Spirits and Demons

Life Comes Full Circle

                                                            Part Forty Five

  Sharing Dennis's house had it's ups and downs. He'd arrive home every evening with a different woman on his arm not to mention he was also seeing his wife. Several times a week and in the middle of the night on weekends there were always catfights, the women fighting over him as if he was the last man on earth. Staying drunk all of the time he completely lost control of his life. Boys night out, he took Mike to Beaumont to the strip clubs and all of the strippers were fat and very unattractive. Mike wasn't getting used to the oil boom towns at all. The only nice places were the Keg, a popular dance club where all the women were beautiful and the Dairy King, where all the locals hung out. The problem was Dennis never wanted to stay at the Keg very long since he had plenty of women troubles already. Mike was relieved when they went to the Dairy King, it was only a couple of miles from home in case he needed to walk since he was riding with Dennis. Relating to Dennis he was ready to go home, Dennis burnt rubber pulling out of the Dairy King and stopping at Winnie's only redlight. Drunk as a skunk, he retrieved his twelve gauge shotgun from behind the truck seat, leaned wobbly out of his window and pulled the trigger, blasting the redlight. Driving off Mike heard the glass hitting the street, and looked back to see if Winnie's one policeman was anywhere in the area. Mike noticed the redlight swaying, hanging crooked in the wind and sparks flying from the electrical line Dennis had shot in half. Pulling in the driveway, Dennis ran over mailboxes trying to get home. Mike stretched his left foot from the passenger's side and stepped on the brake as Dennis opened his door and fell onto the ground. Putting it in park, Mike got out and dragged Dennis to the back of the truck, then opened the tailgate and flopped Dennis onto it. Mike slowly drove past a few houses until he reached home and there in the driveway were three women waiting on Dennis. One of the women was his wife Jana and she was arguing with the other two women. All three of them approached Dennis, lying passed out in the back of the truck while Mike went inside the house and shut the door. Inside he found Dolly crying from all of the chaos, he held and comforted her, reassuring her he'd find another place for them to live as soon as possible.

  Living with Dennis had turned into a living hell. Dolly related she'd spoken with her mother, her dad had been beating her mother more since she'd left Louisiana with Mike. Her dad had beaten her mother to find out where Mike and Dolly had run away to and when he found out, he related to his wife to tell Dolly if she didn't come home, he'd send a hitman to Winnie to kill Mike and to bring her home. She stated she didn't wish to leave but she would go home so her dad wouldn't have Mike killed. She exclaimed her dad had given his word he'd leave Mike alone if she came home right away. Mike was relieved in a way since he'd gradually been taking drugs and Dolly had taken some drugs with him. The last thing Mike wanted to do was to destroy her life with drugs. He had his drug problem and he was just going to have to deal with it. Mike spoke with his mother on the phone and she related she was coming for a visit in the next few days. Mike asked Dolly if she'd ride back to West Monroe with his mother since she'd decided to move back home to save his life. Dolly said she would and called her mother to tell her she'd be home by the weekend. Mike's mother visited the family for a couple of days and stopped by to pick Dolly up on her way back to Louisiana. With tears streaming down her face, Dolly kissed and hugged Mike goodbye. Watching them drive away, Mike pondered where he could move to get away from Dennis and all of his fighting women. After thinking for a few minutes, Mike recalled Cale and Frenchman had mentioned they wanted to move out of Jimmy Don and Terri's house and get a house of their own. Checking with his Aunt Yvonne, Mike discovered she and Uncle Earl would rent them a house. Mike talked it over with Cale and Frenchman and they agreed to each pay one third of the rent. The next week Mike, Frenchman, and Cale rented the house together. Frenchman and Cale continued religious discussions about God, the very same religious discussions they were having in Louisiana several months earlier when Mike had walked out and unfortunately ran into the hitman. Mike thought to himself how everything has a balance, how life had come full circle.