Page 6 of Ayden

He didn’t know how that would work either but kept his mouth shut. Besides, it gave him a headache trying to figure out how businesses worked. That was another reason they were so broke all the time. They didn’t understand people and the workings of their businesses.

Neither of them owned a cell phone, and there wasn’t a computer in the house that they used. The two of them, when necessary, would use the old landline in their home rather than try and figure out how the other things worked. The staff—what little there was left, he knew, had phones on them all the time. He’d hear them twitter once in a while and they’d wander off. He liked the olden days, where men were men and women knew how to keep their mouths shut. That was another thing that he’d not mention to his wife. She’d knock him three ways from Sunday, as his daddy used to say.

“The phone is ringing.” Picking it up as there wasn’t enough money to have a butler anymore, he answered it with a bark of his name. “Clive, don’t tell them who they got. Darn it, man, don’t you get anything right?”

“Mr. Clive Forthright, my name is Ayden Frazier. I wanted to ask you some questions.” He told him that he wasn’t buyinganything. “Not that you could afford it, but that’s not what I wanted. I’m calling about my wife and our family.”

“I don’t know you from crap. Stop calling here.” The man said something, and he had to have him repeat it. “What do you mean, you’ve adopted my granddaughters. No, that’s not right. That Summer person has them, and we’re going to have to get one of them from her since she killed off our son.”

“Your son was killed by the police department and the feds. It’s against the law to sell drugs on high school property and also to have drugs and prostitution run from a government housing.” He told the man that he didn’t know what he was talking about. “Oh, but I do know. And I wanted to give you a heads-up that you’re not going to take my daughters away from me. If I find you within fifty feet of them, I’m going to rip your throat out. I’ve been doing some digging on your family, and it seems like you knew what Gilbert was up to. Even going so far as to profit from his dealings.”

“We needed the money. A son should take care of his parents. That’s what we had to do when my parents decided to retire.” He wished he’d not said that, but the man was talking in riddles. “Why do I give a good fig about your daughters. I’m going to talk to that Summer person about her giving one of them to us so that our family name has a good standing.”

“That Summer person, as you call her, is my wife, and her daughters are now mine.” He told the man that was impossible. He’d never given permission for her to get married. “She’s a grown woman and doesn’t need your permission to do anything. As for the girls, you’re not going to touch one of them either. They’re mine now.”

Not knowing how to deal with the man, he handed the phone to Rose. Before she could get more than just saying her name, she was listening to his bull crap too. What did he mean by saying that he was going to adopt them? Or did he say that hehad adopted them? The man was making no sense at all, and he didn’t want to deal with him right now. Then he listened to his wife.

“You’ve no right to do that. I didn’t give you permission to marry her, and that’s my final word on the situation. Now. Here is what you’re going to do, young man. You’re going to—” She must have been cut off because the next thing he knew, Rose was sputtering about while the man was shouting. He could hear him from across the room. “Now you see here. I’m not going to allow you to—” She’d been cut off again. The man had no manners, was all he could think about. And he was messing with the wrong person if he cut his wife off one more time.

When the phone was put back in the cradle, the two of them stared at one another. They’d never been so disrespected in their life and in their own home, too. Getting up, he bellowed toward the kitchen that he needed some tea right now. Hearing the glass break gave him a good start, but he laughed too. Sitting back in his chair, he finally asked Rose what had happened.

“He told me that he’s not going to give up one of the children. How does he get off telling me what he’s going to be doing? Not to mention telling me that I’m going to be going to jail, too. Did you know that it was against the law for us to be profiting off of what Gilbert was doing? I think you might well have told me, but I don’t—he cut me off, the little pisser. Cut me off like I wasn’t talking to him.” He told her that he’d done the same to him. “Well, I’m not going to put up with it. Do you still have people at the station house? You get on them right now to go and arrest that man for being rude to me.”

“I don’t know that that is going to work.” He explained to her how the man was right about what he was saying. “What do you mean he’s right that we can’t profit off of our own son. Darn it, Clive, I don’t like this, not one bit. It’s my turn, and it should be the way that I want it to be.”

“I know, and I don’t either. Here we were having a nice evening, and he calls here, making threats. It didn’t even matter to him that he was talking to the one in charge of today, Rose. That’s no way to treat us.” She patted him on the head, and then they both shut up when the maid brought them their tea. Rose grabbed her arm before she could leave. “See that you write down what you broke too, or I’m going to know what for.”

By the time his tea was cooled off enough for him to drink, he was upset again. The man had done this to them, and he was going to have to take a stand or do something against him. Picking up the phone when Rose told him to call the station house, he was just about ready to scream when the man put him on hold to go to his office.

“You answer the phone so we can talk when I call there. I don’t like being put on hold.” The man told him that he didn’t know he’d been going to call. “That’s not my problem. You shouldn’t be out fraternizing with your employees anyway. My taxes paid up means you work for me.”

“Mr. Forthright, I don’t know if you’re aware of this or not, but everyone pays their taxes and expects me to do what they want. You’re not any different than Ms. Shawl, who lives in the housing place along Meadow Drive.” He felt his anger surge up. Imagine comparing him to those people on Meadow Drive. “Now, you don’t want to be messing with the Frazier boys. They got themselves some money now, and I don’t think there is a person in his town who doesn’t owe them boys something for helping them out. You and your missus, you just leave that Ayden alone with his family, and we’ll get along just fine.”

“He isn’t going to turn over one of his daughters.” The officer told him that was a good thing as they weren’t to be separated. “That Summer person has had them all their lives, and now it’s time she gave up one of them. The better one of them, too. I won’t be taking the stupid one just because she has two to choosefrom. I got myself no use for girls, but that’s all she had, so that’s going to have to do for us.”

“Mr. Forthright, if you try and take one of those pretty little girls, there is going to be hell to pay. Not just from the police, but those Fraziers take care of what’s theirs, and they’ll kill you if you try anything stupid.” He said that it was only fair. “Fair or not, you touch one of them girls, and I’m going to turn my back on them so that they can deal with parents’ justice.”

“You see here now. I want you to go out to that shanty that they live in and take one of them right now. It’s only fair since you killed off my son. He wasn’t much anyway, but he was a Forthright, and I want justice for him.” He told him that he wasn’t going to do that. “Then why am I even talking to you.”

After hanging up, he picked up the receiver and redialed the number. He thought maybe he’d get a different person, one that would work with him, but it was the same voice. He did that sort of thing when he had to call things like the cable company. If you didn’t like what they were telling you, simply hang up only to call back, and you’d get another person. Not that he believed any of them were in the area. They were all calling from some third-world country, and he was upset about it.

His tea was now cold, and he didn’t have anything to eat either. The television had long since gone to something else, and he and Rose were talking about how ridiculous everyone was being about that Summer person. What right did she have to do any of the things that she’d been doing? None, that was it.

His head was pounding so hard he knew that if he didn’t get to lie down soon, he was going to be sick. There was nothing worse than being sick, he thought. Getting up, he was headed to bed when his front doorbell rang. Going to see who it was, he was surprised to find someone in a suit standing there. He asked him what he wanted.

“My name is Federal Marshall James Calhoun, and I’m hereto question you about the involvement you have had with your son in his endeavors to sell drugs to minors around town.” He told him what he had told the other man. They needed the money. “So you’re telling me that you knew what he was doing and have profited off of his illegal activities.”

“Don’t be stupid. Of course, we did. How else were we to make any money with our taxes being paid and the house in good repair. If you need to be bribed, you go and talk to that man at the head of my son’s operation. His name was…let me see.” He turned to Rose and asked her as she was headed up the stairs, too. “Peter Conklin. He’s the one in charge of the dope going around here. And he was nice enough to bring us the money too when there was enough profit. Now, it’s nearly nine o’clock, and we’re headed to bed. If you want any more answers—now see here. What do you think you’re doing?”

He was put in cuffs along with his wife. As they were being led out to a cruiser, he yelled at his neighbors to mind their own business. They were forever standing out on the street, watching whatever was going on. He remembered once when they threw a party for the street when his son was put in jail. Ingrates. All of them were ingrates. Who did that sort of thing?

~*~

While he knew what was going on with the Fortrights, he didn’t have a great many details. They’d been arrested last night in full view of their neighbors. Ayden even got to see some of the video when they’d been trying to get away from the men that had come to arrest them. Laughing, he looked over at his daughter—how he loved to say that—and sobered up when she glared at him.

“It’s rude to have fun at someone else’s expense, Ayden.” He told her what he knew and didn’t hold back when he told her about how they’d been going to take one of them. “Take us where? Mom would have had a fit if they’d tried that.”

“They wouldn’t have gotten in the front door, I promise you.But they also admitted to knowing that your biological father was selling drugs to teenagers on the high school grounds.” She said that they used to come by the house when he was there, and he’d sell them to them, too. “He was a terrible man, and I’m happy to have them out of your lives. Both of them are now saying that it’s your mom’s fault that Gilbert is dead and that they expect for her to turn one of you, the better of the two of you, over to them so that their good names are still intact.”

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