Page 17 of Demitrius

By the time he was off the phone, all three of the wives were going to help him. They couldn’t do it daily, but one of them would show up to help out. Then they were headed to the school so that he could figure out where things were and get to know the women that he’d kind of be working with. Demi was as excited about this as he’d been anything in a while. He also knew that once he got it started, he’d not let it go like he did most of his other projects. This way, he’d be able to see his boys, too, even though they didn’t eat at the school, they’d be there.

The kitchen wasn’t as organized as he had hoped it would be, but that was fine. He was learning a valuable lesson in not changing things around because they didn’t suit him. Once breakfast was served and everything put away, he was free for the rest of the day, and that excited him a great deal. Yes, he thought this was going to be a fun thing for him to do, and he was helping the schools out as well.

~*~

“How many gallons of milk does your family drink in a month’s time? I mean, five gallons seems like a lot to me.” Mrs. Harris told her that she could only drink one a week, but wanted the rest sent to her weekly. “I’m afraid that if you order five gallons, they’re going to be delivered all at the same time.”

“No, that won’t work for me. You’ll have to tell them to bring them to me weekly.” She tried explaining to her again how it will take weekly orders when you order them, but it will all be delivered at once when you tell them what you want. “You just tell them that they can’t do it that way. I only want one gallon per week.”

They’d been going over this every day for two weeks now, on how she wanted things delivered, over her putting in an order for what she wanted. It was becoming annoying as hell for her, too. Usually very patience with people Mrs. Harris was an entitled bitch and had to mess up the way she was teaching every time.

“Look, Helen, she’s told you this so many times that everyone in the room gets it but you. I honestly think that you get it, you just like being trouble. This might have worked in high school or even at your own home, but this is class, and you’re taking up time from the rest of us. Just order it like you’re supposed to and shut the hell up. You’re giving me a headache.” June Paddle had her laughing behind her hand again. The woman had no filter at all. “Damned woman. I bet the plants could order your groceries by now, and they ain’t even real.”

“I don’t like this ordering from a computer at all. I don’t know why I’m being made to do this.” Mandy told Helen that no one was forcing her to order her groceries, but she had signed up for theclass. “I thought it would be fun to get out of the house for an hour or two, but all you do is keep telling me what I can’t do instead of what I want to do. I don’t care for being told no, you know. Why can’t you just let me—”

“Don’t you dare say you need five gallons of milk a month to me again, you old bat. There ain’t nobody at your house but you and that old woman that you have to clean up after you. Hell, I’m betting that she finds herself a nice dark corner to get away from your harping all the time and takes a nap. That’s what I’d do if I had to hang around you for more than ten seconds. You’re nothing but a harpy, Helen, and everyone here knows it.”

“I do, too, need to have five gallons of milk. I need it to feed the cats, now don’t I? You need to mind your own business, June. There ain’t nobody talking to you.” June asked her how many cats she had. “I have about a dozen of them now on the inside, and that many more that just shows up. I don’t give them all milk, but those that want it, it’s there for them.”

“Two dozen cats. Good heavens Helen no wonder you smell like cat piss all the time. What are they doing? Running the house for you? Nobody needs that many cats. Good Christ, love a duck, that sure does explain a lot.” Helen asked her what she meant by that. “Mr. Harris run off, didn’t he? More than likely because you had all them cats that you’re taking care of.”

Now there were insults being hurled around the room like cake at a party. Mandy sat down at her little desk, knowing that things were out of control for her to get anything done. All the women, all five of them, were yelling at each other, insults were being fired off like it was their job. When one of the women sat down beside her, she smiled at Mrs. Rogan.

“They sure do go on, don’t they, honey?” She just smiled and told her she tries to stay out of it. “Don’t blame you one bit. Not a bit. I do have me a question. It ain’t about milk but when they don’t have something. I don’t want them to send me something of equal value. The other week they sent me a grater and I have plenty enough of those. I just want what I order and if they don’t have it, take it off my bill. Can I do that?”

“Yes, but they’ll have to give you a store credit rather than your money back. Is that all right?” She told her it was better than having a dozen or so cheese graters lying around. “Yes, I can see where that would be a problem. I’ll show you how to set it up for yourself. Do they run out of things that often?”

She answered her that they didn’t do it often, but once was enough. After showing her how to change the settings on the order page, she went back to her seat. After a few minutes, another woman came up to get her questions answered. This went on for the rest of the class. She was answering questions on the side while the other woman fought about cats and milk. It was almost too much for even her to deal with.

When the timer went off twice, alerting them that the class had ended, the two women who had the most to say left, still fighting over the milk issue. She didn’t want either one of them back and was glad that the classes they were in, a four-week class, were finished for them. They would either sink or swim as far as she was concerned. Having something for her headache in her drawers at the office, she stopped by there to get some. That was when she ran into Shipley. She told her how the class was today when she asked.

“I heard them arguing as they were leaving. Is that normal?” She told her that for those two women, it was very normal. “I would have pulled out my gun and ended the argument right then. I don’t like bickering for the sake of bickering. So are you ready for the next set of women? These are all six domestics that need to learn how to do it for the household.”

“I am. But something was brought up today. It’s about missing items.” She told her that two of the women today didn’t want the store to give them something of equal value, and how they didn’t need whatever they were giving. “I can see where that might be an issue. I’d say make it up in food, it would be eaten at my house, but then I have kids in the house, and most of the women in the classes do not.”

“Yeah, I understand that too.” After talking a bit more on that subject, Shipley brought up thebreakfast at the school and how they were going to go and help out Demi tomorrow. “You can come too. It’ll be fun to see the kids having a nice, hot meal, and Demi seemed very excited when I talked to him later. It’s a program that, as a charity-based doner, we can really get behind. He’s thinking that he could make a good breakfast without a lot of trouble.”

“He’s used to cooking for a lot of people. I believe that the people in there before weren’t at all used to cooking for more than their family. I think that was the bottleneck they were running into.” Shipley agreed with her on that. “I’m to understand that the state pays for the food to be given out. Is that right? Maybe with his background, he could get them better deals on the food that is coming in.”

“I never thought of that.” Shipley smiled at her. “I love it when I get to talk to you. You always make me see things that I don’t normally get to see. Thanks for that.”

“My pleasure. So I’ll be there at the school in the morning. Maybe the boys will want to eat there, too, so they can see Demi. They do love that man.” Shipley told her that they all loved him. “So do I.”

After getting ready for the classes starting tomorrow, she was surprised to find Carrie in the office. She’d heard that she’d been moved again, the poor woman had some family much like hers. But the difference was that hers was in jail right now, where Carries were running around causing trouble for everyone.

“I’ve been so careful about looking around for them. That’s exhausting too.” She asked her where she was staying now. “In a hotel. It’s not fun, but at least I’m safe. I’m fearful that if they find me now, they’ll kill me because Mom’s checks are going straight to the nursing home. And she is doing so well there, I’d hate for her to have to give that up.”

“I don’t blame you. My grandmother was in a nursing home right up until she died. She loved being able to be social when she wanted, and she could close her door when she didn’t. I think she lived longer too, simply because she had interaction with others around her same age.” Carrie told her that her mom was slipping away from her more and more, and that was sad, but she was glad that she was someplace safe. “Safe is about all you can hope for with families like ours, don’t you think?”

They talked about that for another hour until Carrie had to get back to her desk. She’d not realized that a car came to take her back and forth to work. It was another annoyance she told her, but again, she wasn’t out there where her brother Allen could find her. She’d heard about him, he was a monster.

Mandy cleaned off her desk of post-it notes and other notes that she’d made throughout her day. She felt a sense of accomplishment when she only had one or two notes left to finish at the end of the day. Today, even with everything that was going on, she’d been able to knock all of them off her desk in record time. Tomorrow would be a bit harder as she was going to be at the school first thing in the morning with the boys and Demi.

She so loved that man and was disappointed that he seemed to be avoiding her when it came to bedtime. She wanted to jump his bones every evening, but he came to bed a great deal later than she did, and it was impossible to do anything with the boys hanging on his every word. They loved him as well, but—

“I have a question.” She told Alex she was all ears. “Have you and Demi done the nasty yet?”

The question and what she’d been thinking threw her off for a few seconds. Long enough for her to be sputtering around with a non-answer. But Alex seemed to have understood and nodded. Long enough, too, that she had a plan to remedy her lack of sex.

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