Chapter 5. The Downhill Slide

      Rosa and I sat outside and talked for hours that night. I completely forgot about the incident where Giancarlo had warned me about staying away from her. We quickly drank the last of the three beers. I offered to go inside and get some red wine that I had left over from cooking pasta the week before, but she declined because she didn't want to get tipsy in case Lennie needed something.

       "That's the price you pay when you have a kid, Errol. You always have to be on your toes and on the look-out for potential dangers."

       "But wouldn't you say that the blessings far outweigh the threats?"

    "I wouldn't have it any other way. Lennie gives me balance; he gives me purpose. I wouldn't have made it this far without him. He was so little when his dad would put hands on me, but he never hesitated and would run in the room and start grabbing on to Hector and screaming at for Hector to leave his mama alone. Then afterwards, after we went into hiding, he'd always try to cheer me up by saying, 'We'll make it, Mama. We'll make it.' He was only seven years old at the time."

        "He's such a polite boy. Mrs. Cohen loves that kid."

        "That's so true. She's giving him violin lessons, and Miss Mildred is teaching him how to bake pies.  How about you, you and your wife have any kids?"

        "No, my wife was on the way to tell me she was pregnant when she got hit by a car. It was on the street right beneath my office window. I heard a loud crash and a lot of commotion outside, so I looked out to see what it was all about and saw Elsie lying there in the street. I knew it was her right away because she had just bought that new, red dress the night before. I told her I didn't like the color, but she bought it anyway."

            "Was Elsie pretty?"

      "When we first met, I thought she was the prettiest girl in Oklahoma. After we were married a while though, she started changing, things like wearing a lot of lipstick and stuff. I couldn't understand it because it didn't make her look any better, made her look cheap in a way. She got a job working in this real estate office and she turned into a completely different person.

           "How did you know she was going to have a baby?"

           "She had just come from the doctor. She was clutching the note in her hand. When I got down to the street, this lady handed me the doctor's report."

           "I'm sorry. That must have been horrible."

           "It was horrible all right. And it got a lot worse."

           "What do you mean worse?"

        I went blank for a moment and forgot that Rosa was even there. My eyes were wide open but they were seeing an event that took place a thousand miles away, an event from the past, one that happened in a bedroom in Tulsa. I snapped out of it quickly enough and saw Rosa staring at me waiting for an answer. So, I took a deep breath to clear my head and told gave her one.

       "The day of the funeral, I was home getting dressed. Pete was going to pick me up and take me to the cemetery. I was looking for a tie, and looked in the drawer where I kept my handkerchiefs, ties, and stuff, and there, sitting on my ties, wide open, was Elsie's diary. She was only person who could have placed it there so I would find it. The last entry was dated on the day she died. She obviously meant for me to read it. It told me that she had been having an affair with her boss, and she was going to the doctor to confirm the fact that she pregnant," I waited a moment before adding and still choked a little on the words, "with her bosses baby. It made sense 'cos we hadn't relations for a while. She said she was working late and would come home tired, or she would pick a fight with me the moment she came in the door. Anyways, she was going to tell him, and he was going to divorce his wife, and she was going to divorce me.  I believed at that moment that she was on her way to tell me when she got hit by the car."

        "Wow. That's crazy. I'm so sorry, Errol."

        "It  gets crazier, I was stunned. I went and poured myself a glass of whiskey. Remember, I'm getting ready to go to the funeral. So, I so sit on the sofa, and while I'm sitting there befuddled, an envelope dropped through the mail slot on the door. I picked it up and there's no address or stamp, so I look out the window, and there is no-one there. I open it up, and inside there's a note that says that I should go to this building, one that's about a block north and across the street from the office where my wife worked, and look inside. So, I go to the funeral, and you can imagine my mindset. Her boss shows up with his wife and his kids. He doesn't approach me, just nods and goes back to his car afterwards. His wife, a very sweet lady, comes and hugs me and offers her condolences, and it's obvious she has no idea that her husband has been cheating on her."
         
​         "Did you go check out that place?"

         "Yeah. I went that night with a flashlight."

         "And?'

         "I had to jimmy the window open to get in, but what I saw there was a beat-up, old 1928 Plymouth Roadster, It was pretty rusty and battered, but looked like it could still run, tires were good and upholstery was intact."

         "I'm not looking to buy the car, Errol. Get to the point."

      "I could tell it was two-toned, White on top, red body with white-walls. That was important because the police report said it was a two-toned, red and white Plymouth that ran Elsie over. I went and checked the right front bumper, and snagged on the chrome was a tiny piece of red cloth."

        "Wha..."

         "Yeah. Anyway, I had Pete find out who the building belong to and it turned out it was her boss, and it was her bosses car."

        "You mean, he did it!"

         "Yeah. I confronted him, but it was before Pete told me who owned that building. He didn't deny the affair, but said it was her that initiated it. He denied ever telling her that he was going to divorce his wife, said Elsie felt that his wife was an impediment, and concocted the whole thing in her head. They had an argument that morning, he said that her last words were that she was glad that she hadn't told me about the affair yet, so she could go back to the way that things were."

           "You didn't ask him about the car?"

        "No, I wanted to be sure. It's a poker thing, you never let your opponent know all the cards that you're holding.  It took a lot to not to tell him, but I kept it to myself. It probably did mean that Elsie was most likely coming to tell me that it was my baby she was carrying, and that she had plans to hoof it home and get that diary out of my drawer."

            "Why would he kill her though, he would be home free?"

       "Gets even worse. Pete found out that Floyd, her boss, was involved up to his eyeballs in a lot of scams involving this big time hoodlum named Baxter Long. They were stealing property out from under people who couldn't meet their loan payments, conning old ladies out of their bank accounts, and even putting insurance policies out on people and then making sure those people had tragic accidents."

            "Elsie?"

           "Pete discovered that Floyd had taken out an insurance policy on my wife, and the beneficiary of the policy was none other than Baxter Long's live in girl friend, a stripper named JoJo Adler." 

           "What did you do then?"

          I looked Rosa in the eye and then hung my head a bit, "I don't know why I'm telling you all this. We barely know each other."

         "Forget that, you pushed yourself way past that when you said you'd said you'd take a bullet for me. I want to know what you did for my own selfish reasons, Errol. I need to know."

           "Turns out,I didn't have to do anything. I was going to go tell the police, but Pete said the police were taking bribes from Long. Then Floyd was found hanging from a street lamp over this intersection in Tulsa where  a road on the side of a hill makes a hairpin turn up to the top of the hill, you know kind of like that road that leads up to this place.  Everyone who lived down below in the canyon could see him hanging there. There wasn't any note in the car, there was however a packed suitcase and a brief case with $15,000 in it. Looking like he was trying to leave town, but the police didn't care, they ruled it a suicide, and the whole thing went away."

             "Look me in the eye, Errol, and tell me if was it you?"

           "No, it wasn't me. The cops came around, but that night, I was in bar getting plastered. The bartender knew that I never get plastered like that, so he was certain of the time. In fact, he was him that took me home and put me in bed."

             "Pete?"

            I had to shrug my shoulders, "I don't know for sure. He says no. He told me that Baxter Long probably did it to cover-up his role in the insurance scam. All I know is we were on our way to California before they buried Floyd. Pete just assumed that I was ready to leave Oklahoma. There is one thing, that worries me about it, but I have to keep it to myself for the time being."

         "Like the card thing?"

         "Yeah, but different. Sometimes thinking you know what the other guy has in his hand, freezes you, so you can't act decisively when you need to, sometimes not knowing something is the better course."

        Rosa seemed satisfied with my answer, "You want to know my story?"

         "As much of it as you feel comfortable with telling."

         "I have no secrets, Errol. Well, that's not true. I have one, and I'll let you know when the time's right."

         "Fair enough."

         "Living with my dad sure wasn't any picnic. He was a vicious dictator. He never put hands on my mom because he didn't have to, he never gave her room enough to take a breath of her own. I have an older brother named Javier. He was my dad's favorite. My dad never put a hand that boy. I got whipped weekly. It made me into a tough kid. I got in a lot of fights. I was young, pretty and very desperate. I was like a wild animal back then. My dad was starting to get pretty handsy with me when he came home drunk.  I was looking for some kind of an escape and then one day Hector rolls up in his shiny car, those pretty brown eyes, and enough of an attitude to worry my dad. My dad kicked me out when I got pregnant and I haven't talked to him or my mom since. I have a tia name Hilda, my mom's younger sister who keeps me informed about them.

        I didn't know how bad Hector was, and didn't much care, if I am being honest, all I knew was that he could keep my dad in check. Then I quickly found out that I had married a younger, crazier version of my dad, someone who wasn't afraid to use his fists.  His mom's a good lady though, and one night he got locked up for stealing a car, and she hands me all the money she had saved taking in laundry and tells me to go find a place to hide and not tell her where.  A week before he almost killed me in the bathtub because he was drunk and trying to get in the tub with me. When I fought back, he went crazy.  I call a neighbor lady to see if Hector's around and his mom and I set up a time and place where she can see Lenny."

          "You mean that he's out there looking for you?"

          "I have no doubt, if he ain't locked up that is, and I also know that he will kill me if he finds me. He collected airplane models. That's why we named Lenny Lindbergh after that dude with the airplane. I smashed every one of them before I left. That's why I asked you what you did when you found out about Elsie. I needed to know if you would have my back and wouldn't just turn and run when he finds me,"

           "You don't have to worry. I'm not a violent guy, I don't try to hurt people as a rule, but I don't run away either."

         We sat there talking for a while longer before she got up and came and sat across my legs and placed her head against my shoulder whispering, "Sharing secrets is sure tiring."

        "Yep, but I'll bet, it'll make things lighter in the long run."

         She fell asleep there, and after a while I woke her and told her I'd walk her home. She tried to tell me that I didn't have to do that, but I pushed her protests aside and held her hand as we traversed the courtyard. When we got to her porch, she turned to face me.

          "Can I kiss you tonight?

      She shook her head, "Errol, no woman I know wants to be with a man who......"

    I pulled her forward and kissed her before she finished the admonition. It was good.