The 'Cousins'

Part Fifty-Alpha : Trouble Ahead for both Walt and Jess

A/N: This will be a long chapter and so will be posted in three sections. This is the first, Alpha,  that carries the story along with Walt Kempster arriving at the condo to put Mitt Fawley's offer to the residents.

‘Walt Kempster’s Dilemma.’

Timeline: 0912 Friday 20th April : Whitewater Condo

 “Thanks. Bye.” Walt abruptly ended his call and was deep in thought as he slipped his cell phone back into his pocket. The news he had just received shocked him, but was not altogether unexpected. He rubbed his itching palms together as he looked out of the car windscreen at the stark, looming, wooden barrier ahead that was the back of the massive store room Mitt Fawley had built to support his planned chicken packing project. Walt thought it such an intimidating structure to build so near to people’s homes; blocking the view and denying the residents light and air from the south. It stood as an overt declaration of Fawley’s disdain for others.  Walt’s eyes swept over the windowless wooden wall with the contempt it and its creator deserved, mumbling to himself as he recalled the awful content of the recent phone call to his mind.

 “So that’s all I’m worth to him, one sweaty, sordid weekend away at Lake Tahoe.”

He dwelled on the essence of Trish’s phone call and his mouth broke into a crooked smile. 'It was good of Trish to call me and tell me Mitt’s latest plans for us both. She didn’t have to do that.' He touched his temple with a finger in a tacit salute to her.

Her loyalty to him kindled a warming glow that helped to thaw the shock of her news. It was her final words that he found the most chilling. ‘It’s not the first time he’s offered me your job Walt for a bit of rumpy-pumpy. I always thought he was joking; just to big himself up like unattractive men do, but this time I think he really means it. What we gonna do Walt?’

She was scared. Walt knew Mitt had a soft spot for Trish and she had played him up on it, but it had gone too far now and was out of hand.  She was right to be frightened. “Leave it with me,” he’d said as she hung up. She had to get back to Mitt and those quarterly figures. He wondered for how much longer she would be able to keep Mitt’s searching hands off her figure?

“So that’s it then.”  Walt spoke to a honeybee that had flown into the car through the open door window and whose exit was blocked by the windscreen. The insect flapped and buzzed uselessly against the glass, expending its energies to get nowhere; held back by the transparent barrier between itself and the freedom it strived to attain.

“You ‘n’ me have a lot in common Mr. Honeybee.” Walt spoke softly as he scraped it carefully onto an old brochure he took from his glove compartment and flicked the insect outside through the car door window. He watched it fly away without the equivalent of an apian backward glance or thank you. He raised his fingers to it in a token wave.

“That’s all we need sometime to get through the day Mr. Honeybee; someone to give us a helping hand when we most need it; and its best when there’s no strings attached.”

Walt sighed, picked up the old leather satchel from the passenger seat and stepped out onto the narrow sidewalk, slamming the door behind him. He forced himself to smile as his shoes crunched on the few paces of gravel across the front yard to where Ebonie Marrs sat cross-legged on the ground with the youngsters grouped in a half-ring around her. They watched him as he approached with big, uncertain eyes across the rims of their beakers as they drank their juice. Walt knew he was on borrowed time, the same as them, and he knew why he was there and what he would do that morning.

                                                                                        *    *    *

Timeline:  0922: Community College Classroom.

Jess sat at his desk and heard Mr. Marks’s lecture as a droning sound in the far distance. His concentration was elsewhere, trying to fathom the reason for the sudden turn-around in his fortunes. The day had started so well with the interest of everybody in his bike and himself. He had not enjoyed such camaraderie in the School House before this morning. But it had been false, unreal, a myth, they were only playing with him.  Their friendship and interest in him had lasted only as far as the cafeteria. Then it had all ended under their barrage of bread missiles and abuse hurled at him as he entered the room. ‘They must’ve been setting me up all the time upstairs. And what was Melissa doing there, she lives in lodgings outside the school house. And why was she saying these things about me? Such hurtful, untrue things. Why does she want to hurt me by telling lies. What has she to gain by it, and why does Dr. Armstrong need to see me?’

Jess glanced around and saw the class were taking notes from the lecture. He looked down at his own pad that was still bare. He couldn’t focus his attention on the lesson. His mind laboured on the uncertainties of his changed situation and would not let it go. He felt his shoulders shaking at the intense disappointment of the moment and became introspective. ‘I was a fool to think I could be anything else than a farm boy. Fun while it lasted, but it couldn’t last for much longer anyway, only until Greg’s visa ran out. It would be over then. Better get used to it.’  Jess bit his bottom lip to control his emotional turmoil. It needed an outlet that arrived at his desk in the grim faced presence of Mr. Marks; who picked up his notebook and tossed it with disdain back onto the desk..

“This is a surprise Mr. White. I did not know you knew this subject so well that you don’t need to take any notes. I’ve been talking for twenty minutes so if you’ll be so kind as to take over the lesson from this point, I’ll sit the rest of it out. Please tell us in your own time, what happened in the aftermath of the Battle of Mobile. On your feet please Mr. White.”

The way the teacher stressed ‘Mister White’ added to Jess’s sense of being an outsider here. His mind went into a funk as he rose slowly to his feet amid the guffaws, mock applause and wisecracks of the class. He looked around them with dismay, classmates whose admiration he enjoyed an hour ago were now ridiculing him. His mind cleared. He suddenly felt calm; in perfect control of himself and said in a cool and measured voice

‘I apologise for my lack of attention Sir. I meant no disrespect. I know nothing about this lesson, but can’t concentrate because I’m upset and worried. Somebody is spreading rumours about me and I don’t know why, because they are lies. If you’ll excuse me I’ll go outside and wait to see Dr. Armstrong.”

Marks nodded his agreement, but said nothing as Jess collected his things and stepped aside to let the boy pass.  Excepting for Ethan Cartwright’s taunt, the class was stunned to silence. 

“If you hurry down to the motel you’ll just have enough time for a quickie before the next hour.” 

Mr. Marks spun around on Ethan and barked. "That'll be quite enough from you Mr. Cartright."

A few of the class tittered, but most remained silent. Jess heard the wisecrack as he reached the door of the classroom on his way out. He turned to face Cartwright who stood grinning at him from the far side of the room. Jess decided to say nothing and went outside and breathed a huge sigh of relief as the door clicked closed behind him. Jess did not know what to expect when he faced Dr. Armstrong, but was more ready for the interview. He felt more self assured now he was out of that classroom and walked with confidence to the office suite to wait and face the pleasure of the Principal.