Media Justice

by Dennis Carstens

  Six months later, the young widow received her lawsuit settlement. After fees and costs, the life of her husband brought her one hundred forty thousand dollars, all of the insurance money from the driver of the pickup and Greg’s policy that was available to pay for the accident. The negligent driver of the pickup would do thirty months in prison and that would be the end of it.

  Before Becky’s first birthday, Barbara would be seated in a county courtroom while Brittany finished the formality of changing her name and Becky’s. With Greg gone, Barbara saw no reason why her daughter and granddaughter should not become Rileys.

  While Becky ate her Cheerios and watched a cartoon show on one of the kid’s channels, Brittany explained her weekend itinerary to her mother who was already at work. She would be meeting some friends for dinner after her job at Macy’s. Saturday, a bunch of them were going to Wisconsin to tube down the Apple River and a campground party would follow tomorrow night. Of course, she would never admit this to her mother but, a girlfriend had provided her with three new condoms that Brittany was desperately hoping would be needed.

  “I can’t bring my phone with me on the river, Mother. I’ll call you before and after.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Barbara pleasantly replied. “You have a good time but be careful,” she continued hoping Brittany knew what condoms were for and had enough sense to get some. “Our baby girl will have a wonderful weekend with us.”

  “Thanks, Mom. I have to get going. I’ll call you later.”

  Brittany placed her phone in her purse then knelt down in front of Becky. “Give Momma a hug, baby,” she said as Becky jumped into her arms. She held the little girl for a few seconds then set her down on the couch. “Bye, sweetie, I have to go. Take care of Papa.”

  “Bye Mommy,” Becky said as she wiggled her tiny fingers at her mother.

  Brittany blew Becky a kiss and as she opened the front door said, “Bye Dad. I’ll call later.”

  “Okay, hon,” Floyd replied. “We’ll be fine and grandma is coming home early.”

  Brittany worked at the Macy’s department store at the Mall of America in Bloomington. She was a sales associate in the men’s clothing department and was fast becoming their best salesperson. With her girl-next-door looks and friendly smile, she was overcoming her inner insecurity and discovering a sense of confidence she didn’t know was there. Of course, men of all ages were attracted to her and, like the superficial adolescents they naturally were, almost always bought something from the pretty, charming young clerk.

  Brittany left work around 6:00 P.M. and drove home to her two bedroom apartment a half-mile from her parent’s house. A quick shower, a change of clothes to something more suited to a night out and she was able to meet her friends by seven at Rick’s Café in Apple Valley.

  Rick’s was a local meat market that had a dining room in one section and a bar with live music in an adjacent room. Brittany and her friends, Kathy, Annie and Julia had dinner in the restaurant. Then, just before 8:30, they moved to the bar to get a table before the music started. The girls found a table with a good view of the bandstand but far enough away so they could still hear each other while the music played.

  The waitress brought their drinks, four small, strawberry margaritas. As she walked away, Brittany, in a gesture of a toast, raised her glass and said, “Here’s to getting laid tonight.” She had intentionally said this loud enough for the dozen or so people, mostly single guys at the tables around them to hear. The four of them laughed, clinked their glasses together and took a drink.

  After they settled down, Annie asked Brittany, “So, how’s our little angel doing?”

  “She’s good,” Brittany nodded. “No, in fact, she’s perfect.”

  “Sweetest little baby, ever,” Kathy chimed in.

  “Yeah, she is but…” Brittany quietly replied.

  “But, what?” Julia asked.

  “I don’t know. It’s just…”

  “You’re feeling a little tied down, again?” Kathy asked. “We need to get you out more.”

  “Yeah, sometimes I just feel like, you know, maybe I’m a little too young or not mature enough for the responsibility. I just can’t help but feel, sometimes, if she was gone …, but then, I see those beautiful little eyes, her smile and I just…”

  “Melt,” Julia finished the thought.

  “Yeah, I do. Maybe I just get a little lonely sometimes.”

  “Lonely? You’ve had four boyfriends in the last six months,” Annie said.

  Brittany waved her hand as if chasing a fly away and said, “All they wanted was to get me in bed. I’d really like to meet someone who, you know, was looking for something more serious than a quick lay then back to the video games.”

  “When do they start to grow up and become men?” Julia asked.

  “Never!” the three other girls answered her in unison.

  The music started up, a local rock band made of guys in their late forties called the Heart Breakers. The band was actually quite good, made up of members were musicians who had been together for years and not some kids practicing in someone’s garage. Within minutes, all four girls were on the dance floor with guys who had been eyeing them up since they sat down. The music, mostly contemporary and classic rock was very good and the band normally drew a good crowd and tonight was no exception.

  Over the next three hours, almost by silent mutual consent, the guys and girls paired off. The young man who was able to attach himself to Brittany was a twenty something by the name of Jeff Stevens. Jeff was a student at UW-Madison, Wisconsin and had no intention of getting seriously involved with a girl who had a young kid. To Jeff, Brittany was a ‘hottie’ and looked to be an easy score which was all either of them seemed to be interested in.

  Around midnight, while the band was on a break, having been sufficiently plied with alcohol, Brittany suggested they slip out to her apartment. When she awoke in the morning, Jeff was gone leaving only a thank you note and a hungover Brittany with a slight headache.

  THREE

  Brittany crawled out of bed and went into the apartment’s tiny kitchen. She started the coffee maker and, as the machine started brewing the coffee, she found and swallowed several ibuprofen from her medicine cabinet. As she poured her first cup, the ringtone on her phone started up, which did nothing for her headache. She looked at the caller ID, frowned, sighed and rolled her eyes at the name she saw, pressed the answer button and, as pleasantly as she could, said, “Hi, Mom.”

  “Are you up?” Barbara asked.

  “Yes, Mom, I’ve been up for over an hour.”

  “Tell me your schedule for today, again.”

  “Mom,” Brittany patiently said, “I told you yesterday…”

  “Tell me again,” Barbara insisted.

  “Okay,” Brittany said with a sigh. “I’m going to work until around noon,” she lied. “Then I’ll meet my friends, you know them…”

  “Their names?”

  “Kathy, Annie and Julia.”

  “Go on,” Barbara said.

  “We’re supposed to meet at Kathy’s around 1:00 and then go to Somerset, Wisconsin. We’ll meet up there with a bunch of people and then tube down the river. Afterwards, there’s a party at one of the campgrounds. Some of the people are spending the night camping.”

  “Who are these people? Do you know them?”

  “I know a couple of them from high school. Most of them are friends of Kathy’s.”

  “Yes, your friend, the party girl,” Barbara said with obvious distaste.

  “She’s not a party girl, Mom.”

  “Be sure you call me before and after you go down the river. I want to make sure you don’t drown.”

  “Mom, there’s a million people tubing on the river in the summer. You know that. It would be impossible to drown.”

  “Never mind. Just call me.”

  “Yes, Mom. Can I talk to Becky?”

  Barbara had been standing in the kitchen entryway while talk
ing to her daughter. She was watching Becky and Floyd play with some of her granddaughter’s dolls. When Brittany asked to talk to Becky, Barbara turned and went into the kitchen before answering.

  “I’m sorry dear. Becky is in the backyard with Floyd. She’s playing on the swing set. I don’t want to disturb her, okay?”

  “Okay, Mom,” Brittany answered, obviously disappointed. “I’ll call you this afternoon. Probably around 2:00 or 2:30.”

  Barbara set the phone back in its charger and went into the living room. She sat down on the couch, handed Floyd a piece of paper and, as she pulled Becky onto her lap, said, “Come here sweetheart. Grandpa has his list of things to get at the grocery store and while he’s gone, Grandma is going to take you to get your hair done. Won’t that be fun? And, if you’re a good girl, we’ll go to the Mall of America for lunch and rides at Nick Universe.”

  Even though she was barely two and a half, Becky knew what Nick Universe was; an amusement park with rides inside the Mall. When Barbara told her this, Becky’s eyes lit up, she let out a delighted squeal, jumped up and wrapped her arms around Barbara’s neck.

  Floyd stood up with the grocery list in hand. As he headed toward the kitchen to go into the garage, Barbara sharply said, “Make sure the fruit isn’t too ripe this time.”

  “Yes, Barbara. I’ll be careful.”

  “We’ll meet you back here in an hour. Don’t forget anything on the list either,” Floyd heard her admonishment as he went through the door leading to the garage.

  Later, around 12:00 noon, the three of them were finishing their lunch at the Rainforest Café. Floyd was feeding Becky one of his French fries and said to his granddaughter, “Do you like your hair now that it looks just like Grandma’s?” Becky shook her head and grabbed two more fries from Floyd’s plate and stuffed them both in her mouth.

  “Brittany isn’t going to like what you did to her hair,” Floyd said.

  “She’ll get over it,” Barbara said with a dismissive wave of a hand. “It’s summer. She needs it shorter. It’s easier to take care of. Sweetheart,” she continued. “Papa is going to take you on some rides. Grandma will be back in a little while okay?

  “I have to do something. Take her on a few rides and I’ll find you down there,” she said to Floyd. With that she stood, bent down to kiss Becky on the forehead and abruptly left.

  Barbara quickly walked through the crowd in the mall and a few minutes later hurriedly walked into Macy’s. She went right to the men’s department which was fairly crowded with shoppers and patiently waited for one of the sales associates to become available. She noticed a young man finish with another customer and lightly waved to get his attention. He hurried over to her and asked if he could be of assistance.

  “I was wondering,” she politely began with a friendly smile, “if Brittany was in today?”

  “No, ma’am, haven’t seen her.”

  “Was she in earlier? I thought she worked Saturdays. She is still in this department, isn’t she?”

  “Yes, ma’am, she’s still in men’s clothing but she hasn’t been in today. I’ve been here since 8:00 A.M, and I haven’t seen her. Is there something I can help you with?”

  “No, no,” Barbara said as if it was nothing. “She was such a dear when I was in before and I wanted to thank her. Some other time,” she said as she abruptly turned and walked away.

  Kathy parked her mid-sized Subaru SUV in the parking lot of the River’s Edge Apple River Tubing Company. The girls were a little late and were supposed to meet up with a group that would total almost twenty people.

  As they were parking, Annie opened her window to yell a greeting at a young man she knew as he was walking toward the building. He yelled back telling her to hurry, everyone else was already there and anxious to get going.

  After the four girls exited the car, Kathy and Julia grabbed the beer cooler from the back. As they started walking toward the tube rental office, Brittany told them she needed to make a quick call to check on Becky. Annie offered to rent an inner tube for her and Brittany handed her the money for it while pressing a button to dial her mother’s home.

  She spent ten minutes on the call to Barbara then hurriedly ditched her phone in the car and ran to catch up with her friends. They all got onto their tubes, tied the entire group of twenty together with rope along with several coolers of beer and floated out into the lazy current. One of the guys had rigged a small boom box with a waterproof battery from a portable electric drill. He put it on one of the coolers and, after two or three beers each, the entire party was floating, singing and bouncing along with the music.

  The four girls were all similarly dressed in shorts or cut-off jeans and skimpy bikini-tops. Brittany looked especially good in her bikini top. Her breasts had filled out quite nicely while pregnant and did not shrink much afterwards. And she certainly wasn’t above showing them off to attract the guys.

  There wasn’t a cloud to be seen and all of the girls in the party were continuously rubbing on generous amounts of sun screen, the guys of course, kindly offering their assistance. The temperature was in the mid-eighties, the water was comfortably warm and the day could not have been more pleasant in fact, almost perfect.

  The river was quite crowded and a couple of times they got caught up in log jams that were created by raucous groups of mostly young men ahead of them on the river. Several groups would band together and block the river. It would cause a pile-up of as many as two or three hundred tubers before it became too difficult to hold them all back. No one seemed to mind. Because of the beautiful day and everyone, including older adults and families with children, were having an extremely pleasant afternoon, the log-jams only added to the fun.

  About half-way through the four hour trip, on the bank of the river there is a snack stand set up. By this time everyone could use a bite to eat and a break from the water, so they all piled off of their tubes for a brief respite. All of the party members ordered up a burger, brat or hot dog, a soda or a beer and many made quick trips to the restrooms.

  Around 5:30, just before the end of the ride, the river narrows and forms an easily traversed, white water rapids to bring the trip to a fun conclusion. Plus, by this time, everyone had one or two beers more than they should which made the quick shot down the rapids a little more interesting.

  At the end of the trip, the group was shuttled back to the campgrounds at their starting point where the cars were parked. They got together at the campground and set up tents for the night. Annie’s parents were campers so she brought along a tent easily large enough for all of them and other camping gear as well.

  The girls fooled around for ten minutes playing the part of helpless females, easily getting some of the guys to put up their tent. While their tent was being erected, the four of them watched and drank more beer, giggling amongst themselves at how easy it had been to get someone else to set up their camp.

  The entire group pooled their food, bought more beer and had a great time partying. Around nine, a band began to play on the outdoor stage, about a hundred yards from them. There was more drinking, more music and more dancing.

  By ten o’clock, Brittany had settled on the guy she wanted. An empty-headed pretty boy who had spent most of the evening bragging about his glory days playing high school football. Around ten-thirty she allowed him to lead her off to his tent. Fifteen minutes later she was back looking annoyed.

  “What happened?” Kathy asked her.

  “The idiot sat down on his sleeping bag and the next thing I knew he was snoring.”

  The other three girls all laughed and Brittany couldn’t help joining in.

  After a couple of minutes, Brittany popped another brew, looked around and said, “Well, there are other candidates.”

  “Hey,” Julia said. “I thought you told your mother you weren’t spending the night. Getting a little brave lying to mommy?” she teased.

  “What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her,” Brittany answered setting her sight
s on one of the guys not yet attached.

  Brittany woke up around 3:00 A.M,, looked at the bareback of the young man she knew as Ron and felt a pang of guilt. As quietly as she could, she put on her panties, shorts and bikini top, then slipped out of his tent and hurried back to where her friends were sleeping.

  FOUR

  Bob Olson checked his face in the rearview mirror of his car to give it one last look. His dirty blonde hair was fine but his stylish, black-framed glasses felt and appeared slightly askew. He removed them, gave one of the bows a minor tweak, put them back on and they felt much better. Satisfied, he ran his fingers over his mustache and goatee to smooth them over and checked himself out in the mirror again. Quite pleased with the look, he got out of his car, closed the door and locked it as he started walking toward his goal. He was in a ramp at the Mall of America and was going to Macy’s to hopefully meet a girl.

  Bob had first seen her a few days ago tubing down the Apple River. She had been in a different group than him but they had started out about the same time and he saw a lot of her as they made the journey. Later that night, he and the few friends who were with him were camped nearby and he kept a curious eye on her.

  Shortly before the music started, he noticed one of the guys sitting with her get up and head toward the restrooms. Bob quickly stood up and followed the young man and was able to stand next to him at the row of urinals. He struck up a casual conversation with him and found out some basic information about the girl such as her name, the fact she was widowed and has a young daughter.

  “Why are you asking?” the young man asked.

  “I think I’ve seen her before,” Bob lied. “She’s pretty hot and I’m sure I remember her from somewhere. Where does she work?”

  “Macy’s at the mall. You want to meet her?”