by Nick Younker
“Well, thank God she has you back there to help them. It’s going to be a madhouse in here ’til 11 a.m.,” Linton said.
“Sorry Boss. I’m only here until eight. I have to pick up my kids from Sandra by eight-thirty. I’m taking them to Patoka for the weekend.”
Linton gave a sympathetic smile to this. He knew there was not a nicer man in all of Fogstow. Bob truly was a good person. He was always willing to help anyone in the town with anything, no matter who they were or how they treated him. His kids meant more to him than anything in his life, including his own life. It’s just too bad that awful lady had primary custody of those kids.
Back in ’85, Linton and Bob went up to Louisville for a night out, and they met a woman who said she was from Fogstow. Her name was Sandra Odair and although neither one of them had ever heard of her before, they believed her. She really came on to Bob, which was not typical for him. He was so taken with her that he brought her back with them to Fogstow and she stayed the night with him. Nine months later, Sebastian was born. Bob and Sandra got married a month later, then a year after that, Ellen was born. They all lived in Bob’s house, which he had bought back in ’84. A month after Ellen was born, Sandra kicked Bob out of the house, divorced him, took the kids, and then moved her mother, Candy Odair, into Bob’s house.
But still, Bob saw the good in everyone. He never had anything bad to say about Sandra or her mother. That was always a major burning point for Linton because every chance those two women got, they shamelessly fed lies to those kids about Bob. They told them Bob had been in prison before they were born and that Bob used to beat Sandra. They even told Ellen that Bob wasn’t her real father. Linton knew this because he overheard them talking one day when they were in Barrelton at the sheriffs office, which also had the prosecutor’s office on the top floor, trying to enforce an alimony order by the Judge. Linton was a deputy under Kramer then and he was there that day dropping off a prisoner. He could see and hear them on the monitor in the control room.
Just remember, we’re here because your father is a deadbeat. Just like I told you yesterday, he lived here in this prison for a while . . . before you two were born, Sandra’s mother, Candy, said. He couldn’t help but laugh at the fact that she didn’t even know the difference between a sheriff’s office and a prison.
Your father used to beat me and THAT is why we’re here! He’s going to pay for what he did before he getsta see YOU TWO again. But I wouldn’t blame neither one of you if you didn’t want to see him, Sandra said.
Linton could only think that this woman didn’t just play Bob, but she played him as well. They had both fallen for her line back in Louisville. He checked around thoroughly and there never was a Sandra or Candy Odair in Fogstow. And that part about Bob beating Sandra? He wouldn’t believe that for a second. She would have better luck trying to convince him that the government trains soldiers on Mars. Bob Stamps had never even been in a fight, never hurt anyone. She’s talking about the same Bob that would go out with him on Halloween every year as a teenager and TP houses, then come back out after they went home and clean it up. He used to tell Linton, Some of these folks are old with bad backs. If they get on a ladder and try to clean that stuff up, that could land them in the hospital. Linton would just shake his head and smile. They would come back next year and TP these same people’s homes and see them standing inside, eating candy corn and waving. They didn’t mind because they knew Bob would be back to clean it up by morning. It sort of took the fun out of it.
The only reason Bob was behind on alimony was because he had gotten laid off at the Cape Sandy quarry. Bob had a run of bad luck with jobs over the previous decade. When he was with Oarshire mine, he was the newest and the first in the union to be laid off, just before they shut down. Then he came back to town to work the docks for the stone companies, but he got laid off when they closed the docks. He then went up to the Cape Sandy stone quarry and worked the belt line for a few years. But a couple of years ago, they shut down the central quarry about 40 miles north of the river and those guys took over at the Cape Sandy quarry, leaving Bob without a job again. He’d been with the Co-op ever since, and he was still the nicest person Linton had ever met.
If Bob Stamps was anything, he was empathetic. Linton truly believed Bob could feel the pain of everyone he came in contact with and he identified it as his own. As for those kids, he would have given them a heart, a liver, a lung or whatever they needed. But that Friday, he was just going to settle with fishing on Patoka.
Kelly finally walked over to Linton and gave him a tired look, like she was ready for a vacation. Linton and Kelly had been a couple for months and everyone in town pretty much knew it, although they had never really proclaimed it to anyone but themselves.
Kelly had a four-year-old daughter, Lucy, from a previous relationship that ended with the man (Dean Smith, but Kelly would never call him by his name so her daughter would not personalize him) skipping town. Lucy didn’t really know about him yet. He was pretty much a transplant anyway. He came to town from Louisville when he got hired on with the stone barges as a deckhand and skipped town when Kelly got pregnant. He didn’t leave any forwarding address, never talked about his family and left no clues that could help her find him. But she didn't mind; she enjoyed her personal time with her daughter. She lived in a town that took care of her, had a great deli she co-owned and worked at and she was always around for Lucy.
Kelly and Lucy lived above the deli, which was beside Linton’s office and holding cells above the Co-op. Their balconies touched each other, which is how their relationship had blossomed. He would come over for dinner most nights just by hopping over the balcony and he would always bring her laundry in from the balcony line. Life for Kelly and Lucy couldn’t have been any better. Throw Linton into the mix and everything just seemed perfect. She had very deep feelings for him and she was pretty sure he felt the same way about her.
“Where’s Lucy?” Linton asked.
“She’s in the back, cracking eggs for Bob,” Kelly said.
Linton looked through the serving window and saw Lucy holding an egg up high, waiting for Bob to signal her.
“She couldn’t be in better hands,” Linton said. He smiled and kissed the side of her mouth, then turned her around and discreetly rubbed her shoulders for a moment. It was little things like this she fell in love with right away. He was so in tune with what she needed that he could probably finish her sentences. He was so patient with her and Lucy. She knew, actually she had known for a long time, that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with that man.
Pete turned from the stoves with a plate of hot pancakes and bacon and yelled into the crowd. “Okay, who ordered the pancakes and bacon, with syrup over the bacon?”
A precious little voice rose out from the backroom. “Mine! Mine! I ordered them, Pete!” Lucy could be heard jumping down from something, likely the freezer chest, and everyone could also hear her slipping around on the greasy floor in the backroom.
“Don’t give them away Pete! I ordered them!” Lucy yelled. “I’m coming. I’m coming.” Everyone heard a loud thud and saw the wall move. “I’m still coming.”
Pete yelled again to the crowd, “Pancakes and bacon with syrup on the bacon! Going once . . .”
“Pete! No, Pete! They’re mine! I ordered them! I told Momma and she told you!” The door slammed open and Lucy could barely maintain her footing as she slid out the door. Everyone at the lunch counter laughed heartily.
Pete yelled again to the crowd, “These are some the best bacon strips I have ever made with hot maple syrup oozing all over them. I’m gonna eat ’em if no one speaks up!”
Lucy slid right into Pete and yanked on his bib. “Don’t eat ’em, Pete. I’ll staaaarve!”
Pete grinned and handed the plate down to Lucy. Lucy quickly sat it down on the ice cream cooler, which was about a half a foot under the serving side of the bar. Everyone sitting at the counter leaned forward to watch her for a moment. S
he quickly shoved a fork and knife over her plate and was just about to go in when she suddenly stopped, took a deep breath, and slowly cut off a piece of sticky, syrupy bacon and put it in her mouth. She held her head down for a moment while she chewed, then she leaned her head back with her eyes closed, “Mmmmmm, so freaking good!”
Laughter erupted across the ’Bend and Kelly quickly covered her mouth with a gasp. She knew right away Lucy had heard those words from her, because that was what she had said when Linton stopped by late one night and she tasted the tuna noodle casserole he brought back from his mother’s house in Derbie. It had the perfect blend of baked-in bread crumbs, peas, tuna, mashed potatoes and creamy gravy that just hit the spot that night. Kelly had thought Lucy was asleep.
Linton smiled at Kelly while he was flipping hot peanuts in his mouth and shrugged at her as if to say, What can we do? She’s just a kid and we’re only human. Shit happens.
Kelly would have spent more time laughing about it with Linton, but they were just too busy so she quickly grabbed a wet rag and wiped down a few areas of the bar. Pete kept turning out plates of pancakes, eggs and sausage. Four of them lined up alongside two bowls of oatmeal and three saucers of toast. Kelly looked at them a little bedazzled and tried to remember which plate went to whom. Linton put down his peanuts and grabbed a couple of them and Kelly pointed to the tables they went to.
“Make sure you also take the toast dishes to Herman and Nadine,” Kelly said, then kissed Linton firmly on the mouth and whispered in his ear as she passed by. “I love you.”
Linton made his way around the bar and almost pretended he didn’t hear her. Several thoughts raced through his mind. He hadn’t even had a chance to tell the town they’re together yet, but she was already in love with him? They had been on several dates and he never had a dull moment with her. If they went to the theater, she was quick to analyze the movie on the car ride back from Barrelton. She said things that left him a little lost, even made him feel stupid because sometimes he didn’t understand what she was saying. He knew she had six years at Indiana University and earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism before she dropped out of the masters program to raise Lucy. He had spent two years at Vincennes University, but a career in law enforcement did not quite give you the well-rounded education a four-year university gave you. But still, every moment he spent with her was never a moment wasted. Was he in love with her also? He was always afraid that the day would come when he would be in love and not even know what it was. He was afraid he would somehow let that day pass him by and never even know it existed. Or even worse, that he would figure out what passed him by a few years too late, when she was happily married with children. When she was no longer interested in making up for lost time with him. There was one thing he was sure of – when he was with Kelly, he was a better man. When he was with her, he was . . . well, he was happy.
He dropped off Herman and Nadine’s plates at their booth.
“I’ll be right back with your toast, Herman,” Linton said. “Did you get toast also, Nadine?”
“No, sweetie. But I got the oatmeal, not the pancakes,” Nadine said in the kindest voice you could’ve ever heard. Herman and Nadine Smith were Fogstow Originals, or at least that is what they were called once the oldest generation in the town started dying out and they were next up for the title. Herman was 72, Nadine 68. They’d both been coming to the ’Bend for years and they could also be found at every home varsity game for the East Jamison Brainers, in both boys’ and girls’ sports. They donated regularly to the booster club and they also had honorary seats at the football and basketball stadiums.
“Oh, sorry about th . . .”
“Those pancakes are mine, Boss,” Allen Morgan said as he turned around from the booth behind them and reached for the plate. Allen was also a “lifer” in Fogstow. He and his father before him had been running the Co-op for years, and now his son Russ Morgan ran it. Allen was in his 60s but he always made up a big story when people asked how old he was. He likes to keep people guessing, Russ would always say. Allen was on the city council and he was the one who made sure Linton got the job there in Fogstow, but he never told Linton that. He now drove a school bus part-time every morning and afternoon and he was enjoying his semi-retirement.
“Well hey there, Allen! I didn’t see you come in,” Linton said as he patted his back and reached over to shake his hand.
Burt Urnley, or Burnley as he was called, sat across from Allen. Burnley and Allen had been friends since they sparred over the love of Alice Konicke back in their East Jamison High School days. Burnley, the last black man in the town since the mines shut down, had swooped in and taken Alice out on a date the day after she broke it off with Allen. It was the one and only time Allen had ever called him a nigger. Later that week, Alice had already replaced Burnley with another. Allen came back around to Burnley and offered his apologies for the insult and ever since then, they’d both been best friends, going on 40 years.
Linton reached over to shake Burnley’s hand as well. “How you doing, old-timer?”
“A lot better if someone would tell this old fart here to take a bath in the mornings,” Burnley said, motioning his grinning head toward Allen.
Allen just grinned back and said, “We got here at quarter to six this morning. Russ and I are gonna eat, then go pick up tomorrow’s load of hay bales so he can hunt with me in the morning.”
“Oh, now, we both know you two just go out there to shoot your guns. Poor Russ don’t have it in him to shoot an animal.”
Burnley and Allen both laughed and agreed with him.
“Yeah, well, it’s part of the festivities. Russ is in the bathroom. Make sure you stop back in and say hi before you head out to the bluff.”
Russ was a couple of years younger than Linton and Bob, but they had always been friends and he was also the reason Bob had a job at the Co-op. Russ usually kept the Co-op open on Saturdays, but the next day Bob would be fishing with his kids up at Patoka, and Russ was going to be hunting with his dad. So he was going to have Burnley come in and tend to the register.
“Will do,” Linton said and shook his hand again then turned back to Nadine. “I’ll be right back with your oatmeal, Nadine.”
Linton took Nadine her oatmeal then crossed back over the counter and picked up his peanuts and orange juice. He threw a few in his mouth when Kelly came up behind him.
“I’m sorry about what I said back there. That was stupid of me and I know it’s all kind of new and I just got this stupid sudden feeling and . . . I don’t know why I said that,” Kelly told him, her words coming out like a confused mess.
Linton nervously tossed a few peanuts into his mouth because he was unsure what to say. He did know if his mouth was full, he was not required to say anything. But he smiled at her in a nervous way.
“Please don’t think you have to say that back to me, I just . . .” She picked up her wet rag and started wiping part of the counter that she had already cleaned twice since Linton had delivered Herman, Nadine and Allen’s food. Linton tossed back a few more peanuts and sipped his orange juice. Kelly walked away, a little embarrassed and disheartened.
Linton knew how she was feeling, but he was still speechless. There were a lot of things he wanted to say to her, but he was having trouble letting it out. It’s just like with everyone in town calling him Boss. The fact was, he didn’t mind taking a hard stance on Bret Holder, but the title stuck with him and now he had to do the job forever. Be the “Boss” forever. He never signed up for that. He just wanted to keep the peace. Enforce the law. But now it was going to be an expectation of him to go above and beyond to make sure everyone got justice, whether or not it was served by the county or by him.
The same thing applied to Kelly. There was no doubt in his mind that he needed her, that he was happy with her and he was happy with Lucy. But if he said it, if he responded to her in a way that will make her happy, then he would always have to be that to her. There would be no goin
g back, no changing his mind, unless of course he wanted to be known as a misogynist. That’s not who he was, nor who he wanted to be. It was just too early to make that kind of commitment.
But still, he was truly happy with her, so he did the best thing he could think of. The only thing he was capable of at the moment. As soon as she walked by him with a plate of hash browns, he held on to her arm and made her swing partially around with the plate held high. She was a little taken aback because she was not even looking at him when she was coming through. He held her arm gently, stood close to her and firmly planted a warm kiss directly on her lips. And when she pulled back and felt a little better about the whole situation he pressed against her lips again and this time held it a little longer. She closed her eyes and when the moment started to dissipate, he pulled back, still less than three inches from her face and her slightly watered eyes, and said, “There’s one thing that’s for sure. I’m a better man when I’m with you . . . and I like feeling happy like that.”
He reached up and gently pulled her hair back behind her ear, then picked up his peanuts and left. Her brief moments of embarrassment and hopelessness earlier had weighed on her, but that moment defined her. Happiness and confidence slowly filled her face, and when Linton was leaving, a half-smile emerged. As she watched through the window, as he walked along the sidewalk up to the Co-op, the smile filled out her face. She was truly happy and now she knew he was to. Now she could call him her lover, her confidante, her best friend and when she was around people, she would call him her man.
***
3
Linton opened up the rusty, squeaking door on his Centurion Bronco and threw his jacket inside. The day had been getting progressively warmer and he was just going to overheat the longer he had it on. The weather was going to reach close to 73 degrees, and he was supposed to make a run down the bluff trail for patrol. He picked up his peanuts and closed the door while several more people came and went from the ’Bend.
