All Roads Lead Home (Bellingwood) (27 page)

"Crap," Polly said. "How long do you
suppose he was standing there?"

Stu Decker answered her. "Oh, pretty much through
your entire conversation."

"And you didn't tell us?" Lydia asked.

"
Ummm
, no?" he
responded.

"Well, you're not much protection at all, are
you?" Beryl said.

"Look, the guy needed some kind of relief after
the takedown he'd had. We men have to stick together. It seems to me he needed
more protection than you."

Beryl turned her back on him and thrust her hand in
the air as if she were dismissing him completely.

"What are you going to do if this Joey character
won't leave you alone?" she asked Polly.

"I
dunno
," Polly
replied. "I'd like to think he would be reasonable, but obviously he's not
if he's out here trying to talk me into getting back together with him.
I don't know how many times it’s
going to take for me to turn him down before he gets
it.

"And honestly,
ladies, I have absolutely no idea why he is so obsessed with me. We were only
together for about five months and we hadn't ever talked about long-term goals
in our relationship. He dated plenty of other women before he met me and there
is one other girl at the library who was interested in him. This just seems so
odd."

Lydia said,
"That's exactly right. This is odd. Honey, if you can't get him to be
reasonable in a hurry, you might have to admit you can't handle his level of
crazy and get some help with it."

"What would we do? Put him in j
ail? That's not going to help,” Polly said.

"Polly, if you think for a minute that his anger
won't turn on you at some point, you're flat out wrong. Just because he is nice
to you right now doesn't mean he'll be nice to you when he doesn't get his
way." This came from Sylvie. "Before you know it, you're the target."

"So where are you meeting him tonight? Tell me
you're not meeting him at his hotel." Lydia said.

"Oh! No!" Polly exclaimed. "I told him
to wander around Boone today, there's plenty to do there and he's as much of a
history nut as I am. He'll probably end up at Mamie Eisenhower's house and lose
track of time. We're going to meet at the Giggling Goat at seven o'clock. It's
the only place I knew he'd easily find. That should be alright, don't you
think?"

Lydia looked at the other three
women
. "That
should be fine. So, would you freak out if you saw some friends having a drink
and a sandwich there?" she asked pertly.

"Yes, Lydia.
I might." Polly responded.

"Oh, well darn.
I'm pretty sure some of us would like to know what
this guy looks like so we can keep an eye on him if he shows up."

Polly sighed. "Are you going to be upset if I
tell you not to eat there tonight?"

"I don't think that upset is the right
word," Lydia replied. "Disappointed
,
maybe," and she looked
hopefully at Polly.

"Fine," Polly said, her lips pressed
together. "But, you can't sit at the table next to us and you can't sit
with us and you can't blatantly eavesdrop."

Then she sighed, "In my entire life I have never
met people as pushy as you when it comes to my life."

Beryl giggled.
"Who?
Us?
You're the most excitement we've had in years!"
She laughed out loud. "It was getting pretty boring around here. All we
did for fun was tease Lydia and Aaron about their nightly escapades and after
this
long, even that
has gotten pretty boring."

Lydia swatted her friend's arm. "I want Aaron to
see this guy and I want this guy to see Aaron and know you are our friend. After
that, your evening is your own. Whatever you decide, we will try to live with
it."

"Do you mean like take him back?" Polly
sounded surprised.

"Yes, like take him back. You're not a stupid
girl, Polly. If you liked him once, you had to see a lot of good things in him."

Polly thought about it. "You’re right. He is
witty and smart about all sorts of things and he loves history, probably more
than I do. He took me to a lot of offbeat hidden away haunts in the Boston
area. He loved to read and liked the same kind of movies I like. He created
these wonderfully romantic outings, taking me all over the region. It was like
New England was his to show off. He is a great cook and things seemed to be
pretty good
."

"He sounds great," Lydia said, "What
does he do for a living?"

"I'm not sure," Polly said. "No, it's
not like that," she assured them, seeing the shocked looks on their faces.
"His parents have a lot of old family money and he doesn't need to work. He's
spent most of the last few years going to school. He has a couple of Master's
degrees.
One in Art History and another in Literature.
He's decided he is fascinated by ancient languages and is working on a degree
right now as well as spending time at the Peabod
y Museum in their collections."

"Do you know his parents well?" Andy asked.

"I met them a couple of times. His mother is
active in Boston's Junior League. She spends most of her time volunteering and
doing social things. I didn't fit in with their idea of a spouse for their son,
but they were nice enough to me."

"What do you believe they think about him being
out here and what did they think about his jail time?" Lydia pressed.

"I don't know if they even knew he was in jail. I
had to bail him out the first time around." Polly paused and thought,
"Huh. I guess I don't know. I didn't see either of them at his trial and
after that I guess I didn't ever see them again." She shrugged her
shoulders. "I have no idea what they thought and I bet they don't know
he's here in Iowa. They didn't pay much attention to his life. Both times I met
them it was at some charity event he took me to. He had to show up or he told
me they would cut him off.”

"Sounds like a spoiled, entitled brat to
me," Beryl muttered.

"Stop it." Lydia hushed her.

"You're probably right,” Polly continued.
“
It never showed itself that way. He was always polite
and a gentleman. We never did anything I didn't want to do. He always asked me
first unless he was surprising me with something and there were
often
fun
surprises. He didn't go overboard buying things, it seemed like he knew that
would put me off. He was nearly perfect. If
he
hadn't lost his temper, heck, in a few months
I probably w
ould have asked him
to marry me.

"
I'm glad I
saw the real Joey when I did. The first time I thought I'd provoked his
response,
it came out of the blue. He'd never behaved like
that before. So, I figured somehow it was my fault. However, the second time? I
wasn't buying it. There was no provocation that time on anyone's part and he
crossed the line when he came into where I worked and threatened one of my
patrons
."

"Do you think he has gotten any help?"
Sylvie asked.

"He said he has been through an anger management
class and spent time working with a counselor. But, he quit both of those even
after they were mandated by the court the last time, so I don't know if I
believe him." Polly replied.

"So," Lydia said, "What is your plan
for tonight? What are you hoping to accomplish?"

"I don't know. I'd like him to be honest with me
first of all. This morning when I asked how he found me, he avoided the
question. I want him to hear himself say that he is stalking me. Then, I want
him to tell me why he thought it was appropriate to track me down more than six
months after we had broken up. I think he made a lot of this stuff up in his
head and hasn't thought about the reality of his actions. He's not this stupid!
At least I didn't think he was this stupid."

She sighed, "And if he is having some kind of
emotional or mental breakdown, damn. I don't know what I'll do with him."

"Do you know how to reach his parents?" This
came from Andy.

"
Well,
I suppose I could track them down. I don't have any
direct numbers for them, but I'm sure there are ways to reach them. Yeah. I
know enough about them to be able to contact them."

"Th
en that
should be a backup plan,” Lydia said. “
M
ake his parents deal with him.
They put him out there in the world like this and they
can take him back. It's not up to you to fix him up. Just remember that."

"I know, Lydia. That makes a lot of sense. It
isn't easy for me to take my hands off a situation I was involved in, but I
don't need this."

They went back to work, talking more about Joey and
Polly and making plans for dinn
er.
Lydia texted her husband to let him know what the plans were for
that evening.

Soon enough, Stu stepped up on the stage and said,
"Ladies,
it's
4:30. My shift is nearly over and guys are packing it
in for the weekend. Can you get to a stopping place?"

"Wow!" Polly said. "That went fast. Just
a couple more pieces and we'll hand everything over." She finished
entering the information about a Han Solo action figure and saw that Beryl was
photographing a small camera. When they were finished, Beryl pulled the SD card
out and handed it to Stuart, Polly logged off and
unmounted
the hard drive and handed that over as well. They
gathered up their stuff, walked back into the kitchen and waited while he shut
the lights out and locked up the auditorium.

Sylvie was the first to leave. "I'm sorry I can't
be there tonight. I haven't spent any time at home with the boys this week, so
we're going to watch a movie and make popcorn. I hope it goes well for
you." She hugged Polly and waved as she left.

"We'll see you later, Polly,
" Lydia said. "We're going to get there
around 7:30 or so. We'll pop by like casual friends,
then
watch you like a hawk from across the room.
How's that?"

Polly laughed. "You guys are too much. You do
know that I'm 32 and lived alone in Boston for the last, oh, fourteen years?"

Lydia smiled at her, "Uh huh. You're in our
territory now. Thirty-two is like fifteen to us. And besides, what else are we
going to do on a Friday night? Like Beryl said, you're our entertainment now."

"Okay," Polly said, "I guess I'll see
you later!" She watched them leave and shook her head.

Then she realized she had one more thing to do. As she
was heading up the stairs, Marvin, Leroy and Ben were coming down.

Leroy said, "What in the hell, lady? You're
tough! Henry has been limping around all afternoon from th
e
beatdown
you gave him."

"Yeah," she retorted, "And don't you
forget it. Cross me and it will be painful."

She watched them leave and made her way up the steps. Henry
was sitting on a five gallon bucket drinking a bottle of water.

"Hi there," he said. "Want a
seat?" and he gestured toward another upside down bucket.

"Here I am again,
” Polly sighed. “T
elling you I'm
sorry the second time today. I shouldn't have gotten so angry at you."

"Well, I suppose I deserved it. I'm not used to
being around a woman who gets all fiery like that. You're kind of scary."

"That's what everyone keeps telling me. I'm
sorry. Okay?"

"It's alright. I'm sorry too. We're going to have
to stop doing this or people will talk, though." He laughed.

"Talk?
About what?"
Polly was astonished.

"About us.
"
he replied.

"What about us?" she asked.

"Oh nothing.
No big deal." Henry shook his head as he stood
up. He swallowed down the last of the water and tossed the bottle into a bucket.

"Look, I need to be in here tomorrow to check
this first coat of finish. I won't show up until after 8:30. Will that be
okay
?"

Polly looked up at him, still processing on the 'us'
comment. "Sure," she said distractedly. “Doug and Billy will be gone
by then. You have a key, right?"

"Right.
I'll see you then. Make sure the doors are all locked
up tonight before you leave."

"What?" She asked, "Oh, alright. Sure. See
you tomorrow."

Henry walked downstairs and she heard the door shut
behind him. She walked back down to find Doug and Billy standing in the door to
the room they had claimed as theirs.