Wealth Pt. 03

"Uh huh," Star agreed.

Ed poured a cup of orange juice, then poured a second cup; if daughter number one was up, daughter number two would be coming soon. Brooke came out of the bathroom, smiled at him, then tottered down the hall to the bedroom.

"Hey sleepy head," Brooke said to Luna.

"Mr. Ed still here?" Luna asked.

"Uh huh, come on, got to go potty?"

Ed had looked at the stove as soon as they'd arrived at the apartment and had determined that there was little that could be done. Two of the coils were completely shot; their contacts no longer viable thanks to corrosion. The entire wiring harness needed to be replaced.

"Okay, be back in a few minutes," Ed said after greeting Luna and handing her a cup of juice.

"Where you going?" Brooke asked as he pulled his shoes on.

He spelled out McDonald's and she smiled.

The electronic babysitter in the living room was turned on and Brooke scurried into the bedroom to get dressed for work.

She stripped out of her clothes and pulled up the tight red shorts that left a good portion of her rear end exposed, the pulled the half shirt over her braless breasts. Little footies allowed her to slip the red pumps with their five inch heels on her feet. Lastly, she pulled the long tee shirt on over the outfit; this allowed her to go from front door to car and from car to rear door of the Dead End relatively unscathed.

"Star, don't you dare!" she screamed out when she heard a knock sound at the door.

"But it's..." Star complained.

"You don't know that," Brooke said, marching to the door.

"Told you," Star declared when Brooke opened the door to let Ed in.

"You don't know any little girls that would like a McDonald's Happy Meal, huh?" Ed asked Brooke after getting a kiss from her.

"No, probably not," Brooke said, shaking her head.

At five thirty, Brooke sent a text to Peggy Morrison's phone. Her shift started at six o'clock so she needed to leave soon.

"Go ahead; I'll stick around until Peggy gets here," Ed smiled.

"You sure?" Brooke asked. "I mean, I know it's been a pretty long day for you."

"Go ahead," he smiled and kissed her.

"Love you," she said, then almost groaned.

It was too soon to say such things; as she'd told Briah, this was only their second date. She hoped he didn't hear her as she bent to kiss Luna and Star good-bye.

In the apartment directly below Brooke's apartment, Peggy Morrison hefted her bulk up to retrieve her cell phone, no longer able to ignore the constant dinging that reminded her she had a text message. She saw the text message from Brook Robertson, the little beauty that lived upstairs.

When she and Cheryl had moved in to the apartment, Peggy had noticed the petite blonde with the two small girls and had made a play for her. Brooke was very nice about it, but was very firm in her refusal.

When Cheryl had gotten Brooke a job as a waitress at the Dead End Bar, Peggy had seen an opportunity to get some of that blonde's tasty little pussy; she offered to baby-sit while Brooke was at work.

It didn't work; Peggy was no closer to getting Brooke into her bed, but she did honestly love watching Star and Luna. And when Cheryl suddenly left her for another woman, it had been Peggy's friendship with Brooke that had seen her through those dark days.

(Cheryl's departure was not sudden, as Peggy saw it. The Asian-American dancer had been telling Peggy for years that she'd had enough of Peggy's heroin addiction and had more than enough of Peggy's physical abuse and constant infidelities.)

Peggy groaned; she felt absolutely horrible and had been feeling absolutely horrible for days now. But she closed one eye to keep the room from spinning and tapped our a response; she'd be there in ten minutes.

Brooke was almost to her place of work when she received Peggy's response. She took the two dresses and shoes, as well as the bridal bouquet to show to her co-workers. Five of the dancers had children and Brooke knew they'd like to see the dresses that came from Babbage's.

In her apartment, Peggy put two pieces of fried chicken into the toaster oven; the stove and oven in her apartment worked very sporadically, so Peggy did the lion's share of cooking in the toaster oven she'd bought for five bucks at a garage sale.

Since the chicken was already cooked, it should only take a few minutes to reheat. She'd have time to eat, then go upstairs.

Her blood sugar felt low so she knew she needed to eat; she couldn't remember the last time she'd eaten.

Peggy groaned again and lumbered toward the bathroom. Suddenly, her blood sugar plummeted and she collapsed to the floor.

Behind her, Peggy dimly heard the fried chicken spatter and hiss in the toaster oven.

At the Delacroix house, Anita knew no one, other than Toni was home. She toyed very briefly with the idea of padding, nude, down to the kitchen to make herself a snack, but did pull on the tap pants and camisole top pajamas that Toni had bought for her. Then she scampered down the stairs.

"Oh God, I just like want to die," Toni groaned from the living room.

"Oh God, I bet you like do," Anita teased, dashing into the kitchen.

When Anita finished making a peanut butter and apple jelly sandwich, Toni was no longer on the couch. After she ate, making sure to say aloud 'God bless the cook' Anita went back upstairs and found Toni sprawled across the bed, face down.

At their hotel, Caitlin dashed into the bathroom while Barry answered the door.

"Room Service," the young man said and pushed the cart into the room.

"Oh wow, that was quick," Barry complimented.

"Yes sir, enjoy," the young man said and palmed the ten dollar bill Barry held out.

"He's gone?" Caitlin asked when Barry knocked on the bathroom door.

"Would I knock on the door if he wasn't?" Barry asked.

He stripped out of his tee shirt and shorts and they sat, eating their dinner in the nude.

"We can do this on the cruise?" Caitlin asked.

"What? Eat in the nude?" Barry asked. "Yeah, but they'd probably ask us to leave the dining room."

"We get room service?" Caitlin suggested.

"Ever been on a boat before?" Barry asked.

"The Pretty Antoinette," Caitlin responded.

"Honey, rooms on a ship are so small you have to step out in the hall if you want to turn around," Barry said. "Yeah, we could get room service, pay out the hiney to get it, and pretty much have to eat it standing up."

"Oh! Can you have sex standing up?" Caitlin asked.

"Don't know, never tried," Barry admitted.

"Well, hurry up, finish eating," Caitlin ordered.

Chapter 25

Yes, Barry and Caitlin found that they could have sex standing up, but it wasn't very comfortable and was actually quite frustrating.

In Brooke's apartment, Ed wondered, again, what had become of Peggy. Brooke had sent him a text message saying Peggy should be there in about ten minutes. Well, that was ten minutes and two hours ago.

So, he played Candy Land and Chutes And Ladders with Star and Luna, then gave them a bubble bath. Ed did notice there was a severe shortage of bath toys and resolved to change that; children should have toys to play with.

Then it was pajama time, a reading of 'Jack And The Beanstalk' and both Star and Luna were sound asleep.

Ed drank one of the four beers that Brooke had in her barely functioning refrigerator. He made sure the table lamp and the bathroom light were on, just in case Star and Luna woke up, and stretched out on the couch. He did smirk; the sun had not even set yet and he was already ready to go to sleep.

In the apartment directly below, Peggy came to, lying on the floor just inside of her bathroom. She was dimly aware of the smell of smoke; her fried chicken had burned to a crisp and some grease had spattered onto the Formica countertop.

Peggy tried to push herself off the floor as the smell of smoke grew stronger and gave a strangled scream; it felt as if someone had just punched her in her chest.

Then she felt feather light, floating, floating, like a feather in the wind.

The Formica and the press board underneath the Formica smoldered, the burn area gradually widening. The air conditioner kicked on, fanning the smoldering countertop until a filthy dish towel burst into flames. The towel fell to the floor and the cheap linoleum was quick to catch fire.

The carpet ignited quickly, as did the very old padding underneath.

At the Dead End, Brooke stopped long enough to eat a Chef Salad, taking the good natured ribbing of Kirsten about eating light.

"Here, let me put three or four more croutons on there; put some meat on them bones," Kirsten said. "Jesus, you sure you had two kids?"

Brooke shot a text message to Peggy, wanting to know how Star and Luna were behaving. Then she shot a text message to Ed, just to say 'Hi,' put the phone back into her purse and put the purse back into her locker.

Ed came to and sniffed the air. He could smell smoke; not the aroma of someone smoking a cigarette, but the smell of something plastic burning.

The apartment was now pitch black. Ed tried to look at his watch, but there was no light.

He could have sworn he had left the table lamp on, but it was off.

He put his feet on the floor and jerked them up; the floor was scorching hot.

"Oh, holy shit!" Ed cried out, now becoming fully aware of how strong the smell of smoke was.

He found his very hot shoes, slipped them on, and ran to the bedroom. He scooped up comforter, sheet and two sleeping little girls and sprinted for the front door.

Outside, the smell was even stronger and he choked on the noxious smoke as he carried the two girls to his pick up truck. He unlocked the truck, pushed them in, then relocked the truck and turned around.

Ed could see that the apartment directly underneath Brooke's was in flames.

"Fire!" he screamed, pounding on the door to the left of Peggy's apartment.

"Fire!" he screamed, pounding on the apartment to the right of Peggy's apartment.

"Fire, get out, get out, fire!" he screamed, pounding on doors.

He felt his pockets for his cell phone and remembered that his phone was in his tuxedo jacket, which was on a chair in Brooke's kitchen.

The carpet in the living room was smoldering and ignited as he ran across it.

"Nine One one, what is your emergency?" a pleasant sounding female voice chirped.

"Fire!" Ed yelled. "I'm at, oh shit, I forgot the address of this place! But it's on fire!"

"Sir, are you in the building? Can you get out?" the woman asked, no longer sounding as pleasant.

"Who you?" a woman demanded as Ed thundered down the stairs to run back to his pick up truck.

"Is everyone out?" Ed yelled to the small crowd of people that gathered in the parking lot.

"Sir, I have your location," the operator said.

"Oh, shit, that dancer!" the woman that had addressed Ed suddenly screamed. "One with them two kids!"

"Shit! That's her apartment!" a man howled as flames shot out of the door of Brooke's apartment.

"No, no! The girls are safe; I got them right here!" Ed yelled.

"Who you?" the woman demanded again.

"I'm Brooke's boyfriend," Ed said.

"No you ain't," the woman said, fixing Ed with a steely eyed glare. "Her old man's got that bad ass 'Cedes."

"No, that's the father of the girls and that's his Momma's 'Cedes," Ed smirked.

Ed again asked if everyone was out but no one was listening to him and the unpleasant woman kept one eye on him.

"Sir?" the operator said.

"Hi, yes, I think everyone's out," Ed said. "And I can hear the sirens; thank you."

At the Dead End bar, Kirsten, Shelley, and Dallas admired the dresses and the shoes.

"How much were the dresses?" Dallas asked.

"Tag on them said eighty nine ninety five," Brooke said.

"Eighty nine? I mean, damn, yeah they cute, but damn!" Dallas said, fingering the material.

"Had a pair of kids shoes, nothing fancy, just a slip on shoe," Brooke said. "Want to guess how much?"

"Fifty," Kirsten said as she waited for the register to finish tallying up the receipts.

"Forty eight ninety five," Brooke said.

"I mean, shit; kid will be out of these and into something else before you even know it!" Dallas said.

"Ew! what's that smell?" Dallas complained as Officer Mike Stevens watched them go to their cars.

"Fire out in Kimble," Mike said. "Call came in about an hour ago. Some apartment building."

Brooke gave it no thought; her apartment building wasn't in Kimble, although many people thought it was Kimble. It was actually part of unincorporated St. Ann.

But as she turned onto her street, Brooke's heart stopped. there were three fire trucks in front of where her apartment building was.

A policeman held up a hand to stop her forward progress.

"Ma'am, you can't go in," he said.

"But that's my apartment!" she screamed. "My girls are..."

She prepared to jam her foot on the accelerator, to race into the parking lot.

Ed rapped on the passenger window and pointed to his truck.

"Oh my God!" Brooke cried out, seeing her two girls sitting in Ed's truck, watching the activity.

"Mommy!" Star said as a sobbing Brooke scrambled into the truck to hug her girls.

"There was a fire and Mr. Ed saved us, Luna explained.

"Ma'am, you can't leave your..." the policeman demanded.

"I'll move it," Ed said, folding himself in half and pulling the car behind his truck.

"Damn, you are short," he teased, handing her the car keys.

"Oh my God, oh Baby, oh thank you," Brooke sobbed, kissing him over and over.

From the pick up truck, they watched the firemen basically just douse the ruins of the building, to keep the fire from spreading to the other buildings in the area.

"Come on, let's go home," Ed said as the firemen began to gather up their equipment.

Brooke followed Ed to his apartment building. Both Star and Luna claimed that they were not sleepy, but after he tucked them into Caitlin and Briah's bed and having no children's books, read the story of Daniel being placed into the lions' den out of his Bible, they were sound asleep.

"Good night," Ed mumbled, dead on his feet.

He kicked off his shoes and crawled into his bed.

"Oh my God, Ed, I don't, what would have happened to my babies if you hadn't been there?" Brooke whispered, rolling on top of him.

"But I was... Are you naked?" Ed said, hugging her to him.

"Uh, didn't happen to grab my nightgown when you ran out of there, did you?" Brooke asked.

"No, kind of had other things on my mind," Ed admitted.

"I love you," she whispered, kissing him.

"I love you too," he said.

Holding onto a beautiful and nude twenty three year old woman did not keep Ed from falling into a deep, and dreamless sleep

Chapter 26

"Mr. Ed I got to go potty," Ed heard his little girl say.

"Okay, Caitlin, come on," he whispered and picked up his little girl, his baby and staggered down the hall.

"Sorry, Honey; Daddy forgot to leave the light on for you," he mumbled and turned the light on.

The harsh light burned his eyes, but he suddenly realized it was Star, not his little Caitlin and he smiled at her.

A peer around the open doorway of the bathroom and he saw that it was bright daylight.

He glanced at his watch and saw that it was already eight forty nine. A quick rub of his cheek and he knew he wouldn't make nine o'clock mass at St. Richard's.

"So what?" he thought and smiled.

"Now when Luna goes potty you got to go with her or she'll use up all the toilet paper and it clogs everything," Star told him.

"Okay," he said.

As if on cue, Luna came scurrying out of the bedroom.

"Got to go potty?" Ed asked, scooping her up.

"Uh huh," Luna agreed.

"Yes sir," Brooke corrected, coming out of Ed's bedroom.

She smiled at his stunned expression; she'd put on one of his button up shirts and had rolled the sleeves up. Only one button, a middle button held it closed. Her breasts were threatening to part the material and her legs were threatening to part the bottom, threatening to expose her pussy to his hungry eyes.

"Since someone forgot my nightgown," Brooke said and turned slowly. "This is the best I could do."

Ed helped Luna with the potty while Brooke and Star raided his pantry.

"Hi Mr. Ed, you're almost out of eggs, did you know that?" Brooke asked as she melted some butter in a skillet.

"And there wasn't' no juice," Star accused.

"Oh, well excuse me," Ed smiled.

"Now, help me get the pancake mix off the top shelf; who in the world would put pancake mix all the way up there?" Brooke asked, pulling him to the pantry.

"Honey, it's right..." Ed said and Brooked stuffed her tongue into his mouth.

"I meant it," she whispered.

"Meant what?" Ed whispered back, handing her the box of pancake mix.

"When I said I love you, I meant it," she said, pressing her body against him.

"And I meant it too," he said.

"Find the bacon?" he asked.

"Ooh, no, there's bacon?" Brooke asked and frowned when he slid open a drawer to pull the bacon out.

""Could have sworn I looked in there," Brooke said.

"And there's juice," Ed said and pulled the large can of juice out.

"But that's that icky grapefruit juice," Star complained.

"But you said there wasn't no juice at all," Ed reminded the girl.

"Well I meant there's no good juice," Star explained.

On the back porch at the Delacroix house, Toni ate slowly, still feeling the effects of yesterday's monumental binge.

"God, it like really stinks out here," Toni complained.

"Hmm?" Anita asked, sniffing the air. "I don't smell anything. Must be your upper lip."

"Ha ha," Toni complained. "So, did I do anything like really stupid?"

"You mean, other than making out with Mr. Bob and Mr. Henry and falling into the wedding cake and totally destroying it?" Anita asked and put her coffee cup down.

"I did what?" Toni screeched.

Anita smirked.

"Psych; God you're so easy," Anita laughed at Toni's horrified expression.

"O, fuck you!" Toni yelled then couldn't help but giggle. "You've like been hanging out with Michael like way too much; I swear, That's like the kind of shit he'd come up with."

"But yeah, it does smell like something burned up pretty bad, huh?" Anita agreed, then gathered their breakfast plates.

"Leave it, Anita; you're not the fucking maid, all right?" Toni snapped.

Anita stiffened, slapped the dishes back onto the table and stomped into the house.

"Fuck! I didn't mean it like that!" Toni protested.

At the CDU, Susan was highly irritated; the snotty bitch at the concession stand had told her that she only had four credits and asked her what she'd used up all the other credits on.

"Oh wow! You mean, you only earned four credits?" the woman laughed. "I mean, shit girl, all you got to do is talk and they give you credits!"

"So, twelve days; almost half way," Colsoon, a black Muslim girl said to Susan as Susan listlessly pushed the scrambled eggs around on the Styrofoam plate.

"Yeah," Susan agreed.

"And then what?" Colsoon asked.

"What you mean?" Susan asked.

"Girl, you ain't got no foundation," Colsoon said.

"No what?" Susan asked.

"No foundation; your house? It's sitting on sand; first strong wind, first strong wave, your house is going to collapse," Colsoon explained.

"What house, what are you talking about? This some weird ass Koran bull shit?" Susan asked and tried to eat the eggs.

"No it's not some weird Koran shit; this is real life," Colsoon snapped. "You don't have a network, you don't have a sponsor, you haven't even started on the Steps; you're just sitting here. You get out there and before you know it, you're going to be back to being a dumb ass cracker whore, fucking and sucking get you some shit."

"Well that is the plan," Susan admitted.

She pointed at Colsoon with her fork.

"You? You admitted you got you a problem with the meth. Well, good for you. And Victoria? She admits she's got some sort of problem with pills. Me? I don't got a problem. It's still fun, it still gets me fucked up," Susan shrugged.