by Harper Lin
Just then, Meg and Catherine came carefully into the back of the truck. Amelia took one look at them and stopped what she was doing.
“Meg?” She saw her daughter was as pale as a ghost. “Honey, what’s the matter?”
Meg’s eyes filled with tears.
Amelia looked to Catherine and squared her shoulders.
“What happened?” she demanded.
“That guy over there.” Catherine pointed to the man with the simple hot dog cart on his bicycle. “He called Meg over and said something to her.”
Looking at her daughter, Amelia didn’t see the little girl who loved old movies and still slept with a little stuffed white snowman that wore a green hat. She saw a young woman who was getting curves in all the places she was supposed to and who unknowingly displayed her innocence. The mama bear claws were coming out again, and Amelia gently took her daughter’s hands. Lila quickly grabbed a bottle of ice water that she handed the girl.
“Meg, what did he say to you?” Amelia asked as gently as she could.
Meg shook her head. She looked at Catherine for some assistance, but all she got was a shrug.
“He just called her, you know, hey, hey, and waved her over. The guy is driving a hot dog cart on wheels, and it isn’t like we weren’t in full view of everyone. She didn’t do anything wrong, Ms. Harley.”
“Oh, no,” Amelia said soothingly. “I didn’t think that for a second.” She looked out the window and saw the man serving a tall, lanky teenager a hot dog. It looked as if he was mumbling to himself the whole while. “Look, your brother should be here. He can walk you guys home and...”
“No, Mom,” Meg whined. “It wasn’t anything. He just caught me off guard, you know? He just said something about my legs.”
Amelia looked at Lila.
“Your legs?”
Meg shook her head and wiped her tears away. She was coming back from the shock, and anger was starting to set in.
“Yeah, you know, how good they look and stuff.” Her cheeks blazed red. Meg was not the kind of girl who sought the attention of the boys, at least not yet. Amelia was sure her daughter hadn’t expected it to feel so uncomfortable.
Taking a deep breath, Amelia nodded.
“I hate to tell you this, but you girls are going to experience this a few times in life. There are still plenty of good gentlemen in the world who will compliment you properly. But there will always be hot-dog vendors, too.”
The comment made Meg and Catherine laugh.
“Do me a favor. If you want to stay and hand out samples, stay in front of the truck and away from that end. If that guy comes anywhere near the truck, you both get inside, got it?”
Both girls nodded and smiled.
“Hey, I brought you both a present.” Lila quickly grabbed their attention with the word present. She reached over to the cubby that held her purse and pulled out two hot-pink aprons.
“Wow!” Both girls were thrilled. “They totally match the truck!”
Slipping them on, both girls fussed over each other tying the long strings in the back and thrusting their hands into the deep pockets.
“Here.” Amelia handed each of them a plastic tray with hot-pink paper cupcake cups filled with crumbled cupcakes. “Give these out. One sample per person. Stay away from the weirdo.”
Both girls nodded and then stepped off the truck. “I’ll bet he washes his feet in that box,” Catherine muttered, making Meg laugh.
“Yeah, or he has the head of his mother who died six years ago in there,” Meg added.
“Right next to the brats!” Catherine answered, causing both girls to roar with laughter.
“Oh, it is on,” Amelia hissed at Lila. “I’m going to go over there and make sure that guy doesn’t even think of looking in this direction.”
“Want my mace?” Lila offered.
“Nope. Got my bare hands this time.”
Making sure Meg and Catherine were not looking, Amelia stepped off the truck. But she hadn’t made it two feet before a mob of reporters, security guards, and other gawkers got in her way.
“Mr. Mayor! Mr. Mayor!” came shouts from the reporters, who held small recorders, pulling along men with cameras on their shoulders as security guards shielded the portly man in the middle of the whirlwind from actually coming in contact with the commoners.
“What the…?” Amelia wasn’t sure whom she wanted to go after first. The jerk that had accosted her daughter, or the jerk that had jacked up the price of her space. It was a real toss-up.
Mayor Richard M. Pearl had been the mayor of Gary for almost two decades. Years of supposed pay-to-play schemes and the buying and selling of city jobs had not only lined his pockets, but filled every empty seat in city hall with a friend of a friend or relative of the Pearl family. He was in a snug little bubble where no one could touch him and no one dared try. The man had a full head of wavy black hair that was going gray. His nose and cheeks were always red, and Amelia doubted he had seen his toes from beneath his ample gut since he started his life in politics. A man like him always ate well when someone else footed the bill.
Amelia remembered a few years back during a particularly aggressive campaign season that an underdog, a virtual nobody, was slowly climbing in the polls by shining a light on half a dozen scandals Mayor Pearl was directly involved in.
The guy’s name was Porter or Parker. Amelia couldn’t quite remember. But she did remember when the news came in that Porter or Parker had committed suicide by throwing himself in front of a train just one week before the election.
“The pressure got to him,” John had said to Amelia. He was an avid Pearl supporter. “The guy wasn’t cut out for politics. He just knew how to smear. They probably had something on him that was too much, so he killed himself.”
“But the stuff he said was true,” Amelia remembered stating meekly to John. “Most of the proof was the mayor’s own words.” She shrugged.
“Amelia, no one knows less about politics than you,” John snapped and stormed out of the room. From that day on, Amelia had always found the opposing party much more appealing than the one John had staked so much faith in. If that weren’t enough to hate Mayor Pearl, then the process she’d had to go through to get her food truck license certainly was.
Pulling up her courage from the bottom of her shoes, Amelia decided she might just ask the mayor why her spot cost so much more for this weekend when she lived in the town and was there every day already. Why didn’t he charge the “out-of-towners” more? Tofu Express indeed.
Just as she started to march up to Mayor Pearl, she was quickly pushed back by reporters and security.
“Mr. Mayor!” The shout came from a man. “Mr. Mayor! How about lunch on me?” It was the long-haired freak with the hot-dog bike. “Best hot dogs in three states!”
With the offer of a free meal, the mayor stopped and turned around. Smiling and thrusting his chest out to the cameras, he began to speak.
“This is it. See. This is what it’s all about. See.” He jerked his thumb toward the man, who was holding out two hot dogs cupped in silver tin foil so they’d stay warm. “See. We encourage the small businessman. That’s what this is all about.” He nodded to a particularly large guard wearing a bulletproof vest beneath his windbreaker. The guy had pudgy cheeks and blond hair he combed over his head and wore mirrored sunglasses. The guard turned, pushed his way to the vendor, and took the hot dogs from him. Slowly, he pushed his way back through the crowd as the mayor spoke to the cameras.
“Mr. Mayor. Do you have a minute to talk?” the vendor called. The other bodyguards set themselves in between Pearl and anyone else looking to get close to him.
“It’s a great event. See. These are great people.” The mayor took the hot dogs and peeled the foil back away from his gaping maw. “We’ve got over three thousand food trucks from all over the state here this weekend. There is a carnival just across the pond. No one does it like Gary. See. Everyone should come down and sample some o
f this great food.” He opened wide and shoveled in almost the entire hot dog in one bite.
“Mr. Mayor. George Pilsen was my brother!”
“Pilsen!” Amelia muttered, snapping her fingers. That was the guy who they said killed himself jumping in front of a train. Wait. What did that man just say? With the crowd, the carnival, and the cooking food, Amelia was sure she could have heard a pin drop.
Chapter Five
“Mr. Mayor! What do you have to say to his family? His wife and three children who’ve had to grow up without him?”
Pearl whispered to his henchmen, and they bolted into action.
“I’d encourage everyone to come on down. See. We’d love to have you.” He smiled and chuckled for the camera. It was obvious the hippy hot-dog vendor had caught old Mayor Pearl off guard. Amelia stood back and grinned at his discomfort even as the entourage jostled her out of the way.
She looked toward The Pink Cupcake. Lila had brought the girls inside, and they were all looking out the serving window with interest.
“It’s been three years, Mr. Mayor!” the man continued to call out. “Three years, and you have yet to offer any condolences! You have yet to answer about the airport land grab! My brother knew what you were doing, Mr. Mayor!”
The man quickly hurried back to his bike.
“You killed my brother, Mayor Pearl! How many other people have you killed? Where is Susan Connor?”
Amelia’s eyes widened. This was better than television. Susan Connor was the supposed mistress of Mayor Pearl who had gone missing without a trace.
“My brother knew where she was. She was going to talk before you killed him!”
The bodyguards were not moving fast enough.
“Shut him up!” the mayor hissed to his closest confidant. He threw the other hot dog on the ground, and before anyone could criticize him for littering, he was shuffling away, with the entire group of reporters fawning all over the man as usual.
Sure, they couldn’t interview every crazy with a complaint against the mayor. But this? This was different. Obviously, the hippy that scared Meg was touched in the head. Whether it was from grief or mental illness or a little of both, Amelia felt relief that she had never made it up to him to say anything.
She watched as he pedaled away as if the devil were chasing him before the mayor’s bodyguards could get to him.
“Wow!” Amelia turned to the truck. “That was better than television.”
“See, I told you that guy was just a loon.” Catherine elbowed Meg, who nodded. “He’s gone now, so we can breathe easy.”
“I’ll bet he didn’t even pay a fee like my mom did to have that cart here,” Meg stated, folding her arms in front of her.
“Still, stay close to the truck, girls,” Amelia instructed them as she ushered them off and took her place at the window with Lila.
“Now that was worth it. If you would have gotten that fancy property by the pond, we’d have never gotten this ringside seat.” Lila took a sip of water. “Couldn’t have happened to a better guy.”
Before they could enjoy a long discussion on their mutual distrust of Mayor Pearl and wonder what the press would actually report on the confrontation, they were slammed with a wave of customers that seemed to have no end. The girls gave out all their samples, resulting in so many sales, Amelia lost count after thirty.
“Hey, Spaz.” Amelia heard her son’s voice as he greeted his sister.
“Nerd,” Meg replied. “Hi, Amy.”
“Hi, Meg.” Amy’s voice was soft and in complete contrast to her purple hair. “I love your aprons.”
The kids chitchatted for a moment as Meg and Catherine, at speeds topping one hundred miles an hour, retold the story of the hot dog vendor, the mayor, and the big show Amy and Adam had missed.
“I guess it turned out good you had your regular spot, Mom,” Adam said as he and Amy climbed up the back steps into the truck. “Boy, it’s hot in here.” He wiped his head.
“Is there anything we can do to help, Ms. Harley?” Amy offered.
“Yes.” Lila rattled off a list of supplies they were running dangerously low on. “Take my car and go pick these things up.”
“Lila, you’ve been working all morning, and I don’t even think you’ve stepped off this truck once. Why don’t you go? Get some fresh air and…”
“And leave you here with these rookies? No offense, kids, but you just don’t have the stuff like I do.” She gave Adam a wink. “You have your license, right?”
Adam nodded enthusiastically.
Looking at Amelia, Lila raised her eyebrows.
“Please, Mom?”
“You better be extra careful.”
He smiled broadly and looked at Amy.
“Here is the list. Now, my car is parked just down the street in front of my apartment building with the doorman.”
“What color is it?” Adam asked, gently taking the keys from her hand.
“It’s a red Mercedes with Lila on the license plate.”
Both Adam and Amy’s eyes popped.
“Be careful, and pick up these things for your mom then come right back. No shenanigans.”
“Don’t worry, Lila. We’re not Irish.” Adam smiled. Before Amelia could protest, he had the keys and the list in his pocket and Amy’s hand in his.
“Are you crazy?” Amelia shook her head. “Letting him drive the Mercedes?”
“What? I’m insured.”
“I’m glad you see it as that simple.” Amelia looked again to see her son walking away down the street where Lila lived.
“What are you going to do when that boy goes off to college?” Lila said teasingly.
“Before or after my nervous breakdown?”
Both ladies chuckled and finished up the last of the supplies for a quick batch of double chocolate truffle raspberry cupcakes. The minutes ticked by as Amelia nervously watched her watch.
Ten minutes. Twenty minutes. Half an hour. Forty-five minutes.
“That boy is going to get a beating so severe. If he wasn’t in an accident, he’ll believe he was, he’ll be so black and blue,” Amelia fumed. She really only said these things to hide her fear that he had gotten hurt or perhaps damaged Lila’s car and was afraid to come back.
Just then, he came up the back of the truck. He and Amy looked as if they were in shock.
“Where have you been?” Amelia immediately said scoldingly. “What took you so long? I’ve been worried to death.”
“Mom, it wasn’t our fault. We couldn’t get back in.”
“What are you talking about?” Amelia snapped. “You park the car where you found it, and you walk across the…” She stopped as she saw dozens of police descending on the park. “What’s going on?”
“That’s what I’m trying to tell you. All the streets are blocked. Didn’t you hear all the sirens?”
Amelia thought that she might have heard something like sirens, but they had been so busy and she was so focused on waiting for Adam to come back with Lila’s luxury car that she might have been a little distracted.
“There are fire trucks and paramedics all over down State Street. They had roadblocks up. People were running all over the place, and police were pushing back reporters and gawkers,” Amy replied. “At first we thought maybe something had blown up, but we didn’t hear anything that sounded like an explosion. Then we thought maybe a riot or something, but there wasn’t any screaming or anything like that. The cops weren’t rushing around, and none of them were in riot gear. We couldn’t tell what was happening. It just looked like they pulled out every emergency vehicle in the entire city of Gary to tackle whatever had gone on.”
“We almost laughed when we heard what all the fuss was about.” Adam nodded to Amy. “I don’t think the Kennedy assassination had as big a turnout of emergency vehicles.”
“They said Mayor Pearl was being rushed to the hospital,” Amy added. “They wouldn’t let us through. And they looked through all your groceries and stu
ff.” She offered up the torn paper bag she was trying to hold together.
“Oh, honey, here. Let me.” Lila took the bag, and Amelia took the other from her son.
“From what we could hear, he had some kind of episode or something.” Adam shrugged.
Both Amelia and Lila looked at each other.
“They wouldn’t have a bunch of cops combing the place if it was just food poisoning,” Amelia mused. She looked out the back door, and as if he had heard her thoughts, Detective Dan Walishovsky was making his way toward The Pink Cupcake.
Turning to Adam and Amy, Amelia gave them both a hug.
“You guys had me worried.” She looked lovingly at her son. “Did you like driving Lila’s car?”
“It was a little too nerve-wracking to enjoy. I like our sedan better,” he whispered.
“You keep up that kind of thinking, and you’re going to have a very happy life. Okay, glad you kids are safe. How about taking some pictures for me, and you can have the rest of the night off…with pay.”
“Really?” Adam smiled.
“We did a lot better than I thought we would. We are in the black for the next twenty-four hours.” She looked at Lila and gave her a wink. “But take your sister with you. And keep an eye on her.”
“No problem, Mom. Thanks.” He and Amy slipped down the steps, and Amelia could hear them greeting Dan as they passed by.
“Of all the places to stop first, he picks here. Hmmm…how convenient,” Lila said teasingly as she set to cleaning things up.
The police were like a blue wave guiding people toward the opposite end of the park and roping off half the area where Chicago Style Pizza, Pegasus Gyros, Tofu Express, The Pink Cupcake, plus a couple dozen more trucks were all corralled.
“Dan?” Amelia’s voice was low and shaky. “What is going on? Please don’t tell me.”
“Hi, Amelia. Lila.” He nodded toward both women. “I hate to do this to you, but this whole area has got to be cornered off.”
“What? For how long?”
“Tonight. Maybe tomorrow.”
“But what for?”