Couples of South Pointe Lake

BOOK TWO. 13. Morning Queries

It was 7:48 in the morning when the twin glass doors to the Cumberland police station swung open and out came Bobby Red Van Houten, looking grumpy and angsty from the unpleasantness of spending a whole night in the cell.  He stood at the threshold and listened to the pneumatic sound of the door close behind him.  He stood there, absorbing the radiant sunshine as it glowered over the crown of elm trees in the distance.  There was a throbbing pain in his right shoulder from where he had laid on the cell’s hard bed.  Very unlikely he was going to make it to work today.  Red had a good view of the station’s L-shaped parking lot overlooking the back section of a brick stone building that served as the Cumberland post office.  Aside from the usual line of non-descript vehicles and patrol cars, one that raised a tinge of a smile on his lips was the sight of his truck.  The duty officer had passed him his car keys and mentioned that they had impounded his truck and brought it to the station lot last night.  A good thing nothing was mentioned about billing him for it.

The door opened once more and Bobby, presuming it to be one of the officers, moved to the side, but whoever it was didn’t march past him.  Then he inhaled a dank, familiar smell that alerted him to who it was.  He turned his head, and sure enough, it was Charles, looking rumpled like a wet piece of thrash as he was busy buttoning his shirt.  His face was wet, and what Bobby assumed to be sweat turned out to be water; there were wet splotches on his shirt. 

“Hey,” Charles murmured.  His voice sounded craggy, and he had to cough a few times to feel better.

“The f**k are you smiling about?” Red snarled.  He wanted so bad to throw a ham-fisted punch at his weaselly face if not for where they were standing.  “This whole thing was your f*****g fault.”

Charles looked at him with what amounted to freaking astonishment at what he just said.  “What?  You can’t really mean that.”

“I do f*****g mean it, f**k-wad.  And I want you to stay the hell away from me.  I don’t want you anywhere near fifty feet of where I’m standing.  Matter of fact, I don’t even want to see you or even smell you.”

He marched down the concrete steps toward the parking lot.  Charles watched him go, too paralyzed to make any response.  Spending nights as a guest in the Cumberland police station seemed a lot like a homecoming for him.  He figured they had been generous keeping him for one night instead of multiple with the amount of weed they got out of his pocket.  His track record of offenses was like something itched in granite; chances are he would return here within a fortnight if he were lucky to stay clean until then.  Charles knew that he had somehow messed up for last night, but was stung by the notion that it was all his fault.

He got over his paralysis and went after Bobby, who was now a few feet from his truck.

“Hey, wait up,” Charles called out in a placative voice.  “Look, it wasn’t no way my fault, you hear.  Ain’t like I knew those cops were gonna be there.”

Bobby rounded upon him; his eyes glowered, and his nostril flared like that of a rampaging bull.  Charles’s feet dragged him to a halt.  He shrieked in sudden fear at the realization that Bobby was going to hit him this time.

“Those f*****g cops knew you,” Red stabbed a meaty finger at him.  “They were there for you, not me.  I’ve got no f*****g history or beef with pigs, but that all changed last night because of your dumb, stupid ass.”

His stabbing finger, along with his words, seemed to push Charles to fall backward on his ass on the ground.  He squeaked and raised a hand to his face to ward off any impending blow Red was about to mete upon him.  Red’s frame blocked the sun’s glare as he towered over Charles.

“I’m telling you again, I don’t ever want to deal with your stupid ass anymore.  You ever come near me, and I swear I’ll beat the crap out of you, you hear me?  You’ve just axed yourself out of my existence.”

Bobby hissed at him before turning away.  Charles waited a few seconds before presuming it was safe to lower his hand.  He watched Red get into his truck then slam the door shut.  Charles looked about, and only then did it dawn on him that he was sitting on the ground.  He came to his feet and slapped sand and dirt off his jeans and shirt.  He heard Red’s truck came to life and jumped out of the way as he saw Red reverse out of the parking space.  Red glared at Charles through his window as if daring him to get in front of his truck and see if he won’t run him down.  Charles caught the daring look in his eyes and kept his distance as Bobby Red shifted his cranky truck into gear and drove away from the police parking lot.  The rackety noise coming from its exhaust seemed to travel for miles until it became a distant cry, similar to that of the birds chirping in the trees.

Charles adjusted his clothes before starting his long walk to his apartment.  He checked the time on his watch, which said 8:23.  JoBeth won’t be out of the apartment until 9:00, which gave him enough time to get there and not meet her. Charles liked the thought of that.  He wasn’t of the mind to do any explaining for his whereabouts of last night.

Charles arrived at the apartment complex at 9:12.  He didn’t sight her car in the parking lot.  That gave him some comfort as he strolled up the building, tired from the long walk he just concluded, but glad to be out of the sun’s heat.  His body demanded better sleep, at least for a good three hours’ sleep before getting ready for work.  It would go a long way to help him forget last night’s fiasco and the conclusion of this morning.  Too bad the cops took every ounce of weed they found on him.  That would have helped make his impending sleep more fitful.

He came to the apartment door and slipped his key into the lock.  But to his amazement, the door opened to reveal JoBeth standing there looking anything but happy. 

“Hey, Jo.  Ain’t you supposed to be at work already?”  He worked his lips into a smile, but it was a waste of time.

JoBeth allowed him into the apartment and shut the door before coming after him with unleashing her anger.

“How in God’s name did you go and f**k up the way you did, Charles?”

“What’re you talking about, Jo?”

“Don’t play dumb with me,” she snapped.  “Don’t you f*****g dare.  Where were you last night?”

“Where was I?  Over at the docks, was where I was, over at Crabbie’s spot.  I got too drunk, so he let me crash for the night.  You worried I was lost?”

Jo gave him a cold stare that let him know that she knew he was full of s**t.

“Your ass wasn’t at Crabbie’s, and you know it.  You slept the night off at Cumberland County’s finest after Elroy and his partner busted you for selling weed to that dumb-ass friend of yours, Bobby Red.  Any of that ring a bell?”

Her knowledge dumbfounded Charles, and his stammering was sufficient clue to tell her that he was full of s**t.  “Who’s the canary bird that’s been telling you all this?”

“Elroy,” she said.  “Who do you think would?  He came by last night, after he’d thrown you in the can, and told me about it.  My God, I thought we’d had this talk that you weren’t going to be dealing anymore.”

“And I’m not, I swear,” he pleaded.  “I only sold off some left-overs to Bobby Red, that’s all.  Everything I’ve got, I smoke it with you.”

“Yeah, well, look where that got you.  For God’s sake, Charles, you know what the stakes are, don’t you?  You’ve got two strikes,” she indicated by raising two fingers at him.  “One more, and they’re busting your parole and kicking your behind back into the slammer.  And if that ever happens, guess what.  You’re never going to hear from me again, ever.  Do you understand?”

Charles held her hand in his, smiling as he attempted to appease her.  “Come on, Jo.  It’s nothing to get all fussed up about.  Sure, I messed up, and I’ll admit that.  But really, you don’t need to—”

“This ain’t no game, Charles, and I’m f*****g serious here,” she retrieved her arm from his grasp.  “This is the f*****g last straw; there won’t be another after this.  If you so much as f**k up one more time, I’m kicking you and everything you’ve got out to the curb.”

“You can’t be serious, Jo.”

“You wanna try me to find out?” she glared.  “Do one more f**k up next time, and then you’ll see.”

Jo shoved him aside and went into the bedroom.  Charles followed a step behind.

“Where’s the car?  I didn’t see it downstairs.”

“I dropped it off at the mechanic an hour ago and took a cab back home.”

“You still seeing the cop, eh?” he asked snidely.

“You got a f*****g problem with that?”

He shook his head.  “Didn’t say I have.  Just that . . . well, figured you’d be done with him by now, is all.  With other fellas, you’d have moved on by now.”

“Maybe I would have,” she agreed.  “But Elroy’s different, and if you keep up with your pathetic attitude, he might be seeing more of me.”  She picked up a scarf and a pair of shades.  “Anyway, I’m off.  Be a good boy and clean up the house.  I’ll be pulling a double later tonight at the Rooster.”

She strode out of the room; Charles, again, followed behind.

“You going back for the car?” he asked.  “Or you want me to pick you up later?”

JoBeth stopped to wear her scarf, including her shades.  “Elroy’s gonna give me a lift home.  You just cool off and think about what you did last night.  And while I’m gone, try not to jerk-off on the sheets like you did last time.”

She stepped out of the apartment, slamming the door shut before Charles could think of a response, something witty to keep her from getting upset with him.  If anything, he was too stupefied to think of whatever response to give.

Charles resigned himself and went to inspect the kitchen.  The sink was laden with unwashed dishes and left-overs.  There was an empty box of pizza sticking out of the garbage bin beside the gas cooker.  Jo and Elroy had no doubt enjoyed themselves last night while he stewed in his misery in the county slammer.  Charles opened the kitchen windows, then folded his shirt sleeves up his elbows before setting to work.  Done with the dishes, he got a mop and a bucket of water, and then unbuttoned his shirt.  He got busy cleaning the floor, down to the bedroom.

Jo’s sumptuous fragrance lingered in the bedroom.  The bed was unmade, and her clothes littered the floor, most likely from last night’s tryst.  Charles was ambivalent about what to make about her continuing relationship with the cop.  Was she thinking about going serious with him, and if so, why him?  And what would be his fate if seriousness became part of the outcome?  Jo’s probably thinking about kicking him to the curb, leaving him to fend for himself.  He was willing to bet his last dime that the cop had begun suggesting that to her already.

He scooped up her strewn clothes from the floor, and fetched a fresh pair of sheets out of the closet, and then changed the one that was on the bed.  He balled up the previous sheets and was about carting it out of the room when a peculiar thought sprang into his head.  It was something he could not resist.  Charles dropped the sheets on the floor, whipped his p***s out of his jeans, then proceeded to masturbate.  In his head, he pictured the sort of action that went on here last night without him around to bear witness.  All of it involved Elroy f*****g the s**t out of JoBeth in plenty of assorted ways.  Charles was panting while his hand vigorously jerked his p***s as a welter of explicit images swirled in his head.

His pants grew stertorous until his climax happened and he let himself go.  Charles gazed with profound fascination at the splatters of semen he had made on the sheets.  His hand continued jerking his p***s, wanting to drain every left-over ounce of semen he had left in his balls.  He was noticeably overwhelmed with tiredness as his p***s shrunk back to its previous state. 

Shame and embarrassment at the thought of being found out by Jo blasted like an alarm bell in his head, as Charles slipped his p***s back, then zipped up his pants, and then scooped the bedsheets in his arms and left the apartment with it.  He made his way down to the basement to the laundry room.  Charles exchanged greetings with some of the neighbors he met before stuffing the sheets into one of the laundry machines.  He sat down on a bench and perused an old magazine that lay there while the machine churned.  When it was done, he took the sheets up to the apartment, folded and deposited it into the closet, then fell on the bed and within minutes was out like a light.

*             *          *

Around the time that Charles DeGrasse was halfway to JoBeth’s apartment from Cumberland County station, Bella applied last-minute lipstick before picking up her leather handbag.  She admired herself once more in the bathroom cabinet mirror.  She swept a lock of hair back into place.  Feeling satisfied, she padded out of the bedroom on her way to work.  Bobby hadn’t returned home last night.  It wasn’t the first time, and like other times, she seldom knew whatever might have kept him away.  Unlike him to get caught up in an accident—word would have reached her by now if that had been the case.  In the event of her knowing, it would have granted her reasonable excuse to summon her boyfriend Harold to come and keep her bed warm.  Or maybe she would be better off heading to his place instead of worrying about Bobby returning home to find them.

Bella got herself a surprise when she heard what sounded like Red’s truck pulling into the compound.  She went and peered through the living room window, and sure enough, it was him.  She came out of the house as he was descending from his truck, muttering a litany of foul words before slamming his door shut.  His eyes fell on her, and like osmosis, his surliness bubbled from the depths of his gut to face.  Like what Charles discovered when he arrived at his apartment to find JoBeth about tear into him, the last person Red wanted to lay eyes on was Bella.  Seeing her made him wish he had wasted some minutes back at the Cumberland station before getting into his truck.  Hell, it would have been good if he had socked his fist at that stupid f**k-wad Charles before getting into his truck.  Now the fat b***h was gonna ask all sort s of aggravating questions before she leaves him in peace and heads out to work.

Bella wanted to go easy on him, but seeing the angry look in his eyes, decided to change tack.  “Where have you been?”

“The f**k do you f*****g care?” Red snapped back.

“You weren’t home last night,” she said.

“No kidding,” he sneered.  “And here I thought you’d miss me.”

He brusquely pushed past her and went into the house.  Bella glared at him with eyes that could have burned holes in his back like lasers; if only she could wish upon a giant asteroid to crush the roof and land on his head.  Oh God, if only wishes would come through.

She returned to the house and went after him.

Bobby Red went into the kitchen and the first place he went looking was the fridge.  He was thirsty as hell and he squinted his eyes as he appraised the interior before settling on a bottle of Crystal Clear water.  He popped the tab on one and drank everything.  He smacked his lips and wiped it clean with the back of his arm.  The water made him feel good, but then he saw Bella standing by the doorway and that got him feeling surly once more.

“I had myself a little issue yesterday that kept me late at the office,” he said dismissively.  “No big deal.  You leave me anything from last night?”

“I did,” she said.  “But then I woke up this morning and thrashed it.”

Bobby grunted.  “Figures.  You sure know how to keep the house going when I ain’t around.”

“Maybe next time you’ll do the right thing of letting me know you’re going to be late getting home or you won’t at all.  There’s no reasonable way to talk sense into you, is there?”

“If it’s coming from you, then there sure as hell f*****g ain’t,” he retorted indignantly.  “I never heard you worry one bit other times I stayed off at work and got home late.  Think you’re gonna get started now?”

“Well, how the f**k would I have to get worried when you can’t have some f*****g decency to call me so I’d know what’s holding you up?  Answer me on that, Einstein.” 

“I ain’t got time for your bullshit crap this morning, Bella,” Bobby strutted past her into the corridor.  “Do me a favor and leave me alone to cool off.  I don’t need your s**t this morning.”

He was heading toward the bedroom when she said something that stopped him.

“By the way, I did call your office yesterday a little late.  They said you’d left hours ago.  I’m not gonna ask who you were with, because you certainly wasn’t here.”

He turned around, wanting to counter her words, but Bella had already walked away from his sight.  Bobby heard her open the front door, and then it slammed back, and all was quiet again.  Bobby made a hissing sound before entering the bedroom and was immensely grateful for the warmth and serenity that the room afforded him.  It felt as if he had been away for a week.  He took his sweet time taking off each item of clothing on him before going to soak himself under a warm shower.  He sighed with pleasure as the water rained down on him, washing the grime and sweat of the County jail cell off his body.  Red was feeling brand new by the time he got done in the bathroom.  He kicked his pile of clothes to a corner in the bedroom, not bothering to pick them off the floor—that can wait till whenever he felt good about doing it.

Bobby Red scratched a delicious itch under his testicles before rummaging in the closet for something useful to wear.  He unearthed a pair of torn jeans and an undershirt that bore an oil stain near the bottom.  He settled for these as he was too lazy to search for something better.  Bobby took his shoes and dumped them in the back porch so as not to invite the awful smell into the room.  The next thing was to call the workshop’s office and sell them a lie of hoe he had come down with a fever and wasn’t capable of making it today; he promised to make up for his work schedule later in the week.  He badly needed to jump into bed, but then a light switch clicked in his head and he dashed for the bathroom to unearth his m*******a stash.  It was still where he had left it, thank God for that.  He weighted the stash in his hand and figured he could maintain the remainder for at least a week and some days, providing he didn’t get too greedy with wanting to smoke too often.  A pang of regret did wash over him at how he went off at Charles.  Red knew last night hadn’t all been his fault, but he couldn’t help declaring such.  The fool does, after all, have a history when it comes to cops in Cumberland.  If Red’s workshop boss ever found out about last night, there would be hell to pay.  Bella would sure as f**k get a steady laugh knowing he’d lost his job just for doing something stupid like that.  Red went and fell on the bed and dozed off.