Page 35 of Baby Blue
“Finished?” she asked, sitting on the edge of the sofa.
“Yeah. Got a hot date?” he asked her, grinning at her.
“Um, I’m expecting a phone call,” she said, jumping up.
“From a boy?” he asked and watched her blush.
“I’ve gotta go. See you later, Mr.Blue,” she said and sprinted out the front door, leaving Blue standing there laughing in her wake.
In mere seconds he heard a voice?a very, very loud voice. And it sounded angry. Walking over to the front door, he opened it a crack and heard something that infuriated him.
“You and your brother did this, didn’t you? You come over here and pick this up right now!” When Blue slung the door open wide, there stood Polly, her face pale and her hands shaking as the neighbor on the other side of Anne’s house, FrankGalloway, railed at her. “You get this shit out of my yard right now!” he screamed and pointed at the lawn.
There, just across his property line, was a paper cup, shredded by the mower. It was from a local fast-food place, and Blue guessed that someone had thrown it out a car window. He hadn’t seen it while he was mowing, but he was pretty sure he’d run over it with the mower and the discharge had sent it onto Galloway’s lawn. But the way he was screaming at Polly was thething that infuriated Blue. He stormed down the front steps and out onto the lawn. “What’s the problem here?”
“This kid threw a paper cup onto my lawn!” Galloway screamed. When Blue turned to Polly, a tear trickled down the side of her nose. “Damn kids! They aren’t good for anything except a mess!”
“Mr.Galloway, I’m pretty sure I accidentally did that while I was mowing. I’ll be glad to?”
“No! I don’t want the likes of you on my property! You stay the hell away from me, you social degenerate! And you!” Galloway shrieked at the top of his lungs as he pointed at Polly, “you get your ass over here and take care of this before I whip you!”
It took Blue just about a nanosecond for his pissed-off to show up and he spun to face Polly. “Honey, go to the house and go inside. I’ll take care of this.”
“No! She has to pick this up!” Galloway screamed.
Polly was rooted to the spot, so Blue told her again, “Polly, go inside now.Now. Go.” Before he could finish, the girl turned and ran toward her house, throwing open the door and slamming it behind her once she was inside. As soon as she was safe, Blue turned his attention to Galloway. “Now you look here, that girl had nothing to do with that fucking paper cup. It’s just a paper cup, you asshole. Why are you out here threatening a little girl?”
“You shut the hell up, Wallace! This used to be a nice neighborhood before the likes of you moved in!” he yelled at Blue.
“You need to calm down,” Blue told him. “Nobody’s meant you any harm.”
“Yeah, you got out here and mowed because the city got onto you!” Galloway cried out.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Blue told him calmly. “I haven’t heard from the city.”
“Well you will! I’ve complained and complained! Don’t think one mowing will make it all right, because it won’t!” Galloway screamed.
“Look, I don’t know what your problem is, but I’m going to pick up the paper cup and it won’t happen again. I’m sorry. And I plan to keep the grass mowed from now on, okay? Don’t have a fucking stroke,” Blue told him, bending down and reaching for the paper cup.
“Get off my property!” Galloway yelled. “Get off my property or I’ll have you charged with trespassing!”
Blue took the shredded cup and turned to the house. When he did, something solid hit him in the back of the head and he turned to see a clod of dirt lying on the grass. “Did you just throw a wad of dirt at me, you old fucker?”
“Yeah, I did! And I’ll do it again if you come back over here!” Galloway called out, leering.
Before he could think, Blue marched right up in his face. Through gritted teeth he hissed, “Look. I told you I was sorry. I picked it up. And I’m going to keep the grass mowed. But if you hit me with anything else, I’ll come over here and beat your ass, you got that?” As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he regretted saying them, but damn, the old jackass was pushing all his buttons. He tried to calm down before he said, “I don’t want to have to do that. So you just run along. But I’m telling you now, don’t ever threaten one of those kids again. I mean it. Just don’t.” With that, Blue backed away from Galloway until he was far enough away that the old fart couldn’t throw anything else at him.
His door had no more than closed when his cell started ringing. “Hey!” he said as he answered.
“What the hell happened out there? Polly’s crying her eyes out!” Anne said, her voice laced with anger.
Blue told her the whole story. “And he hit me in the back of the head with a clod of dirt,” Blue said.
“Oh, god! That’s horrible! Are you okay?”
He chuckled. “Oh, yeah. I’m fine. Is Polly okay?”
“Yeah. She’s fine, just shaken up. Thanks for taking up for her,” Anne told him.
