One day rolled into another, and before I knew it, I’d been living at the motel for almost three years. Not that those years were uneventful. I remembered one day the previous summer. It was a couple of months after I’d started balancing Grizz’s bank statements. Sarah Jo and I had planned a day at the beach. I drove to her house, and we were going to take her car from there. Grizz had business at Eddie’s, so he followed me until he got there. I went the rest of the way by myself. It wasn’t far at all. But I still considered it a small victory, and that day was the beginning of the end of Grizz’s driving rules.
Sarah Jo lived in a really nice neighborhood on the ocean side of Federal Highway. The homes were older, but well maintained. I pulled up about eleven o’clock that morning and parked my car in her driveway next to hers. She had the garage door up. I got out and put my beach things in her unlocked car. I approached the front door and knocked. This particular day was a weekday and her little brothers were at camp. Fess was teaching a summer class at the college. She was home alone.
“You ready?” I asked as soon as she opened the door.
“Yep. I just need to get the beach chairs out of the garage.”
I told her I needed to use her bathroom, and she told me she would start loading up her car. It was a little car. A Pinto, I think. It was perfect for her. When I came out she was standing in front of her car with the hood up and two guys I didn’t recognize were talking to her.
“What’s up?” I asked as I approached them.
“Won’t start,” she answered, staring at the engine. “Sam thinks he might be able to help me.”
“Want me to call and see if maybe just this once we can take my car?”
Before she could answer one of them spoke.
“I think I can fix it,” the younger of the two commented. This was Sam, her neighbor. I recognized him now. He was a nice guy. A little older than Jo, and I remembered he’d gotten into some trouble recently. He had graduated high school and fallen in with a bad crowd. I think Jo told me he’d been picked up for vandalism, drugs, the usual. His single mother, Vanessa, had asked Fess for some help getting him out of jail. Jo was certain Vanessa knew about the motorcycle gang and Fess’s possible participation, but she was an okay lady. She minded her business, kept to herself, but without being standoffish. She had been very kind to Jo’s family when her mother passed away years earlier, and they’d continued a comfortable and amicable relationship since then. It seemed only natural she would go to Fess for some help.
Fess got Sam out of jail and helped him enroll in a trade school. I hadn’t heard anything since and thought he was doing well. Still living at home, but hopefully staying out of trouble. I didn’t recognize the guy he was with.
“Kit, you remember Sam from across the street.”
I smiled and said, “Hi, Sam. How’ve things been going? Everything good, I hope.” He looked up from what he was doing and gave me a wide smile. Whoa. I didn’t remember him being that cute. Then again, I didn’t remember taking notice of many other men during that time in my life.
“Kit.” His smile grew warmer. “Nice to see you. Yeah, things are good. How about you?”
“I’m really good. I’ll be even better if you can fix whatever’s wrong with Jo’s car.”
“Aren’t you gonna introduce me?”
I hadn’t been paying attention to the other guy and now looked over at him. I didn’t like what I saw. For starters, he was leaning on my car and drinking a beer. He was probably in his thirties, a little old to be hanging out with Sam, and sleazy-looking. I didn’t say hello, just nodded and went back to looking under the hood with Sam and Jo.
“That’s Neal,” Sam said without looking up.
“So you ladies don’t look like you belong to a motorcycle gang,” Neal said in an exaggerated, phony southern drawl.
Before we could answer, Sam said, “Shut up, Neal.”
“Well, c’mon now, Sam, you was the one bragging in jail that some bikers were getting you out. That you had connections.” Neal sneered toward Jo’s house and said, “Looks like nothing but an old man and some kids. Your daddy ever ride that thing?” he asked Sarah Jo as he nodded toward Fess’s bike in the open garage.
Without waiting for her to answer, Neal started walking toward the garage. Sam by this time was totally mortified and kept apologizing to Sarah Jo while pleading with Neal to shut up and just leave.
This now made sense. Neal must have met Sam during his short stay in jail a couple of months ago. I couldn’t figure out the current connection, though. I thought Sam had cleaned up his act and was doing well for himself. I wondered how Neal fit into this picture.
I whispered to Jo, “Call Grizz at Eddie’s.”
Sam heard me and I saw an expression on his face I couldn’t read. Was it fear? Relief? Jo made a beeline for her front door. Neal sat on Fess’s bike making motorcycle sounds. In between he was yelling at Jo as she walked up to her front door, “Oh, you gonna call your old man, the big bad gang member? Well, you go ahead and do that, little girl. I bet I can get him to let me take this baby for a ride. You know what? Let’s not wait for you to ask him. Get me the key.”
Sarah Jo ignored him and went inside her house. I was praying Grizz was still at Eddie’s. Please let him be there. Please let him be there. This was long before cell phones. In the meantime I was mentally trying to devise a back-up plan in case he wasn’t there.
I turned to Sam. “What’s with this guy?”
“I haven’t been able to shake him, Kit,” Sam said quietly. “And I never told him anything about the gang. I swear. He must’ve heard stuff through the jail. He showed up acting like my best friend five days after I got out. I don’t know what he wants with me, and honestly, I don’t know how to get rid of him. He hasn’t said anything directly, but he’s hinted at hurting my mom. I’ve been giving him money just to get rid of him and then he pops back up unexpectedly and uninvited, like this morning. I don’t want no trouble.”
“It’ll be okay. Don’t worry, Sam.”
“Kit, I don’t want no trouble with the gang.”
“I said not to worry.”
Just then, Sarah Jo opened her front door and nodded at me. I knew then that help was on the way.
I turned to Sam. “You need to go home now. You need to go inside and not come back out. Okay?”
“I can’t leave you and Jo with this maniac,” he said. “It wouldn’t be right.”
We stood there a few more minutes listening to Neal ranting from the garage. I signaled to let Jo know I was okay and she should shut and lock the front door. She knew I would be fine and so she did it without hesitation.
Neal picked this time to start yelling at Sarah Jo. There was a door in the garage that went into the kitchen, and even though it was closed, he knew she could hear him.
“Bring me the key, little bitch, and I’ll get out of here and nothing bad will happen,” Neal called out in a singsong. “Motorcycle gang, my ass.”
I heard a motorcycle. Finally. It took less than ten minutes, but felt like an hour.
“Go now, Sam,” I told him, my voice low and urgent. “Now. Shut your door and don’t come out. Go. Please. We’re okay. You know who’s coming, right?”
He just nodded and whispered, “I’m sorry, Kit.”
Then he walked directly across the street and into his house, shutting the door behind him.
I had been leaning up against the back of Sarah Jo’s car. Grizz rolled up to the curb like he didn’t have a care in the world. Neal must have heard him because the garage got quiet all of a sudden. Grizz turned off his bike and got off. He walked up the driveway.
When he got to me, I asked, “Did you bring back-up? Do you want to wait for help?”
He just rolled his eyes and said, “Wait here, sweetheart.”
I was confident Grizz could handle Neal, but I was worried maybe Neal had a weapon I hadn’t noticed. He could take a gun out at any time and just shoot Grizz.
Then again, Grizz always had a weapon on him. I probably didn’t have to worry.
I didn’t follow Grizz all the way into the garage. I just stood in front of Jo’s car with my arms across my chest. Her hood was still up, and my car was parked next to hers blocking the view of what was going on inside. I was relieved. I didn’t want a nosy neighbor calling the police. I still didn’t know how Grizz was going to handle Neal. I didn’t have to wait long.
During the time it took for Grizz to walk up Jo’s driveway, Neal had gotten himself off Fess’s bike. I could see him shaking as Grizz made his way into the garage.
“Aw, fuck, man. I’m sorry, man. I didn’t know it was you, I swear,” Neal said, his voice quavering. “I was just giving the kids a hard time.”
He knew who Grizz was. Interesting.
Grizz just stood there with his arms relaxed at his sides and let Neal ramble.
“I heard some punks in jail talking about how the kid had friends in a gang. I didn’t know it was your gang, man. I swear. They never said a name. I’ll just be on my way like nothing ever happened.”
I looked past Neal and saw Jo’s face peeking out the door that connected the garage to the house. She had the widest grin I’d ever seen. I smiled back at her.
“Get on your knees.”
“What? What ya gonna do to me, man? Man, please don’t kill me.”
“Get on your knees now, motherfucker.”
Sobbing loudly, Neal lowered himself to his knees. He was shaking more than before. Grizz had his back to me. He walked slowly toward Neal and I heard him undo his zipper.
What? Why was he undoing his zipper?
Neal started whining again, “Aw, man, I ain’t no fag. What are you doing, man?”
Yeah, what are you doing?
“Open your mouth,” Grizz growled.
“Aw, man, don’t make me do this, please.”
Sarah Jo and I made eye contact. Her eyes were as big as saucers.
“Open your fucking mouth now!” Grizz yelled.
Neal did as he was told, but Grizz didn’t step closer to him. Before I realized what was happening, Neal started gagging. Then I understood what Grizz was doing. He was urinating in Neal’s mouth.
Just then, Neal threw up. Grizz stepped back and zipped up. Neal was on all fours and vomiting all over Jo’s garage floor. When he’d finished, he’d sat back on his haunches and closed his eyes.
“Sarah Jo, honey, be a sweetheart and get me a spoon, would ya?”
“Sure, Grizz.”
Jo returned with a spoon and walked around Neal and his vomit to hand it to Grizz. Grizz handed Neal the spoon and said, “Eat it. All of it.”
While doing my best to ignore what Neal was doing, and not very successfully, I told Grizz about Jo’s car not starting and how we came to meet Neal. How he’d met Sam in jail and his threats to Vanessa.
Grizz walked me and Jo to my car. “Go ahead and take your car to the beach. I’ll stay and deal with shithead.”
“I can’t believe you peed in the guy’s mouth. I thought you were going to make him perform oral sex.”
I could hear Jo giggling as she got our beach stuff out of her car and started putting it into mine.
Another roll of his eyes. “After all this time with me and you can’t even bring yourself to say ‘blow job.’”
“I said it once. To Jan,” I muttered quietly.
He just laughed and took my chin in his hands. “Still my sweet little Kitten. I love you, baby.”
“I love you, too,” I told him. “Just promise me that after he cleans up, you’re done with him. Promise me. No violence or anything. Please?”
“I promise, baby.” He kissed me as I tried to block out the gagging sounds coming from the garage.
Sarah Jo and I left in my car and I noticed the garage door went down as we pulled away. I prayed Grizz was going to keep his word and not do any more harm to the guy. My new favorite group was on the radio. Boston was singing “More Than a Feeling.” Jo reached over and turned the volume down.
“Gosh, Kit. I thought we were best friends.”
I looked over at her, surprised. “We are! Why would you say that?”
“Because, as long as we’ve been friends, you never once mentioned your husband’s huge dick.”