"I am not whipped," Mark screamed from the back of the truck.
"Oh, yes you are," Darius agreed with his son. "You're whipped as they come, but it's ok. A lot of men are that way. It just means you know how to keep your woman happy and know better'n to face her wrath. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and women find the littlest reason to feel scorned."
"Quiet! Quiet," Mark shouted as he pulled out his cell phone, seeing that Shylah was calling him. "It's Shylah. I gotta take this."
"Oh, look, a woman scorned," T.L. chimed, laughing hysterically, followed by his father.
"Hey, Baby," Mark answered as soon as he took the call. "What's up?"
"Baby, when are you comin' home? I'm starving!"
"I don't know, Hon. We just left Mary Jane Bedoe's house, and we still have to go see Tanya Donovan. I'm hurryin' the best I can. Just eat whatever you can find in the house for now."
"I already am. There isn't a lot here. And what do I feed your dad if he wakes up and asks for food?"
Mark began to feel not only a bit worried but strangely upset. "I don't know. Just find what you can find. I promise I'll be back as soon as I can, and after that, I'm all yours. We can go get all the food in the world then. I promise. I'm sorry if I seem a bit short, Babe. I just got a lot goin' on and a lot on my mind. I'm sorry. You got me all you want me after a while. Sorry if there isn't much food. Just find whatever you can."
"Ok," Shylah unhappily accepted. "I'll see what I can find. Maybe I could just run to town real quick and get somethin', but I don't have much money."
"Is the nurse still there?"
"Yeah. She's gonna be here for just a few more minutes." Shylah hoped desperately that Mark would say that it alright to leave to get food.
"Hon, I'd really prefer somebody was there with my dad, just in case. Ya know? I'm sorry. I'm really really sorry. I promise you can have anything you want when I get back."
"So, I can finally have the pony I always wanted?" Shylah, as much the joker as Mark ever was, could not help herself and hoped that she could take her mind off of things with a good laugh.
"Yes. You can have a pony, if that's what you really wanna eat. You can have two ponies, and I'll even barbecue 'em for ya however you want 'em. I can go pick up some steak sauce if you want that. We might throw in a few dogs and cats, too, just for good measure."
"Yummy! I love you, Babe. I'll see you in a while."
"I love you, too, Baby. Stay sexy."
"You know I'll try," Shylah confirmed.
"Bye."
"Bye."
As soon as Mark hung up the phone, T.L. felt an urgent need to make fun of his friend. "Awwww. Lovey love love love. I love you. No, I love you. No, I love you more! No, I love you more! No, I love you way more than you love me! Smoochie smoochie!"
"Shut up, T.L. You and Kerrie Mabley'll be that way soon. Well, I know you will be, maybe not so much her."
"I'll have that girl so wrapped around my finger," T.L. bragged, "She'll be hooked on me like you ain't never seen! She'll be glued to me!"
"You think, Son," Darius agreed with Mark. "There ain't hardly a woman on this Earth that is as wrapped around a man's finger as a man gets wrapped around hers! I like to think I run the house, but you know it's your mama. I hate to admit that, but I gotta listen to that woman and let her have charge, or I ain't gettin' none of what I want."
"Daddy! I told you I don't need to hear about you and mama and your sex life!" T.L. suddenly turned his face toward the window, wanting to drown out all thoughts of what his father had said.
"Ain't nothin' wrong with it, Son. You'll understand when you get you a good, steady woman."
The conversations carried on much like this for some time, all the way to Tanya Donovan's house. All Mark could think about was what he would say to the Donovan family and about Shylah. Shylah was always on his mind, somewhere, somehow, most often the predominant thought overtaking all others. Mark wondered what Shylah might be doing at that moment, if there were something really urgent or bad that he should be made aware of, thinking back over Shylah's statement that they needed to discuss something very important.
Little did Mark know that Shylah had been experiencing growing symptoms for a while, symptoms typical of pregnancy. She believed very much that she could be and that she must have gotten pregnant weeks before when she and Mark first began to see each other. She didn't know how she would bring it up when Mark got home, but it was necessary. More than that, Shylah was worried that she might cause unneeded alarm, not knowing for sure if her suspicions were at all correct. She hoped that Mark would not fly off the handle, get too upset, or get too joyous over the possibility, at least, not until more could be known.
Shylah needed to take a test as soon as possible, and it weighed so heavily on her mind, now more than ever before, that she felt as if she were losing what sanity she had left. She would find a way, some way, to tell Mark. Sitting on the couch in the parlor, she began preparing herself for the imminent conversation and Mark's possible reactions. Would he cry, Shylah wondered. Would he scream? Would he just ignore it all? In a fit of confusion and fear, Shylah burst into tears, dying to get it over with, hoping that Mark would finally come home. This would not be an easy night, Shylah told herself over and over. It would be one of the most difficult nights of her life.
Chapter 12
The visit to Tanya Donovan went surprisingly well. Despite her husband being heavily sedated in the burn unit of a hospital in Atlanta and unable to receive visitors, Tanya was pleased with Mark's offer and with all of the well wishes from Cyrus' three co-workers. Mark had no cash to offer Tanya, as he had given all that he had on him to Mary Jane Bedoe, but his promise to write her a check the next day and many more to come brought a smile to her face and a torrential downpour of tears.
It took very little time, even though Tanya Donovan invited Mark, Darius, and T.L. to stay and share a meal with the Donovan family. The men politely refused and excused themselves, seeing it as the perfect opportunity to get going. They wanted to make certain that Tanya knew of their sorrow and regret over the situation and would have no reason to question them, yet they all very much wanted to get home, none of them more so than Mark.
"Tanya took all that pretty well, wouldn't you say," Mark happily asked of his companions as they roared T.L.'s truck down the narrow gravel road away from the house and back toward Mark's, south of town, requiring to head back into town, down the main street, and onto one of the county highways.
"Yeah. Yeah, she did," Darius agreed. "She took it a lot better than I would've ever expected. I reckon as long as you cut her those checks you promised, you won't have nothin' to worry about with her. I don't know how well you know her, though. She's like Shylah but worse. She's a great one to have on your side, but if you cross her, you got hell to pay. That woman can make anybody's life absolute misery!"
"I don't plan to give her reason to turn against me," Mark sighed. "She's gonna get every penny of Cyrus' pay and then some. I just hope he's gonna be ok. He's definitely gonna have his job waitin' on him, if he still wants it, and his pay even if he doesn't."
"What are you gonna do about the plant, though," T.L. chimed in.
"You know," Mark began, pondering the entirety of the situation, "I don't rightly know. I got some basic ideas, but I'll have to run 'em all by Don Birchum. I'm thinkin' we need to switch out all the furnaces for electric, just like Don's been tellin' my dad for years."
"That'd be good, Mark," Darius added, stroking his chin, his mouth a little pursed. "That'd be really good. It might cost you a fortune in the short run, but in the long run, it'll save the plant money, not to mention that it'd be a hell of a lot safer. You got a lot more control over electric and a lot more safety features and measures. I think it's definitely worth lookin' into. I think I'd do it if I was you."
"What's the fatass Birchum think about all this," T.L. laughingly asked.
"Fatass? I thought you liked Don. What you
got against him?" Mark was confused. He liked Don as much as he could. Don, for some, was, at best, an acquired taste. Maybe it was that Mark had known Don for so long and that Don had worked so closely with Thomas.
"He's a know-it-all, fat, lazy, son of a bitch, and I think that's putting it kinda mild and easy, to be honest," T.L. balked.
"Ok. You got me there, T. The man is pretty fat and is a know-it-all, but he's anything but lazy. You don't see as much of him as I do, and he's been runnin' things since I've been gone. He must not be doin' too bad of a job."
"Really? Not doin' too bad of a job? Look what's happened since you've been gone! You think Birchum's doin' a good job, letting a furnace blow up and send a man to the hospital and another one to the cemetery? That's not good in my book, Mark." T.L. was now becoming quite angry at the mere thought of Don Birchum, placing all of the blame at the man's feet.
"It's not really his fault, though, T. The guy's been tellin' my dad for a long time to change the furnaces out."
"Ok. Then, it's your dad's fault."
"That's true, T. It is his fault. He wanted to save money and wouldn't listen to Don. The man's dyin', though. Can you really be so mean to a dying man? If there is anything to pay for, he'll pay when he stands before God, and that's gonna be soon. I'm doin' all I can to fix his mistakes, and they will ALL be fixed!"
"What you got planned," Darius felt inclined to ask, his mind running amok.
"Well, actually, I got a proposal for you guys," Mark stated, though he was unsure that either Darius or T.L. would be interested.
"Whoo, Daddy. Mark's proposin'! I think you should save that for Shylah, Mark!"
"Haha, smartass! No, I wanna make some big changes to the plant and do some expanding. I'm gonna need fresh input from employees and gonna need some new supervisors. Both of you have a lot of years put in, and I value anything you have to say on the matter. We never keep up with orders. Expanding would not only help us meet our orders better but allow us to create a bunch more jobs. The furnace thing is a must, a.s.a.p. The other stuff, I don't know how long it'll all take, but I need ideas. I figured you two could help me start up a kind of employee improvement committee or somethin' like that. I want ideas on expansion, ideas on how to make relations with the employees better, anything you can think of. You'll get paid extra just for bein' in on this, not to mention that if you guys wanna be supervisors, there's a huge bump up in pay for that, too."
"I'm in," T.L. adamantly sounded. "I'm in on both fronts. What about you, Daddy?"
"A big raise would be good, so I'm in, too."
"Good," Mark smilingly approved. "We gotta get through the investigation that's surely gonna be goin' on, but after that, I wanna move as fast as possible to fix the damages and make the changes and expansions."
"You got money for all that, Mark," Darius inquisitively replied.
"Last I checked. And if not, I can pretty much guarantee the banks would be on board. I also have some other ideas, but those, I gotta wait on. It's sad to say my dad is about to die, but when he does, everything is mine. I wanna guarantee that the plant stays around for a very long time to come. I need to make sure there is always money to keep it all going, and I was thinkin' that the cost of expansions and improvements could be spread out over a fairly long time. I wanna maybe start up some other businesses, take the company beyond just steel production. Ya know? My dad never had an eye for anything more, but I've been thinkin' about this for a long time. I can't do it right now, but one day, I want my hand in a lot of other ventures, real estate, maybe restaurants, maybe even trucking. That's the big one. I wanna take a page right out of the Rockefeller handbook. You do your own trucking, and you save a fortune on shipping costs. If our customers see how much cheaper the shipping is, they're likely to place even bigger orders, and it might bring in new customers. You're talkin', all in all, even more jobs and more growth for the plant, maybe one day, even a second plant."
"Sounds good, Mark. Just don't get in over your head. Play it safe and slow, not too much too fast. You got a smart head on those shoulders of yours. You always were the smartest guy I knew, but even smart guys don't always make the best choices. Let's see how the stuff with fixin' up the plant goes." T.L. was dead set on this. He feared that Mark's ideas might prove somewhat disastrous, and the last thing that he wanted was to have to look for another job, not to mention, for all of his co-workers to have to do the same.
"No worries, T. I got it under control. Nothin' will be done until I've looked everything over and made some real plans. The plant comes first, always has, always will. I wanna get the planning stage of everything in high gear really soon, though. I'm gonna need the both of you, so just be ready. I think with the investigation, fixin' the damages, and switchin' out the furnaces, we're talkin' about a lot of time off from production. It's gonna hurt, but we'll get through it. The plant is gonna bounce back stronger than it's ever been!" Mark could not wait to implement these plans. He hoped that he would have the support of every employee and especially, of all involved in planning, preparation, and carrying it all out, namely, T.L., Darius, and Don.
The time flew by so quickly that none of the men in the truck noticed until they were beginning to pull off of the road and onto the long drive leading up to the Crady house. Despite being lost in desperate and anxious thought, Shylah heard the roar of the engine as it neared. She ran out of the house just in time to see the truck come around the circle section of the driveway directly in front.
Mark was happy to see Shylah's shining face as he opened the door to exit the truck. Stepping around the truck to where Shylah was now engaged in speech with her brother, Mark waited for his chance to interrupt. "T., if you or your dad hear anything from or about the Bedoes or the Donovans, please let me know right away!"
"No problem, my friend. Will do."
"Oh, and T.?"
"Yeah, Buddy? What?"
"If you don't get to the doctor immediately and get your eye taken care of better, I'm gonna personally come to your house and whoop your ass!"
"I ain't ever been afraid of you, Mark Crady," T.L. joked.
"You better be. Plus, you got a bad eye. It won't take much. Please go to the doctor as soon as they can get you in, and I mean it. Any bills you get that the insurance didn't cover, I'll take care of! If I have to call the insurance and raise hell and end up payin' most of it, it's gettin' done! You're not payin' one penny!"
"Got it, Boss Man," T.L. quipped, lifting his hat off of his head and waving it out the window of the truck.
"T.L," Shylah added to Mark's speech, "You better listen. You're not gonna just have him to worry about. You'll have your little sister on you, and you know how mean I can get!"
"Oh, don't I know it?! We were just talkin' about how mean you can get. Alright. I'll go right away. I'll let ya'all know. You two take it easy, and don't do nothin' ol' T.L. wouldn't do."
As all three of them began to laugh, Darius pulled the truck away, having heard little of the conversation and caring even less. "Bye, Babydoll," Darius shouted as he rounded the circular drive. "Bye, Mark. Love ya, little girl!"
"Bye, Daddy! I love you, too! I love both of you!" Shylah's words carried softly on the wind, just enough for her male family members to almost make out what had been said.
"Dad's nurse still here, Babe," Mark asked, putting his arms around Shylah's back and giving her a kiss on her cheek. "I missed you!"
"No. She left a while ago. Just been me and him here, pretty dang quiet. He's still sleepin'. And I missed you, too, Lover Boy! So, how'd it all go?"
"Pretty good, surprisingly good. Tanya Donovan was the easy one. M.J. Bedoe, on the other hand, whoo! That woman! But I calmed her down. I gave her all the money I had on me and promised her I'd take really good care of her family."
"You gave her all your money," Shylah screamed.
"Yeah. What's wrong with that? She needs it a lot more than I do."
"Yeah. I get that, but how are we supposed to
go get food now, Baby," Shylah asked with a tear forming in the corner of her eye.
"Babe, I got a bank card. You think all I ever have is cash? We're fine, Hon. Trust me. It's all good. You wanna stay here, and I go get food or what? Somebody's gotta be here with my dad."
Sucking her lips out of consternation, Shylah agreed, though it was not at all what she wanted. "How much did you give the Bedoes, by the way?"
"Five hundred and sixty-two dollars cash."
"Damn! That's a lot! I hope it helps 'em."
"They're gonna need way more than that before everything is said and done. That money was just to get things started," Mark explained.
"And it'll keep her from suing you," Shylah guessed, laughing a little as she said it.
"That, too. But that's not even my big concern. I wanna do right by everybody, her, the Donovans, your brother, and anybody else affected by this mess."
"Yeah. Speakin' of my brother, why was Daddy drivin' T.L.'s truck? T.L. was drivin' when ya'all left."
"He scared the hell out of me and your daddy. He started swervin' and stuff. We convinced him to pull over and switch sides." Mark exhibited a look of pure terror as he recounted the situation, as if he were reliving every second of it.
"Good thing then. Glad you two were with him. Well, Babe, I guess you'd better get goin' to town if we're gonna have food around here. Your dad might wake up and want somethin'. Want me to make a list?"
"That'd be a big help. You don't send a man to a grocery store without one. Well, really, you don't send a man to a store with one if it's not spelled out clearly." Mark smiled so deeply, knowing that he could hold his laughter back for only so long. Upon seeing this, Shylah burst out laughing, laughing so hard that she slipped from Mark's arms and fell to the ground.
"You ok, Baby," Mark asked, as he tried to pull Shylah to her feet.
"I'm ok," Shylah assured Mark. "That was just one of the funniest things ever. It's funny cuz it's true!"
Mark followed Shylah into the house and took a seat on the couch in the parlor, immediately lighting up a cigarette. He had not had one since before he left with Darius and T.L. and felt a tremendous and nagging need for one. Hardly sooner than he extinguished it, Shylah came into the room, producing a list for Mark's perusal.
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