Page 7 of Dusty

She was calling his brother when he went into the first bedroom on the second floor. Shipley was right. They were about big enough for a bedroom but not much more. This particular bedroom had a full-sized bed in it that he’d picked up somewhere a while ago. For a time, he’d been using the bed but now he slept on the first floor. There was a nice-sized room down there that he was sure was supposed to be like a gaming room but he liked the way that the sun shone into the room on a sunny day.

“He’s coming over now. Demitrius is coming with him. There is a job opening up someplace that he wants to talk to you about.” Shipley looked at him. “Why do you work? I know you’re supposed to have a ton of money, so why not…you know what? I’ve answered that for myself. You’d never be the type of person that would just be idle. I’m betting, too, that you make all kinds of money for yourself and your family, too, don’t you? How did you start out with all this money? I don’t know why, but I have a feeling that you didn’t come from money.”

“We didn’t. And that’s a good story. When we were all living at home with our father, an abusive man that we hated with every breath that we took. We’d play the lottery. Not all of us, butmostly, it would be Locke. He would play all our birthdays and since Demitrus and Knox were born on the twenty-third of a month, he used that second number to use as the power ball doubler. It’s been about twelve years since we won, and the amount, a staggering fifty-six billion that we didn’t have to share with anyone, has about doubled since then. Or more, I guess, if you count the money that Locke has from Alma’s estate. Which he shared with us as well.” She asked him if he was serious. “Yes. Forever serious when it comes to money. If we were to separate out our own money from working, I’d have the most as I sometimes invest in things that the family doesn’t want to. I’ve taken chances that they didn’t want to for one reason or another and have done very well.”

“You’re a billionaire. The six of you are billionaires. Is that what you’re saying?” He smiled at her and nodded. “I’m going to need words here, Dusty. You’re all billionaires, and you’ve never, I’m assuming, that you’ve never told anyone, and that’s why no one believes you when you say things like you did today with the board.”

“Pretty much. The banker here in town wouldn’t allow us to open an account with them when we first moved here. As you might well understand, we left with literally nothing but the clothing on our backs. We left behind everything, not taking even a picture for fear of our father or someone would find us. I believe to this day that’s the only thing that saved us.” She asked him about his father. “I know that he died sometime back. Not that any of us went to his funeral or even paid for it, though we could have. As I said, he was an abusive bastard that knocked us around more than necessary. Our mom, for all we know, could be dead as well. She left us when we were little to save herself from our father. The older I got, the more selfish I realized that she was. We didn’t contact her either, even though we had enough money to do so. I don’t know, however, if she’s gone but I’m assuming so. If she is still alive, she’d be in her late eighties by now. I don’t know for sure.”

She sat there on the couch with him. A couch like the bedroom set that he had in one of the spare bedrooms was used and looked pensive. When she stood up, putting out her hand, he took it into his.

“This house is lacking in even the basic needs here. We have no bedroom furniture but for a mattress laying on the floor. Four plates, three forks, and one glass that we have to share. We’re not going to go crazy with your money—” He corrected her. “All right, our money, but we need to get this house in some kind of finished state. We’ll talk to August, then go to town. I’m the type of person who likes to test things before buying them. So, no internet buying. All right with you? Also, I’ll sign a prenup if you wish.”

“I don’t want that. What I have is yours now.” He pulled out his wallet and thought it funny that he only had four one dollar bills in it. But a lot of credit cards. “We can use these or not. I don’t know where they came from other than they had my name on them, and…Alex told me not to cancel them as they’ll ding my credit score. Which is really good, she told me.”

He told her how Alex had gotten them to look at their credit. How people were charging them for things that they didn’t need. Then he told her how he was paying several cable bills for the same house and that Locke had been paying for someone to come into his home and press his suits. That he didn’t wear but once in a while.

“What am I going to do with you, Dusty? You’re a brilliant man who has no idea what kind of credit score you have.” She looked at the credit cards in his wallet. “These are all for specialty stores. We’ll use the credit card that is taken everywhere so that we don’t have to pay so much in interest. Also, we’ll have dinner. I don’t want to make you broke so we’re going to keep a running total of what we spend for each room.”

August showed up about the time they had decided where they were headed. However once August started looking around, they were going to have to go tomorrow. He had ideas about the bedroom that they both loved. It was something that he’d done in his own home recently.

“More than likely, six bedrooms will be plenty. Just cut the middle one out and add bathrooms to all of them, even if they have to be like a Jack and Jill bathroom—though now that I think about it might not work. Just put a bathroom in each bedroom, and it will make everyone happy. Larger rooms, too.” They agreed with him. “I can have a crew up here as early as Monday. Also someone to come inand redo the upper levels as well. I think that’s what Locke and Alex are doing to the nursey that they uncovered, too.”

~*~

Scott was so pissed off that he had a headache from it. How dare Candy turn him down when he’d asked her first. Not to mention turning to that fool Derick or whatever his name was when he was standing right there with his ring out.

Of course, the bastard had a ring, too. But he’d bet anything that it was a fake diamond or something equally stupid. Like one he’d gotten from a bubble gum machine. The man was so uncouth that he wanted to smack him around every time he saw him. They were stupid with their money, too. His momma had told him that information just yesterday when she’d come to talk to him.

They’d used Ms. Garble’s money to renovate that big ugly house on Main Street. And he knew for a fact that the men did not have a dime between them when they’d come into town either. His brother had been the banker for the local one when they’d come here. Not once did they come into the place to open an account.

Barry had been the bank manager for a decade when suddenly he was pulled out by the police one morning and arrested. They said that he was skimming money off of the bank’s end of day. If he’d told his brother once, he’d told him a million times, don’t piss where you took a nap. He’d also told him not to get caught. That was what his momma had taught the two of them since they were little men. The police didn’t care for people to be messing with the bank funds. That’s the reason that he was in the hospital working. There were no funds there but a lot of people’s lives that he could fuck around with. And he did. Everyday.

But the Erickson’s took the check that Alma, the old woman that they’d cuddled up to when she got hers, they’d come in and put it into her account. Not cash it out like he would have done and pocketed the money. Nope, the idiots had left it in her account for her to pay her bills.

Scott thought that when you got to a certain age, they should be doubling up on their bills. Charge them twice for whatever they had in the way of utilities. It was a certainty that they’d not be around long, so why not get as much out of them as one could. They just never thought like he did when it came to old people. Speaking of which…

When he heard wheezing coming down the hallway to the cell he was in, he knew that it was his momma. When she got to the place he’d been put in, she banged on his cell bars and told him to come closer so that she could knock him around. Of course, he didn’t. There was no way that he was going to be letting her beat on him while in jail.

A chair was brought for her, and her oxygen tank was sat up close to her. She was forever totting around a large tank so that she could continue breathing. She sat down with a huff and the chair actually spread its legs out wider, like it understood it was in danger with her sitting in it.

“Well?” He asked her what she meant. “Well, did she tell you no like I told you she would? I have told you and told you what to do with her. Grab her off the streets and knock her around a bit. Then tell everyone that you had her so that she’ll be spoiled for other men. Did you do that?”

“No. She carries a gun. I told you that, too. I think that she’d shoot me before I could get her to listen to me.” His momma told him that he was a fool then. “Do you really think that I’d be able to get her to listen to me? She doesn’t seem to listen to anyone that talks to her.”

“That’s why you gotta show her who the boss is. Dang it, Scott, I told you that she needs to be caring for me in my olden age. With her being a doctor, she’ll not be able to charge me those big prices to keep me alive. You can’t do it and have a job. She can lift me up. She’s got them strong arms from being in the army. I need her to be around so that I can show her how to be a good daughter-in-law, too. What are you waiting on?” He told his momma what had happened at the house when he’d been arrested. “So what? That man didn’t ask her first. She’s bonded to you now. You tell her that she has to marry you now on account’a you having asked her first. We should have thought of that before. You binding her with you by asking.”

“I don’t know that I want to be married to her. She’s a real mean person, momma. Is thereanyone else that you can think of that will be able to move you around? I think that I’d be better off leaving her alone. She carries that gun, too, and has men around her all the time, so she’s protected. I told you that.” Momma told him to stop being a pussy and to listen to her. “I have been, and so far, all I’ve gotten is a headache when her sister hit me.”

“Her sister hit you? Well Jeeze Louise, Scott, how do you think that’s going to sound when it gets around? People already don’t have much in the way of respect for you. This is going to make you a laughing stock.” He told her that he knew that, too. “Did you at least hit her back? I would have.”

“I couldn’t. I got knocked out.” She didn’t take too kindly to that information either. When the door opened down the hall, they both waited to see what was coming. He hoped it was another person to be in jail. It was lonely not having anyone to talk to all day. That’s why the hospital job was so good for him.

He could walk around like he was in charge. He was, to a point, in his mind anyway. Just the nurses were in his department. However, he did try to manage the doctors too. But they knew he was lying when he said he’d been in charge of them. They’d just go about their business as if he’d ever said a word to them. Damned upstarts, as his momma would call them.

“Mr. Landry? I have a message from the hospital for you.” He reached for the sheet of paper, but his momma snatched it away before he could get it. “It says you have been fired. My sister works there. She told me that you were a bully to everyone. I’m glad you lost your job.”

The man walked away, laughing his fool ass off. He had to wait until his momma got finished with the note before he could read what their excuse was for firing the best man they had. She crumbled the note up and tossed it in the hallway.

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