The Doctor Gets a Visitor V
by: E Walk

(© 2007 by the Author)
Editor Radio Rancher

The author retains all rights. No reproductions are allowed without the author's consent. Comments are appreciated at...


Chapter 29

I’ve Been Poisoned

On Thursday it was drizzling so Beau went to the basement and was joined by David, Boris, Berto and Jonathan.  They did a leisurely workout.

Beau did the usual morning coffee ritual and took a shower and went to terrorize Jason which Jason had to come expect.

After breakfast and the cleanup, Josh took Beau to the Antique Shoppe and Beau was already working with customers when the Coopers arrived.  Beau turned the customers over to Berto and they left to go to the first house.

As they were walking to the door Beau said, “I don’t get very good vibes from this house.  It looks too perfect.  I don’t know what it is, but it doesn’t make me feel good.”

They rang the doorbell and a very stern looking older woman answered, “What do you want?  I’m not buying anything.  Go away.”

Beau shrugged his shoulders, “Ma’am, we’re not selling anything.  We were told that you were interested in selling your furniture.  I believe we are expected.  This is Mr. and Mrs. Cooper and I’m Beau Benson.”

“Well why didn’t you just say so?” the lady asked.

“Ma’am, you never gave us the opportunity to tell you who we were or why we were here.”

“Young man, you are impertinent.”  she challenged.

“So be it, but I am not mean and cranky like someone who lives in this house.”  Beau said.  “We’ll just leave if you don’t wish to talk to us.”

The lady was surprised by his answer.  “Get your butts in here.  Now what would you like to see?”

“We want to see everything you don’t want to take with you.  If we can come to a deal, we’ll pick up the goods next week and you can be out of here.  Where are you going to be living when you move?” Beau asked.

“I’m moving to Florida to live with my sister.  She has a condo on the beach.”  the lady answered.

“Hey, you’re going to be a beach bunny.  You need to get your hair styled and with the correct swim suit, you’ll have men calling you 24/7.”  Beau quipped.

“Beau, you are hallucinating.  I’ve never been chased or sought after by any man.”  the lady answered.

“We’ll see what we can do about that, later.  Now let’s see what kind of junk you’re trying to push off on us.  Is there anywhere you would prefer us not to go?  Do you have an attic and basement with things we might like to look at?”

Ms. Lammers answered, “Beau, you can look anywhere, but I’m going to do a strip search before you leave.”

“Some people will do anything to see a gorgeous male body.  Come on Mr. Cooper, let’s check out the dive.  You two ladies sit and gossip.”  Beau said as he and Mr. Cooper left. 

When they returned, the two ladies were having tea and visiting.  Beau said, “Mr. Cooper, you write your estimate of what we should offer Ms. Lammers and I’ll write mine.  Ms. Lammers you get yourself dressed, and we’ll treat you to lunch; I’ll even spring for lunch and then we’ll tell you what we’ll offer you for the house of junk.”

Ms. Lammers came back looking like a different person.  Beau said, “Ma’am, I gave my best estimate to Mr. Cooper.  Since it is the Shoppe’s money, they have to make the offer.  Now let’s go, I’m starved.  Look at it this way, you get a free meal even it we offer you nothing.”

As they were driving to the restaurant, Mr. Cooper said, “Ms. Lammers, we will offer you $27,000.00 for the contents of the house.”

Beau said, “Mr. and Mrs. Cooper, I said $26,999.00.”

Mrs. Cooper pointed at Beau, “Beau we figured that if we round the figure it would take less time to write the check.”

“Ms. Lammers, some people will do anything not to have to work too hard.” Beau said, as they went into a local restaurant.  As they were eating, Beau regaled his table mates with stories from his visit to the nude ranch.  When he told them about S.Z.Q. finding him naked by the lake, everyone burst out laughing.”

Ms. Lammers said, “You made that up right?”

“No ma’am, I did not.  All S.Z.Q. said was let’s go swimming so I pulled on my bikini briefs and we went swimming.”  Beau looked at the Coopers and asked, “What time are we due at our next appointment?  This has been fun, but I have to get back so I can be at practice for our Washington, D. C. trip.”

Beau got up and paid the bill and left the gratuity.  They went back to Ms. Lammers and the paperwork was signed.  As they were leaving Beau hugged and kissed the lady and said, “Now remember, you need to make sure that those wolves in Florida don’t take advantage of you.”

The Coopers and Beau went to the second house and were met by an elderly gentleman who smelled like he had not taken a bath or shower or even changed clothes in quite some time.

The gentleman asked, “Won’t you come in?”

Beau took the initiative, “Hi, I’m Beau Benson.  Sir, I think you need to go take a shower or bath while Mr. and Mrs. Cooper pop off to get you something to eat and then Mr. Cooper and I will look around and see what we can offer you for your goods.”

Beau had passed a signal so that the Coopers knew that they were to go get some food.  Beau took the gentleman and helped him take a bath since he didn’t have a shower.  Beau found some clean clothes and made sure that Mr. Wilder was cleaned, and shampooed Mr. Wilder’s hair.  He had Mr. Wilder put on his shorts and helped him shave and then he trimmed his hair.

When they came down the stairs, the elderly gentleman had a spring in his gait.  Beau fixed his lunch and sat and visited with him as did the Coopers.  Mr. Wilder regaled them with stories about when he was young.

Beau found out that Mr. Wilder had been asked to go live at his daughter’s, but was reluctant to because of all of her grandchildren.  Beau said, “Grandpa Wilder, you would be the best thing that ever happened to those young people.  You could make sure they took care of their bodies.  Now you eat while Mr. Cooper and I go check the things in your house.”

Beau came back and asked, “Mr. Wilder, do you have your daughter’s phone number?”

“Yes it’s on the pad there under Bill and Lillian Thornton.” Mr. Wilder answered, while he was eating like he hadn’t eaten in a week.

Beau took Mr. Cooper’s phone and made a call.  When he came back he said, “Mr. Wilder, as soon as you are finished eating, we need to pack your clothes.  Your daughter is on her way.”

“Mr. Cooper, here is my best estimate about what you should pay Mr. Wilder.  You make your offer while I go start to pack his clothes.”  Beau said.

Beau came back with two suitcases. “Mr. Wilder, you need to buy some new clothes.  Yours are in pretty sad shape.  Just take some of your grandchildren with you and they’ll bring you into the 21^st century.”

Mrs. Thornton arrived and Mr. Cooper said, “Mr. Wilder, we’ll offer you $20,000 for everything in the house, after you take what you want.”

Mr. Wilder’s daughter said, “We don’t want anything.  We can’t possibly put anything else in our house.  Dad, you really look good.  Now come on we’ll go.  Mr. Cooper just let us know when you want to pick up the goods.”

On the way back to Fremont, Beau asked, “Why am I doing these visits to the estates?  You don’t need me.  We have been very close in what we would offer.”

Mrs. Cooper turned to Beau, “Beau, if you hadn’t been with us today, we would probably have walked away from both of those houses.  Ms. Lammers made me so angry; I just wanted to smack her in the mouth and Mr. Wilder smelled so bad, I felt like throwing up.”

Mr. Cooper added, “I don’t know how you do it, but you bring out the best in people.  Are you sure you don’t want to be home schooled so you could work more?”

“Mr. and Mrs. Cooper, I’m only 13 going on 1000.  I need time to be a snotty teenager.  I appreciate everything that you are doing, but I really need to cut back and do some fun things like play tennis or golf.”  Beau said, as he climbed out of the van at his house.

He went in the kitchen to start dinner but Mrs. Gleason said, “I have it under control.  Why don’t you and Jason do something fun until your Dads get home?”

Jason came in and Beau said, “Come on brother, let’s go take care of the lawns since I’ve been kicked out of the kitchen.”

The two guys mowed, trimmed and edged their yard and the Leavitt’s.  David and Boris wound up helping them.  When the elder Mr. Leavitt pulled in, he complained, “How am I supposed to get any exercise if you keep mowing my lawn?”

Beau looked at him and said, “You could always go running in the morning with us, or you could go skinny dipping in our pool after Jason and I go to bed.  Just let us know so we have our infrared cameras set up.  Bye sir.  Have a good day.”

Beau turned to Jason, “Come on Jason, we need to clean up for dinner.  Thanks for helping, uncles.  See you in the morning.”

They sat down to dinner and the conversation was lively, “Grandma Renee, what did the quack Doctor Ichabod say?”

Mrs. Gleason smiled, “He told me that I would probably outlive all of you and he couldn’t find any medical reason for me needing to walk with a cane.  He suggested that I see a physical therapist.”

Beau said, “We can handle that.  I’ll just ask Denny’s mother, Aunt Maria, to work with you.  You’ll love her.  She is a lovely lady.”

Beau switched to Ben, “Pop, I thought you all had a board meeting in Des Moines yesterday.  It just dawned on me this afternoon that all three of the board members were here last night.  What happened?”

“Mom T. called and said that Dylan had cancelled the meeting because his Grandparents had a funeral they wanted to attend and that the Robinsons were in Texas.  The meeting was delayed until after you all get back from Washington, D. C.”

Beau turned to Mrs. Gleason, “So did you have a good time looking around today with Grandma Davis, Grandmama W. and Gigi?”

“We had a great time looking at apartments and condominiums.  I decided an apartment wasn’t for me.  I did find a single story condominium that had three bedrooms but it won’t be ready until the first of August.  I think I have enough capital so I could buy it.  I’ll just have to find something temporary until then.”  Mrs. Gleason said.

Jason interrupted, “Granddad, tell Grandma Renee she can stay with us.  Grandma Ginny and Aunt Evelyn aren’t coming back until the end of August.”

Beau said, “Yeah, the rent will be a thousand a month.  You have to cook all of the meals and do all of the cleaning.  We’ll change your name to Cinder Renee.  Now Dads, when you do your psychological workups, it’s going to be important that you have your findings well documented.”

They were just getting up from the table when the door opened and Clay came bouncing in.  “Hi, we’re home.  Beau, you were right.  There were some really nice people in Des Moines.  I really liked Daddy’s grandparents and Aunt Nan, but I didn’t like his Mother and Father very much.  They aren’t very nice.”

Beau grabbed Clay and hugged him.  “We missed you my man.  I thought you were coming back tomorrow.”

Clay held Beau’s face and said, “Uncle Jeff called and wanted us to be here tonight for practice.  Grandma and Grandpa Morrison were going to go to Texas to spend the weekend with Mr. and Mrs. Robinson.  Besides Daddy and Mommy want to talk to you and Uncle Jeff about something important after practice.”

Beau asked, “So, which car do you have and have you eaten?”

Carole Anne answered.  “We have the van and yes we grabbed a meal on the way at the Danish Windmill.  You all go to the bathroom and we need to go or we’ll be late.”
 

They left for the church and Jeff handed everyone a proposed program.  Beau looked at it and stood up and said, “I’ve been poisoned.  I can’t go.”

Spencer said, “Here is the antidote and you’re going.  If Chip and I have to do this, you do too.”

Beau said, “But I’m too shy and bashful.  I can’t get up in front of people.”

Jason spoke up and said, “I guess you are insecure too because you don’t even shut the door when you go to the bathroom.”

Everyone started laughing and Jeff ran through what he had planned. “I know that you all can and will do a great job.  We’ll be flying out of Omaha on the first of July.  We’ll have a short practice the morning of the second and we’ll do our performance on the evening of the third.  We are scheduled to come back on the fifth.

“We’ll be staying in quarters at Andrews Air Force Base and eating breakfast in the chow hall.  The rest of the meals we have to provide on our own except the evening of the fourth when we are having a barbeque at The White House.”

As they were finishing the rehearsal, Jeff said, “Beau, you are responsible for the 5 and nine year olds.  Spencer, you are in charge of getting the eleven year olds ready.  The rest of you, if you want to practice, call me.  Oh I almost forgot.  We are all wearing jeans and red and white western shirts which have been ordered.  The three emcees will wear their cowboy hats and cowboy boots.  Are there any questions?”

Beau spoke up and said, “The antidote serum isn’t working.”

Jason looked at Beau and said, “We’ll have a gurney and wheel chair awaiting your arrival.  Now knock it off you're cutting into practice time.”

When practice was over, Dylan went and asked Jeff to meet them at Beau’s house.  Beau took everyone into the kitchen since his Dads were working with Mrs. Gleason.

Carole Anne announced, “We’re planning to get married as soon as possible so we can adopt Clay.”

Clay said, “Yep, and they are going to find me a brother and a sister.”

Beau interrupted, “Clay, go find Jason and tell him you both need a shower and then come down and I’ll fix you dessert.”

Clay took off and Beau was in rare form, “You aren’t going to take this step just because of Clay, are you?  What about your college and where are going to live?  I don’t want Clay living in a one bedroom apartment. What do your parents say and where are you planning to be married?”

Beau, you’ve covered all of the things that we talked about with my Grandparents for several hours.  Only you did it in two minutes.” Dylan said.  “We’ll address the issues one at a time.”

Carole Anne started, “After our week at the nude dude ranch, we decided we wanted to get married.  We initially planned to finish college first, but the arrival of Clay has changed that.  We both love him and he has accepted us and is comfortable with us.”

We were joined by Ben, Josh and Mrs. Gleason.  They sat down and listened as Dylan took over, “Beau, we are both going to be seniors and only need about 20 hours to be graduated.  We figure with Jeff’s help we can finagle our schedules so that at least one of us would be home until Clay leaves for school and comes home each day.”

“Beau, in case you didn’t realize it, both Dylan and I have a little money so we have decided to buy a home, so that Clay has some roots.  We will need to go between here and Des Moines and Estes Park several times a year.” Carole Anne added.

Beau interjected, “You people should look at the condominiums that Grandma Gleason is looking at.  That way you would have to spend minimum time taking care of the property and have more time to spend on your school work and more importantly, Clay.  Just think Grandma Gleason would be close by if you need her for anything.”

Dylan started again, “Beau, we talked to my parents and they want us to have the society wedding of the year in Des Moines.  Carole Anne’s parents and my grandparents are fine with whatever we do.”

Carole Anne said, “”Here’s the kicker.  We have decided to do three weddings.  The first would be here in Fremont with our friends.  The second service would be in Des Moines and the following week we have a service at the church at the nude dude ranch for my parent’s friends and the people from the ranch.”
 

Beau said, “I suppose that makes sense, but you will probably be getting a lot of duplicate gifts that you probably don’t want or need.”

Dylan said, “Here’s where you and Jeff come in.  We want Jeff to play at the first two weddings.  We want you and S.Z.Q. to be our attendants and sing at all the weddings.”

“Oh, you mean we don’t have to say your vows too?”  Beau asked.

Everyone started to laugh, “I think we can handle that.”  Carole Anne laughed.  “We thought the wedding here would be a semi formal affair with you guys wearing blazers and slacks.  The one in Des Moines would be formal with the guys in tuxedoes and then the one at the ranch would be in western wear.”

Dylan spoke up, “Of course the songs that you and S.Z.Q. would sing would be different at each service.”

Beau sat down, “I think I’m getting viral meningitis so I’ll be out of commission for the entire next month.”

Jason and Clay came down in nothing but their briefs.  Beau pulled out a tray of Texas brownies and some milk and offered everyone a serving.  He had everyone sitting around the table eating.

The phone rang, “Yes Grandma Gleason is right here.  Here let me put her on.”  Beau handed Grandma Renee the phone. 

“Becca, what’s wrong? …They what? … Where are you? … Here, I'll put someone on the phone who knows the area.  Tell them where to find you and we’ll be there as soon as we can.”

She handed me the phone.  “Hi, this is Doctor Wilson.  Can you tell me approximately where you are?”

“Sir, I don’t know exactly where I am, but it's on the edge of Fremont.  The people gave me a ride said that this was where they dropped me off since I had no idea where anybody lived.   They gave me the money to make this call.  I am at a big truck stop with a Burger King restaurant and there are a couple of motels close by.  There is a road that goes over the four lane highway.”  Rebecca told me.

“Rebecca, I think I know where you are.  Your Grandmother and I will be there shortly.  Watch for us.  I will be driving a gray car.”

Mrs. Gleason, Carole Anne and I left.  Carole Anne didn’t know what was going on, but she went with us as requested.  I was correct in where I thought Rebecca was.  She crawled into the car.  She looked awful.  Carole Anne knew things were not good and tried to settle Rebecca down.

When we arrived at the house, Beau had Rebecca go to the bathroom and wash her face and hands.  He had sent Jason and Clay to bed.  When Rebecca reappeared, Beau had fixed a bowl of soup, a sandwich and a fruit salad.  He went and got Jeff’s digital camera and handed it to Carole Anne.  After Becca had finished eating, Beau said, “Carole Anne, you take pictures while Doctor Dad is examining Rebecca, so we have some visual proof of what happened.”

Rebecca had definitely been beaten.  I went down and told the assembled people what I had found.  Mrs. Gleason was just livid.  Beau, butted in, “We’ll make the bed in the study up, for Rebecca to sleep.  I don’t want to wake the other two guys.  Carole Anne, go get Rebecca some basics.  You can take care of the rest in the morning.  Doctor Dad, call Doctor Frazier in the morning and make an appointment for a complete physical.  Dad and Pop, I think you need to each meet with Rebecca so you can submit a report.” 

Beau said, “Goodnight everyone. I’m exhausted.  I’ll go get Becca’s room ready.  Someone else needs to launder her clothes so she has some clothes to put on in the morning.”  Beau trudged up the stairs.

To be continued...

Feedback always welcome:     

Editor's Notes:

How can any parent be so mean to a child? I guess you have to consider how terrible they treated their mother, and I guess you can see the kind of sub humans they are. They are definitely not model citizens.

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher

Posted: 02/22/08