by Rich Garon
“Hello Mrs. Calvert,” Lee said as he fumbled with the yellow umbrella and looked away. If he felt this nervous meeting Mrs. Calvert he didn’t know how he’d feel when he actually got to meet Dan Calvert. He wished Mrs. Plennington hadn’t started drying his hair with her cloth and making such a fuss about his not having an umbrella. He already felt as if he hadn’t done a good job and now he was back early because of the rain that wasn’t his fault, but the smudges probably were. And now standing there were three important people smiling at him: Mrs. Plennington, because she had never, ever been cross with Lee; Andy Herman, because even if he might think Lee couldn’t do the job, Dan Calvert’s wife was smiling because her friend was smiling.
“Let’s call it a day out there, Lee. Leave your check sheets with Terri and we’ll get going at this again in the morning. I’d say you did pretty well today,” Andy said in a “what do I have to lose by saying that if I please the boss’ wife and her friend tone.”
“Hear that Lee? I told you that you’d do a good job,” Mrs. Plennington said.
Lee walked over to Terri’s desk and handed her his check sheets. Her eyes told him she wished to say nothing; she would contribute only a smile to the foolishness playing in front of her. His eyes could talk to hers and he was told that the world always needed people like her, people who kept things going in the face of foolishness. Her eyes told him further that she didn’t blame him.
“Lee, we’ve got to get you out of those wet clothes. Valerie do you think you’ll be ready soon? I can drop Lee off at his house and then drive you home.” Audrey said.
“Don’t worry about me, Audrey,” Mrs. Calvert said. “I’ll get a cab from here, I have a few calls to make. I’ll be fine.”
“Are you sure?”
“I am sure. See you at the spa in the morning. It was very nice to meet you Lee, I’m glad you’re on our team.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Calvert. I am glad I am on the Dan Calvert for Council team. I’m going to work very hard and do everything Andy, and Terri, and Sanford tell me to do.”
“Well you can be sure that I’ll pass that along to Mr. Calvert.”
“You see, I told you you’d do a fine job.” Audrey whispered into Lee’s ear as she guided him out of the office. “The candidate’s very own wife is going to tell her husband about the good job you’re doing.” Lee imagined kneeling on one knee before King Dan Calvert as Queen Valerie told the king about the good job his servant was doing. “You’ve done well,” King Dan said. “Keep up the good work, I’m counting on you.” “I will,” Lee promised. Queen Valerie smiled.
The rain had left little beads of water on the metallic finish of Audrey Plennington’s Lincoln Town Car.
“I don’t want to get your seat all wet,” Lee said as he opened the door.
“Don’t worry, it’ll be fine; but just look at my hair. This humidity shows no mercy on my poor hair,” she said. She leaned over and guided the rearview mirror in her direction, then touched her fingers to the hair just above Lee’s ear. “Your hair is so cute when it’s wet.”
Audrey Plennington’s house was a sprawling rambler of white brick. A beautiful flat stone retaining wall lined the driveway and crisp dark green plants lay in beautifully manicured beds of bronze mulch. Lee had never been to Mrs. Plennington’s house before and thought how different her yard was from the one of bare grass spots and shrubs of half-bare branches in front of the tiny house he shared with his father.
“You have a very beautiful yard, Mrs. Plennington.”
“Well, I pay that landscaping company enough. Problem is, I’m never home to enjoy it. That fitness center just takes so much out of me.”
“But you do a very good job. Every time I come in you have a lot of customers, so you must have a very good business.”
“I do have a good business,” she said as the tip of her forefinger touched Lee’s nose. “Come on, let’s get in so you can take care of those wet clothes.” As she opened the door, her mid-cut skirt rose to her thigh. Lee self-consciously realized he was staring and quickly opened the door and got out of the car. Mrs. Plennington’s leg didn’t have any fat on it at all. It was beautiful muscle that she must have gotten from all her workouts in the spa. He thought about his legs and how his father once told him about how perfectly muscled they were. You have legs that look like you’ve been working out forever, his father said. His father used to keep a notebook containing the measurements he took of Lee’s calves starting at the end of fifth grade. The leg strengthening exercises began at the beginning of the sixth grade. One day during the following spring, Mr. Richards, the football coach, came to Lee after school and told him that they would be meeting Lee’s dad on the football field. “Mr. Fitts, I never seen anything like it. I’m telling you I never seen anything like it, and I’ve been coaching twenty years. Never seen a leg snap forward with so much follow through. He’ll be kicking them from fifty yards out when he gets to high school.” Lee didn’t remember as well as his father.
“Lee, are you coming or are you going to stare at that plant all day?” Audrey Plennington said from her front door.
“I am sorry, Mrs. Plennington, I guess I was having a daydream.”
“Was it about me?
“Excuse me ma’am?” Lee said confused.
“I’m just kidding, silly, now come on, inside.”
Audrey Plennington’s front door opened on to a natural slate-floored foyer beyond which the sunlight from the clearing sky ramped in through the high windows just below the cathedral ceiling. Lee had forgotten how wealthy Mrs. Plennington’s family was. Multi-directional lights shone on huge paintings, and ornate draperies, over-sized chairs and sofas dressed in burnt oranges, yellows, and blues stood before the perfectly-cropped shrubbery visible in the yard beyond. Audrey placed her large purse and keys on a narrow table holding a vase of fresh-cut flowers.
“Well, what do you think?” she asked.
“I have never been in a house like this,” Lee said. “There are so many things in that big room that are very beautiful. Your house looks like it belongs in a magazine.”
“Well, I’m glad you like it. I’ve been meaning to show it to you and this afternoon just seemed to be the perfect time. You can leave your wet sneakers and socks right by the door then let’s get those wet clothes taken care of. Want something to drink; soda, juice?”
“A soda, and it can be any kind at all. I like all sodas.” He did what he was told, a little uncomfortably, and took off his sneakers and socks.
“That’s fine, I won’t be a minute.”
Mrs. Plennington walked through the dining area and through a swinging door that led into the kitchen. Several minutes later he heard her call from a hallway that led off the big room.
“Lee, come on down here, I want to show you something.”
He followed her voice and found her standing in front of a huge window at the end of the hall on either side of which were French doors leading to separate rooms. His bare feet sank into the thick pile of an Oriental rug leading to the window.
“Isn’t this a spectacular view?” she asked as she handed him his soda and pointed to a waterfall that splashed into a pool lined with rocks and brightly colored flowers. “I had that pool designed from a photo I saw in just the kind of magazine you were talking about. Actually, it’s much nicer than the photo. It was finished last month and swimming in that pool in the early morning, when it’s very still, is the most peaceful thing in the world. You have to come over one morning, we can go for a swim, then I’ll fix you a nice breakfast.”
Lee watched the falling water hit the pool. Trees swayed in the distance.
“It is very, very beautiful, Mrs. Plennington. You are very lucky to have that view out this special window.”
“I know, in some ways I’m very fortunate. But it’s nice to be able to share things with someone.” She placed her hand on his shoulder. She pointed into the room whose French doors were held open by identical slender wooden contai
ners of artificial flowers. “The robe on the chair is for you. Give me your wet clothes and I’ll throw them into the wash. There are some magazines next to the chair you can look at and I’ll let you know as soon as your clothes are ready.”
Lee moved away from the open door and standing between twin beds, removed his shirt and pants and put on the fluffy terrycloth robe. He went back to the hallway and handed his clothes to Mrs. Plennington who smiled and walked up the hall.
Two women’s fitness magazines, a healthy-cooking magazine, and an oversized photo book on home landscaping sat on a glass table next to the chair. Lee plopped the book on to his lap. He was very comfortable in that soft chair, and the landscaping photos of artfully-placed bushes, stone, flowers, and pools brought a restfulness to his mind. Lee caught sight of Mrs. Plennington walking down the hall. She turned and walked barefoot into the bedroom across from him. She said nothing and Lee thought it best to continue reading his book. He heard a clicking sound from Mrs. Plennington’s room like the magnetic clip on a door pulling away from the metal catch. He turned his head and saw Audrey Plennington standing in front of a large open closet. But she wasn’t just standing any more, she was starting to unzip her dress which was soon off and on a hanger she had gotten out of the closet. Lee quickly turned his eyes back to the landscaping book. His mind tried to get him out of the chair and under the bridge so Mrs. Plennington wouldn’t think he was looking at her. When he looked up, Mrs. Plennington was standing there wearing only her underwear and staring out the window. She walked toward the window and then turned back and stopped. She looked at Lee and smiled. She began changing into a one-piece workout outfit and then stepped into a pair of red warm-up pants.
“There,” she said. “I’m ready for work. I’ll let you know when your clothes are ready and then I’ll drop you home before I go to my spa.”
Lee looked down at his clean khakis; he could wear them tomorrow for work. That was one good thing, he thought, as he looked at the stuffed bag on the back of his door, I won’t have to go to the laundromat tonight. It seemed every other thought he had was about Mrs. Plennington. She had been very quiet in the car and when they got to Lee’s house she just told him to do a good job the next day and handed him the bag of fruit and health food drinks she had prepared for him. Lee tried to remember when he saw Mrs. Plennington as his mother’s best friend. And yet she had known he was sitting there and she had turned and smiled at him. He didn’t know if he should see her again.
Reid rapped at the door and when Lee turned, his friend was already in the house. “Wouldn’t that be funny if one Tuesday night your father was home and I just walked in like that?”
“I do not know if it would be funny,” Lee said. “But I think you are still pretty safe. Dad has not been home till late on Tuesdays for at least the past three years.”
“You’re not hiding back there are you, Mr. Fitts? I know you really like me, even if you don’t show it.”
“Why do you think my dad is back there hiding? I just told you he has not been home on Tuesday nights for the past three years. And Reid, I think you are wrong, Dad really does not like you. I have asked him to change his mind, but he has not.”
“Lee, chill man, I’m only kidding. You always take everything so seriously. I know your Dad isn’t hiding back there and I definitely know he doesn’t like me. But, hey, we’re still best buds, always have been and always will, right?”
“Right, Reid, best buds.”
“All right, let’s go, I told you I’ve got something great to show you at my apartment.”
Lee made sure all the lights in the house were off and turned on the porch light. If he left any lights on in the house when no one was there, his father would yell that he was trying to make the electric company rich. Lee thought leaving a small light on would make burglars think someone was home. Lee’s father told him there was no burglar stupid enough to want to break into their rat trap of a house.
“So, all ready for another big day on your job? You going to stay at that job?”
“Yes, I am going to do my best tomorrow. I like being part of the Dan Calvert for Council team and I will just have to see if my boss, Andy Herman, thinks I’m doing a good job.” The image of Mrs. Plennington bolted through his mind. He shivered as he looked at Reid. Reid could never know; no one could ever know. It was hard enough for Lee to think about things and now Mrs. Plennington had found hiding places in his brain from which to pop out when he would not expect it.
“You okay, boy, you daydreaming or something?”
“I am okay. What is the big surprise at your apartment?”
“Won’t be long now,” Reid said as he pulled the key out of the ignition. Something continued to gurgle under the hood and the worn hinges let out a grinding sound as the two occupants opened the doors. If Reid’s truck had been a horse, he would have had to shoot it. “Damn, the lot’s pretty full; the Tammery’s got some new Tuesday night special, must be working whatever it is.”
“Yeah, it seems to be working alright, whatever it is,” Lee agreed.
The Tammery Inn was a simple two-story building, asphalt shingles on the walls and a wooden awning that supported a neon sign new probably during Eisenhower’s first term. The faded black paint on the neon tubing would make first-time customers believe they were going into the Tamery Inn. The light stood right outside of two windows that Reid had never been able to open and the old table cloth hanging in the windows did little to keep the light from flooding into Reid’s apartment.
“I always told myself this apartment was a real find,” Reid said as the friends walked up the narrow staircase.
“Remember, you got to jump over those two steps, and watch out for the second from the top, it’s just about to go.” Lee braced his hand on the wall that vibrated from the bass line of the jukebox in the bar on the other side.
The apartment was the size of two small U-Haul trucks if they were side-by-side and didn’t have any walls between. Each piece of furniture: a single bed, coffee table, a couch with one of the arms missing, fought for any available inch in the small room. A shower curtain hung in place of a bathroom door.
“Wait till you see this,” Reid said as he walked over to a TV framed by a box of corn flakes on one side and a bag of Doritos on the other. He clicked on the remote. “Ta Da. What do you think man, I got cable?”
Sure enough, as Lee looked at the screen, there was a perfect picture. “Wow Reid, it is cable.”
“Damn right it’s cable. Now here’s the deal, and mum’s the word. I got this cable connector and found where the wire runs into the bar and voila, I got cable. This guy at work; he’s from Bolivia or someplace close to Mexico, and he told me exactly what I had to do. And those guys in the bar don’t know anything; it doesn’t affect their picture at all. I got your HBO and ESPN and some movie channel, is this hitting the jackpot or what?”
“Are you sure the guys that own the bar do not know? You do not want them to find out and kick you out of this apartment that you love.”
“Stop worrying. This is a gift from above. Do you know how much cable costs?”
“My dad says we cannot afford it and called me a jerk because I did not understand that.”
“Maybe I should ask him if he wants to come over here and watch a few shows. But you know he’d turn my ass in if he knew I was getting free cable. Look at this, Atlanta Braves playing the Dodgers; is this something or what? I got some beer, a little wine, or I think there is some ginger ale, may be flat though.”
“I would like the ginger ale.”
Reid handed Lee a Wendy’s plastic drink cup. “It’s a little flat but it’s wet. Matter of fact, I like my ginger ale flat. Don’t you think it tastes good flat?”
“I like ginger ale flat or not flat,” Lee said. “But when you buy soda in those big bottles, I know it is cheaper that way, but the soda is usually flat by the time you get to the middle of the bottle. Are you at the middle of the bottle?” Reid held up the
bottle. “You are near the bottom of the bottle; it will always be flat when you get that far down the bottle. Thank you for the ginger ale.”
“What’s important is the cable. Look at that picture! Ever see a baseball game like that? They’re probably watching the same thing downstairs, but here we are, got the same thing, but all the comforts of home. I got to bring Lope from work over to show him how well it worked.”
“Does Lope like the landscaping job?”
“He doesn’t mind it. I don’t think anyone minds it. But I don’t think he likes it. It gets hot out there and dusty and sometimes when you run into all those little roots, raking can be a bitch. But I guess it’s good exercise and lots of fresh air. You drink a lot of water, man and even so, sometimes it’s so hot you don’t have to piss, you just sweat it all out. Yeah, Lope probably doesn’t like it, but he’s not even supposed to be here. He and his brother came up here from Mexico or Bolivia or somewhere near there. Good thing our boss don’t ask many questions. He just wants someone out there steady, doing a good job and not stealing any tools. I guess me and Lope and his brother all got the right stuff for landscape work. And what I really like is not having to do a lot of thinking about how to do the job; it’s pretty automatic after the first couple of days. Damn, I knew that ball was out of there. Look at that picture, see how good you can see that dirt on the bat.”
“Yeah, I have not seen pictures of dirt so close up and realistic.”
“So, what about your new job with what’s his name, Dan Cramer?”
“No, his name is Dan Calvert. I work for the Dan Calvert for Council Campaign.”
“So, this Dan Calvert, is he a nice guy, like what’s his deal?
“I have heard he is a very nice man, but I have not met Dan Calvert yet. I met Mrs. Calvert today when she was at our office with Mrs. Plennington. Mrs. Calvert is a very nice woman.”
