Chapter 53

There are moments in every person’s life when everything seems right. It might be fate or just the balls bouncing the right way. For some, it might be a hole-in-one on the golf course.

Others might consider it as when they bought their first home or their dream home. I know that for some people, that moment was when they graduated from high school or college and received their diploma.

For me, it was hearing what Sandy had to say to me on the dock in the early morning. The fatigue was starting to hit in a bad way, but being with her made me feel alive.

“I want to be with you,” she said. These were words I had wanted to hear since I was old enough to know what love meant. I had been through three bad marriages and didn’t consider myself the marrying type anymore. Since the last one went south, I had accepted being single. In fact, I liked the freedom. But I knew life had more to offer than what I was experiencing.

For me to ascend to the highest peak, I needed somebody else. That somebody was Sandy. She could brighten the darkest days and cure any hurt that exists in my heart. If she said “jump”, I would ask “how high?”

That’s why it was so difficult to say what I had to say.

“We can’t do that,” I answered, speaking softly. I looked out over this lake I loved.

There was a silence for a long period. Yes, it was awkward and I knew this hurt her. The one person in my life I never wanted to hurt, had just been hurt.

“I don’t understand,” she said. Neither did I, it was just something that couldn’t happen right now.

I explained everything that was going on, leaving nothing out.

“I can’t risk them hurting you,” I said. “If that happened, I’d never get over it.”

“I’m willing to take my chances,” she said, and I knew that was true. Sandy wasn’t afraid of them. She wouldn’t let them rule her life. I liked her attitude. But she also had not seen two dead bodies over the last few days.

“I can’t,” I said. “I want you more than anything on this planet. You are it for me. But there’s no way I could ever let anything happen to you that was my fault.”

“I never knew you to be scared of anybody, Michael Hunt!”

She was wrong. I was scared of a lot of things. Maybe I just hid it better. If it was just me, then I could handle taking on these bad guys. But I had to worry that every word I wrote or question that I asked somebody might get my mother, M.J. or Sandy hurt or worse.

“You don’t want to mess with these guys,” I said.

“Fine, don’t mess with them!”

“If something isn’t done, they’ll hurt a lot of other people.”

“Mikey, you are running a small-town newspaper. Nobody expects you to be super reporter and cure all the ills of this town. We expect you to write about the football game and a little story about the student of the month. Let the cops worry about stopping whoever is doing all this.”

This was an argument I had used on myself. She had a good point. I should just clean up this mess I was in, sell the newspaper and save my mother’s house, then take Sandy off to wherever life took us.

“You know they could be watching us right now?”

“I don’t care! Wave at them! Offer to take them out for a latte, or whatever. You can’t let them rule your life.”

I didn’t want them to rule my life, either. But I also didn’t want anything bad to happen to her even worse.

“Sandy, I don’t know where I’ll be in two weeks. You’ve always known exactly where you’re going to be and what you’ll be doing.”

“Yeah, you’re right. I’m tired of living like that. I want to just wing it for a while. I know that if I’m ever going to be really happy, it’ll be with you. Don’t you feel the same way?”

“There’s nothing more that I want.”

“Then don’t let them rule our life. If you want to go after them, do it. I don’t want them to come after me, but if they do, then we’ll fight that battle when it comes. It will be worth it.”

“What if…”

She did not let me finish my question. Sandy put her hand over my mouth.

“Don’t worry about the ‘what if’s’, okay?”

I nodded. She moved closer and leaned her head on my shoulder. I was happy in a way that I haven’t been in many a moon.

We stayed out at the lake a little longer before heading back to town. We both had to go to work and check on our family. When I got home, Mom was a little antsy, worried about her car. She made some breakfast and M.J. appeared in the kitchen, wearing those silly looking pajamas.

He was rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. His short hair was a mess. M.J. walked over next to my mother and grabbed hold of her leg.

“Good morning, sleepyhead!” Mom said.

M.J. turned to look at me. I stuck my tongue out at him and smiled. He frowned and edged away. The little guy was hard to figure out. Mom made some eggs, sausage and biscuits. That would be good to hike the old cholesterol up. But I was too hungry to worry about that.

M.J. sat down in Manny’s old seat. Mom was between us. I started to dig in, but she made me wait until after the food was blessed. She prayed, then added some more. Anybody that she knew who had so much as an ingrown toenail was prayed for and mentioned. I was about to point out the food was going to get cold when Mom finally actually blessed the food to our body and said “amen”.

“Amen!” I said and got a bite that would put Squiggy to shame.

Mom had her fork loaded and was about to take her first bite. “Michael Hunt, you shouldn’t take such big bites!”

“I’m making up for lost time!” I replied.

She shook her head and started eating, taking small bites that would keep her at the table much longer than it took me to digest the food. M.J. was playing with his food.

“What’s this?” he asked, pointing at the sausage.

“Sausage,” Mom said.

“Where’s it come from?”

“The store,” I said.

M.J. looked at me like I was dumber than Squiggy. I wasn’t aware that five-year old boys could make looks like that.

“I know that! Where does the store get it?”

“A supplier.”

“What’s a supplier? Are they big and mean?”

“I’m sure some of them are.”

“Do they eat people?”

“Only if they’re really hungry.”

“Michael! Don’t do that.”

Yeah, way to go, Mom, I thought. Just when I was having some fun and sharing a chat with the little guy, you step in and end it.

“Sausage comes from pigs,” Mom said. Now I even knew that was a mistake.

“I’m eating Porky the Pig?” M.J. asked. He had a look of horror on his face.

“No, it’s his cousin on the mother’s side,” I said. That just confused the boy even worse.

“Michael, it’s probably good that you don’t have children,” Mom said. I almost dropped my food. That was the meanest thing I’d ever heard my mother say to me. I saw her smiling and realized Mom had thrown out an insult! She was dogging me!

I was about to toss one back her way when the doorbell rang.

“Would you get the door please?” Mom asked, looking at me.

“I’m eating!” I protested.

But I got up and trounced to the door, just like we both knew I would. I had not been this tired in ages. I was running on over a day without sleep. My body was not made for this. I could get by on six or seven hours of sleep in a night, but not go without it.

I looked through the peephole and saw Squiggy and Mule at the front door. They were wearing the same clothes as when they ditched the twins a few hours ago.

“Nobody’s home!” I shouted. Squiggy and Mule looked at each other. I could imagine such high intelligence sorting that information out. If nobody is home, how is somebody talking to us?

Mule actually started walking back toward the truck. Squiggy stood his ground.

“Get back up here!” he hollered. “We’ll wait for em here!”

I opened the door. Squiggy had Psycho on a leash. Mule was standing on the steps with a puzzled look.

“I didn’t think nobody was here,” he said. Mule had obviously not taken advantage of the educational opportunities the Langford Public Schools offered him.

I walked out on the porch. Squiggy perked up and started sniffing the air.

“Is that sausage?” he asked, while continuing to smell.

“Naw, I cut the cheese,” I said.

Squiggy leaned closer, continuing to sniff. “That ain’t no poot!”

“You got anymore of that there cheese?” Mule asked. “I’m kindly hungry!”

Psycho was obviously hot. Her tongue was hanging out and drool was dropping to the ground.

“Is she thirsty?” I asked.

Squiggy leaned down and petted his dog. “Naw, I just gave her a beer. She’s just hot.”

“What are you guys doing here?”

“We came by to check on you,” Mule said.

“Yeah, you weren’t at work!” Squiggy said. It was almost like he was shaming me. This from a person who shunned work like it was the plague.

“I’m going in later.”

“Little late, don’t you think?” Squiggy offered.

“Yeah,” Mule added. That was one of the most intelligent things I had ever heard Mule say.

“I was up all night.”

“So was we,” Squiggy added. “We’s kinda getting goofy.”

I wasn’t aware that it took sleep deprivation to put them in that condition.

Mule looked like he was falling asleep while standing up.

“I thought you were supposed to go to work today?” I asked.

Mule ducked his head. “I did.”

“Short day? Not many septic tanks to empty?”

“He got fired,” Squiggy said.

“Already?” I asked. That had to be some kind of a record.

“You didn’t have to tell him that!” Mule hollered.

“What happened?”

“She kept coming on to me,” he said.

“And that bothered you?”

“I’d sobered up and saw how ugly she was.”

“He didn’t want to be viewed as a sexual object,” Squiggy added.

“You didn’t?”

“Not by her,” Mule said.

I nodded. I wanted to ask Squiggy why he wasn’t working. He had some kind of flexibly work schedule that seemed to be that Squiggy only worked when he wanted to work.

The door opened and shut behind me. I turned around and saw M.J. standing in the door, staring at Psycho, who was staring back, still drooling.

“Puppy!” M.J. said and walked toward the dog with his arms outstretched.

“I don’t know if I’d do that,” Squiggy said.

“M.J.!” I said. He didn’t listen, of course.

The little boy walked up to the crazy dog and put his arms around her. She sat there for a minute, glaring at him. Psycho was not used to anybody but Squiggy loving on her. That is scary, by the way.

“I hope she don’t bite him,” Mule mentioned. Man, he was at the top of his game today.

“I don’t think she will,” Squiggy said. He almost looked hurt. “I think she likes it!”

With that, Psycho pulled her head up and licked M.J. in his face. Her tongue was big enough that one swipe left drool over ninety percent of his face. The second lick and the boy had dog slobber all over his head.

“Ugh,” Mule said.

“That oughta clean him up,” Squiggy said.

“Michael!” came a voice from behind me. I figured out Mom had just watched this and was not pleased to see Psycho licking on poor little M.J. Not that the boy cared. He was smiling like I had never seen him.

“What’s the puppy’s name?” M.J. asked.

“It’s Psycho,” Squiggy said. “Ain’t no puppy!”

M.J. ran off the porch, patting his leg. “Come here, boy!”

“She ain’t no boy!”

“Psycho’s a girl?” Mule asked. He leaned down and started looking at her. “I didn’t know that.”

“Yeah, stupid, she ain’t got no…”

“Squiggy!” Mom put an end to that explanation.

Psycho looked up at Squiggy for a second, then pulled the leash out of his hand.

“Hey!” he hollered, not that it did any good.

Psycho was off into the front yard in pursuit of M.J. We watched them run and chase each other for a few minutes.

“The boy’s head could just about fit in her mouth,” Mule observed.

We all turned and stared at him. That wasn’t something we wanted to hear.

“So could your…” Squiggy tried to say.

“Don’t even think about going there,” Mom said.

The phone rang. Mom looked at me and I looked back. She took off like it was a race. I didn’t care if she wanted to answer the phone. I’d just as soon not talk on the phone.

We watched the boy and M.J. play. It almost looked natural, other than the fact the dog was a pit bull. M.J. tried to tackle the dog, but Psycho did not budge. Finally, she must have decided it would be fun and let the boy take her down.

Mom emerged from the house carrying the cordless phone. “Here, it’s for you.” She almost looked disappointed.

“Who is it?” I asked.

“Elliot Lancaster,” she said.

That name was familiar, but it took a few seconds to recall it. He was the broker trying to sell the paper.

We exchanged greetings and pleasantries, before getting down to business.

“I’ve got some great news!” he said. I wondered if his clothes were already wrinkled.

“I could use some good news,” I replied. “What’s up?”

“I do believe we might’ve hooked a big one.”

“What do you mean?” I didn’t know we were going fishing.

“I, uh, think we might have a buyer.”

“You’re kidding!”

“I don’t joke when it comes to selling newspapers!” he said, then laughed. I failed to see any humor in it.

“Have you got an offer?”

“Yes, I do!”

"Isn't that pretty quick?"

"Hey, are you complaining?"

"No, I'm just surprised," I said.

"Right now, it's a buyer's market."

There remained one major question that needed to be asked. "How much?”

He told me a price that was twenty-five thousand less than I asked for, and twenty-five thousand more than I expected.

“That’s not bad,” I said.

He chuckled. Apparently Elliot thought he had just performed the sale of the century.

“Who’s the buyer?”

“Oh, I can’t disclose that!”

How silly of me to ask that question! I didn’t see anything wrong. It wasn’t like I was going to cut out the middleman.

“Is it a chain or an individual?” I asked. I hoped it was an individual. My father hated the newspaper chains and if we sold out to one of them, he would be rolling over in his grave. I felt about the same way. A chain would come in, hire the cheapest help they could and take the money and run.

“The prospective buyer is a corporation with a chain of newspapers throughout the state!”

“Oh.”

“Is that a problem?”

“I don’t guess so.”

He was quiet for a second before continuing. “There are a couple of stipulations, of course.”

Of course! It couldn’t just go through easy, that would be asking too much. “What are they?”

“Oh, it’s nothing unrealistic,” he said. “First off, they want to send a representative to see the building and the town. Then, they will do the due diligence to make sure the income and expense report is accurate.”

“Is that all?”

“Well, there is one other thing.”

“What is that one other thing?” I asked.

He told me and I felt my shoulders sag.

Chapter 54