all of them, including the condos. Then we can start adding one gas station each year, until you control all of them too. I know that this probably scares you, but Sybil and I will help you along the entire way. This is not a short term goal for us, but very much long term. What do you say?"

"Mr. Ewing, er ... Jack, I really don't know what to say. Why not Gary, he was here long before I showed up, or maybe someone else in your organization; why me?"

"Ron, I saw something in you I liked when I hired you. Gary is lazy; he could go out and get a much better job. He has an engineering degree, but when he got laid off from the oil company he worked for, he just stopped caring. He does his job, goes home each night, and complains to his wife that he hates his job, but he won't try for anything else. He started here when he 27; he only wanted temporary work until he could find another engineering job, but times were tough and he got real discouraged. Now at 35, he has settled for what he has.

"You, on the other hand, have been around this whole country and Canada for almost five years, picking up experience and learning things that most people never learn. You have a strong work ethic, you are honest, I can take your word to the bank; and because of that you know what is important. I thought that you were another Gary at first, but you aren't, you could never be like him. You want things out of life and are trying to get them. We want to help, that is why we are offering you this chance."

"Jack, this is all too sudden for me to even think or know what to say about this. Let me think it over and get back with you later this week, okay?"

"Hey, I understand, Ron; take your time. Fall semester doesn't start for another three weeks, so think about this, okay, I mean really thing about it. By the way, Tom Smothers says that you can get a scholarship for tuition, and our company reimburses all college expenses. If you accept this offer, I also have a nice three year old Prius for you to drive to school. It's a company car, and all gas is free at one of our stations. Think about it, and get back to me before Friday of next week, okay?"

"Thanks, Jack." I shook his hand and walked back into the store. Bentley asked what Jack wanted; I said "Oh, I got a raise and a possible new job, that's why you're in training; you're supposed to replace me." I had trained other guys for Jack's stations over the past year. I had Jack fire a few of them before the week of training was up because of stealing or laziness.

I was kind of half there for the rest of the shift. I was debating with myself over what to do. Do I just keep up the charade of me being Ron Reagan, or do I confess to Jack about my real name and situation? I mean Jack is such a nice guy, and his giving me this opportunity meant a whole lot to me. But if he was planning on making me the manager of all their properties and businesses, then I really should come clean with him. This was one hell of a dilemma that I needed to think about.

While I was thinking and acting on autopilot, some guy came in wearing a hoodie and sunglasses. My mind suddenly snapped to the way the guy was walking around the store with his hands in his hoodie pockets. I knew what was going on, I whispered to Bentley just not to panic and follow my lead. I went behind the register and was talking to Bentley when the guy came up with a twelve pack of beer and put it on the counter, then pulled a knife and said he wanted all the money in the register.

I hit the no-sale key on the register and reached down under the counter for my miniature bat that they gave to kids at the Astros games. As soon as the guy reached for the money I slammed the guy in the head with it and jumped over the counter and put one of my big number twelve shoes on his throat. I kicked the knife away from the guy and told Bentley to call 911 and to make sure that no one else was in on it out in the driveway.

"Ron, there is only one car out there nobody is in it. What do I do now?"

"Pick up the phone, dial 911, tell them there is a robbery in progress, and give them this address."

Bentley was too scared to do much, so I had him hand me the phone and I talked to the 911 operator. I told them I had the suspect contained, but that they needed to hurry. It was about ten minutes before we had a black & white pull in, siren screaming, lights flashing, then another one came roaring into the driveway two minutes later. The first cop came in with gun drawn and saw the suspect on the floor with my boot on his throat.

The guy who came in was someone I had seen a few times. "What you got for me, Ron?"

His badge said Kelly, so I said, "Officer Kelly this guy came in and grabbed a 12-pack, then pulled that knife over there and wanted all the money from the register. Hell, there wasn't but about forty-five dollars plus change in there since we had just made a safe drop. We don't keep a lot of cash in the till after ten PM."

The cop handcuffed the guy while I still had his throat under my boot, then I let the guy up. "His car is that ratty old Ford out by pump five. We didn't see anyone else, and with only a knife, I wasn't going to let him get away with anything."

"What did you hit him with, Ron? It looks like he has a nice goose egg growing between his eyes."

"I have one of those gimme bats the Astros give out to the kids at the games. I just gave him a little love tap."

"Remind me not to rile you much anymore."

"Not likely, Bentley here is my replacement, and it looks like I might be going back to school. That is if Bentley can get over his fright. I know I should have just given him the money, but I was not in a giving mood tonight."

Officer Kelly had been here about a month ago, when a guy came in with a gun and I gave him everything I had in the till at the time. It probably only amounted to sixty dollars, since I hadn't made my hourly drop yet. It was getting on toward twelve-thirty, and my relief was due in another fifteen to twenty minutes.

"Good luck with the schooling, Ron. I'll get this one out of your hair for now." Officer Kelly put the suspect in the back of his car and they left. The other cop I hadn't seen before stayed and talked to us, and said that he would contact Mr. Ewing about the surveillance video tomorrow. I told him Gary could give him the DVD to copy since I had just put a new disc in at eight. Each disc will run about twelve hours worth of video. We don't have sound, just video and it switches between ten cameras every 30 seconds; four for the island pumps, four inside the store, one out back, and one in the front driveway facing the street.

He said he would call Jack anyway and get authorization for the disc, then copy it and give it back. We had to label the disc with the time and date when we put a new one in, and again when we took it out. We probably had twenty empty discs in the office where the recorder was. Jack came around every few days to collect the used ones and bring more blanks.

The rest of the night was quiet. I explained to Bentley that we were normally supposed to just give them the money and let them leave. I just wasn't in the mood to let this guy get away with it once I saw the knife tonight. I said I had been held up three other times in the year I had worked here, but the guy, or once a girl, had a gun each time. I don't mess with guns. I told him that Jack's policy was to make sure you dropped often when there were large amounts in the till, and to always give them what they wanted.

I was still mulling over what I was going to tell Jack in my mind as I was pedaling home. Did I tell him I was really Jason Connor from Michigan, or just keep up the ruse and stay Ron Reagan? I had never been arrested, so I had never been fingerprinted, except when I got my Texas driver's license. I think they took a footprint of me when I was born, but who knows if they could find me by that. I'm sure that 'Mommy dearest' had given up all hope of finding me now after over five years. Wow, what a hard decision. I really needed to sleep on it.

If sleeping was the goal, last night was a long and unproductive night. I think I tossed and turned all night. I seem to remember looking at my clock and seeing every hour twice, and a couple of them three times. I must have finally fallen asleep sometime after eight, because I got a phone call at 1:33 PM. I struggled out of the tangled sheets that wrapped my body and grabbed the phone by the bed.

"Hello?"

"Ron? This is Tom, Tom Smothers. I have some great news for you. I talked with the dean of my old college and he said that they had an academic scholarship that would fit you to a tee. In order to get registered, you need to get to the school before 8 AM next Friday to sign up for classes."

"Ah ... Mr. Smothers, how can I get there that early? Remember, I ride a bike and that is an awful long way from my apartment when I have had only a couple of hours sleep."

"Not a problem, Ron, I'll drive you."

"Mr. Smothers, are you sure that is not going to put you out or make you late for something?"

"No problem, Ron; I only teach at night school three nights a week. I teach a class at the college from nine to eleven every morning, and another from two to four each day."

"Wow, that's a lot of running around and free time in between. Yeah, I guess I could make an exception, and I suppose that you would give me a ride back after your morning class, right?"

"Sure. Oh, by the way, how did your talk with your boss go? He said he was going to make you an offer that you couldn't refuse."

"Yeah, he made me an offer, and I'm still trying to wrap my head around it, trying to see whether or not I can accept it. I know it's a huge opportunity, but I have some other issues that I need to sort out first. I assume he told you about the company car so that I could get to school and back."

"Yes, Ron, he mentioned that and about the increase in salary. Even with that, you still qualify for this scholarship. It is pretty much a free ride and a stipend of an extra seven hundred a month for living expenses. So it's a pretty good deal for you overall."

"Okay, Mr. Smothers, I'll let you know as soon as I can make my mind up about all this which was just dumped in my lap all at once. I've had to work really hard for everything I have gotten, then having something this nice just come about is kind of scary. I hope you understand that I'm not turning it down, but I need to figure some things out first. I'll let you know as soon as I can, and thanks for everything you have done for me, I'm not really sure that I deserve all this good fortune now, but I thank you for the effort."

"Ron, it was not a big effort on my part to see that a deserving young man gets to try to achieve his goals. Talk to you later, Ron, and thank you for being who you are too."

"Yeah, bye, Mr. Smothers."

I lay there, still in my tangled mess of sheets, and wondered what had become of my simple life of working two jobs and making ends meet. Last week, I was just one of many poor slugs getting along fine. So what if I wasn't setting the world on fire in my wake; I was making do? I was able to have a place to work, a place to lay my head that wasn't out in the weather, and I was making a few bucks and saving some too. I had a real nice boss, and the work wasn't so bad. It had its good and bad days, but not too bad overall. Now in about 24 hours, I have gotten a raise, been offered a great job and an opportunity to get the education I wanted, and stopped a robbery. To top it all off, I really had to make a huge decision; do I come clean about who I really am, or do I continue living a lie and hope it never bites me in the ass?

Lying in bed was not getting anything accomplished, so I got up, did my 3 Ss, and decided I needed some information about 'Mommy dearest'. I pedaled over to the local branch of the library where I have been checking books out to further my education. I was able to get on a computer, looked up the phone book for my home town in Michigan, and sure enough, there was a Daniel Connor listed. There were a few more other Connors listed, but the one named Daniel was at our old address. I wrote the number down and I would call it at work tonight. I would buy one of those burner phones we sold and use it to call home.

I went back home to make sure there was no emergency at the complex, and then pedaled in to work. I took a break about eight that night, and went into the office to make the call. I had bought the cell phone and two hours of time from Gary, and told him that I guessed that I would need a phone since I was moving up in the world.

Anyway, I called the number listed and a man answered the phone.

"Connor residence, may I ask who is calling?"

"This is James Peterson, and I was calling to speak to Rosanna Connor."

"May I ask what this is concerning, Mr. Peterson?"

"It's about her son, Jason. I really would like to speak to her personally."

"If it's about Jase, then you can talk to me; I'm his brother Daniel. My mother is not really well enough to speak about him. Now how can I help you and do you know where my brother is?" Dan was getting a little irate.

"Danny, I'm Jason. I wanted to call and see how Mom was. I know it's been five years since anyone has heard from me; Mom scared me to death and I had to leave. Has she ever told you two what she did to make me leave?"

"I don't know what you're talking about. Are you sure that you are really Jason? If you're some sleaze trying to get into our family, I'll make you so sorry that you ever thought of trying something like that."

"DJ, I am your brother and I can prove it. When we were kids and we had that secret fort out in the woods, we always had fun standing on that tree fort and pissing on that old apple tree. I never could piss as far as you and it always upset me that I could never measure up to you or be a real friend to you. Everyone was always comparing the two of us, and I never measured up. Well, I think I'm finally measuring up, DJ; I'm six three, 200 lbs, and last night I beat a would-be robber in the head with a gimme bat, then stomped on his throat to stop him from robbing my store. I have an opportunity to go to college and be something beside a drifter and a bum. NOW let me speak to my mother!"

"Okay, Jase, don't get your panties in a wad; I'll get her. But you have to know that she has been mentally sick ever since you left, and she is finally coming to terms with what she did and why you left so suddenly. I can understand now why you needed to leave. It has only been the last year she confessed to Becky and me what she did to you. Man, I'm so sorry, Bro. You were right to leave when you did, but it sure put a strain on us when you disappeared. I'll get Mom now."

About a minute later, my mother got on the phone, "Jason is that really you?"

"Yes, Mom, it's really me. I'm sorry I left like that, but I just couldn't live in that house with you doing the things that you did, and it was the last straw when you slipped into my bed like that. I knew I had to leave or I would have succumbed to your advances, then what a mess we would both be in."