Paradise Park

by Carolina Mac

  The OPP cruiser pulled into the driveway and two uniformed officers got out. “Trouble ma’am?” asked the officer. “I’m Dale Hodges.” He was six feet tall, well built with a dark moustache and dark hair showing under his hat.

  “A biker named Rob has been coming around uninvited and trying to be…friendly. I don’t know him and he’s making me a little nervous. Lonnie lives next door and he dealt with him today, but I don’t want to worry about this every single day. I work from home and I’m always here alone.”

  “What has he done ma’am. Did he assault you?”

  “No. He never touched me. He parks his bike in the driveway and talks to me. Last night he drove up and down the road real slow. I think he was waiting for Lonnie to go home but he didn’t. He slept on my sofa.”

  Officer Hodges pulled a notebook out of his pocket. “Does this biker live in the park?”

  “Said he moved in with his brother on one of the streets near the bush.” Grace pointed.

  “And his name is Rob?”

  Lonnie spoke, “He has prison tats, sir. Might have a sheet.”

  “Thank you. Is there a park boss on the premises?”

  “Yep,” said Lonnie, “Mr. Deegan, lives down by the pond. He knows everybody’s name and where they came from.”

  “Thank you, son.”

  “Did he tell you his brother’s name, little lady?”

  “I think he said ‘Gary.”

  “I’ll be back.” He drove off in the direction of Harold Deegan’s trailer.

  “Let’s have a beer while we wait,” said Grace. She brought two cold ones out onto the deck and handed one to Lonnie. “I’m wrecking your Sunday off.”

  “No, you’re not. Usually I just sleep on Sunday. This is a different kind of a Sunday for me.”

  “Isn’t it?” Gracie’s phone rang. She glanced at the screen before she answered and didn’t look happy. “That will be… great. See you soon.”

  “Bad news?” Lonnie tried to read Grace’s expression.

  “Ordinarily, I’d be thrilled, but with the police here and the situation that we’re in, I’d have to say that Jerry and Kate coming up to hang out will not be a good thing.”

  “Oh, damn it. Your brother is going to be stressed.”

  “Exactly. We have to hope the police are gone by the time he gets here and the situation taken care of.”

  Lonnie nodded and tried to sound positive, “Maybe it will be.”

  “We can hope,” said Grace not looking convinced.

  Twenty minutes later, Officer Hodges returned to impart what he had learned from Mr. Deegan. He parked and made his way up onto the deck. “Mr. Rob Eastman is not registered as a tenant on his brother’s trailer. He’s a guest. Gary Eastman is the tenant. He moved in with his other half, a lady called Marg Baker. I paid a call on Gary and he has no idea of the whereabouts of his younger brother. I ran Rob Eastman while I was on my way back here and it’s my duty to inform you that he was released from prison a week ago and is on parole.”

  “What was he in for?” Lonnie tensed, waiting for the answer.

  Hodges paused. “Rape. He was doing time for rape.”

  Grace’s face lost all colour and she gripped the railing.

  “That’s right, Miss. You were right to be alarmed and I want you to file a charge, any charge. We have to pick this boy up and get him back where he belongs.”

  “He didn’t do anything besides talk to me and say he wanted to be my friend. What would I charge him with?”

  “He’s been driving back and forth in front of your house, and he’s come over uninvited twice since he’s been in the park?”

  “Right.”

  “Let me talk to my Sergeant and see what he wants to do. He’ll contact Mr. Eastman’s parole officer and see if this behavior is a violation that he can bring him in on.”

  “Thank you, Officer Hodges.”

  “Don’t mention it ma’am. In my opinion, Mr. Chandler should continue sleeping on your sofa, if possible, until we get a handle on this situation.”

  Officer Hodges was opening the door of his cruiser to depart when Jerry and Kate arrived.

  “Oh no, I didn’t want Jerry to see the police cruiser,” said Grace in a whisper.

  “Uh huh,” said Lonnie, “your brother is going to want details.”

  “My brother is going to lose it.”

  Jerry waltzed right up to the officer and started asking questions. Lonnie could tell by the body language that Jerry was more than alarmed. After Hodges left, Jerry and Kate joined Lonnie and Grace on the deck.

  “Can I get you guys a beer.” Grace smiled and wore a fake cheerful face.

  “Ten cases of beer ain’t gonna make this go away, Gracie,” hollered Jerry. “I don’t fuckin want you living out here by yourself.”

  “Lonnie is sleeping on the sofa until this blows over.”

  “Blows over? This guy is a fuckin rapist, Grace. A rapist. And already he has picked you for his next unwilling fuck.” Jerry was shouting and waving his arms.

  Grace’s eyes welled up with tears and she retreated into the trailer with Kate on her heels.

  “What the hell, Lonnie?” hollered Jerry. “What the hell are we going to do?”

  HAROLD SAT IN the golf cart summoning up courage to head over to Edgar’s trailer to find out where Mabel was. Just as he put the vehicle into gear, the police officer arrived wanting information about Gary Eastman’s brother—the biker. Harold limped back into his office, looked up the application in the files and made a copy for Officer Hodges.

  With that completed, he tried to put the problem of a rapist lurking in his park out of his mind and deal with his original quest. Now that Betty had prodded him and got him to thinking, he was genuinely worried. He had known the Plimptons for years, and never once had they enjoyed anything like separate vacations or trips to other provinces. They were senior citizens on a limited budget and they didn’t go anywhere. This long-term visit of Mabel’s to Alberta seemed less and less likely the more Harold thought about it.

  He had hosed down the golf cart earlier in the day and now admired how clean and shiny it looked as he leaned on his cane and limped towards it. Originally it had been beige when he purchased it second hand at an auction, but his son had spray painted it a happy shade of bright yellow and hand painted the park name on the side in big blue letters. Paradise. Sure wasn’t Paradise this week.

  Betty was down on her knees working in her garden when Harold passed her trailer on the way to Edgar’s. He returned her wave.

  Edgar was sitting on the covered porch built along the southern length of his mobile home. He had never been able to enjoy his porch previously because of the thigh-high stacks of daily newspapers Mabel hoarded. There had never been room for chairs in the past.

  “Porch looks better,” Harold sat down in an empty chair.

  “Never sat on it before,” said Edgar. “I took seventeen loads to the dump from the porch alone.”

  “Seventeen.” Harold frowned. “That’s a few trips.”

  “Uh huh.”

  “Heard when Mabel’s coming back home?” Harold asked the question and focused on Edgar’s face.

  “Told her I was cleaning out the trailer and she’s so mad at me now—might never come back.”

  The hair stood up on Harold’s neck. “Did she say that, or you just think that?”

  “She said so.” Edgar lit up a smoke. “Yelled it so loud into the phone, I almost went deaf.”

  “Betty came over to the office,” said Harold. “She’s worried about Mabel.”

  “I know. That damned woman’s been over here enough times. Asked me a million questions. The same ones over and over. Drive a person nuts.”

  “You can level with me Edgar. We’ve been friends for many years. Did Mabel leave you?”

  “Hell no, she’d never make it that easy on me. Let me tell you, Harold, there have been times I wished she would leave me, but no, she just went on a visit. She’ll
be back, but I can’t say when.”

  He sounds sincere.

  “I tried the dandelion wine the other night. Good batch, Edgar. Smooth and strong—dandy good batch.”

  “Thanks. I’ve been having the odd sip now and then.”

  “Well, I’d best be getting back to the poor house,” said Harold thinking he wasn’t getting anything more out of Edgar. “Nice talking to you.”

  “I’ll bring you over some tomatoes as soon as they’re ripe. Got lots of green ones on the vines. Soon as we have some hot sunny days they’ll be ready.”

  “Uh huh.” Harold gave a wave as he eased his bad leg into the golf cart and headed next door to Betty’s place.

  Old Betty Farrell was sitting in the wooden garden swing smoking a cigarette shoved into a faux ivory holder. Her flower beds were second to none in the park and she was the oldest resident by far. Her white hair was thinning and she hacked and coughed enough to scare the youngest smoker, but she kept on trucking year after year. “Get anything out of the old bastard?” she croaked as Harold limped towards her.

  “Nope. Nothing he didn’t already tell me. He said Mabel was mad because he cleaned out the trailer and she told him on the phone she might never come back.”

  “If she ain’t at her step-sister’s place, whose phone was she talking on?”

  “No idea, Betty. This is starting to stress me.”

  “Tomorrow morning I’m going to go to the police station like I told you. My daughter, Winona said she’d take me and bring me back. If they find Mabel and she’s fine—all well and good. I don’t care if she did leave that miserable prick Edgar, but I can’t stand thinking something bad happened to her.”

  “When you get back from the police station, come over and we’ll discuss it.”

  Betty blew a huge cloud of smoke skyward. “I will Harold. I realize you and Edgar have been buddies for years and I appreciate your efforts in this… situation. I certainly do.”

  GARY SLOUCHED DOWN and fell asleep in one of the white plastic chairs on the deck while he waited for his brother. It was after midnight when Rob parked his bike in the driveway and stomped up the steps. Gary opened his eyes before Rob made it past him and sneaked in the kitchen door. “Hey, not so fast, bro. The cops were all over me this afternoon. What the hell have you been stirring up in the park?”

  “Nothing. I’m tired and I’m goin to bed.”

  “Like hell you are. You sit right down there and tell me what you done. I have to live in this god forsaken hole after you’re long gone. Don’t forget that.”

  “Scoped out a hot bitch on the other street. That’s all I did. Never touched her. Nothing. Just talked to her.”

  Gary sat up straighter in his chair. “She the one who called the cops?”

  “Nope, her boyfriend did.”

  “Fuck, she’s got a boyfriend and you parked your ass and talked to her?”

  Rob leaned on the railing and lit up a smoke. “He’s nothing. I could take him.”

  “Well you ain’t gonna take him.” Gary was sitting on the edge of his seat. “You’ll be right back in the slam. You stay away from her. Hear me?”

  “Don’t know if I can. You haven’t seen her, Gar.” Rob’s face broke into a huge grin. “Never saw anything like it.”

  Gary shook his head and growled, “She can’t be a ten if she lives in this park. No way.”

  “I’m telling you, Gary. Ten plus. Un-fuckin-believable.”

  Gary got up and opened the screen door. “Let’s get some sleep and sort this out in the morning.”

  Rob didn’t move. “Marg come back yet?”

  “Don’t want her back. Don’t even miss her. I’m gonna get some fresh talent.”

  “Got your eye on some?” Rob lit up another smoke and leaned on the railing crossing his Harley boots at the ankle.

  “Girl in the first trailer ain’t bad,” Gary pointed in the general direction. “Been over helping her with her lawn mower and I’m pretty sure she’s hot for me. When she was out on her deck drinking coffee today, I waved to her.”

  “Gotta do more than wave, bro. Maybe I’ll check her out tomorrow.”

  “Hey, I said I was taking her.”

  “Well you haven’t got her yet. See who gets her first.”

  “You’re a piece of work, you know that?”

  “I know it.” Rob chuckled and went to bed.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  LONNIE LEFT AT six for the depot to pick up a load. He and Ted had slept at home in their own bed because Jerry had insisted on sleeping over at Gracie’s and personally protecting his sister. He had tried valiantly to convince her to move back to Oshawa with him and Kate. Lonnie felt bad for Grace trying to defend her right to live where she wanted, but it was a family matter and after dinner he and Ted excused themselves and headed home. He needed down time to think what his next move would be if Rob presented a bigger problem in the days ahead.

  At the depot, Lonnie leaned on the dock waiting for his turn to load and the phone hooked to his belt signaled a message. Gracie.

  ‘Heard you pull out this morning.’

  ‘Waiting for a load.’

  ‘Working at Jerry’s for today.’

  ‘Good idea.”

  ‘Talk tonight?’

  ‘Yes.’

  Lonnie was finally loaded and headed home. He wouldn’t leave until early morning. “I’m glad Grace stayed at Jerry’s while we were away, Ted. Keep her safe from that asshole.”

  He pulled in through the gate and everything looked serene. The branches on the big spruce trees standing guard at the park gate were still. No wind. He backed the rig into place and locked it up, then ambled up onto his deck and looked next door for Grace’s truck. She wasn’t home yet.

  “Let’s take a shower, Ted. Grace said we were gonna talk tonight and I want to clean up in case there’s more than talking going on. Never know when she’s gonna kiss me.”

  Ted wagged his red whip of a tail while Lonnie filled his bowl with kibbles. “I know. You don’t have to remind me. She’s always kissing you too. Kissing your ears and your head. Feeding you steak. You’re one lucky dog.”

  Lonnie was chuckling to himself as he hit the shower. He toweled his hair, shaved and splashed on the new cologne. “How do I smell, Ted?”

  Ted didn’t look up.

  “That good, eh?”

  Lonnie made himself a smoked meat sandwich and cracked open a beer. After his quick dinner, he smoked on the deck and waited. His phone beeped. Grace—the only person who texted him.

  ‘Are you home?

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Leaving Jerry’s now.’

  Lon let out a contented sigh. Nice having someone in my life.

  As he sat waiting and watching, a police cruiser pulled into the park, turned the opposite way and drove down to the end of the road where the old people lived. “The cops are going down to that old lady’s house, Ted. The one that said we scared her dogs with the rig. Maybe she’s headed for the slam for saying mean stuff about us.” He chuckled to himself.

  Lonnie watched April park her truck when she came home from work. She had an extension ladder hooked to the side of her pickup. “She doesn’t look strong enough to lift that ladder, Ted. That’s one skinny girl.”

  He listened for the Harley rumble but didn’t hear it. His own bike was in the shed behind his trailer. He needed to change the oil, get it running and go for a ride. Wasn’t good to leave it sitting and never start it up. When he came out of the trailer with a fresh beer in his hand he saw the big four by four coming north on the highway and he smiled. Grace pulled into her driveway and parked. Ted took off running towards her like the devil was on his ass. He never did that. He was in love. Lonnie chuckled and followed Ted.

  Grace struggled, hefting grocery bags out of the truck. Lonnie took two from her. “Let me help you.”

  She smiled up at him. “I missed you today.”

  Lonnie felt tingles run through him when he inhaled he
r perfume and he wanted to kiss her, but his arms were full of grocery bags. He followed her in, set the bags down on the table and when he turned she was right there so close to him he could hear her breathing. She slid her arms around his waist and up his back under his t-shirt. He couldn’t fathom how that made him feel. He buried his hands in her black mop of hair and kissed her like he had fantasized all day. She opened her mouth for his tongue and he was oh-so hard. “I wanted to kiss you all day,” he whispered.

  “You smell good,” she whispered, and kissed his neck.

  Lonnie thought he would stroke out as she kissed him all around his neck and then back on his mouth. She nudged him backwards onto a kitchen chair and sat on his knee, her arms encircling his neck. “I like this better,” she whispered as she mussed up his hair then thrust her tongue into his mouth with a groan.

  Lonnie held her close and felt her chest pressing against him. It was like nothing he had ever felt before. Grace eased her hand up under his shirt and rubbed his abs.

  There was a knock on the door and Gracie frowned. “Damn it,” she muttered under her breath.

  Lonnie grinned and said, “We’re on a break.”

  She pulled away from Lonnie and headed for the door to see who it was. A short solid-looking guy with thinning hair and denim farm overalls stood in front of her grinning. He eyed her up and down and Grace was instantly on edge.”

  “Hi, I’m Earl Galloway and I deliver fresh eggs every week to anybody in the park that wants them. You just moved in so I wondered if you wanted to be on my route.”

  “I can always use fresh eggs. How much a dozen?”

  “Two bucks.”

  “Sure, put me down for a dozen every week. What day do you come?”

  “Today. Tuesdays.”

  Grace was searching for her purse when Lonnie pulled a handful of change from his pocket and flipped her a toonie.

  “Here you go.” She took the egg carton and gave Earl the money. “Nice to meet you Earl. See you next week.” She closed the door and locked it.

  “Are you locking me in?” Lonnie grinned.