A Second Helping (25 page)

Something had to be done about the parade, though, so at lunch he tried to talk to Amari about it, but all Amari was interested in was telling everybody about his dad getting married to Ms. Lily and his Spirit Quest. After trying three times to change the conversation and being unsuccessful each time, Preston gave up.

At home that evening, the colonel must have sensed something wrong because he came up and knocked on his bedroom door. “Preston?”

“Come on in, Colonel.”

He complied and stood in the doorway. “You okay?”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Doesn't sound like it.”

Preston looked his way. Feeling like he was going to burst if he didn't talk to someone, he asked, “Can I talk to you about something?”

“Sure.”

So Preston told him about all the stuff that was going on and how he was feeling.

Barrett listened, and then asked, “How much work are you talking about exactly?”

Preston handed him the binders he used to keep everything organized, and Barrett looked through them. “You created all of these forms for the participants to fill out and send back?”

“Yes, and we got a bunch of checks that need to be dealt with, and of course, he wants me to handle it.”

“This is very impressive, son.”

“Thanks, but I feel like I'm working 24/7, and all Amari is doing is bragging about how tight ‘his' parade is going to be.”

Barrett leafed through the binders and paused a moment to look at the copies of all the letters that had been sent to organizations like area high school bands; two different Buffalo Soldier reenactment groups; the Black Farmers and Black Cattlemen; area historical societies; fire departments and police agencies; Boy Scout troops, Girl Scout troops; National Guard units. “All of these people are marching in the parade?”

“Yes, sir. Plus he wants to have one of those dog obstacle courses, but he won't call the sponsoring people back. Keeps telling me to do it.”

“Preston, I am impressed.”

“Thanks.”

“So what do you think you should do? Have you tried talking to Amari about how you're feeling?”

“I can't get him to sit still long enough. Every time I try, he blows me off and gives me more stuff to work on.”

“So, deep down inside, what does Preston want to do?”

“Preston wants to kick all of this to the curb, and Amari too.”

Barrett understood his frustration. “Want me to talk to his dad?”

“No.”

“You sure?”

“Yes, sir. I'll figure it out.”

Barrett gave him a supportive pat on the back. “Keep me posted.”

“I will, and Colonel?”

“Yes?”

“Thanks for wanting to help.”

“No problem.”

So the next day at school, Preston dropped all the binders on Amari's desk.

Amari looked at the binders and up at Preston. “What's this?”

“The parade stuff. I'm tired of doing all of the work while you run around orchestrating and taking all the credit. I tried talking to you about it, but you're not hearing me, so I quit.”

Amari's eyes went wide. “But you can't. Come on, man!”

“I quit, Amari. Good luck with
your
parade.” And he went to his seat and sat.

When Amari showed up at Trent's office after school, Trent took one look at his son's dejected demeanor and asked, “What's wrong, bud?”

“Preston quit.”

“Quit what?”

“The parade company.”

This was the first he'd heard that the two friends were having issues, although he sensed Preston was doing the
lion's share of whatever they'd been doing, mainly because he hadn't seen Amari working on anything tied to the parade at home. “Did he have a reason?”

“Yeah, me.” Amari wriggled out of his backpack and plopped down in one of the chairs. “Dad, I can't do this without him.”

“Okay. Let's back up. Why're you the reason he quit? You and Preston are close as brothers.”

“That's what I thought. He said he's doing most of the work and all I'm doing is orchestrating and taking the credit.”

“Are you? And be truthful with yourself.”

Amari sighed. “Yeah, he's right, but he's so much better at stuff than I am, you know?”

“No reason to treat him like a mule.”

He sighed again. “I know, but somebody has to do the groundwork.”

Trent shook his head at Amari trying to play victim. “Why isn't that somebody you? Preston signed on to help, that's all. This was supposed to be your baby.”

“But Dad—”

Trent folded his arms. “Go ahead.”

“It's like this. I know what I want the parade to look like, but I don't have time to be making phone calls and writing letters.”

“Why not?”

“Because I had to make sure Crystal did the flags right. I have to talk to Nathan so he can give us a good rate on the airport pickups. I have to—”

“Nathan? Ms. Brown's driver? What airport pickups?”

“For the people who are flying in.”

“What people?”

“People like the choirs for the choir competition, the Buffalo Soldiers. I got to talk to the hotel people in Franklin about room rates.”

“What? Wait a minute, back up again. Start over. Better yet, how many people are you expecting?”

“Last count, two hundred so far.”

“So far?”

“We're still waiting to hear from some of the other frats and sororities about the step show competition. There are at least three more choirs that have to send in their forms and money.”

“Money?”

“Yeah. We're charging them a hundred dollars apiece entrance fee. I got to have at least five choirs sign up so I can pay out the five-hundred-dollar prize to the winner.”

Trent stared. When he finally got his brain to move, he asked, “Does Bernadine know about any of this?”

He shook his head.

“Were you going to tell her, or me, or any of the adults?”

“Wanted you all to be surprised.”

“I'm surprised all right. Tell you what. Do you have your paperwork?”

Amari fished the three binders out of his backpack and turned them over.

“All of this?”

“Yeah, Preston gave them to me when he quit.”

Trent paged through and he was impressed. “Who made up all these application forms?”

“Preston.”

“These letters too?”

“Yeah.”

“No wonder he quit. Looks to me like you've been riding him hard and putting him up wet.”

“But he's so much better at that kind of stuff.”

“So you keep telling me.” Trent saw a manila mailer stuck into the binder's front pocket. “What's this?”

Amari shrugged.

Trent looked inside and found checks made out to the August First Parade Company. “What are these for?”

“The choir thing, I think.”

“You think?”

“Preston was supposed to handle it.”

“Does he have a bank account?”

“No, but I told him to get one and…”

The look on Trent's face made his voice peter out.

Trent stood. “Let's go see Ms. Bernadine.”

“Am I in trouble? I'm not going to have to paint Ms. Agnes's fence again, am I?”

“Just come with me.”

 

All Bernadine had to see was the way Amari dragged into her office with his head down and the tight set of Trent's jaw for her to ask, “Okay. What's up.”

Trent set the binders on her desk.

Amari sat in a chair to await his fate.

After she leafed slowly through the binders and heard Trent's explanation as to what it all meant, she gave Amari that look that he swore she'd learned from Tamar, then she called the Paynes.

When she ended the call, Amari said, “This is all my fault, Ms. Bernadine. Preston didn't do anything.”

“Looks like he did plenty and he did it well.”

That made him feel a bit better. Even though Preston was mad at him, Amari didn't want to be the cause of him getting in trouble.

The Paynes showed up a short while later. Bernadine then called in Lily and put Roni, who was in New York for a recording session, on the speakerphone. The adults with the help of the kids brainstormed what needed to be done. They discussed pretty much everything the parade needed. They felt they had to, seeing how things like bank accounts, travel arrangements, and everything else need adult oversight.

Lily and Sheila volunteered to help Amari and Preston with all the paperwork, and Roni readily agreed to help coordinate the choir completion. Trent and the colonel volunteered to help the boys contact the hotels and motels in Hays and Franklin to see what kind of room rates were available. Bernadine would help in the talks with Mal and Rocky about food and concessions. She also said she'd ask Otis to handle the cleanup crew because she could only imagine how much trash would be left behind after a parade and a full day of fun.

Once everything had been crossed off the list, everyone was confident the August First parade now stood a chance of being as tight as Amari had envisioned it to be, and they thanked God and the Ancestors that they'd learned about this potential debacle that day instead of the day before the parade.

Bernadine looked at the still solemn Amari and his equally solemn buddy. According to Trent the two boys had fallen out over this parade business, but she was sure they'd work it out. She had something to say to Preston, however. “Preston. Your hard work made it easy for us to pick up all this and run with it. Thank you.”

He smiled shyly. “You're welcome.”

Lily added, “And if you ever need a job before you become a big-time astrophysicist, I'll hire you as an office assistant in a minute.”

That made him grin.

Bernadine turned to Amari. “Baby boy, you have vision coming out of your ears, but you can't put all the work on other people.”

“I know that now.”

Trent added pointedly, “And you need oversight.”

For Amari there was that word again. “I understand.” He looked over at Preston and said from the heart, “I'm sorry, man.”

Preston nodded.

“We still friends?”

Preston extended his hand and they shared a grip. “Always.”

Amari grinned.

Bernadine stood. “And with that, class is dismissed.”

M
al hadn't had much to say to Otis after their blowup over the roses, but Bernadine wanted him to talk to the man about heading up the cleanup crew for the parade, so Mal stopped him one afternoon just as Otis was preparing to take out the trash.

“Need to talk to you, Otis.”

“About what?”

“The parade.”

“Oh, thought maybe you were going to fire me.”

“No. I only fire a man for not doing his job, and you've been on point with handling your business.”

“Good to know.”

Mal didn't like the man, at all. “The parade committee wants you to spearhead the cleanup crew if you would. Keep in mind part of that will be horses that me and the Buffalo Soldiers are going to be riding.”

“That's okay. I'll do whatever you folks need to help out.
Sounds like this is going to be a big to-do, the way everybody's talking about it.”

“Yeah it is. We'll pay you for the work, of course.”

“Appreciate that.”

“I'll have details later.”

“Okay. And Mr. July. Hey, I'm sorry you and I got off on the wrong foot.”

“It's okay,” Mal lied, and went back inside.

Otis knew July didn't like him, and the last thing he wanted to do was stick around this sorry excuse for a town long enough to be in charge of sweeping up horseshit. First opportunity he got, he was blowing this pop stand and Crystal was going with him.

 

Over at the school, Jack dismissed class, and once the kids were gone, he sat at his desk and mused over life as it now stood. He'd landed in heaven. Not only did he have the full support of the parents and the community but he had a new house, and apparently a new relationship with his son. Things weren't perfect; he and Eli still got into it as all parents and teens tended to do, but the bitterness Eli had wrapped himself in since Eva's death seemed to be dissipating. Jack, on the other hand, had become a proud member of Dads Inc., and had a black tee shirt with his name on it to prove it. Getting together with the some of the other fathers in town had helped him go from stranger to neighbor and he enjoyed their weekly Thursday evening get-togethers at the Dog and Cow.

“Can I talk to you for a minute?”

To his surprise and delight, Rocky stood in the doorway. He rose to his feet. “Sure, come on in. Grab a seat.”

She didn't. “I wanted to talk to you about Eli and Crystal.”

“Problems?”

“No, they asked if they could work at the Dog, but I wanted to see where they stand with their classes first.”

Jack was confused. “Eli wants a job?”

“Freaked me out too, but I think he's just doing it to be around Crystal. She came to me first.”

“Really?”

“Hey, he could do worse. If somebody could convince her to do something about that hair…never mind. What do you think?”

Sidetracked by her beauty, he asked, “You want my opinion on Crys's hair?”

“No, Jack. Her and Eli working. Stay focused here.”

“First time you ever called me by my first name.”

“It escaped.”

He smiled.

She sorta did.

“They're both doing well in their classes,” he told her. “So if you want to hire them, it's okay.”

“Good to know. Thanks.” For a moment she lingered, then turned and departed without another word.

Savoring the fading scent of her perfume, he sat back down and said to himself,
One step at a time.

 

Everyone in town seemed to working on some aspect of the parade and there was a lot of hustle and bustle going on. Bernadine had Main Street paved. She didn't want their first parade to be held in the dust and dirt, and since the repaving project was already on the list of municipal improvements,
she just had Trent and the construction guys move it up a year. It took them until the middle of the month to get it finished, but when it was, everybody said good-bye to the old rut-filled, pock-filled one, and hallelujah to the smooth, even-riding new one. Roni and Amari were talking to the choirs via Web cam and conference calls to put together the mass choir she wanted to sing as the last event Saturday night. They ran into problems with the big solo when a couple of soloists argued over who would be tapped for the role, but Amari hoped they'd act like the adults they were supposed to be and not kids when it came time for the performance. Sheila, who was pretty handy with a sewing machine, made vests for the men in town who were going to be marshals. She had Crystal sketch the flag design, then used the sewing machine and a laptop to turn the rendering into an appliqué that she applied to the back of the royal blue vests. Both Amari and Preston thought the vests were sharp.

The boys rode to Franklin with the colonel and Trent to check on room blocks for the visitors who would be staying overnight, and since business was slow, all the hotels and motels in the area gave them a great rate.

In the midst of all this, Bernadine also finalized the final arrangements for Nikki's burial, and on a rainy, stormy July day, she and Crystal drove over to the cemetery in Franklin and stood by her gravesite as one of the town's pastors spoke the words and the workers lowered the casket into the ground.

 

Henry Adams school went year round but there were extended breaks throughout. The current semester that began
last May in conjunction with the opening of the new school would end at the end of July, and Crystal couldn't wait. She was really enjoying her waitress job at the Dog and would be able to work full-time just as soon as the school semester ended. She wouldn't have to go back to school until mid-September and she'd already picked out the clothes she wanted to order online with all her extra cash.

She and Eli usually worked the same shifts, but he and his dad had gone to Hays right after school to check out some new clay he wanted to get. She was glad he was getting back into his art; this new Eli was a lot better to be around than the old one.

Crystal entered the Dog, and after tying back her braids and washing her hands and doing the rest of the prep routine that she'd been trained to do by Rocky, she gave Siz a wave and went out to the diner floor. Kelly, the hostess, pointed out a family that had just arrived in the section Crystal was covering, so she hustled over to greet them and take their order.

“Hi,” she said with a smile. “My name's Crystal and I'll be your server. Can I start you off with drinks? We have Pepsi products.” And she verbally went down the list of beverage offerings.

Only then did Crystal realize that the family, a man and woman with two daughters, looked sort of familiar. “Weren't you all at the school opening?”

The mother, wearing a fancy suit that looked way out of place for the diner and the time of day, looked Crystal up and down and said haughtily, “Yes. We're the Clarks.”

“Okay. Nice to meet you. What can I get you?”

“You can get a hairnet.”

“Huh?”

“How much rayon is in those nasty little braids?”

Crystal's eyes widened and her heart began beating real fast.

One of the daughters, the little one, snickered. The older daughter shook her head and turned away as if it might make her invisible. The husband glared at his wife, but was ignored.

The woman didn't even look up from her menu. “Go! Get a hairnet. No one wants that mess in their food. Better yet, send us another server.”

Her husband said warningly, “Colleen.”

“Don't Colleen me. And you want my girls to move here with all these ghetto kids? Not on your life, Gary.”

She then looked up at Crystal. “Are you deaf?”

By now the other handful of people in the restaurant were staring. Crystal could feel hot tears of shame and anger burning her eyes. “I'll get you another server,” she whispered.

By the time she reached the kitchen, she was in tears and so mad she wanted to go back and slap the taste out of Colleen Clark's mouth. Instead, she snatched off her apron.

Rocky walked in and upon seeing her face asked with alarm, “What happened? Why are you crying?”

“I quit,” she choked out, and started for the door that led from the kitchen to outside.

Rocky very gently grabbed her hand. “What happened, Crys?”

“Go ask that witch at table seven. I'm going home.”

Crystal blew out of the door.

Rocky and Siz shared a concerned look. Then Kelly came in angrily. Having heard everything, she explained to them what happened and what had been said to Crystal.

Rocky was not happy. “Are these people regulars?”

“Not sure, but it's the first time I've seen them in here.”

“Okay. I'll talk to the woman.”

So Rocky walked out to the floor and upon seeing Colleen and Gary Clark and their girls at table seven, she said to herself:
Oh hell, no!

Hiding her anger behind a fake smile, she went over to the table. “Colleen, I hear you insulted one of my servers.”

Colleen looked up.

Rocky saw fear flash in Colleen's eyes before she hid it behind a show of disdain.

“I was insulted by that hair of hers.”

“Do you remember the fight we had in eighth grade?”

“I don't know what you're talking about.”

“Sure you do, and you're reminded of it every night when you take that front partial out of your mouth before you go to sleep.”

The daughters stared.

Colleen asked huffily, “Are you the replacement server?”

“No, Miss Witch, I'm the manager.”

Rocky glanced over at Gary. “Hey, Gare.”

“Hey Rock. Heard you were back. Good to see you.”

“You too. Mind if I take care of this?”

“Nope. Be my guest. She wouldn't listen to me.”

“Thanks.”

And then, in front of God and everybody watching, Rocky reached down, grabbed Colleen by her fancy suit, and snatched her up out of the seat so that Colleen would be sure to hear every word. “Don't you ever insult one of my employees again.”

“Get your hands off me before I sue you!”

Rocky tossed Colleen back into the seat and before she could threaten Rocky again, Rocky picked up a pitcher of ice water from the nearest table and slowly poured the freezing cold contents over Colleen's head.

She screamed.

Tiffany Adele cried, “Dad, do something!”

He shrugged. “Your mother's on her own.”

Leah tried very hard not to let anyone see how much this pleased her.

Sputtering, Colleen jumped to her feet, but everyone noticed that she didn't throw a punch. They guessed Miss Witch knew better, having already lost two teeth to Rocky the last time they came to blows.

“I will sue you!”

“Go for it.” Rocky said to her before turning her back on Colleen so she could speak to Gary. “You and your girls are welcome to come back anytime. Not her, so get her out of here if you would.”

“Got it. Thanks, Rock.”

“No problem.”

And Rocky walked away.

 

Thanks to the good folks of Henry Adams, Ray had been able to buy a car today with the money he'd been making. The Taurus wasn't new by any means but it rolled and it was his—well, Otis Miller's. Having wheels gave him options and a quick way out of town, so he was ready to make his move. He was tired of playing handyman and everything that went with it. Once he got his payoff he'd head for California, and Henry Adams could kiss his ass.

All that was left to do was getting Crystal alone. He figured his best bet would be to offer to drive her home and then go from there. He knew her work schedule and that she often walked to and from home. Another plus was that she and the rest of the hicks trusted him.

As he drove down the newly paved but deserted Main Street on his way back to the Dog, he spotted Crystal walking toward him. She was alone.

Crystal was crying and stomping mad as she walked down Main Street toward home. She knew her hair needed to be done, and she was planning to tell Ms. Bernadine to help her get it fixed, but that woman back there didn't know her! And then to talk to her like she was a piece of gum on the bottom of her shoe! She was so mad she could hardly see.

“Hey, Crystal. You okay?”

She wiped at the tears running down her face and looked over to see Mr. Otis in a car that had slowed beside her. “No.” He'd never been anything but polite to her, unlike that Clark heifer.

“What's wrong?”

“Just got into an argument with a woman at the Dog. I'll be okay.”

“You don't look like it. Hop in and I'll take you home.”

Walking over, she pulled open the door and got in.

 

Over at the Power Plant, Bernadine looked through the mail Trent had just brought in from his daily afternoon run to the Franklin post office. Most of the envelopes looked to be town-related, some of it addressed to the parade company, but there was one addressed to her that was handwritten. Seeing the return address was a J. Hurley in Cleveland, Ohio, she opened it and took out the folded lined paper inside and read:

Bernadine looked in the bottom of the envelope and found the picture. It showed a smiling, young, and healthy
Nikki. She was wearing a slinky dress and had a party hat on her head that made Bernadine think the pic had been taken at a New Year's Eve party. Crystal's resemblance to her mother was well shown. Bernadine then turned her attention to the man with his arm around Nikki's waist and her heart stopped. “Oh my lord,” she whispered. Now she knew why she thought Otis Miller looked so familiar. As with all children, Crystal favored her mother and her father, and it was her face that Bernadine had seen in his. Terrified, she grabbed her phone, hit Crystal on her speed dial, and while she waited for the call to go through, she yelled for Trent and Lily.