What Do I Do Now, Mom?
by: E Walk
(© 2009 by the Author)
 

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

Chapter 25 

Black Sunday, Part 1

Mother was in rare form, “Henry, help Robert and William get the boys clothes out of the car and don’t mess them up.  I worked my fingers to the bone making sure they were folded or hung on hangars so they wouldn’t have wrinkles.”

Wylie pulled my arm, “Mister, who are the two people she’s talking about?”

“Mother was referring to Bobby and Billy.”

“Why didn’t she call them by their right names, so we know who she’s talking about?”

“You’ll have to ask her?”

I didn’t think Wylie would do it, but he did.  He went up to Mother. “Lady, why don’t you call people by their right names, so we know who you’re talking about?”

Witt heard what Wylie had said, “Wylie, Mrs. Adler is older than us so she can call us what she wants.”

Mother put her hand to her head, “Leon, did you hear what Witt just said about me?  He said I was old.  I think we’d better leave before anyone else insults me.”

Billy giggled, “Grandma, you weren’t listening to what Witt said.  He didn’t say you were old.  He only said that you were older than Wylie.  I think you would have to agree to that, since Wylie is the youngest person here.”

Mother put her arm around Wylie, “Come on, kid, we need to talk.”

When Bobby, Billy and I returned from taking the new clothes into their room since that's where Witt’s clothes were, my Dad was talking to Wally and Willy.  Billy and Bobby went to see what they could do to help Witt and Ritchie.

I watched as Billy and Bobby went into the trailer.  Bobby returned with a basket of bread and Billy had a big tossed salad.  Billy came to where I was standing, “Dad, could you get the bowl with rice in it, please?  It’s pretty hot and I’m afraid I’ll drop it.”

When I returned with the rice pilaf, which was steaming, Ritchie motioned for me to put it on the serving table next to the grill.  “Billy, go get your grandparents so we can start eating.  Everyone can help themselves to as much as they want and Witt and I will help unload the skewers, since they’re kinda hot.”

As we were eating, Mother commented, “Guys, this is great.  I figured we would have something like hamburgers.  You went to a lot of work.”

Wylie was seated between my Mother and me, he looked up at me, “Mister, I’m pretty full.  Everything is so good.  Can I save the rest for my breakfast?”

Mother asked, “Why would you save it for your breakfast?  There will be other food at breakfast.”

Witt responded, “Grandmother Adler, at my father’s house, it is always a struggle to find enough to eat.  I cannot imagine what it’s going to be like now that there are going to be six more people living there.”

Bobby stood, “I’ll go get some containers and you can take the leftovers home.”

Wiley started to cry, “Bobby, I don’t wanna go home.  I want to stay here.”

My Dad answered, “Guys, you need to go home or the police will come and take Bobby and Billy to jail because they kidnapped you.  Then they would only have bread and water to eat.”

Wally pouted, “Okay, we’ll go home, but we don’t wanna do it.”

Ritchie departed for home and Witt went to take a shower so he could get dressed to go to the teen dance.  Mom went to get the tray of brownies she had brought, “Billy, I need another container so Wally, Willy and Wylie can have dessert tonight if they get hungry.”

Witt almost choked when I gave him the keys to the car, “Mr. Adler, you said I was going to take the truck.”

“Witt, you can’t be driving your brothers and all of their merchandise around in the truck.  Besides, my parents are here, if we need to go some place.  Could you try to be home by midnight, please?”

After Witt and his three brothers had departed, Dad looked at me, “Witt is a very handsome young man.  What’s going to happen to his three little brothers.  If they don’t want to go home, their home life must not be very good.”

“Dad, there are two more brothers and four sisters at the Latham house.  Mr. Latham was getting married again today and was going to be bringing his new wife and her five daughters home.  I don’t know Mr. Latham that well, but I get the feeling from some things that Witt has said that he isn’t much into the farming aspect of his life or being a father.”

Billy and Bobby resurfaced so the subject changed.  Mother asked, “Which church service will you be going to, tomorrow?”

I answered, “I thought we’d go to the first service and the guys could go to Church School.  Why don’t we plan to have a picnic dinner tomorrow night?  We can invite the Grandparents and Uncle Mark and Aunt Peggy.  I really would like some legal advice from Uncle Mark.”

Mother nodded, “That sounds like a good idea.  I think we need to be here to keep you out of trouble.”

Billy started to laugh, “Grandmother Dearest, what is it that you would like to eat tomorrow night?”

Mother realized that she was being given a hard time, “Grandsons Dearests, remember that the great grandparents have a difficult time eating anything that is too tough.  Leon, I want to go home.  Everyone is picking on me.”

We walked the parents to the car and the guys hugged them and thanked them for their new clothes.

Billy and Bobby went to take a shower and reappeared in their briefs.  Bobby asked, “Dads, what’s going to happen to Wally, Willy and Wylie.  No one loves them.   Why couldn‘t they stay here?””

I wasn’t sure where Bobby was going, “Bobby, why do say that?  Where would they sleep if they lived with us?”

Billy answered, “Kick Daddy’s butt and tell him to get the plumbing finished, so we can move into the big house, and then we’ll have plenty of room for them to sleep.  If we fixed the bedrooms, they could sleep there.  Wally said that they have to go to bathroom in the outhouse most of the time, because the older kids are hogging the bathroom.”

I shook my head, “You two yo-yos need to get to bed, if we’re going to early church.  We’ll come tuck you in before we take our showers.”

Randy and I were sitting on Witt’s bed watching a baseball game.  We were both tired and I looked at Randy, “We don’t need to wait up for Witt.  He’ll be fine.”

Randy and I had just turned off the television when we heard a car pulling into the driveway.  Witt came in with a smile on his face.  I decided to give him a difficult time, “I guess you didn’t have a good time.”

Witt hugged me, “I had a great time.  I had girls and guys hitting on me all night.  Ritch had girls clinging to him all night.  Mr. Adler, I can’t believe what you did to his mop.  He’s got to be the cutest guy on the planet.”

Randy held up his hand, “We’ll wait until we take the vital measurements to determine if you or Ritchie is the most desirable young man on the planet.”

I was awakened by movement in the bathroom so I knew that either Billy or Bobby was up.  I decided to go help the guys.  I looked at Randy. He was definitely having an erotic dream from the looks of his briefs.  I was tempted to take care of his problem instead of helping the guys, but decided to do otherwise.

Billy was explaining to Witt that we were going to have lots of visitors for dinner.  

Witt threw up his hands, “What are we supposed to fix?”

“Grandmother said that it had to be something that the great grandparents can easily eat.”

“Guys we’ll worry about what to fix, later.  Let’s get the chores done so we can go to the early church service.”

Witt nodded, “I can start fixing things while you’re at church.”

Bobby was standing there, “Nu uh, if we gotta go to church, so do you.    Besides, Ritchie will be there, and you can go to his church school class with him.  Dad, why don’t you fix us some breakfast while we three guys go take care of the animals?”

I watched as the three guys went toward barn.  I went into the bedroom and started to massage Randy’s still aroused instrument.  He looked at me, “I was having an exciting dream.”

“I hope it was about me.  Get your butt out of bed.  We’ve been ordered to fix breakfast by Sir Robert.  I need to go to the house and see what we have in the freezer that’s easy to fix and suitable for a picnic.”

I surveyed the contents of the freezer and started to put things into a basket so I could take them to the trailer.  When the three guys returned from the barn, Billy asked, “What’s all that stuff?”

“That stuff is what you’re going to be eating tonight at the picnic you planned.  Let’s eat breakfast, and get ready for church.  We have a lot of work to do before the picnic.”

As we were eating, Bobby was thinking out loud, “I wonder if Wally, Willy and Wylie are enjoying their leftovers for breakfast?”

As we were driving to the church, Witt mentioned, “You guys are going to need to show me what to do.  I haven’t been to church in a very long time.”

Billy grinned, “It’s easy.  You just do whatever body else does.”

The guys put the eggs on the pastors’ desks and we made our way into the sanctuary.  We were seated about in the middle of the church.  Witt, who was sitting on one side of me, whispered, “Mr. Adler, I see some of the people who were at the dance.”

“Do you want to go sit with them?”

“Nah, I’ll stay here and take lessons from you, if you don’t mind.”

It wasn’t long before we were joined by Alan, Andy and Ritchie Brown.  We needed to shift so that they could sit by the person who was the same age they were.  The service started and everything was going fine, until Dr. Ring started the sermon based on the parable of the prodigal son.  I got the impression from Randy’s body language that he was not particularly comfortable with what Dr. Ring was saying.  ‘I’ll have to talk to him about that this afternoon.’

As we were walking to the exit of the sanctuary, I whispered to Randy, “Why don’t we go to the store and get the things we need while the guys go to church school?”

Before Randy could answer, we arrived at the point where Dr. Ring was welcoming the people.  He surprised us, “Randy, I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you visited, this week.  Perhaps you could sit down and visit the next time your in town.  I hope that you’re planning to attend the Talk Back class.  A lot of people are anticipating you being there.”

Randy whispered, “So much for going shopping.  I think I’m being set up for something.”

When we walked into the room where the class was being held, my parents were sitting there with Uncle Mark, Aunt Peggy and the Browns.  Mother motioned for us to join them.  There was an overflow crowd so they had to set up extra chairs.  Mrs. Egan stood, “We’re fortunate today to have Dr. Ring and Pastor Waite with us.  Welcome gentlemen.  Dr. Ring, that was an excellent sermon this morning on the Prodigal Son.  Do you have anything you would like to say?”

Dr. Ring stood, “I noticed that Randy Taylor grimaced a couple of times during the sermon this morning.  Randy, I take it you didn’t completely agree with what I was saying this morning?  Would you care to explain?”

Randy took a deep breath before he stood, “Dr. Ring, I had no problem with what you were saying, because that’s what many pastors have said before.  I do have a problem with that particular parable, as it was written in Luke.  It indicates to me that whoever the person was who wrote the gospel of Luke, was a male chauvinist.”

It was silent in the room, Pastor Waite stood, “Randy, why would you say something like that.  You’re wrong; the person who wrote Luke was a very pious person.”

“Pastor Waite, I was asked my opinion, and I shared it.  You have no right to tell me that my opinions are wrong.  Let me make my case with regard to the parable of the Prodigal Son, and I would ask that no one interrupt me while I’m trying to make my point.”

There was silence in the room, as Randy began, “Doctor Adler, pretend I’m your youngest son and I come to you.  ‘Dad, I need to get away from this rat race.  I hate this way of living.  Give me fifty thousand dollars and I’ll go find me a life that I would like.’  Are you going to just pull out your check book and write me a check?”

Dad answered, “Not likely, I would need to talk it over with Meg.  I guess we would probably give in, though.”

“Thank you, Doctor Adler, you just proved my point.  There is no mention of a female at any place in the parable of the Prodigal Son.  Quoting someone of more recent times; behind every man there is a woman.”

Randy was on a roll, “When I arrive back your place.  I cannot believe that you would come running out to meet me, especially since I’ve let myself go to pot and didn’t look very good.  Hank and his wife would be very upset when you and your wife started to lavish me with gifts, especially after it was Hank’s wife’s dowry who you seemed to be giving away.”

Dr. Ring shook his head, “If Hank’s gay then why is he married.”

Randy answered, “Dr. Ring, you seem to be forgetting what times were like, back when Jesus was supposedly telling the parable.  Doctor Adler would have ignored Hank’s choice of life styles and arranged an unwanted marriage so he could gain personal wealth?  What bothers me the most is that the author of Luke never finished the parable, but I would be willing to bet that the youngest son left home again after soaking his parents for some more money.”

Mrs. Egan stood, “Ladies and gentlemen, we need to call it quits.  Some of you probably have young people to take home.  Randy, I trust you’ll be here next week.”

Randy started walking toward the door, “Only if I know what the topic of discussion is going to be, so I don’t have to shoot from the hip when I’m placed on the firing line.”

To be continued...

Editor's Notes:  I really feel sorry for Randy.  It seems that he gets trapped into speaking at the talk back class, every time he comes.  It also seems that his beliefs are always challenged by someone. 

I wonder what happened to Willy, Wiley and Wally.  I hope they are all right. I am ready for another chapter of this great story.

Darryl AKA The Radio Rancher

Posted: 07/02/10