Thunder and Lightening: Chapter 31Home « Thunder and Lightening Index « Previous

- Chapter 31

Posted: March 03, 2005 - 01:58:57 am



For the first ten days after the divorce, Melissa had sat in the house in a

state of numb shock. She ate when told to eat, slept when told to sleep, and

stared at the wall the rest of the time. With just a few words from her mother,

she had gone from princess to trash that had been thrown away. She couldn't wrap

her mind around the enormity of it all.

Jerry had stayed in the house every night since Melissa was terrified of staying

in the house alone, particularly at night. However, he couldn't remain trapped

in the house forever. She had to start taking care of herself. That evening, he

announced that he was going over to Henry's house with Bill. It was Friday night

and they had work to do.

The choice between staying at home alone and going out in the neighborhood

terrified Melissa. Only a little less afraid of being out in the neighborhood

with her father, she followed Jerry and Bill out of the house. It was the first

time in ten days that she had stepped outside.

It was dark by the time she followed them down a driveway to a detached wood

garage behind a house several blocks from where they lived. Even after the

little time she had spent in the neighborhood, she recognized that this house

was in better shape than those around it were. Ruining the image of a nice house

with a white picket fence were several extension cords running out from the

house to the garage.

When he saw his friend, Jerry waved and called out, "Hello Henry. We're here to

finish the fountain."

Stepping out from behind the fountain, Henry replied, "Good to see you. I was

wondering if you'd make it tonight."

When Henry had stepped out, Melissa had her first look at the big man. She

swallowed heavily taking in his size. He was the biggest black man that she had

ever seen. She couldn't believe it when her father said, "Good to see you. We

figured that a little runt like you wouldn't be able to load it in the truck

without some help."

Henry noticed Melissa peeking around from behind her father. Knowing the answer,

he asked, "That your daughter?"

"Yes," answered Jerry as he stepped away so that Henry could see her better.

"Is she the one that called my girlfriend a nigger?"

Jerry didn't answer, but looked over at Melissa to see her reaction. He and

Henry had talked about that incident in depth. Henry was angry, but Sharon had

calmed him down about it. He understood that Melissa's statements didn't reflect

how Jerry felt about the people around him. He had even laughed when he heard

that Jerry had given Sharon permission to slap the kid.

Trembling in fear, she stared at the black man. She had known that her father

was a big man, but having been around him that fact had not truly registered.

Looking at Henry, she realized just how frightening it was to look at a big man

who was angry. In a very weak voice, she answered, "I don't know who your

girlfriend is."

"It's Sharon," interjected Bill as he watched his sister squirm under the glare

from Henry.

"Oh, I guess I did," answered Melissa as she covered her mouth with her hand.

She made a mental note to never make that guy mad at her. Judging by the look on

his face, she realized it was too late. She swallowed when Henry flexed his arm

muscles.

"That's not a very nice thing to say to someone," commented Henry, his gruff

voice rumbling from the garage. He narrowed his eyes as he looked over the young

woman. She was attractive in a white middleclass cheerleader sort of way. He

knew that the kids in this area would eat her up and spit her out for saying

something like that to one of them.

"I guess not."

"You guess?" bellowed Henry. He took a couple of steps closer to her and then

asked, "Don't you know?"

Standing to the side, Bill smiled as he watched his terrified sister stare at

Henry like a bird in front of a cobra. Jerry stepped out of the way so that she

was facing Henry directly. Bill took a little pleasure out of seeing his sister

realize that her father wasn't going to rescue her.

Melissa, nearly scared enough to wet her panties, answered, "I know. It was a

horrible thing to say to her."

"Have you apologized to her?" asked Henry with a glare. He placed his hands on

his hips and spread his legs shoulder wide. The pose only made him look larger

and the muscles bulge out even more.

Licking her lips nervously, she answered, "Not yet."

"What are you waiting for?"

The question took her by surprise and, without thinking, she answered, "I'm

sorry."

"Don't apologize to me. Apologize to her," corrected Henry. Shaking his head, he

made a growling sound.

"I will," she replied.

"It had better be a good one. Can't be friends with you until you become friends

with my future wife. You don't want me as an enemy," growled Henry. The

animalistic nature of his voice conveyed a greater threat than the content of

his message.

She stared at him unable to believe anyone could be that huge. It wasn't that he

was all that tall, although he was. It was that he was broad with muscles that

seemed to be built on top of muscles. Two average men could stand side by side

and only begin to match him.

Her gaze shifted from Henry to her father. It was at that moment that she

realized her father was the same size. Growing up around her father had made her

oblivious to his size other than as a source of insult. Only now did she

understand that if her father had ever really lost his temper with her mother,

she would have been snapped in two like a toothpick.

Bill stood off to the side watching the look on his sister's face. She had that

look on her face that indicated she was seeing a big man for the first time in

her life. Moving over to Henry, Bill asked, "Are we going to finish this thing

tonight?"

"You bet. Got to get some money to pay for the wedding," answered Henry with a

smile. His easy conversational tone of voice when talking with Bill contrasted

sharply with the tone of voice used with Melissa. Putting a friendly hand on the

boy's shoulder, he led Bill over to the fountain.

Melissa watched as Bill walked next to Henry without a concern in the world.

Bill wasn't quite the same boy that he had been the night his mother had taken

the baseball bat to him. She saw that he had grown. In fact, she realized that

he was now bigger than most of the guys in her grade. Unable to help herself,

she muttered, "Damn, he's going to be as big as the gorilla."

Jerry looked down at Melissa and asked, "As big as whom?"

"You," answered Melissa.

"Ah, so I'm still the gorilla in your mind," commented Jerry shaking his head.

He wondered how long it would be before she ever called him dad.

"I don't know what else to call you," countered Melissa. Her whole life, her

mother and she had referred to him as 'the gorilla' and now she didn't know what

else to call him.

"You could call me, dad or father," suggested Jerry barely showing any surprise

that she didn't know any other way to refer to him.

'Dad' sounded too friendly and Melissa wasn't sure that she wanted to be that

close to Jerry. That left 'father' as her other choice. She tried it on, "Okay,

father."

Jerry grinned and said, "That's nice."

Melissa didn't know if she liked it or not. Life had thrown her a few curves

over the past ten days and she was still trying to recover her balance. She had

lost her grandmother, but that hadn't really bothered her as much as learning

how little her mother cared about her. She had thought that they were the best

friends in the world. She had wanted to be just like her mother in every way.

After her recent experience, she wasn't sure that was such a good goal.

Lost in thought, she didn't notice Jerry enter the garage. When she finally

pulled herself together, she watched as the three males discussed the lighting

fixture for the waterfall. When Henry moved out of the way, she saw what they

had been working on for the first time. She froze in place as she stared at it.

Stepping forward, she asked, "Where did you get that?"

Looking over a Melissa, Jerry answered, "Bill and Henry made this one. It'll be

done as soon as they finish wiring the light fixture."

Mouth open, she asked, "Do you know how much that is worth?"

Chuckling, Henry answered, "This one is worth exactly eight thousand dollars

retail and four thousand from the factory."

With a surprised look on her face at the fact that he knew how much it was, she

said, "Bonnie's parents got one a couple months ago. It cost them sixteen

thousand dollars."

Henry asked, "Did it have a copper center overlaid with gold leaf?"

"Yes," she answered confused by the fact that he knew exactly what her friend's

parents had purchased. She had gone over to their house and stared at it in envy

the night they had it installed on their living room wall. She had told her

grandmother about it and they had gone out and ordered one that same day.

Bill said, "That was the third one that Henry and Dad built."

The announcement staggered Melissa, shocking her beyond anything that she had

seen or heard over the past few weeks. Those wall-mounted waterfalls were

rapidly becoming the hottest items in town and 'the gorilla' was one of the

artists behind them. It didn't make sense to her.

Henry ran a hand over the wood and said, "I do the woodwork. Jerry and Bill do

the metalwork. This is Bill's first."

She stepped closer and examined the dimpled copper plate that hung down the

center and the polished wood frame. It was a work of art. Her brother had done

that? It was hard to believe that her little brother had made that gorgeous

piece of art. Confused, she said, "Wow. It's really pretty."

Grinning at the unexpected compliment, Bill said, "Thanks. I'm still learning

about metalwork. Dad's are usually more complex, but he can't do much until he

gets the cast off."

Deciding that she was going to show off her knowledge about these wall

waterfalls, Melissa said, "Grandmother ordered one by the Sharjen Company. I

understand that they are the best artists when it comes to these things. Do you

know anything about their work?"

Surprised, Jerry burst out laughing while Henry chuckled and turned his back to

Melissa. As the laughter overwhelmed him, Jerry had to sit down on the floor as

tears ran down his face. The grin plastered on Bill's face was so large that it

actually hurt. Wondering if she was smart enough to figure it out on her own,

Bill answered, "The two guys that own Sharjen named the company after their

girlfriends, Sharon and Jenny."

Confused by their reaction to her question, Melissa barely listened to Bill's

answer. After a minute, she realized that there was something familiar about the

names he had mentioned. It took her another minute to realize that Sharon was

Henry's girlfriend and Jenny was her father's girlfriend. Mouth open, she asked,

"You don't mean?"

Nodding in appreciation of the cosmic joke, Bill said, "Yep. Grandmother ordered

this one."

Henry, trying to stifle a laugh, croaked, "Oh, the irony."

"Who said that God didn't have a sense of humor?" asked Jerry as he held his

side. He had a stitch from laughing too hard. Tears were running down his face

as he gave himself over to the humor of the situation.

It took almost a half an hour for the three men to collect themselves enough to

continue working on wiring the lighting system. After Bill finished soldering

the wires, he stepped back and announced, "It's done."

Henry plugged in the cord. He watched as the lights came on and the water

started to run down the face of the copper plate. The waved pattern of the

central dimpled copper plate broke the flow of water into an intricate array of

droplets that caught the light and reflected it. From the catch pool at the

bottom, the sound of drops hitting the water gave forth the sound of a spring

shower.

Bill stepped back and looked at the results of all his hard work. With a smile

plastered on his face, he said, "Yes."

Jerry put his hand on his son's shoulder and said, "You did a good job, Bill."

It wasn't possible for Bill to stand up any straighter than he could, but he

felt as though he had grown a foot from his dad's praise. Henry, arms folded

across his chest, rocked back and, smiling, said, "Outstanding."

Looking down at his feet, Bill replied, "Thanks."

Melissa had been sitting off to the side well out of the way working men. She

was thinking about how her life had changed over the course of the past two

weeks. Her grandmother had died, she had moved into a slum, angered all of the

neighbors, spent two nights in jail, been abandoned by her mother, and had

discovered that her father and brother had talents that no one had suspected.

She looked over at the finished product. There were no doubts that it was a

major work of art.

Unplugging the cord powering the waterfall, Henry said, "All we've got to do is

wrap it for shipping. Tomorrow, I'll take it down to the store and deliver it."

Squatting down, Bill reached under the base of the wooden frame and turned the

knob that would allow the water in the catch basin to drain into a plastic

bucket. While the water drained, he picked up a towel and started drying the

interior of the fountain. With a critical eye, he examined the surface of the

copper looking for any scratches or other imperfections in the varnish that

would allow the metal to oxidize.

Jerry fetched the roll of masking tape while Henry cut some cardboard to make

pads for the corners. As Henry worked, he said, "Melissa. Why don't you go in

the house and get us some cokes?"

The neatness of his house was not the first or the last surprise of the night.

The conversation among the three men flowed as they discussed their goals. She

listened to the talk, surprised by the kinds of things they thought were

important. Perhaps the most surprising thing she observed was their obvious

pride in their work.

Melissa sat on the futon watching a television show while Bill and Abe were in

the backyard clearing the trash from behind the house. The program was lame and

she was bored out of her mind. She had done all of her assigned chores, hating

them as she had performed what was expected of her. The only reason she had done

them was to the break the monotony of sitting around the house.

Bored, she went to the back window and watched the two boys working. They had

their shirts off as they attacked the tall grass with a pair of weed-whackers. A

couple of the neighborhood girls were watching them. They were posed and putting

on a major display of their bodies to the teenage boys. The boys had noticed,

but kept to their task feeling that it showed off their muscles without being

too obvious. They knew that the girls would wait for them to finish.

Melissa could see the girls lips move as they made comments about the broad

shoulders of the two boys. It was clear that the boys were enjoying the

attention being given them. She couldn't believe how the girls were basically

throwing themselves at the boys and was tempted to go outside in order to tell

them to run along.

Sitting around the house all day was boring. She couldn't afford to go shopping

and didn't have transportation to go to a movie. Since she had moved here, she

couldn't even visit her friends. There was no way that she was going to have one

of them come to this neighborhood. She'd never survive the humiliation of having

them see where she lived.

She glanced out the window at the girls again. She snorted as she realized that

at least they were doing something to occupy their time. It was better to be out

teasing the boys than to stand by a window watching them. She crossed her arms

and frowned when she realized the girls weren't teasing the boys - they were

making promises.

A knock on the front door interrupted her thoughts. She answered the door to

find Henry standing there with a large smile on his face. The smile faded as he

looked at her. He asked, "Is Bill here?"

"He's in the back with Abe," answered Melissa wondering what the big man would

want with her brother.

"Ah, thanks," replied the big man as he turned and headed around the corner of

the house.

Curious about his reason for stopping by, Melissa followed Henry around to the

back of the house. The two girls that had been watching the boys suddenly stood

up. They looked around with guilty expressions on their faces when they noticed

Henry enter the backyard. Henry stopped and looked at the two girls. He greeted

them, "Hello girls."

"Hello sir."

"Are you behaving yourselves?" asked Henry as he looked from one girl to the

other.

Melissa couldn't believe how respectful the girls were of Henry. She didn't know

anything of the neighborhood dynamics or the important role that he had in it.

The boys had stopped working and turned to greet Henry. Abe grinned when Bill

nudged him in the side and whispered, "Let's hear you call him shit head."

Abe whispered back, "They aren't married yet."

Oblivious to the conversation taking place between the boys, the girls,

transfixed in place, were practically wilting under the unwavering gaze of

Henry. Together, they answered, "Yes, sir. We've been good."

Henry relaxed a little and said, "I'm glad to hear that. Your mothers would

really be upset if you got knocked up."

Abe, realizing that his plans for that afternoon had just been thwarted,

exclaimed, "Hey!"

Even Bill had been expecting a little fun that afternoon. The younger girl,

Shauna, had mentioned something about how fun it might be to try adding a little

white meat to her diet. He wasn't naive enough to think it was anything other

than a promise of sex. He said, "We weren't going to do anything."

Turning to give the two boys a glare, Henry added, "And I'd hate to have to pull

the heads off of those two boys."

Melissa stared at her brother realizing that he would have been having sex with

one of those girls later that afternoon if Henry hadn't stopped by. She stared

at her brother wondering what a girl would see in him.

The boys looked down at the ground knowing that anything they said would only

get them into trouble. The girls shifted uncomfortably for a minute before the

older one said, "I guess we had better be going home."

Henry smiled as he said, "That might be a good idea."

Abe and Bill called out, "Good bye."

The girls smiled at the boys, frowned when they saw the look Henry gave them,

and then replied, "We'll see you around."

When the girls had left, Henry went over to the boys and said, "You two are way

too young to be fathers. I bet neither one of you have any kind of protection."

Bill didn't have any condoms. He hadn't even thought of getting condoms. He

looked over at Abe and could see from the expression on his friend's face that

his friend hadn't thought about it either. The boys shuffled their feet and

wouldn't look at the big man.

Henry said, "I can tell by the looks on your faces that I'm right."

Bill argued, "We wouldn't have done anything."

"You forget that I grew up in this neighborhood. It's summer time and you don't

have to go to school. All of the adults are gone and you kids get bored with

nothing to do. Then one day you discover that sex is free. It doesn't cost you

anything to climb on top of some pretty girl. She's just as bored as you are and

getting laid breaks up the day quite nicely. The next thing you know, a quarter

of the girls around here are pregnant," commented Henry as he shook his head. He

wondered how many of the girls would become trapped in this neighborhood because

of unwanted pregnancies.

Abe looked down at the ground and said, "But everyone else is doing it."

"Boy, you know better than that," countered Henry.

"I know. It's just that I... You know," explained Abe. He was young and horny.

It seemed like the only thing on his mind most of the time were girls.

Glancing over at the boys, Henry chuckled as he recalled his summers when he was

their age. He had walked around with an erection almost all of the time. There

was only one thing on his mind and that was sex. He replied, "I know exactly

what you mean. I was your age once."

Not realizing that Melissa was watching, Bill asked, "So if we get some rubbers?

Could I, you know?"

Henry was silent for a minute and then nodded. It was not worth the effort to

keep them from the girls since they'd ignore him the first time that one of the

girls lifted her shirt. He said, "I'll talk to your father about getting some

rubbers for you."

From behind him, Melissa shouted, "You can't be serious!"

Not having noticed that she had followed him, Henry turned to face Melissa and

looked at her for a minute. He set aside his anger at her for the moment and

replied, "Yes, I am serious."

Melissa stamped her foot and said, "You can't turn these boys loose with

permission to have sex with sluts!"

It was a difficult topic to discuss with the daughter of his best friend, but

she was making it necessary. Henry said, "If these two boys use proper

protection, they just might keep a couple of girls from getting pregnant. Maybe

some of the other boys in the neighborhood might get the hint and use protection

as well."

Abe looked over at Bill and wiggled his eyebrows. He was happy about the

direction the conversation had taken. He whispered, "Hey, it's okay with him if

we get laid."

Melissa argued, "They are minors! You can't tell them that it's okay to have

sex. People are supposed to wait until they are married before they have sex."

Shaking his head, Henry didn't bother to answer her. She was clueless about real

life, particularly in a poor neighborhood. Instead, he turned to Bill and said,

"I delivered the waterfall after work."

That Henry would stop by to tell him that he had delivered the waterfall puzzled

Bill, so he shrugged his shoulders and offered, "Good."

Smiling at the obvious confusion of the young man, Henry held out a check. With

a smile in his voice, he said, "Payday."

"Payday?"

"This check is yours," said the large man waving it around in front of Bill.

Bill reached out and grabbed the check. With wide eyes, he read the amount

written on it. Looking up at Henry, he asked, "Is this all for me?"

"Yes it is," replied Henry with a chuckle. The disappointment from having the

girls chased off had been replaced by an excitement of another kind.

Abe asked, "How much is it?"

"It's almost sixteen hundred dollars," replied the boy excitedly. A large grin

spread over his face as he added, "This is more than enough to get the car

painted."

Henry said, "Jenny took out taxes and everything. It's a real paycheck, Bill."

"This is so cool."

Melissa heard the exchange and stared at her little brother. Several things

didn't make sense to her. The first was that he had been surprised to see the

check, thinking that he should have expected to be paid for his work. The second

was that the amount was so large. There was no way that her brother should have

been able to earn that much money. The third was that he was planning on

spending it on the junk car that sat in front of the house.

Bill seemed lost in thought for a minute and then said, "I guess I'll have to

put this in my savings account."

"That would be a good idea," answered Henry, pleased that the boy wasn't

thinking of blowing the money on records and clothes.

Stepping forward, Melissa said, "I'll take that into the house for you."

"No you won't," replied Bill in a very harsh tone of voice. He wouldn't trust

her with a penny much less a check worth that much money. He excused himself

from the others and ran into the house to put the check in a safe place.

Abe watched his friend beat a hasty retreat and said, "That's a pretty good

paycheck."

Looking over at his future son, Henry said, "Yes it is. Mine was the same size."

At the expression of curiosity on Abe's face, Henry added, "I'm using it to take

your mother on our honeymoon."

"You're taking her on a honeymoon? Where are you going?"

With a grin, Henry said, "We're driving down to New Orleans."

Abe rubbed his hands together in excitement and said, "I've always wanted to go

there."

"You ain't going."

The smile on Abe's face collapsed, but returned very quickly as he said, "Momma

ain't gonna be home. Party time!"

Henry rested a mammoth paw on Abe's shoulder and replied, "It might surprise you

to learn that Jerry lives next door and I've already told him that he has an

open invitation to any and all parties held in my house."

"It's my mom's house," retorted a smiling Abe thinking of a loophole.

"Not once we're married," answered Henry with a chuckle. He had been expecting

this discussion and, with Sharon, had come up with this argument that would keep

Abe out of trouble. She was going to let Abe understand the economic

consequences of getting married.

"Shit," exclaimed Abe with a frown wondering if that was true.

Melissa piped up, "That's right. Everything is fifty-fifty. Your mother can quit

working and get half of his paycheck."

Turning to look at Melissa, Henry asked, "And what happens to the other half?"

"You pay the bills," answered Melissa.

Abe turned and looked at Melissa in shock. He had never heard anything like that

and wondered if that was true. With a snort, he said, "Fuck, I'm never getting

married. Whores are cheaper than that."

Raising an eyebrow, Henry asked, "Who in the hell told you that?"

Melissa looked over at Abe expecting him to answer the question. When he didn't

answer, she said, "Answer his question, boy."

Looking over at the white girl as if he wanted to pound her into the ground for

calling him a boy, Abe said, "He wasn't asking me."

Henry said, "Everyone around here knows exactly how much a whore costs and it

sure as hell isn't half a paycheck."

Melissa found her face turning hot with embarrassment. She answered the original

question, "My mother told me all about community property. She said that the man

has to give the wife half of his money and that he pays the bills."

The pair of males broke out laughing at her statement. Chuckling, Henry said,

"You do realize that your mother is a sick bitch."

"Sick bitch? She sounds like an expensive whore," commented Abe shaking his head

at the idea that a woman would take half of the money while the man was left

with nothing except the bills.

Bill came out of the house and saw that Henry and Abe were laughing at something

that Melissa had said. The way that she stood with her fists clenched by her

side let him know that she was about to lose her temper. He asked, "What's going

on here?"

"They're saying nasty things about mother," answered Melissa. She took a deep

breath preparing to put the two blacks in their place.

Before she had a chance to say another word, Bill commented, "Oh, yeah mother.

Isn't she the woman that sold you out for money? I guess we are supposed to sing

praises for her clear priorities."

The comment stung Melissa like a slap across the face. As tears rushed to her

eyes, she turned and ran back into the house. Bill watched her run with a look

of satisfaction on his face. Henry turned to the young man and said, "That

wasn't nice, Bill. You know that hurts her."

Bill looked at Henry and Abe while shaking his head. He replied, "I wasn't going

to stand by and let her call you racist names."

The comment took Abe by surprise although he should have known to expect that.

He asked, "She was gonna call us niggers?"

"When she stands with her hands by her side like that, she's going to say the

most hateful things you can imagine. Hell, she'll say hateful things that you

can't even imagine. Yeah, she was about to call you that."

"I woulda fucked her up good," snarled Abe.

Shaking his head, Henry said, "You leave her alone, young man. She may have a

foul mouth on her, but the only ones that you'll end up hurting are yourself and

Jerry."

Bill asked, "You don't think it would hurt me?"

Frowning, Henry answered, "No. As much as it disturbs me to say it, you'd enjoy

seeing her get fucked up."

The answer had been given in a tone of voice that conveyed that Henry didn't

think much of Bill at the moment. The tone, more than the answer, disturbed

Bill. Rather than argue, he stood in place in a position of defiance.

Dissatisfied that what was supposed to have been a good experience with Bill had

turned sour, Henry said, "I've got to go and you two should probably get back to

work."

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