“Oh, right. I forgot about that.”
The first thing Mark did was show Gadget the Quonset hut. He flipped the switch that powered the single bulb that hung from the ceiling. The hut smelled like the inside of an old junked car. He had used the building for storage, but there wasn’t much in there that was worth keeping. “I figured we’d move this crap out of here and make this into a workshop. I have plenty of lumber to build workbenches and shelves. What do you think?”
Gadget walked inside and looked around. “What’s that smell?” he asked.
“This is an old building.”
“Smells like somebody died in here.”
“Somebody did die in here. My grandfather died not five feet from where you’re standing. You got a problem with that?”
Gadget shook his head and smiled. “Nope,” he said. “Thanks a lot, man. I can see myself working out here. I hated climbing those damned stairs, anyhow. That’s a real bitch with only one good wheel.”
“That’s too bad; I was going to put you upstairs in the guest room.”
“That’s fine. I’ll be spending most of my time out here. Thanks.”
Mark shut off the light and closed the door. Mark led Gadget to the pickup and they carried the groceries up to the porch. At the door, Mark could see that he’d had company while he was away. The front door was unlocked and Mark clearly remembered locking it. He opened the door and flipped on the light. They walked inside and Mark continued flipping light switches. The house seemed to be empty and nothing looked out of place. He led Gadget upstairs to the guest bedroom. The bed was comfortable and covered with one of his mother’s quilts. “What do you think?” he asked.
“I like it,” Gadget said, pausing to look at a family photograph that hung on the wall. “This your wife and kids?”
“Yep, that was taken about a year ago.”
“Divorced, huh?”
“No, I lost my family in an accident. They died in this house.”
“Oh Jesus, why the hell didn’t you tell me about that?”
“It never came up and I don’t want to talk about it, not ever. There is still too much pain.”
“What kind of accident?”
“They’re dead, does it matter how they died?”
“Well, it might.”
He raised his chin and stepped over to stand directly in front of Gadget. Mark’s eyes blazed with anger and his hands were balled into fists. “They were asphyxiated by a bad furnace. The furnace wasn’t even a year old. I was the one who found them. The next time you ask me about my family, I will break your nose. Do we understand each other?”
The bald man went pale as a ghost and he nodded his head. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I won’t bring it up again, man. That’s a promise.”
“Good.”
They walked back down the stairs and Mark wondered if he hadn’t been too hard on his new houseguest. He didn’t think he had and Gadget had pushed him to talk. He knew that this was the time to establish boundaries and to lay down the law. He walked to the refrigerator and pulled out a pitcher of iced tea. He filled two of the Mason jars with ice and filled them up. He then carried them into the living room. “This is a nice place,” said Gadget. “I won’t dirty it up.”
“Have a seat,” said Mark, handing Gadget one of the cold jars of iced tea. “I want to check the news.”
Gadget sat in his mother’s wingchair and Mark sat on the sofa. He aimed the remote control at the television and immediately found out the reason for the spike in prices. While he’d been away, the stock market had lost nearly fifty percent of its value. “This is good,” said Gadget, sipping his drink.
Mark pointed to the television. “Are you listening to this?” he asked. “The dollar is crashing.”
“I don’t watch the news. I think it’s all just a bunch of propaganda. You can’t believe a word of what comes out of their mouths.”
“I’m not going to argue that, but not everything is propaganda. You need to have a filter.”
“I lost my filter when I lost my leg.”
Mark gave up. He handed Gadget the remote and a minute later they were watching Wheel of Fortune. Mark hated game shows and he began roaming around the house. He checked his guns and checked to see that his lockbox was still locked. Nothing seemed to be missing. He was happy about that, but he still felt violated. He was nearly certain that Mitch and Clyde had been the ones in his house, but he couldn’t prove it and he knew better than to make allegations without proof. Mark found a padlock and he walked outside and snapped it onto the back of the rented trailer.
Something was missing, but he wouldn’t discover what it was for several days.
Both men were up early that Saturday morning. Mark fixed pancakes and they washed them down with plenty of strong coffee. Gadget surprised him by doing up the breakfast dishes. When he had finished, they walked outside to the Quonset hut. The morning sky was cloudless and the sun had already warmed the late April air. By lunchtime, Mark and Gadget were building workbenches and shelves.
After unloading the trailer, Mark left Gadget alone to organize his tools and radio equipment. The work had tired him out and he enjoyed napping on Saturday afternoons. He was just about to crawl into bed when he heard a knock on his front door. He quickly dressed and walked back downstairs. He was shocked to see Tiffany Lystrom standing at his door. She was dressed in jeans and a red button-up shirt, and looked as if she had been crying. “Can I talk to you?” she asked.
“Sure,” Mark said, “come on in.”
Tiffany walked inside and she looked around with an approving gaze. “I love old farm houses,” she said. “They have so much character. Oh, and look at all of the antiques. Jumbo won’t let me have any, he calls them old hand-me-downs. You have a beautiful home, Mark. It’s very cozy.”
Mark thanked her and directed her to the kitchen table. “Would you like some coffee? I was just about to put on a pot.”
“Coffee sounds nice, thank you.”
Mark had already given up on his nap. He quickly prepared the coffee and he returned to sit with Tiffany while it brewed. “What’s on your mind?” he asked.
She looked at him and her bottom lip began to tremble. “Jumbo was arrested, yesterday. I guess used cars run better with stolen parts. I didn’t know what he was doing, honestly I didn’t. I never would have stood for it.”
Mark nodded his head. “I’m sorry to hear that. What about his cousins?”
Tiffany pointed in the direction of her house. “They’re still over there. A little bit of them goes a long way, know what I mean? I just want them to leave.”
“Have Jumbo show them the door.”
“He’s still in jail. His bail is a quarter of a million dollars. We don’t have that. The Feds seized our bank accounts and put a hold on our credit cards. Mark, I have ten dollars to my name. We’re going to lose the house; we’re going to lose everything.”
“You can’t think that way. Try to stay positive. I know things look dark right now, but in a few days things will get better. Have you talked to Tina or Anita about this?”
Tiffany laughed, bitterly. “They won’t even talk to me. Look, I know what happened between Larry and I was a huge mistake, but it takes two to tango. They’ve all been avoiding us like the plague. Their kids won’t even play with mine.”
Mark got up to pour the coffee. “I think that has more to do with Mitch and Clyde, than anything else.”
Tiffany looked as if a light bulb had suddenly lit inside her head. “I thought they liked Jumbo’s cousins.”
Mark set down the coffee cups and he walked back for the sugar bowl. “I don’t think anyone likes those two. Yesterday afternoon, someone was inside my house. I can’t prove it, but I’m pretty sure it was Mitch and Clyde.”
“I don’t doubt that it was. I wasn’t home. The kids were in school and on Fridays, Tina and Anita both volunteer at the senior center in Ham Lake. Mitch and Clyde were out here all alone. I don’t trust t
hem, Mark.”
Mark spooned some sugar into his cup and gave it a stir. “I tell you what,” he said. “Go and see Jumbo, tell him that I’ll put up his bail money. The only condition is that he tells those cousins of his to hit the road. Once they’re gone, we’ll go down and bail him out. Does that sound fair?”
“Oh my God,” said Tiffany. “Are you serious?”
“I’m totally serious.”
Tiffany’s eyes grew bright and she smiled. “Oh my,” she said, “I’m starting to sound like the neighbors. Thank you so much. I promise Jumbo won’t skip out on you. I’ll kill him if he does.”
“Not if I kill him first.”
Tiffany spooned sugar into her coffee and she sipped it. She then reached down for her purse and she set it on the table. “You seem to know a thing or two about guns,” she said, removing a stainless steel Walther PPK/S .380 from her purse. She handed it to Mark. “I’m selling it, but I don’t know what it’s worth.”
Mark examined the handgun and wasn’t surprised to see that it was fully loaded. “This is nice,” he said. “I’ll give you six hundred bucks for it. That’s top dollar for this model.”
“Sold,” she said. “I was hoping to get a couple hundred dollars out of it. Jumbo has like five boxes of bullets for that thing. I’ll be sure to bring them over. Thanks, you’re a life saver. I’ve got to get down to the grocery store before the prices go up, again.”
“You had better run,” said Mark. He dug out his wallet and peeled off six crisp hundred dollar bills. He handed them to Tiffany. “I was there last night and it was nuts.”
Tiffany smiled and accepted the money, gratefully. She stood and Mark got up to show her to the door. She put her arms around him and gave him a quick hug. “I don’t know how to thank you. If there is anything I can ever do for you, just let me know. I mean that, anything.”
Mark smiled and shook his head. “You don’t stop, do you?”
“That’s who I am. I’m insatiable and I’m done hiding from it or trying to deny it.”
“Then why are you in such a hurry to get rid of your houseguests?”
“Mitch and Clyde?” she spat. “Good grief, I wouldn’t touch either of them with a ten foot pole. God only knows what kind of diseases they have.”
Mark laughed. He had been thinking the same thing. Somehow, he felt better knowing that Tiffany hadn’t sunk so low as to sleep with Jumbo’s lowlife cousins. He opened the door. “You just let me know when they’re gone. We’ll go down and bail Jumbo out.”
“I’ll do that,” she said, looking up into his eyes. “Mm… she cooed. “You are one handsome man, Mark SleepingBear. And you’re also very kind. Thank you.”
“Thank you and you’re welcome.”
Mark stood in the open door and watched her walk away. He couldn’t help but admire the view and it made him feel empty inside. He had never looked at another woman while Josie had been alive. But Josie was gone and would never be back. He wondered if he might ever find love again. He knew it took four seasons to properly grieve the loss of a spouse, but the way he still felt about Josie, he thought it was going to take him much longer than that. He watched Tiffany as she walked into her house. As much as he hated to admit it, her offer had been tempting. He had been about to close the door, when he spotted Tina marching in his direction. He smiled and shook his head as the petite Italian woman stormed over. “What did she want?” she asked.
“Jumbo is in jail,” said Mark. “She just wanted me to know.”
“Jumbo is all over the news, haven’t you been watching? He’s looking at twenty years in prison. I’ll bet they lose their house.”
“And maybe they will. You don’t have to look so happy about it.”
Tina looked offended. “Maybe Tiffany was over here for more than just a talk?”
Mark narrowed his eyes and pointed a finger at the tiny woman. “Don’t ever insinuate something like that. I love my wife.”
Tina put her hand over her mouth and immediately began to cry. “Oh my God,” she said. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean that.”
“That’s okay. Just know that I’m not like that. Look, I just put on a pot of coffee. Would you like to come in for a quick cup?”
Tina wiped the tears from her eyes and nodded her head with childlike innocence. She followed him into the house and took off her shoes before stepping from the entryway. Mark liked that about her. What she might have lacked in smarts, she made up for in class. Mark picked up Tiffany’s still steaming cup of coffee and he dumped it into the sink. He then poured Tina a cup. She sat exactly where Tiffany had been, only moments earlier. She looked at the handgun. “Good thing I didn’t have one of these the other night,” she said.
Mark turned away to hide his smile. “I just bought that from Tiffany,” he said, reaching for another coffee cup. “The price was right and she needed the money for groceries. I guess the authorities have frozen their bank accounts and credit cards.”
“Hey, don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.”
“I really don’t think she knew what he was up to.”
“I don’t believe a word that comes out of her mouth.”
Mark set Tina’s cup down in front of her. “How are things between you and Larry?”
“They have never been better.”
“Then let it go.”
Tina sipped her coffee and pretended not to know what he was getting at. “What do you mean?”
“What I mean is: you can’t forgive Larry and not forgive Tiffany. You have to let it go. She was just over here, crying her eyes out. They thought the world was going to end; we all thought the world was going to end. What they did was wrong, but you can’t blame Tiffany for everything. It takes two to tango.”
“Oh my God,” said Tina. “You sound just like her.”
Mark scratched his chin and tried another approach. “What did their kids have to do with anything that happened? Tiffany tells me that your kids won’t play with hers, anymore? That’s just wrong.”
“Yeah,” said Tina, her eyes darting around the kitchen. “Well, my kids are grounded.”
“Do you really expect me to believe that?”
Tina stood up and she began to pace the kitchen. “I can’t help it, Mark. I hate her for what she’s done to my family. I hate her guts. You saw what happened when we tried to patch things up. Her and Jumbo got up and walked away. That hurt. I can’t even stand the sight of her. I want Jumbo to go to prison. I want them to lose their house. I want them to go away!”
“That isn’t going to change what happened.”
“I know that. But it’ll make it easier for me to leave Larry home by himself.”
“You don’t trust him?”
“How can I?”
Mark shook his head and sighed. He got up and poured himself another cup. “I have a new roommate,” he said. “His name is Gadget.”
“You mean that bald guy working out in your shed? I thought maybe he was just doing work for you.”
“No, he lost his house, yesterday.”
“That’s really sweet of you to take him in.”
“Thanks, but I want to warn you about him. He lost a leg in the war and he has PTSD. Do you know what that is?”
“Is that like a venereal disease?”
Mark burst out laughing. “No,” he said, covering his mouth. “He has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. A lot of soldiers get that, but anyone who has a traumatic event can develop it.”
“Oh, I have heard of that. He isn’t going to go crazy, is he? Maybe you should hide your guns?”
Mark shook his head. “No, what he needs is to be treated normally. I’ve seen it before. Time heals all wounds; sometimes it just needs a little kick-start.
The conversation ebbed and flowed and Tina stayed for over an hour. Mark enjoyed her company. She had a good sense of humor and didn’t pretend to be anything other than who she was. Josie had been like that. He hoped that time would heal Tina’s wound. The monk
ey on her back was baboon-sized, filled with hatred and resentment. She needed to free herself from it.
Mark picked up his new purchase and he walked outside to check on Gadget’s progress. Glick was out on his riding mower and he waved to Mark. Behind the house, Anita worked in her gardens. Mark stepped into Gadget’s new workshop and was stunned by the transformation. “Looking good,” he said, stepping around a stack of empty boxes.
“Thanks,” said Gadget, smiling, “for everything. I love it out here.”
Mark stood next to Gadget and he nodded his head in approval. “Yesterday, someone was in the house while we were gone. I don’t think anything was taken, but it still bothers me,” Mark reached behind his back and he pulled the .380 from out of his waistband. He set it down on the workbench.
“Nice,” said Gadget. “Walther PPK/S .380, I’ve always been partial to the stainless.”
“I want you to have it.”
Gadget took a step back and his eyes grew misty. At first, Mark wondered if he hadn’t made a huge mistake. The bald man rubbed his eyes. “What did I ever do to deserve a friend like you?” he asked. “At this time yesterday, I was getting ready to live out on the street,” he stepped forward and gingerly, he lifted the .380. He checked the magazine and the slide, and then he sighted down the barrel. “I was the best shot in our unit,” he said. “I used to be able to hit a gnat at a hundred feet, right between the eyes.”
Mark laughed. “That’s good to know,” he said. “I’m thinking about firing up the grill and cooking up some rib-eyes. Does that sound good to you?”
“I could eat. Do you need any help?”
“No, I got it. You keep plugging along out here.”
Gadget held out his hand and the two men shook. Mark was surprised at the strength in the bald man’s grip. “Thanks, Mark, for everything. I won’t let you down. That’s a promise.”
“I know you won’t,” said Mark. He then turned and walked out of the workshop, feeling better than he had in many months.
Chapter 16
Mark was up early that Sunday morning. Standing in his boxers, he turned on the kitchen light and began to fix a pot of coffee. He had no sooner turned on the faucet, when there was a tapping at his door. Sleepy-eyed, he stared at the doorway. Tiffany Lystrom waved at him from behind the glass. “Are you serious?” he muttered. He set down the pot and walked over to open the door.
Bunkers Page 13