“You’re him.”
Robert replied reading the name-tag on her apron. “Yes, I am, Carol-Ann. How are you this evening?”
“You want ice cream?” She questioned as if people of his caliber didn’t eat ice cream.
“Yes, I think we’d like to order something.”
“I’ll be right back. Please don’t go anywhere.” She hurriedly left their table, went behind the counter, picked up the telephone receiver, dialed and started talking.
“Son, I think you totally upset her evening. And I think she’s calling for reinforcements,” Mike said jokingly.
“Happens all the time.”
In a few minutes the waitress returned to the table, pen and pad in hand.
“Sorry, you just surprised me. What’ll you have, Mr. Montgomery?” she spoke fidgeting from one foot to another.
“We’ll all have hot fudge sundaes with the works. Do you have any fresh coffee?”
“I can make some fresh. I called my mom. She’s your greatest fan and is coming right down.”
Still being polite but slowly losing his temper, RJ said, “I’d like to meet your mother. But could we please have our coffee and sundaes?”
“Oh, yeah, sure.”
They were almost finished with their ice cream, when through the door came, Lola Mae Jenkins, the waitress’s mother, moving at a fast pace, like a woman on a mission.
“My, my, my, look at this!” Mike said to the group.
“That’s Lola. She sings in our church choir,” Natalie gasped.
Lola was dressed in probably the shortest skirt Natalie had ever seen. Her top was a skimpy tube-top, tight and both articles of clothing were bright purple. At the Montgomery table, she laid down a stack of CD’s.
“I’m Lola Mae and I can’t believe it! Robert John Montgomery right here in the ice cream parlor! Mrs. Montgomery, I knew he was your son, but I never realized that he ate ice cream,” Lola Mae said excitedly all in one breath. She pulled at her top.
“Sign all these, ‘To Lola, Love, Robert John Montgomery.’ I’m your biggest fan and have more of these at home!” All the while she was talking, she was inching closer and closer to the entertainer’s arm. Finally, her hip was resting against his right arm.
Natalie looked embarrassed about the woman’s actions towards her son.
“Don’t worry about it, Mother. He can handle her,” Mike whispered to his wife.
“How nice to meet you, Lola. I’d be happy to sign a couple of these for you. However, I don’t think I can sign all of them. We were just getting ready to leave.” RJ said politely.
“Phooey! You can’t leave. I want to get to know you,” pressing her hip to his arm.
RJ quickly signed three of the CD’s. “Okay, there you go. It was nice meeting you. We’ve got to go.” The foursome stood to leave.
“No! Now I need a picture. Carol-Ann get right over here and take our picture.” She arranged the picture, wanting only herself and RJ in the photograph. He took Jillian’s hand and pulled her closer to his side.
“I don’t want your sister in the picture! Just us!”
She took RJ’s hand, placed his arm around her shoulders, and posed. Her daughter took a picture, then another, with Lola kissing him on the cheek.
Losing his temper, RJ tried to control his actions.
“Listen, please let us leave now! I’m just a regular guy who wants to spend some time with my family. I don’t bother you when you’re trying to have a quiet time with your family, do I?”
“Okay, okay. You don’t have to get sore about it! Thank you.”
As the group turned towards the door, she pressed something into RJ’s palm. He quickly put his hand into his pocket. As the group walked back to their car, Natalie commented on Lola’s clothing, about how tight everything was.
“Yeah, I thought ‘the girls’ were going to make an appearance,” RJ chuckled.
His father said, “Robert, that’s not the language to use in front of our ladies.”
His son said nothing. The foursome hurried down the street, in case there were more Lola Maes around.
Later, when Mike and RJ were sitting on the front porch, his father said, “Son, is that a common occurrence…what happened in the ice cream store?”
“Pretty much so. I’ve had too many women throwing themselves at me, offering themselves to me in almost every way you can imagine, like having panties and nude pictures mailed to me, very descriptive love letters, and those are only the healthy ones.” The two men chuckled.
“Dad, that’s why I love Jillie. I picked her because she’s not like the rest. I’ve had too many Lola Maes in my life,” RJ said taking a swallow of the dark liquid.
“You’re drinking too much, son. I’ve seen nothing good come from a bottle.”
“Boy, I have. Jack Daniels, Jim Beam, Crown Royale, to mention a few.”
“I know you’re being a smart-ass, but you know your mother and I are worried about you. You drink way too much, and no one who’s been drinking as long as you have will be able to stop on their own.”
“I’m going to bed. I’ve been lectured long enough. Goodnight.”
“Robert, don’t let this end with you being mad. I wanted you to know how I feel.
His son looked directly into his father’s eyes, finished off the drink, turned, and walked away.
Upstairs, when emptying his pockets, Robert came across the folded piece of paper that Lola Mae had pressed into his hand. He crumpled it, threw it in the trash, because he knew it was like all the other invitations he’d received in the past. He dressed in sleep shorts and a tee shirt.
While in the bathroom he noticed that Jillie’s bedroom light was still on. He lightly tapped on the partly opened door. “Jillie, are you still awake?”
“Yes, come on in.”
He opened the door. She was sitting on the bed with a couple of old opened scrapbooks. Behind the bed roller shades were drawn halfway down two large windows. Blue moonlight cast its rays on the bed. The night air-cooled the room. She was wearing one of his Charm Tour tee shirts and a pair of blue boxer shorts, and her hair was still damp from her shower. Her legs were crossed and her feet bare. His heart leapt. She’d never been so beautiful. He walked over to the edge of the bed. She moved one of the scrapbooks and patted the bed.
He leaned over and kissed her cheek.
“Hi, you. Did you and your Dad have a good chat?”
“Whatcha lookin’ at?” he asked as he sat down. He ignored her question.
“Your mother’s been putting these memory books together. She thought I might like to look at them.”
She slid one over, it was opened to reveal that Natalie Montgomery had everything with her son’s name: photos, and everything that’d been written about his career and had scrapped it all. Whether positive or negative, it was all in the books organized date-wise. The book was opened to an article done by Country People magazine a few years back.
“Are you reading all this crap? You know it’s all fiction and what isn’t is totally out of context.”
“Hey, don’t knock my reading material. I’m learning a lot.” She smiled at him, a quirky playful smile, and one that he’d never seen. “I want to know everything that’s been written about my fiancé. Good or bad makes no difference to me, it’s all about you.”
“Oh, darlin’, I love you! Let’s move these books and I’ll show you how much.”
She shook her head no, “You’re welcome to join me here but just to peruse these memory books and talk...nothing else. RJ, you know how I feel about waiting.”
He didn’t wait for her to invite him a second time. He slid the books away and jumped onto the bed. She pulled back one of the books and started thumbing through the pages. Jillian stopped at a glossy color picture of him. “What was on the paper that the woman gave you tonight?”
“I don’t know, I didn’t open it. I threw it away. It’s probably an invitation to have sex with her or some such thing li
ke that.”
“I thought so. I noticed you didn’t let her know that I’m not your sister.”
“I don’t think she was interested in you.”
Jillian just stared at him, she thinking: Your mother thinks I’m stable for you. “Once we’re married, is some of your popularity going to wane?”
“Probably, but I’ll risk it.”
“This afternoon, your mother was asking all sorts of questions… where we’re going to live, if I’m quitting my practice…?”
“When we get back home in a couple of days, we’ll make some plans.”
“Where’s home? Yours or mine?”
“Good question.” Robert yawned, stretched his arms, and rubbed his eyes.
“You’re going to sleep.”
“Yeah, reading all this boring junk makes a person sleepy.” He moved the quilt and sheet back, slipped his legs in and snuggled down.
“These are interesting. You’re planning on sleeping in MY bed tonight?”
“Yes, sleeping. Good night. How ‘bout a kiss?”
“Goodnight.” She leaned over and kissed him. His breath smelled of liquor.
Jillian read until about 2:30 a.m. RJ was sleeping soundly when she got up to put the books on the desk. She debated whether or not to go into his room to sleep. She was tired so simply crawled back into her bed. She turned out the light, closed her eyes against the moonlight, and listened to RJ snore.
When the alarm rang in their connecting bathroom, Jillian woke to find RJ’s arm around her waist.
“Good morning, baby.”
She said nothing, and tried to fall back to sleep. He kissed her cheek and gently slipped out of bed.
RJ reached the bathroom to silence the alarm. He pulled Jillian’s door closed, then came face-to-face with his mother who was also coming in to hush the alarm. She looked over at his unslept bed.
“Good morning, dear. You don’t have to get up to help with the chores. Your father and Josh can handle them.”
“No, I’m up. I’ll be down in a few minutes. Jillie’s still asleep.”
“Then don’t waken her.”
His mother was dressed in the same housedress she’d worn every morning for years.
“Mom, why don’t you buy a new robe? That one has seen a better day.”
“I like it and there’s nothing wrong with this one. Come on down, coffee’s on.”
“See you in a few.”
His mother left the bathroom through his room. Wonder why she didn’t mention the bed, he thought. He peeked through the partially opened door between Jillian’s room and the bathroom. Looking at Jillian still asleep in bed, he whispered to himself, “That’s my baby.”
During the morning chores the boys decided today was race day. They’d race after breakfast. After the morning chores were finished, the men came into the house for breakfast. Natalie and Jillian were busy completing the meal.
“Good morning, Jillian,” she chuckled as Mike and Josh said at the same time.
“Good morning, how are you?”
The men sat at the table and the ladies brought coffee to the table. Once the ladies sat, Mike said the morning prayer. “Bless us and the food we’re about to receive. Amen”
All replied. “Amen.”
The morning’s conversation was simple: the weather; chores on tap for the day; the scrapbooks; RJ and Jillian’s tomorrow’s departure and last but not least, the race. Lucille called to say they were coming down to race.
When breakfast was over, the men went out to prepare the vehicles, while the ladies cleaned the table and started the dishes.
“Dear, you don’t have to help me. I do this by myself every day,” Natalie said as she looked out the window.
“Oh, no, I want to. Thank you for letting me see the memory books. I read them until after two this morning.”
“You’re most welcome. I hope you don’t believe all the stuff you read about him. He’s a good boy.”
“Oh, I know that.”
Nothing was mentioned about the sleeping arrangements. They finished up the dishes in silence.
“Go on out there and I’ll be out in a sec. I’ll bet they’re ready to race.”
When Jillian came out of the house, three ATV’s sat on the driveway. RJ, Josh, and Larry were racing the ATV’s engines. She saw an opened bottle of Jack Daniels inside the toolbox that sat on the edge of the driveway. RJ patted the back of his ATV for Jillie to join him on the back. He handed her a helmet, and she put it on. As if a silent GO! was said, all three ATV’s roared off. Jillian grabbed RJ around the waist and held on tightly. RJ bumped into the back of the lead vehicle driven by Josh. The driver shook his fist in fun.
When they arrived at the track, Jillian saw one large track that was graded with several hills against the flat track. The surface was dirt, with a couple of puddles throughout. Hay bales were placed along the edge as curbing.
They stopped, and RJ motioned for Jillian to get off. Mike, Natalie, Lucille, and Mikey arrived in the truck. Jillian walked over to the truck. Remembering that she still had on the helmet, she removed it and dashed over to return it to RJ. He said he didn’t need it and tossed it aside. She noticed that the other two men were wearing helmets and tried to argue with him, but he roared off.
The boys told their father that the race would be ten laps. Mike used his handkerchief as a starter’s flag. The roar of the revved ATV engines was almost deafening. Immediately, Josh took the lead, RJ was second, and Larry last. The first couple of laps the lead changed several times. Up the hills and down on the flat, they sounded like a swarm of buzzing bees. All three waved as they raced past the spectators.
Natalie shook her head. “Boys will be boys. What’s that the old saying about the price of their toys?”
Jillian smiled.
On the seventh lap RJ was about half-way up the hill, when he leaned to the left and fell off. The riderless machine continued up the hill a few feet, then fell backward. Jillian screamed as she saw the ATV fall on RJ, who was lying motionless at the side of the track. A glancing blow from the handlebar hit his forehead. Everyone ran to him and Jillian squatted down next to his seemingly lifeless body He opened his eyes. She tried to stop him from sitting up but couldn’t. Lucille handed Jillian a clean cloth that she pressed against his bloody forehead. She asked him if he hurt anywhere else, and he responded no. After asking RJ a few more questions, she decided that the only injury was to his forehead, which would need stitches, and a possible concussion. Mike helped him to his feet.
RJ argued during the ride to the hospital that all this fuss was totally unnecessary. Once registered, he was taken into a private room for the emergency room physician’s assessment. The door opened. A short white haired, aged man stepped into the room.
“Well, well, look who we have here. I’m Dr. Woods. Let’s have a look. Did you just fall off or did you pass out? You know, my wife’s one of your biggest fans, but I’m sure you hear that all the time.” He removed the compress from RJ’s forehead.
“I lost my balance and fell off.”
The doctor looked at RJ and smelled the alcohol on his patient’s breath. He noticed the attractive lady standing beside the exam table, holding RJ’s hand.
“And you are?” he asked Jillian.
“Jillian James, Mr. Montgomery’s fiancée.”
“Yeah, she’s my personal physician.”
“A doctor?”
“I’m an orthopedic surgeon.”
“Mr. Montgomery, I think you need a couple of stitches. Let’s get a couple of X-rays and do some lab work. Dr. James, do you agree?”
Jillian nodded.
After the X-rays were taken and Robert’s forehead stitched up, Dr. Woods said, “Son, I’d like to admit you for overnight just to watch you. You’ve had quite a blow to your head.”
RJ started to resist and argue, but Jillian stepped in, explaining, “RJ, it’s only precaution.”
“But you could watch me at home.”
>
“I know, but if something happened we’re several miles away. RJ, it’s best.”
“Well, I am tired. I could use a nap. Okay?”
Chapter 27
RJ was settled into a private room on the second floor. All the family said goodbye in the Emergency Room, leaving Jillian to spend some time with Robert. Mike told her he’d come back later to pick her up.
The next morning RJ was ready to be discharged and was anxiously waiting for Jillian to arrive. He was amazed to see the entire family standing at his bedside. A doctor that RJ hadn’t met stepped in behind them.
“Well, does it take all of you to spring me out of this joint?”
“Son, we need to talk,” Mike said. Robert looked at Jillian inquisitively. His father continued, “I don’t know how to say it tactfully, but we’re all really worried about your drinking. We’re here for your support, but you need to do something about it now!” All the family members nodded in agreement.
“RJ, your blood tests came back with abnormal values. I feel they’re abnormal because of the alcohol.” Jillian paused. RJ tried to say something, but she continued. “This is Dr. Axminster. He’s a substance abuse physician.”
Dr. Axminster stepped up and shook hands with Robert.
“So, what do you want? You’re going to tell me that I’m a drunk? ” Robert replied in a hateful tone.
“Mr. Montgomery, I’ve made some calls. You can enter a treatment program this afternoon. There are a couple centers that can handle a person of your caliber. Your blood work tells us that if you don’t stop drinking, you’ll soon be dead.” Robert looked at him with a blind stare.
DASHED DREAMS Page 19