Page 6 of August

“What about Jacklynn? I saw her today with some man.” He could tell his son was trying to remember some little tidbit about his sister when he looked at him all constipated. He asked him what she was talking about. “She said that they were getting married or some bullshit like that. His name was Andrew or something like that. I didn’t see a ring or anything. She was at someone’s house. Do you remember that house we wanted to purchase? On Maple Avenue? The Bickers used to own it. I would have thought that place was abandoned by now.”

“Someone bought it right out from under me.” Richard said that was right. “Yes, I remember that house. What was she doing there? I fired her today, too. Thanks for telling me about her running off with some man instead of drumming up me some more business like I sent her there to do. You can’t trust a damned person, much less family. They should be about ready to sell it off now that they’ve done all that work to it. Go to the real estate place in the morning and tell them to get me that house. I’ve wanted it—”

“Dad, Mom’s here.” Richard said it so low that he almost missed it. Putting away the paperwork that he’d been going over all day, he asked her what she wanted. “Hello, Mother. You look lovely today.”

“Cut the shit, Richard. I’m here for you, too. I just heard from Linda and Mary. Seems to me that they’ve finally grown a couple of balls and are leaving you two sick shits.” She looked at him. “Same as I’m doing too. Leaving your father and taking everything with me.”

“Not me.” Dick wasn’t happy that his son was sucking up to his mother. “You’re not getting rid of me, are you, Mother? I’m going to make this company shine.”

“Not if the buyer comes through on the sale of the company, you won’t. And the only way that you’re going to be able to make anything shine is to get your head out of your ass and have a look around. The company is losing money like it had its artery cut and is bleeding money like it’s its job. And I blame that right on the three of your heads. At least Jacklynn is making us look good. What did you upset her with this afternoon, Dick?”

She could say his name, just Dick, like it was a dirty word. And no matter how many times he’d asked her to not call him that, she would do it repeatedly. Christ, he hated her. He tried telling her that he didn’t know what she was talking about, but that went over like a wet noodle. She said that her secretary had seen her leaving there sobbing.

“I fired her if you want to know the truth.” He told his wife why when she asked him. “Can you imagine her having an affair with some waiter at that thing last night? Christ, what is this world coming to when a man can’t trust his own daughter to get them more jobs lined up instead of blowing some waiter in a closet?” Dedria laughed. “I don’t know what you find so funny. There will probably be a bastard child come out of this. A girl just like her, too.”

“I hope so. And you won’t have to worry about Jacklynn having a bastard child. I heard she was married just today.” He asked who had given her permission to do such a thing. “She neither needs nor wants your permission on anything, Dick. She’s over twenty-one and doesn’t answer to any of us. He’s a nice young man, too. While I’ve not met him personally, I know his family.”

“You don’t know anyone that I don’t allow you to know.” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he knew that he’d fucked up badly. “What I meant was, you and I go to the same functions, so there isn’t any way you’ve met his family.”

“What do you do at night, Dick? When you’re all alone in your bedroom? Use that namesake of yours until you come, or do you plot ways to piss me off? I’m thinking both since I’ve not slept with you since before Jack was born. Or are you having an affair? Not that I give a crap, but you’ve pissed me off today too. Good Christ, I must have been royally intoxicated that night to allow you to touch me again.”

His office door opened again, and three of the armed security team were standing there. He asked them what had happened, and the fuckers looked at his wife without answering him. He didn’t even get to tell them that he was the one that signed their paychecks because he was sure they knew as well as he did that the only person that signed anything in this company was his damned wife.

“Get him out of here before I have to call the police.” He was stood up, and his arms jerked behind his back. “And you’ll be happy to know, Richard, that your little things have been packed up as well. Including your list of names that you’ve fucked that you kept for some unknown reason.”

“What about our marriage? You said that for so long as I didn’t go out on you and didn’t make a fool of you, you’d keep me on. Well?” She named three things that he’d done in the last two days that had embarrassed her. “You don’t know shit. I didn’t do anything to her. She had it coming.”

“Did the secretary have it coming, Dick, or do I not know shit? And if you didn’t do anything to her, why does she have recordings of you patting her on the ass every time you walked by her.” She put her arms over her breasts, and that was when it occurred to him that he’d not seen her naked in years. “Get out of here before I have to have you arrested. Again.”

He’d been a little drunk that night as well. The only reason that he’d been taking liberties with his secretary was because he’d been drinking again. That shit would get him into trouble quicker than anything.

He was just coming out of the building—well, he was being shoved out of the building when he saw the limo pull up in front of the building. That was just what he needed to get home before she changed the locks on the doors. It would be just like her to make it so that he didn’t have anywhere to go. Just as he was reaching for the door to get into the sleek machine, the driver, Taller, told him that he wasn’t there for him but for his wife.

“That’s fine. I’m going home anyway.” He told him that he wasn’t to pick him up and he might as well find himself other accommodations as his house was in lockdown from him. “What do you mean, lockdown? There isn’t any way that she’s going to lock me out of my own house.”

“And yet she did.” Richard was trying to get into the limo as well and Taller told him the same thing. That his house was currently off-limits to him as well. “It is my great pleasure to tell you both that working for you has been the worst ten years of my life. And my name isn’t Taller. What the hell kind of name is that anyway? But Coulier.”

They watched as Dedria slid into the limo without a second glance at the two of them. No matter how much they asked her, he and his son, she wouldn’t tell them where they were supposed to stay tonight. It was then that Richard remembered his credit cards.

“There isn’t any way that she’ll cut me off, being her son. Sucks to be you, huh Dad?” He wanted to hit his oldest son, but he couldn’t keep up with him. Whatever burr Dedria got up her ass was going to cause him all kinds of trouble. When Richard turned back to him, he asked him if he had any cash on him. Telling him that he had about a hundred bucks when he didn’t have a penny to his name, Richard invited him to share a suite with him. So long as he paid the price of dinner. Catching up to his son, he nearly wept with joy when he saw David coming toward them with a hangdog look on his face. Richard invited him to stay with him as well.

“They won’t work.” Richard asked David what he meant. “The credit cards. She’s cut them off, too. I was in a nice room when, all of a sudden, the police showed up and dragged me down the hall and out of the place. You know, for someone who doesn’t like to be embarrassed, she sure is making a spectacle out of all of us.”

The three of them were standing on the street about a block from a nice hotel they couldn’t go to with a job they no longer had about the same distance away. He’d never seen his wife so upset that she’d do this to her sons. That was when he remembered that he had a daughter. Pulling out his cell phone, he was going to demand that she give him all the cash she had on herself. There was no way that he’d think that she was married, either. She wasn’t very bright, and she wasn’t all that pretty, either. Dick couldn’t remember when the last time he’d seen Jacklynn before today. He realized then that she’d gone straight to her mother, and that wasn’t fair. Daughters and their daddies were close, he thought. Not that he wanted her around unless she was useful and right now she was.

“If you’re calling me for money, tough shit. If you need something from me, well, tough shit on that as well. I’m finished with you and my brothers.” He asked her when she’d gotten so uppity. “I was actually born that way, and I nearly let you beat it out of me. I’m married to a nice man who loves me, believe it or not, and I couldn’t be happier. Well, I suppose that I am, thanks. I’m in love with someone who loves me back.”

“Does he know about your affair last evening? I bet that he’d like to hear that you were putting out your wears when he as waiting on you.” She told him that he was the man that she hooked up with. “Damn it all to fuck and back, Jacklynn. What’s gotten into you? You’re supposed to be at my beck and call, and now you’re acting like you don’t have me as a father.”

“What a good idea. You’re no longer my father.” She laughed and he wanted to bash her face in. “This is the last call you’ll make to me, Dick. Your phone is about to be shut off soon and I find that I don’t want a thing to do with you anymore.”

She hung up on him. He didn’t even have a dial tone there for he had a feeling that the stupid thing had been turned off, just as she said it would be. Dedria must be going through some kind of change for her to be acting like this. Not that he’d say that to her, but he thought that once he gave her some space, she’d be right as rain again. If only he’d been putting back money so that he’d have himself a little stash to get by on when she got her menopausal craziness. Or whatever it was called.

~*~

She didn’t much care for her sisters-in-law and she didn’t care for their children either. She didn’t hate them but didn’t like them all that much. They were spoiled rotten and had no concept of boundaries—both the mothers and the kids. Jack decided that she’d had enough lunch with them and was ready to get up and leave when her mom showed up. Thankful for the diversion, her mom sat down and started giving orders to the other two like she was a drill sergeant and they were her underlings. She should have remembered that about her mom. She didn’t suffer foolhardily with adults or children.

“I’ve sold the company. The two of you will no longer be able to live in the houses that you currently do because I purchased them before I had my sons. I’m going to sell them off, and if you have the money and want to buy them, then go for it. Otherwise, you’re going to have to find—”