by Teresa Trent
"Oh my goodness, what's wrong?" I knew if I started throwing up in front of people the whole town would figure this out. At this point I wasn't even sure of the cause, so my explanation needed to be creative. I waved her off with one hand.
"Oh don't worry. Probably just some food poisoning, but of course, not from Birdie's. The food there is wonderful." The woman, a little taken back by my surefire answer, stepped over to the far wall and nervously sucked into her cigarette. My cell phone rang in my purse and saved me. I waved on and whispered to the waitress "I'm fine. Thanks." To Elaina and she nodded and walked on down the street.
"Mrs. Livingston-Fitzpatrick this is Principal Thompson from Nolan Ryan Middle School."
"Yes?" I became filled with dread that maybe something happened with one of the boys.
"I'm calling you because I need to come down to school right away."
"What happened? Is everything okay?"
"No need to panic. Your son and your stepson are both fine. We need you to pick up Zachary. He's being sent home today."
"Is he sick again?"
"No, I don't believe so. We found him and another boy smoking behind the bleachers between classes. This type of behavior is unacceptable, and we are sending him home from school to think about it."
"Put Zach on the phone." I heard the phone shuffling from one person to the next, and then my son's voice came over the line.
"Hi Mom."
"Hi yourself. Tell me about it."
"There's not too much to tell. This is not a big deal. I know you're busy."
"I'm never too busy to find out why you're being sent home from school."
Without answering me, Zach handed the phone back to the principal.
"So we'll see you shortly, Mrs. Livingston-Fitzpatrick."
CHAPTER TWENTY
Zach and I were headed down the hall when I saw Phyllis Hamilton coming from the other side. She was carrying a large cardboard sign that had the words "Bake Sale" written on it.
"Betsy, how nice to see you. I was so sorry to hear about Rocky. Terribly sad. But, maybe now we'll have a paper that showcases our children instead of a bar fight at Bubba's Beer and Bait."
How did she find a way to mourn Rocky and insult him all in one sentence?
"Yes, we were all shocked about what happened. Leo and I were at home when we got the call. Where were you?" I kind of hoped she think of it as a 'where were you when the towers fell' type thing.
"Me? Oh, that was a big Bunco night for me. I had six tipsy ladies at my house. So, are you here to help with the bake sale?"
"Not today, but I will be on the job for the Harvest Dance."
Phyllis's bottom line thinned. "Oh yes. You're the mother, uh step-mother of our...king this year. I of course, have the entire menu planned out. I will be bringing my signature 'Harvest Balls', and I need you to make four batches of pumpkin squares. Do you have that recipe on hand?"
"Uh, no. Don't think I do."
"No problem. I'll email it to you." Her gaze shifted from me to Zach. This was awkward to be sure. Zach scowled at her.
"Hello Zachary are you feeling ill today? I heard you were out with the flu. It certainly is going around."
Zach mumbled an unintelligible phrase. It was either I'm fine or I like hippos. Phyllis waited for Zach to say something else, but he continued to look down.
"We all have our days now don't we." She said including her perfect self in our crisis.
I tried to draw our conversation to an end. "Yes, yes we do. It's so nice seeing you again Phyllis." She wasn't having any of it.
"So you're checking Zach out early today?"
"I got sent home." Zach's voice was now as clear as a bell, and he came out with the one thing I didn't want to share with Phyllis Hamlin, head of the PTA. She placed her hand on her pearls and drew in a breath sharply.
"Really?" Her gaze went from Zach to me, judgment dripping off of her.
"Young man, we all have to follow the rules now don't we?" I was desperate to get out of the building. I grabbed Zach and propelled him towards the door.
"Good seeing you, Phyllis." We were out of there.
As we were riding home we sat in an awkward silence. I tried to start a conversation. "What's going on?"
"I don't know."
"I'm trying to understand why you were just sent home for smoking. I'm going to need a little more information than that."
Zach and I had always been best buddies, but now we didn't seem to have anything to say to one another. What happened to my sweet little boy? When did he slip out the door and this surly pre-teen sneak in to replace him? I felt overwhelmed by everything that was happening. It was just too much.
In the middle of my anxiety, a different and unexpectedly positive thought started to creep in. Of course, that was it. Zach had a father in the house now. I could get help with this issue. I wasn't alone in all of this. Leo must be doing something right with Tyler because he was doing incredibly well in his new town, school and life even. A good transition like that could only mean that he is the product of good parenting. Zach was a little more sensitive, and so change was tougher on him. Whatever it was that Leo did with Tyler he could also do with Zach. I felt a little better as my confidence surged thinking of how I could deal with this problem. I reached over and speed-dialed Leo. He should have been finishing up his work in the television station by now and on his way to his other job at the regional weather center. After four rings he finally picked up.
"Leo. I'm so glad I reached you."
"Is there something wrong?"
"Kind of. I just got called by Zach's school. He and another boy were sent home for smoking."
I waited for Leo's response. How would he handle this? Whatever it was I was prepared for action.
"Wow, Betsy that's awful. What are you going to do?"
What was I going to do? Didn't he mean what was he going to do or maybe even what are we going to do?
"I kind of hoped you could take over on this one." I waited another 10 seconds, but still there were no words of great parenting expertise coming at me from the other side of the phone conversation.
"Betsy, I hate to cut you off like this, but I have to run inside. I'm late already. I absolutely promise you we will talk about this when I get home."
"What time will that be?" I asked.
"I have a few hours worth of work here and then I need to stop back by NUTV for a ... meeting."
"A late meeting?". My mind drifted to Jeanette Burress. Would she be at this meeting?
"Betsy are you still there?"
"Yes I'm here. I guess I'll see you after that then." My last words had just a touch of acid. It reminded me of the bile that was rising up in my stomach. I was being taken over by a feeling of doom and gloom. Was history repeating itself? The last time I felt like this my first husband chose not to be around. Had I really done something this stupid? Had I searched all over the state of Texas to find a man who would turn out to be just like Barry?
****
When Leo did get home I was laying on the couch watching a reality television show in which a handsome man was offering a rose and pledging his love to a drop-dead gorgeous woman in a gold trimmed evening gown. It was all so perfect and not anywhere even close to reality.
"Did you speak to Zach?" He asked as he snuggled next to me on the couch.
"A little, but I was waiting for you."
"For me?"
"Yes. I was hoping you could speak with him man-to-man."
His lips curved into a smile. "Did you want me to use my gruff voice too?"
I playfully hit him. "You know what I mean."
He sighed, "Sure. I get it. Let's go upstairs and talk to him."
We headed upstairs to Zach's room where we found him lying on his bed tossing a baseball up in the air and catching it. He didn't look up when we entered. After a few seconds passed and Zach didn't stop his pitch and catch, Leo began to speak.
"Zach, what you did today
was wrong. This kind of behavior may seem exciting ..."
Zach interrupted. "I never said it was exciting."
Leo was trying, but Zach just wasn't responding to anything.
"Okay, you never said it was exciting, but smoking is a terrible habit."
He countered. "Don't you think I know that?"
This whole parenting moment seemed to be going from bad to worse. How come Tyler snapped to everything Leo said and Zach was just the opposite?
"I'm glad you know about the dangers of smoking. That being said I think we're done here. Right, Betsy?" He turned to me for some kind of positive acknowledgment. I just wasn't feeling it.
I turned to Zach and placed my hand on his shoulder trying to gently turn him towards me.
"Zach, don't ever, I mean ever do anything like this again. Do you hear me?"
He gazed into my eyes for just a minute, and I think I saw traces of something close to shame.
His voice barely broke above a whisper. "Yes. I hear you."
"Fine, then." Leo chimed in. "Glad we all had this little talk.
Later just as Leo was about to fall asleep I couldn't help myself.
"Leo, do you think what we told Zach will help?"
"Huh? I hope so."
"It's just that there's so much going on right now with the fire and Tyler. Then there's this whole flu thing. It's really been distracting me. Maybe that's why he's acting out."
"Could be... It's hard to have your mind in more than one place at once. I'm exhausted. Let's go to sleep." He said.
He was right. Keeping up with the boys, Leo, my job, and finding out what happened to Rocky was all consuming. Could I handle one more thing pulling me another direction? I might have to.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The next morning as Leo was in the shower the phone rang.
"Is Leo there?" Said a soft sultry voice that I now recognized as Jeanette Burress.
"Yes he is, but he can't come to the phone right now. Can I take a message?" I said trying to act like I didn't know who it was.
"You certainly can. This is Jeanette from the television station. We just wanted to make sure we had Leo for one more day. We know it's a lot to ask of you and your little family. Right now, with Hal being out, we really can't do without Leo."
She went on and on about Leo's ability as if I'd never seen the man point to a map.
"Anyway we would really appreciate it if you could give us just one more day down here at NUTV. I shouldn't be saying this, but we took a little audience poll and nine out of ten of our viewers preferred Leo over Hal. I'm afraid Mr. Hal is getting a little old and our folks just love Leo. Do you think he would ever consider taking on this job full-time?"
"That's very nice of you to ask, but he already has a job, Miss Burress." I looked up as Leo was coming out of the shower. He whispered "Who is that?" I mouthed "Jeanette Burress".
"Here he is now" I said as I flung the phone at him.
"Good morning Jeanette." He paused as Jeanette repeated her question to him. He picked up his watch off the counter and put it on while glancing at the time.
"I hope you've been checking in on Hal so he'll be back to work soon. It's kind of rough working two jobs you know, but I suppose I could schedule out a few more days if it needs to happen." He paused as he listened to her response. Leo hung up quickly and ran to his closet. He was no longer quite so picky about what he should wear as the novelty of being on television was wearing off.
"She really loves your working there."
"No, she's just looking for someone to fill in for Hal."
"Why don't they just run a typed version of the local weather across the bottom like the weather channel does?"
"Then they would have to acknowledge that they are just a podunk cable access channel and not a major cable network." Leo said.
"I actually thought this was a good thing when you started filling in for Hal."
"Jeanette was just saying to me last night how they wanted to build a whole new set so that it would reflect on my more photographic side. Isn't that hilarious?"
I didn't know if I was more concerned that his late-night meeting last night was with Jeanette, and he wasn't even bothering to hide it, or if the television station was making long-term plans to keep my husband at two jobs. "Did you tell her not to bother?" I asked.
Leo stalled for a minute making my heart race. It was just a temporary thing. He couldn't be thinking about keeping this job could he? He had to be out of his mind. He was already gone too many hours in a day.
"It has been kind of fun. I guess I never had this much on-air time. I've always been the guy with the thick glasses, sitting behind a computer screen, telling people about coastal fronts and air surges, but now people recognize me. I think I understand why you enjoy being the Happy Hinter. I suppose this kind of makes us the only celebrity couple in Pecan Bayou."
"I'm glad it's only temporary." I said trying to ignore would he just said. I had parenting issues creeping in at me from all sides, and he was talking about his career on camera. "We need you. The boys need you. I need you." Leo came behind me putting his hands over mine that I hadn't realized were resting on my midsection. He kissed the back of my neck making me shiver.
"I know you do, and this will be over soon. I promise." He let go making our moment way too short, grabbing his shirt from the bed he started buttoning it up. "You think this will be a better day for Zach?"
"I hope so. Zach really has never had a father in the picture. My dad has been there for us, but it's not the same thing as having a father in the house all the time."
"I know what you mean."
I bent down to pick up Leo's shirt from last night. He had missed the hamper. As I started to stuff it into the wicker laundry basket the scent of stale perfume drifted up. If I wasn't so secure in our relationship I would be jealous right now. I felt a wave of nausea running through me again. As his back was turned to me, I ran into the bathroom and shut the door behind me. A few minutes later Leo knocked softly. "Betsy? I'm going to head out now. Good luck with Zach today."
I waited for the sound of the front door to close. Once I heard that click, I lowered my head into my hands and started a long overdue cry.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
An hour later the boys were up and eating breakfast.
"Mom, I promise I'm not going to hang out with Skittles today." We exchanged glances.
He held up his hand. "I promise."
"Besides, he usually doesn't show up two days in a row." Tyler added.
With that thin reassurance I put the boys on the bus and vowed to go about my day not fearing the next phone call from the principal.
Trying not to think about the possibility of my son hanging out with a kid named "Skittles", I decided to go back to Rocky's files. I was looking at what Rocky had on Edgar West when I saw his appointment with the pet of the week lady. This was the lady who found me crying in my car yesterday. I had to cut these unplanned crying jags out. I remembered her name was Pearly. Maybe Rocky had something on her like he did the tax guy. It could be the reason for her hatred of him. I did a quick search and found an old article that he had bookmarked with the title "pet lady". It seemed that Pearly had been involved in a puppy mill arrest 10 years ago in Pennsylvania.
It was pretty unbelievable that the self-appointed patron Saint of dogs and cats used to raise Shitzus in inhumane conditions to sell to pet stores. No wonder she hadn't been sorry to see him go. Now I wanted to know where she was on the night of Rocky's fire. Did she have an alibi? I would have to make a stop by the animal shelter later in the day.
I was running out of places to look in Rocky's files if there was anyone else who might know about his last days. I had been lucky to find out what I did on Pearly Schroeder. Who else could I ask?
I remembered a pleasant retired lady who would come in to file classified ads in his dented filing cabinet. She had always smiled and waved at me, but then went right back to work. I s
earched my brain for her name, but nothing came. Maybe Aunt Maggie knew her name. I hadn't seen her in a few months, but remembered Rocky saying she had been coming in to help lately. If she had been in the office in the last days before the fire, then she might know something. I picked up some fresh chicken soup at Birdies and headed over to her house.
*****
"We're doing fine, Betsy, but it was real sweet of you to come by," Aunt Maggie said.
Both she and Danny lay on the couch with a collection of comic books spread out across the coffee table. He was happily downing a popsicle.
"You don't look fine. I actually came over to ask you if you remember the name of the lady who used to come in and help Rocky at the newspaper." I asked.
Aunt Maggie sat back and crossed her arms. "Let me think. There were a few older women who helped out at the newspaper. You know that. Probably the one who was in there the most was Eula Jean Smith. We didn't really talk all that much, but sometimes I would see her over at Ruby's. Of course it's pretty hard to have a conversation when your head's under a dryer."
"Smith? Really?"
"Oh come on, Betsy. There aren't that many Smiths in the phone book. Why are you asking about her?"
"Because Rocky had someone scheduled to help with the filing around the time of the fire."
"That changes things. Let me think a little harder." She looked over at Danny. His eyes were glued to the cartoons on television. "Danny do you remember Mrs. Smith down at the newspaper?"
"Who?"
"Mrs. Smith. She had gray hair and would've been working behind the counter with Mr. Rocky."
"Mrs. Smith. I remember Mrs. Smith. Strawberry gum. She had strawberry gum." If I could only look her up in the phone book under strawberry gum I would have it made.
