It was a quiet Wednesday morning that he stopped by and found her in the kitchen, fretting, wringing her hands.
“Gigi, is everything okay?”
“No, Sweetie. These break-ins are getting closer and closer to home. If I had the means, I would move today,” she told him as she refreshed her tea cup.
“I have an idea,” he told her as he held her weathered hands. Hands which had spent more than 35 years teaching in the Chicago Public School System that now trembled in fear at the thought of darkness harkening her doorstep. At the age of 67, she had seen more crimes and death than any one person should in a lifetime. It was now her time to see something more scenic.
Her eyes were hopeful when she looked at him. “What is that?”
“I made a call to Ms. Rosemary down in Florida. I told her we were going to come down for a visit, let you take a look around the place,” he told her.
“Seriously, Jamar?”
He pulled two plane tickets from his pocket. “We have a flight this afternoon. Hurry and get packed so we can get to the airport.”
Edna gazed about the home she had lived in since she was a teenage girl. She and her brothers and sisters grew up here. After her marriage to Troy Smalls Jr, they started and raised a family in same house. All of them had long since passed, leaving only her and a handful of fond memories.
“I will be ready in a few. Go down to the basement and get my suitcase,” she told him.
In less than an hour they were on their way to O’Hare. The alarm was set on the old house that held so many memories and lifetime of sorrow. and Edna Smalls too, walked out of her old home towards a new one in a new sunny, warm city.
Orlando, Florida
The trip to Florida turned out to be everything Jamar wanted for his Grandmother. As they boarded the flight, Edna took special care tell everyone they came in contact with that this was her first flight.
“I’m as nervous as a hooker in Sunday school,” she told the stewardess.
It did not escape Jamar’s notice that the attractive young woman was not wearing a ring, but once he saw her name tag read Moneisha, his interest quickly waned. Her stock rose a bit when she gave Edna a complimentary glass of sherry to calm her nerves. The drink calmed her a bit too much. Edna slept the entire two and half hour flight. This worked out well for them both because the Mayflower was a very active center.
They had barely gotten settled before Rosemary arrived to grab Edna for a pool party. As hard as he tried, Jamar could not help but laugh. His grandmother, even at 67 years old, took extremely good care of herself. She still had a good figure, which caught the attention of many of the men at the center, who flocked about her like lint balls to a wool sweater. One gray-haired old man was a bit too eager for Jamar’s liking, and he stepped in between the man and his Gigi holding his hands up in protest.
“Pump your brakes, partner,” he told the man.
“I meant no disrespect,” the elderly gentleman told him.
“Then act like it. She is not a fresh piece a meat on campus for you to prey upon. She has lived a long full life of far too many disappointments and heartbreaks. You keep that in mind, O.G.,” he told the man.
The elderly gentleman nodded and even said a few words to some of the other men folk who had begun to buzz around Edna Smalls. She was eating up the attention. At one point, Jamar saw his grandmother wink at a man!
“Oh, Dear Lord,” he said as he went to locate the management office.
An hour later, Edna Smalls was the newest resident of the Mayflower with a two-bedroom end unit, complete with front and back yards, and a brand new red golf cart. Jamar unpacked her suitcase and hung her clothing inside the closet. From his suitcase, he removed and unwrapped the towels, which held all the happy family photos that had sat about her living room. The unit came with dishes, cookware, and anything else she would need to enjoy her later years.
He stood on the small back porch and waved at her. Like a child, her feet dangled at the poolside while some old man, still way too buff for Jamar’s comfort, flirted with her. Jamar raised his hand to wave her over. Towel draped about her waist, Edna excused herself from the group to chat with her grandson.
“Boy, whose house are you in, standing on these people’s porch like you live here or something,” she said as she pinched the skin on the back of his arm.
“Gigi, you pinch me like that again, and I am going to go in there and get my check back,” he told her.
“Your check for what?” she asked him.
“For this place,” he said as he pressed the keys into her hands. “I even got you the red golf cart.”
The eyes, which had seen too much sorrow, filled with glistening tears. “I can’t afford this...you can’t afford this...”
“You don’t have to worry, Gigi; I took care of everything. This is yours,” he told her.
The tears had started to roll down her cheeks as she stepped inside and looked around her new place. The brand new furniture, new dishes, pots, and pans was too much. In the closet, she found her clothing hung neatly.
“Jamar, I don’t know what to say...what about all my stuff in the house in Chicago?”
“Gigi, I will put it in storage. The clothing I will donate,” he said as he wiped her tears.
“What am I to wear? I only brought enough clothes for three days...”
He pulled out his wallet and handed her 10 crisp $100 dollar bills. “I put more in your account. Keep up with this and put it in a safe place,” he told her as he folded the bills into her hand.
Her body racked with tears as he sat her down on the couch. “You get to enjoy your life now, Gigi. No more bills to pay, cook if you want or eat in the cafeteria, go shopping and buy a new wardrobe, but one thing I remembered to pack that you won’t have to buy,” he told her as he reached over to collect her Bible from the end table, “I remembered to pack this.”
“I love you so much, Jamar. How can I ever thank you?” she asked as she kissed his cheek.
“This is my thank you to you. I am phone call away if you need anything or change your mind,” he told his best girl.
A knocking was heard at the door as Rosemary and some man she called Two Guns came into the unit. Rosy cheeks lit up Rosemary’s face as she began to hurry Edna to get changed. ‘There is a presentation on the cruise that is coming up next month. I know me and Two Guns are going. I hope you are coming as well,” she told her longtime friend.
Edna hurried to her room to get changed, “Grandma, you are going to need this...,” he told her as he handed her a passport.
“Lawd Chile, you trying to kill an old lady. First class flight on a plane and now a passport. My own passport for me to go on the cruise?” she asked him.
“I already paid for the cruise for you, and a few other trips that are coming up this year,” he told her.
Jamar gazed at his watch. “I have to run. I don’t want to miss my flight.”
As she had done when she took him to the first day at Summer Camp, he did the same for her. He kissed her cheek and patted the top of her grey head, “If you need anything, you call me.”
Edna gave him a big grin. “I think I’m going to be okay,” she said to him but her eyes were on the snazzily dressed OG he had spoken with earlier.
He felt awkward for having to say something, but as far as he knew, it had been years since his grandmother had dated. “Gigi, you need to think about being safe...and using some protection with these fresh old men,” he told her.
“I got this, baby. You go on now and enjoy your life. I sure as hell am going to enjoy mine!”
“Okay, Gigi, I’m out,” he kissed her again and headed for the rental car. His grandmother would get settled in quickly, and she appeared to be happier than she’d been in many years. Florida had lots of sunshine, she was with her long-time friend, and she had a new gentleman caller to keep her company. His head felt a bit clearer.
“Jamar!” Edna called out. “Wait a minute.”
Her old legs trotted her over to the car as she embraced him closely against her bosom. “I did right by you,” she told him. “I love you Chile.”
“You did great by me Gigi. I love you too,” he said as he released her slowly. She waved to her new friends like he’d done at summer camp as he used to race over to begin his new adventure. Edna Smalls was starting a new adventure. The old legs were not racing, but she was moving at a clip to join her new friends.
He cranked the engine, put the vehicle in gear, and pointed the four wheels in the direction towards the airport. In the rear view mirror, his Gigi got smaller. His eyes got clearer.
Onward...
Chapter 4. Clearing Out...
He arrived home a little after 8 pm to find Keneisha sitting on his steps. He already knew the drill. She would start by apologizing, telling him how sorry she was. Then she would beg for forgiveness, promising to never do it again. This was the pattern for the six months of volatility of their courtship followed by some really long, drawn out, lukewarm lovemaking until he forgot why he was angry with her.
Not this time.
“What can I do for you, Keneisha?”
“I just came to apologize and say that I am sorry. My temper got the better of me. You and I are good together, but sometimes it’s the way you say things, not the things you actually say, that drives me insane,” she told him
“Well, apology accepted. Drive safely getting home.”
“See! That’s what I mean! You can be a raging asshole, Jamar. No man should be as hard to love as you are,” she said with the octaves rising in her voice.
“I am not hard to love, Keneisha. I just won’t bend to what you want me to do, which makes you upset, then you act out like a 10-year-old, and I am left cold. This,” he said while waving his hands between their two bodies. “doesn’t work for me.”
The tears had commenced to running down her cheeks. Five months ago, it was a tactic that worked on him. Three months ago, it became a tactic that got on his damned nerves. He spoke in a soft voice to her, “Neither do your tears.”
The sudden opening of waterworks dried up as Keneisha sprung to her feet. “I don’t know why I love you and hate you with the same intensity,” she told him, her brown eyes filled with rage. “You are not going to be able to get rid of me so easily,” she said as her hand went to her stomach. She rubbed it as if it should mean something to him. It didn’t.
“Good luck with whoever is the father because it’s not mine,” he told as he also stood.
“How dare you insult me in such a way! I am carrying your child,” she spat at him.
He shook his head slowly, informing her that her lie was not going to work on him either. Jamar said calmly, “I had orchitis as a child. I was embarrassed to tell my grandmother what was happening with my body and when I did, it was too late.”
Keneisha’ s face was twisted in confusion. “What the hell is that? Is it contagious? Did you give me some shit I can’t pronounce?”
Jamar knew better than to turn his back to her, “I had the mumps as a child. I am sterile.”
The defeat on her face was enough for him. “Goodbye, Keneisha.”
He could hear the grumblings in her voice. A parting shot was made on the size of his manhood as generous hips rolled like two juicy melons in a wheelbarrow pushed by a one-legged man. It was the way she walked that had gotten his attention, but the anger which came with the woman was a turn off of seismic proportions. Good riddance to bad karma, he thought to himself.
Jamar opened the door to his townhouse, closing out another chapter with a dry ending. He went to bed holding an old Tonka truck that he’d gotten for Christmas when he was a boy. His head filling with new thoughts.
I have always wanted my own dump truck.
The first thing he wanted to take care of when he awoke was his grandmother’s house. It was barely light when he rode to the property to find it had not only been burglarized but severely vandalized. He should have warned Gigi and Rosemary to not tell anyone in the neighborhood that she had left until he had a chance to clear the place out.
Each step he took through the house that they had called home broke his heart. The pieces of china that were going to be packed and sent to Gigi had been broken to bits, along with photo albums, and mementos which held no value other than ones of sentiment, were destroyed. Something in Jamar broke as well as he closed the door, reset the alarm, and got into his vehicle. Not sure where he was going, nor really caring, he merged onto 1-80 and headed west. He would stop when he became tired.
Somewhere near the Nebraska border, just as he was exiting Iowa, he fueled up the vehicle and then his belly and drove some more. The BMW rolled through Omaha and past North Platte, and before he knew it, he was outside of Cheyenne on the outskirts of Buford when fatigue overtook him. Based on the time his watch displayed, he had been driving for nearly 14 hours. A bright neon orange vacancy signed which was missing the half of the burned out E in open, flashed at the Dew Drop Inn where he turned his vehicle into the gravel drive.
The room was about as friendly as Dolly the night manager at his late arrival. “It’s too late for any chow – you gonna have to wait until the morning,” Dolly told him as she handed him a key to room #8.
Wallpaper, if what remained on the walls could still be considered as such, peeled back to reveal years of dust and half-assed housekeeping. The bed looked moderately clean but fear of bed bugs and lice forced Jamar to sit in the chair. Idiot. Lice and bed bugs will be in the chair, too. Sleep called to him and the bed won the battle raging in his head.
At 5:30, the television kicked on automatically and woke him from a fitful sleep. The dream and the bad western had merged together. In the movie, a wagon train loaded with families headed west for greener pastures. The onset of a sudden winter snowstorm loomed on the horizon, trapping the wagon-trainers when the cold front blew in followed by fresh layers of knee deep snow. The wagon master made the call to dig in for the winter. Mahoney, the farmer, had seeds to start fresh crops in the new town the farmers were planning to settle. Willis, the wagon master said, “Plant a few of those seeds so in the spring, we’ll have some fresh grub to help us get on the rest of way.”
Jamar sat up in the bed paying close attention to what happened next. Axes were sharpened and trees were felled to make lumber that was dried to make homes. Small homes to accommodate families and women widowed on the trail. Bartering and trading began between the travelers to ensure enough soap, eggs from chickens, sugar, and flour were available for all. A community was created. At the end of the movie, once the snow melted, the travelers moved no further. They had created a town that they named Cody, Wyoming after a widow woman’s husband who’d died on the trail. In real life, the town was named after Buffalo Bill Cody, but Jamar liked how they played the misnomer into the story for the tear jerk factor.
The makeshift town constructed to get the settlers through the winter, was fortified in the spring and wells were dug for fresh water. A general store was built and the old woman made quilts from scraps and soap from bear fat that sat on the shelves for sale to the new townsfolks. Wagon trains began to roll through Cody that Spring, and the little stopover spot of land became a home where the townspeople cared for each other. Each traveler possessed a different skillset. Each skillset contributed to the development of the town.
Jamar’s head was filled with a new idea. He checked out of the Dew Drop and grabbed a local paper. For his morning meal he ate a really greasy breakfast in an even greasier diner. In the paper, he saw what his head had been trying to explain. Right outside of Medicine Bow in Carson County was 26,466 acres for sale. Based on his knowledge of civil engineering, he knew a small town was only six by six square miles. What if? The number listed almost flashed at him and he picked up his cellular and called the agent listed for the ranch.
An hour later, he stood in the basin of Elk Mountain, looking at the Lazy S Bar Ranch. Valleys and flat lands with flowing w
ater stretched as far as his eye could see. The agent, Robert Smergent, showed up with a smile on his face, “This here is good land. It’s also a good price for 26 thousand plus acres. Whatcha looking to do with the land?”
Jamar wanted to know, “What crops can be grown on this property?”
“Sugar beets, sunflowers, wheat, dry beans, and of course, many use greenhouse nurseries to grow a lot of products that are not common to the region. The land has tons of timber, good elk, and plenty of deer,” Robert told him.
“I’ll take it,” he told the agent.
“You haven’t even asked the price,” Robert said.
“It doesn’t matter. I will also pay the closing cost. I want to possess it as soon as possible. How fast can we make it happen?” Jamar asked.
“Depends on how quickly you can get financed, the terms for a mortgage, that kind of thing,” Robert told him. The Stetson siting high on his head started to shake when Jamar informed the agent that it would be a cash sale. Other details became obvious to Jamar as the notions in his head began to take shape, forming into a wonderful plan, and he realized that he wanted his town to have a cool name.
He grinned like the Cheshire Cat all the way back to Cheyenne where he set up camp at a Residence Inn for nearly three weeks as he picked and maneuvered pieces into place. Several times, he rode out to the Lazy S to check on placement of items he’d ordered to have shipped for his new vision. Truth be told, he needed to ride back to Chicago to check on Gigi’s house, but instead he made a call to a friend who was a real estate agent and turned the home into a rental property.
As he went down his list checking off things which had arrived, he was pleased to know the new cell towers were in place, along with a prefabricated modular home that would serve as ground central while he built his new town. The satellite dishes were arriving by the end of the week as well as the new bulldozer and tractor; a pile of bricks and lumber would also be showing up soon. Although he was a trained engineer, construction was not his forte. The basic building he could handle, maybe erecting a retaining wall, but that was about as far as his skills extended.
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