Red Dog Saloon

by R. D. Sherrill

  And talk they did, the next hour spent strolling down memory lane, recalling the good times, laughing and crying as they reminisced. Ben was there when she breathed her last. He was still clutching her hand as she passed. He would later recall it was both the best hour and worst hour of his life.

  Ben resisted the temptation to open the music box for the next couple of days as he took care of his mother’s final arrangements. A steady stream of well-wishers came for visitation at the funeral parlor. His mother was a beloved member of the community given her work with various benevolence groups that helped the needy of Castle County. Her face was also well-known in social circles given her work at city hall where she served as administrative assistant to the mayor for his entire administration.

  She had been one of his first hires when he was elected. The job kept their small family afloat shortly after Trent left them high and dry. Mayor Glenn Satterfield was one of the well-wishers that passed her casket during visitation. He offered his sincerest condolences, extending his clammy hand to Ben as he rambled on about how sorely Elizabeth would be missed. While the income she brought home from her job at city hall kept them off welfare, Ben had never cared much for the mayor. There was something about him he just didn’t trust even as a child. Now, as an adult, the feeling was doubly strong.

  Perhaps it was a sixth sense or perhaps he was just a good judge of character. However, being the soft-spoken gentleman his mother had raised, Ben smiled and accepted the mayor’s hand, thanking him for coming to offer his condolences. As far as he knew, the mayor had done nothing to hurt his mother during the years she worked for him. In Ben's book, the fate that would befall anyone who hurt his mother would be far worse than any pain and suffering he had inflicted during combat. Something like that wouldn’t be business, it would be personal. You don’t mess with a man’s mother.

  The cold November rain fell the day they buried Elizabeth. A sea of black umbrellas surrounded the graveside as the minister offered a few last words. Ben stood over her casket as they lowered it into the ground, tossing a single white rose into the open grave as the rain dripped off his brow. His mother was gone.

  It was later that day Ben allowed himself to again think about the things Elizabeth told him from her death bed. Should he open the music box or should he go on with his life and ignore the fact his birth mother was still alive? After all, she had lived anonymously for all these years, taking no actions to contact him. Why had she given up her own child? And what of the horrible secret Elizabeth referred to? How could anything be so horrible that a mother would give up her baby without looking back?

  Ben sat alone at the kitchen table at his family home after the funeral. He eyed the music box for several minutes trying to decide what to do. He was still soaked to the bone, a towel draped over his shoulders and a hot cup of coffee in his hands cutting the fall chill.

  “This is silly,” Ben mumbled to himself as he grabbed the box and opened it.

  He froze as the song began to play. The familiar tune sent him back in time to his childhood when he would listen to the music box. It was a care-free time, a time when everything was good with the world. How he missed those times.

  Resisting the urge to cry, Ben seized the piece of paper from the box. He took a breath and opened it – Gina Porter, 1043 Walker Street, Shelby.

  There it was in black and white. His birth mother lived just a couple of hours up the road. He realized he had to go. If nothing else, he wanted to find out why she abandoned him as an infant. Besides, it was a short drive and he had ninety days until his return to active duty. Why not meet his mother? He would drive up the following day.

  As was the case with Sheriff Delaney three months later, finding out the address was to Shelby Mental Health Institute was quite a surprise. Elizabeth had left out that piece of information. However, he had come this far so he may as well at least go in for a few minutes. What could a short visit hurt?

  Ben was pleasantly surprised by the reception he got from the cute brunette working the front desk. Her flirty smile made him feel welcome. He could tell she liked him on first sight, something that didn’t bother the young soldier one bit.

  “Hey, do you have someone by the name Gina Porter here?” Ben asked the receptionist.

  “Yes, she’s a resident,” the girl responded.

  “Do you have visiting hours or something like that here?” Ben continued. “Do you like have to make an appointment or something like that?”

  “No, not at all,” Helen responded with a slight giggle. “Our residents can have visitors anytime during regular hours. Who should I say is here?”

  “Tell her Ben is here to see her,” he replied. “She’ll know who you mean.”

  Helen made a call and pointed Ben down the hall.

  “She’ll see you,” Helen announced as she gave Ben directions to her room.

  Ben was surprised by what he found in the facility. Instead of screaming lunatics wandering the halls, he found well-kept rooms and pleasant surroundings, a couple of patients actually pointing him to Gina’s dormitory when he got turned around in the hallway. He had traversed the rugged mountain peaks and passes of Afghanistan at peril of ambush every turn yet he couldn’t navigate his way down the halls of a mental institution.

  Ben paused for a moment outside her door as he recalled Elizabeth’s warning that he should beware of the answers he may find.

  “Gina Porter?” Ben asked in a quiet voice as he pushed open the door.

  Sitting crossed-legged in a chair, a drawing pad on her lap, Gina continued scrawling away. She didn't bother looking up at her visitor.

  “You shouldn’t have come,” she declared unceremoniously, her disheveled long dark hair covering her face. “Elizabeth broke her promise.”

  “Elizabeth is dead,” Ben revealed as he stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. “She died from cancer a few days ago.”

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t know,” Gina said apologetically.

  She paused her drawing for a moment and looked off into space like she was recalling her old friend.

  “She was a good person,” she said simply before she returned to her drawing.

  Waiting for a moment in awkward silence, Ben cleared his throat in hopes of attracting her attention. She continued her drawing.

  “She told me that you were my birth mother,” Ben declared.

  His statement caused her only a slight pause before she again went about her drawing.

  “Well, is it true?” Ben asked.

  The question prompted Gina to look up for the first time. Peering at Ben from underneath her long dark bangs, her face wrinkled beyond her years, Gina responded in a cold tone that sent a shiver down Ben's spine.

  “You wouldn’t be my son if it weren’t for her,” Gina said. “I wanted to get rid of you before you were born but she talked me out of it.”

  Ben was speechless. His mother had just admitted she wanted to abort him while he was in the womb. His life was spared only by Elizabeth’s pleas.

  “But why? How could you even think about something like that?” Ben asked incredulously.

  “Because you were conceived out of evil!” Gina hissed. “You are demon spawn.”

  Ben was shocked by the venom that was spewing from her mouth. Her wild eyes and her shrill tone told him she was eaten up with hatred.

  “What do you mean?” Ben asked.

  “There’s some things best left alone,” Gina replied.

  Ben stepped over to where Gina was sitting and took the sketch pad from her hands. Laying it aside, he looked directly into her brown eyes.

  “I have a right to know,” Ben stated squarely. “Elizabeth said there was some horrible incident that made you give me up when I was a baby.”

  “Careful what you ask. You may just get the answers you don’t want to hear,” Gina said as she returned Ben’s gaze.

  Her wording was eerily akin to what Elizabeth told him on her death bed. However, Ben didn't
care. He wanted answers, no matter the consequences.

  “I’m a big boy now,” Ben countered. “I think I can take it.”

  “You were a child of rape!” Gina screamed, standing up as she growled her words out from between clenched teeth. “I was raped when I was just a teenager and got pregnant with you. I couldn’t keep you knowing every time I looked at you I’d remember what those animals did to me. Frankly, I was afraid what I might do to you. I couldn’t trust myself.”

  Ben hadn’t seen that coming. Her explanation made him take a seat as he digested what he just learned. Three days ago he was just another adopted child living your average life. Now he was speaking with his birth mother who was telling him he was an unwanted child of rape.

  “You said they did this to you. What do you mean?” Ben wondered.

  “There were six of them,” Gina said as she sat back down. “It was at an old bar called the Red Dog. It burned down a short time later, I guess about twenty-two years ago. I was there for my eighteenth birthday when it happened. They were all drunk and forced me to do things - terrible things.”

  Ben shook his head in disgust. He tried to fathom what kind of monsters would do something so heinous to a young girl.

  “Your mother, well Elizabeth, she was with me that night,” Gina revealed. “We were having fun until she left with her boyfriend. One of the guys at the bar was supposed to take me home but things got out of hand after she left. She always felt guilty for what happened, kind of like she was partially responsible since she was my older friend. She felt like she abandoned me that night. I think that’s why she volunteered to take you, partly out of a feeling of responsibility for what happened.”

  Ben put his head in his hands and ran his fingers through his short hair. The answers, just as Elizabeth predicted, were painful.

  “What happened to the men who did this to you?” Ben asked angrily.

  “Nothing. Absolutely nothing,” Gina snarled.

  “What do you mean nothing?” Ben asked. “How can you just rape someone in a bar and get away free and clear?”

  “No one would believe me,” Gina tearfully revealed. “Some of them had connections and they were able to get it buried. Then the sheriff came to see me and suggested I should keep my mouth shut if I didn’t want bad things to happen. Then the bar burned down a couple of days later. They wanted to get rid of the owner because they were afraid he would tell what he saw.”

  “He saw what happened?” Ben asked.

  “Yes, he watched,” she replied. “He was there the whole time but did nothing. I guess they were afraid he would have an attack of conscience and do the right thing so they burned the place down with him in it.”

  “So they killed him?” Ben asked.

  “They thought they killed him,” Gina said with a wry smile. “I found out a few years ago they didn’t get the job done. He’s still alive.”

  Ben stored the information about Earl Cutts away for later use. A witness was still alive - a witness who had seen everything yet didn’t lift a finger to help.

  “You said the sheriff warned you to be quiet. Why would he do that?” Ben asked.

  “Because his son was the ringleader,” Gina responded. “You’ve probably heard of him. He runs the big car lot in Easton. His name is Bart Foster. His father is the former sheriff, Bill Foster.”

  Ben was floored by Gina’s revelation. One of Easton’s biggest businessmen was a rapist and attempted murderer.

  “So it went to high places,” Ben whistled.

  “You have no idea,” Gina retorted. “Some of Easton’s most famed citizens were involved. What would you say if I told you Mayor Glenn Satterfield was one of them too?”

  “I’d say I never trusted him, from the very day mom went to work for him,” Ben snapped back without hesitation. “There was something about that guy. I just couldn’t put my finger on it before.”

  “He no doubt hired Elizabeth hoping to buy her silence about what I’d told her,” Gina said soberly. “They were evil, Ben. All of them. And they’d do anything not to be exposed for what they did.”

  “Why don’t you expose them?” Ben asked. “You still can. Go public and let people see them for what they are.”

  Gina smiled, rolling her eyes as let out a laugh.

  “Yeah, like that’d do any good,” Gina said. “Who would believe me after all this time? Haven’t you noticed? I’m certifiably crazy. Better yet, what are the chances, given what they tried to do to old Mr. Cutts, that I’d ever live to tell the story if they knew I was coming forward? From what I hear your honorable mayor wants to be governor so I doubt he’d want it to get out that he likes raping young girls.”

  “I won’t let them hurt you again,” Ben promised.

  “I’m sure you wouldn’t,” Gina said reaching out to pat Ben on the arm, touching her son for the first time since she held him in her arms immediately after giving birth to him. “But it’s too late.”

  “It’s never too late!” Ben exclaimed.

  “No Ben, it’s too late for me,” Gina replied. “The only thing that would make me happy now would be to see them all dead and in Hell. They’ve ruined my life and messed up yours. They deserve to burn in the everlasting flames for what they did. For some sins there is no forgiveness.”

  Ben couldn’t disagree with her wish. The group had earned themselves a special place in torment.

  Gina went on to explain that after she gave birth to him, she “ran away” and got as far from Castle County as possible.

  “It wasn’t like my home life was all that anyway,” she revealed. “My father left when I was little and my mom wasn’t exactly a candidate for mother of the year. I guess you could say I was from the wrong side of the tracks.

  Gina admitted she hated Castle County after what happened.

  “I wanted to be anywhere but there,” she admitted. “I couldn’t get away far enough.”

  She broke ties with everyone she knew in her hometown, including Elizabeth who she entrusted to raise her son. She even became estranged from her mother as she seemingly fell off the face of the Earth for several years.

  “It’s all a blur,” Gina said. “I went from place to place, never staying anywhere very long.”

  It was a few years ago, while she was institutionalized at a facility on the west coast after another one of what Gina referred to as her ‘episodes’, that her mother was contacted. From there her mother rekindled their relationship and convinced her to move closer. That was when she became a resident at SMHI.

  Shelby was as close as Gina would move to Easton, her hatred of her hometown just as intense as it was the day she left it behind forever. The reunion was short lived, however, when her mother died a couple of years ago, snatched away suddenly by a heart attack. Her death left Gina alone, again, her only living relative not even realizing she existed - that is until now.

  “It would have better if you never knew I was alive,” Gina declared

  “No, now I know the truth,” Ben disagreed. “And you know what they say - the truth will set you free.”

  “I’ll never be free,” Gina said resolutely. “Never again.”

  “Tell me who they were - all of them,” Ben demanded.

  “I didn’t want you to get involved in any of this,” she responded. “They are dangerous.”

  “They have no idea what danger is,” Ben responded coldly. “I want you to write down on your pad their names and everything you know about each of them.”

  Gina did as she was told. Her son’s forceful instance and perhaps a deep-down hope they would get their just deserts convinced her to reveal all. Even though it had been over twenty years, she hadn't forgotten one detail.

  “That’s all of them. Everything I know,” Gina said as she handed Ben the sheet of paper bearing all the conspirators names. “Now what?”

  Ben sat in deep thought for a moment, trying to decide where to go from there.

  “Now I guess we get to know each other,”
Ben said. “After all, you are my mother and we have twenty-one years to catch up on.”

  “I’m surprised you’d have anything to do with me after how I left you,” Gina responded.

  Just as he had done with Elizabeth earlier in the week, Ben spent the next hour catching up, this time with his birth mother. He told her about his career in the service. He could see the pride in her eyes as he talked about his time in the military, leaving out some of the more graphic missions he had completed.

  They ended their first meeting with Ben promising to come back the next day for a visit.

  “Can I bring anything?” Ben asked, realizing Gina likely never had any visitors.

  “Well,” Gina began quietly. “I haven’t had a drink in years. They don’t allow alcohol in here. I mean, after all, it is an institution.”

  “So you want me to smuggle some alcohol in like I’m going to the prom?” Ben clarified.

  “Maybe some wine or Champagne? We could toast to new beginnings,” Gina suggested.

  “Well, okay, but if I get busted you’re going to have to bond me out,” Ben smiled as he patted her on the shoulder before heading out the door.

  Ben spent that evening doing what the military called target acquisition. He found the whereabouts of each of the six on the list Gina wrote for him. As luck would have it, bad luck for them anyway, they all still resided in Castle County. He also acquired intelligence on a seventh person she had not included on her list - a person Ben held equally responsible. He would find the whereabouts of Earl Cutts later. For the time being, he was simply intelligence gathering, nothing more.

  After his reconnoitering, Ben spent the rest of the evening sitting in silence alone at Elizabeth’s house, recalling the good times he spent there as a child. He also wondered what life would have been like had his birth mother not given him up. Did the men who victimized his birth mother have any idea what they had done? It simply wasn’t fair they were allowed to go on with their lives all these years as if nothing ever happened. They needed to pay for their transgressions. The question was, as Ben sat deep in thought, how he would exact justice on them. He had already resolved not to return to duty until he held them accountable for their actions. The only question in his mind was how far would he go?