Page 18 of Beau
Once he was in the office, he began looking over the rest of the emails he’d gotten since yesterday.They were people wanting what Tessa had.A hand up in something that they’d been doing or thinking about.
He didn’t help them all.Of the three hundred emails that he’d get in a weeks’ time he would only help out about one percent of them.He was very careful about how he would take on people whom he would invest in.Mostly, it was advice that he’d give people who asked for help, but sometimes, again, like Tessa, he would see something there that would get him involved.Soap was something that peopleused every day, and she had some beautiful ideas about what others used to wash their hands with.
Beau was still going through his emails when Danielle called him on his cell phone.She had an idea for dinner and wanted to know how he would like to have pork chops and corn pudding for dinner.He said that it sounded fantastic.
“I was reading one of the magazines in the doctor’s office, where I had an interview with, and found a picture of what they were calling comfort food.It sounded really good.”He said that he loved comfort food too.“Good.I’ll have the cook make it for us.Anything else you’d like to do with it?”
“Cornbread and gravy.Also, some fried apples.”She said that her mouth was watering now.“Mine too.I have about fifty more emails to go through before I look at the investments that we have online.After that, I’ll be home.How did the interview go?”
“I got the job.It’s just going to be part-time, all I really wanted to do, but I’ll be calling people to confirm their appointments, as well as a little bit of filing.He has someone to do most of the filing, but I’d be doing it between patients for him.His office is really small, but he does have a lot of patients coming in all the time.While I was there, I swear he saw a dozen patients between interviewing me.I guess that’s why when I was told about the interview, they said that it would take a while.I think I’m going to love working there with him and the other staff members.”
“Good.I’ve known Doctor Benton for a long time.He never approved of the way our mother was treating us when we were brought in, but he didn’t do much in the way of helping us.Which I can understand.He’d been trying to get his practice up and running, and Mother was a threat to everyone that he saw.I don’t blame him at all for not taking a stand when he could have.”She asked him if he minded her working for him.“No, not at all.He’s a good man and a great doctor.I just think that he could have done more for us as kids than he did.That’s all.”
“It’s only part-time, which, as I said, is all I wanted, but I’m looking forward to having something to do while you’re working.”He told Danielle that he understood completely.“Good.If you want to not to work…well, I’m sure that I have to work.I’d go crazy if I didn’t.I think you understand that as well.”
“I do.Even coming to the office when I can read my emails from home makes me feel like I’m doing something productive.”She told him that she felt the same way.“I knew that you’d understand.You’re the best thing that could have happened to me.”
“I love you too.And I love the way that you make me feel when I’m around you.”They talked about her new job, and then she asked about Tessa.“I’ve used her soap before.It’s so pretty that you sometimes feel guilty for messing around with it to use.And the scent that I have, lavender, is the best-smelling soap that I have had in a long time.”
“I’m hoping she comes to the decision that will make her more profit.It’ll be totally up to her, however.”
He told her about some other investments that he’d made today, but mostly it was the advice that he’d give them for free that people used most of the time.He had a knack for helping people by giving them advice when he didn’t want to invest with monetary funds.
“I didn’t realize that you had so many investments that were ongoing right now.”He said that he was forever looking for the next great one that would put someone on the map and make him a great deal of money.“I don’t know that I could do that job.I’d be lending out money for every little project because I could.I guess you’d have to be good at reading people to be able to do that.”
“Sometimes people are hard-pressed to explain what they want in the way of money and to tell you what they really want to use it for.I’ve been caught a couple of times with fraudulent investment ideas.I’m more careful now, but still have someone slip under my radar.”She told him that she doubted that it happened all that often to him.“You’d be surprised.Sometimes I have to cut my losses, as there is no more money to get from them.That hurts badly.But I will get my money back if I can through any way possible.Even if I have to take their homes.I’m not above suing people for everything they got either if they fuck with me.”
“I bet you can be ruthless.I’m glad I’m on your side of this.”They both laughed, and it felt good.He loved his mate more than anything that he had.“I need to get off here and let you get some work done so that you can come home on time.”
“All right.I’ll talk to you tonight.”He put his cell phone back in his pocket and continued to look at the emails that he had just gotten.He honestly didn’t know where people were getting his email address, but was glad that it was out there.There was no telling what sort of trouble he would be getting into if not for a job like this one.While being able to come and go as he pleased, he stuck to a schedule so that he wouldn’t miss work.It was either that or, like he’d said to Danielle, he’d be getting himself into all kinds of trouble letting his mind wander around like it was prone to do.
After closing down his computer, he sat and talked to his brother Weston for a little bit.He was going over some of the things that he had going on as mayor of their city.He asked him if he was going to run for the next election or if he had had enough of cleaning up the mess of someone else.
“I’m going to run.I’ve enjoyed being able to help out the little town we live in.Especially since I never thought that I’d be able to do anything for it when Mother was alive.While I didn’t expect her to die so young, she was only in her late fifties, as you know, I thought that she’d be around forever keeping us in line.”Beau said he tried hard not to think about her anymore.“I do a great deal.When I have a decision to make, I wonder what she would say about it and do the exact opposite.It usually turns out to be a good decision.”
That made him burst out laughing with his brother.“I can see you totally doing that, too.So when a big decision comes up from now on, I’m going to do the same thing.Think about what Mother would have done and do the opposite.Yes, I love that.”
“It might not be the way to go all the time.You understand that, don’t you?”He said that he did and wouldn’t do it if it still felt wrong.“Good for you.I’ve been thinking of ways that we can get some of the townspeople off our backs about how we treated mother and grandfather.I say we get them both a really nice headstone.One that is over their heads so that we know they’re not coming back from the dead.”
“They have a headstone.It just says their names and their date of birth and death on it.”Weston said he knew that, but wanted something bigger and better.“I don’t know about that.People might think that we’ve changed our minds about them and have come to respect them.”
“I thought of that too, but it’s just us that would know differently.”He told Weston that it sounded like more trouble than it was worth.Just to get a few townspeople off their backs.“It was just a thought.I’m sick of dealing with them.I think of all of us, I’m the one who has to be around them the most.Daily, I get people coming in here who tell me that I should have treated them better or been a better son.I know what they were like, and while they might not, it’s getting on my last nerve to have to deal with them.”
“I’m sorry that you have to deal with anyone who thinks that our mother was as saintly as they think she was.And grandfather too.He would beat us every day if Mom wanted him to.But the very fact that he killed Dad and Grandma is what I can’t get with people treating us as badly as they do.It came out in the newspaper that they both killed them off, and they still think of her as this nice person.”Weston said that he gets that, too.“They act like the newspaper got it all wrong about her, and we’re just paying people to say bad things about her.If they only knew.”
“You know, talking to you has opened my eyes, so to speak.I don’t want anything to do with making people believe better of me.I know what happened, as you said, and if people can’t get over that, then that’s all on them.Yes, you’re right in not getting them a bigger headstone just so people will leave me alone.I’m sorry that I brought it up.”Beau said he was sorry that he had to deal with them.“I am as well, but I’m doing something now that makes me feel better, and the rest of the people who think I’m a bad son can fuck off.”
On his way home, he thought about what Weston had said about their mother and grandfather, and he felt bad that some of the townspeople were still acting like they did nothing wrong.They’d murdered people around the town to the point they were going to prison for a very long time, if not for life.People should remember that about them, too.
Chapter 9
Danielle loved her job, but she loved being able to hang out with people that she didn’t know all that well better.They did gossip a great deal and had comments about everyone that came in—sometimes good, sometimes bad.But they were a close-knit group of people that she thought could be funny at times.Also, she was getting useful information about people and how they needed help when they did.
“Did you hear about the Singer family?They had to sell part of their farm when the taxes came due again.If they keep chopping it up like that, there won’t be enough ground for those kids to play on come summer.”She made a mental note to ask Beau if he could help them in some way.However, she knew that if he did that, then he’d be helping the entire town out of jams when they needed help.“Mr.Singer is going out for one of those jobs out in the ocean on a rig.I don’t know that I could do that, being so far from my family all the time.”
“I heard that they’re on for six weeks and off for six weeks.That wouldn’t be so bad.”One of the nurses decided that there might be fewer Singer children if he were gone for a while.“I can see that too.Aren’t there like ten of them now?”
“There are only four of them, and they’re getting to be school age now.Must be a relief to the mother if that’s what’s going on.”She tuned them out for calling several people on the phone to remind them of their upcoming appointments.When she got off, they were onto another family.
