Page 25 of Colby
“You go ahead and try that fancy boy, and I’ll knock you on your ass.”Dad was yelling again, so Doc just punched him in the face, knocking him to the floor.“You can’t hit me.It’s against the Geneva Convention for you to do something like that.”
“The what?”Dad tried to explain that he’d taken an oath about not hurting anyone else while he was a doctor.“I see.It’s called the Hippocratic Oath, nothing to do with Geneva or any conventions.You don’t read much, do you?”
“I read the sports page in the paper, and it’s served me well.”Doc just ignored him in favor of Pop-Pop.“What’s wrong with him?And if there are any decisions to be made about him going to a nursing home, I’m going to be the one to sign him in.He should have died off a long time ago.”
Again, he was ignored, and Molly thought it was just what he deserved.As Doc was asking her grandfather how he was doing, she noticed her dad was looking for something.More than likely, her purse but it was still in the bathroom.Not that he would go in there, something else about her father is that he was a germophobic when it came to bathrooms and the germs that might be in them, especially in a hospital setting.
“He ain’t going home today.I got plans for his house now that I know he ain’t there.”The doc said he’d be the one making that decision, and he was going home today.“Well, it’ll have to be tonight.I have me some searching to do, and it’s better when he ain’t there distracting me all the time.”
“If you’re looking for money, I’ve done cashed my check and paid my bills with it.You want something more than money, I ain’t got that either.You just keep your hands off my stuff, you idiot, or I’ll make what the doc here did to you look like a swat with a fly swatter.”Dad said he couldn’t talk to him like that.“Yet here I am talking to you like that.You’re a fool.Besides, don’t think I didn’t notice that you didn’t say anything about your job.You lost another one, didn’t you?”
“They didn’t care for me sleeping on the job.Idiots should know that when a man works the night shift, he’s going to have to take a nap now and again.They didn’t pay me enough to do that job anyway.Who needs to have security when it’s just dog food I’m protecting?”Pop-Pop said it might have been for the people working there.“Nah, they’re not smart enough to have nobody chasing after them for the little bit they paid me.”
“You never did make any sense when you were talking out the side of your mouth, did you, son?I swear to Christ, your momma must have had her babies switched out when you were born.There is no way that you are a part of us.”Dad said he wasn’t no baby no more.“See?That’s just what I’m talking about.Dumber than a sack of rocks you are.Go on home and leave me to my stay here.I got better things to do than to listen to you spout off about how you ain’t supposed to nap on a job.Nobody naps on the job, you old fool.It’s not what they’re paying you for.”
“Whatever, Dad.You just go on thinking what you want.I know better.”Dad looked at her.“Where is that couple of bucks you’re going to give over to me?”
“I told you no.I’m keeping it to myself.”He said for her to show him, and she knew that trick from him.He’d just take it.“I don’t need to show you what I have or don’t have.I have a couple of bucks for my dinner, and that’s all you’re going to have to know.And you ever hit me again, and I’ll be all over your ass.I’m not a kid anymore.I’ve been trained on how to protect myself.”
“Says she who had a bloody mouth.”Dad laughed like he’d just thought up the funniest joke.“We’ll see about that money you got.You have to leave this room at some point, and I’m going to be right there waiting on your ass.See that I don’t.”
“I don’t.”Dad looked confused, and she didn’t explain to him what she’d meant.Sometimes she would mess with him about stuff like that just to see him looking in his usual state of confusion.Doc asked to see her mouth.“It’s fine.I’ve had worse.Just see to my Pop-Pop so he can get out of here.”
After a few seconds of him just staring at her, she turned away from him.There was something very tense about the way he was looking at her, and she didn’t like it.She didn’t like him either.Not that he was like her father, no, he’d never hit first without a reason, but he was intense.Like something was going on that he wasn’t all that thrilled about.Sitting in the chair when he turned his back to her, she felt like her knees just gave out.Like his staring at her was some sort of battle, and she’d not come out on top.
“I’m sorry that you had to stay those extra two days, Mr.Toby.But the men watching over you while I was out for those few days didn’t know what I had planned and ordered you to stay.”Her grandfather had said it was all right that he’d been able to visit with his favorite granddaughter.She pointed out that she was his only granddaughter, and like the old joke went, he laughed.“Well, I’ll get you out of here today.Do you have a ride?”
“I rented a car so that I could get back and forth from here.”She told him it was no problem as she’d been going to rent one anyway to get around when she came to visit him.“I needed one anyway.”
After he was discharged, her father finally got it through his head that he wasn’t in charge at the hospital, and leaving, she loaded her grandfather up in her rental and took him home.On the way, they stopped for his prescriptions and something they could eat when they got there.Dad wouldn’t come over with his dad at home; he knew better.Pop-Pop would knock the shit out of him even if he was banged up.
She’d picked up one of the rotisserie chickens at the store, and that’s what the two of them had with a bag of some sweet rolls.It was filling, delicious, and easy to eat.That’s what they wanted, too.No mess, no fuss.
Pop-Pop was getting around better than he’d been when he’d first gotten to the hospital, so that was good.Getting him in his chair was easy as he walked to it and sat himself down.All she needed to do was give him the remote so that they could watch Jeopardy together and enjoy being at home.She left to go back in two days, and neither of them talked about it.
After another game show, he was dozing, so she helped him get his jammies on and get his teeth brushed.He was tired after the ride home and getting around, so she didn’t fuss at him too much.Once he was in bed, she went to the living room again and watched a little television while he snored in the other room.She loved not just her grandfather, but she also loved this old house.
Her grandparents had lived here all her life.When her grannie had been alive, it seemed to be brighter and more friendly.She knew that Grannie was the reason that they even had this old house; Grannie had been the one to pay the bills when it came time, and she kept the lights on and the furnace running, too.After she died, she’d had to train her grandfather how to pay his bills online and to get them set up so he was forever with money.She kept an eye on his funds, too, so that whenever hewould be short for whatever reason, she’d put money in his account because she knew that he’d do the same for her.
They were a pair, the two of them, and she’d walk to the ends of the earth for him.He’d do the same for her, too.However, it was her father that she had to watch out for.He was stupid sure, but he was also as mean as a feral cat that hadn’t eaten in a couple of days.And just like that cat, she knew to avoid him as much as possible.
~*~
It came as no surprise to Colby that the bank approved him for the boat loan.They knew how much money was being put into his account weekly and what the money was from.All he needed to do was to find the second boat that he wanted, have it rigged out, and put it on the water.That was the fun part, having the boat rigged up to what he wanted it to look like.He’d been doing this long enough that he knew just what was needed and not needed in the way of fishing boats.
He’d worked for years for another fishing company while they lived at home.He would usually be the one who took the boats out on the water and stayed with the people who were fishing.They didn’t have nearly all the amenities that he had because he paid attention to what was being said and done on the boats.
For instance, they had to bring their own food on their trips.There were no sandwiches given to the fishermen, nor was there the opportunity to have a place to dine should they want it.While the dining part had never come to fruition, it had been an option for them if they wanted it.
There was no liquor on his boats unless they brought it on themselves and signed a waiver saying that they’d pay for any damages made to the boat and crew.That usually deterred them from bringing aboard anything other than a few beers.He’d seen firsthand what that sort of drinking could do while in the middle of the ocean.
Colby decided he was going to take his time with this one.Get it the way that he wanted it and take it out on a maiden voyage before using it for fishing.He’d made that mistake, though a small one, when he’d purchased the boat that he had now.It had been minor but no less annoying when the first boat had no mattresses for its beds when they went out.Lucky for the crew, it had only been a single night’s stay out, or it might have been worse.
Getting in his car, he was headed to the marina when he heard from his brother-in-law, David Manchester, married to his sister, Dakota.Not hearing all that often from David, they talked about things before he got down to business.
“I wanted to borrow your brother’s restaurant for a day, and he said that I needed to clear it with you first.Something about making sandwiches for your trip.I can do that for you.”He said that he didn’t have a trip out for the next two days, but Jack usually supplied him with sandwiches.“That would be easy, as that’s what I’m doing.We’ve been asked to cater a meal for one hundred and fifty people.Just sandwiches, and we’d have more room at the restaurant.It’s on a Monday and I know that he’s not open on those days.”
“Go ahead and use it if he’s all right with you doing so.As I said, I don’t have anything going out on Monday that would require any sandwiches.It’s only a few hours out and back.It was something that I picked up for Donald so that he could get used to those kinds of trips.”David asked him how well things were going.“I’m headed to the harbor to pick out another boat for the business.That’s how wonderful it’s going.”
