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

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Chapter 13

Aye, Aye, Sir

When I arrived in Jordy's room, he was sitting in the recliner.  He was looking out of the window.  “Good morning, Son.”

“Hi, Dad.  Nancy said you were in the area.  Dr. Scott was in this morning and ordered another CAT scan.  He’s baffled as to why my intestines aren’t responding to the medications.  It’s like they’ve gone to sleep and won’t wake up.”

“Jordy, is there anything that you need me to do for you other than get you out of here and get you something to eat?”

“Dad, I just want out of here.  I feel like I’m wasting everyone’s time.  I’m beginning to feel like a blimp with all these liquids they’re pumping into at the same time they’re pumping the things in my stomach back out.”

Jordy looked at the clock, “The nurse’s assistant is going to come help me take a bath.  Do you realize how degrading it is to be treated like a baby?”

“Jordy, they need to make sure that your tubes don’t get disconnected.  Otherwise they’ll have to reconnect them and that’s not fun.”

“I know, Dad.”

The conversation was interrupted by the nurse’s assistant.  It was a person I would never have guessed was a nurse’s assistant.  He was an older man.  I would have guessed that he was in his fifties.  “Ready for your cleaning and shampooing, Mr. Jordon?”

“No, but your going to do it anyway.  Dad, why don’t you go on home?  I’ll call you if I survive this ordeal.”

I did as I was told.  I decided to pay the bills that I had let accumulate.  I did eat lunch and decided to rest in my recliner.  The only problem was that I was sitting in the recliner when the three youngest Richards boys arrived home from school.  (Okay, so I took a nap.)

I held out my hand, “I believe you gentlemen have some things that I need to see and sign.”

The three guys opened their backpacks and they each handed me a folder.   Timmy and Tommy’s folders looked really good.  Trent’s, however, had only one piece of paper. I held the folder out to Trent, “Where are the rest of the papers.  I know that fifth graders do more work than this in a week.”

Trent had a downcast look on his face and reached into his backpack, “Okay, I took most of the work out.  He handed me a packet,”

I looked at a note that was attached to the packet.  The note read:

This is the best set of papers that Trent has had all year.  It proves what he can do.  Try to keep him motivated to keep up the good work.                                

                                                                      Mr. Bray

I commended all three guys and signed their folders and took them to get them a snack

After the guys had their snacks, I loaded them in the car and went to the hospital.   We stopped in Jordan’s room.  Jordy was awake.  He looked so much better now that he had been shaved and had his hair shampooed.  I pointed at Jordy, “You need to baby-sit the boys.  I’m going to take them one at a time to see their Dad.”

I did as I proposed and took Trent to see the boys’ dad first.  I permitted each of the boys five minutes to visit with their dad.  I’m not sure who benefited from the visit the most - Bart or Jordy. 

I decided that the boys needed to get out and run, even though they weren’t complaining.  When we were pulling into the driveway, a group of young people were walking toward the school.  Tommy asked, “Mr. Parker, can we go to the playground?”

“Of course, but be home by five thirty.”

As we were finishing dinner, Jack asked, “Ed, do you want to go to the hospital?”

“No, I’ve been there twice today.  I’ll stay here so Trent, Tommy and Timmy can take care of me until Trey gets home.”

It was almost seven o’clock and still no Trey.  I was beginning to get concerned.  The three guys were lying on the den floor watching television when there was a pounding on the door.  That caught everyone’s attention.  Why would anyone be pounding on the screen door when door was open and it was readily apparent that someone was home?

I went to answer and was greeted by the sight of Mr. Walton standing there.  He started to yell at me, “I hope that you’re satisfied, now that you got me fired.”

“Mr. Walton, I wish I could take credit for it, but I had nothing to do with getting you fired.  I haven‘t talked to Mr. Buffer since the day after Trey came to stay with us.  I‘ve had better things to do than worry about you.”

“Yeah, and I suppose that you had nothing to do with my wife being in jail.”

“Why is Kathy in jail?”

“Not that wife, you stupid bastard.  I’m talking about my first wife.”

“Mr. Walton, I had nothing to do with having your former wife being put in jail.  It was she who tried to accuse me of setting the Richards’ house on fire.  It sounds to me as if you are either drunk or high on drugs.  I suggest you leave quietly or I’ll call the police.”

The problem was solved when Trent appeared, “Mr. Parker, I called the police, and reported that there was a man here talking bad talk.  They’re on their way to take care of the problem.”

Mr. Walton was driving away at a rapid rate of speed when a police cruiser pulled up and who to my wondering eye should appear, but my two favorite police officers, Inspector Jackson and Officer Benson. “Good evening, gentleman.  Did you come to arrest me for setting another fire?”

Inspector Jackson put up his hand, “Mr. Parker, we’ve already been severely reprimanded for that incident and are on probation because of your complaints..”

I started to laugh, “That’s odd.  I haven’t even submitted my complaints, yet, so you can’t blame me.  How can I help you?”

Officer Benson answered, “Mr. Parker, we had a call from a young man, Trent Richards, saying that there was Mr. Walton here yelling at you.”

“He was here.  However, he took off when Trent told me that he had called the police.”

Inspector Jackson accusingly asked, “Why didn’t you try to detain him?

“Inspector Jackson, look at me.  I weigh approximately 135 pounds.  Mr. Walton is a rather large man whom I would estimate to weigh in the neighborhood of 220 pounds.  To top it off he was high on something.”

“Why was he here threatening you?”

“Officer Benson, he claimed that I caused him to lose his job. I have no idea what he was talking about.  Why don’t you go talk to him?”

“Where do we find him?”

I decided to play the devil’s advocate, “Officers, I don’t know exactly where he lives.  I’ve never been to his house.  All I know is that it’s over near the golf course.  You people seem to be all knowing; use your special powers and go to talk to him.  Now if you will excuse me, I have three young boys to get ready for bed.”

I stepped back in the house and closed the front door in the two officers’ faces.  But what the heck, I didn’t care.

When I went back to the den, the three boys were sitting very stoically on the sofa.  Timmy asked, “Mr. Parker, you won’t let that man take us away, will you?”

“Timmy, I’m not going let anyone take you away, except your Daddy when he gets better.  Why don’t you guys go get ready for bed?”

Tommy challenged me, “Mr. Parker, why do we need to go to bed?  We don’t have school tomorrow.  We can sleep late.”

The conversation was halted by the arrival of Trey.  “Sorry, I’m so late.  There was a big thunderstorm in Lincoln.  The officials were determined to complete the game to keep the playoffs on schedule.  A lot of good it did them.  After over an hour’s delay, the game was resumed.   The score was tied when the game was called because of darkness. The officials tried to find a field with lights where we could finish the game but they were already in use.  They rescheduled the game for ten o’clock Saturday morning.”

Trey looked at his brothers, “Why are you sitting there like mummies?  What did you do?”

“Trey, your brothers have not done anything bad.  They are reacting to a visit from Mr. Walton.”

“Why would Mr. Walton be here?  He‘s not connected to us in any way.”

I shrugged my shoulders, “Trey, he obviously has a problem.  He accused me of getting him fired.  I have no idea what he thinks I’ve done to get him fired.”

The three young guys jumped when the phone rang.  I picked up the receiver, “This is Ed Parker.”

“Ed, it’s Kathy Walton.  What happened?  The police were just here looking for Howie.”

“Kathy, he was here earlier this evening accusing me of causing him to lose his job.  Trent called the police and reported what was happening.  When Mr. Walton heard that the police had been called, he took off like a proverbial bat out of hell.  I can assure you that I had nothing to do with him losing his job if he did.”

Kathie sighed, “This smacks of his former wife.  I heard what she caused to happen to you.  I’m finding out that there are a lot skeletons in the Walton’s closets.  Up until now, everyone thought that Howie was one of Ward Buffer’s golden boys.  I’ll talk to you later.  Howie has just pulled into the garage.  He‘d pitch a fit if he realized I was talking to you.”

I had just hung up from talking to Kathie Walton when front door opened, “Yoo-hoo, anyone home?”

The four boys started to giggle.  Timmy challenge, “No Mr. Wolf, we ain’t home.  The wicked king was here and fed us some poison apples.”

Ken realized that he was being had and couldn’t let that pass.  “Gees, I brought some cheese so I could fatten you boys up and take you to the little cottage in the woods.  I heard the little old lady needs to make some new gingerbread cookies to replace the ones she’s eaten and she‘s paying a bunch of money.”

Tommy yelled, “We gotta run, run as fast as we can.  We can’t let the wolf catch us, cause we’re the gingerbread men.”

I stopped the frivolity, “Guys, get serious.  It's time for you three youngest to go to bed.  Remember we’re scheduled to go to the commissary in the morning.”

The three guys hugged Jack and me and started toward the stairs.  Ken looked at Trey, “Trey, Jordy wants you to call him.  He didn’t say what it was about.  When I was in his room, a lady from the church, whose name was Carol something, came in and brought him some crossword puzzle books.”

Trey went into the kitchen to use the phone and I presumed to get something to eat.  Jack sat down beside me, “Ed, I need to stop meddling in your business.  I did some things earlier today that could come back to haunt us.  I had lunch with Ward Buffer and I told him what had been happening to you.”

“Jack, the haunting has already started.  Mr. Walton was here a short time ago, yelling at me because he said I caused him to lose his job.”

“Ed, that doesn’t sound like something Ward would do without a good reason.  I’ll have to check into it tomorrow.  In the meantime, let’s go to bed.  I’ll swing by my house in the morning and get some clean clothes.

Jack woke up when I did and was long gone before I went to wake the guys at nine o’clock.  I had the guys eat breakfast before we went to the commissary.  I had learned from experience that it is unwise to go grocery shopping when you’re hungry.”

On the way to the commissary, we stopped at the hospital, since we had to go right by it to get to the base.  We couldn’t stop on the way home because we would have some frozen things and it was already warm  We only stopped for short time because I didn’t want to be in the commissary too late.  Mr. Richards was looking better, but Jordy was really upset.  He complained, “The nurses say my stomach sounds like a ghost town.  There‘s no activity.”

As we were getting ready to leave, the assistant pastor from Jordy’s and my church arrived to see Jordy.  I was relieved because Jordy and pastor had a good relationship.

As I started to drive, I handed my wallet to Trey, “Please pull out my military I. D.  It’s the blue card in the center section behind my driver’s license.”

Trey did as I asked and handed me the card.  When we were approaching the gate checkpoint to the base, cars were backed up for what seemed to be miles.  The line was moving quickly and I could see three people checking the I. D.s.  When it was our turn to be waved through the gate, I pulled up to the first available person who happened to be a young airman in uniform.  He saluted as I stopped.  I returned the salute as I handed him my I. D.   He checked the I. D. and waved us through the gate.

Timmy asked, “Why did that man salute you?”

“Timmy, he saluted me because I was an Air Force officer when I retired.”

I was relieved that there wasn’t any more time for questions before we arrived in the commissary parking lot, which looked extremely busy.  I shuddered to think what this shopping experience was going to be like if the commissary parking lot was any indication as to how busy the commissary was going to be.

We went into the commissary and it didn’t look busy at all.  In fact, there were lots of carts not in use.  I took one and had Trey get one.  Ordinarily, I would be in and out of the commissary in an hour and half at the most.  However, this excursion took nearly two and half hours.  That wasn’t the worst of the experience.  The cost of the purchases was nearly triple what I would have paid when it was just Jordy and me.

When I had pulled into the garage and popped the trunk of the car, I suggested, “Guys, why don’t you help Trey bring the groceries in?  Trey, make sure that you unload the perishable items first.  We can always put the nonperishable things away later.”

The four boys stood at attention and saluted, “Aye, aye, sir.”

To be continued...

Editor's Notes: 

This was another action packed chapter.  Jordan seems to be a little bit calmer, this time.  Now that he is taking his prescribed dosage of his meds, he is acting much more reasonable.

I do hope that by the next chapter things will be a bit more calm, but I wouldn't get my hopes up too far. I am very ready for the next chapter.

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher

Posted: 04/15/11