Page 68 of Baby Blue
He’d only been sitting there for a handful of seconds when he heard a familiar voice bellow, “Wallace? Is thatyou?”
Blue turned and fought the urge to roll his eyes. Turdbucket. What were the chances?Oh, right. Small town. Great?just great.“Yeah. It’s me.”
Turner looked positively gleeful. “What the he… heck are you doing here?”
“Brought my daughter to the dance,” he said and pointed in Polly’s direction.
“The ugly one with the wiry hair and metal in her mouth?” the uncouth asshole asked.
“She’s not ugly. She’s a pretty little girl. And no, she’s not mine. She’s the taller one with the medium brown hair.”
“Boy, you must be a first-class dad. That baby in the basket really grew up quick! What’s your secret?” Turner asked, his voice pure vinegar.
“That’s not the baby in the basket. That’s my girlfriend’s daughter.” It was the first time he’d called Anne his girlfriend to anyone else, and he’d thought it would sound odd, but it felt very good to say it. “Her name is Paulina, but we call her Polly.”
Turner’s eyes were baseball sized, and apparently his hearing had stopped atgirlfriend. “You’ve got a girlfriend? Don’t you mean a piece of pussy?”
“Hey! There are kids here!” Blue pointed out.
“Since when has that meant anything to you, you dumb son of a bitch?”
“You know what?” Blue stood and glared down at Turner. “I made a mistake sitting here. I meant to sit up there. You know?with the humans.”
Turner glared back. “Just because you shaved doesn’t mean you don’t still look like a big ape.”
Don’t do it, Wallace. Don’t let him bait you. Be the bigger man and walk away.“You know, since I’ve been sitting here for, oh, less than two minutes, you’ve called a little girl ugly, called my girlfriend a nasty name, and called me stupid. I don’t want to sit here with somebody who’s that pitiful. You need something in your life to help you be a better person.” Then he realized something. “You have a kid here?”
“Yeah. The pretty one right there in the blue dress,” Turner said sourly and pointed to a girl wearing a blue sundress. She was cute, but not like Polly and Crystal. She lacked… class. That was it.
“I’m so sorry for her, having a dad like you. I hope you treat her better than you treat the rest of the world or she’ll be in a hurry to get out of the house. Right now, I need to move. The air is foul right here.” He turned to go, but he heard Turner say something that made a ball of barbed wire take up residence in his stomach.
“I’m glad I fired your ass. Still drawing unemployment?”
Blue chuckled and turned to stare him in the face. “Nope. ChuckWentworth hired me as the service department manager at the big Vanguard dealership in Macon. I’m in the process of getting my ASE certification and when I do, my salary willincrease from the thirty-five it is now to sixty. If I get my third certification, it’ll go up to seventy. And benefits. And vacation, and sick leave, and three personal days. So thanks, Turner. You firing me? It did me a big favor. It taught me that I really needed something better than what you doled out, and look?I did it. Oh, and did I mention they’re paying for my certification too? Well, they are. So you just suck on that, you miserable piece of crap.”
As he turned to climb the bleachers, he was sure Turner would yell some kind of insult at his back, but that didn’t happen, and he hoped the asshole was thinking about everything he’d said. He took a seat again, still a little raw from the encounter and trying to calm down, when a voice said, “Hey, come on up and join us.” Turning, he saw a man sitting there, a smile on his face, and the guy motioned to three others. “We’re sitting here waiting for the dance.” Blue rose and headed that direction. When he reached them, the man held out his hand. “I’m RandyCarver. This is DaleSettles, and that’s KevinLassiter. And that,” he said, leaning out and pointing to the fourth man, “is my brother, Roger. We’ve all got kids here. I haven’t seen you around here before.”
Blue took his hand and shook it. “BlueWallace. The girl in the pale blue dress down there, the one with the daisy in her hair? That’s my girlfriend’s daughter, Polly.”
“PollyBlack? Yeah, she and Rosy were on the soccer team together in elementary school. The girl in the peach-colored dress is Roger’s daughter, Moira. She’s a sophomore. Dale and Kevin have the two girls down there in the pink dresses, Annalise and Dorothy. They’re juniors. You and Anne been together long?”
“Not long. Her kids are great.”
“They are good kids. Anne’s a wonderful person. She was Abigail’s?my wife’s?nurse when she had surgery. Took reallygood care of her. I’m glad she’s getting around. I mean, getting out and… Wow. I’m botching this conversation!” Randy said, his face reddening.
Blue couldn’t help but laugh. “Hey, it’s okay! I know what you meant. I was her next-door neighbor. We got to know each other that way.”
“You have kids?”
“Yeah. Baby girl. Indigo.”
“What a cool name! Blue and Indigo. I guess your eyes?” Randy said, pointing at them.
“Yeah. My name’s really Brent, but everybody’s always called me Blue.”
“I don’t care what they call me, as long as they call me for dinner!” Randy said, laughing. “My wife… Uh-oh. It’s time for the dance. Come on, guys. Make our girls proud!” Randy said and hopped up. Blue followed the other guys, not knowing quite what to expect.
By the time they got to the floor, the girls were all waiting, and Blue was feeling the panic seeping in. He’d never danced with a teenage girl. Most of what he’d call dancing was grinding against some chick he’d just met as a prelude to fucking her into unconsciousness. That wasn’t going to work in this instance, that was for sure. As soon as he stepped up in front of Polly, she smiled up at him. “Could you dance with Crystal first, since she doesn’t have a dad here?”
