Her husband left her all alone all the time, while he was out chasing other women. She was all alone, there every night, she was very lonely, and just didn't know what she was going to do. Well, I WAS very young and inexperienced, but even I could tell where this was going. I sympathized with her a little bit, told her I was sorry for what was happening to her, finished my coke, and told her I had to go eat supper. She walked me to my car, waved goodbye as I drove off. Goodbye forever, it turned out.
The waitress at the restaurant was about my age, cute, and came over and sat at my table. Said she got off at eleven, and though I was interested, I was too shy to say the right things, and anyway, I had to get up early and go to work. By the end of the week, I had reached the McAlister office. The Boss told me I had really done well, made some money, and next week he had a good route for me, out from the Oklahoma City office toward Lawton. “Alright now. You have made some money. You're set. We have been off this route awhile, and I want you to build it back up.” He offered to ride up to Oklahoma city with me. I could sleep in the office there that weekend, if I wanted. Always ready to save money, I accepted.
Hanging around the office Saturday, I began to see that strange things were going on. Many women worked there, constantly on the phones. Other women were constantly coming in, asking if they had a check for them. “No, it's not been processed yet.” or, “It's in the mail.” seemed to be the stock answer.
Out on the new route Monday, I saw right off I was into trouble. Most all regular customers refused to let me spray, “No, you were supposed to be here a month ago.” or some such. Finally, I called the boss and told him the situation. “Tell them we're back on the route regular now, and we will never be late again. Settle them down.” Well, I tried. But I just never did have a very good line of BS.
I finally got to Lawton, and one customer, a bar, which was a “blacks only” joint, did let me spray, but I kept getting some very hard looks, and a few comments, from the patrons. I just stuck to my work, minded my own business, and never said a word. Nobody really bothered me. The next day, the papers were full of news about a big race riot that had just broken out in that part of town.
I found a cheap hotel, $2, in downtown Lawton. The money was running thin again. I had a room on the second floor, and when I got off the elevator, I was a little shocked. Scantily clad women were busily leading soldier boys in and out of almost every room but mine.
Like I say, I was young, innocent, and all that, but I finally got the picture. But I had paid my $2, and I decided to just mind my own business and just make the best of it I could.
I got on the elevator to go downstairs to eat, and was about to push the down button. A woman walked in. I asked, “Are you going down?” she just smiled. Then I flushed very red, and when the elevator stopped, I got gone quick.
I read the handwriting on the wall. The job was playing out. I was down to my last few dollars I had on me. I couldn't cash a check. I reasoned that if I went to a police station, they would reason I would not dare write them a hot check, so I went. They reasoned differently. Finally, I talked a banker into calling my bank at home. I talked to him.(He had known me all my life.) I finally got some money.
That weekend, I drove to McAlister, got my clothes I had stored there, wished my now-former bosses good by and headed to Enid, across the state, where a pipeline job was starting. I managed to get a job starting Monday.
With a little time to kill, I got to thinking. When I was in the 10th grade, my girlfriend who was a 7th grader at the time, had moved to Enid. Almost killed both of us. I got to thinking about the kiss we had shared, after practicing kissing my forearm a few times, at a party at her house. After my friend Jerry and I started walking home, her mother left to take some of the kids home. Jerry's girlfriend was there too, and we would run back up and just maybe, if we were lucky, we could get another kiss. As I was running up the paved road, I fell, skinned up both my hands and my chin. I was not in much shape for kissing when we got there, bleeding like I was. But she did very tenderly bandage me up. That was almost as good.
Anyway, I decided to call her in Enid. Sure enough, she was still there. Yes, we could go out. continued
No comments:
Post a Comment