Part 9 (1/2)
”Not that I know of.”
”Maybe I did tell him that I had a gun in my pocket, but I didn't say what kind of gun!” He grinned at Travis. Travis just shook his head.
”So is he here to get Penelope, to take her back with him? Because if he is, he's going to have a fight on his hands! I love my daughter a great deal, and it really hurt me to see her doped up and living with him all this time. Go tell her that I want to take her back home with me and take care of her. Go ahead and tell her, Travis. I'll wait.”
Travis turned and yelled to Janice, who was on the front porch. ”Janice, tell Penelope that her Dad wants to talk to her.” As if in reply, they heard an almost primordial scream from inside the house. Apparently Penelope heard his request.
”Well, while we're waiting here, let me ask you a few questions, Bob. Are you still growing pot in the woods around your farm?”
”What?”
”You don't have to pretend with me. I know what goes on around my property. I know that you only grow it for your own use, or else I would have busted you years ago. I don't tolerate a drug dealer in the neighborhood, not with six kids under my roof.”
”Thanks for sparing me!” Bob said sarcastically.
”You remember that 19 year old kid that stayed with his granddad, out Pilgrim Road? I think Scott was his name.”
”Yeah, I remember him?” Bob said.
”He was a drug dealer.”
”Yeah, he tried to sell me some weed one time.”
”But you didn't need it because you grow your own?”
”And mine's better than his.”
”Seen him lately?”
”Not seen him in years.”
”Do you know why? Because I don't tolerate drug dealers in my neighborhood.”
”So you killed him?”
”I didn't have to. I beat the c.r.a.p out of him, and pointed him down the road. I haven't seen him around here since. I talked to his granddad about a year ago. He said Scott is in Prison in Huntsville, Texas, and they'd just found out that he possibly has AIDS. He got it from his 'friends' in prison. So I guess we won't be seeing him around here anymore. The bottom line is, I don't put up with drug dealers in my neighborhood. Now from what I've heard from you and Penelope, this guy right here, who is presently watching us through his rear-view mirror, is a pretty big dealer in Arlington. If so, I'm going to bust his bubble too, he just doesn't know it yet. Are you sure about what you told me?”
”Oh yeah! I reported him to the Arlington City Police, but that was a mistake. He pays off the City Police. They are more corrupt than he is!”
”What about the Arlington County Sheriff? Think they're paid off too?”
”I wouldn't think so, but who knows?”
”I went to school with some of the Deputies who patrol out this way. I'll mention it to them.”
”I don't see Penelope coming yet. Maybe you should go get her?”
”Janice delivered the message. If she doesn't want to come out, I'm not going to make her.”
”I guess she's been telling you all kinds of lies and deceitful things about me, hasn't she?”
”Yeah, I've heard a few nasty things about you, but not all from Penelope. Some of it from Vance here.”
”You can't believe anything that lyin' little twerp says!”
”What about your own daughter?”
”It's those drugs he has her on! She believes anything when she's on those drugs! I am appalled at what kinds of things she says to people about me! She knows they ain't true! She knows that I love her, and just want what's best for her! And that goes for my granddaughter, Jessica too! She has turned my own granddaughter against me with her bodacious lies! That's what really hurts! And I'll tell you something else, just between you and me and the trees, I think there is something a little fishy going on between Jessica and her step-dad!”
”You mean Herbert?”
”Yes! He keeps her hid away in that house all the time. She don't want nothin' to do with her mother and me! She's 18, and she don't date any boys! Now, you show me an 18 year old girl who don't date yet, and I'll show you a girl that has got something very troubling going on in her life!”
”Oh. So you're saying that Herbert won't let Jessica out to have a normal life? That he's trying to protect her from the outside world, in the same way that you protected Penelope from the outside world?”
Bob started to answer, not grasping what Travis was getting at, but then stopped. He didn't know for sure how much Travis knew. How much had they told him? The uncomfortable silence spoke volumes. He was completely unaware of what his right hand was doing. But Travis noticed.
”Bob, if you don't mind, could you wait until later to play with yourself? I find it offensive.”
He stopped immediately, his face flushed red with embarra.s.sment, but did not remove his hands from his pockets. ”I have a nervous condition. My right hand shakes sometimes.”
”That wasn't shaking, it was stroking. And if it was a nervous condition, you couldn't control it like you just did.”
Again, Bob seemed at a loss for words.
”Of course, what a man does in the privacy of his own pocket is his own business. What he does in the privacy of his own home with his daughter, or his mother, or both, is his business too. Unless, you know, like if the daughter, or granddaughter, or step-daughter is under age. Then it might be something of interest to the prosecutor's office. Incest among consenting adults might be against established taboo, but I don't think it's illegal. But if one party is under age, then it is called statutory rape.”
Bob's face went from red with embarra.s.sment, to totally drained of its color.
”Are you okay, Bob? You don't look so good.”
”Every accusation against me is a lie! Nothing you just accused me of can be proved in a court of law!”
”I did not specifically accuse you of anything, Bob! I was just speaking hypothetically! But I guess if the shoe fits, then wear it!”
It was at this point that Janice walked out to join her husband, as he talked to Bob.
”I don't have to stand here and take this! Tell Penelope that if she needs a place to stay, that my door is open to her. h.e.l.lo Mrs. Lee.”
”h.e.l.lo. I came out here to tell you that I tried to get Penelope to come out here to talk to you, but she wouldn't do it. She is terrified of you! She peed in her pants again and won't come out of the house!”
Travis shook his head. ”Every time something scares her, she lets go of her bladder! She has peed all over our house since she's been here! I don't want her staying here if she can't be house broken!”
”Travis, that's an ugly thing to say!”
”But it's the truth! I'm ready to run all of you clowns off my property!”
”Then I won't burden you with my presence any longer!” Bob angrily spit tobacco juice on the ground, then opened his truck door to get in.
”Don't leave mad, Bob! Just leave! And have a nice day!” That was when he and Janice both saw the brown car slowly coming up the driveway. It was an Arlington County Sheriff's Deputy car.