Darla Bell: “Wouldn’t you say this is a good reason to have all monetary funds handled manually in the future, especially when the amount of funds is so huge?”
Walter Dale: “Yes, yes, you are absolutely right, Miss Bell. There are some things that machines cannot improve on. And I have a question for you if you don’t mind.”
Darla Bell: “And what is that, Mr. Dale?”
Walter changed demeanors on the spot, leered at her, and said, “Is there a Mr. Bell in your life?”
The men at the bar started laughing, Kim shook her head with a grin, and I smiled when I saw the news reporter do a double-take at Walter and the camera before saying, “This is Darla Bell signing off from…” and then stopping since she had forgotten where she was.
By that time, Walter was walking around her, almost strutting, and saying, “As you can see, I’m gainfully employed!”
Miss Bell quickly recouped to say, “Back to you, Greg!”
All the bikers laughed even louder, drowning out the news anchorman with the follow-up story.
There it was. All loose ends had been covered, except for mine. I could go home tomorrow and try to get back to normal.
After all this, I didn’t know if I wanted to get back to normal. Normal was boring.
Home
The next day I unhooked Walter’s RV and thanked the owners of the bar and grill, promising I’d be back for more meals and drinks, and drove toward the city. I listened to the radio all the way back in, but nothing was mentioned of the Lovely murder or missing inheritance or Dr. Burke; only weather and sports and traffic were the big news of the day. I pulled up into my street to find my house, windows shattered and police “Do not cross” tape tied from tree to tree, but there were no police cars around. I ignored the tape and went into my home, which was made easy since my doors had been kicked in. I made a mental note to look into purchasing stronger doors.
There was glass all over the floor, and the carpet and furniture were stained red, probably from the smoke and tear gas that had been shot into my house, as I found out later from the neighbors. They had really enjoyed watching all the developments.
I called the police department, telling them who and where I was. They asked me to come down and give a statement as to where I had been the past few days. I said I would but that I would like to clean up my house first since they had managed to smash it to pieces. The policeman became much nicer after I said that. I told him I didn’t blame the department, since they were only doing their job, and I wasn’t going to hold them liable. I was a big boy now and could buy new doors and windows myself. I guess I was feeling a bit guilty since I had, after all, probably broken the law a few times and led them on a wild goose chase on Lovely Hill. It wasn’t the insurance company’s fault either, so why make them pick up the tab? Good thing there really wasn’t too much damage. It’s just things; they can be replaced.
I decided to quit sweeping up in the middle of the house cleaning, and get a shower and cleaned up and into some clean clothes, hopefully some clothes that didn’t smell like tear gas, and drive downtown to see Miss Planter.
I headed downtown and stopped at Gary Byers’ Florist and picked-up a dozen roses. Gary smiled over the counter and asked, “What’s this for?”
I said, “Oh, nothing,” not wanting to share my personal life; after all, perhaps this might blow up in my face, as things had with Helen.
He replied, “That’s too bad; I thought they were for Miss Planter.”
“They are for--hey, how did you find out about…?” I asked.
“From somebody I don’t know,” smiled Gary, then he added, “On the house. If you like this girl, we don’t charge for classmates.”
I thanked him and told him that was a nice gesture on his part. While I walked towards the exit he said, “Anything I can do for a man on the run!” I laughed at that. I could afford to laugh, now.
I headed towards the medical center and wondered what the heck I was doing. I had never married. I’d never been seriously involved with anyone since Helen. This was new and strange territory for me, but somehow I felt it was a journey that must be traveled.
I parked the RV next to my car; nobody had discovered it yet. There next to my car was Miss Planter’s car. How did it get here? I had the keys, and the last place it was located was at the Lovely Chocolate Company… oh, never mind. They took care of that, too.
I entered the building and decided to be different and take the elevator up to the third floor. I walked down the hall, turned into the mental health area, and greeted Phyllis the secretary, who seemed surprised.
“Why so startled to see me?” I asked. “You act as though I were dead!”
“I thought you were … a wanted man!”
“That was yesterday,” I said. “Things have changed. Is Miss Planter in?”
“Yes, but she’s with a patient right now.”
“I can wait,” I said and made my way over to a chair to sit and relax. I didn’t even bother to read anything; it was just good enough to be here, in one piece.
The phone buzzed at the secretary’s desk, and she answered it. She was talking to Miss Planter and told her that I was here waiting to see her, and that I was happy to wait. I sat there for maybe 10 more minutes but somehow was content. I was content to wait. I had no place better to be at that moment.
After 20 minutes of sitting, Miss Planter finally opened her door and gave me the “okay” to come in. Her patient took the back door out, so we were alone. She was curious to know what happened, but first I presented the dozen roses to her. Her eyes got big for a moment, and then she looked at me as to ask, “What are these for?”
“You’re fired,” I said.
Status Change
Miss Planter took on a look of confusion, so I knew I couldn’t let her stay in that state long. “Let me explain,” I started. “I know I’ve been placing you in a precarious position since I’ve started making my feelings about you known.”
She said nothing. She wanted to hear more.
“I care about you and have come to love you,” I said. “I hope you feel the same way about me. I know in your profession that you’re not supposed to mix it up with patients, so you’re no longer my counselor. By firing you I have upgraded your position from counselor to girlfriend. Of course, you will lose no business because I’m still paying for the marital counseling between Dr. and Mrs. Burke, who can meet more frequently now that my slot is open.”
Miss Planter looked a little surprised, then said, “If we’re going to be a couple, don’t you think you should call me ‘Karen”?”
I thought on this for a moment, and replied, “Yes, ma’am.”
Miss Planter smiled and said, “Randall, I do feel that way. It occurred to me that I know everything about you, but you really don’t know me. I …”
“Let me interrupt,” I said. “Sorry. I know all I need to know about you. You’re younger than I am. You were raised on the east side of town, with two siblings, David and John. You attended Eastside High, were fourth in your class, then got married at an early age. You have three children, Kevin, Brittany, and Daniel, all grown, and you raised them yourself when your husband refused to grow up and left. You attend the Second Baptist Church in town and worked to feed your kids and get your degree and later your master’s in the field of psychology and counseling, and …”
Miss Planter’s face became more and more surprised and twisted when I spoke; I was hoping I had got all the facts right.
“How did you find out all this?” asked Miss Planter.
“I did research before I started coming here,” I replied. “I wanted to know who’d be crawling around inside of my head before I told all.” This didn’t seem to satisfy her, so I said, “It’s all on the internet! There’s no such thing as privacy anymore; that’s a thing of the past. Plus, you know all about me; don’t you think it’s fair I know about you?”
“Well, yes, it’s just…”
“Yo
u have nothing to hide, nothing to be ashamed about,” I reassured her. “Everything I know about you is good. That’s one reason I love you.”
“Oh, I love you too, Randall.” And with that she fell into my arms, which I really didn’t expect but was glad to have happened. The flowers were tossed onto a chair as I hugged her and kissed her face, multiple times. Smack! Smack! Smack! Smack! Smack! Smack! Smack!
I stopped and looked down at Miss Planter, who had closed her eyes. “Do you like this?” I asked.
“I love it!” she said, smiling with her eyes closed.
“Good, ‘cause there’s plenty where that comes from, babycakes!” and resumed the kissing her all over her beautiful face.
And with that, she started laughing in my arms; it was almost hard to hold onto her.
It was good to hear her laugh; this made me happy.
The End
Other books by Richard J. Bennett
Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Boy Scouts:
The Story of Troop 826
Faith and Labor:
An Examination of a Texas Public High School
Available on Amazon.com and Kindle
* * *
Footnotes
The Lovely Chocolate Mob
Acknowledgements
End of an Era
Mentally Healthy
Early Years
On Lovely Hill
A Sad Childhood Story
Miss Planter Gets Personal
Evaluation
Game Changer
Helen Speaks
Work Day
The Specialist
Visiting Miss Planter
News from Walter
Meeting with Helen
The Big Picture
Speaking with David
Special Assignment
New Session
David and Spouse
Decision
At the Hospital
At the House
At Estella’s
Back to the Routine
Back at the Grill
The Trip Home
The Tunnel
Getting Home
The Second Day
Exclusive Interview
At Home
The Big Day
The Lovely Chocolate Factory
Back to the Counselor
Warning Dr. Burke
Destruction
The Explanation
The Agreement
With the Counselor
Television Journalism
At Luigi’s
Getting into a Routine
The Kids
The Last Inning
Update
The Warning
Reaction
Showdown
Firewall
Airborne
Excuses
The Wait
Home
Status Change
The Lovely Chocolate Mob Page 28
