ACT 3
Lord pulled into the parking lot by the smelter time shack. He hated doing this. He had already pulled his nest egg out of the bank and closed the account there. All he had left to do was quit his job and pay his last bit of rent. The job first. He walked into the locker room and opened his locker. He looked at the work clothes in there. They were stiff with sweat, the seams caked with a green dust that was the copper concentrate that he melted in the furnaces on the days that he worked. “Nasty shit…stuff. I won’t miss that. Or the fiery furnaces, maybe nothin’ about this place.” he was prone to talking to himself lately. He rolled up the ruined clothes and pitched them into the trashcan, tied his bootlaces through the suspension of his hardhat and scooped his soap and razor into one of the boots. He walked out to the timekeeper and called him over, ‘Hey man, I need to talk with you.” When the man faced him, he went on, ”I got an emergency at home up north. I need to quit, sorry about the notice. I gotta go. I won’t be back.”
The timekeeper looked at him, kinda down his nose, “You tramps are all the same. You can’t stay in one place for shit. Good thing you won’t be back. Here fill this form in, so we know where to send your check.” Lord took the form, filled in the blanks and shoved it back at the man. The timekeeper looked it over and nodded. He gave Lord a half-assed salute/wave. His middle finger was extended a little farther than normal. Lord got the message. He picked his gear off of the floor and went to his truck.
The landlord was on his porch when Lord drove up to the trailer. “I won’t have to chase him down.” he thought. He walked up to the man and started to tell him that he had to head home today when the man burst out in loud, drunken voice, “Ya seen Lily?”
Startled, Lord forgot his business for a minute. “NO, why? What’s up?”
“She said she had enough of me and packed some clothes and left.” he moaned. “I thought you had her.”
Lord didn’t know what to say, he didn’t know what to do about it. The drunken old bastard had brought this on himself. “I haven’t seen her man. I got some bad news, I’ve got to go home, it’s an emergency. How much do I owe you?”
“You signed a paper kid. I’ll let you go for $200…cash.” the man had forgotten about the missing Lily when the prospect of money had risen.
Lord said to himself, “Needs another bottle I’ll bet.” Then aloud, “I read that paper and it says that you get to keep the cleaning deposit, that’s $25 and I owe about a week’s rent, that’s $25. How about I give you $25 for the inconvenience and we’ll be square?”
The drunk came right back, “How about you give me $150 and I’ll let you off easy.”
“ I’ll give you $50 and then I’ll start packing. Deal?” Lord thought he had him then. He reached for his wallet. The landlord stepped closer, trying to see how much Lord had in there. He wasn’t about to let the man see his nest egg, so he turned and slipped two twenties and a ten out and put the wallet back in his pocket.
Lord turned around and waved the bills, “Deal?”
The greedy landlord snatched the money from his hand, “I’ll go get your paper.” Off he went, weaving to avoid the blades of grass. He never knew when one would catch a toe and put him down.
“Don’t I know that feelin.” Lord said. Chuckling, “I gotta stop talking to myself, folks’ll think I’m crazy.” He entered the trailer and peered around the stuffy dark space. How much of this crap would he pack? He went in to the bedroom. The stink of his morning’s sickness was strong enough to provoke an erp or two as he dumped the liquid in the toilet and put the can in the tub and turned on the water. He scooped all of the bathroom stuff that he wanted and dumped it in the middle of the still-damp sheets. He dumped the clean and dirty clothes on the bed and gathered up the edges of the top sheet and tied them together. Lord picked that bundle up and his guitar and hauled them out to the back of the pickup. He went back in and grabbed the other sheet and spread it on the little table in the kitchen. Sorting through the refrigerator and cabinets, he found there wasn’t much that was worth taking, so he wadded the sheet into a ball and stuffed it with the other bundle. Taking one last look around, he walked out and shut the door. The landlord was just coming off of his porch, waving a paper. Lord met him halfway, he took the paper and offered his hand to seal the deal.
“Good riddance to you and her. If you see Lily, tell her to keep on going.” The sorry old bastard spat on the grass, turned and walked away.
Lord stomped out of the room, fuming with anger. “How could she lie for a man that had hit her and blacked her eye? Dad would never have done that.” Lord promised himself that he wouldn’t let it happen again. Big talk for a guy just barely into his teenage years. Sure enough, four days later he and Charlie came home from school and found Mom in the kitchen making supper. She tried to keep her back to them but Charlie was feeling a little sad and needed a hug from her. When Mom turned to hold him, he gasped, “Oh, Mom!” Lord looked up sharply. A fire raced through his body filling him with rage, as he saw the swollen and split lip that had been added to the yellow-green bruise of her fading black eye. “Mom! He hit you again? Don’t let him do that. I’m gonna call Grampa!” He figured that Gramps could stop the abuse. But, Mom wouldn’t hear of it. He walked out of the kitchen and went to sit on the porch. ‘Slick’ would be home in time for supper, he guessed.
Lord got into his pickup and drove away from the drunken, sour man. He took it easy on the gravel drive that led to the blacktop a quarter of a mile away. He downshifted as he reached the sharp corner that was at the end of the driveway, just before the mailbox. He was startled as Lily jumped out of the brush in front of him. He stomped on the brake and killed the engine before he could push the clutch in with his other foot. He shook with adrenaline at the near miss. “Damn, Lily, I almost run you over!” he shouted at her through the open window. Lord opened his door and jumped out and went to see if she was okay. She grinned at him sheepishly as he faced her. “What do you think you are doing?” he went on. Her grin faded at the question.
“I’m leaving.” she announced fiercely. “He won’t hit me ever again. Can you give me a ride?”
Lord thought about her request and about the trouble that he had just left behind. He didn’t want to be involved with that bastard in any way. He looked at Lily. She stared at him with such a look of determination…but here she was seven or eight months pregnant, thin as a rail for all that. Wearing worn but clean and neat clothes, the sum total of her belongings stuffed into a small knapsack…a book bag really. He thought about his history and the escape that he and Charlie had been forced to make over a violent bastard parent, well, step-parent to be totally truthful. He wondered that if he agreed to help her would it make her life worse. Or maybe cause him more trouble than he could even guess at.
“Okay, I’ll take you a ways…where you going to?” Lord nodded to her in agreement. Lily smiled widely and quickly walked towards the passenger door. “Wait, how old are you? I don’t want to be arrested for kidnapping.” She stopped in mid-stride at his inquiry.
“I’m 18 and a half. Honest. I’m old enough to do what I want, and I will whether you help me or not. I won’t bring another child into this life for him to hit.” Lily’s expression showed her resolve.
Reassured, Lord relented, “Jump in. Let’s get going before the sun goes down. They got into the truck and started north on the highway. “You didn’t say where you are going.” he asked while he shifted gears. Hearing nothing rumble of the engine and the rush of the wind whistling past the open windows, he glanced in her direction. She kept facing forward, not offering to answer. “Well?” he asked again as he turned back to his driving.
Lily said something but it was too soft for him to hear over the road noise, so he turned her way again. His eyebrows lifted, he touched his right ear with a finger signaling that he hadn’t heard her.
“I don’t know…I don’t have anywhere to go.” she spoke barely loud enough for him to hear. “Can’t I just ride with you to wherever you are going? And then I’ll figure it out.”
“Don’t you have family to go to?” he asked.
“No. I do have a sister. She left 2 years ago and I haven’t heard from her since then.” Lily looked at imploringly. “Please…”
Her voice tugged at Lord’s heart. If he and Charlie hadn’t had Gramps to go to they would have been forced to…God only knows what. At least she would be safe with him. “I guess so. I’m going home to try to convince my girlfriend not to dump me. I don’t know how that will go. But OK, you can rest easy…’til then at least.”
Lily nodded, but continued looking forward. He noticed tears trailing down her cheek, the one that he could see. She was holding back from really crying. He could tell by her shivering body.
