Julia's Chocolates (26 page)

Stash used Katie’s key to open the door.

“J.D., it’s Stash.” Stash didn’t even wait, he just walked right into the house, his entourage following close behind him.

By the time Katie and I got to the door, we could see Stash bent over an inert lump on the couch. J.D. was snoring like a banshee, saliva dripping out of his mouth. Beer cans were scattered all over the coffee table. His left leg was in a soft cast, his crutches by the couch. I tried to summon up pity for a man who had spent four days trapped in his car, but I couldn’t. J.D. was a Major Prick.

“Well,” Dave drawled, “Looks like the man’s deep into his sauce. We could wake him up or just move things out. What do you all think?”

“I think we move it all out. Let him wake up to nothing,” I said. Katie nodded, as did Stash.

“What would you like us to grab first, ma’am?” Scrambler asked. “You just point, and we’ll have your things out in a jiffy.” I loved the way Scrambler talked, always so polite.

So we quietly started moving Katie’s stuff out of the house. First went the dining room table, which had been Katie’s grandmother’s. Then went the oak kitchen table and five chairs which Katie’s parents had given to her.

“I’ll leave him one chair,” Katie muttered. “The one he always sat his fat butt in.” She turned the chair inward to face the corner. “Asshole.”

Next we grabbed pots and pans and other kitchen items, including food. They jangled against each other, but J.D. kept snoring like a sledgehammer on speed.

The men grabbed the kids’ two sets of bunk beds, dismantling them quietly. Katie grabbed some moving boxes she’d stored in the attic, and we went through the house, taking what she wanted to save, which wasn’t much. We piled the kids’ clothes, games, and stuffed animals into other bags.

This would have taken a normal person days to do, but Katie was the perfect housekeeper and believed in throwing all nonessentials out of the house immediately.

Katie showed us where her “office” was, where she was writing her book. An ancient computer slouched atop a rickety table in the same cramped, dark room where the washing machine and dryer sat. We grabbed the computer, her disks, her folders and writing books, and left the table

The men moved onto her bedroom.

“Don’t bother,” she told them quietly when they reached for her bed. “I don’t want it. I don’t want to ever see it again.”

They nodded at her and moved out two antique pieces—a dresser and an armoire that had been willed to her by her Great-Aunt Zee Zee. Katie and I dumped her clothing into one big sack—she didn’t have much, I noted—and I took it out to my car.

And still J.D. snored on.

We even moved the couch next to the one his enormous body was lying on like rotting meat, and he didn’t stir. I couldn’t help but hope he would quietly choke on his tongue or that his liver would be quickly pickled by alcohol.

It wasn’t until Katie made the mistake of jarring his prized and most favorite possession, his stereo, that J.D. woke up like a cat that’s had a mouse run over its back.

“What the fuck is going on?” he slurred, his eyes bloodshot, belly hanging over his pants. “What the fuck is going on, and what the fuck are you doing here, Dave? I ain’t invited you into my home. And I don’t want no criminals here, either, Scrambler, so get your ass out. This is my house, and I sure as hell don’t need you two in it.”

Dave and Scrambler spread their legs out and crossed their arms over their chests.

“Take it easy, J.D.,” Stash said, his voice low and steady as he came into the family room. Stash had done two tours in Vietnam, fighting with a special unit that he never spoke about, and a drunk like J.D. didn’t scare him at all.

“I ain’t fuckin’ takin’ it easy, Stash. What the hell’s going on? You took all my furniture! Dammit, Katie! What the fuck have you done now?”

Katie took a step forward, her chin high. “I’m taking my things, J.D. I told the landlord that you’ll be renting this place from now on, not me.”

“Me? Well, shit, bitch,” he said, reaching for his crutches and lurching to his feet. Dave and Scrambler took a step forward, standing between her and J.D. “You’re leaving me when I’ve still got a cast on and I can’t even work? What kind of lousy shit wife are you?”

“Don’t talk to her like that, J.D.” Stash said. “Do not cuss in front of a woman, especially not your wife.”

“But this bitch—” The rest of whatever vile words were going to come out of J.D.’s mouth were stopped when Stash put his hand on the back of J.D.’s neck and squeezed.
The Army will teach you wonderful things
, I thought to myself, trying not to smile as J.D.’s eyes bulged.

“I told you not to swear, J.D.” Stash said, his tone calm, as if they were discussing a sunset. “I don’t want to have to squeeze any harder. You don’t want that none, either, do you?”

J.D. was turning a lovely shade of red, then purple. Finally he nodded, his eyes furious.

“I’m only taking my things, J.D.,” Katie said. “The furniture my family gave me, the kids’ things. I’m leaving the stereo that you bought. The bill for it is on the kitchen counter.”

Stash released his neck, and J.D. gasped, bent over, then straightened as much as he could on his crutches. “How am I supposed to pay for it when I don’t got a job? I can’t work—look at my leg!” He looked around the room. “You’ve stolen everything from me!”

“No, I haven’t. I’ve only taken what I walked into the marriage with and the kids.”

“You’re leaving me high and dry during the worst time of my life, Katie, you—” he stopped talking when Stash grabbed his neck again. “I’ll get you for this,” he wheezed after Stash let go.

Katie looked at him, strength in every line of her face. “You have left me high and dry our entire marriage, J.D. Plus, you were leaving me for Deidre when you got in your car accident, and you know it.”

“I already told you I was going to the city for a break.” He wobbled on his crutches. This was a man who was going to have to fend for himself. I almost giggled. “I had to get away from your constant nagging.”

“For a break?” Katie snorted. “You took all the money out of our checking account that we had, J.D. and you knew I had rent due in three days. You packed all your clothes. You took photographs of your mother. You didn’t even bother to say good-bye to the kids, I might add. You were leaving me. Worse, you were leaving the kids.”

“That is not true, Katie.” J.D.’s face paled.

“I went to the bank today and closed our account and told Margo I was separating from you. I have my own account now.”

“You have your own account?” He looked stricken. “You took my money?”

“No, I took my money. The money I’ve been earning. There wasn’t much in there. You do know that rent is due again soon? I told the landlord that I am moving out today.”

“Katie,” J.D. said, flustered, confused.

“Well, you probably didn’t know that, because I always paid it, but I’m letting you know now.”

“You take the money, you take the furniture, you take the kids.” He blinked, as if he’d just thought of something. “I gotta right to the kids, too.”

“You have a right to the kids?” Katie laughed, so bitterly, I cringed. “Tell me, J.D. What’s tomorrow?”

He looked totally confused, and at the same time crafty and sneaky. “What’s tomorrow?”

“You don’t know what tomorrow is?”

“What is this, a quiz?”

“Yes, it’s a quiz. Why is tomorrow special?”

“I don’t have time for this, Katie,” he muttered, but he looked like a rat caught in a trap.

“Tomorrow is Haley’s birthday, but you didn’t remember, did you? You never have. And you don’t need to anymore. The children hate you, J.D., as I do. You want this house, that’s fine. It’s yours for as long as you can pay the rent. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’re leaving.”

“You can’t leave, Katie!” J.D. yelled, pointing a crutch at her and swinging it back and forth. “You can’t leave!”

“I am leaving, J.D. Call Deidre. I’m sure she would be happy to come and take care of you.”

J.D. flushed.

“In fact, I’m sure she’ll find you more and more attractive each day. Especially if she has to work full-time so that you can sit and listen to your stereo. And I’m sure she’ll love cooking for you, and cleaning, and doing your laundry, and if you criticize everything she does and tell her she’s a tramp and useless and you can’t ever figure out why you got together with her, well, I’m sure that Deidre will stick around for more of the same.”

J.D. finally realized when Katie picked up a stack of books to take with her that she was serious.

“Katie, now look here, honey…”

“It’s too late for that,” she snapped at him. “Way too late. You haven’t called me ‘honey’ in almost ten years.”

He hung his head, and I could almost hear that tiny pea-brain of his whirring away. His remorse was so fake I wanted to laugh. “I’ve made mistakes, Katie. Big ones. I’m a sinner. As God as my witness, I admit that I’ve sinned. Sinned badly against you, and I’m praying about it, I really am, and I know you can’t forgive me right now, but I’ll work every day to make it up to you.”

Katie froze. “What will you do to make it up to me?”

J.D.’s eyes blinked furiously. “I’ll do anything,” he finally announced.

“Well, really, specifically, J.D. what are you going to do make it up to me?”

J.D. bit his lip. He thought. I could see him thinking real hard. “I’ll get a job.”

Katie laughed.

“Of course you will. And soon I’ll see pigs jumping over the stars. Good-bye, J.D. Good luck.”

“Katie!” he yelled, shock turning to hate on his face. “Katie! You call yourself a Christian, but you’re no Christian. A Christian wouldn’t walk out on her injured husband leaving him with no money!”

“You’re wrong, J.D. God helps those who help themselves. I am helping myself to a peaceful life, a life without abuse, which is what God intended me to have. My only problem is that I’ve been so busy taking care of the kids and you and cleaning houses and running my home that I couldn’t hear God’s voice telling me to get the hell away from you.”

“You bitch,” J.D. whispered. “You total bitch.”

J.D. screamed in pain when Stash grabbed his neck again. Then he slumped to the couch.

Katie grabbed a set of coasters off a coffee table.

“You can’t take those!” J.D. squeaked at her. “You can’t take nothing! This is my stuff, too. I’ll make you pay for this, Katie. You’re gonna pay. You can’t just walk out when I can’t pay the rent!”

She headed for the door. “J.D., I have supported you for years. You have drunk through every penny you ever made, and much of the money that I made. You have been a lousy father to the children. I mistakenly believed the children needed a father, and forevermore I will regret my own stupidity, my own fear of being alone. You left me and the kids to fend for ourselves years ago. And, yes, I can walk out on you. Watch me. I’m doing it right now.”

She held her head up high and walked out.

“Do you have a moment, Mr. Margold?” Scrambler asked, his voice so even, so well-modulated that if I couldn’t understand English, I’d have thought he was offering some soothing advice on how to grow orchids. “You’re a right fine major loser, and if you come on Stash’s property even by only one foot I will be compelled to break your neck with one hand. I learned how to do this when I was asked to take a brief sojourn at the state pen for an extended period a few years ago. A criminal, as you called me earlier, has special talents in that area. Have we got that clear, Mr. Margold? We do? Wonderful. You have a pleasant day.”

J.D’s mouth fell open, and he sagged further into the couch.

Scrambler turned to follow Katie out, a box on his muscled shoulder, but he stopped, took a few paces back toward J.D.

I saw J.D. swallow hard.

“Oh, one more thing, if I may, Mr. Margold? If you come near Katie, ever, I will feel compelled to snap your spine. We’re clear on that, too? Again, splendid.”

J.D. made a choking sound.

Scrambler turned toward the door, then held up one finger, his voice as smooth as hot buttered rum. “Oh dear, Mr. Margold. I forgot the most important rule of all. If you harm any one of your children,
ever
, or try to take them away from Katie, I will personally remove all of your limbs and put you in a little lake I know intimately up in the mountains. We’re still clear? Fabulous, Mr. Margold, fabulous. Again, you have a pleasant day.”

“I could call the police on you, Scrambler, and tell them what you said to me,” J.D. whispered. “I could tell.”

“I didn’t hear Scrambler say anything, not anything at all,” Stash said, eyes open and innocent. “Did you, Dave?”

“Nope. I didn’t hear a thing. Not one thing except that J.D. seems to think it’s okay to leave his wife and kids for another woman and clear out the checking account before he leaves, and then he uses foul language in the presence of women. Funny thing is, I know Carl Sandstrom and Doug Meachan down at the police station, ya know those two men, J.D.? Carl’s been married to Julie for forty years and has four boys, as you know.” J.D. seemed to be getting smaller before my eyes.