Freedom Fight: Beginnings Series Book 9 (30 page)

Sgt. Ryder and Hal perked with interest when they heard the woman suddenly talk about something besides new ideas for finger food.

Hal smiled. “I knew there was a reason for this.”

“Denny,” the woman said, “do you have plan one ‘A’ ready for me.”

“Roger that red headed wonder woman. Like, can I start?”

“No you have to wait until the time is right. Do you have enough?’

“Been collecting the agents since this morning. Got like, a million messengers of death to be delivered.”

The woman giggled. “Wait until nine o’clock then everyone will see.”

“Check.” Denny laughed. “O.K., big hand on the nine and the little hand where?”

Hal tossed his pencil. “I give up. Do they use their radios for anything of importance?”

Sgt. Ryder looked disappointed when he heard ‘the Chief’ get on the radio and tell the woman to clear the air. “I have to say I find it entertaining.”

“I do too. Maybe it was just the woman who irritated me.”

“You have that problem with them anymore.”

“Do you blame me?” Hal stood up and ran his hand down the back of his neck. “It’s hot. I think I’m going to grab a shower and a late bite to eat. I’ll send the monitor back.”

“No, let him take his time. I’m curious to see what the comedy is they are having at their drive in, or walk in.”

“Let me know. O.K.?” Hal moved to the door and walked. Usually he stayed and listened to Beginnings for a long time but on this night, the more he listened the more he felt let down, as if something else was supposed to be said and he didn’t know what that was. He just had a feeling and that was bothering him.

^^^^

Henry raced down the street and directly into Dean’s house. Denny stood there in the semi empty living room, surrounded by boxes and holding a large old coffee can.

“Denny, the coast is clear. She’s there.”

“Thanks Henry,” Denny said excitedly. “She didn’t see you, right?”

“It doesn’t matter, Denny. You know the plan.”

Denny winked and ran to the door, cradling the can safely in his arms. “Don’t tell my mom.”

Henry gave a thumbs up as Denny ran out. He closed the door and turned back into the living room, looking at the disorganization of the move. The open boxes were half packed, lying everywhere, and so in need of being finished. Figuring he’d help Dean out, he moved the boxes from the center of the room so no one would trip on them. He sat down on the couch and enjoyed his babysitting detail while Nick was sleeping.

^^^^

Denny’s steps were short and quick, dashing about the building like some sort of secret agent. He could hear the voices coming from distribution, waiting for the movie so he went the long way around, coming in from behind the projection unit.

Trish heard the shuffling and looked down. She saw Denny with a can, on his belly, crawling toward the crowd. “Denny, you’re gonna get dirty. Andrea will get mad.”

“Shh.” Denny held his finger up. “You don’t see me.”

Trish closed her eyes. “O.K.”

He continued in his mission, squirming through the snickering men who watched him, not realizing that they saw him. Then Denny spotted her. Bev. She sat on a blanket, her crossed legs stretched out, a bottle of wine next to her along with a plate of some food. Slowly and quietly, Denny sneaked up behind her. When he was right there, he poked his head around and tilted it up at her.

“Hey.”

Bev jumped. “Denny, you frightened me.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t know you were there.”

“You weren’t supposed to. I did good.”

“Yes, now go away.”

“O.K.” Denny snickered shifting his eyes down and seeing how close her poking breasts were to him. Denny grinned. “Those are really big.”

“Yes.” Bev rolled her eyes.

“Do they hurt at all?”

“No!”

“Never?” Denny asked.

“Denny!”

“I would think that they would if they’re like stretching out your skin that much.” Denny pulled at his tee shirt. “See, my skin doesn’t stretch.”

“You’re a boy, your skin won’t stretch. Why are you so dumb?”

“Hey, I’m telling Robbie. He’s my big brother, you know.”

“I know. Go away.”

“I’m telling,” Denny said smugly, “and he’ll beat you up. He says I’m not dumb. I’m just sick-n-shaped, so there.” Denny stuck out his tongue then held his finger out and poked it into her breast.

“Hey!”

“Ha! Swelled. I knew it hurt.” Back on his stomach, he crawled away.

Bev looked so irritated. She reached down, scratched her leg, and shook her head. “Sick-n-shaped.” She scratched her back. “Sick-n-shaped? What the hell does that mean?” She was antsy as she scratched her arm. “Sick . . . oh.” She grumbled. “Ill-informed.” She let out an aggravated sigh and felt the awful itch grow into painful little stings. In horror she looked down as her hand reached to her leg where the itch was worse and saw multitudes of red ants crawling about her. She jumped up with a shriek and tripped over a large open can, Denny’s can. As she hit the ground she saw the ants crawling from there. Screaming and scratching and swiping the ants from her, Bev left the walk in and ran all the way home.

^^^^

Many photographs spread across Hal’s table in his apartment. He pulled his still long, wet hair into a ponytail as he sat down to look at the family pictures. The small wooden box he kept them in was open and empty near them. As his hand shuffled through pictures of him and his brothers, Hal smiled. From biggest to smallest they leaned against the long blue car of Joe’s. Frank was so tall and skinny, towering over Jimmy and Hal, and Robbie, so dirty, slumping and looking his ornery self at ten. Holding the picture, Hal looked up when he heard the knock at his door. “Come on in.”

Blue, the town doctor came in. “Captain, I need to speak to you. It’s important.”

“Come in.” Hal had a reminiscent smile on his face. “What’s up?”

“One of the men injured in the North Dakota raid with Sgt. Ryder has taken a turn for the worse. It was a minor injury”

“But you just said it was a minor injury.”

“The slice on his hand was infected when he came in. It’s much worse now. If we don’t do something about it he could die. His temperature is very high and his arm is swollen beyond belief.”

Hal dropped the picture. “That’s not good. All right…” He took a thinking breath. “Tell Sgt. Ryder to prepare an escort to take the man to Beginnings’ gate. He must be dropped off in the morning before security checks in at seven fifteen so have the man ready in a few hours.”

“Thank you. Shall I include my notes so they know what has happened?”

“That would be wise and give their doctors a head start.”

“I’ll do that. Thank you.” Before Blue left he noticed the pictures. “Are they yours?”

“Yes.” Hal held the one of him and his brothers by the car. “I’ve had these with me since I was stationed in Hawaii. I found these when I went to my dad’s house.”

Blue glanced at the picture. “Your brothers?”

“Yes, I was thirteen, my brother Frank, seventeen, Jimmy, he’s the one who looks like a nerd,” Hal chuckled, “fifteen. And Robbie . . . Robbie was ten.”

“You were the rebel then too I see.” Blue pointed. “The only one who didn’t have a shaved head?”

Hal snickered. “I had to be different. Of course, my father would have Frank sneak into my room after three hair cut warnings and shave my head.”

“That’s terrible.”

“That’s the Slagels.”

“Well, I must go prepare the man. Thank you again.”

“Not a problem.” Hal was deep in thought as he looked at the pictures again. He saw himself with the backwards baseball cap, his hair blonder and hitting to the bottom of his neck. He remembered when that picture was taken, two days before he woke up completely bald the next day. He remembered the car and, as he stared at the large vehicle, Hal’s mid flashed back to those days of being young and living with his bothers . . .

Flashback …

Frank, seventeen, looked so annoyed as he pulled the car up in the Big Giant Super Market parking lot. Jimmy sat quietly in the front seat, fiddling with his glasses that Hal kept reaching up from the back seat and knocking off of him.

“Robbie!” Frank blasted. “Knock off the spit balls.” Frank reached his hand to the windshield and cleared the paper wads stuck there. “All right.” He turned the car off. “Everyone has their list.”

Jimmy looked at his. “Frank, wouldn’t it have been easier to assign us aisles instead of tearing the list in four.”

“No. Shut up,” Frank snapped and looked in the mirror. “Hal, shut up too.”

“I didn’t say anything. Hey Frank, you’re like the coolest taking us for a ride in Dad’s car. Can we go looking for girls later?”

Robbie laughed, “If Frank’s with you, you’ll never find a girl.”

“Robbie,” Frank said his name irritated, “keep it up and you’ll shop with me
and
I’ll hold your hand in the store.”

“People think you’re my Dad anyhow,” Robbie said. “You look old.”

Hal gasped. “How can he look like your dad, asshole? He has pimples.”

“Hey!” Frank opened his door. “Let’s go. Don’t get in trouble or I’ll kick your asses when we get home.”

At that point, the others shivered dramatically and verbally faked their fright.

Frank rolled his eyes at them and stepped from the car.

Hal had ten items to get. He figured he could carry them all. He didn’t want to look as weird as Frank did carrying that basket around. So, with the soap smashing the bread in his arms, Hal moved to the cookie aisle. He stopped. By the cookies were the little cheap toys and by those toys was Robbie. With no groceries, Robbie stood there. Hal knew he was up to something, so Hal stepped back and watched. Sure enough after Robbie peeked around the bend, he slid a packaged racing car into his shirt and zipped up his jacket. Hal smiled and walked away. He found Customer Service at the front of the store and tapped his hand on the counter until the old woman behind the counter acknowledged him.

“Can I help you?” she said.

“Yes, I’m a concerned shopper. May I speak to a manager please?”

His name was printed bold on the name tag. Conrad. His hair was slick and his glasses as thick as Jimmy’s. He heard this. “Young man, what can I do for you?”

“Seeing how I was raised properly and how I am conscious of how theft affects prices, I want to make you aware of a shoplifter.”

Conrad shook his head. “I haven’t time for games.”

“I’m not playing,” Hal said, “really. I’ll show you. It’s a little boy alone in the store. Man, where are his parents.”

“If you make me chase around for nothing, I will call your parents.”

“O.K.” Hal agreed. “But if I’m right can I have a free Hershey bar?”

“If you’re right.” Conrad walked from behind the counter.

Hal led him around the store until he spotted Robbie. “There. See, you can see it sticking out of his coat.”

“I’ll check this out,” Conrad said.

Hal, wanting to watch, stayed from view and watched the manager approach Robbie. He saw Conrad pat Robbie’s chest and grab the toy. Just as Conrad took Robbie’s arm, Frank came around the bend. Hal laughed.

“Hey!” Frank yelled at the manager and saw Robbie crying. “Get your hands off my brother!” Frank grabbed Conrad’s hand, removed it from Robbie, and then took Robbie’s hand.

“He’s a thief.”

“Oh bullshit.” Frank started to walk with Robbie. He wasn’t a but few steps down the aisle when the manager came after him, physically stopping Frank.

“Sir.” He yanked Frank around holding tightly to Frank’s arm.

Frank didn’t mean to, but when he pulled away, he pulled Conrad with him. The manager jerked and fell into the shelf, knocking boxes to the floor. Not ten seconds into Frank’s second attempt at getting away, two security guards showed up and grabbed Frank.

“Hey!” Hal shouted when he watched them give Frank a hard time, “That’s my brother!” Hal raced down the aisle, leaping onto the back of one of the guards. “Get off!” Hal fought.

“Hey!” Jimmy’s voice was heard.

Before Hal knew it, Jimmy had joined the battle. The manager, caught underneath, screamed. Frank was still on his feet. One guard was on his back with Hal and the other pulled at Frank’s arm with Jimmy on his back. Robbie, after placing the toy back in his jacket, proceeded to continuously kick any leg that didn’t belong to his brothers.

“Dad is gonna kill us,” Jimmy said as he and his brothers sat in the manager’s office.

Robbie looked up to Frank. “Sorry.”

“What the hell were you doing stealing?” Frank snapped. “Hal! Why did you turn him in?”

“It was wrong,” Hal stated.

“You should have told me. Fuck, Dad is gonna be so mad.”

Conrad entered into the office. “I have news for you boys, bad news.”

Jimmy lifted a book from the manager’s desk. “Is this yours? I want to read this. Is it any good?”

Frank and Hal shouted. “Jimmy!”

Jimmy put the book down. “Sorry. Go on.”

Conrad huffed. “Your mother was here and then she left. She said she washed her hands of you.”

Frank looked oddly. “Our mother? Do we have a mother?”

Hal rolled his eyes. “Ruth.”

“Did Dad marry her?” Frank asked.

Jimmy spoke irritated, “Yes, three weeks ago, remember. They went to Vegas.”

“No,” Frank argued, “they didn’t get married. I don’t think they did.”

“Yes they did, asshole,” Hal yelled. “You went to that Junior ROTC shit and didn’t even ask who she was when you got back.”

“I knew who she was,” Frank said, “but I didn’t think Dad would marry her. Shit.” Frank tossed his hands up. “Do we like her?”

Jimmy shrugged. “If we did, it doesn’t matter now. I think we scared another one away.”

Frank fluttered his lips. “She wasn’t around that long anyhow, was she?”

“Frank!” Hal shouted. “She’s been around three months. God, you dumb!”

Having had enough of his head going from Slagel boy to Slagel boy like some sort of tennis match, Conrad shouted to silence them. “Boys! Are you not concerned? This woman refused to get you out of trouble. I have to call the authorities unless you give me your father’s number. Are you ready to tell me his work number yet?”

There was silence then Robbie spoke up. “Tell him, Frank. I wanna go home. Speed Racer is on.”

“Yeah,” Hal said. “Speed Racer is coming on.”

“The library closes soon,” Jimmy added.

Frank thought about it. “Is there any other way?” he asked. “Please? How about I come in here and work for free this weekend. Just don’t call our dad.”

Conrad looked at the boys. “You’ll work for free?”

“Yes, just don’t call him. All right, and Jimmy will work too,” Frank told him.

“Please mister,” Hal stated, “he’ll kill us. He really will. There was a fifth brother at one time and we still don’t know what happened to him.”

The manager stared at the boys long and hard, while running his hand over his slicked hair again and again . . .

End of Flashback …

Hal dropped the picture. He still didn’t know how they got out of that mess. Frank only had to work one day collecting carts. They also never told their father they knew the reason that Ruth suddenly disappeared. They stuck together back then. They might have fought a lot but they stuck together. There were a lot of scrapes like that, but those situations were memories Hal never wanted to lose. What Hal wouldn’t give at that moment, to live through one of those messes all over again.

^^^^