Ne'er Do Well

"Crap, I'm sorry now I talked you into letting her stay here."

"Yeah. About all I can think of is to make things so uncomfortable for her she leaves on her own. We can just keep nagging her to help and, no matter what you do, DON'T buy the things she demands. That shampoo and conditioner was a great idea. She hates it when she doesn't get exactly what she wants."

Kathy giggled slightly and said, "Well, that was an accident. I actually did buy what she wanted I think. The bottle she came storming in here with is a new bottle for me. I didn't need it yet but it was on sale so I bought it. I must have put it in the guest bathroom by mistake. The other bottle is probably in our bathroom under the sink where I usually put my extras. Oh, well, I'm not going to worry about it tonight. You ready for bed now, honey?"

The next morning Garrett and Kathy began their campaign to get Beatrice to help around their house and either the cafe, the farm, or on rental maintenance. When he got up to leave the house (Kathy was already at the cafe), Garrett knocked on Beatrice's bedroom door until she answered, "WHAT? This better be important, I was asleep."

"Its time to get started, Bea. Kath's already been at the cafe for an hour now. Are you going to help her there or come with me?"

"WHAT? Are you out of your mind? NO. I'm not going to help her there and NO, I'm not coming with you. I wouldn't be caught dead doing your or Kathy's scut work. Now go on and leave me the hell alone."

"Bea, we told you last night, the free ride is over. If you don't start helping around here I'll have to ask you to find someplace else to live."

"Just get your lazy ass away from my door and leave me alone," Bea screamed.

Garrett stayed in the house about fifteen minutes longer than he usually did making noises to keep Beatrice awake. He smiled the three times she screamed at him to be quiet. He finally turned off the radio he had blaring and headed for the cafe and his breakfast. Just before he went out the door he stopped and smiled a devilish smile. He turned back into the living room and turned the radio back on tuned to a country station Beatrice hated then turned it up as loud as it would go. He once again turned to the door to leave. He made sure to slam the door loudly on his way out.

He was laughing when he entered the cafe. Kathy was at the cash register with one of the customers and smiled when she saw him. After the customer left Kathy smiled and said, "I take it the Princess isn't pleased with you right now?"

"No, I don't think she is very happy. She was screaming at me to turn the radio off as I slammed the door on my way out."

Kathy laughed and said, "So that's our radio I hear. I thought Jess (one of the upstairs renters) was up awfully early and playing his stereo a lot louder than normal. I hope you don't piss off the renters."

"Crap, I never thought about that. Well, it's too late now. If she doesn't turn it off in a couple of minutes I'll go back and do it."

About then they heard the radio stop so thought no more about it. Kathy returned to the kitchen to cook Garrett's breakfast. Garrett sat with some of the men and began visiting while sipping his first cup of coffee.

About thirty minutes later Bea came stumbling into the cafe and sat at her usual table alone. After the waitress had walked past her twice without stopping Bea grabbed her on the third pass and snarled, "Aren't you going to take my order, here? I know you're incompetent but even you should see I haven't been waited on, especially since you're the only waitress here right now."

Paula jerked her hand away from Bea's grasp and said, "Yes, I know I didn't wait on you. Kathy told me not to. She said you were responsible for your own meals and cleaning from now on. I'm sorry."

Bea looked around at the customers staring at her. Her face got red then she stood and headed for the kitchen. She slammed the swinging doors open so hard they slammed against the wall. They could hear her screaming at Kathy all the way across the room. "You BITCH," she said. How dare you tell that little tramp not to wait on me? This is a food service establishment isn't it? I'm here for my breakfast and coffee."

"I'm sorry, Bea, but we told you last night the free ride was over. We only provide service to paying customers. If you want to pay for your breakfast we'll be happy to serve you. Otherwise, you can cook your own when we aren't using the griddle. When you finish, you can buss your own table too if you aren't a paying customer. After that, you can either go back upstairs and clean the house and do the laundry or help clean the kitchen down here and set up for lunch. We wait on paying customers and until you live somewhere else and come in here as a paying customer my staff is done waiting on you hand and foot."

A seething Bea stormed from the kitchen. As she left she muttered, "Not bloody likely." On the way out of the cafe, she grabbed a go cup full of coffee and one of the packaged snack cakes they sold, not paying for either.

For the next few minutes Garrett and Kathy could hear her stomping around upstairs, then it got quiet once again. When Garrett left for work he noticed Bea's car was gone.

Garrett repaired a couple of things in two rentals then went to the farm to catch up on some work there. He came back to the cafe for lunch, and then went upstairs to the apartment for the afternoon. When he got there he found Bea had picked up the radio and torn the plug from the wall then thrown the radio into the wall. The radio was broken and sheetrock damaged where it hit. Garrett sighed and spent most of the rest of the afternoon repairing the hole in the sheetrock. After the hole was patched he sat on the balcony with Kathy. Neither of them saw Bea the entire day. Just before dusk they fixed some sandwiches and took off for the farm and the ole fishing hole where they fished, drank some beer and relaxed until after dark.

While Garrett and Kathy were at the river he pulled her to him and said, "I'm sorry I have to leave you with the bitch. If I had known this was coming down I would have told the Guard I couldn't go to OCS. I don't think this will be any easier on you with me gone and you know I have to leave in another ten days."

"Oh, don't worry about it. I can manage. I don't know what I'll do with her but I can get by somehow. You worked hard for your chance to be an Officer and you deserve this. Just go and do the best you can and don't worry about us."

When Garrett and Kathy returned home, Bea still was not there. They talked for a few minutes then showered and went to bed. About three a.m. a very drunk Bea slammed the apartment door open and loudly stumbled across the building to her bedroom.

The next morning, once again, Garrett made sure Bea was well awake before he left the apartment. This time the sleep disheveled Bea slammed her bedroom door open and pushed Garrett away. She snarled, "Listen, asshole, I told you yesterday there was no bloody way I would do your scut work. Now get your ass away from my door and let me sleep."

Garrett almost gagged from the stench of her breath. She smelled like a brewery and looked as if she had been rode hard and put away wet. Once again, when Bea made her way down to the cafe for sustenance, she was refused personalized service. This time, she walked into the kitchen about 11:30 a.m. and demanded breakfast.

Kathy once again told her if she wanted food she could prepare her own plate. Bea stood there a minute then snarled, "Fine." She walked up to the stove and rudely pushed the cook away. Instead of preparing her breakfast, however, she dished up some of the special of the day that was prepared for the lunch crowd.

After dishing up her meal, Bea turned and rudely walked between Kathy and their cook on her way back into the dining room. It was telling that even though she grew up with a lot of the people in the room, none of them spoke to her either when she entered the cafe or when she looked around for a table. Of course, none of them were in her crowd in high school so they were beneath her notice also.

She walked to a table in the dark back corner of the room. She quickly ate her meal then stood and walked from the room—strutted more likely, sure in her own mind she was God's gift to the world, Queen of all she surveyed. She never bothered to clean up her lunch mess, just left the dirty dishes on the table for the harried waitress to take care of.

That night and the next two were repeats of the night before. Apparently Bea closed the bar down then, heaven forbid, drove home to stumble loudly upstairs to bed, drunk on her ass. Her attitude of a morning didn't improve when Garrett woke her and she arrived in the cafe for her first meal of the day and left the mess as she normally did.

On the fourth day, a Friday, Bea didn't come home. Garrett and Kathy didn't see or hear from her until she came in late Sunday evening looking like hell. She had hickys all over her neck and black circles under her eyes.

Garrett looked up when she came in the door and said, "Where the hell have you been? We were worried about you. Why didn't you answer your phone or at least call and let us know you weren't coming home?"

"Oh, stuff it. I'm free white, and well over 21. I can come and go as I please and do what I please. I was out with friends and we made a weekend of it. Now live with it. I'm going to bed, I'm beat."

Garrett felt his temper surge. He glared at Bea and said, "That's enough. I want you out of this house tomorrow. I'm tired of paying all your bills and getting no help, consideration, or respect from you. You are even worse now about cleaning up after yourself than you were before we had our first talk."

Bea smirked and said, "I'm not the maid. I don't clean or buss tables or do other menial work. Find me a meaningful job with good pay and I'll work. Until then, just stuff your damn attitude, dude." Bea turned and went into her bedroom. Soon she came out, showered, and returned to the bedroom where the door closed and the light went off.

The next morning, as usual, Garrett woke Bea before he left. After Bea had her brunch and went wherever she had been going, Garrett and Kathy went upstairs and packed all Bea's belongings into bags and boxes. Garrett took Bea's things the seventeen miles to his mother's home. He was unable to get the door open so he left Bea's belongings on the screened in back porch. He was surprised the yard needed mowing and never noticed the For Sale sign nearly hidden by a bush alongside the mailbox.

When he got back to Stella, Garrett replaced the door lock to their apartment so Bea couldn't come in whenever she got back from wherever she was. When he left, he taped a note to her on the door telling her all her belongings were at their mother's home and she could stay there for a while.

Once again, just before 3 a.m. Bea staggered up the stairs from her night of revelry. This time the door didn't open for her. She finally saw the note on the door and pulled it off to read. After she read the note she began banging on the door and yelling for Garrett.

Finally, Garrett got out of bed and walked to the door. He didn't open it, but spoke to Bea through it. He said, "Bea we gave you every chance to help and stay here. You refused to help in any way and were rude to Kathy, our help, and me. I warned you repeatedly if you didn't help and quit being such a bitch you would have to find somewhere else to live. Now go on, I took all your things to moms today. You can freeload on her for a while."

"Bullshit. There's no way you could drive over 450 miles with my things and be back here in your bed. Now let me in so I can go to sleep. I'm tired."

"What do you mean? You know mom's place is only 17 miles away. What's this 450 mile crap?"

"Like you didn't know. You know mom's plant closed and she had to move to St. Joseph to keep her job. Why the hell do you think her house is for sale and you haven't seen her in two months? Now let me in."

"Well, I didn't know. She never told me squat and neither did you. Anyway, she still owns the house I'm sure so go over there and stay. That's where all your things are."

Bea kicked the door and snarled, "Asshole," then stumbled back down the stairs to her car. Garrett followed her to the balcony and watched as she drove away. She wasn't weaving too badly so he decided to let things ride and not follow her or call the Highway Patrol about her drunk driving.

Neither Kathy nor Garrett saw Bea again before he left for OCS but they began hearing rumors about her. She was seen routinely in one or another of the local bars hanging with flashy city cowboys. She was seen leaving with them regularly if they drove a nice car or high dollar pickup.

The morning before he left a couple of the jokers in the café were giving him a hard time about leaving Kathy to do the work while he took off to play soldier. One of then said, "I didn't think summer camp was until later in the year. Why are you leaving right after you get out of college this year? What are you going to do that takes so long anyway? I hear you're going to be gone nearly 6 months."

"Oh, not much I guess. They just had a school they wanted me to go to. When I get back I'll have a new job and I needed the training to do it."

"Hell, I thought you were a medic. They sure can't teach ya to be a doctor in six months so what's it all about?"

"It is about a lot of things. How to manage people, tactics, weapons, and so forth. Just normal army type shit, mostly."

"Yeah, right. In other words you figured out how to suck more money out of the government and you are off screwing off while Kathy stays home and works her ass off in this café. Shit."

CHAPTER 10

Garrett took off Saturday for the long drive to Ft. Benning, Ga. He would attend OCS there then the Infantry Officer's Basic course before returning home. He was one of the lucky few that got to do his Guard OCS with active army people instead of taking the course on weekends and summers from state instructors. He would complete the course and obtain his commission in a little over 6 months instead of two years by doing that.

When Garrett returned he made sure no one knew of his changed status. He found he rather liked to be thought of as one of the boys and a ne'er do well. He probably had more money than most of the families in town and definitely, with his Guard pay, had as good or better income. This way, he could just be one of the 'good ole boys'.

After returning, Garrett continued to do the few minor repairs on properties owned by GKM Properties, LLC and farm his little piece of ground. Of course these were not full time jobs so he had plenty of time to fish and loaf. He never returned to his part time work with the construction company. His reputation as a ne'er do well continued to grow. From time to time the local busy bodies would comment what a shame it was that poor Kathy had to work so hard to support that ne'er-do-well Mans boy. On top of that, the bastard was never home. He was always off somewhere playing soldier for the Guard.

On Halloween, after Geoffrey and his new wife were married 17 months, they had a huge Halloween party at their house on what used to be Beatrice's little piece of the old Mans farm. Geoffrey, true to form, picked out a young, beautiful female guest in a skimpy costume and began putting the moves on her. Penny, his current wife, became angry and jealous at his actions and let him know. As they became more and more drunk the argument became more vocal and less circumspect. Finally, Geoffrey had all he could take and pushed Penny then slapped her. Unfortunately for them, she was carrying a new bottle of ever clear that they spiked the punch with. She threw it at him when he hit her and it broke, spilling the alcohol all over. This, in itself, wouldn't have been so bad except some of the highly flammable alcohol splashed into a jack-o'-lantern with a candle inside.

With a whoosh, the alcohol ignited. The burning alcohol ran farther into the house, setting a carpet on fire, then the fire spread to the woodwork. It was after midnight and all the guests were drunk, staggering about trying to get out of the burning house. Finally, someone thought to call the rural fire department. They made good time, for them, and the tanker truck pulled into the yard in 17 minutes from the initial call. Before the night ended, Geoffrey was in jail for assaulting his wife and his house was burned to the ground.

Of course, the next morning the topic of conversation at the cafe was the party, fire, and jailing of the smart ass Geoffrey.

Life ran on for Garrett and Kathy as normal. He hunted, fished, and relaxed, working only when he really had to if a rental needed repair or something had to be done on the farm. Garrett spent several days a year doing extra things for the Guard also. Kathy helped him hunt and fish when she was not in the café or store if he was home.

Geoffrey's antics kept the coffee klatch in conversation throughout the winter after his fight with his wife. First, he was actually convicted of assault this time because his father's pet judge was off work due to serious surgery. An imported judge looked at Geoffrey's priors, listened to the testimony of all concerned, and convicted Garrett, sentencing him to a year in jail. While he was in jail, Penny filed for divorce and because of the assault, she actually beat the prenup she was forced to sign. She came out of the marriage with almost all Geoffrey's money—nearly $1.7 million. The judge ruled the house, land, and other properties Geoffrey owned personally were worth that before he caused the fire so she got a fair 50% of the marital assets. Unfortunately for Geoffrey, the insurance refused to pay off on the fire because of the circumstances—Geoffrey being responsible for the conflagration while committing a crime. Somehow, Penny throwing the bottle at Geoffrey was reported as he hit her so hard it knocked it from her hands and it broke, thus feeding alcohol to the candle and starting the fire. Admittedly, this was a possibility but not what actually happened though the records showed otherwise.

In the spring, after his release from jail, Geoffrey and his father came into the cafe during the breakfast period and sat at Garrett's table without asking if they could do so. This was normal procedure in the small café but usually the people who did that knew and were friendly with the ones with whom they sat. This was not the case with Garrett and the Godfrey's.

Geoffrey had just been released from jail early because of overcrowding. Garrett and the townsfolk were pretty sure the early release was a result of the elder Mr. Godfrey pulling strings behind the scenes to get his precious son out early, not because of overcrowding. In any event, Garrett started to get up when they sat with him. Mr. Godfrey, the elder, placed his hand on his arm and said, "Please, Mr. Mans. I have a business proposition for you. Could we talk for a short time?''

Against his better judgment, Garrett relaxed back into his chair and said, "I suppose, but I can't imagine any business we might have with each other."

"As you know, Geoffrey was awarded the house and property when he and your sister divorced. I'm sure you probably heard about his unfortunate fire and the reaming he got when the little slut he married after Beatrice divorced him. I won't bore you with his problems except to say they have, perhaps, become an opportunity for you. I understand your family owned the 20 acres he now owns for over 100 years before he received it in the divorce. He finds himself badly in need of some funds and we thought you might be interested in purchasing the land back for a reasonable sum."