Benji in Control
by: E Walk
(© 2009-2011 by the Author)
 

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Chapter 60 

The Academy Awards

There were approximately five minutes to go in the fourth quarter when two things happened.   A messenger appeared and handed me a note, “Dr Christiansen, Mr. Block sent this message to you.”

I opened the envelope and read the message.

Doug,

I talked to Cole.  He’s going to be fine.  He may miss a game or two, but it doesn’t appear to be as bad as was first thought.  He would like for you to call him in his room.  He doesn’t have his cell phone with him and the hospital won’t let him make a long distance phone call to your cell phone.  Call him at 619-444-0999 ext. 605.  Congratulations on the win on Friday night.

                                                                      Art Block

While I was reading the message, San Diego scored a fluke touchdown and went ahead 24 - 20. That turned out to be the final score.  As we were going to meet the rest of our party, I dialed the number that Mr. Block had sent me.

“This is Cole Weaver.”

“Cole, it’s Doug.  Art Block suggested that I call you.  How’re you doing?’’

Cole laughed, “I’m as good as can be expected..  I’m a little bruised on my left side and back.  I won’t be playing football anymore this week.  Are the boys okay?”

“Cole, the boys are fine.  Benji is really concerned about what happened to you.  R. B. and Rax are going to spend the night in Southern California.  I’ll explain later when there aren’t so many people around.  When are you going to be getting out of the hospital?”

“Doug, they’re keeping me in the hospital overnight to make sure that there isn‘t anything more serious than they think.  I should be flying to Atlanta some time tomorrow afternoon.”

“Do you need someone to pick you up?”

“The Falcons will pick me up.  Depending on how I feel, I may not make it to Harwood until Tuesday or Wednesday.  There’s no way that I’m going to be able to practice until later in the week.”

We were approaching the exit where the Laucks were waiting, “Cole, I’ll call you later.  We’re at the exit and the Laucks are waiting for us.”

We had to do some shuffling of bags so everyone would have their bag in the proper vehicle.  We hugged the Laucks and I whispered to R. B., “Do what Judge Lauck and Rax tell you to do.”

“Don’t worry, I'm not going too far from Rax’s side.”

When we arrived at the airport check in, they were announcing that our flight had arrived and would be departing gate 24 on schedule.

When we got our boarding passes, we were seated in the center section that were four seats across.  We didn’t have window seats, but Benji and Rocky didn’t seem to mind.

I swear both boys were asleep before the airplane was airborne.  When we landed in Atlanta, Boyce stayed with the boys while I retrieved our vehicle.  I dropped Boyce off at his house and by the time we arrived in Harwood, it was almost three o’clock in the morning. The boys were like getting zombies to bed.

Monday started the week from Hades.  Mikey was shaking me, “Daddy, aren’t you going to get up?”

I stuck my little finger up, “I’m up Mikey.  How about your brothers?”

“Matt and Mark are waking Benji and Rocky.  Where’s R. B?”

“R. B. had to stay in California for another day.  He’ll be home tonight or tomorrow.”

“When’s Dad coming home?  Was he hurt, bad?”

“Mikey, let me get dressed.  It’s too early to call Dad Cole, since it is only four o’clock in the morning in California.”

“How come the clocks in California aren’t the same as ours?”

“Mikey, I’ll explain later.  I need to get dressed.”

When I arrived in the kitchen, the five boys and Alex were eating and watching the news.  Alex pointed at the television, “Dr. Christiansen, have you heard the most recent report on Cole?”

I shook my head, no, “I haven’t talked to him since yesterday as we were leaving the game.  Why, what are they saying?”

“The newscaster just announced that Cole was going to be released today.  The NFL commissioner’s office announced that the two San Diego players who were involved in the play had each been fined $50,000.00.  The two players have been suspended by the Chargers for four games without pay.”

The phone interrupted the conversation.  Benji answered the phone, “Dad, it’s a news reporter.”

“This is Doug Christiansen.”

“Dr. Christiansen, this is Lane Albers.  I guess you’re pretty proud of the Hargrove Hellions?  That certainly was an appropriate name for the  team mascot, as far as Georgia Tech was concerned.  Are you scheduled to play any other Division I schools?”

“Mr. Albers, I don’t honestly know.  You will need to address your questions to our athletic director, Dr. Clark Lewis.”

“Dr. Christiansen, I understand that you attended the football game in San Diego yesterday.  Do you have any comments on what happened to Cole Weaver?”

“Mr. Albers, we were on the west coast on other business and were lucky enough to get tickets to the game.   What happened to Mr. Weaver was unfortunate and totally uncalled for.  Now if you will excuse me, I need to make sure my sons are ready for school.  Thanks for calling.”

After the guys were on their way to school, I went to the college.  Everything was moving on schedule.  I had just returned from teaching my class when the proverbial dam burst.  Karen handed me several messages as I walked into the office.  “Boss, we’re going to confine you to the office.”

I took care of the messages that all had to do with college business.  I was looking at the clock thinking, ‘Why haven’t I heard from Cole and R. B?’

I went to talk to Clark, and while I was talking to him, Karen interrupted, “Dr. Christiansen, Cole is on the line.”

“This is Doug.”

“Doug, I’m getting released.  I definitely will not be coming home to Summerhill, tonight.  I’m  really stiff and sore.  I‘ll stay at the apartment and have physical therapy with the trainers tomorrow before I come home.”

We were eating dinner when the phone rang.  Benji answered, “Oh hi, R. B.  When are you coming home? … Yeah, Dad’s here.  I’ll put him on.”

This is Dr. Christiansen.”

“Dad, why couldn’t you have just said,  ‘Hi, R. B.?’  We won’t be home until tomorrow.  We’re bringing home a bunch of papers for you to sign.  Mr. Rax needs to talk to you.  See you tomorrow.”

“Hi Doug.  I can’t believe how thorough R. B.’s Mother was.  She certainly didn’t leave any loose ends untied.  The sale of the house has been finalized and they are going to be packing the furnishings tomorrow.  Where do you want the things delivered?”

“Rax, I haven’t had time to think about where we’re going to store them.  I’ll make arrangements for that tomorrow.  Do want me to pick you up at the airport?”

“Nah, I’ll have Boyce pick me up.  We’ll just charge your account.  I’ll make sure R. B. gets home.  I’ll need to explain some of paperwork that you will need to sign and send back.”

To make a long story short; everyone had returned home to Atlanta by Wednesday night.  Rax, Uncle Howie and I spent Wednesday night taking care of the paperwork for R. B.‘s affairs. 

Cole missed two games because the doctors wouldn’t permit him to play.  The bad part was that  Atlanta lost both games.  We had to go to the games anyway because Cole felt obligated to be there since the Falcons were still paying him.

Christmas turned out to be a really big affair.  My parents and Autumn’s parents spent the holidays in Harwood.  My parents stayed at Uncle Howie’s and Autumn’s parents stayed with Austin and Derek, but during the day everyone was at Summerhill.  We didn’t see much of Cole. 

After Christmas, Atlanta made the playoffs as a Wildcard team.  Atlanta won their way into the NFC championship game but lost to the Washington Redskins.  Cole was voted the the outstanding rookie of the NFL as well as the most valuable player. 

The Harwood Junior College basketball season was a resounding success.  The team’s record was 22 wins and three losses.  We had recruiters for all the major colleges crawling out of the woodwork trying to entice our players to go to their universities.  The amazing thing is that none of the players chose to take advantage of the offers and decided to stay for another year at Harwood.

The Board of the Academy Awards announced their list of nominees for the year's Oscars.  Lo and behold, Hope Starr was nominated for the best actress award for her role of Queen of the Amazon which was released just to in time to qualify to be nominated.

The next thing that happened was R. B. received an invitation to the academy awards ceremony.  R. B. didn’t really want to go, so I didn’t RSVP.  It was two weeks before the awards when we received a strange envelope.  Inside was a note, “These are tickets to the Academy Awards presentations.  Please make sure that Ray, Jr. is there.”

Cole and I discussed whether we should go to the awards ceremony.  We decided that we should go, but it was still a mystery as to why we would need to be there.  We also decided that we wouldn’t go to the expense of wearing tuxedoes since people stood in lines to ooh and aah over how the actress were dressed.   They didn’t want to see us country bumpkins from rural Georgia.

We decided that we would take two taxis to the Kodak theatre where the awards were being held.  When we stepped out of the taxis, we heard a murmur go up from the crowd of onlookers.  One of the press people approached us.  He looked at us, “Who are you?  People can’t just walk into an event like the Academy Awards.”

Benji took offense, “Mister, we aren’t just walking in.  We were invited, and we have eight tickets to prove it.  We’re from Georgia and we don’t know why we’re here.  Someone sent us tickets and we decided to come see why we were invited.”

The encounter was interrupted by the arrival of one of the biggest female stars in Hollywood.  She was also a nominee for the best actress award.

We were taken to our seats by an usher.  Our tickets said we were to be seated in the second row in the first eight seats on the right side of the stage.  When we got to our assigned seats, there was a party of four sitting in the first four seats.  The usher asked to see the party's tickets.  The older man who was sitting there refused to show his tickets, claiming that they were in the right seats.

The usher got on the his phone to the security department.  Two security officers arrived and demanded that the man show his tickets.  The outcome was not pretty, but the man and his party were physically removed before the incident was over.

The show finally started and all six boys were bored by the proceedings.  After the first hour the boys had about all they could take.  Benji looked up at me, “Daddy, how much longer do we have to stay.  This is really boring.”

“Benji, we’ll leave at the next commercial break.” 

The next award was for a best actress in a leading role.  The guest presenter was Jeff Bridges, who happened to be last year’s winner of the best actor award. He announced, “The winner of this year’s best actress award is Belle Starr.”

There was a sudden hush over the crowd that was assembled.

There were seven people who stood to go accept the award.  The public address was activated, “Accepting the award on behalf of the deceased Ms Starr is her son, Raymond Lewis, Jr.”

R. B. looked at Cole and me and we both motioned for him to go accept the award. 

He went to the stairs and tried to be nonchalant as he walked to the presenter.  The presenter shook his hand, “Son, you must be very proud of your Mother.”

“Mr. Bridges, this is something that my Mother strived for.  Acting was very important to her.  I don’t know who these people are who are standing behind us.  I guess they want to make sure that they are seen.  They had nothing to do with the award.  I want to thank the Academy for honoring my Mother with this award.”

The hostesses ushered R. B. off the stage into the wings of the theatre.  When he finally arrived back at where we were seated, he looked up at me and whispered, “Dad, she's alive.”

“R. B., who’s alive?”

R. B. took a deep breath, “My Mother’s still alive.  She’s sitting right over there.”

He pointed to some empty seats.  “R. B., I don’t see anyone who looks like your mother.”

“Dad, I’m telling you she was sitting there when I accepting her award.”

We were getting ready to leave because the boys had all they could when a messenger brought us two notes.  One was addressed to Raymond, Jr. and the other addressed to me.  I handed R. B. the one addressed to him.

He read it and handed it to me.

Dear Ray, Jr.,

I know you saw me tonight.  I am alive but Belle Starr and Gwen Bradford are deceased.  The government has declared that I am dead.  Be good for Dr. Christiansen and Mr. Weaver.  I will be in touch with you from time to time.

                                               With love,

                                               Senora  Maria Aida

R. B. looked at me, “What does your note say?”

I opened it and read it and handed it to R. B.

Dear Dr. Christiansen,

I want to  thank you and Mr. Weaver for taking Ray, Jr. into your home and helping him to learn to live a normal life.  I’m afraid that I was never meant to be a mother.  I think I have adequately provided for Ray, Jr.’s well being.  I will be in touch with you and your family periodically.  Please don’t try to find me.  I will not be residing in the United States.”

                                        Respectfully

                                         Senora Maria Aida

I passed the notes to Cole.  After he read them, he motioned that we should leave, even though the other major presentations hadn‘t been made. 

As our crew from Summerhill was winging our way across the United States to Atlanta, I was thinking, ’What more can happen?”

To be continued...

Authors Note:  Thus, this segment of the story of Benji that started many years ago at an equestrian event ends  It’s not the end of the story.  How could it be with six young boys, a professional football player and a college president? 

Editor's Notes:

How indeed could it be?  I am sure there is much more to tell.  I believe that E Walk wants to have a rest from writing so many stories at the same time.  I will be eagerly waiting until such time as inspiration comes to E Walk to bring us more adventures from the fine people whom we have come to know and love so well.

Thank you so much, E Walk for another wonderful story, and I, for one, will be ready and waiting when ever the muse passes your way again bringing tidings from Summerhill.

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher

Posted: 04/08/11