A Deal With God: The Power of One

by Haden, Michael

  It was now Sunday April 12th, 2020. Like every Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening Darla Robertson went to Vito’s and drank a lot of wine with and after her dinner. Mrs. Robertson was a widow in her late 50’s. She would drink until Deana, Delores or Peggy cut her off. Tonight, Mrs. Robertson was in Deana’s station; she liked Deana the best.

  That night Deana tried a different approach. She did not cut Mrs. Robertson off, she let her keep on drinking. At 9:45pm Deana approached Mrs. Robertson’s table.

  “Last call Mrs. Robertson.” Mrs. Robertson was too drunk to get her debit card out of her purse.

  Deana assisted the older widow. “Let me help you with that.” Deana pulled Mrs. Robertson’s debit card out of her purse and took care of the transaction for her. “I’m going to have to drive you home, Mrs. Robertson; you can come get your car tomorrow morning.”

  “You are such a dear, Deana.” Mrs. Robertson held onto Deana for support as she walked with assistance to Deana’s car. Fortunately, Mrs. Robertson was small like Deana and Deana was extremely strong.

  Monday, April 13th was Matthew’s birthday. At breakfast he mentioned to Deana that he wanted to take Sandy to dinner and a movie after school. Deana was glad to treat; she gave Matthew sixty dollars and told him to have a good and safe evening.

  “Oh Matthew, by the way, I need a favor, make sure Luke gets to his bus stop all right. I need to run into town for about an hour.”

  Deana hurried to her car and drove quickly to Morrison High School. She needed to know the morning routine for the school janitor. She got out of her car and walked around the school campus. The janitor was in the furthest left of the four buildings; he proceeded to go left to right. Deana got in her car and drove away before Matthew and Mark arrived at school. They always got to school at the very last minute.

  That night, Deana and Mark went for their walk. It was mid–April and the weather was getting warmer every day.

  “How’s your friend Randy doing?”

  “Not so good. It’s almost certain McAfee is going to fail him and Randy is also failing Math. Randy keeps saying he is going to make McAfee pay. Apparently, Randy, Randy’s dad, McAfee and the principal are going to have some kind of talk on Friday. Maybe something will get worked out.”

  Maybe something will happen Friday that will push Randy over the edge, Deana thought to herself. Maybe this meeting going badly will make Randy lose control.

  Tuesday morning, bright and early, Deana went back to Morrison High School. The janitor kept the same pattern as the previous. He would start at the left, which was building 1A and finish in building 4D. Deana left Morrison High School before Matthew and Mark arrived. She then headed to Athens to find a good costume shop.

  Deana bought a black colored men’s hair wig with curls in it. It looked quite realistic and was very expensive. She also purchased a matching mustache. Deana also bought a woman’s wig that looked like Mrs. Robertson’s hair. Her final purchase was a janitor’s one piece jump suit. It was very similar to the one worn by Morrison High School’s actual janitor.

  Deana had borrowed Mark’s baseball cap and Matthew’s sunglasses. She had worn these and a baggy blue jacket into the store. She made sure to pay cash for her purchases.

  Next, Deana drove to the biggest retail store in Athens. She bought a big yellow mop cart and mop like the actual janitor had. She also bought a pair of ladies dress gloves and a box of clear skin–tight latex cleaning gloves. Her final item was a medium sized air–tight container.

  Finally, she went to a chemical supply store one of her customers owned. Deana obtained a pint of pre–mix ether.

  On her way home she drove past the Mullin’s house. It was after 3pm so she was hoping Randy would be there so she could get a good look at him. Deana only knew what he looked like from a yearbook picture; she wanted to see what he looked like in person.

  Sure enough, he was in front of his house working on his truck. He was very big. He was almost as large as Matthew and Mark. Randy was well over six feet tall and close to 200 pounds. Deana got a nervous feeling as she drove past him; Randy glared at her with a look of disdain.

  Deana drove home to meet the boys and to start dinner. She now had a plan; she also had a lot of praying to do.

  Friday’s meeting at the school did not go very well for Randy Mullins. In front of Randy’s father and the principal, Mr. McAfee reported that Randy was extremely lazy and had a bad attitude. He said Randy deserved a failing grade. Randy became enraged while Gerald Mullins mainly glared at his son. When they got home later, Gerald Mullins gave Randy the beating of his life. Gerald showed no mercy.

  Randy vowed vengeance against Mr. McAfee in order to teach all instructors like him a lesson. Not only did he want to annihilate his teacher, he also wanted to vent his rage on as many of the “kiss ass” students as possible. Monday morning it would be Randy showing no mercy.

  Sunday April 19th, 2020 would probably be Deana’s last performance at Dothan Christian Church. She made sure it was her best effort. That week, Gary, Deana and Mrs. Jarvis had rehearsed for two and a half hours. The hard work paid off. They performed for over twenty minutes during the service and received a standing ovation.

  After the service, Deana went to talk to Mrs. Robertson. “If you come to Vito’s tonight and sit in my station, I’ll get you a free drink or two.”

  “I will definitely take you up on your offer.” Mrs. Robertson smiled. “I always have such a nice time when I come to Vito’s.”

  Sunday afternoon during lunch, Deana told the boys she had to go to her doctor in Atlanta on Monday morning. Her appointment was at 8am so she’d be leaving early that morning to get there on time. She told the boys the doctor always made her turn her cell phone off during the visit. If they needed her, they’d have to text her and she’d get back to them as soon as possible.

  Later that night, Mrs. Robertson went to Vito’s and sat in Deana’s station. Deana knew she had a high tolerance for wine and it would probably take over six glasses to get Mrs. Robertson tipsy. Deana gave Mrs. Robertson the two free glasses she promised her, and then Mrs. Robertson ordered five more on her own. She was sloshed. When Deana’s shift was over, she went into Mrs. Robertson’s purse and took out her debit card, automobile insurance card, and driver’s license. She carried Mrs. Robertson to her Stratus and drove her home.

  When Deana got home, the boys were just going to bed. She kissed all three of them good night. She made a mental note where Matthew put his truck keys before the lights went off. She then took a quick shower and snuggled up next to Leon. Because their time together was drawing to an end, she did everything she could to make it extra special.

  In the middle of the night, Deana snuck into the boys’ room. She brought two pair of pliers with her; one pair was needle–nosed and the second pair was regular. She proceeded to break Matthew’s ignition key in half beyond repair. She wanted the boys nowhere near Morrison High School tomorrow morning. Deana took the broken bottom half and put it on Matthew’s floor mat under his ignition. She wanted it to look like it had broken the last time Matthew pulled the key out. She hid the top part of the key still attached to his keychain under his bed.

  On the other side of town, Randy Mullins was also making preparations. Randy broke into his father’s gun collection. He stole his father’s pride and joy, an AK47 Gerald had taken off of an Al Qaeda insurgent that had illegally snuck into Iraq when Gerald was on patrol. An AK47 is an assault rifle; it can put an end to a lot of lives in a few seconds.

  Randy also stole his father’s hammerless snub nosed handgun. It is one of the premier concealed weapons in its class. Last, but not least, Randy stole a 22 revolver. The two handguns were small, discreet and easy to carry. His plan was to give the two handguns to his friends for back–up while he did the heavy damage with the AK47.

  Randy’s two friends were Larry Jones and Mark Samuels. He sent text messages to his two friends saying he needed a little help Monday morning. Neither boy
returned Randy’s message which angered him even more.

  He put the three weapons inside a big duffle bag and locked the bag inside the cab of his truck. Monday morning he would wreak havoc at Morrison High School. In Randy’s mind, it would all be Mr. McAfee’s fault.

  Just after 7am, April 20, 2020 Deana parked her car on the other side of the shopping mall where the car rental business was located. Last Friday, Deana had verbally reserved a minivan over the phone using Darla Robertson’s name. Deana made an excuse saying she left her credit card at her office and the dealer allowed her to make a verbal reservation.

  Deana put on the wig to make herself look like Darla Robertson’s driver’s license picture. She had put on the dress gloves to not leave any fingerprints. She used Mrs. Robertson’s driver’s license, credit card and proof of car insurance to procure the minivan. Deana asked the dealer to not run the credit card because she was paying cash when she brought the van back in a few hours. Deana then left a large cash deposit.

  “I should be back before lunchtime. I’m just running up the street for a little while to help my daughter move to a bigger apartment.”

  Deana didn’t believe she would be back in a couple of hours. She didn’t think she would be back at all. Nonetheless, she had to be prepared for anything. Deana was confident she had planned well and had every base covered.

  Deana drove the minivan to the other side of the mall where the Stratus was parked. She transferred the janitor’s big cleaning pail on wheels, a mop, the airtight container with the ether soaked rag, one gallon of water, dish detergent, the jumpsuit, other wig, mustache, and a second pair of see–through tight latex gloves to the van.

  She was wearing a pair of see through gloves now underneath the dress gloves, to not leave fingerprints. Deana wanted extra protection in case she’d have to handle the ether soaked rag later so she took off the dress gloves and put on the second pair of clear latex protective cleaning gloves. She wanted two layers of latex to keep the ether away from her skin. She was confident the fact she wore dress gloves at the car rental business did not send up any red flags.

  When Deana had gotten into her car earlier she had prepared a stamp addressed envelope to Mrs. Robertson. If Deana made it back later today, she’d slip the driver’s license, the proof of car insurance and the debit card in the envelope so she could mail them back to Mrs. Robertson. Deana would pay cash so Mrs. Robertson would not be billed.

  Deana switched wigs. She put on the mustache and jumpsuit. She had worn her hair in a ponytail so she could put it inside the back of the jumpsuit so no one could see her hair. She had done this earlier at the car rental store. She had worn a high neck blouse and she tucked her hair down the back, inside of the blouse.

  It was after eight o’clock when Deana drove the rented van into the parking lot of Morrison High School. Both days last week, the janitor started at 7am in building 1A. At 7:30 he moved to building 2B. At 8am he worked in 3C and finished 4D between 8:30 and 9am. First period started at 9am.

  Matthew was a senior; Deana knew his locker was in 4D. Mark was a junior; his locker was in 3C. Randy Mullin’s locker had to be in 3C. Just before 8:30, Deana watched the janitor leave building 3C and enter 4D.

  Deana got out of the van. She took out the big cleaning pail on wheels, the mop and the container with the ether soaked rag. She put a gallon of water in the pail with dish detergent. Only one gallon of water made the pail light in weight, a lot of dish detergent made the pail look full due to all the bubbles.

  She rolled the big cleaning pail into building 3C and pretended to clean very close to where Mark’s locker was. Deana’s anticipated that Randy would wait until as close to 9am as possible. That would allow him to maximize the damage because more students would be at school at 8:55 versus 8:25.

  If Randy had gotten to school early, Deana would have seen his truck. It was now 8:40am; there was no sign of Randy or his truck.

  Deana pretended to clean as time dragged on. If the real janitor doubled back or someone in administration realized there was a janitor at school that didn’t belong, she would be unable to stop Randy.

  At 8:49 Deana saw Randy Mullin walk through the doors of building 3C and walk right past her. She moved the mop pail out of his way. Randy looked very aggravated. He went to what was obviously his locker and opened it.

  Deana got out her container with the ether soaked rag in it. Randy unzipped the duffle bag. Deana saw the outline of the rifle as he started to pull the AK47 out of his bag.

  Deana had practiced all weekend holding her breath as long as she could. She could easily hold her breath fifty seconds. She might have to go longer than that right now. Deana quickly took the ether drenched rag out of the container with her right hand. She bolted up behind Randy and forced her right hand and rag into Randy’s face as she used her left hand to pin the back of his head down so the rag would temporarily stay affixed to Randy’s mouth and nose.

  Deana’s strength, a huge surge from her adrenal gland and a very strong ether mix dropped Randy to the floor as the AK47 escaped the duffel bag and fell to the floor in plain view of every one present.

  A boy had gone to pull Deana off of Randy. He had Deana in his grasp. When he saw a teacher grabbing the rifle off the floor during all the commotion he was temporarily distracted. Deana elbowed him hard in the ribs. The boy let go of Deana as she pulled away with all her might. She spun loose and ran as fast as she could to the parking lot.

  Deana jumped in the minivan and drove off of the Morrison High School grounds as fast as she could. She took off the gloves, mustache and wig as her van entered the main road. The police were coming in as she was going out.

  Deana bee–lined to the car rental company. She was utterly shocked she made it out alive. She was proud of herself for taking down a young man as large as Randy Mullins. He had hit the floor like a ton of bricks and was knocked out cold by the ether. He would never, ever hurt anyone at Morrison High School. If he ever had the urge to hurt anyone again, it would be at the State or Federal Condo!

  CHAPTER 22

  A SECOND SURPRISE ENDING

  Deana drove the minivan back to the mall to where her Stratus was parked. She put the janitor uniform, black wig and mustache, empty gallon jug, detergent, and used gloves into her Stratus with the stamped addressed envelope to Mrs. Robertson. She put the Mrs. Robertson wig and dress gloves back on.

  Deana settled up with the car rental office and walked back to her Stratus. She put Mrs. Robertson’s license, insurance card, and debit card into the pre stamped and addressed envelope. Deana drove to the Post Office, mailed back the items, and drove home.

  Last Friday, when no one was around, Deana had buried a large metal box in the backyard. When she got home from the post office the boys truck was still in the driveway. They must have gotten a ride to school because no one was around. Deana quickly got a shovel and unburied the box. She put the jumpsuit at the bottom of the box with all three pair of gloves. She put the two wigs and the mustache on top of the jumpsuit and gloves. She took two pounds of hamburger and put that on top. She drenched the inside of the box and all its contents with lighter fluid. Then Deana lit a match and ignited the contents of the box.

  Minutes later, it was impossible to tell what had been in the box. The fire ruined everything except the hamburger and some of the wig and mustache fibers. The hamburger would draw maggots. If anyone in the future were to discover the box, it would look like the remains of a dead animal or pet.

  Deana covered the box and the hole. As she put the shovel back in the carport, she heard Mr. Vito’s car driving up the road. When Matthew and Mark couldn’t get the truck started, they called him to take them to school.

  Mark ran up to Deana. “Why haven’t you answered your cell phone? You’ll never believe what happened at school today. Some mystery janitor stopped Randy Mullins from smoking half the school.”

  “Crap, I forgot to turn my cell back on after my doctor’s appointment.” Deana
acted surprised at the news. “That is incredible! I want to hear all about it. I guess you boys are getting the day off from school today.”

  “Yes ma’am,” Matthew replied. “It’s a good thing because we need to go into town to get a new key made for the truck. The original key was a piece of garbage.”

  Later that evening, Deana went to the restaurant and talked to Mr. Vito.

  “Mr. Vito, first of all, thank you for taking the boys to school today. It was very sweet of you. Second, I have some sad news I need to share with you. I’ve worked here close to eight years and except for the passing of Mr. Wilson, I’ve never had more than four days off in a row. I’m tired and I feel stressed out. I have to…”

  Mr. Vito cut Deana off in mid sentence. “What did the doctor say this morning?”

  Deana had temporarily forgotten about her fictional visit to the doctor’s office, but she recovered quickly. “He said I’m run down and need to retire.”

  It was not the answer Mr. Vito wanted to hear. “Are you saying I need to replace you?”

  “Yes sir. It breaks my heart to leave you, but my time is up.”

  Mr. Vito was stunned.

  Deana thanked Mr. Vito and gave him a hug. She quickly walked out of the restaurant. If she would have stayed any longer she would have broken down and cried.

  Deana went home and relaxed on the couch with Leon. She told Leon her decision about work. He was surprised, but not upset. Deana had a queasy feeling in her stomach she was hoping was caused by nerves. She prayed it would get better, but she was not very optimistic.

  The next morning, on her way to church to practice for Sunday, Deana still felt sick to her stomach. She felt bad about missing practice yesterday, so she worked extra hard today. The song she chose was a slow sad song in contrast to the upbeat, fast tempo songs they usually played.