The Broussard Sisters Ch. 09

"Leave it," Elizabeth snapped.

She'd already broken one dish this week; Elizabeth did not feel like having to clean broken pieces out of the sink again.

"Okay," Missy mumbled and hurriedly left the small kitchen/dining room combination.

A moment later, Elizabeth heard the television in the living room come to life. Although it was at a very high volume, she did not yell out for Missy to turn it down; she was tired of the bitterness and tension she felt inside of herself. She finished her meal and went to the sink to wash their dishes.

----

"Thank you again," Charlie smiled as he got to his feet.

"I really hope we can do this again," Carmen smiled.

"Well, yeah, especially if you show me pictures of Elaine as a baby," Charlie smiled and laughed at Elaine's embarrassed blush. "Why you blushing, Lala?

"Ooh!" Elaine groaned and glared at a smirking Elise. "You just wait, you hear me?"

"Um, you going to walk me home, or what?" Charlie asked Elaine.

"Um, yeah, okay," Elaine, agreed, blushing hotly.

Outside, Charlie took her hand and held it as they walked across the street.

"I'm real tempted to call in sick," Charlie confided to her. "I kind of wanted to stay and look at some more pictures."

"Oh God," Elaine groaned in embarrassment. "I can't believe she did that!"

"Hey, just wait until you meet my mom and dad," Charlie laughed. "At least you were a cute baby; my mother insisted on dressing me like a dork!"

They reached his front door and he turned and smiled at her.

"So, am I still handsome, even without the hair?" he teased.

"Knowing why you got it cut?" she said, looking up at him. "You're even more handsome than before."

"You doing anything tomorrow night?" he asked her. "I'm off tomorrow night."

"No," she whispered. "I ain't doing nothing; what'd you have in mind?"

"There's this really nice restaurant out in DeGarde," Charlie said. "Nice, dark, romantic, you know, where two people can be alone?"

"Sounds nice," Elaine agreed. "Should I get like, really dressed up?"

"Skirt, blouse," Charlie said, mentally kicking himself.

He hadn't thought about it but the Simones didn't have money for really nice clothes. The snooty people at Radcliffe's would most likely sneer at the young girl, make her feel inadequate.

"Oh, well, I got this really nice dress for when Miss Brown died; it's this nice black dress, you think that'd be okay?" Elaine asked.

"I think that'd be perfect," Charlie smiled.

"I think you're perfect," he said in a quieter voice and leaned down and kissed her.

"Oh!" she sighed when he finally let her go. "I think you're going to have to walk ME home!"

"Elise, I swear, sit down!" Carmen laughed. "Dick! You too!"

"But they're stripping, right in the front yard!" Elise hissed.

"Do what?" Carmen screeched and jumped to her feet to peer through the glass pane of the front door.

Elise laughed as Carmen glared at her youngest child.

"You're not funny, young lady," Carmen said and marched Elise back to the recliner.

"Okay, she's coming back now," Dick said and hurriedly sat down on the couch, looking innocent.

Elaine let herself back in the house and smiled at her family.

"He kissed me," she said and burst into elated giggles. "Boy, did he kiss me!"

"Elaine's got a boyfriend," Elise, Carmen, and Dick sang out.

Chapter 86

Just the ten acres alone was worth the twenty thousand. Half of an acre was cleared; the land around the house and the barn. The rest of it was beautiful woods.

"There's an old car in the barn," Mr. Herman had coughed out. "Was my son's; Bobby died in Vietnam, never had the heart to get rid of it. Keys are in the ignition."

"And the wood, well, hell, I doubt f any of it's any good now, but there was some real good rosewood," Mr. Herman went on. "Was going to convert the attic to a little apartment, you know, find some college kid needs a place, rent it out."

"Well, I'll look at it," Paul smiled.

"Never had the utilities shut off; you'll just need to get them switched over in your name," Mr. Herman went on.

At first, the old woman at his bank had been quite short with him; almost refusing to do the paperwork. Paul very quietly pointed out that he had more than the required amount in his checking account with their bank, but would be more than happy to find another bank to do his business with. The manager himself had come over and ordered the woman to start the process. Two hours later, he had the cashier's check in his hand.

Paul looked around the cleared property first, and then opened the door to the barn.

"Dad would shit on himself," Paul laughed out loud.

Bobby Herman's car was a 1959 Cadillac; identical to the model that Dad had been trying to get running for nearly twelve years now. The keys were in the ignition, but Paul did not try to start it. The tires had rotted off the rims; Paul was sure the hoses had rotted out in the engine as well.

He looked at the wood; the majority of it had gotten wet and what had not rotted away had warped terribly. There was a lawn tractor, wheels flat, but he was sure they would fill up just fine.

The house itself held more treasures; Mr. Herman had not removed any of his furniture.

"Keep what you want," Mr. Herman coughed. "I got all I want, right here."

He showed Paul a well-worn photograph of a beautiful woman, holding a baby.

"My Carla and my Bobby," Mr. Herman explained.

After he finished coughing, Mr. Herman smiled sadly.

"I'll be joining them soon," he quietly said. "Lung cancer, you know? You got anybody special in your life, son?"

"Yes sir, yes I do," Paul said quietly.

"Never let her go, boy," Mr. Herman said. "Let her know every day how special she is, how you'd be lost without her. I kind of forgot to tell Carla that, then suddenly she's gone, heart attack, and I just, I just, I'm lost without her, son. But I'll be telling her real soon."

"Yes sir," Paul said.

There was a sofa and three chairs around the fireplace in the living room. The furniture was dark wood; the walls and floors were dark wood.

The kitchen was large, with a gas stove and oven, and a refrigerator. On impulse, Paul opened it and gagged; the food in it had spoiled. The freezer itself was nothing but a block of ice.

There was a breakfast table and four chairs in the kitchen. Paul smiled, imagining he and Pam and Candy and Cindy sitting at the table. They did not know about the house yet; he planned to bring them out here Friday night.

"Going to have to clean that fridge out, though," he said out loud, and unplugged it, to defrost the ice.

The bathroom was impressive; there was a large claw foot bathtub. He looked in it and smiled; The Broussard Sisters would fit nicely in it, even with their wide hips, and there would be room left over for Pam to squeeze in.

There was a long porcelain vanity and ornate mirror over the vanity. The commode had a pull chain flush; he was sure the girls would get a kick out of it.

The bedroom on the ground floor had obviously been Greg and Carla Herman's. There was a large canopy bed of dark wood, a dark wood chest of drawers and a low dresser and mirror. The closet held mostly women's clothing, quite old.

There was little of interest in the drawers; mostly clothing.

"You nasty old mother fucker," Paul laughed as he looked in the nightstand drawer.

There was a stack of pornographic magazines and a nearly empty jar of petroleum jelly.

'Anal Teens,' Asian Cum Sluts,' 'Young Lesbians' were among the titles. Paul laughed and shut the drawer.

Upstairs, he found Bobby's bedroom easily enough. Another bedroom looked as if it had belonged to a teenaged girl, but there were no clothes, no photographs. A third room looked as if it had never been used.

There was a small bathroom, with an old shower and tub combination. The vanity was small, as was the mirror that hung over it. The toilet was also small; Paul realized the bathroom had been an add-on. installed after the house was completed.

The hot water heater had been turned off; Paul carefully read the faded instructions printed on the side of it and turned it on and lighted the pilot light.

"Water will be ready for Friday night," Paul smiled as he checked around again, and then left the upstairs.

"Mop, broom, bucket, pine oil, looks like we're set," Paul said as he looked in the hall closet.

----

"No, I don't know where he is," Pam said. "Maybe he's at work? I mean, it's supposed to be his night off, but..."

"Yeah, I guess," Candy, said into her phone. "Just kind of weird; he usually tells us."

""Maybe he have new girlfriend," Rosa said nastily.

As soon as the cookies were gone, Rosa reverted to her nasty attitude. Candy waved her hand at her roommate to silence her.

"You mind?" she hissed. "I'm on the phone here."

Cindy did not know where he was either. Celine did not offer the crude suggestion that Rosa had suggested to Candy.

On the seat of the Impala was Paul's cell phone.

----

Elaine lightly touched the leather appointments in the Porsche. Charlie smiled and pushed the car a little harder, showing her what the luxury sports car could do.

She looked absolutely beautiful in the simple black dress. It was a simple A Line dress, but it molded itself to her large breasts and narrow waist and swelling hips. The hem ended just at her knee, and she wore smoke-colored stockings and simple black pumps. The gold chain and cross was just visible above the neckline of the dress.

He realized, as he escorted her to the front door of the restaurant, she seemed to be at ease in the elegant surroundings. She also seemed to be at ease in tee shirt and shorts, cutting her grass.

The maitre'd bowed and scraped when he realized that Charles Lapointe was Dr. Charles Lapointe. Elaine smiled graciously as the man eased her chair in for her and casually looked over the menu.

On the inside, Elaine was anything but calm. The sheer opulence of the restaurant, the nearly overbearing staff, the luxury of the table settings was both intimidating and awe-inspiring.

But if this was Charlie's world, she wanted to do her best to fit in. The last thing she wanted to do was to embarrass Charlie, make him think he was out on a date with a hick.

Just the fact that her menu hat no prices told her that the place was expensive.

"And would you care for something to drink?" the waiter asked.

"An old-fashioned, please," Charlie said.

"Very good, sir, and for you, ma'am?"

"Iced tea, please, sweet," Elaine, said.

"Um, I meant would you care for a cocktail, a before dinner drink?" the waiter asked.

"No, thank you," Elaine smiled.

When the waiter had walked away, Elaine leaned close to Charlie.

"I'm only nineteen; I can't drink," she laughed.

"I wouldn't have told on you," Charlie smiled.

She enjoyed the meal and did comment on that fact to Charlie and to the waiter. The waiter smiled and promised he would tell the chef.

The last time Charlie had been here, he'd brought Lindsey Duhon. Lindsey was the daughter of a friend of his mother's; the two mothers had gone to college together, were Sorority sisters. Lindsey had been rude to the valet, the maitre'd, the waiter, and to Charlie. If she had enjoyed the meal, she certainly gave no indication of it.

After dinner, Lindsey seemed to remember that she was out on a date to try and ensnare Charlie. He almost laughed out loud when she woodenly put her hand on his upper thigh.

"So, where to now?" she asked in what she thought was a seductive tone of voice.

"I'm taking you home," he smiled.

"Oh yeah?" she smiled back.

"Yeah, then I'm calling my mother and telling her to never ever set me up on another miserable date like this one," Charlie smiled.

Before he was even out of Lindsey's neighborhood, his mother was on the telephone, demanding that he apologize to the Duhons.

"Apologize for what, Mother?" he laughed. "That there daughter is a miserable, stuck-up bitch? That she's rude, boorish, and arrogant?"

"Well," his mother said after a long moment. "I guess the apple didn't fall very far from the tree. Hillary was like that in college."

"Good bye mother," Charlie had laughed.

The time before that had been with another one of Mother's friends' daughter. She had enjoyed the meal; judging for the nearly eighty pounds of excess weight she carried around, meals were the one thing she enjoyed quite a bit. He had been polite to Megan. Overweight or not, he did try to find out something about the girl, find out what she liked, didn't like and so forth. Questions were answered in grunts or whispers.

"I had a nice time," he said as he stood outside of her apartment.

"Want to fuck?" Megan asked, startling Charlie.

"Wait, what?" Charlie had asked, stunned.

"Well, you ain't never coming back; I can tell, we got nothing in common," Megan said. "Least I could do is give you a piece of ass for being so nice."

"Or just a good night kiss," Charlie said, not wanting to take advantage of the girl's low self-esteem.

"Oh," Megan said, obviously hurt by the rejection.

"I mean, I didn't bring any condoms with me," Charlie hastily said.

"Oh, that's all right," Megan brightened. "I got some!"

He fucked her, used up two of her condoms before satisfying him that she was satisfied, that her ego was intact.

"What did you do to her?" his mother hissed into the telephone the next morning.

"Took her out to eat, took her home, stayed a little while then left," Charlie said, decorum advising that he leave out the sex.

"She killed herself last night," his mother informed him.

No, his mother would not have set him up with the likes of Carmen Simone's daughter. But Charlie was sure she'd approve of Carmen Simone and Elaine Simone. Carmen was a devoted mother that had almost lost her job to give care to her daughter. To lose her job would have meant losing her home, but Carmen did not even think about that; she devoted herself to the needs of her child.

They were good, blue-collar people; they worked hard for everything they got and did not take each other for granted. He'd seen that last night when eating at their house. The looks, the touches that Dick and Carmen shared, without embarrassment. The friendly banter between Elaine and her sister. Then they pulled out the photo album to share their memories with him.

He realized he'd been staring at Elaine and smiled at her. He slowly reached out his hand and touched the side of her face softly.

"Anyone ever tell you, you're absolutely beautiful?" he asked.

"No," she said and held his hand to her face.

"No?" he smiled.

"Nope," she shook her head. "Gorgeous, stupendous, stunning, amazing, but not beautiful."

"Well, you are," he smiled and leaned forward and lightly kissed her lips. "You are gorgeous, stupendous, stunning, amazing, and beautiful."

----

"Appointment tomorrow," Elizabeth reminded Missy.

The silence in their apartment was overwhelming. It was almost a relief with the next-door neighbor would start flailing away at his guitar; it gave them something to talk about, something they could agree on.

"Uh huh," Missy mumbled listlessly.

"Going to ask him if it's a boy or not?" Elizabeth teased.

"No," Missy said and slowly got out of the chair and brought her plate to the sink.

"God damn it!" Elizabeth screamed. "I am sick of this! You rather I lied to you? You rather I tell you I'm in love with you when I'm not?"

"Yes!" Missy screamed back and slammed the plate down on the counter, smashing it. "Yes, I'd rather you lie to me, make me believe you love me as much as I love you, need me as much as I need you! I only kept the fucking baby because of you! I kept her for you, Elizabeth! And then you just go and shit all over me? Well, fuck you! Fuck you, fucking bitch!"

----

Daphne watch as Ed picked up the scotch bottle and prepared to pour him a drink. He unscrewed the cap, picked up the large rock glass and brought the mouth of the bottle to the glass.

Then he put the bottle back down, put the glass away and screwed the cap onto the bottle.

"Let's go to bed," he said.

"What?" Daphne asked. "Bed? But it's only..."

"Did I say 'let's go to sleep?'" he smiled.

"Okay, Big Eddie," Daphne squealed and dashed up the stairs.

He smiled and slowly followed her.

----

Paul was filthy as he sat at the counter of the Waffle House and ate the All-Star breakfast. He smirked; the waitress had given him some cock and bull story about closing out the register for the next shift, could he please pay the bill up front? He realized she was just making sure that he had the money to pay for his meal, that he wasn't going to eat and run.

Want anything else?" the waitress asked him.

No, no ma'am," he said and left a two-dollar tip.

Darwin was almost smirking when Paul tiredly returned to the room, much cleaner after his shower.

"Your ladies called," he announced.

"Uh huh, talked with them earlier," Paul answered.

"So, uh, like, uh where were you, huh?" Darwin asked

He had thoroughly enjoyed the worry of Candy and Cindy and Pam. He had enjoyed suggesting that Paul may be out on a date; why else would he ignore his cell phone?

Maybe if Candy dumped Robichaux, he'd snag her, take her out, and then get her in the back seat of his Oldsmobile. She'd see that Darwin would be a much better fuck. His last girlfriend had said that he was real good. Then she'd tell her friends and they'd want to fuck Darwin too.

"Sorry, didn't see your name on 'Parent or Guardian," Paul said and got into his bed.

----

"I had a real good time," Elaine said as they stood outside of her home.

"Me too," Charlie smiled. "Never been out to the Basin before."

Elaine giggled.

"Play your cards right, maybe we'll go there again," she coyly suggested.

"Or we can just walk right across the street and make out in the living room," Charlie suggested.

"Yeah, but it's so much fun fogging up the windows in your Porsche," Elaine laughed out loud.

He smiled widely and brought her to him for another kiss. She was shorter than him by nearly ten inches, but she felt good molded to him like that. Her arms around his waist felt good, comfortable. She tilted her head at a slightly odd angle and he realized that she was trying to see his face, but his chest was blocking out the light from the street lamp. With only one eye, she was having a hard time seeing.

"Here, let's try this," he smiled and lifted her off the ground, twirled around, and put her back down. "That better?"

"Yeah," she smiled. "Now I can see your handsome face."

"And I can see your beautiful face," he smiled.

"So, Charlie, we going out again or what?" Elaine asked directly.

"I hope so," Charlie said.

"Okay, but next time, we're going to Manny's; they got the best Mexican in the world, and you can leave the suit and tie at home," Elaine said.

"Oh?" Charlie smiled. "Don't think I'd have a little trouble getting service?"

"What? Why?" Elaine asked, confused.

"Well, most places kind of frown if you show up naked," Charlie smiled.

"I mean, wear jeans, tee shirt, goofball," Elaine laughed.

"Good night Lala," he said after a few more kisses.

"Good night, Cha-cha," she said and stuck her tongue out at him.

Chapter 87

"Buzz!" Candy imitated an electric razor.

"Uh huh," Paul smiled and pulled up to the po-boy shop.

Everyone said this place had the best, bar none, roast beef po-boys outside of New Orleans. On the outside, it didn't look like much, a hole in the wall among a couple of run-down looking shops. Inside, it looked decrepit, run-down. Many of the seats had rips in them, with their stuffing spilling out. The waitresses looked too old to carry the heavy trays.

But the smell was incredible.