Trey Comes Calling
by: E Walk
(© 2010-2011 by the Author)
 

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

Chapter 10

Pink Briefs

I sat with Jordan for approximately forty five minutes.  He kept fading in and out because of the sedatives.  When he was lucid, I patted him on the shoulder. “Son, I’m going to leave, now, so I can be at home when the three youngest Richards boys get out of school.  I’ve been informed that their stepmother is out of jail, and their Dad is afraid she’ll try to get her hands on the boys.”

“How is Trey’s father?”

“When I saw him this morning, he was in intensive care?  I thought I’d stop in to see him for a few minutes.  I’m sure Trey will be in here tonight, to see you, and check on his Dad.  I'll see you tomorrow.”

“Okay, see you, Dad.”

“When I walked into the Intensive Care Unit, the receptionist put up her hands.  Mr. Richards went into cardiac arrest.  I’m afraid you won’t be able to see him just now.  The cardiologist is with him, trying to get him stabilized.”

“Thank you, miss, I’ll check on him, later.  I need to go retrieve his three youngest sons.  Someone will be in to check on him this evening, after dinner.”

I arrived at the house just as the cars were starting to line up to pick up the children.  I spotted Mrs. Richards’ car and decided to walk around the back way to the school, so she wouldn’t know where the boys were, since Mr. Richards had asked me to make sure that Mrs. Richards didn‘t get her hands on them.”

I stood in the foyer and intercepted the three boys. “Guys, we’re going to take the long way home.  Your mother is out front, waiting to pick you up.”

Tommy asked, “Which mother?”

“Tommy, does it make any difference which mother?”

Trent answered, “Mr. Parker, our new Mother doesn’t love us at all.  She doesn’t even love Dad.   I heard her tell Dad that she was going to get a divorce, because she didn’t love him.  She said she only married him to get even with Mr. Walton.  I heard her tell Dad that he was no good in bed.  What did she mean by that?”

I tried not to laugh, “Come on, guys.  Let’s sneak out through the gym door.  We’ll go home the back way, so Mrs. Richards doesn’t see you.   There are some donut holes and juice waiting for you at the house..  You can eat, while you’re doing your homework.”

The guys finished the box of donut holes in record time, and drank half of the container of orange Hi C.  Tommy asked, “Mr. Parker, do you want to check our homework?”

“I certainly will if you would like for me to do so.”

“Our real Mother always checked it, but the new Mother said she was too busy, and didn’t really care.  She said she wasn’t going to fix what we didn’t do correctly, because we were too stupid to understand how to do it by ourselves like her other son and daughter could.”

I thought to myself, ‘These boys certainly have no love for the new Mrs. Richards. I need to check with Jack and Trey to find out more about why Mr. and Mrs. Richards got married.’

I checked the boys' papers and had only one suggestion for Trent.  The boys took the dirty dishes to the sink without me telling or asking them to, and Trent rinsed the dishes and put them in the dish washer.  He asked, “Mr. Parker, I don’t think the dinner dishes will fit in.  Do you want me to start the dish washer?”

“Thanks for asking, Trent, but I’ll start it after everything is ready for dinner.  Why don’t you go out and play.  There are usually some children at the playground at school, about now.  If you’re stepmother should see you, I would appreciate if you were polite to her, but I don’t want you to get in the car with her, under any circumstances.”

It was about thirty minutes later when the three boys came running in the front door.  Timmy was having a difficult time breathing, “Mr. __Parker,  __ The new mom was trying to get us in the car with her.  She said she wanted to take us __ home.”

Trent took over, “We told her that we were told to stay with you, and that our Daddy didn’t want us to go with her.  Mr. Parker, you should have heard the words that she was saying.  I didn’t know that women would say words like that.”

I chose not to make a big issue of what Trent was saying. Instead, I took another route, “Guys, why don’t you go get your dirty clothes, and we can do the laundry while we’re waiting for Mr. Evans and Trey.”

I went and got my dirty clothes, and Trent was carrying a basket when the boys returned,  “We didn’t take the sheets off the bed.  We usually do that on Saturday.  Is that okay?”

“Guys, that’s fine, as long as you take a bath or shower before you go to bed at night.  Did you get Trey’s dirty clothes?”

Trent shook his head no,  “No sir, we didn’t.  Trey doesn’t like people touching his clothes.  He does his own laundry.  He and our new mother had a big fight over her doing his laundry.”

“Why would they have a fight over doing laundry?”

“When she does the laundry, she just dumps it on the bed and everything is all wrinkled when we have to fold it to put it away.  Trey says she goes through all the drawers, to see if we have anything hidden that we don’t want her to see.  Our real Mother used to fold the clothes or hang them on hangars when she did the laundry.”

We heard the front door close.  We heard Trey call out.  “I’ll be there as soon as I take a shower.  Mr. Evans is on his way.  I saw him at the gas station.”

Jack arrived, “Good evening, gentlemen.  Did you have a good day?”

Timmy put his head on the counter where he was sitting, “Oh Mr. Evans, I got expelled from school for going to the bathroom on the playground during recess.”

Jack thought he was serious, “Timmy, why would you do that?”
 

Trent and Tommy were giggling.  Trent sputtered, “Don’t ­­ __  believe him, Mr. Evans.  He’s just teasing.  Our new Mother tried to take us to our house.”

Trey stopped the conversation by coming down the stairs, “Sorry, but I wanted to freshen up after practice, so I can go see Jordy and Dad.”

I looked at Trey, “Are you sure that’s all you’re going to do?”

“Yep, I need to do my laundry.  I’m running out of clothes.”

“The rest of us did our laundry this afternoon.  Trent says that you like to do your own laundry, so we didn’t do yours.”

“Mr. Parker, you don’t need to do our laundry.  You’re already doing too much for us.  Our new Mother throws everything in together when she does our laundry.  That means our underwear can turn out to be whatever color of clothes she washes them with.    I feel funny going to school wearing pink briefs.”

Jack was laughing, “Trey, what’s so bad about wearing pink briefs.  You could always tell your friends that they’re designer briefs.”

Trey moaned, “Yeah, designer briefs from Fruit of the Loom.”

I was laughing, “I hate to interrupt this intellectual discussion, but dinner is ready.”

There wasn’t much talk at dinner.  The boys and Ken were stuffing their faces so fast that the three youngest boys were definitely going to need a bath before they went to bed.  After all the worry about salad dressings, the three young guys ate their salad without any dressing.  I should have realized that I needed to have fixed more bread.  Hey give me some credit.  At least I fixed something that a seven, nine and eleven year old would eat.

We were clearing the table when the doorbell rang “Trey went to answer.”

We heard a female voice, “I came to take you and your brothers home.”

Jack and I went to see who it was.  When we walked into the foyer, I motioned for the three young boys to stay behind.  “Trey, go help your brothers with the dishes.  Mr. Evans and I will take care of the problem.”

Jack looked at Mrs. Richards, “Good Evening, Mrs. Richards.  What can we do for you, tonight?”

“I’m here to take the four brats home.”

I looked at the lady, “Mrs. Richards, you smell like a brewery.  You’re not in any condition to take care of the boys.  Besides, their father said that they didn’t want them left in your care.  I understand that you never adopted them.”

“Why would I want to adopt the brats.  I don’t want people to think that I’m their mother.  They’re stupid compared to my Chris and Jenna.  I can’t understand why Bart expects me to act like a lovey dovey mother, when I actually detest them.  I detest  Bart even more for letting his ex-wife, Kathie, take Howie away from me.”

Ken looked at me, “Ed, I think perhaps you should call the police and tell them that we have an inebriated person here at your house who is threatening to take four young boys away from your house.”

Mrs. Richards departed rather quickly before I could react.  Trey came into the hallway where Ken and I were standing,  “Mr. Parker, Jordy is on the phone.  He sounds really upset.

I picked up the extension in the foyer, “Jordy, what’s the problem?”

“Dad, Doctor Reiberg and Doctor Holly were both in and they say they don’t know how long I’m going to be in here.  I want out.  When is someone coming to take me home?”

“Jordy, Trey and Mr. Evans are about to leave for the hospital, now.  I’ll see you in the morning.  I need to stay here and take care of Trey’s three brothers.  I’ll have Trey bring the cribbage board and a deck of cards, that will take your mind off of getting out of the hospital.”

I had gotten the three boys ready for bed after we looked at the menu to see if they would be eating school lunch.  The older two decided they would eat school lunch, but Tommy asked if he could pack a sandwich.

“Of course, do we have everything we need?”

“Mr. Parker, as long as you have bread, peanut butter and jelly and some apples and a something sweet, I’ll be fine.”

After I had the boys in bed, I sat down in my recliner and picked up a new book that I had picked up at the bookstore but hadn’t had time to start.  It was by an author, Sloane Stephens, whom I wasn’t familiar with.  I usually read autobiographies.  I picked up the book from the display of new arrivals.  The title was P IS FOR PEEPING PAT.  I looked at the cover and tried to figure out what it was about.  The cover had something reflecting in the sunlight and a naked male figure leaning over the railing of a balcony talking to a young person who was doing something near the lake.

I figured I would start it and if I didn’t really enjoy it, I could take it back and get my money refunded.  I started to read and lost all track of time.  I was thinking that our house was beginning to sound like Steve Sloane’s house.  He and Pat kept collecting kids like the little old lady in the shoe.   My reading was interrupted by the arrival of Trey.

He didn’t waste anytime unloading.  “Our Dad is in surgery for his heart.  Mr. Evans was going to stay until he was out of surgery.  He’ll call you if it’s not too late. Jordy was really hurting tonight.  He was so heavily sedated that he couldn’t even concentrate enough to play cribbage.  He’s really angry and wants you to get him some new doctors who know what they’re doing.  He’s worried about the courses he’s taking.  He wants you to bring his backpack when you go, tomorrow.  He says you are to sneak in a pizza or two and some cookies.  Goodnight sir, I still have some homework that I need to do.”

I watched as Trey went up the steps and decided that I would go to bed so I could plug into the oxygen, in case I would fall asleep.  I took my book with me to read until Jack called me.  I was so engrossed in my book that I finished it, and still no call from Jack.  I looked at the clock and it was one o’clock.  I decided that he wouldn’t be calling me now.  I brushed my teeth again and took a sleeping pill because I knew I would never get to sleep if I didn’t.

The next morning, I was awakened by Tommy, “Mr. Parker, aren’t you going to get up.  You need to help me pack my lunch.”

I looked at my clock, “Tommy, what time is it?  I don’t have my glasses on.”

“It’s 7:15.  Everyone overslept.  Trey is taking a shower.”

I climbed out of bed wearing only my shorts and my tee shirt.  Tommy looked at me, “Mr. Parker, you need to eat more.  You’re too skinny.  Your tummy doesn’t hang over your belt like my Daddy’s and Grandpas’ do.”

“Are Trent and Timmy up?”

“Yep, they’re practicing their spelling words while they’re eating their cereal.  Are you going to pay us a dollar if we get the spelling words correct on the pretest today?”

“Why are you having a pretest today?  Today is only Wednesday.”

Tommy looked confused, “Mr. Parker, we have our pretest today since we don’t have school on Friday because the teachers have to go to school that day.”

Tommy stood and watched as I got dressed.  “Tommy, I’ll gladly pay you for getting a hundred percent on the spelling test.”

As Tommy and I were walking down the steps, he was holding my hand, “I wish you could be my Grandpa.  They never want to talk to me.  They’re always talking to my Dad telling him that he’s lazy.”

“Tommy, why do they say he’s lazy?”

Tommy shrugged his shoulders, “Grandpa Richards thinks anyone who works at a desk is lazy.  He worries more about his cows that he does anything else.  Ever since Grandmother Richards died, he doesn’t talk to anyone much anymore.”

“Tommy, I know your Grandpa and Grandma Jacobs.  Why do they tell your Daddy that he’s lazing?”

Tommy shook his head, “I don’t think that they like our daddy too much.  They were upset that our mother had to teach so we could have enough to have everything that everyone else does.”

I thought to myself, ‘I need to talk to Jack about this.  I can’t believe that Bart Richards is making less, working at Hewitt, than a teacher.”

As I was walking the boys to school, we heard all sorts of sirens.  When we walked up to the school, one of the buses pulled up and a young boy jumped off, “Guys, your house is on fire .  When we were walking to the bus stop there was fire coming out the windows.  The police were already there and made us walk on the other side of the street.  We saw three fire trucks as we were coming to school.”

I gathered the three guys around me, “Guys, as soon as I hear something, I’ll come tell you.  We know that you and your Daddy weren’t in the house.” 

To be continued...

Editor's Notes:

I wonder if the drunken stepmother was responsible for the fire.

She seems to be a low life sort of person. Maybe the boys will be lucky and she will have been inside the house when the fire started.

Oh yeah, I guess I shouldn't say something like that, but she certainly was mean to the boys.  I am just glad that none of the boys were in the house when it caught fire. 

I can hardly wait for the next chapter.  I think I'll go to the library and see if they have a copy of that book by Slone Stevens. I think I have read part of it, on the net, but it wasn't finished. It will be nice to see how it actually ends.  Grin.

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher 

Posted: 03/04/11