Life After College

Chapter 9

Sofia stayed the whole weekend with us, and by the time Jessica was coming to pick her up, we decided to make a dinner out of it. Jessica agreed, but only if she got to bring a dish. So Sunday afternoon came around and I fixed Vivian’s “kickin’ fried chicken” as she calls it (Dicky loves it, so his mom sent me the recipe via e-mail), maccaroni and cheese, and green beans. Dicky cooked potato salad and chocolate cake.

When Jessica arrived, she walked in with a covered dish of meatloaf. We all sat down and -with Damon sitting on my lap of course- we started to fix our plates. “Drew, the potato salad look delicious.”

“Thank you. But, Dicky made it not me.”

“Way to go, Richard.” Dicky smiled.

He leaned over the table and reached for the lid of Jessica’s dish. “Lets see what this meatloaf looks like.” He lifted the lid and I thought I was gonna pass out. *What the hell is that?* Is what I really wanted to say, but I just settled with a fake smile. The meatloaf looked like it had been in a blood bath with all the ketchup she had drowned it in. And when I say it was meatloaf.....I mean it was MEATloaf. It was a big lump of mushy meat. No kind of peppers, onions, or dirty rice mixed in it all. She also must’ve left out the egg, because it looked like soup. Dicky looked like he regretted openeing the lid, because he knew he that he had to eat some of it to be nice. He smiled and took one of the serving spoons and scooped some out.

“I want some.” Damon told me. Without uttering a single word, so Jessica wouldn’t catch our conversation, I shook my head, “no”.

“Make sure you get enough.” Jessica said smiling. “There’s plenty to go around.” She looked at me. “Drew, you want me to get some for you?”

My eyes bucked out. *She can’t be serious.* I thought. “Um, well, my plates full right now. I’ll eat some on my second round.” She smiled. Little did she know.

As I was helping Damon eat a chicken leg, I glanced over at Dicky as he was trying to down that slop Jessica made. He threw it down quickly. My guess was, the faster it went down, the least he’d have to taste. Had to have been the reason, cause he couldn’t have liked it. I could tell on his face. “It’s great, Jessica.” Dicky lied.

“Good. Would you like some more?”

“No! No. That’s okay. Wouldn’t want to get full off one thing.”

After dinner, we had dessert and a little wine (the kids had orange soda) and talked at the table. It was starting to get dark and Jessica decided it was time for her and Sofia to leave. Before she left, I asked her to bag me up some of that meatloaf she made. She happily obliged and when she was gone, I gave it to Dicky to throw in the trash. “You don’t want any meatloaf?” Dicky asked me smiling.

“Heck no.” I set Damon down and knocked off the chicken crumbs he left on my lap. “That mess looked like barf.”

“It tasted like it too.” He said laughing. But then he stopped and touched his stomach with a groan.

“What’s the matter?”

“Ah. I don’t feel so good.”

I laughed. “You shouldn’t have drank that wine with the slop you ate earlier.”

“Ha. Ha. Ha. Funny.”

I walked to him and gave him a kiss. “I’m sorry, baby. Would you like some Pepto?”

“Yeah.”

I walked in the kitchen and grabbed the pink bottle. It won’t but a little bit left, and when I gave it to Dicky, he drank it down like beer.

We sat together in the den and watched some tv before bedtime. Damon was under me sucking his thumb. I could tell he was getting sleepy. After getting a full stomach, I was dozing myself. But then, I heard the doorbell ring. “I got it/” I said as I walked to the door. “It may be Jessica with some leftover meatloaf.”

“Aaahhh. Don’t say meatloaf.” Dicky groaned.

I smiled as I opened the door, but it faded a bit when I saw who was there. A woman, maybe around my age, was standing there. She was sickeningly skinny, with tangled red hair and a dirty olive face. Her clothes looked like they were three sizes too big and filthy. She also carried an odor that unnerved me. I noticed she kept sniffing, like she carried a cold, but I knew the real reason. “Can I help you?” I tried to say as politely as I could.

“Oh, you don’t remember me?” She asked.

“Aaaahhh....no.”

“Well, get a closer look.” She stepped closer to me and when she did, I stepped back one.

“Camile Brooke.”

“Yes.”

Remember Camile? She was the girl I fucked on Valentine’s Day back in college. Well, that was her. Atleast I thought it was her. She looked nothing like the voluptuous vixen she used to be in school.

“What happened to you” I asked before I knew it.

“Well you know. Life has its disadvantages.”

“I see. What are you doing here?”

“I came to see my son.”

“Who?”

“The boy, fool.” As if on cue, Damon walked to the door still sucking his thumb. He saw Camile and clutched my pants leg. “Hello, sweetie.” Camile said and tried to reach for him.

“No!!” Damon yelled and stood behind me in fear.

“How’d you know I was here?”

“I stopped by the adoption place I dropped him off at, and they told me where he was,....... staying with you.......the father.”

I stood stiff as a board. “What do you mean?”

“I mean he is your son.”

“What did you say?!” Dicky heard me yell and walked to where we were.

“What’s going on here?” He asked.

“I said he yours, Andrew.”

“How did that happen?” I asked Camile.

“Remember when we fucked back in college? Four years ago?”

“Well then that can’t be right. Damon would be four.”

Camile smirked. “His birthday is next month.
“You mean Damon is really your son?” Dicky asked me.

I looked at him perplexed, then down at Damon, who was stretching his arms up to me. I picked him up and stared at him. “I guess so.”

Camile looked at Dicky and cocked her head to the side trying to recall his face. “Richard? Richard Taylor?”

“Yeah. Who are you?”

I looked at him. “It’s Camile, Dicky.”

“What?! What happened to you?”

“Never mind that. That’s none of your concern.” She snapped at him. “I only came here to take my ‘Sammy’ back home.”

*This woman’s got a lot of nerve, coming to my house demanding to take my son!* I thought. *And “Sammy”. Who the fuck is “Sammy”?* “Damon is not going anywhere with you. Look at you. You can barely take care of yourself.”

“Fuck your opinion, Andrew! Give me my son!”

“Why?! You were the one who left him by the doorstep in the rain, so you could better manage your drug habit!”

“I’ve gotten my life back together!” She said as she started to scratch her arm.

“Bullshit!!”

“Fuck this.” Dicky stepped in front of me and with support from the doorframe, leaned close to Camile’s face. “Leave.”

“No. I want my son.”

“GET THE FUCK OFF MY PROPERTY!!!!” Dicky stared at her until she finally left. I didn’t see a car in the driveway, so I could imagine she walked. He shut the door and leaned against it sighing wearily.

I started to slowly shake my head. “I don’t know. I don’t think that was the last time we are going to see her.”

Dicky looked up and saw Damon looking at him with large woeful blue eyes. He walked over to us, kissed his forehead and took him into his arms. Damon laid his head on his father’s shoulder and sucked his thumb. Then Dicky pulled me into a hug. “Nobody is gonna break this family apart.”
************

We spent the next few days looking out for Camile. I had seen her a few times while out with the family. Once, while Damon and I were at the grocery store, I saw her begging for some change from people who were trying to put their groceries in their cars. Another time when I was walking him across the yard to spend some time at Jessica’s house. “Mama, look!” He pointed across the street and I saw her sitting in some beat up red Buick with some equally rusty looking man sitting in the driver’s seat. When I stopped and looked at them, they drove off. It wasn’t constant, like everyday, but it was enough to start driving me insane.

Dicky came home from work one day after I called him. I was suffering from a small cold, but that wasn’t the real reason I was at home. “Babe?!” He yelled as he walked through he front door.

“I’m in here.”

He walked into the den and saw me sitting on the couch with the tv on and a pajama clad, sleeping Damon curled up in my lap. I rocked him like a newborn and ran my fingers through his hair and watched as the soft curls would quickly loop around my fingers. “What’s the matter? And why is Damon not at the daycare?”

“I woke up this morning to take him, but I caught this bad feeling that something was going to happen, so decided to leave him here.”

Dicky sighed then sat on the coffee table in front of me. “Honey, there are people throughout that daycare. Nothing bad would’ve happened to Damon. I think you are mistaking this ‘bad feeling’ with a bad case of the flu.”

“No. No. I know what it is. It feels just the same as if you get that feeling you’ve left something at home. I’m feeling off today and I know it’s her doing it. Camile has got something up her sleeve and I know it. She wouldn’t give up that easily. I could tell that day she was here. She’s driving me crazy.”

Dicky got up and sat next to me with his arm around my shoulders. “Today will be a good day like all the others. Don’t worry. That’s probably what caused you to get sick. You’ve been worrying too much lately.” Damon snorted in his sleep and Dicky smiled. He stood, picked Damon up, and gave me a kiss. “Now, I have to go back to work. I’m going to put him in his bed, and I want you to take some medicine and rest yourself.”

“Alright.”

Dicky yelled a goodbye to me as he walked back out the door and I walked in the kitchen to take some medicine. After about thirty minutes of sitting watching the soaps, I started to get drowsy, so I reclined on the couch and took a nap.

************

When I woke up, I rubbed my eyes and tried to get them to focus. They were still a bit blurry when I spotted a white piece of paper taped to the vcr. I blinked a few times and was finally able to read: PLAY ME. I looked around me quickly, thinking maybe Jessica or somebody was in here. I was alone.

I got up and walked to the vcr and pushed the videotape in, then sat back down on the couch. I ended up sitting on the edge of the seat when I saw what it was a tape of. It was a homemade tape. Camile was smiling in the camera, being held by that guy I saw her riding with no doubt..............

TBC...... want to know what happens next? R&R.