Chapter 36

Jerry woke and wandered into the kitchen to prepare breakfast. The events of the previous night had shaken him far more than he was willing to admit, even to himself. With the kids in school, he had been looking forward to an easy Monday. His plans had been to take Abe’s bike to get fixed. As a result of the damage to the house, his plans for the day had changed to include stopping by the house to meet with the insurance assessor.

Surveying the contents of the refrigerator, he decided that breakfast was going to be scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast. It had to be a simple breakfast since that would take all the energy he had. Sleep had not come easily to him. When he had fallen asleep, it wasn’t a restful sleep. Nightmares of his ex-wife trying to destroy everything that he valued kept waking him.

Once the coffee was started, he went to work frying the bacon. As he had laid the bacon in the frying pan, he was surprised to hear the sound of a motorcycle being started. Walking to the front of the house, he looked out and saw Abe revving the engine of his motorcycle.

Going back into the kitchen to turn off the heat under the bacon, he was surprised to find Melissa at the stove. She smiled and said, “Put your pants on and go talk to Abe.”

“Thanks, Melissa,” replied Jerry as he returned to the living room.

Dressed only in his pants, he stepped out onto the porch. Abe was seated on the motorcycle revving the engine with a smile on his face. The bike was fully restored and looked as nice as the day it was first built. The young man had done a very good job in restoring it. In a voice loud enough to carry over the sound of the motorcycle, Jerry asked, “What are you doing?”

Abe turned off the engine and said, “I realized last night what was the problem with the engine. Made the adjustment and it started right up.”

“You don’t say,” said Jerry. He understood Abe’s desire to get the bike operational as soon as possible. His birthday was coming and he wanted to get the bike running in time to get his license.

“Sorry to wake you,” said Abe realizing that he had probably wakened everyone in the neighborhood.

“It’s a sharp looking bike. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, you did a good job on it,” commented Jerry while rubbing his arms to warm up. He regretted not having put on a shirt before coming outside.

“Thanks,” replied Abe.

The front door opened and Bill, wearing only his boxers, staggered out onto the porch. The door closed behind him. Rubbing a hand through his hair, he said, “You got it running. That’s great.”

Grinning at his friend, Abe said, “I’m not trying to make a big deal out of this, but the women around here are going to go wild over those boxers.”

Bill grinned and shuddered as the cold air finally registered. He was about to make a comment about driving women wild was his specialty when Melissa opened the door and called out, “Why don’t you three come in and have some breakfast?”

Surprised by the source of the invitation, Abe asked, “All three of us?”

“Yeah. I scrambled a couple eggs for you too. Now get in here before breakfast gets cold,” answered Melissa. She turned and headed back to the kitchen.

Jerry headed into the house as Abe asked Bill, “What’s up? She was nice to me.”

Watching his sister walk away, Bill said, “It’s a long story. I’ll tell you about it later.”

Around the table, everyone filled their plates with eggs, bacon, and toast. In front of each of them was a cup of coffee. All of them, with the exception of Melissa, drank it black. One small pint of cream sat on the table for Melissa’s coffee. After Abe took a bite of eggs, Melissa said, “By the way, the bike looks good.”

Abe gestured to indicate that he was going to answer as soon as he swallowed the food in his mouth. Once he had swallowed his eggs, he answered, “Thanks.”

Abe took a bite out of his toast and Bill asked, “So what are you going to do today?”

Again, Abe gestured while he chewed. He swallowed and answered, “Going to school and then getting some driving lessons.”

“We’re going to school, too,” said Bill. Jerry and Melissa shook their heads as they realized what Bill had done. Jerry winked at Melissa and looked down at his plate.

Abe scooped up a fork of scrambled eggs and looked around to see if anyone was going to ask him another question. Everyone discreetly looked down at his or her plate. After he shoveled the food in his mouth, a smiling Jerry asked, “Where are you taking your lessons?”

Frustrated, Abe waved his hand as he chewed. Once he had swallowed, he asked, “Are you doing that on purpose? Every time I get some food in my mouth, you ask me a question.”

Jerry and Bill burst out in laughter because they had timed their questions that way. Bill asked, “What do you think?”

“You are,” accused Abe with more than a little amusement. He took a sip of his coffee and then said, “Yeah. The owner of the motorcycle shop where we bought the scooters agreed to teach me some of the finer points of riding a motorcycle.”

“Do you get to practice riding?” asked Melissa. She wished that she could get more time behind the wheel of her car. Her father took her out Sunday afternoons and Jenny let her drive when they went shopping, but it just didn’t seem like enough time behind the wheel.

“Yeah, I’m going to go out for a good ride this weekend. Henry promised me that Saturday we would head up to the lake to go fishing with Martin. I can ride the bike and he’d follow me out there in his car,” answered Abe. Much to his surprise, he was enjoying having Henry around the house.

Finishing his breakfast, Jerry moved back from the table and said, “You really did a great job on that bike. You should be really proud of it.”

“I am,” said Abe. He attacked the food on his plate hoping that he could finish the food without another interruption.

Jerry went over to the coffeepot and returned to the table with it. He refilled all of the cups on the table without asking. Melissa topped hers off with a dash of cream and said, “Thanks. I think this is a two cup morning.”

“You’re welcome. I don’t think any of us got a good night’s sleep last night,” commented Jerry as he carried the pot back to the brewer.

Abe worked on finishing the breakfast despite the fact that he was curious what had happened the previous night. He had found it odd that everyone had disappeared without warning. Abe listened but didn’t ask any questions, thinking he would learn more by not talking.

Jerry sat down at the table and looked at his children. Melissa was surprisingly cheerful that morning. He wondered if it wasn’t an avoidance reaction on her part. Bill was munching on his toast looking far more thoughtful for this time of day than usual. He asked, “Does anyone want to talk about it?”

Nodding, Bill said, “I know why she did it.”

“Why?” asked Melissa wondering if there was something that actually triggered her mother’s behavior.

Abe wondered who she was and what she had done. He looked over at Jerry hoping that he would explain what they were talking about. He eyed the last of his toast and popped it into his mouth. He chased it down with a sip of his coffee.

“The trial is Wednesday,” answered Bill.

Jerry wanted to slap his forehead, unable to believe that he had forgotten about the trial. He was supposed to take Bill to the courthouse to testify against his mother for hitting him with the baseball bat. It only took seconds to commit a crime, but it took more than a year for the snail they called the legal system to get the criminal to trial. Shaking his head, Jerry said, “I didn’t even think of that, but you’re right. That would set her off.”

Abe nodded realizing that he now knew who had done the deed. All he needed to know now was what she had done. Judging by the expression on Melissa’s face, he decided that it had to have been something pretty bad. He couldn’t keep the surprise off his face when Melissa warned, “Don’t go within a hundred yards of that woman without a policeman standing by you.”

Bill snorted and replied, “I’m going to be hiding behind Dad. I’m not a fool. That woman is a crazy bitch and she’d kill me in a minute.”

“You can say that again,” remarked Melissa.

Abe listened wide-eyed as Melissa proceeded to say some of the nastiest things about her mother that he had ever heard a person say about another human being. He knew that woman must have really done something nasty to get such a reaction out of Melissa. Looking around the table, he could see that none of them had been hurt.

When Melissa had finally calmed down a little, Jerry decided that it was time to change the subject. Turning to Abe, he said, “Abe, I’m glad you got your motorcycle running. I was afraid that I wasn’t going to be able to take it into the shop this morning. I’ve got to be over at the house most of the day.”

“Hey, I’m glad that things worked out alright,” replied Abe.

Melissa said, “Jenny is coming over to the house after work to see what we need to replace. We decided that I would stop by after school and we’d go shopping. I hope that’s not a problem.”

“No problem. I guess that leaves me and Bill to find something to do this afternoon,” replied Jerry as he thought about what he could do with Bill that afternoon.

Bill grinned and said, “I never thought that my sister would end up spending more of her time at the hardware store than at a fashion boutique.”

“Hey, it’s all part of decorating,” she replied in defense of her actions. It took her a second to realize that he was teasing her. She looked at him with an expression of puzzlement on her face.

“I know,” replied Bill with a dismissive wave of his hand and a smile. Turning to his father, he said, “If she’s going shopping, I’d rather spend some time here working on the car. I’d like to get it started.”

Realizing that his plans for Monday were shot, Jerry decided to go with the flow. Bill was making reasonable progress on restoring the car. Some of the bodywork had been completed, but they had decided to work on the mechanical parts of the car for the time being. He said, “Okay. If you get it started today, maybe we can get the brakes done this coming Sunday.”

“That would be great, Dad.”

Abe smiled and said, “Maybe you can follow me to my driving lessons.”

Nodding Jerry said, “I guess that’s the plan. Melissa and Bill will stop by the house after school. She’ll go shopping with Jenny and we’ll come back here to work on the car after following Abe to the motorcycle shop.”

After everyone around the table announced their agreement with the plan, Jerry said, “Let’s get to it.”

Jerry wandered through the house watching the men hard at work. It was already hard to see where his ex-wife had spray painted the walls other than as bare patches. The ruined carpet in the living room and master bedroom had been removed. It wasn’t until he went into the new den that the damage was truly obvious. The wood paneling had been spray painted.

The panels would have to be removed and replaced. He noticed that someone had already removed the outlet covers in preparation for the work that had to be done. He wondered when they would strip the walls, although he was tempted to do it himself.

He shook his head as he examined the damage. This room was supposed to be his private retreat and the words Gorilla sprayed in five-foot tall letters hurt far more than he thought possible. It had been a glorious room. Jenny had taken particular care to assure that it had a strong masculine feel to it.

George, Sharon’s brother-in-law, entered the room and came up to Jerry from behind. Holding his claw hammer, he said, “It sure is a shame.”

Jerry turned and replied, “Oh, hi, George. Yeah, it is a shame.”

“That bitch must really hate you,” commented the black man. He went over to the wall and slipped the claw part of his hammer under one of the panels. With a grunt, he lifted off a bit of the panel. They had used ‘liquid nail’ to put the panels in place and getting the wood paneling off was going to be ugly.

Allowing some of his frustration a chance to express itself, Jerry reached over and grabbed the edge of the panel. With a roar he pulled the panel off the wall. The muscles of his back reveled in the chance to work. Once started, he couldn’t stop. He tore panel after panel from the wall giving a roar as each piece was ripped down. When the last panel hit the floor, Jerry bent over breathing hard at the effort he had just expended and looked at the wreckage left behind. Panels littered the floor like a sheaf of paper caught by the wind.

Standing at the door where he had retreated when Jerry went to work, George said, “Shit, remind me never to make you mad.”

“I’m not mad. Very frustrated, but not mad,” replied Jerry. He looked down at his hands and saw that his calluses were returning. It wasn’t natural for hands to toughen so quickly.

Jerry bent down and put the panels into a pile. He picked up the pile and carried it out of the room. Although it was far heavier than he had thought it would be, the panels were difficult to carry because of their size. George had just stepped out of the way and watched the big man carry the entire load singlehandedly.

All work in the house stopped as Jerry carried the load of panels out to the dumpster. One of the younger workers followed behind and watched as Jerry lifted the load over his head and threw it into the dumpster with a yell of satisfaction. It had been an impressive display of strength. More important to Jerry, it was a chance to let off the tension that had been building ever since he had discovered the damage to the house.