Geronimo

Jerome the Dreamer

GERONIMO

 

Geronimo was sitting in the back of his cool cave. The air outside was far too hot to bear, so he made no effort to leave. During the time he sat waiting for the air to cool down and the sun to start making its way towards the horizon, Geronimo thought about his life and his present situation. Where he lived was a natural beauty spot with trees of many types, and some with large flowing brightly coloured flowers. Lianas trailed from one tree to another making it totally unnecessary to descend to the ground. Geronimo edged his way to the entrance of the cave, and saw that the first shadows of early evening were showing. He stood up and bent over so that he could go through the opening behind the waterfall. Geronimo stood proud and tall with his back to the waterfall in his golden nakedness, his long black hair hanging down his back. He arched his body and dived down into the pool, which was fed by the waterfall. Down, down, so far down, where there was no light at all.

 

“Jerry, breakfast is ready!”

Jerome slowly came out of his usual deep sleep to hear his mother’s voice calling him for breakfast. It was Saturday morning and he didn’t go to work till Monday. His eyes gazed around his room, taking in the tropical decoration that had taken him so much time to accumulate: the fake palm trees that adorned the walls from floor to ceiling, the cane chairs and table, and his bed, which had a mosquito net hanging from the ceiling. The bedding was in tropical colours, showing giant flowers. Jerome had placed cotton rugs on the floor. There was nothing cold weather about his bedroom decoration. Jerome got out of bed and opened his wardrobe. The interior was divided into two parts: clothes for work, suits, shirts and ties, and dark jackets; and the other side held his weekend collection, tropical shirts, white cotton trousers, and light coloured jeans and slacks. His sweaters were also in light colours to match his trousers. Jerome had quite a few pairs of loafers and sandals. Selecting a set of clothes in blue and white, he went into the bathroom to change. By the time he got down to the kitchen, his mother and father were drinking coffee. “Hello, Mum, Dad. What’s for breakfast?”

Jerome’s mother, Antonia, was occupied in serving up scrambled eggs on buttered toast and a large dish of fruit salad. Jerome had managed to convince his parents a long time ago, that fruit at breakfast was better than cereals. Matt, his father, was sitting checking out the news on the small television. Neither Antonia nor Jerome paid the television any attention. When Matt was satisfied that there was nothing new or catastrophic going on in his corner of the world, he poured coffee for Jerome and more for himself. “What are you thinking of doing this morning?” Matt asked Jerome. “Your sister is coming round with her children for lunch, so if you’re thinking of going out, it had better be early, to avoid any complaints about your never being here.”

“I shan’t be going out till this afternoon, to meet up with my friends from the club.”

“I don’t know what you see in spending every Saturday afternoon in a club where they practice line-dancing, wearing cowboy clothes and boots,” Antonia groaned.

“I enjoy it very much, and all of us who go there have become friends. We have a good time - that’s all.”

“When are you going to bring a girl home?” Matt asked.

“I’m waiting till I find the one for me, and until now I haven’t seen any that strike me as being my idea of the woman I want to live with. OK?”

They stared at their son, and Matt got up from his chair and Antonia finished tidying up. Jerome went up to his tropical bedroom. His parents were very proud of his business achievements. He worked for a high finance company, that also dealt with the buying and selling of properties. One of the reasons Jerome had no girl friends, was that they had an aversion to his cowboy and tropical clothes.

 

Jerome’s bedroom was his private world. He went into his room and walked over to the window, which was surrounded by tropical branches. He peered out at the street below him, and saw that it was another rainy day. He pulled travel brochures out of a drawer, although summer holiday time was still a long way off. He began leafing through them. One of the photos looked remarkably like the lake and waterfall Geronimo had dived into. Feeling a little bored, Jerome sorted through his collection of DVDs, which were all set in tropical locations. Some of them were quite old and were in black and white, which didn’t bother Jerome in the slightest. The film chosen to get him from breakfast till his sister arrived with her brood, was a Mexican western. Before relaxing on his bed for the film, he went into the bathroom and took a good look at his hair-roots and espied a few silver ones. He put men’s hair-dye onto all his roots, and waited for the colour to take. The shampooing of his hair over, he returned to his bedroom and put the DVD in the machine to see it on his own television. Jerome sat in the comfortable cane chair with its tropical covered cushions, and watched an old film that he had seen so many times before, he was able to quote large pieces of dialogue. He didn’t mind, because the film took him far away to warmer climes where it seemed it never rained or got cold. It wasn’t long before Jerome began dozing and he relaxed happily.

 

In the time he was watching the film, his sister, Amanda, arrived with her two ‘brats,’ as they were familiarly known. The two boys, called Dylan and Danny, were not to be trusted, and were the bane of their grandparents’ lives. That was one reason Jerome hadn’t gone out that Saturday morning. His sister had been offended, when he had found the boys in his cupboards and playing around in his room, and had given them a good rollicking.

She mistakenly thought that, by not visiting for six months she was punishing her parents and her brother. Quite the contrary, they were delighted by her absence and that of her children. Jerome and his parents got on fine, without all the shouting and general misbehaviour of the boys. Amanda was always going on about her husband and what he did or didn’t do in the home. She only rang when she was fed up with her family or her job.

Jerome had locked the door to his bedroom, and his mind was miles away in Mexico, watching a film about the outbreak of the revolution. Some months ago, he had put in sound-proofing to keep all other sounds out. The pounding of little fists on the door made no difference, he simply never heard them. The boys went on banging and kicking the bedroom door. Matt rang Jerome’s mobile to let him know what the boys were doing to his door. Jerome opened the door and shooed them down the stairs, where Matt grabbed them by the scruff of their necks and took them to their mother.

Amanda was angry with her father, “What are you doing to my boys?”

“They were banging and kicking Jerome’s bedroom door. How would you two like it if we went round to your house and did that, eh?”

The two brats put their heads in their mother’s lap, and cried, “Grandad’s angry with us.”

“Why are you always angry with them? They’re only small boys.”

“I don’t agree with you. They’re ten and eleven years old. Time they grew up a bit.” Matt said, “They can’t visit other homes and carry on as if they were in their own. Jerome had been very upset the last time they had come round, and said if they repeated the scenes of their last visit, he’d be even more upset.”

Amanda put her sons at the dining table with iPads for children, to keep them quiet. Then she went into the kitchen for her moan to her mother, which was her usual reason for visiting. Antonia had learned to turn a deaf ear to her daughter’s lamentations. Antonia prepared the food, and then got Matt to call Jerome on his mobile for lunch.

 

The boys were quiet when eating, or else their grandfather would have put them out on the stairs, or alone in the kitchen with him.

 

Later, Amanda put her sons in the car and drove home. Benny, who was Amanda’s husband,

never went to visit. He always had a reason, like having to see someone, or work. Antonia had asked Amanda if all was right in her marriage, and she said it was. It seemed that Benny didn’t like being with his sons very much, and that he avoided them when possible.

 

When they had gone, Matt got out a new DVD he thought Jerome would like. It was a cowboy film. The screen in the living-room was gigantic, turning it into a mini-cinema. For the duration, the three, father mother and son, sat and stared in wonder at the film as it unfolded before their eyes.

As soon as it was finished, Jerome said, “Goodnight,” to his parents, and went up to his room. That time he didn’t lock the door. Over a long time, Jerome had acquired a large collection of information about all the exotic places he would like to visit. He had plenty of print-outs about travel, and they were piled on his table. The cover of one of his travel brochures held a photo showing a lake very much like the one Geronimo had dived into. The first thing he did was to switch on his lap top and check out any new models in cowboy-style clothes and tropical ones, too.

 

 

 

Geronimo was lying on the ground beside his horse. He was dressed in a buckskin jacket, trousers, and boots, and he had a rifle. Geronimo was not alone, he was accompanied by men like him. His hair was still long, but not so black. He, with the others, were lying in wait for the unwary. Who were they waiting for? What were they waiting for? The waiting time grew longer, but the men didn’t move. It was as if they had become part of the landscape. Some horsemen were to be seen in the distance, and Geronimo and his group rode after them. The waiting was over.

 

Sunday came with more rain. Jerome was lying in bed, staring at the decoration chosen by him. The girls he might have invited out but never did, would have freaked out at the sight of his tropical bedroom. One of his male friends who had seen the hallowed room, had said to their other friends, “Jerome’s bedroom reminds me of a hot-house in Kew Gardens.” The women in the group hadn’t liked that, so they steered clear of him, thinking he was some kind of weirdo. What they didn’t understand was, that they were doing Jerome a favour. So, all in all, Jerome would never find a girl friend among the women where he worked and lived. He felt better off for it, because he was able to save more money towards his holiday of a lifetime.

 

Monday morning came and with it a little less rain. Jerome went into his boss’s office for a personal chat. “Good morning, Sir. May we talk about the summer holiday plan for the company?”

Mr. Barker indicated to Jerome to sit down. “The holidays aren’t upon us yet. What is it you wish to know?”

“Mr. Barker, I’ve not had my full share of holidays for two years and have accumulated about a full month’s holiday time. I’d like to take it in May, and be back to begin work at the beginning of June.”

“Jerome, you know very well that the company doesn’t recognise accumulated holiday time. You have to take it when you are given it. So I’m afraid the answer is, you can’t have a full month’s holiday. If you get it, everyone else will want it.”

Jerome felt shattered at that news, and left the boss’s office. He had never imagined that after working so hard, he would have to put up with a fortnight’s holiday, when he knew he needed a month to see all that he had wanted to see for so long.

 

That evening when he got home, he found his mother stressed out by Amanda’s calls, demanding she collect the boys from school because she had to work late. The problems with Amanda were interminable. Jerome saw his mother getting more and more frantic as time passed. He said nothing about feeling let down by his boss, and tried to think of a solution to his parents’ problems with the grandchildren. Six months without the boys had been bliss, but now Amanda was back on the scene, the old rows were on the point of erupting again.

 

Jerome sat down at his lap-top and searched out possible places for his parents and him to move to. He spent hour after hour making print-outs of what he thought were the best for price and location.

 

Geronimo didn’t make an appearance that night. Jerome gazed at an old photo of Geronimo and wondered what he would have done. Of course, he would have high-tailed it to another place, where he could live well and be free.

 

Jerome said nothing to his parents about his ideas and, to all intents and purposes, life continued the same with the small family. Jerome worked harder than ever because he had a plan. Antonia was becoming more and more fed up with Amanda’s boys. Benny was the invisible father and was never available to pick up his two offspring. Mr Barker was amazed by Jerome’s sudden spurt of hard work. Jerome had always been a good worker, but now he was doing the work of more than one person, and nearer that of three people. 

 

During the following months, Jerome lived his life in two directions: the first one at work and the second in his bedroom at night, where he scoured the network for a decent place for his parents to move to. Amanda made her presence felt every other weekend with her brats. Jerome didn’t like the effect the terrible trio had on his parents. Amanda took to saying how spoilt Jerome was, and how he got away with so much. Matt argued that she was an abuser, whereas Jerome was just waiting for the girl of his dreams. Amanda was deaf to her father’s words, and continued demanding her mother’s help. Benny was the invisible husband and father.

 

Jerome remembered something that he had seen in an old western film. When the soldiers wanted to find out what was happening at a fort or town, they sent out scouts to discover the truth of the situation. Jerome looked for a scout, a private detective, and he found one, with the name of Roland Jones, whose ad. on the internet looked quite impressive. Jerome got in touch with Roland and told him the situation with his sister and his brother-in-law. Roland’s reaction was, “Don’t worry, it’s a job right up my street. I’ll need some money before beginning the job and the rest later.”

“That’s perfectly all right. When will you get in touch with me?”

“As soon as I’ve got something to tell you that’s of interest. Does your sister ever say anything about her husband?”

“She only says that he’s busy seeing someone or working. Where shall we meet?” Jerome asked.

“I’ll get in touch with you.” Roland said.

Jerome said nothing to Antonia or Matt about having a private detective out, looking to see what Benny was up to.

 

Roland set to work in his investigation surrounding Benny’s behaviour. At first, he suspected another woman, or women, and then he discovered that Benny was a frequent visitor to a billiards room, that only allowed moneyed people to play. The drinks were expensive and served by pretty girls dressed up in floating dresses. Roland also discovered that Benny always met the same man. The man was a divorce lawyer, and Roland worked out that Benny was thinking about divorcing Amanda.

On one of his visits to the billiards room, Roland managed to get talking to Benny and his lawyer friend. It appeared that both men were seeking freedom from strangling marriages. Roland then knew and understood why Benny was never with his wife and boys on their visits to Jerome’s parents’ family home. He was playing away, but with whom? That was the question, and Roland having discovered so much about the errant husband, then had to find out who the other woman was. Benny had met a girl in a night club when out with friends. They had been seeing each other for some months when Roland found them out. Benny had worked longer and longer hours, in order to avoid Amanda’s suspicions. Roland took photos of Benny and the girl, and gave them to Jerome, who printed copies and sent them to Amanda - anonymously.

 

“What are you doing with this girl?” Amanda challenged Benny, the evening of the day she had received the photos.

“It’s not what it appears,” said the defenceless Benny. “We’re just friends.”

Amanda laughed bitterly, and said, “Only seeing the way she is dressed, I can’t imagine anyone just being ‘friends’ with her.”

“Amanda, you’ve got a nasty suspicious mind.”

Amanda wasn’t convinced, and asked herself what she could do to find out the truth. She knew where he worked, but not where he went afterwards.

 

Jerome was busying tying up loose ends at work, as well as in his private life. He had a lot of work to get done, before making his next move, and he wanted to get it right. Geronimo wasn’t being much help at night, so Jerome did what he could by himself. He got all the auditing done and up to date. He also made a list of outstanding debtors to the company, and sent them the usual hard letter, informing them of the consequences if they didn’t pay up within a certain time. At home, he showed his parents a short list of places where they might go and live-out the end of their lives. He cleared out his bedroom and binned all the decoration he had lovingly set up some years ago. He packed all his clothes into big boxes ready for moving.

 

“Jerome, we’ve decided to move to Malta. It’ll be a nice change from round here, and we’ll be free from Amanda and all her problems with her boys and Benny. She rang to say she’s asked him for a divorce. He’s been cheating on her, so she says,” Antonia said to Jerome one evening when they were all in the living-room.

Matt replied dryly, “Hardly surprising, it’s the way she’s spoilt those two boys. No man is going to put up with kids like them.”

Jerome sat in silence, knowing that he was the invisible link in the scandal between Amanda and Benny.

 

It was not long before Antonia and Matt called their two children together, to tell them that the house had been sold. “Where are you going to live?” moaned Amanda.

“We’re going to Malta for a bit of peace and quiet, and no language problems. It should be more relaxing than the Canary Islands or Benidorm,” Matt said, staring at the look of disbelief on his daughter’s face.

“Yes, Dear, it isn’t far nowadays, with so many flights,” her mother added.

“What about me and the boys? What are we supposed to do?” Amanda moaned again.

“I’m sure you’ll manage. Others have to, and Benny will have to pay child support,” her mother reasoned.

“Who’s going to pick up the boys for me?”

“Find a neighbour to help you out, for a small fee,” Matt said happily.

“We’ve already paid for the new place in Malta, and we’ve put some money in the bank for you and Jerome,” Antonia said.

“Where’s he going to live?” Amanda asked with a sharp tone in her voice.

“I’ve bought my own place in an old part of the island. Mum and Dad will be living in a newer and flashier district,” Jerome told his sister.

 

Jerome had resigned at the end of April, to leave at the end of May. He had done that intentionally, knowing full well that the holiday season in the company began at the beginning of June. He had felt unjustly treated, and had left the office in a shambles, because he would no longer be there to do the rest of the staff’s work while they were on holiday. They would have to catch up on their return to work.

 

The last night in his parents’ house, before the three of them moved to Malta, Jerome had his last dream of Geronimo. He made a terrific leap, got on his horse, and galloped off across the desert, with the soldiers behind him.

 

Jerome’s new abode was decorated in cowboy style, with a tropical bathroom full of plants and colours. All he needed now, was somebody to share it with.