One Last Spin Part 8

34

Everyone knew that the middle school's Principal was getting close to retirement.  Still, his announcement took many by surprise.  He was only just 60, an age at which many people who work for private employers could never, ever consider leaving their jobs.  But Principal Walter Sanderson had put in 35 years with the Dixon County System, and was fully vested and able to earn a fairly substantial pension.

Roger Harley thought that put him on Easy Street to be next in line to get the job.  He had given over twenty years service to the system, and had been a great teacher, wrestling coach, and a first rate disciplinarian as Vice Principal.  It was only natural that he would be first in line for the job.

He expected there would be some applications from outside the system, but the history of the Dixon County School Board was to hire administrators from within the system.   That should have him sitting pretty.

At least, he thought so, until he saw Jackie Adams turn in his application for the job.  He'd love to get huffy and think that Jackie had an inside track because he was black, and all that minority preference crap.  He hated that.  They should always hire the best person, racial balance be damned.

That wasn't the case here, though, and Roger reluctantly knew it.  Jackie Adams was every bit a good Vice Principal at the high school as Roger was at the Middle School.  But not better than.  Roger did not believe that.  You had to have faith in your own abilities to get ahead, and he new he could be a first rate Principal.

But so could Jackie.  Roger buckled down and looked ahead, blinders on to everyone else.  In the end, all you could do is wrestle your own doubts, pin them down, and compete with your best face forward.

May the best man win.

35

One last look. 

Grace took one last look around the Honey Dew.

They wanted her to stay, to help manage the transition.  But that was just going to be too painful.  Besides, it was time to go.  Her sister's dementia was getting worse, and she would move down to where she was and give her all the help she could.  West Palm Beach, Florida, was a far piece, as they say, and she didn't how often she could get back.

There would be so many she would miss.  The temptation to visit would be overwhelming.  She was afraid, though, that it would break her heart in pieces.  And then to come to Round and look and not see the old tin sign that said HONEY DEW, and instead said COFFEE TOWN, USA.

She closed the door, holding her emotions in check.  But there, next to the back stoop, was Franny Goodkind.  How did that wonderful girl know?  How did she know to be right there right then?

"Grace," she said, tears sliding down her beautiful, young, warm and loving face.  "I'll miss you so much."

They hugged.  Holding tight, Franny said, "I love you, Grace."

"Oh, honey," said Grace, now drying as well.  "I love you too, sweetcakes.  I'm going to miss you most of all."

Their hug lasted a long, long time.  But it did not last forever.

35

"Johnny Elder....COME ON DOWN!"

CLICK!

"I told you, Barry.  You just don't listen!  It's...not...your...baby!"

CLICK!

"Sham WOW, and HOW!"

CLICK!

"I tell you, Tom Cruise is a menace, and I don't blame Katie for leaving him."

"You're wrong again, Elizabeth.  I'm tired of you using Scientology as a punching bag.  I know Tom, and he's a good hearted person."

CLICK!

"I love to lounge around the house in a diaper, Maury.  It's so comforting and nurturing after a hard day at the office, and then to just sit back with a warm bottle of milk...."

"Oh, man!" complained Roland.  "That's a rerun!  We done seen it already before!"

Danielle had her fill of those two.  "Why don't you two turn that damn thing off, and get off your asses!  Get outside and get some fresh air, and do something, for God's sake!"

"Here," Sammy said, hand out to his twin brother.  "Give me the remote.  I'll see what I can find."

Danielle threw a spatula at them.  "I mean it!  Get out of here!  NOW!"

The Gorland twins reluctantly got up, slipped on some shorts over their tight whities, and stepped out of the trailer and onto the picnic table out front.  They were just in time to see Dona Cooper walk by.

"Hey, you little porker!" Roland cruelly teased.  "Is it chow time again"   And then they both made snorting, piggy noises.

Dona just looked away and tried to walk faster.

"Keep eating, you snotty tubby!  Maybe you'll get as big as your Mama and die just like she did!" Dona went into her family's trailer, her shoulders shaking.

"Damn, Roland!" Sammy said, surprised.  "That was kinda over the top, even for us, don't you think?"

"Hell no, Sammy!  She ain't nobody.  And she'll never be anybody.  Too fat and ugly to ever get a man.  Too stupid to do anything else."

"Uhhh...how do you know she's stupid?"

"Well," and Roland realized he hadn't thought about it.  He just assumed she was stupid. "...she's here, ain't she?"

"Oh, yeah.  I guess she is." Sammy agreed, not quite understanding the implications of what he was agreeing to.  "You're right, Roland. She'll never amount to anything."

But once again, not surprisingly, the Gorland twins were wrong.

36

I'm glad Daddy brought me in.  It feels good to help him out.  I don't even think of myself as his new receptionist just so Ramona can do more lawyerly things.

I've reorganized the desk and front reception area.  All the papers are in place, the phone disinfected (I do this five times a day, without fail).  I've brought in office plants to make things brighter, and help improve the air circulation.  I have a peace lily and a Chinese evergreen on top of a two drawer file cabinet near the desk.  On the floor, just as you come in, I have a snake plant in a decorative pot.

Sometimes, when no one is here, when they are out gallivanting, seeing clients or whatnot, I go into his office.  Ramona has not yet occupied it, and is using another office nearby.  Maybe Daddy's scared of it.  Maybe he thinks it's haunted.

But that doesn't stop me.  I go in there and I quietly curse his name.  I go in there, and I deliberately mess things up.  I strew papers around.  I put peanut butter on the keys of his computer.  I tear pages out of his law books.  I found a picture of him with her, and I ripped it to shreds, and then I scattered it on his chair, and then I fouled on his chair in a way I that I refuse to articulate, even to myself.

Someday I will move on from my feelings about Rondy.  Someday I won't think about him and Christie in anger and disgust, in hurt and pain.  Someday I might trust enough to move on to love someone else.  Let me think.  If I thought it would rile up Christie, I could start up with Gariton.  I'm certainly more attractive than that mousey Janet Roper.

Ok.  Well.  Someday I might move on.

Today is not that day.

37

This was her big break, one that she thought had passed her by, but here it was again.  Sure, it way just a bit part, really almost a walk on, but there it was.  The new sitcom, The Three Wiseguys, was starting to film in Savannah, and her friend from SCAD (Savannah College of Art & Design) had secured her a small role in the pilot.

More and more productions were being filmed in Georgia, as the state was winning the "how low can you go" tax credit contest with competing states.  Well, whatever the politics that brought them in, she didn't care.  She was just thrilled that they were there.

Rhonda looked at herself in the mirror.  Oh, yeah, approaching 40 and she still had it!  Closely cropped black hair, and a pretty face in the Judy Garland/Liza Minelli mode, she was wiry and trim.  She was short but long legged, shapely and fine, the power of those limbs hidden behind their slender beauty.

Bill stretched in the bed, a rare day where she was up and around before him.  She needed to be in Savannah by 7 AM, and it was approaching 5 AM now.  She needed to get going to travel the roughly hour and forty five minutes to get there.

"What 'chu doing, honeybunches, so er-lie in the morning?"  said Bill, barely rising his head above the pillow.  He was a big man, over six foot and weighing a solid 250 or more.  Was he the love, the light, the passion of Rhonda's life?  Nah, of course not.  But she like him well enough, and the sex was satisfying if not mind-blowing (as it had been so long ago with Rondy), and with his executive job at the Okefenokee Bank & Trust, he kept her in enough greenbacks to make her life comfortable, and do the things she wanted to do.

"Don't you remember sweetcheeks?"  Rhonda came over and gave him a light kiss on the aforementioned sweetened cheek.  "I'm going to Savannah to be in a television show."

"Awesome!  Let me know when it's on, and we can throw a party or something," Bill said.  Then he drifted off to sleep.  Ol' Bill, twenty years her senior, could still fall asleep on a dime, sometimes even just have they've 'done it".  Hell, one time while they were in the middle of 'doing it'.

"Ok. darlin'," she said, stroking his thinning gray hair. "I'm off to see The Wiseguys."

Rhonda McQuaig.  She'll be in the credits at last.  Or so she hoped