Bottoms Out

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Jacksonville, FL

TEDDY WAS STILL sound asleep when they went to check on him the next morning.

“Should we let him sleep?” Mickey said.

“No. He needs to be on a schedule. Specifically, your schedule, since he’ll be going to work with you starting tomorrow.”

“Babe, tomorrow is a Saturday. Some of the branch banks in the suburbs may be open, but I’m in the tower downtown, and we won’t be.”

“Okay, starting Monday, then. I’m the one who has to go back to work tomorrow, so you get to spend the day amusing our little boy.”

“Yeah. Lucky me,” Mickey said.

“Sarcasm noted.”

“I wasn’t being sarcastic… not really. Actually, I’m kind of looking forward to it—I think.”

“Damning the situation with faint praise, are we?”

“Sorry, that came out badly,” Mickey said.

“Want to hear a suggestion for tomorrow?”

“Sure.”

“Take him to the beach. If you remember, he specifically asked about the ocean when we first met him.”

“Don’t you want us to wait until you can go with us?”

“Mick! Did you forget about this ugly bag hanging on my belly? If I went to the beach I’d want to take my shirt off, and you know I’m not going to do that.”

“Okay, point made and taken. Right now, I’ve got to get ready to go to work, so why don’t you wake him up?” Mickey left the room, and Chris looked at his sleeping brother for a long minute, then reached down and touched his shoulder.

“Teddy, it’s time to wake up.”

The minute he touched Teddy’s shoulder he got a reaction, but not the one he expected. Teddy curled up into a fetal position and began to yell, “No, don’t,” over and over again.

Chris grabbed Teddy firmly by the shoulders and shook him gently.

“Teddy, what’s the matter? It’s me, Chris.”

Teddy calmed a bit, then opened his eyes. “Chris?”

“Yeah, buddy, it’s your brother. Who did you think it was?”

“I don’t know. I—” Teddy sat up in his bed, grabbed Chris and hugged him.

“You had a bad dream last night, kiddo,” Chris said. “Do you remember?”

“I remember you and Uncle Mickey waking me up.”

“Yeah, we did, because you were screaming in your sleep.”

“What was I saying?”

“You were yelling ‘no, don’t’, over and over again. Don’t you remember?”

“No, Sir.”

“Anyhow, now that you’re awake, why don’t you go use the bathroom before you come downstairs to breakfast?”

“Okay.”

Chris hurried downstairs to report this latest happening to Mickey.

“Something bad happened to that little boy at some point in the past, Mickey. I’m sure of it.”

“Okay, so what are you going to do about it?”

“At the moment, I have no idea, but I’ll think of something—eventually.” They started talking about something else when they heard Teddy clattering down the stairs.

“What’s for breakfast?” Teddy said when he was in the kitchen.

“Do you like pancakes?” Chris said.

“Yes, Sir.”

“Let me pour you some juice, and I’ll make them.”

“What about me?” Mickey said.

“What about you? You’re already eating.”

“You didn’t tell me you were going to make pancakes.”

“That’s because I didn’t know it myself,” Chris said. “It was a spur-of-the-moment decision. Besides, aren’t you running a bit late?”

Mickey glanced at the kitchen clock. “Now that you mention it.” He swigged down the last of his coffee. “I’ll be out the door as soon as I go up and brush my teeth.”

“I think you need to do more than brush your teeth.”

“What do you mean?”

“Surely, you don’t plan to go to work wearing just boxers and a T-shirt?”

“Okay, so I need to brush my teeth and get dressed. Feel better?”

“No, but you will when you walk through the door of the bank.”

Mickey made a retort to that, but Chris barely heard him, as his attention was already focused on pancake batter preparation. When Mickey returned to the kitchen on his way to the garage, Chris was busily pouring batter into a skillet. Mickey gave him a brief hug, a kiss, and he was on his way.

“How many pancakes can you eat, Teddy?” Chris said.

“How big are they?”

“These are pretty small. Come have a look.”

Teddy walked over to the cooktop and peered into the skillet. “Three or four,” he said.

“Coming right up.”

Chris kept the pancakes coming, and he and Teddy managed to consume a respectable number. When the breakfast table was clear and the kitchen cleaned, they went upstairs to dress for the day.

“What should I wear?” Teddy said.

“Shorts and a T-shirt will do—that’s what I’m going to wear, even if I do have to stop by the hospital and sign some papers.”

“Are you gonna introduce me to people?”

“Sure.”

“Can you introduce me as Ted?”

“I can do that,” Chris said. “What’s the matter with Teddy?”

“It makes me sound like a little baby, and I don’t like it.”

“Haven’t you always been called Teddy?”

“No, Sir. Grandma started calling me Teddy a couple of years ago, and I’ve never liked it.”

“Then Ted it is,” Chris said.

“Thanks, Chris, I mean Papa.”

Dressed for the day, they went down to the garage and climbed into Mabel. As Chris reached the top of the driveway, he spotted activity on the screened porch of the house across the street, so he drove into their neighbor’s driveway and stopped the car.

“Where are we going?” Ted said.

“To introduce you to a couple of our neighbors.”

“How do you know they’re home?” Ted said. “The house looks deserted.”

“I know it looks that way, but that’s because it’s hard to tell with those huge azaleas across the front of the house. However, I spotted someone on the front porch.”

It wasn’t necessary for Chris to ring the doorbell because both Sarah and Parah Clark were standing at the screen door waiting to open it. They were in their late sixties as far as Chris knew, and they were both rail thin with silver hair.

“Good morning, ladies,” Chris said. “We’re not interrupting anything, are we?”

“What could you possibly be interrupting, Chris?” Sarah said. “We never go anywhere except to Publix and church, nor do we do anything interesting.”

“And who’s this young man with you?” her twin sister Parah said.

“This is my brother Ted,” Chris said. “Ted, meet our neighbors, Sarah and Parah Clark. They look alike because they’re twins.”

“Hello,” Ted said. “What do I call you?”

“That’s a good question,” Sarah said. “If you call both of us ‘Miss Clark’ it’ll get confusing.”

“Just call me ‘Miss Parah’ and my sister ‘Miss Sarah’,” her sister said.

“Okay,” Ted said.

“We didn’t know you had a brother, Chris,” Parah said.

“Neither did I until a few days ago.”

“Why don’t you sit down and tell us all about it,” Sarah said. “We just happen to have a fresh pitcher of lemonade in the fridge.”

“I’ll go get it,” Parah said.

“Let me help you,” Sarah said. “Excuse us for a minute, gentlemen. We’ll be right back.”

The sisters disappeared inside their house, only to return a few minutes later with a pitcher of lemonade, several glasses, and a plate of cookies.

“I like cookies,” Ted said, not waiting to be prompted.

“Are these the chocolate chip cookies you make using your mother’s recipe?” Chris said.

“Yes, they are,” Sarah said.

“It’s the only kind we ever make,” Parah said.

When everybody had a glass of lemonade and a cookie in hand, one of the sisters said, “Now tell us how you came to have a brother, Chris?”

“It began with a telephone call from a lawyer I’d never heard of,” Chris said. Then he told them the highlights of their trip to Arkansas, which included a visit to his mother’s deathbed and him promising to raise his little brother.

“You had a rather eventful trip to say the least,” Sarah said. “I can hardly imagine dealing with a mother you hadn’t seen in more than a dozen years when she was on her deathbed, then learning that you had a brother you didn’t know about. Not to mention an adoption and a funeral, all in a couple of days.”

“That’s for sure,” Chris said. “So, what’s new with the Clark sisters? We don’t get to visit very often, so I need updating.”

“There’s never any updating with us,” Sarah said. “We lead the same humdrum lives every day.”

“There is one thing,” Parah said.

“Oh, yes, the garage apartment,” Sarah said.

“What about it?” Chris said. “You told us about it some time ago, but I’ve never actually seen it.”

“Nor had we since the current tenant moved into it two years ago,” Parah said.

“He moved out last week, and when we inspected it, we found a mess,” Sarah said. “We’ve got to paint the walls and ceilings, clean the filth from the floors, and the bedrooms are truly disgusting.”

“Can I see it?” Chris said.

“What? Now?” Sarah said. “In its current condition?”

“Yeah. I could ask around and see if there’s somebody at the hospital who’d like to rent it and would do the cleaning and painting in exchange for some rent concessions.”

“Well, if you can stand to see it, why not?” Parah said. “You stay here and entertain Ted, sister, and I’ll take Chris back to the apartment.”

“Go ahead, sister,” Sarah said.

“Come along, Chris,” Parah said.

He followed her through the house and out the backdoor. The garage had two bays for cars, and the stairs up to the apartment were enclosed rather than attached to the outside of the building. Only one bay of the garage was in use.

“Does the tenant get to use one of the garage spaces?” Chris said.

“Yes, and if it’s a couple with two cars, they can park their other vehicle off to the side.”

“What comes with the apartment?”

“Stove, refrigerator, washer and dryer.”

“That sounds typical.”

“Yes, it is. We looked into that very carefully before we ever started to rent the apartment out.” She unlocked the door and led Chris up the steps. They stepped from a landing into a generous-sized living room, which flowed into a nice little dining area. Chris could see that the kitchen was off to one side of the dining area.

“You see what we were talking about, Chris?”

The walls were painted with splotches of loud and angry colors, as were the ceilings. Even the vinyl floor had been painted.

“Yeah,” he said.

“It gets worse in the two bedrooms,” she said.

“I can’t imagine how.”

“You’ll see.”

They stepped into a decent-sized bedroom, and Chris saw what she meant. The walls, ceiling, and floor were painted solid black.

“Holy sh…,” Chris started to say, then stopped.

“Holy s**t is right,” she said. “And the other bedroom is just like it, only it’s painted purple. The bathroom connects the two bedrooms. At least they didn’t ruin it.”

They stepped into a spacious bathroom with a tub and stall shower. In stark contrast to the bedroom and living area, it was painted white and looked fairly normal.

When they were once again in the living room, Chris said, “How much is the rent?”

She told him.

“Good grief, that’s cheap,” he said. “In this neighborhood you could add at least two hundred dollars to that amount.”

“That’s what Sarah keeps telling me,” Parah said.

“What’s under the vinyl on the floors?”

“Wood.”

“What kind of wood?” he said.

“Boards of some kind.”

“The kitchen appliances are pretty old, aren’t they?”

“Yes. We’d like to replace them, but we can’t do that and hire someone to get the painting done.”

“Let’s go back to the house,” Chris said. “I’ve seen enough, and I might have an idea, but I need to talk to some people first.”

“Okay, then. Let’s go.”