Ernie put the last mop head in a plastic bag and tied the bag closed. He carried the bag over to the dumpster and tossed it in. When he heard it hit the side of the dumpster, he said, "I like the sound of that. My week in hell is over."
Ernie turned around to find Leo standing behind him with his arms crossed against his chest. Putting a weak smile on his face, Ernie said, "It has been nice knowing you, sir."
"So you think your week in hell is over?" Leo asked looking Ernie straight in the eye.
"It isn't?" Ernie asked with a sinking feeling in his stomach. Dan had told him that if he lasted the week doing this job, then he would get his job back at the pizzeria.
"Come with me. I want to talk with you a little bit," Leo said. Ernie followed Leo over to his pickup truck. He was surprised when Leo tossed him a plastic bottle of cola and said, "Sit down."
"Yes, sir," Ernie said taking a seat on the rear gate of the pickup truck.
"This week was just a taste of what your life can become if you don't take every opportunity to improve yourself. Dan was nice enough to give you a chance to learn something important. I don't know if you got the lesson or not, but I'll tell you one of the things that you should have learned this week. Life is what you make of it. You screw around and you'll end up here or someplace even worse. It is that simple," Leo said.
"Yes, sir," Ernie said. He had figured that out after about the third hour on the job.
Leo settled on the rear of the truck and said, "I don't know what your impression is of Dan Parker, but I think the world of him. He's a hard worker. He worked on my crew for a week. I never had to get on his ass. He was right there asking for the next thing to be done. He worked his ass off and never complained. I never had anyone who worked as hard as he did.
"He's not only a good worker, but he's a good man. I know that because I watched how he treated the rest of the crew. He treated the Mexicans like real people. Lots of guys think they're better than the Mexicans and act like it. Not Dan. He treated them with respect. He helped them when he could. His Spanish was horrible, but he still made the effort to say good morning, please, thank you, and good night in Spanish.
"Do you know any Spanish, Ernie?"
"No," Ernie answered realizing that he had never thought about greeting his coworkers in Spanish.
"I kind of noticed that you expected them to talk to you in English," Leo said.
"You're right. I never really thought about it," Ernie said. He had wondered why the rest of the crew was kind of stand-offish in dealing with him. It had never dawned on him that he hadn't made any effort to know them.
Sighing, Leo said, "You'll never make friends or influence people if you don't learn to treat everyone with a little respect."
"You're right, sir," Ernie said.
"You worked with my crew for a week. Did you make one friend? Will one of those guys greet you on the street next week with a smile?" Leo asked.
"No," Ernie answered with a frown. He remembered how Juan had talked about Dan and how after a year or more, he still remembered the guy with fondness. He doubted that one man on that crew would even remember his name next Monday.
"I didn't think so," Leo said shaking his head sadly. He said, "You were doing hot and nasty work with a bunch of folks stuck in the same situation and you found nothing in common with them. I find that sad."
"It is pretty sad," Ernie said in agreement. He always figured Whites were dumping on Blacks, but he had just done the same with the Mexicans. He didn't feel very proud of himself at the moment.
"Let me tell you a little story. I know this fellow that has problems learning things. Fifty years ago that fellow would have ended up doing the kind of job that you did this week. He'd have been a ditch digger, janitor, or some other bottom of society job. Even today, it was likely that he'd be a worker bee doing some job that paid minimum wage. Instead, he owns a business and is doing real good for himself. He's doing so good that he can afford to help others," Leo said.
"How did he do it?" Ernie asked.
"He worked his ass off," Leo said. He laughed at the look on Ernie's face and said, "It was a little more complicated than that. He figured out what he wanted out of life. He set a goal that would take him there and he worked to achieve it. Everything he did was to help him achieve his goal. With a direction in life, there was nothing that could stop him. He'd go around roadblocks knowing where he was going."
"Oh," Ernie said thinking this was the same advice that Jimmy had given him.
"You don't know where you want to be ten years from now. You need a direction. You'd better find one before you end up back here working for me," Leo said.
"Yes, sir," Ernie said.
Leo reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a check. Handing it over to Ernie, he said, "Here's your paycheck for this week."
"Thank you," Ernie said taking the check. He glanced down at the check and was surprised by the amount of money he had earned. He said, "Thank you."
"Get out of here," Leo said standing up. It was late and he wanted to get home to his lovely wife Maria. It amazed him to this day that the lovely little lady from Mexico had allowed him into her life. That was the day he started thinking about starting his own crew rather than working on one. Making her happy had given him a direction in his life.
"Yes, sir," Ernie said standing up. He realized that he hadn't even taken a drink out of the bottle of cola that Leo had given him.
"If you screw Dan Parker over, you better hope that I never hear about it," Leo said gruffly.
"Yes, sir," Ernie said watching the man get in his truck. After the truck had driven off, Ernie said, "I owe a lot of people apologies."
Dan finished paying for the ticket to the movie and turned to Sally. Smiling at her, he said, "Let's get some popcorn. You can't go to the movies and not eat popcorn."
"Great," Sally said enjoying the Sunday afternoon date tremendously. She had been shocked when Dan had asked her to go out on a date with him. He arranged for Sandra to watch over the pizzeria for the entire afternoon so that he would have a full five hours alone with her.
"I really enjoyed lunch," Dan said as they walked over to the food stand holding hands. It was nice to walk along holding hands with her. They reached the line to get popcorn. Although it was Sunday afternoon, there was a longer line to buy popcorn than there was to buy a ticket.
"I did too," Sally said. They had gone to a seafood restaurant and eaten a very nice meal. The place had been quiet and they had talked the entire time they were there. Thinking about it, Sally realized it had been the first time that the two of them had just gone out together. She enjoyed holding hands with him.
"We're going to have to do this again," Dan said wondering how it was that he had never spent an afternoon alone with Sally. It seemed to him that he had always thought about, and treated, Ann and Sally as a single entity.
"That would be great," Sally said with a smile. It was nice being treated special like this.
They reached the head of the line and Dan ordered popcorn and drinks for the pair of them. After paying an amazing amount of money for their movie snacks, Dan said, "For the price of the popcorn and drinks, a person could buy a large pizza, a bottle of soda and rent a movie. No wonder our Wednesday night movie special at the pizzeria is so popular."
"No business talk on our date," Sally said with a grin as they walked towards the theater. They were each carrying a soda and popcorn. She already missed holding hands.
"Sorry," Dan said before he realized that they had no made any agreements about him not talking business.
"Just teasing," Sally said. Shaking her head, she said, "Sometimes I think that you are too serious."
"Me? Serious? When?" Dan asked with a smile. Juggling the drink and popcorn, he handed their tickets to the guy at the podium in front of the hallway to the theaters.
"Yes, you and you're serious almost all of the time," Sally answered.
Together they walked down the hall towards the theater. Dan said, "I guess I have been a little too serious. I've been trying to get things set up for the rest of my life. I figure that if I put in a little extra effort now that the rest of my life is going to be pretty nice."
"That's a good thought, but things change. For all we know, people will decide that pizza is the food of the devil and stop eating it," Sally said. She didn't think it was likely that pizza would ever disappear from the American landscape, but change was a fact of life.
"I know," Dan said. They reached the theater and entered the large dimly lit room. The vast majority of seats were empty. He looked around and said, "It looks like Sunday afternoon matinees are not very popular."
"Well, it is a nice day and I imagine that most people are doing things outdoors," Sally said.
Winking at Sally, Dan said, "They are fools to do that when they could be at a movie theater with their girlfriend."
She laughed and asked, "Where do you want to sit?"
"Pick a seat," Dan said gesturing to the nearly empty room.
"Center and center," she said. She preferred sitting in the center of the row where she could look straight ahead at the screen. She didn't like to sit up front where she had to look up at it or all of the way in the back.
"Center and center it is," Dan said. He led the way over to it and sat down. He fumbled a bit while getting his cup of soda nestled in the holder and spilled some of his popcorn.
"Messy messy," Sally said noticing. When he shrugged his shoulders in response, she said, "Alison would be over here cleaning up that mess in a second."
"I know," Dan said. He glanced up at the movie screen and saw that they were still cycling through the ads of local businesses.
Sally said, "That woman lives to take care of a house. I've never seen anything like it."
"Same here," Dan said. She was always moving around the house making sure that everything was clean and in place. He looked at her for a second and then said, "I've been meaning to ask you about that. How do you feel about Alison living with us?"
"I like it," Sally answered. Having someone around the house that took care of the place was very nice. She was fond of Alison, but was afraid at times that she would end up viewing her as a live-in maid. Ann and Dan were her lovers, but she didn't know how to classify Alison's role in her life. She said, "There are times when I don't understand it, though."
"What do you mean?" Dan asked.
"She's not my lover. She's not my sister. I don't know what she is," Sally said.
Dan nodded his head and said, "You think of her more like a servant."
"Yeah," she answered. That was a very accurate description of how she treated Alison.
"You and Ann are going to have to establish your own relationship with her if this is to work out," Dan said feeling a little guilty. It seemed to him that he was getting the most out of the weird relationship.
"You're right," Sally said.
Dan reached over and took her hand. He said, "You know that I love you, don't you?"
"Yes," Sally said. It was the first time that he had ever said that to her alone and it felt very good to hear the words. She leaned over and kissed him.
Ann and Alison were lounging around the pool working on their suntans. Ann looked over at the naked body of the other woman. Alison was a beautiful woman with a kind of easy acceptance of her body that very few women possessed. Ann always felt a little embarrassed by her body and she envied Alison's self confidence.
Noticing that Ann was checking her out, Alison said, "I love lying in the sun like this."
"I noticed that you don't have any tan lines," Ann said.
"I spend a lot of time out here when everyone else is at work," Alison said shrugging her shoulders.
"Are you happy here?" Ann asked.
"Yes, I am. I wish that Dan was at home more, but I do love living here," Alison answered. There were times when she felt like she was the live-in mistress, but those times were few and far between. Neither Ann nor Sally had ever said anything catty about her place in the household.
"Sometimes I worry that you won't be happy here," Ann said.
"I appreciate that you let me sleep with Dan every other night," Alison said. There were times when she felt that the two women were giving her more time with Dan than she deserved. There were two of them and one of her.
"Let?" Ann asked thinking about how that sounded. It didn't sound very nice and suggested that there were some problems brewing on the horizon.
"Well, you let Dan spend more time with me than is fair. The two of you have to share his time," Alison said.
Ann didn't know how to respond to that comment. She knew that it wasn't intended to be a negative statement, but it made her think that there was definitely a strange power dynamics at work. Frowning, she closed her eyes and thought about it. It seemed to her than in any decision that was to be made that it would always be two to one with Alison being the loser.
Alison looked over at Ann and noticed the look on her face. She said, "I hope that I haven't upset you."
"You didn't. I just realized that things are not fair for you," Ann said.
"I'll admit that it wasn't my dream to share my boyfriend with two other women, but it hasn't been that bad," Alison said shrugging her shoulders.
"You aren't into women at all?" Ann asked.
"Nope. I did the normal experimentation with girls when I was younger and it just left me cold," Alison said.
"Pity," Ann said. As pretty and nice as Alison was, it would be hard to kick her out of bed. It would definitely simplify their relationship if she were to become their lover.
"I guess," Alison said. She looked over at Ann and said, "Sometimes I don't understand why you and Sally still do things together now that you have Dan."
"We love each other," Ann answered.
"I guess I can understand that," Alison said.
The two women enjoyed the sun without talking. Each was lost in her own thoughts. All in all, it was a very pleasant afternoon.
For a change, the house was quiet. With his younger brother running around somewhere, Ernie was hard at work at the kitchen table writing out his personal definition of happiness. This was far harder than he had thought it was going to be. He'd never given much thought to his environment or the people around him. Most of his time had been spent thinking about how unfair life was to him.
There was a sound behind him and he turned to see who it was. His mother entered the kitchen carrying a bag of groceries. She glanced at him and wondered what he was doing now. As much as she loved him, she was halfway convinced that he'd drive her into an early grave. Before she had a chance to say something, he was rising out of his chair and said, "Let me help you with that."
"Thanks," she said rather surprised by the offer. She was a middle aged woman who looked years older than her actual age. Raising three children as a single mother had been difficult. Trying to put them through a good school in a predominately white neighborhood had required her to work long hours.
Ernie took the bag of groceries from her and set them on the counter. He asked, "Are there more in the car?"
"Yes," she answered.
"I'll bring them in for you," Ernie said even as he headed out the door. A few trips to the car to carry in the groceries were nothing compared to climbing the ladder carrying tar felt.
"Thanks," his mother said staring at his retreating back. This was a very significant departure from how he normally behaved. There had been a time when she would have had to yell at him to get him to help out around the house. It was so bad that she had given up on getting any help from him. It was just easier to do it herself. Shaking her head, she turned to put up the groceries. She paused and looked back at the door. Curious, she said, "I wonder what has gotten into that boy."
After carrying in the groceries, Ernie picked up his papers from the kitchen table. After putting them in his bedroom, he came back to the kitchen and helped her with the groceries. When the groceries were stored away, Ernie said, "I noticed that the lawn needs mowing."
"It always needs mowing," his mother said.
"Well, I'll get to work on it," Ernie said heading out of the kitchen.
"Thanks," she said with a worried frown. She wondered what kind of trouble he was in to act like this. The last person that she wanted to talk with was Captain Dawson. He was a nice enough man, but she knew that each time she talked with him that Ernie was taking one more step towards prison.
The sound of the lawn mower was a muted sound in the house. She went to the window and watched him push the lawn mower around the yard. He didn't seem to be angry and that confused her. Ernie was usually a very bitter person about having been born Black. He viewed it as being a curse.
The last two weeks had been unusual and she felt that something big was happening. His weird trip on behalf of the pizzeria where he was working had worried her. She knew that pizzerias didn't send employees on trips for training. Adding further mystery to his situation was the past week when he had come home from work with filthy clothes. She didn't have a clue what that meant, but she knew that pizzerias weren't known as dirty places to work. She hoped that he hadn't gotten into something illegal, but it was a slim hope.
After finishing with the lawn, Ernie came back in the house. He passed by the kitchen and saw that his mother was having a cup of coffee. He poured a cup for himself and sat down at the table with her. He asked, "How are things going for you?"
She looked up at him in surprise. Ernie didn't talk with her other then to complain about something. She had never seen him drinking coffee. She answered, "Like usual."
"Ah," Ernie said. He took a sip of his coffee and realized that it was the first time he had ever had coffee at home. He had never consumed much coffee until he had spent time with Jimmy. The man seemed to live on it. Holding up the cup, he said, "Good coffee."
"I'm glad you like it," his mother said studying his face. She was wondering when he was going to spring the bad news on her.
"Jimmy introduced me to the joys of drinking coffee," Ernie said.
"Who is Jimmy?" his mother said.
Smiling, Ernie answered, "He's one of the wisest men I've ever met. He tore me a new asshole, but I really respected him for it."
"Oh," his mother answered.
Ernie took a sip of his coffee and then said, "I want to apologize to you."
"For what?" his mother asked. Her stomach tightened up as visions of him heading off to prison filled her head. His older brother had never been a problem. That kid had studied hard and gone on to be a full time sales person in a car dealership. His younger brother was busy with sports and didn't have enough time to get into trouble. Ernie had always been a difficult.
Ernie said, "I've given you a lot of grief over the past few years. I'm sorry about that."
"What did you do now?" she asked with a frown.
"Nothing," Ernie answered.
"Why don't I believe you?" she asked sitting back in her chair and crossing her arms. She braced herself for the bad news she was sure was coming.
"I can understand why you don't believe me. I haven't done much to earn your trust," Ernie said. It hurt to admit that to his mother.
"You can say that again. Now what did you do?" she asked.
Shaking his head, Ernie said, "I grew up."
"I'll believe that when I see it," she replied.
Ernie smiled at her. He said, "How about I take you and Sam out to dinner tonight? We'll go to a real restaurant."
"Where'd you get the money for that?" she asked.
"You forget that I have a job," Ernie said looking at his mother. He knew that she suspected that he was doing something criminal to earn money. In a way he couldn't blame her for her suspicious attitude. He had lied to her a lot over the past few years.
"A minimum wage job," she said. Minimum wage jobs didn't pay enough to be able to afford eating dinner out.
"Mom, let me do this for you. You'll enjoy a night out," Ernie said.
She couldn't remember the last time that he had called her mom. Usually it was 'ma' or some derogatory term. She sighed and said, "Okay."
"Great," Ernie said. He finished his coffee and then stood up. He said, "I'm all hot and sweaty from mowing the lawn. I'll take a shower and get into some nice clothes."
"You don't have any," his mother said. His collection of tee-shirts and ratty old blue jeans wasn't good enough to qualify as nice clothes.
That comment stopped Ernie in his tracks. He thought about it and said, "You're right. After my shower, I'll run to the mall and buy something to wear."
"You will?" she asked staring at him. She wondered where the money was coming from for that.
Ernie looked at his mother and said, "Mom. I'm not in any trouble. I haven't done anything wrong. Relax."
"Right," she said not believing him for a second. The tone of her voice conveyed her disbelief.
"You'll see," Ernie said. He left the room thinking that he had a lot of work ahead of him if he was ever going to earn her trust. She wasn't the only one who he had to convince that he had changed for the better. It seemed to him that the list was impossibly long. The worst thing of it all was that he had actively worked to put each name on that list.
After his shower, Ernie stopped by the kitchen and said, "I'll be back soon. When Sam gets here let him know that we're going out to dinner."
"Right," she said. She looked over at the refrigerator wondering what she should cook that evening. Ernie was talking a good game, but he always did. He wasn't good on delivering what he promised. It would be nice to go out to eat for a change. It had been years since she had done that. Single mothers raising three boys didn't get out to eat often.
Lazlo Zalezac