All Novel XO
156
Home being a small camper trailer, which had a bedroom, small bathroom, a kitchenette with electricity and running water. I stripped off my clothes and debated whether to burn them and decided my pride would have to be subjugated to my pocketbook. I couldn’t afford to go around and buy new clothes at the moment. I would have to hope the dry cleaners could get out the smell, if not, the shame.
I went and took a hot shower. As much as I hoped to languish in the water, the hot water tank quickly ran out and I finished bathing in cold water. I shivered as I toweled off and stumbled to the small bed and dove under the covers. It had been one hell of a weekend I thought as I drifted off to sleep.
Morning came and I quickly made and devoured a large breakfast of eggs and bacon. After what I had experienced I thought I deserved it. Then I got to work early in time for the boss to publicly ream my ass out for missing work yesterday.
“I don’t know who the fuck you think you are, but, I’m not going to put up with your dicking around and not showing up for work except when you feel like it!”
The accusation stung as yesterday had been the first day I had ever missed work except for scheduled vacations in the ten years I had worked there. Still my boss continued to rant and the commotion was drawing a crowd which seemed to fuel him to more inspired verbiage.
“So where the fuck were you?” he demanded to know. I kept trying to stall him and asked to speak in private but he had found an issue he was hellbent to bring forward and make an object lesson for the rest of his employees. He kept asking and I kept stalling and in the midst of the argument we were both stridently yelling at each other.
“WHERE THE FUCK WERE YOU?” my boss asked again pausing after each word yelled to empathize each word.
I finally snapped. “I was in jail! My goddamn wife had me put in jail! Now are you happy, motherfucker?” I screamed.
The shocked look on his face mirrored those of my coworkers. Never in a million years would they have thought that I would have wound up behind bars. Still the emotional purging continued as I spewed out the venom I had long held inside.
“And thank you for making it all public, you sorry son of a bitch! I remember eight years ago having to prop you up when you went though your divorce and this is how you return the favor? Well, fuck you! Fuck you and the horse you rode in on! I quit, you sorry motherfucking son of a bitch!”
With that I turned around and walked back to the parking lot to get into my truck. Several of my coworkers trailed along with me trying to persuade me not to leave and to come back to discuss everything with my boss in private. But I wasn’t going to be persuaded. For ten long years I had been breaking my back, unappreciated and underpaid to support my family. And for what? Now, I was living alone and I didn’t know when I would get to see my daughter or son.
As I drove off I heard the ping of my phone announcing the arrival of a new text message. Since I was driving, I decided not to dig it out of my pocket and see who it was from. I suspected that it was from my boss wanting to make amends. Having nowhere to go and it being too early for the bars to be open I went back to my camper.
I pulled into the dirt driveway avoiding the more severe potholes and turned off the truck. Then I pulled out the phone and opened up the text. I was flabbergasted to see it was from Stella. It read: “John, I’m so sorry for the misunderstanding.”
Before I could even think, I texted back: “Stella, what were you trying to prove?”
I waited for a reply but none was forthcoming. Then a couple of hours later I got a call from my friend Jerry from work. I was sure he was going to try to convince me to come back and ask for my job back. Instead he told me, “John, the police are here looking for you.”
I thanked him for the information and hung up. Once again, I had fallen prey at a weak moment and Stella had taken advantage of the opportunity. I knew that the police would soon be at my new location since I had provided it for their records when I was being jailed. I could expect another stay at jail courtesy of Stella.
I quickly studied the matter and made my decision. I unhooked the electrical and water connections to the camper and backed my truck up to hitch up the trailer mount. It wasn’t good knowing that I would lose my security deposit at the trailer park, but, I was desperate to buy me some time.Property © 2024 N0(v)elDrama.Org.
As I drove out of the trailer park with all my worldly possessions, I lost my qualms about using the phone and driving at the same time. First, I called my lawyer and after I was finally connected to him, I explained what had happened. First he called me a dumbass and then proceeded to chew my ass out. Then he said he would call the court and try to get a hearing set so I could surrender in court rather than be arrested again. He warned me not to have any future contact with Stella. I assured him I had learned my lesson. Then I called the manager of the trailer park canceling my lease. Then I called my grandparents.
Then I drove. For close to a hundred miles I drove eastward to my goal. Here I would find my maternal grandparents. Here I would find sanctuary. As I unlimbered from the truck, they came out to greet me. Both had concerned looks on their faces. They knew the initial extent of my troubles, but, updating them was going to cause them grief just due to them worrying about me.
Grandma insisted on feeding me before we started talking. As we ate some of her fried chicken, I explained the weekend trauma that I had undergone. They were appalled that my relationship with Stella had gotten to the point of this toxic radioactivity. Then I told them I needed a big favor. “Would it be okay with y’all if I camp out here for a while until everything settles down?”
My grandfather looked at me and said, “John, you know this will always be your home. You just set up your camper where you want.”
And with that I had taken care of one problem. I didn’t have any income coming in, but, now I could put off paying rent until I was in a situation to start paying back my grandparents. I asked if they knew of any local construction companies hiring. They studied the question and posed potential possibilities to me, but, it seemed like they were of the opinion that no one was hiring right now.
That did not bode well. I still had outstanding debts and responsibilities to take care of. Not the least of which was my capricious attorney that kept changing attitude with the ebb and flow of the retainer I was paying him.
So then I asked if they knew anybody that needed any kind of handyman work. They brightened up with that question and threw out a few names and addresses for me to check out. They also promised that they would call around their circle of friends and get more prospects.
The rest of the day I spent jury rigging electrical and water service to the camper. My grandparents said I could stay in the house, but, I didn’t want to crowd them. I was a firm believer in Ben Franklin’s adage that fish and overnight guests overstayed their welcome after three days.
The next couple of days I spent going around all the local construction companies looking for work. Sure enough, no one was hiring, but, I got to fill out a lot of employment application forms. I started cringing when I thought of the possibility that anyone would contact my former employer.
The good news was that my attorney had gotten a hearing date set for my second show cause hearing for violating the no contact order. All I had to do was avoid getting picked up by the police before the hearing date.
Meanwhile I had my first job as a handyman. A neighbor of my grandparents wanted to raze an old barn. Everyone had bid twice as much as I did just to knock it down. My price included hauling off all the debris. All the other estimates figured on it being a two to three day job using a crew of employees. I had finished up in one long day. As I was finishing loading up the last load of debris in my Grandpa’s flatbed trailer, the neighbor came out to me carrying two ice cold longneck bottles of beer and I grateful accepted the offering.
We watched the dying remnants of the sunset fade into twilight as we silently sipped away.
“Well, John I wasn’t sure you’d be able to get the job done in one day, but, damned if you didn’t. And you didn’t use any heavy machinery! That was why everybody’s bids were so high due to them calculating renting equipment. ”
“Well, Mr. Lambert my Dodge pickup just thinks it’s a bulldozer.” I explained how I used heavy chains on all the support beams and the torque of my pickup in low gear did the rest as the barn collapsed like a deck of cards. The rest was a matter of heavy work gloves and a strong back lugging the old timbers into the trailer.
“I got scratched up by a couple of rusty nails so I’ll go into town tomorrow for a tetanus shot, but, right now this is all the medicine I need.” I finished the last sip of beer remaining and tossed the empty into the bed of my pickup. It was just good manners to keep Mr. Lambert company while he finished. So we engaged in small talk and he insisted on me calling him Robert as we shook hands and I left his property slowly hauling the trailer back to my grandparent’s place. Tomorrow morning I would dump it at the local landfill before I went in to get my shot.