Angels, Dreams, and Partridgeberries: Short Stories

© 2018 J.C. CHANDLER. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 11/30/2018

ISBN: 978-1-5462-6238-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5462-6237-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018911634

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CONTENTS

A Feast

Help Is On The Way

Bad News

What Are Friends For?

The Universe

Possession

Angels, Dreams, And Partridgeberries

The Esquire Reader

The Hands Of God

My Little Red Sweetheart

The Passing Of The Glory

Father’s Last Stand

The Poet And His Statement

You’re Weird, Irene

Sit-Spins

The Know-It-All

Last Slide, Please

Winken, Blinken And Nod

Is Jheng The Way?

Hello… Zack?

The Real World

Pele

The Last Ordeal Of James Willoughby

The Passage

Publish Or Perish

Gardens Of Paradise

To my beautiful family,

my love always

A FEAST

I had come to the Great Smoky Mountains to think about my life. Nearsighted, overweight, feeling unmanly at age fifty, I wanted more than the daily grind in my colorless modern office, where every object had the shape of a rectangle. Something vague and essential had never touched me, or had quietly slipped away.

In the Smokies I began each day with a stroll through the lush green valley known as Cades Cove. One morning I came upon a small, silver-haired woman wearing a baseball cap and the grim look of a battlefield commander. Her tanned, hoe-handle legs bolted out of khaki shorts into muddy hiking boots. Binoculars as long as her forearms hung to her waist. Nearby, a telescope on a tripod was aimed at the surrounding woods.

There! she barked, pointing at a speck darting in and out of the treetops. Did you see it? Carolina chickadee. She checked off a box on a printed list. Their numbers have been down, but they seem to be making a comeback.

I don’t know much about birds, I confessed, but I’m willing to learn. The speck had temporarily vanished.

There he is again! And there’s another.

Where?

She followed the birds’ flight with her finger. So far she had not needed the binoculars.

Oh, yes, I agreed, wondering if I had seen two birds or just floaters, a common problem for nearsighted people.

Lilian Templeton, she said, offering me a brusque handshake. She spoke in a gruff, masculine voice, completely inconsistent with her diminutive stature.

I introduced myself with a smile, which was not returned. Ms. Templeton now used her binoculars to scan the trees. I keep hearing a nuthatch, she said, but where is he?

What does it look like? I passed a futile gaze over the woods.

She didn’t answer. The binoculars fastened onto spot after spot in the long treeline. Ms. Templeton’s mouth curved resolutely down.

There! No. Yes. There! Hear it? Whi-whi-whi. Little rascal, where are you?

I heard only an avian medley coming from everywhere. Ms. Templeton peered through the telescope but was disappointed.

Follow me, she instructed.

She stepped like a Clydesdale through the high, wet, sweet-smelling grass and weeds. Only once did she pause to admire two Japanese beetles mating on a leaf. I offered to carry the telescope, but she assured me it wasn’t a problem.

Oh, look! I cried out.

Four birds soared erratically above us. Ms. Templeton never raised her head.

Red-eyed vireos, she muttered. They’re all over.

Oh I said.

She led me through a patch of weeds that rose above her head. We climbed a little knoll, from which she expected a better view, and she searched the woods again with mounting urgency. The sun had burned off the early mist. I wiped a drop of perspiration from my glasses.

I’ll find you, Mr. Nuthatch, she vowed, and plunged ahead toward the trees.

I followed obediently. Without diverting her gaze, she pointed out the small, purple flowers of spiderwort and cautioned me about a clump of poison ivy. She discovered some blackberry bushes covertly intermingled in a hundred weeds, and I took a moment to sample the ripe fruit. It was tart and delicious.

There’s the nuthatch! she suddenly cried. She confirmed it with the binoculars. Two of them. See them creeping down the trunk? Nuthatches can move upside-down.

She handed me the binoculars and checked off ‘’white-breasted nuthatch" as I focused on the little birds.

It’s a male and a female, she said.

How can you tell?

Look at the crowns. The male’s is darker.

I studied the birds until they worked their way to the opposite side of the tree. I couldn’t tell, I said, and gave her back the binoculars.

For the first time she smiled. It takes practice. Don’t be discouraged.

Not at all. I’m having fun.

Let’s see if we can find something easier, she said, and we pushed on through the vast meadow.

A stream, studded with rocks, flowed across our path. Ms. Templeton found a bridge–a single log four feet above the water–and she marched over it, tripod and all, without hesitation. She asked if I needed help.

I’ll do it a different way, I said. Straddling the log, I inched across on my bottom.

As we walked, she called my attention to many remarkable plants. Their small, delicate blossoms and sturdy leaves formed a rich, but reticent, canvas. I had barely noticed them on my daily strolls; seeing them now through Ms. Templeton’s eyes I was surprised and delighted.

At last she stopped and spread out the tripod. She surveyed a poplar grove with the binoculars as I wiped my forehead and neck and tried to observe something novel–anything–by myself. Suddenly she whispered Yes! and aimed the telescope.

Have a look, she said proudly.

I bent forward to use the telescope at her eye level. In sharp focus was an iridescent, dark-blue bird perched on a high, bare branch. It seemed to be posing just for me. Its round head turned haughtily from side to side, and it fluttered once and then settled down contentedly. Chew-chew, chew-chew, it sang.

Indigo bunting, Ms. Templeton boasted.

It’s beautiful! I’ve never seen such color.

I watched the amazing creature for aver a minute. Then Ms. Templeton studied it again. When it finally flew away, her face had softened and her eyes seemed moist.

Sometimes I get caught up in the chase, she said, and I forget why I do this.

Why do you? I asked.

That bunting is just a tiny particle in God’s infinite creation. As the psalm says, He has prepared us a table. We have only to savor the feast.

I see, I said. And for a sweet moment I really did.

HELP IS ON THE WAY

Ten-year-old Amy’s mother had forbidden her to play with her best friend, Leah, because Leah, for the second time, had contracted head lice. The girls lived only two blocks apart. They often walked to each other’s house alone through a weed-infested alley in their neighborhood of tiny old houses overpopulated with children, pets, and jobless relatives who needed a place to stay.

Leah loved to sleep over at Amy’s and walk to school with her the next day. One Sunday evening, while the girls were in the bedroom playing a video game, Amy’s mother, a short, thickset woman nicknamed Star, discovered the lice.

Again! What the hell is wrong at your house?

Leah began to cry, and Star resigned herself to the wretched task of extermination. Can’t send you home, dammit! Get into the bathroom.

First she examined Amy’s head but didn’t see anything. In the bathroom she found the leftover Rid and the nit comb. Fortunately enough liquid was left to do the job. After three applications, latherings, rinsings, and meticulous, section-by-section combings, Star dried Leah’s hair with a paper towel, picked out the last nits with toilet paper, and flushed all the trash away. She covered Leah’s hair and ears with a shower cap, then returned to Amy’s room.

Did you get on the bed? she barked at the girls.

No, honest, we didn’t, Amy tried to assure her.

She inspected the pillows and blanket anyway and rechecked the girls’ heads and clothes. Maybe we caught it in time. Tell your mother she needs to get Rid. There’s a comb in the box. Damn! This has got to stop.

Leah stared at the floor, on the verge of tears. Amy followed her mother into the living-room, with Leah trailing timidly behind. Star’s boyfriend, Brian, lay half-asleep on the couch. A football game blared on their plasma TV, which filled one end of the room. Atop the TV was a nameless white angel, protector of the home.

Help me, please, Star beseeched her.

What the fuck is going on? Brian rasped. He always reacted irritably when anything disturbed his marijuana dreams.

Leah was afraid of him and scurried back to the bedroom. But Amy stayed to hear the adults.

It’s Leah, said Star. The second time she comes here with lice.

Send her home, Brian muttered.

You know I can’t do that. Her mother’s probably drunk, and her boyfriend don’t give a shit about the kids. He’s probably drunk, too.

Did you clean her up?

Star took a Budweiser out of the fridge and twisted off the cap. She’s clean, for now. But I ain’t doing this again. Last time I had to throw out clothes, bedding, towels, half the house. I’m sick of it.

The following Friday school was out because of a teachers’ conference. In the morning Star received a phone call from her aged grandmother. The woman had broken her hip the night before and was in the hospital. Star was needed desperately.

You’ll have to watch Amy, she said to Brian. This could take all day.

Brian, having decided earlier to take the day off, had called in sick to his warehouse job. Pallid and a bit smelly, as though he really were sick, he lay supine on the couch, gazing at the TV.

Did you hear what I said?

Yeah.

Star looked into Amy’s room and saw that her daughter was still asleep. Amy had stayed up to watch a family movie on her bedroom TV while the adults shared a blunt and watched an R-rated movie on the big set. Star seemed to remember Amy creeping silently into the living-room to see the last half of their movie. She and Brian had been feeling too mellow to object.

I’m going to let her sleep, she told Brian. Fix her breakfast when she wakes up.

He didn’t answer.

All right, Grandma, help is on the way. She hurried out the door and began the twenty-mile drive to her grandmother’s village.

Around eleven, Amy emerged from her room. Her mother’s absence didn’t worry her because Star often went to help neighbors with their problems and might talk for an hour or more. Seeing Brian in his familiar repose, she fixed herself a bowl of Cocoa Puffs. She ate at the kitchen table, from where she could see the big TV. A black man and a white woman were shrieking at each other while the beefy, tattooed host kept inserting himself between them. Amy gathered that both partners had had sex with other persons. She knew this was a sin if you were married but wasn’t sure about an unmarried couple like Brian and her mother. Brian was not her father. Star had brought him home a year ago, a few months after Amy’s father had been shot by the cops.

She left the cereal bowl in the sink, then dressed herself in a pink jersey and navy jeans that lay on her bedroom floor. She surveyed her Barbie and Ken dolls, electronic games, and a messy paint-by-numbers set. Nothing sparked her interest. In the living-room she glanced at the TV but it was only the midday news.

Brian, where’s Mom?

Brian was asleep. She asked again in a louder voice, but he still didn’t move. She tugged his tee-shirt.

When’s Mommy coming back?

He finally stirred a little. Huh? What? What do you want? he snapped.

Where did Mommy go?

I don’t know. She’ll be home later.

Can I call Leah? Amy held up his cell phone.

Yeah, sure. He turned away and fell asleep again.

When Leah answered, Amy heard her sniffling. What’s the matter, girl? Are you crying?

Mandy keeps shaking me.

So tell your mom.

I’m not supposed to wake her up. I hate my sister.

You still got lice?

Mandy’s got them now.

Well, I know what we can do so you won’t be in my house and I won’t be in yours. Let’s meet at Scully’s Market. I got a dollar and you’ll be away from Mandy.

Cool.

Amy thought the corner grocery store was a great idea. They might be lucky and find candy on sale. After the call she whispered at Brian, Can I hang out with Leah? Of course, he never heard.

I’ll take that as a yes.

Her cleverness delighted her. She slipped out the door into a chilly autumn day. She had neglected to put on a jacket, but she was full of purpose now, completely oblivious to the weather. She raced down the street toward the connecting alley. When she passed Mrs. Perry’s house, the woman’s old mongrel barked at her. Mrs. Perry stopped raking leaves and called Amy’s name.

Honey, wait. Come here a minute.

Amy walked back impatiently, wondering what the old lady wanted now. It seemed like she always wanted something.

I saw your mom drive away this morning. Is she coming home soon?

She’ll be home later.

Do you know if she got any more of them pills?

The Xanaxes or the Percosets?

Percosets. She gave me some for my headaches.

They’re in the medicine cabinet.

Where did she go?

I ain’t sure but she won’t be home till later.

You tell her I got extra food stamps if she wants to trade for the pills. I ain’t no moocher like some around here.

She gave food stamps to my aunt Claudia. I’ll tell her. Amy started again.

You need a sweater, honey, Mrs. Perry called after her, but Amy kept on running.

The girls met in Scully’s tiny, pitted parking lot.

See, I told you I had a dollar. Amy waved the bill in Leah’s face. You can get something, too, but I want Gummy Worms.

I want Jujyfruits, said Leah.

Cool.

In the dingy little store they brushed past two customers on their way to the candy aisle. They found their favorites but then decided to explore all their options. Nothing was on sale.

I changed my mind, Amy said. I’m getting Milk Duds, no Kit Kats, or, I don’t know, maybe a Snickers.

I can’t have peanuts, said Leah.

Do you like red licorice?

That’s nasty. I really want these. She took a bag of Spice Drops off the rack. We can share them.

They’re a dollar-ten. You got a dime?

No. I ain’t got nothing.

Then we can’t afford it.

Leah gazed at the brightly colored candies. She glanced across the store at the front counter. The other customers had gone, and big Scully was nowhere in sight. Like Amy, Leah wore only a jersey and jeans. She fumbled the candy under her jersey and waited for Amy’s reaction. Amy stifled a laugh.

Are you going to sneak it?

Leah stood on her toes and surveyed the store. Shh! Walk in front of me.

The girls crept to the end of the candy aisle. They walked innocently toward the door, but just then Scully rose up behind the counter. He looked them over. Kids were always stealing from him.

What you got under there? he growled at Leah.

Nothing.

Oh yeah? Let me see. He tramped around the counter and grabbed Leah’s arm. The candy bag fell out. ‘’You damn kids! I’m trying to run a business here. Pick that up and get behind the counter, both of you. Sit on the floor. This time I’m calling the cops."

The girls huddled together on the floor and started sobbing.

We were going to pay for it, Amy pleaded.

We’ll put it back, Leah added.

When Scully opened his cell phone, they both cried out, Please, Mr. Scully, don’t call the cops.

We’re sorry, said Leah.

Here, you can have my dollar, said Amy. We don’t want the Spice Drops.

Hey! Sit down there and shut up.

A woman came in and bought cigarettes. She exchanged pleasantries with Scully, and they smiled at each other. After she left, he appeared to have a change of heart.

All right, I’ll make a deal with you. I won’t call the cops if you’ll help me stock the shelves.

Sure, I’ll help, said Amy.

Can I help? Leah asked.

You can both help. Come with me.

He led them back to the stock room, where a brown skinned man was arranging boxes.

Sanjay, go watch the counter for a few minutes, Scully told him.

The brown man left. Scully led the girls around rows of cardboard boxes. The room had a stale smell but was well lit by overhead fluorescents. See what I got here. Canned beans, tuna, spaghetti. Lots of work here. I’ll bet you love spaghetti.

Yeah, we do, the girls agreed.

It’s my favorite thing to eat. But you know what? This store takes a lot of work, and I get awful tired.

Scully was a large, bulky, intense-looking man. The hair on his head was mostly gone, but he had a scruffy salt-and-pepper beard and hair in and around his ears. When he grinned, his teeth looked like rows of com. He sat down on a pile of unopened boxes.

So, you both cool with helping me today?

What do you want us to do?

Well, come here and we’ll make a plan.

He crowded them between his legs and maneuvered them onto his thighs, facing each other. They were nervous, and even more so when he rested his meaty hands on their knees.

Hey, nothing to be afraid of I ain’t the cops, am I? Do you know I used to play Santa Claus downtown? Ho, ho, ho!

The girls exchanged a skeptical look.

See, we’re a good team, the three of us. You can help me and we’ll forget all about the stealing. The cops are bastards. We don’t want them in this, do we? Hell, they’d make you spend the whole school year in juvenile detention.

He pulled them in closer. Amy lost her balance, and her hand landed next to his crotch. When he held her arm, she felt movement inside his pants.

Yes, yes, just like that, he murmured. Nice girls. Really nice girls.

Leah was plainly scared, but Amy was seized by curiosity. She didn’t resist Scully’s grip. She remembered something about male anatomy that had made people in a movie laugh.

Yep, we’re going to be good friends, Scully went on. You’re going to be my best helpers, and all my best helpers get to choose their favorite candy… Oh my God!

He suddenly shoved the girls off his lap and sprang up. Leah fell to the floor, and Amy crashed into a stack of empty boxes.

You little shit! he roared at Leah. You got fucking head lice. I saw them on your ear. Get the hell out of my store, both of you. Don’t ever come back here.

The girls scrambled to their feet and fled. Scully chased them to the front door. Go on home, you pigs! Get out of my parking lot!

He lunged toward them, and they ran all the way to their sheltering alley.

Do you think he’ll call the cops? Amy asked.

He better not. That guy’s a perv. If he tells on us, we can tell on him.

I ain’t never going to that store again.

They twirled around the alley, flinging clumps of weeds into the air, until their rush of energy was spent. They realized now that they were cold, although neither would admit it.

Guess you still got lice, Amy said. I better go home before my mom finds out about this.

Leah just kicked stones. After a minute they walked sullenly toward opposite ends of the alley.

Star returned home around dinner time with a KFC bag. Brian was awake now, watching a sitcom with Amy.

Where were you? Amy asked.

At Great-grandma’s. She gave Brian a reproachful look. Didn’t you tell her?

Yeah, I told her. She forgot, it all.

Amy could tell that her mother didn’t believe him.

Never mind, Star said. Let’s just eat. I ain’t cooking nothing tonight.

She handed out the chicken dinners. Brian ate his on his lap in the living-room. Amy took hers to the kitchen table to eat with her mother.

What’s the matter with Great-grandma?

She’s in the hospital with a broken hip. And her house is a mess and nobody’s taking care of her dogs. The place stunk so bad, I had to open all the windows.

Yuck, was Amy’s only comment. She hardly knew her mother’s grandmother. I washed the dishes and cleaned up my room. She pointed to the dishes drying in the rack. And I emptied all the ashtrays.

Brian came into the kitchen to get a beer. Yeah, she’s been working like crazy, for some reason. You got something to hide, girl? He laughed and went back to the couch.

Star pushed away her chicken and held her head in her hands. Damn! I don’t deserve this shit. Everybody’s always wanting something. It don’t end, ever.

Amy remembered Mrs. Perry and the pills but decided not to mention it.

I’ve got to go back tomorrow, Star moaned. It’ll take all day to clean that place up.

I’ll help you, Mommy. Can I go, too? Please?

Come here, baby. Give me a hug.

Amy knew what was coming. She wiped her greasy fingers and went to her mother. Star hugged her tightly, pressing her cheek into Amy’s chest.

I’m a good person, Star muttered.

I love you, Mommy. But take me with you. I really want to help.

Tomorrow’s Saturday, ain’t it? Maybe I’ll take you. If nothing else, you can walk the dogs. God, I don’t need another day like this one.

My day was lousy, too, said Amy in her most empathetic voice. It always gave her pleasure to comfort her mother.

BAD NEWS

Star would rather have entered a war zone than the brick and glass building of The Metropolitan Housing Authority. She had not been given that choice, however. The letter from The Authority directed her to appear at ten o’clock in the morning before an officer investigating a complaint regarding the occupancy of her house. Three years ago, The Authority had provided the old two-story house for Star and her young daughter, and it continued to subsidize her mortgage payments. The house was located in the oldest part of town, where most of the homes were rented.

Baby, you are an arteest, her boyfriend Brian had once pronounced. Ain’t nobody plays the system like you.

They’d laughed but he was right. Star, who had dropped out of school in the tenth grade, who hadn’t read a single paragraph of anything in her whole adult life, who believed in angels, devils, ghosts, and psychic phenomena, learned about every relevant government benefit and how to get it.

Every six months the Department of Job and Family Services renewed her food card for more than its legitimate value because she falsely claimed to be the guardian of her teenage nephew. When the gas company threatened her with disconnection, she wangled a grant to cover the payments. She received a monthly disability check after her friend, Dr. Harris, listened sympathetically and then certified that bouts of vertigo rendered her unable to work. She had learned about the government subsidy for poor, first-time home buyers while having her nails done in gold stars to match the design on her necklaces. After she was accepted into the program and put on a waiting list, she told her friend Latoya about it.

Which government is it? Latoya asked.

Ours, of course.

I mean, is it federal, state, county, what?

Who the hell knows? What difference does it make?

After leaving school, Star, along with her younger brother and sister, lived with their grandmother because their parents, facing drug charges, had fled the state. Star worked a series of minimum-wage jobs until she turned eighteen and went to work at Sharky’s, a strip club. She was a petite, blond, fair-skinned princess with a sweet voice and an ability to charm the patrons by remembering their stories. The men adored her. In her first year she earned enough money to buy a new sports car for herself and used cars for her siblings and grandmother. She developed a passion for gold jewelry. What the men didn’t give her she bought for herself, and wore everywhere. The other dancers nicknamed her Bling.

She made friends easily with the dancers, bouncers, and managers and formed useful bonds with her most faithful regulars. One of these was Dr. Harris, a kind retired gentleman, who came in to see her every week. Another man, a well-connected lawyer, used his influence to convert prison time to probation after her third drunk-driving episode.

But her triumphant years ended as she passed her thirtieth birthday. By this time she was drinking heavily, using weed and black-marketed prescription drugs, and putting on weight. Her legs ached after prancing in spike heels until2:30 in the morning. She was living with, and supporting, a younger black man, who claimed to be a writer of rap music but spent most of his time stoned or hanging out with his friends. One night he was killed by police while fleeing from a store robbery. A week later Star learned that she was pregnant with his child, and she finally decided to fix her life.

* * *

At The Housing Authority she entered a waiting room filled with black women. Several of them wore a head scarf Somalis, Star thought, which was how she identified any black woman in a head scarf Folks in her neighborhood viewed these immigrants with disdain. Although she was not inclined to bigotry, she had adopted the prevailing attitude in this case. Somalis had come here to get welfare benefits intended for poor Americans. Somalis couldn’t be trusted, were always looking for trouble, made slaves of their women. You couldn’t understand their accent, their religion, their dress. They drove old rustbuckets without insurance.

Star was the only white woman in the room. She kept discreetly apart from everyone else. For the next half-hour she made a silent speech, trusting that God would overhear. He had always guided her life with justice and compassion, she emphasized. Surely He would come to her rescue again. She felt a need to remind The Almighty of her accomplishments over the last ten years. She didn’t get drunk anymore or use drugs, except for an occasional joint with Brian. She was raising a bright, happy, mixed-race daughter, so no one could accuse her of