by Linda Ellen
She smiled, relieved. “Good.”
“I’ll drop you at the house and pick you up at six. That give you enough time to wash…?” he began, but stopped, not wanting to insult her.
She finished his thought, however, “Wash the binder stench off me?” Laughing good-naturedly, she added, “Yeah. I’ve got it down to a science.”
Chuckling, Louise turned her gaze forward, and seeing they were about to pass by the street TJ’s parents lived on, she glanced down the block and her mouth dropped open. “I don’t believe it!”
“What?” Vic asked, turning his head to look, an instant too late.
“TJ’s car! It’s sitting out front of his parent’s house!”
Without further adieu, Vic made an immediate U-turn and wheeled the cab around, heading on into the street and barreling toward the Phaeton. Just then, they noticed TJ himself coming down the sidewalk, almost to his car. Vic pulled the cab over, fenders nearly touching, effectively blocking the Phaeton from moving. Yanking upward on the parking brake lever, Vic hopped out and circled the car. TJ stood his ground, immediately on the defensive and from his expression, totally surprised to have been caught.
Louise had alighted from the taxi as well, heading quickly to the sidewalk as she called, “Where’ve you been, TJ? Everybody’s been looking for you. You haven’t come to see Tommy, you haven’t sent me any support for him, and you haven’t been around to help pay for the divorce. What’s going on?” she demanded as she came to a stop next to Vic, her hands on her hips.
TJ let out a snort. “Well, hello to you, too.”
Louise crossed her arms over her chest. “Hello. Now, answer my questions.”
TJ swore rudely, his blue eyes flicking momentarily at Vic before returning to Louise and giving her the once-over. “You ain’t my old-lady now, so I don’t have to tell you a thing. I ain’t obligated to listen to your harping anymore.”
“Harping?” Louise squawked. “And when did you ever…”
“Why, you…” Vic grunted, his intended advance toward the other man halted when Louise put her hand on his arm. “No Vic, don’t…”
Just then the woman who had accompanied TJ to Irene’s apartment the last time he had seen Tommy joined them on the sidewalk. She had obviously overheard Louise’s yelled questions, because she answered, “He’s been staying with my family, after he was fired from his job. We have a farm in Indiana.” Pausing to meet TJ’s scowling eyes, the woman added, “Two days ago, our farm house burned down, and we were making plans to…”
“That’s enough, Alice! They don’t need to know our private business,” TJ burst out.
“Why haven’t you come to see Tommy?” Louise persisted, her eyes raking over the other woman. Although she had wanted out of the marriage, it was still a bitter pill to stand there and watch another woman be so familiar with the man who had been her husband. Alice stood now clutching TJ’s arm, her body pressed close to his in a clear show of support and familiarity. Louise had no doubt they were already intimate.
“My car broke down,” TJ supplied, but at Vic’s doubting snort, he added sneeringly, “I just got it fixed.”
“Well, why didn’t you write to me and send me money?” Louise countered. “Or call your parents and get them to?” Pausing, she added, “Oh yeah, I forgot – after the big three dollar gift your dad brought me.”
The woman with TJ turned her head to look up at him, confusion evident on her face. Louise wondered if he had lied and told her he was sending support. That would mean he had some sort of a job while living on that ‘farm in Indiana’.
Changing the subject, TJ asked offhandedly, “Okay, so how is Tommy? Dad said he helped you and your mom and brother get an apartment.”
Her heart pounding with adrenaline, Louise clamped her lips together. The tension in the air was so thick she could barely breathe, and she could feel Vic’s agitation as he stood next to her, scowling angrily at her ex. She knew he was like a coiled spring ready to burst at any moment. Shaking with anger and nerves, and the unsettled feeling she had always had in TJ’s presence, she drew in a deep breath to try and steady her stomach. “He’s fine.”
“That’s good. Listen…” TJ paused, sharing a quick look with the woman. “Me and Alice are gonna get married when the papers come through…you did file, right?”
“Yes, I filed, no help from you,” Louise sneered. “Divorces are expensive, in case you didn’t know. I had to get a job to pay for it.”
TJ went on, ignoring Louise’s last statement. “I’ve been thinking that maybe it would be easier for all of us if we took Tommy.”
Louise’s heart jerked in shock and fear. “What? No WAY am I going to give Tommy to you! He’s my child!”
TJ seemed unaffected by Louise’s outburst. “Why not?” he returned nonchalantly. “Since you can’t handle raising him without me giving you money…and the minute my back was turned, you got back with this clown.” he added, jerking his head toward Vic. “But then, maybe you’d been with him all along…like on days when I was work—”
In the blink of an eye, Vic reached out with both hands and grabbed fistfuls of TJ’s shirt, hauling him forward until their noses were almost touching as Alice squealed and Louise gasped in surprise.
“You watch your mouth, cause I’m about to get angry,” Vic snarled into TJ’s face. “And what kind ’a jerk don’t pay support for his own kid?” he added, giving the other man a hard shake. “You no-good son of a…”
“Vic!” “Stop it!” the women yelled simultaneously, each one tugging at their men’s arms to separate them. At that moment, TJ’s mother stepped out of the house and onto the porch, glaring toward the altercation going on down at the street.
Vic shoved TJ back three feet as Louise yelled, “And what do you mean the minute your back was turned? You left me, remember? Or did you forget selling all our furniture so you could buy that rich woman a diamond ring and a mink coat? I don’t see how you could forget, since there’s a warrant out for your arrest! They call that defaulting on a loan, you know.”
Again the woman at TJ’s side shot him a confused look and Louise laughed out loud. “Oh, he didn’t tell you about that? I wonder how many other things he’s kept from you. Let me give you some advice, honey. You’d be better off steering clear of the likes of him. He’s lousy husband material.”
“Oh you’re a fine one to talk,” TJ growled, letting loose a torrent of sneering cuss words aimed at Louise. “Whatever I did you drove me to it! You always had some reason to not give me any, had to practically beg you to. Always lusting for B-Line boy, here,” he jerked a thumb in Vic’s direction, but missed the glittering dark eyes aimed his way. “You were less than worthless as a wife…umph!” he sputtered as Vic’s fist connected with his mouth, sending him staggering back several feet as Vic snarled, “You shut your filthy mouth!”
“TJ!” his mother shouted, charging down the sidewalk toward them, waving her arm and pointing at Vic and Louise. “You get out of here, both of you! Or I’ll call the police and have you arrested!”
Undeterred, however, Vic stepped near and as TJ lowered his hand from his mouth, he punched him in the gut, every ounce of his strength infused within the massive muscles of his arm. TJ doubled over with a grunt of pain and Vic let fly with a firm upper cut, sending him sprawling into a pile of dried leaves.
Rubbing his knuckles and quivering with all of the anger he had amassed toward the man lying on the ground since that night at the dance so long ago, Vic sucked in big gulps of air as he watched the two women bend down to tend to the moaning TJ. “Go ahead. Call the cops. I’ll wait right here and be sure to let ’em know he’s on their books,” Vic sneered.
Jumping up with the screech of a wild banshee, Beatrice came at Vic as if she wanted to scratch his eyes out. He grabbed both her wrists and held her away, his uniform cap dislodging in the scuffle and falling to the ground as he had to struggle to keep his hold. Her eyes wild, Beatrice shrieked, “You hurt my so
n! Get out of here! And take that no good tramp with you!”
Her heart pounding in fear that somehow they would get in trouble with the police, and shocked at her ex mother-in-law’s vehemence and obvious blazing hatred, Louise bent down and retrieved Vic’s cap, then grabbed his arm and tugged him with her, pleading, “Come on, Vic, let’s just get out of here.”
Vic gave the woman a slight shove to get her away from him and allowed Louise to tug and push him to the open door of the still running cab, while his eyes bored hatred into the gaze of the man on the ground glaring back at him with equal loathing. Louise then ran around and got in, both of them trembling.
Vic released the parking brake, yanked the steering wheel to the side and stomped on the gas, sending the taxi squealing tires down the street. Louise turned on the seat and watched as Beatrice and Alice helped TJ up from the ground, and then with a glare toward them in the taxi, she said something briefly to TJ and the woman before hurrying up the sidewalk toward the house.
Louise turned back forward with a violent shiver of foreboding.
*
“Oh Vic, that was horrible,” Louise moaned, biting her lip and smoothing her hair back with shaking hands as she chanced a glance at his face. He was gripping the steering wheel, staring straight ahead, and still breathing hard, a muscle in his jaw flexing as he clenched his teeth. Her eyes lit onto the scraped knuckles of his left hand and she tried to reach across to it as she whispered, “Oh, you’re hand,” but he moved it out of her reach.
“Don’t worry about it. It’s fine,” he mumbled.
She sighed and sat back, though stayed close to his side, not wishing the tension of the incident to stain their own relationship. They rode along in silence for a few blocks, each one reliving the confrontations word for word, or blow by blow.
Finally, Louise sucked in a deep breath, striving to shake the gripping stress and strain, and grumbled softly, “I’ve got half a mind to turn him in, but…if he’s in jail he can’t send support either…”
“Wouldn’t make much difference.”
Louise raised her eyebrows and nodded ruefully, turning her head to gaze unseeingly out the side window. After a few minutes more, she turned her head back toward Vic, relieved to see his grip on the wheel wasn’t as crushing. Love for him flooded through her, the way she imagined damsels in distress felt in days of old when their knights in shining armor risked life and limb to defend their honor. For a moment, she pictured the little figurine of a knight on a white horse that Vic had won for her all those years ago at Fontaine Ferry. It was one of her cherished treasures.
She turned a bit, angling her legs past the long gearshift level coming up through a small hole in the floorboard, and laid her head gently against his shoulder. He leaned his head to press his cheek softly to the top of her head before transferring one hand to the shift lever to change gears at a stoplight. “Thank you for coming to my defense back there,” she murmured. “My hero,” she added, softly gripping his arm once he placed his hand back on the steering wheel.
He glanced briefly into her eyes, his mouth forming a half smile as he tilted his head in an answering nod. “You’re welcome,” he mumbled. Then his smile got a tiny bit bigger as he admitted, “I enjoyed it. Been dreamin’ about takin’ that jerk down a peg for a lot of years.”
Remembering the exhilarating sight of Vic’s big strong fist connecting with TJ’s thin-lipped, sarcastic mouth, Louise chuckled softly. A devilish little imp flared up inside her head and she mused, I hope a few of his pearly white teeth were loosened. “I dreamed about that a few times myself.” Guilt over wishing another person ill will pricked her conscience, but she pushed it aside, thinking, TJ deserved all that and more.
Vic drew in a slow, deep breath, thinking he could use a cigarette right about then. He knew Louise didn’t like for him to smoke, though, so he held off, shaking his head and flexing his neck and shoulder muscles as he tried to shed the last of the fight’s tension.
Glancing again at Louise, Vic murmured seriously, “I think they’re fixing to skip town for good. Maybe to another state far away so’s you can’t track him down and make him pay support.”
Once again Louise bit her lip nervously. “Do you think they’ll really try to take Tommy?”
Vic shook his head, his lip curled a bit. “Nah. I think he only said that to rile you up. Get you off balance and off his back about him payin’ – and it worked.”
Louise nodded, remembering her virulent reaction. A shiver of intense dislike for the man ran through her body and she gripped Vic’s arm tightly. “Oh, I can’t stand that man. I thank God I’m away from him. I dread having to see him at all if he wants to see Tommy. If he pays support, I’ll have to let him see him.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. We’ll see,” he soothed, laying his cheek again against the top of her head as he carefully changed gears. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll take things one a time. And in the meantime, you, me, and Tommy will be a happy family.”
A smile graced her face then, deciding that she had let her awful ex husband ruin enough of her once happy day, and that she had a lot for which to be thankful – namely – the man against whom she was cuddled at that moment. She knew things would be all right now that Vic was permanently in her life. He would never lie to her or cheat on her. Of that, she was certain. He would always defend her and be her knight in shining armor. She knew she was truly blessed that he loved her as much as he did. His undying love and honesty was something she knew she would never have to wonder about or doubt.
When Vic pulled up in front of Louise’s apartment, he set the brake and turned toward her as she gathered her things.
“What say we wait till tomorrow to go out for that celebration…” he murmured.
She turned toward him, totally agreeing. “Yeah, I don’t feel much like it either, now.”
Vic leaned in and gave her a warm kiss. “I’ll go drop the cab back at dispatch and get my car. How about I come back later and we just play cards or somethin’?”
She smiled happily and nodded, picturing that she’d have time for a longer soak in the tub full of fragrant bubbles to help dispel the rest of the tension from the encounter. “Alright. See you later, then.”
“And forget about that jerk. He can’t do nothin’ to us cause he knows he’s got too much to lose.”
With a nod of agreement and another sweet kiss exchanged, she climbed out of the taxi and stood watching him drive on down the street before turning toward the sidewalk. What an afternoon this turned out to be!
She walked to the door and let herself in, greeting Tommy as he ran to her, his hard-soled little shoes clomping loudly across the hardwood floor.
“Thomas Joseph, what did I tell you about that running, young man?” Lilly fussed as she followed after him from the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron.
The little boy turned to her, immediately sticking a thumb in his mouth as he looked up at her with his big blue eyes.
Louise sighed tiredly, guessing, “Despaine on the warpath again?”
Lilly nodded, her eyes still on her grandson. “Yes. She claims the other tenants are complaining about the ‘racket’ this one makes. I told her, again, that we would keep him quiet. But that is proving nigh on to impossible.”
Louise knelt down to her son, although privately she thought it was unreasonable to expect a two-year-old to be quiet all the time. “Tommy, honey…remember we talked about walking through the house? We don’t want our neighbors to get mad at us, so we must try to be quiet. You understand?”
Tommy nodded, his eyes wide, knowing that he had done something bad, but probably not quite understanding what that was. He only knew his mother and grandmother seemed put out with him. “Yeth Mama,” he whispered around his thumb.
Louise smiled and scooped him up, giving him a big, loud, boisterous kiss on the cheek. He giggled in relief and wrapped his little arms around her neck, then proceeded to return the favor; complete with sticky resid
ue left from the lollipop the local market owner gave him on his and Lilly’s earlier shopping trip. “I wuv you, Mama,” he purred against her cheek.
“I love you too, sweetheart,” Louise whispered, holding her little boy close, tears burning her eyes as she recalled TJ’s words about taking Tommy for he and Alice to raise. She closed her eyes and said a silent, fervent prayer that such a thing would never happen, as she couldn’t imagine her life without her precocious little son. Truly, he and Vic were the most precious things in her life, followed closely by her family members. They made everything – all of the hardships, the uncertainties, the frustrations, and the hard work – worth it in the long run. Living her life without Tommy was totally unthinkable.
Sniffing back the emotions, part of which were left over from the intense scene back on York Street, Louise plastered a smile on her face and let Tommy lean back in her arms. “How about you help Mama gather her things for her bubble bath, hmm?”
Grinning and nodding ecstatically, as if she had just suggested they make a trip to the circus, he squirmed to be put on the floor, and then proceeded to take her by the hand and tug her to the bedroom. “I hep! I hep!” he chattered along the way.
Louise cast a wry look toward her mother, both wondering if they would someday soon be forced to find other lodgings. Neither looked forward to that prospect. Finding an affordable place on their budget was difficult, to say the least – and they wouldn’t have found that one without Mr. Blankenbaker’s help. At that thought, Louise unconsciously grimaced. Just thinking of that family gave her indigestion.
Lilly followed her into the bedroom, unnecessarily fluffing the pillows on the perfectly made bed.
“Vic and I saw TJ just now,” Louise said softly, not wishing for Tommy to realize whom she was discussing.
Lilly’s eyes widened and she paused. “That right? Where?”
“On the street out front of his parent’s house.”
