Chapter Twenty-One: We Then Washed Our Hands

Dominica reminisces about Jake.

Uncle Davis read a little bit of my follow up novel to the The Long Stretch. He told me, "Everything is powerful within the story. The feelings are expressed beautifully. It talks a lot about the characters emotional and psychological struggle, in terms of her faith within herself and within the Lord. The story is no only genuine in terms of content, but with the expression of the character's feelings. Everything is so believable."

"I'm so relieved, because I wasn't sure if certain elements incorporated within the story would work. My main concern was as to whether or not they would be interesting." I said, while making any necessary corrections on my computer, with regard to punctuation.

"Believe me when I tell you the story was interesting. You managed to pull off everything you set out to do with the story so far." he assured me.

Uncle Davis made a call to his brother Leo to see how he was and to ask about his wife, children and grandchildren. He also talked to him about Medicare and about the photos Uncle Davis received from his friends overseas thru email.

Upon our arrival to the grocery store, Aunt Doris, Grandma Feldman and I stopped at the pharmacy to pick up Uncle Davis's medicine, and then went to the customer service area to get some lottery tickets for him.

Walking down the aisle's of the toy department, I came across a Dallas Cowboys action figure of a player I knew Avery didn't already have. So, I put it into the basket, so I could buy it for him and give it to him for Easter, even though Easter was a month or two away.

From there, the three of us went to the eatery within the grocery store, and bought lemon herb rotisserie chicken and some bread. Grandma Feldman got some decaf coffee, while Aunt Doris and I shared a diet cola. We then sat down at one of the tables to eat and chat a bit, before we went to the dairy department to get some milk.

"I"ll never forgive Warren for what he did to Vera and the kids, Doris. Especially, for what he did to Jake on the day he died at the hospital. He shook Jake and pulled the plug. I still say, had it not been for that son of a b***h, Jake would have come out of the coma and lived. One thing I remember is this. On the day the plug was to be pulled, Jake grabbed hold of my hand and squeezed it. The boy would have lived. But that son of a b***h father of his killed him. Warren put Jake six feet under." Grandma Feldman said sternly.

"Yeah, but had it not been for the drunk driver, Grandma, Jake would have never been in the hospital in the first place. Of course, Warren is partly responsible too for Jake being dead. I agree with you on that. About a week before the accident, Warren beat the hell out of Jake. I know, because I was there and I saw what he did to him. My theory is this. When Jake was walking to his car, he probably had his own mind occupied about what transpired the week before, when Warren took the belt to him; thus, making his back, legs and arms raw. He was probably concerned with the nothion of the probability of him getting beaten up by Warren, again. I know I thought about those things everyday whenever I"d come home from school or work. I worried about going home to a war zone within my own home, because we never had a day of peace except for when Warren went out somewhere with those drunkard friends of his own he hung around with at the bars and strip clubs he went to. To tell you the truth, I look forward to the day Warren dies. Only then will I ever consider going down to Florida to see my mother. I certainly have no intentions of going down there by myself, though. The sooner Warren dies, the better. His death would be such a blessing. When Jake, Avery and I called the police on Warren all those years ago and they came to our house to arrest Warren and put him in jail, my mother lied to the police to protect Warren, because she worried about how she'd make it on her own without a husband. Then, after they moved down to Florida, Warren got so mad that he broke some of the furniture in the house, including my mother's computer and desk. Only then did my mother wake up and call the police on him, have him arrested and file a police report. My parents almost got a divorce, but like a damn fool, my mother took him back, because once again, she worried about how she'd make it on her own without a husband. But one consolation is that Warren has a police record for domestic assault and he's on probation for the rest of his life. If he lays a hand on her one more time or breaks anything or does any kind of damage or assault, off to jail he will go for the rest of his life. The bad thing is that my mother is making it on her own paying the mortgage and bills of the house, etc...because Warren isn't working. He gets four hundred and thirty dollars a month from Social Security and that's it. But I know he doesn't contribute a damn thing to the household expenses or mortgage. His money is his and her money is his." I complained and then began eating a piece of chicken, and drank some pop.

"Can you guys hurry up a little bit. I dont know how the roads are going to be when we leave the store. I don't know if it's going to snow somemore or not, and I don't want us to get caught in a snow storm. Let's just focus on eating so we can pay for the merchandise and go home." Aunt Doris advised Grandma Feldman and me.

Upon our arrival home, Aunt Doris took the bags with our merchandise into th ehouse first, while leaving the car running with the heater on for Grandma Feldman and me, because we waited for her to help Grandma Feldman out of the car and wheel her inside the porch. There was a lot of slush and snow on the ground and for grandma to walk with her walker, it would have been dangerous, because the ground was slippery. While she was taking my grandmother into the house, I waited for her out in the car for when she put the car into the garage.

"Uncle Davis, we brought you some chicken and some bread rolls from the grocery store. So this way, you don't have to cook anything." I said cheerfully to Uncle Davis who was reclining on his lounge chair when I walked into the living room to take off my coat and boots.

"Thank you, Dominica. I'm giong into the kitchen to have some now." he said cheerfully, as he got up from his lounge chair and headed into the kitchen.

I emptied the bags and gave Uncle Davis his medicine after I put the milk into the refrigerator. I then helped Uncle Davis put the brown bags of garbage into the yellow bags and fastened them, so we could take them out to the front of his yard for the garbage man to pick up the following day.

We then washed our hands and went into the living room to relax and watch some television for the
rest of the night.

That night, there was a segment on Fox 17 News which dealt with the issue of over 400 hundred jobs coming to Kalamazoo, with yearly pay ranging in the fifty thousand dollar range. That was such a relief, because, at the time, Michigan had the worst unemployment rate in the country. But little by little, I was certain more and more people were to be going back to work, if the Michigan governor kept up the good work as she had been doing all along, and continued to make good progress with improving the quality of life for the citizens of Michigan. She balanced the Michigan budget, and ended up with a surplus of money, all of which she returned to the taxpayers. She aslo made health care more affordable to senior citizens who were on a fixed income. And then she sparked interest of a major company when it came to bringing their business to Kalamazoo. This company was to have two lacations: one in Kalamazoo, and one in Comstock. The company was known for manufacturing plastics and was known to generate one billion dollars a year. This plastics company was the answer to Kalamazoo's prayers.

Author's Note

What do you think of the dialogue?