by R. B. Conroy
“I’m done, Uncle Dirk. Can I have a snow cone now?”
Dirk glanced down at the pleading eyes of his six year old nephew. “Yeah, I guess so. Where do you get them?”
“Over here.” The little boy in tattered shorts and a dirty t-shirt two sizes too small squeezed harder on Dirk’s finger and pulled him toward the small concession some thirty feet away. Dirk followed obediently behind the excited boy, dodging the many tourists scurrying past.
“Can I help you?” a friendly young man dressed in an elf outfit announced.
“We’d like a snow cone.”
“What flavor, sir?”
“What flavor do you want, Earl?”
“Purple, Uncle Dirk, I want purple!”
“Grape,” Dirk said impatiently to the attendant. Dirk searched the entrance to the ladies’ room looking for Earl’s mother. “I think your mother got lost in there,” he complained.
“Here you go, Sonny.” The attendant leaned over and carefully handed the snow cone to the little boy.
“Thank you,” Earl mumbled.
Dirk nodded to his right. “Let’s go over there and wait for your mom.” He headed for an empty table between the snow cone concession and ladies’ restroom. Little Earl scampered behind his fast walking uncle, both hands grasping firmly to the wobbly snow cone.
Dirk sat down at the table and Earl wiggled in next to him, still holding firmly to the snow cone. “There’s Mommy!” he shouted.
Dirk glanced to his left and saw his sister, Naomi, exiting the ladies room. He gave her an aggravated, disapproving look. His sister had gained a lot of weight since the last time he saw her. She had on soiled gray sweats, green sneakers, and a wrinkled white blouse with faded sequins on the front. Naomi and Earl lived in Valdosta, Georgia, just over two hours from Lady Lake, but Dirk rarely saw them.
“Sit down.” Dirk pointed at a seat next to Earl. Naomi, somewhat afraid of her older brother, didn’t argue.
“Thank you for buying Earl a snow cone.” She cast a warm smile at her little son.
“You owe me three bucks.” Dirk barked coarsely.
Naomi leaned up from the table; she looked diminished by the insensitive tone in her brother’s voice. She grabbed her tattered purse, pulled out a small billfold and snapped it open. She rummaged through the billfold and pulled out a single and some change. “This is all I’ve got.” Tears welled in her eyes as she handed him the paltry sum.
“Ah, forget it. I’m not going to take your last fuckin’ dollar.” Dirk pushed her hand away.
“Thanks,” she murmured.
“How did you afford these tickets to Disney World, anyway?” Dirk asked.
“I won a contest at work just before I got laid off.” Naomi held her eyes on the table, avoiding eye contact with her domineering brother.
“I knew it!” Dirk bellowed. “That’s why you’re here, because you’re out of work and need money. What about that boyfriend of yours? Doesn’t he have any money?”
Naomi spoke so softly Dirk had to lean forward to hear her. “He got busted for cooking meth. He’s in jail awaiting his bond hearing.”
Dirk shook his head disgustedly, “You really know how to pick ‘em.”
The usually submissive Naomi’s face flushed red, apparently fond of her troubled boyfriend, she didn’t want her brother putting him down. “He’s a good guy! He just needed money and he couldn’t find a job! He had to sell crack just to get by!”
Dirk twisted his Sturgis ring nervously, “Well, you’re shit out of luck here. I’m in debt up to my ears. I owe everybody in town money.”
Naomi’s face fell into her chubby hands; her long, stringy hair fell down over her hands. She began sobbing. “I…I’m sorry Dirk, I just didn’t know where else to turn.”
“Don’t cry, Mommy!” Little Earl dropped his partially eaten snow cone on the table and rushed over and wrapped his arms around his mommy’s leg. “Don’t cry!”
Even the hard hearted Dirk was starting to feel a little sorry for his younger sister. He remembered what a pretty little girl she had been as a child, and even though he was six years her senior, they had always been very close as children. His expression softened. “Are you behind on the rent on your mobile?”
She nodded her head.
“How much?”
“Four thousand,” she said almost inaudibly.
“Four thousand! You just got laid off! Why the hell is it four thousand?” Dirk’s feelings of empathy vanished.
“Earl got pneumonia and I didn’t have any insurance. I had to take him to the emergency room at the local Med Center in Valdosta because they can’t refuse treatment. They set me up on a payment plan and when I couldn’t pay, they got a garnishment against me and took it out of my paycheck. It’s a hundred dollars a week, Dirk! I can’t afford that.”
“So you let the rent slide.”
“I had to Dirk, I didn’t have enough money. The landlord says I have to pay up by the end of the month or he is going to evict me.”
Thinking of his own financial problems, but wanting to help his sister, Dirk’s emotions were going every direction. His sense of frustration seemed to make him even angrier. He lashed out at his sister. “Earl! Why the hell did you name that poor kid Earl? That’s the worst name I ever heard of for a kid!”
Distraught, Naomi became defensive. She yelled at her brother. “I named him after our dad! Don’t you even remember your father’s middle name?”
“Mommy! Mommy! Don’t yell, Mommy!” The sobbing boy pleaded with his mother.
“I know my father’s middle name! I guess I was just hoping that you weren’t stupid enough to name your son after that nasty son-of-a-bitch!” Dirk’s face flushed red. He jumped to his feet and leaned over the table, his face was only inches from his sister’s. “That man beat me every night, every damned night of my life. That bastard was a monster. I should have killed him when we were kids!” Dirk began pounding the table violently with his fist while continuing to scream “Bastard! Bastard!”
Naomi wailed and cowered away from Dirk on the bench, holding on tightly to Earl. A crowd of onlookers began to form. Dirk was wild with rage. Suddenly, several men in uniforms rushed over and surrounded Dirk. “Calm down, sir, just calm down.” One of the men attempted to pull him away from Naomi.
“Mommy, Uncle Dirk’s going to jail. Mommy!” Little Earl screamed.
“Take your hands off me!” Dirk shouted. His eyes were glazed in anger.
“I’ll take my hand off of you, sir, if you back away from the lady,” the large security guard replied.
Dirk had a prior for assault and had been arrested twice in the past year for fighting in local bars in the Lady Lake area. He was told by the circuit judge just a few weeks ago that if he ever saw his face in his court room again, he would send him back to prison. Dirk leaned back from the table and took several deep breaths trying desperately to compose himself and avoid a lengthy jail sentence.
The big security guard looked Dirk directly in the eye and spoke aggressively. “You have a little boy here scared to death because he thinks his uncle is going to jail. If you raise your voice one more time, I’m going to haul you in for attempted battery. Do you understand me?”
Dirk looked away from the guard and stared straight ahead. He felt sympathy for Earl, but he hated authority. He was ready to fight them all, if necessary. He had no fear. It was the legacy of constant beatings from a brutal father. There was no confrontation too violent or situation too dicey for Dirk Harrison. He was ready for a fight under any circumstances with no concern for his own physical well-being. The only thing that Dirk Harrison feared was losing control and he knew that if he went to jail again, he would lose control of his life and the thought terrified him. He took several more deep breaths and spoke softly, “No problem officer, no problem.”
The guard released his grip on Dirk’s arm. “Under normal circumstances, I would escort you out of here right now, but something tells me that th
is may be the only time this little guy gets to see Disney World, so I’m going to let you stay. But I will be watching you, sir, and believe me, if I see anything out of line, I will be on you like a wet blanket. Do you understand me, sir?”
Dirk looked down at the wet, damp eyes of his nephew and his sobbing sister and replied respectfully. “I get it.”
The security man took a half step backward. “Okay, men, let’s go.” All of the men quickly dispersed from the area, leaving the three lost souls alone to face the disapproving gazes from the slowly dispersing crowd.
* * * * * *
Earl bit down on the thick piece of taffy, pulled hard with both hands and ripped a chunk loose. He chewed it aggressively and watched his pink balloon covered by a picture of Mickey Mouse bounce against the roof of his uncle’s SUV. Dirk and Naomi sat quietly in the front seat. Barely a word had been exchanged between them since the ugly incident near Cinderella’s Castle. Dirk adjusted his wrap-around sunglasses and looked ahead at the roadside sign that read “Lady Lake 12”. They were almost home; it was about seven in the evening.
“How much do you owe the hospital?” Dirk asked while never taking his eyes off of the road ahead.
“Quite a bit,” Naomi murmured.
“How much?”
Naomi glanced at her volatile brother out of the corner of her eye in an attempt to gauge his mood. She pulled her head back quickly, not liking what she saw. She glared down at the floor of the auto and said nothing back to him.
“I said, how much, damn it!” Ready to explode, Dirk shook his head angrily and looked out the driver’s side window at the passing landscape.
“He got so bad I had to put him in the hospital for six days.”
Dirk exhaled loudly, “How much!”
“About twelve thousand,” she blurted and then ducked to her right to avoid a possible back hand from her unpredictable brother.
Surprisingly, he didn’t try to hit her. “Who else?”
“Who else?”
“Who else do you owe money to?”
“I’ve been borrowing against my credit cards to pay the bills. I owe Master Card and Visa about eight thousand.” Tenser now Naomi sat cowering in the corner of the front seat not knowing what was going to happen next.
“Eight thousand to each of them or a total of eight thousand to both of them?”
“My mommy needs money,” Earl was talking to an imaginary friend in the backseat. His voice became louder as the tension grew in the front seat. “Uncle Dirk wants to know how much.”
Naomi spoke so softly that Dirk had to lean toward her and ask her to say it again. She repeated and then pushed clear over against the passenger side door. “Each.”
Dirk slammed on the brakes and yanked the car off the interstate and onto the shoulder. The big vehicle skidded to a stop in some loose gravel.
Little Earl screamed at his imaginary friends, “How much!” “How much!”
With the SUV still running, Dirk spun violently toward Naomi.
“Don’t hit me! Please don’t hit me!” she begged.
“Don’t hit my mommy!” Earl cried as he unsnapped his seatbelt, scaled the top of the front seat and dove into his mother’s lap. His Mickey Mouse balloon bounced against Dirk’s face. Dirk swatted the balloon away and reached toward his sister.
“Leave my mommy alone!” the terrified little boy screeched.
Ignoring the boy’s pleas, Dirk pressed his thick thumb against Naomi’s upper lip and pushed it up exposing her black, rotting teeth. “Damn, just what I thought!” he groused.
“I’m off of it! I promise you, Dirk, I’m off of it!” Naomi wrapped her arms tightly around her terrified son, rocking him back and forth.
Dirk slid back to the driver’s side and put the vehicle in gear. He looked in the side mirror and then gunned it back onto Interstate 75. “You don’t get off meth. I don’t know one fuckin’ person who ever got off of meth.”
“It’s been ten days. I’ve been off ten days,” she said.
Dirk shook his head, “Ten days isn’t crap. Anybody can stay off for ten days.”
“I’m going to do it. I will, you’ll see.”
“Why are you doing that stuff anyway? You should be buying clothes for that kid and getting him a haircut once in a while instead of spending all of your money on meth. Dumb bitch!” he mumbled.
Dirk’s life had been a mess with his volatile personality, run-ins with the law, and drinking and partying, but until the recent melt down in the economy, he had always been able to pay his bills, mainly because he worked hard and learned to stay away from drugs, particularly meth. After losing two friends to the “poor man’s cocaine”, he had done a lot of reading on the subject and fancied himself somewhat of an expert on the debilitating concoction.
“You gotta get rid of that worthless boyfriend of yours! He was the one who got you on that shit!”
Naomi shot back, “It’s not his fault, I was doing it before ….” Naomi caught herself before she finished the damning revelation.
“How long? How long were you doing it before you met numb nuts?”
Not wanting the boy to hear her confessions about her past drug abuse, she kissed him gently on the cheek and lifted him over the front seat. “Fasten your seatbelt, honey.”
“I’m back now, Jacob,” the boy said to his imaginary friend while squiggling into his seat and buckling up.
Naomi fell back and looked out the passenger side window. “About four years,” she said quietly.
Dirk closed his eyes temporarily and exhaled, “Do you know what that stuff does to you?”
“I used it so I would have more energy-so I could work double shifts and not get tired. I had a kid to take care of and bills to pay. One shift wasn’t enough.”
“Double shifts, my ass! You’ve never worked a double shift in your life. You were over there partying and you know it.”
Naomi’s eyes clouded over as tears began to roll down her cheeks, “Yeah, my life’s one big party over there in Georgia. I’m just having a fabulous time. I’m the party girl of Valdosta, that’s me,” she said sarcastically. She lifted a tissue from her pocket and dabbed the tears from her eyes.
Dirk’s exit to Lady Lake was just ahead. He flipped on his turn signal and eased off 75. Dirk glanced over at his sister, scrunched down and crying quietly in the seat next to him. She looked pathetic with her dark eyes, shabby clothes, and pale skin. Even Dirk couldn’t help but feel for her.
“If you use that stuff long enough, you can never feel good again. It burns up all of the dopamine in your brain. Dopamine is what makes people feel good inside, and without it, you’re life becomes a sad, miserable pile of shit.”
Naomi was sobbing and glaring aimlessly through the side window. She suddenly turned toward Dirk, and with her hollow, bloodshot eyes, glaring longingly at him, she laid her trembling hand gently on his forearm. She spoke to him in a low, cracking voice, “Everybody’s gone in our family, Dirk. All we have left is each other. I always looked up to you when we were kids.” She stroked his arm tenderly. “You always protected me from our dad, Dirk. There were nights when he beat you senseless, but he never laid a hand on me. That was because you always got between us and took the beating. You were amazingly strong and courageous. After we grew up, my life fell apart. I feel like a failure. That’s why I haven’t come to visit you more often-I’m embarrassed-I’m just a fat, ugly druggie. You have a big Harley store and all, and I’m on food stamps.” She paused and squeezed his arm. “You will always be my hero, Dirk, and I will always love you with all my heart!”
Dirk gunned it off the exit ramp and took a hard right into a large parking lot. He raced to the corner of the expansive lot and slammed on the brakes. With tears pouring down his face, he unbuckled his seatbelt and fell toward his startled sister. He threw his tattoo arms around her and hugged her as tightly as he could. “Oh, hell, Sis, I don’t know how we survived that bastard!” Earl scrambled over the front seat an
d fell on Dirk’s back, holding on for dear life.
“I love you, Dirk,” Naomi moaned.
“I love you too, Sis!” Dirk whispered through his tears. “He tried to destroy us, but he didn’t! We still have each other!” Dirk’s back started to heave, he was sobbing so hard he could hardly catch his breath. All the many years of pain and anger came flooding out of him in this rare moment in his otherwise affectionless, tormented existence.
“I need you, Dirkey.” Naomi reverted back to his childhood name as a show of affection.
“I’ll take care of you, sis. This fuckin’ world isn’t going to beat up on us ever again. I promise you that! We’ve been beat on enough!”
Large trucks and hundreds of other vehicles rumbled past them on the busy highway just above them, unaware of the emotional tsunami going on in the front seat of an old, beat-up, SUV just below them. The two siblings snuggled in next to each other and squeezed their hands tightly together and reminisced about the few happy times they enjoyed in an otherwise dark childhood.
A newly invigorated Earl jumped back to the rear seat and played happily with his imaginary friend. “My mommy and Uncle Dirk aren’t mad anymore. Now they love each other,” he said with authority.
Yellow rays from the setting sun filtered through the auto’s windows giving the car’s glowing interior a look of peace and serenity. The whole scene was a stark contrast to the earlier exchanges between the two Harrison siblings.
“We better go, Sis,” Dirk said quietly.
“Okay.”
Naomi slid over to the passenger side as Dirk started up. “I may never be like this again, Sis, but you know I love you.”
“I know, Dirkey, I love you too.”
23
The smiling hostess led Cathy to her seat at Toojays restaurant. Cathy had made plans to meet an old friend from her hometown for lunch. She slid into the booth at the spacious deli and pulled open her purse. She reached inside and found her cell phone. She flipped it open and checked the screen for messages-there were none. It had been two days since her conversation with Dirk and she still hadn’t heard from him. She was starting to get impatient and wanted desperately to know what kind of plan he had come up with. She set the small phone on the table next to the salt and pepper shakers and dropped her purse on the seat next to her. Under normal circumstances, she would never dream of taking a call during a luncheon date, but in this case, she would make an exception. She needed to talk with Dirk in the worst way.
