Jem… Chapter 128

Chapter 128

*Before…

I kind of want to do more but there’s a line that you kind of want to not cross…do I think that she’s going to do stuff to herself? No honestly I don’t…but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have this huge urge to do something and to try and make it better.
She heads upstairs and I go to the camera and I make copies on flash drives and then I think about it for a bit and I call Mike.
……. “Yellow.”
“Mike, do you have a full day or a half day?”
“All my days are half days when I have classes that is.” Oh yeah he’s doing that weird part time student thing that gives him this schedule.
“You should come over I have a video that you should see and I need a lift to Red Pines.”
“Oh Uncle Bobby?”
“Yeah Uncle Bobby.”
“I’ll be over at lunch.”
“Okay I’ll be ready.”

*And Now…

Carmen’s upstairs and I hear her in the bathroom and then I can hear the water for the shower getting turned on because we have those kinds of pipes and stuff and I head to the kitchen and get some baking soda and some peroxide and I pour the entire can of the soda into a bowl and it’s a metal bowl at that and I take it into the living room and I then pour the peroxide into it and the soda foams and bubbles and there’s something with the reaction when it’s in metal but if you leave it alone it will suck up odors. I literally set it on the couch and then I go and make yet another pot of coffee and have it ready to go and then I get a bowl of water and some of the Pine Sol cleanser and I go through the living room fast doing a touch up wipe of things to get dust and dirt and then do the hall and downstairs.

I know it sounds like a lot but making perk coffee’s not a chore and when you keep things up in the house it’s not scrubbing but literally a maintenance wipe.

And when I’m done that I scrub and that’s just a run through too…literally if you keep it up…okay yes I’m nervous and I’m nervously doing things until Mike gets here and this leads me to mopping the back porch too which just keeps it from getting stale and then a fast wipe with another rag and Pine Sol and I do the inside of the closets for the halls like the floors and the inside of the doors and I even hang a couple of Gain dryer sheets in there and made my and Rayne’s bed again.

Carmen I checked on and she was in her room after the bath curled up in the sweats that she’s been wearing and all and she actually looks like she was crying and pillow hugging and had cried herself to sleep.

Dammit, dammit I hate some of that because it sort of feels wrong to not be there and giving her my shoulder.

And my brain tells me that the last thing that I should do right now is to push her.

So I went downstairs and to the basement and took the stuff from the dryer upstairs and then put on others to wash and then went to the kitchen to wait for Mike.

Me and waiting though sometimes with this is just.

I make some more bread and I mix for two batches one’s normal and just enough for two double loaves and the other I replace some of the shortening with olive oil and some fresh herbs chives and rosemary and some dried thyme and the zest from a whole lemon. That one I make into a great big fat loaf and I let it proof and raise on a cookie sheet with parchment paper after I rolled in in corn meal and I’m baking off before everyone gets home so we’ll have this herby sort of French bread to go with the leftover cassoulet.

I get the two regular loaves in the oven and Mike pulls in and he’s carrying his book bag and he comes in and takes his sneakers off at the door and does the whole big sniff thing and I flick on the coffee perk and come out and look at him.

“Carmen’s crashed so…”

He nods. “Okay, let’s sit down and see what we’ve got?”

I get my laptop and take it into the kitchen and set it all up to place and sit with a coffee after getting Mike one and we watch this effing horror show all over again.

Mike’s fists flex and unflex and he looks calm but there’s something else there too.

“Mike?”

“After the stuff with the dealers in school Ange I got into this fighting thing it was MMA and boxing but we did like charity fights to help out things with the sport…and all the cash went to domestic violence places and stuff…y’know us taking the hits so they don’t have to.”

I nod and look at him. “Sounds nice actually Mike.”

He blushes some. “Yeah well…I’m a big guy and just being a big guy’s scary to a lot of girls and stuff…so I kind of try.”

He takes a drink of his coffee. “But with that I’ve seen enough stuff that she’s…she has that rape survivor look.”

I nod. “Something’s wrong there, I could see it and I knew what but I don’t know what I can do to help her with it.”

“You kind of are Angel, you’re getting her to talk about it and she’s getting out sort of on her terms and then you’re like giving her a neutral place to stay.”

I frown. “Her parents I’m not sure if she was doing this she’d be safe there.”

He looks at me.

I shrug and nod at the laptop. “You’ll see.”

We sit it up and we watch and Mike has his tablet out and he’s taking notes and stuff but it’s no easier watching it another time or it isn’t for me and he’s looking angry and interested at the same time and he’s nodding.

And then he’s smiling.

“Mike?”

“I have some recorded stuff, stuff that leads us to this bit with Donnie.”

“Oh…do I want to know?”

“I’m technically your CI so if you want to.”

I nod.

He takes out his own flash drive and he’s playing stuff and it’s all audio for the first bit but there’s talking.

“You got the stuff?”
“Yeah, it’s pretty kick ass stuff too.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah it’ll lift you right up through the roof, it’s smooth too.”
“What’s he want for it?”
“Donnie says fifteen for a rock or three for thirty three.”
“I’ll take six, that’ll do the weekend like.”
“Totes it’ll have you tweaking in a good way for at least ten hours a pop.”
“Why’s it like black?”
“Trademark stuff, new and all that.”

I look at Mike and he looks at me and he’s smiling. “It’d not be enough by itself and all but with this video and stuff there’s at least a really good probable for getting something assigned to Donnie. And if the RCMP can get him good and cornered on the drug charges then he might roll on this whole credit scam extortion and prostitution and blackmail thing.”

Then there’s some of the hidden camera video and there’s not much there in the case of bullying and stuff but Mike has a hand off in one of those secluded parts he set the camera’s up in and yeah it’s really illegal but he’s my CI so how he got this is sort of not really valid/ or challengeable in court because I’m Bobby’s CI and as long as he doesn’t know where the information comes from it can’t be classed as illegal as illegal is done by the RCMP for the investigation…and then there’s this whole thing where there’s something mike calls justifiable extension where the subject of the investigation may have resources that are compromised in the course of the standards of law enforcement.

It’s from organized crime cases which like so many of the ones that we’ve seen here in like Ontario and Quebec with like the bikers and all of that stuff it gets so often involved with the political peoples and stuff.

If the people that you’re going after have access to the information and stuff from the standard police and such then you need stuff to legally offset things when you investigate them.

Yeah we’re sort of in this big.

And yes it’s scary as hell too.

But taking on Adam, taking on the Marshall family who like own so much of things and seeing just how tied up Adam might actually have everything and everyone around here and such it’s kind of really the only way that I’m going to be safe, it’s the only way a lot of us are going to be safe because if we just get him on something light or halfway he’s just going to rich-boy and power play his way out of it.

We need to nail his ass to the wall and then burn the place the wall is at to the ground with him in it so to speak.

We get the files together and put them together and we then make copies and I actually take the flash drive that I’m going to give to Bobby and tape the flash onto a twenty dollar bill and fold it over and slip it into the girl safe that is my bra and I sigh and look at Mike.

He has a bit of a smile on his face and he offers me a fist bump which I give back and then I get up. “Help me get things set up for the rehersal before the show and all the pre-show stuff?”

“Sure thing I’m here for the duration I’ll help set up and then I’ll get to work on my AP math stuff.”

“AP? Wow so you’re a brain too?”

“Good math is a good way to get into a whole lot of college programs, French too.”

I nod. “I’m going to try for my GED sometime soon I think I just can’t see myself coming back to high school even after everyone knows everything and the whole post Adam mess. I’ll have enough going on that I don’t think that I’ll want to do the whole last two years full of drama and defending myself socially.”

He nods. “I can see that and it’s not like you’re going to do the private school thing like the girls either and I can definitely vouch for not wanting to do the full time student thing either. I’ve moved around enough over the years it’s actually easier being the new kid all the time as a part time student thing than trying to go through all of the bullshit of fitting in when you’re really, really not too sure you want to fit in.”

We’re walking into the living room when we hear Carmen saying. “Amen to that. Fitting it sucks.”

She’s got one of the cans of pop and she looks at us. “Can I help set stuff up? I can like be your roadie and stuff.”

“Sure you’re here you might as well get used to it.” I grin a little at her and she nods and smiles back and drains her pop and we start getting things out and sorted and set up for our rehersal.

There’s a lot going on with us and with her and right now we’re just leaving it behind and just being in the moment and doing band stuff and we even get a grin out of her a few times when Carmen gets to do the whole “Check, check…check check…” mic girl thing and then she’s sitting beside Mike while he’s doing the stuff on the computers and she’s texting and smiling and blushing some and she’s folding clothes from the basket I brought up from the basement and I slip into the kitchen and take out the first bread and then get out the cassoulet and add some more canned tomatoes to refill what we used for the lunches and I cut up two carrots in thin slices on the bias and just because I hadn’t done anything with it that lemon that I zested for the supper loaf and just cut that into thirds and pop it Dutch oven and all to cook and re-heat both.

Slip down stairs and switch out laundry and put on the last load and then I’m back upstairs and after I use the bathroom I go over and get my folding wooden slat chair and I plug in my guitar and I start to tune it and then I start to play and to sing.

It’s a really old tune and actually a fun one that I registered us for and I want to change up some for our show at Lucky’s actually and it’s a good old tune but it’s got some parts that need re-doing with some of the words. I mean this was sort of a long, long while ago and people said and did stuff that’s not really politically okay now-a-days.

I actually like this song and the artist for his guitar work and stuff as much as his songs.

*Roller Derby Queen* By Jim Croce.
Gonna tell you a story that you won't believe…
But I fell in love last Friday evenin'
With a girl I saw on a bar room T. V. Screen.

(Cool guitar riff.)

Well I was just gettin' ready to get my hat.
When she caught my eye and I put it back.
And I ordered myself a couple o' more shots and beers.

The night that I fell in love with a Roller Derby Queen
Round and round, oh round and round
The meanest hunk o' woman
That anybody ever seen……. (Drawn out.)
Down in the arena (Jazz singing it loud bit.)

She was five foot six and two fifteen
A bleached-blonde mama
With a streak of mean
She knew how to knuckle
And she knew how to scuffle and fight

And the roller derby program said
That she was built like a 'fridgerator with a head
Her fans call her "Tuffy"
But all her buddies called her "Spike"

You know that I fell in love with a Roller Derby Queen
Round and round, oh round and round
The meanest hunk o' woman
That anybody ever seen…. (Drawn out)
Down in the arena… (Jazz singing it loud bit.)

Round and round, go round and round
Round and round, go round and round
Round and round

Well I could not help it
But to fall in love
With this heavy-duty woman
I been speakin' of
Things looked kind of bad
Until the day she skated into my life

Well she might be feisty… (Lyric change by me.)
She might have tats…(Lyric change by me.)
But I never met a person
Who would tell her that
She's my big blonde bomber
My heavy handed Hackensack mama

You know that I fell in love with a Roller Derby Queen
Round and round, oh round and round
The meanest hunk o' woman
That anybody ever seen…….. (Drawn out.)
Down in the arena. (Jazz singing it loud bit.)

Round and round, go round and round
Round and round, go round and round
Round and round

Mike’s actually applauding when I’m done and I grin and Carmen’s looking at me with this whole totally WTF was that look that I was kind of sort of expecting really. It’s a tune that’s not really remotely close to my generation and yet Roller Derby is kind of coming back into my generation and this.

This deserves the girl on girl kinda sorta make-over that I did with the INXS song I need you tonight.

I grin at them and there’s whistling with the fingers from the doorway and Brooklyn and Kimmie are home and Molly’s with them and they must have picked her up on their way home and Brooklyn comes in and she does that take her hair out of the pins and stuff and this upside down kind of kiss to Mike and Molly comes over and she looks at all of us and she’s blushing as she slips in onto the couch next to Carmen and Kimmie is cracking a Redbull tall can and she’s coming over to look at my sheets.

“Lucky’s?”

“Yeah I thought it’s be a great bar meets bowling alley type of song for there.”

“So tunes for each of our places?”

I nod. “No SLB show will be the same at any night that we play during the week, we’ll have a feel and stuff but we’ll have good reasons for people to come to our shows to have fun and hear stuff that you won’t hear in the other places.”

“Cool, y’wanna run through it again?” Kimmie says as she pops several things of Juicy Fruit gum into her mouth.

“Sure.”

Brooklyn joins us with her top unbuttoned two spaces down and with her shirt/blouse tail un-tucked from her skirt and she takes up her guitar and then we start up again and we start playing and learning the music and working at the changes.

And we’re doing that all the way through until Rayne makes it home.

She has her shoes off in her hands which is a long day sign but she’s smiling and she’s dancing in the archway of the living room and she’s having fun and she’s actually smiling really big too as we’re playing and singing and she dances into the room and up to me even doing a spin and a twirl as we’re singing the “Round and round, oh round and round…”

And when we’re done that last singing part Rayne’s kissing me deeply and sweetly and Brooklyn’s playing the song out with the last of those guitar notes as we do.