Moving On Ch. 02

This is a series in Romance. Not much Romance in this chapter. (But it was really fun to write. Yes, it is part of the story.)

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It's late in the evening and Colleen isn't home yet. Tonight she's working overtime at the nursing home to get caught up on her bills. She asked me to meet me at her apartment so we could get to the Sam's Club to pick-up a new battery tomorrow morning. I kept telling her that she had a 4 year battery that was approaching 5 years and batteries die a sudden death without any warning now. She made it to work on time only because she called a co-worker that went out of her way to pick her up.

The nursing home is only a couple of miles from her apartment. That's a lot closer than my trailer that's 40 miles away in the next county over. It's bad enough that I drive rigs for a living. It's worse that I have to play chauffeur on my days off, fuck it. Colleen gave me the key to her apartment and told me to make myself at home. She's getting dropped off after 10 and maybe we were going to go dancing and a little something extra later. She really knows how to keep me happy and that battery can wait until tomorrow morning.

Colleen's a different kind of person. In the past several months, she's told me a little bit about herself. She was in an abusive marriage and had to run away. The ex has poisoned her kids against her and she lives in fear of what he might do to her. He sounds like a real bastard. I'd take out just about any man that hits a woman and destroys the mother daughter bond. I'm not a violent man, but I'd make exceptions.

I could sit here and watch cable, or... I could go to Sam's club, buy the battery for cash and register it under Colleen's name, Colleen Welsh. I hate wasting my time as much as I hate watching cable. What was that song? "57 channels and nothing on". Stupid scripted reality shows, biased pundit based news, what's the latest stupid thing out of Washington, who is screwing who? I'm fuckin' tired of all that shit.

Then in the past 2 months, I met this lady Colleen. She's different. She's been through hell with her divorce and her kids turned against her. What did she say on our third date? "Havin' a hard time makin' ends meet." and she cried. I hate having people in pain, people that don't deserve it. That's why I'm here tonight. And that's why I'll go to the Sam's club and pick up a new battery for her and install it tonight. That way we can go out tonight and forget about the world.

Locking the door to her apartment I started walking out to the small parking lot. There is a young woman rolling a heavy 5 gallon pail on its edge. It's heavier than she can carry. That young girl looks kind of familiar, but I don't give it a second thought until I see her stop in front of Colleen's car. I edge over to where she's stopped at, and I first smell, then I see that the pail is full of pig shit. It is sloppy, urine laced, fragrant warm pig shit. I've hauled enough loads of pigs to market to know what pig shit is all about.

At ten feet away I call out, "Excuse me miss, what are you doing?"

She jumped from the sound of my voice. Then she saw that I was 8" taller, 100 lbs. heavier and holding a phone on her taking video. She gave me a dirty look, then a look of resignation. In a voice that reeked of defiance and failure, she said "I was just going to give my birth mother a present."

"Who's your birth mother and why does she deserve 5 gallons of pig shit over her car?" I paused, "Could you at least first tell me your name before we go any further? I won't do anything if you don't. Does that work for you?" She eyed me suspiciously until I put my phone away. I sat down on the bed of my pickup that was parked directly across from Colleen's car.

Reaching into the cooler that I had on the pickup's bed, I pulled out two Cokes. Not that shit diet coke. Ain't gonna drink that plastic. This also ain't Pepsi country. Dr. Pepper, well that's ok for some people, but no Pepsi. Leaning forward, I held one of them out to her. "Would you want one of these while we talk. If you mother is Colleen Welsh, then that's her car."

Not quite trusting me on one level, I could feel that she also trusted me on a different level. I didn't have enough time to figure out which was which. To help her along, I sat cross legged on the tailgate and motioned to her to sit at the other end.

"Yea, that's the name she's using now." She paused, "that's her fourth name change since I was born." She eyed me wearily. "So let me guess, you're Brad, the trucker." It wasn't a question, it was a statement.

"Guilty as charged. What's this all about? I've gotten part of the story from Colleen. How about you tell me your story. I think that by now, you can guess that I'm not goin' to bite?" I smiled and looked at her closely. She had Colleen's build and her face. She was taller and her voice had the same Virginia accent.

She came over and sat down at the far end of the tailgate. "Before I tell you my name, when is the bitch getting back?"

"Colleen is working till 10 PM today. Does that help?"

She sighed in what I took to be relief. "Abigail. Abigail Mason. My father's Lyle Mason. My twin sisters are Amber and Amelia Rangel." She chuckled and continued. "What can I say, she likes A's. My second father is Gary Rangel." She popped the Coke open and the can overflowed slightly on to the ground. She smiled at me and said, "I've got two fathers." Then she giggled. Her giggle was Colleen's giggle.

WTF? TWO FATHERS? GAY PARTNERS? "You mean that?..." She immediately cut me off and started laughing hard. "No, they are not partners. I've always loved saying that because it got both of them pissed with me." Her face became hard now. "The bitch abandoned us 10 years ago for the first asshole Darnell. She left all three of us at my grandparents. Within a month, my step-dad picked up Amber and Amelia and my dad brought me to my new home with him. Both Dads used the same lawyer. He worked my step-dad's divorce and both fathers getting full custody of their own kids.

"The court awarded full custody and child support of us to our Dads nearly 9 GOD DAMN years ago." Without knowing it, she squeezed the coke can until it spouted over the tailgate. She was embarrassed that it happened, but I mouth 'it's ok' while I handed her a role of paper towels. Sheepishly, she wiped up the mess.

"It was the same judge for the divorce as well as child custody for my step-father too. Bitch never stood a chance to get us. She was supposed to move back to Virginia to do it." She chuckled. "Bitch couldn't spread her legs that far from Atlanta. She's also over $20,000 behind in child support payments to me alone. And more to Amber and Amelia. That's why she thinks that she's hiding out here with a couple more name changes so we don't find her."

That's when she must have seen the look on my face. "You don't believe me."

"Well, it's a bit different from what Colleen has told me and ...".

"Wait. My backpack is at the car I borrowed. It's the red Camry with Virginia plates." She saw that I was concerned that she'd bolt. "I know a little bit about you and you may not believe this, but I think that you've been vetted, by the bitch." I looked at her with a big question on my face. Vetted by Colleen? "Most of the guys she latches on to, except for that first asshole or anybody else she's screwing on the side are all on her Facebook pages. And they are all good guys."

She started walking to the other parking lot and I joined her. We came up to the Camry. When she opened up the trunk, I knew where she kept the pig shit container. "Abby? I can call you Abby?" She nodded. "Why don't you get what you want to show me and leave the trunk open to air it out? We can sit at that picnic table over there." I gestured to the grassy side of the parking lot. She grabbed her backpack and we both found a seat.

Abby rummaged through her backpack and pulled out a stack of papers, first straightening them then giving them to me. "Here, you can keep this. These are copies of the papers from court where she lost custody of me and my sisters... where she was divorced by my step-dad...where she was behind in child support payments...where she..." Her voice kept getting more and more angry before she started to softly cry.

I started reading. The Colleen I read about was not the Colleen that I knew. These appeared to be court documents, and they told of a woman that abandoned her three children to run away with a loser. I was getting more and more angry when Abby broke back in. "Don't believe a word that you read."

I looked at her in shock. "My Uncle Billy says don't believe this. Don't believe what you read. Don't believe what you hear. Check it out for yourself." She exhaled loudly as she continued. "He really ain't my Uncle Billy. He's my step-Dad's cousin. I got a whole lot more family when the Bitch left. Uncle Billy says that you can't believe whatever you see. You need to check it out. Need to check out everything that's important."

I picked up my phone and started Googling the Court in the county where these documents were supposed to be filed. I kept following the leads and within 10 minutes, I was reading the exact same documents that I was holding in my hands. I was getting the real truth about Colleen. When I get angry, I get quiet and fierce looking. I stopped and glanced at Abby. She had been reading some of the documents.

Tears were rolling down her face. I saw the hurt. People were being taken advantage of, but it was not Colleen.

Abby looked up and saw me angry. "I'm so sorry for you to have to have found out about her this way. You didn't deserve this for being a good person." Then she started to cry. I grabbed her shoulder and held her in my arms. What kind of a person abandons their children and lies about it to the world for sympathy?

It took a few minutes and she stopped crying. "You said that the bitch is working late tonight." I nodded yes. "From how she's been with my father and step-father, I wonder if she really is?..." That never occurred to me. It doesn't when you trust somebody.

I closed down my browser and opened up my call list. With a smile I said "Abby, I'll call her at work and find out if I could pick her up there. Shouldn't I?" I dialed the front desk to get Lucy, a great-grandmother and a widow at 66. She's one of the nicest and most honest people you'd ever meet.

"Hi Lucy, can I speak to Colleen? Oh... She's not there? Left at 5 and was dressed to the nines? Yes, were meeting ... later and...That's ok. Don't tell her I called. I want it to be a surprise. Bye for now."

I just closed my eyes and exhaled. Looking at Abby and I get an idea. "Abby, she knows my phone and it would just go to voice mail. She doesn't know your phone. Want to call her and we can find out where she's at?"

Abby got a smile on her face as I read off the number. At the third ring Abby heard her mother's voice over the overpowering sound of a C&W riff. She hung up. It was more that she could handle and started to cry again.

I held her until she stopped. I kept telling her that I will help, but she cried harder. Her heart was broken, but there was something I could do.

She finally pulled away and looked me with real anger and pain. "HOW CAN YOU HELP ME WITH THAT BITCH?"

Softly, while holding her hand I looked in her eyes and said "I'm damn good in opening Camry doors of that year." and I busted out laughing. "Come on, we have a bucket of pig shit we need to spread around. Both inside and out."

She smiled and laughed with her tears. "Wait a minute. First I need to epoxy three Popsicle sticks to the windshield."

"Abby, what's that about?"

"The last time she was with me and my sisters, we had popsicles instead of going out to McDonalds. She was supposed to pick us up from Grandma's later that night. "

I held out my hand to her to help her up and we started walking to that 5 gallon bucket. "One more thing I need to do first is break off her key in her apartment lock. By the way, do you need money for gas to get back home? I know that it's a couple of hours traveling for you."