Cocking her head, she finally ventured, “Auggie, is that you?”
I nodded and smiled, feeling pity for her. She really was a prisoner and that was a feeling I couldn’t abide. To know one would never leave a place like this still standing, it made me ill and I shuddered.
“I didn’t recognize you without your horse, dear,” she said and smiled sweetly.
“May I take you down to an activity room or somewhere?” I asked.
She nodded and I slid behind the wheelchair and pushed her into the hallway where we went in search of any room that didn’t have a toilet. We ended up in the cafeteria and I chose a sunny table in the corner.
“How are you doing, Mrs. Jessup?” I began, taking the seat opposite her. I spoke loudly, as seemed customary in a place like this.
“You needn’t shout, Auggie,” she said, patting my arm. I’m here because the diabetes is out of control and I’m on dialysis. You know, dear, they hook you to a machine and clean your blood three times a week?”
I tried to look interested, but it felt like I was watching a horror movie. I just didn’t know how to act. How does one say goodbye to someone you know isn’t long for the world and yet you want to cheer them up?
“I’m so sorry, Mrs. Jessup,” I said to the lady who had always been impeccably groomed and whose Derby party invitations were sought after by everyone who was anyone.
“Don’t be, dear. It happens to all of us eventually. I’ll be fine here. They let me have pudding on Wednesdays, even if it is sugar-free.”
Pudding on Wednesdays?
“Is there anything I can bring you, Mrs. Jessup. Anything I can do?”
“No, no, dear. They won’t let you bring anything in and I have everything I need. There is one thing, though…” Her thin lips pressed together and she looked away.
“Yes?”
“Could you stop by once in a while just to say hello? I miss hearing all the gossip and especially what’s going on with the young people. I know a great many secrets, you know, dear. A great many secrets.” Her white-tufted head was quivering a bit and I could tell she wanted to cry. I patted her shriveled hand, blackened by the constant poking with the dialysis needle.
“Mrs. Jessup, I’m sorry, but what happened? You had funds. How did you end up here?”
Her smile faded then and she looked down to her lap. “You remember David and Sarah, right?” I nodded. “I signed everything over to them about a year ago. It seemed so much simpler than probating a will someday. Last Christmas, they told me it would be my last year at home. They were going to find me a place where I would be well taken care of. I have to travel to the clinic every other day.” She laughed. It was a bitter sound. “That’s how I ended up here, you see? This is where they’re taking care of me. They have a driver who takes me.”
I wanted to rip someone’s head off. This was a travesty. Mrs. Jessup and her late husband had a huge estate and once bred a Derby winner. They threw lavish parties and everyone was invited. I remembered them from when I was younger. Governors and even a President once attended. Here she sat, shriveled and blackened in a wheelchair among pots of piss. It simply wasn’t right.
“Don’t worry, Auggie. They will get theirs in the end. You wait and see.”
I nodded. It was the only thing I could do. After another half hour, she asked to go back to her room and take a nap. I wheeled her back and settled her into the flat-mattressed bed with the cheap, dollar store spread and turned the old thirteen-inch color TV so she could see it. It was secured to the metal cabinet upon which it sat with a bicycle cable. As I kissed her forehead goodbye, I made an oath.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Worth
I can’t get the mahogany-haired colt out of my mind. My schedule is full and while I listen to a series of bitches whine about their husbands, I remembered how green her eyes were. I wanted to decorate her lovely, long neck with green and white diamonds. I wanted to breathe that sweet scent at the base of her neck as I fastened them, to run my finger down her chest until it came to rest upon one pert nipple. Damn! I felt myself growing hard for the fifth time today and judging by the look on the bitch’s face, she was taking full credit. Look at the way she’s winking at me… the tawdry blonde of her hair showed gray at the roots, and she had a neck that matched that of a turkey. I couldn’t daydream with that looking at me.
“I think that’s enough for today, Mrs. Tilling.” I urged her to get out with my voice, followed with the purposeful opening of the door. She looked at her watch, shrugged and winked again as she passed me on her way out. The acid rose to the back of my mouth and I wondered, once again, why I had chosen this profession.
My waiting room was thankfully empty and I locked myself behind the inner door. I dialed the colt and she answered on the second ring. “How about dinner, fair one?” I asked.
There was a girlish giggle at the other end. “You’re asking me out again already?” Another coquettish laugh went straight to my dick.
“Miss Homecoming Queen, you know I want you. Why pretend?”
There was silence and a wave of fear passed over me. Had I offended her? “Are you there?” I asked finally.
“I had to put my crown on the dresser,” she came back with a witty retort and I knew I had my work cut out for me. “Well, now, what did you have in mind?”
“I know a quiet little place downtown that serves the best Italian food outside Jersey,” I invited. “Pick you up at seven?”
“Hmmm… so now I’m a pick up, huh?” She laughed again and it was musical. “You know where I live?”
“I have my ways,” I reminded her.
“Ahhh, yes, your ways. See you at seven.”
The line went dead and I grabbed my things and headed home to shower and change. On the way, I stopped at a small flower shop that was just closing. I bought a dozen long-stemmed red roses and had the box wrapped with a gold ribbon.
It was an obstacle course at the house to avoid Mother and Father, but I pulled it off. Now that they were not paying tuition, my accountability to them had ended.
I was to inherit the trust Grandfather had left for me in a few weeks. Staying at the farm had been a convenience up until this point. It was time for that to change.