The Folds Read online

  A barely audible “Wow!” was the only word to escape Danny’s mouth.

  “One more!” Tommy stated. Casey leaned in and took the gun away while Joey held the cleaning case that went with it. “Your mom and I wanted to get you something…that’ll last a long time; something that will truly make you happy.” He softly placed the large envelope in Danny’s hands.

  Sarah came to Tommy’s side and added, “We think that maybe one day this’ll be one of your dearest possessions. So we hope you like it!” She then leaned over and kissed her son’s head. “Happy birthday.”

  Danny gazed about the room as his friends scooted in closer to see.

  “Go on! What ya waitin’ for?” Jason urged.

  Danny untied the string then turned the envelope upside down, giving it a little jiggle. The men looked at Tommy who, by this point, could barely contain his excitement. Another shake of the envelope and out slid the Superman comic book. Danny held it upright and stared for a moment with a blank expression on his face.

  “It’s very rare and worth some money now,” Tommy informed him. “But who knows what it’ll be worth in twenty years. The store clerk said maybe one to three thousand dollars.”

  Danny jumped up past his friends and into his daddy’s arms, wrapping himself around his waist and neck. “I love you!” he mumbled into his father’s shoulder.

  “Oh! I love you, too! You’re my superman!”

  “We both love you!” Sarah confirmed as she rubbed her son’s back.

  “And, boys, I’m sorry to say but I’ve got some bad news,” Tommy announced, lowering Danny. “We’re not going to Texoma this morning!”

  The boys, mothers, and fathers were immediately transformed into statuesque figures complete with dropped jaws, bulging eyes, and panic-stricken faces.

  “Because,” Tommy further explained, looking at his watch, “in a little over two hours, at nine o’clock…Superman’s gonna be at the Radio Active comic store in the city…and you’re all gonna go meet him!”

  Sarah and the other parents exhaled a deep, genuine sigh of relief and held their ears as the five Clark Kent wannabe’s jumped up and down, squealing with girlish excitement.

  Meanwhile…

  WISHES

  One hour away in the city, in a dingy, gray, broken-down house on the south side of town, Brooke and Dale laid on a sheetless, cigarette-and-beer-stained mattress and box spring, listening to Led Zeppelin. Dale, twenty-one, with slicked-back hair and ratty clothes, was smoking a joint while his eight-month-pregnant girlfriend Brooke thumbed through the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens. The tiny, two-room shack, with its ripped window screens and peeling, splintering front door, was not only typical of the area they lived in but also very revealing as to the character traits and qualities of those who dwelled inside.

  Dale’s car sat in the driveway, leaning to one side with its hood up. The engine had problems, the rear tires were flat, and it was in desperate need of new brakes. Brooke, then only seventeen, didn’t graduate from high school, nor did she work. She spent half of her time living at home with her mother when their relationship was on good terms. Whenever the rapport with her mother would sour, she would then move back in with Dale. Brooke’s forgiving heart and love for Dale constantly overrode all logic and her ability to make the right decisions for their unborn baby.

  While looking over her magazine, Brooke lightly scratched at Dale’s arm and asked, “Hon, don’t you gotta work today?”

  Dale tried to talk while holding back a deep hit from his joint, but spurted out a weak, “Nah! Don’t need me today. It’s Saturday. Nobody takes in a car on a Saturday to be worked on.” He exhaled completely and finished with a belittling, “What are ya? Stupid?”

  “Wow, look at this, baby!” Brooke exclaimed with a slap of the magazine on Dale’s stomach. “That’s where I’m gonna live one day! California or L.A.” She bobbed up and down on her knees excitedly while pointing to a white, two-story house overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

  “California?” Dale asked dully to the starry-eyed dreamer.

  “Why not?” Brooke challenged. “Prettier than flat, crap-grass Texas!” She stood up on the mattresses and peered out the window at Dale’s backyard. The enthusiastic optimism on her face was suddenly wiped away as she gazed upon the reality of brown, faded wood fences, and dried, yellow grass. “There’s no mountains! No ocean!” she complained.

  “Corpus, Galveston, Houston…” Dale listed out loud, counting on his fingers sarcastically. “Well, there ain’t no Hi-Way Number One overlooking the ocean with big trees ’n cliffs.” Brooke whined.

  She stepped down off the bed and stomped to the musty, dark bathroom in a huff. “I want our baby to live in a nice house!” she implored while going to the restroom. She closed the fantasy on a high-pitched, “With a white fence an’ a swing!” The commode flushed and Brooke emerged, still pleading her case “I just wanna get away!”

  Dale hesitated, and then offered an insincere quick fix. “We can go on a vacation!” To which Brooke replied with a frog punch to his shoulder.

  “Ow!” he complained.

  The phone rang, startling Dale, who leapt off the bed to answer it. “Hurry! Turn down the music!” he snapped.

  “Why do I—?” she started to ask.

  “Shut up and just do it!” he shouted. “Sshhh! Ssshhh!” He patted his hand down as he picked up the receiver. “Hello?” he grunted, struggling to make himself talk with a moan. “Yeah, it’s me. Nah…I’m not doing so good. I dunno, just sore throat and feel pretty hot. Yeah, I was gonna call, but I jus’ been so sick.”

  Brooke marched directly beside Dale and put her hands on her hips, glaring and breathing heavily.

  “Late yesterday afternoon, I think. No, I don’t think I can.” Dale winked with a smile and tried to take Brooke’s hand. “I don’t got enough money for a doctor. But I’ll be there Monday. I know I’ll be fine by then!”

  Brooke pulled back and turned away in disgust at Dale’s lies.

  He walked into the hall away from Brooke’s judgmental eyes. “I’m what? You’re kidding!?” Dale yelled, his voice getting clearer as he spoke. “For a couple of hours on a Saturday? Man! I do everything you ask me to! I’m sick for once and you… Hello? Hello!? Screw you then!” he roared, then threw the phone into the drywall, adding to his ongoing collection of large holes.

  “You were supposed to work today, weren’t you?” Brooke scolded sternly from the bedroom.

  “It was an option,” Dale whimpered back, reluctant to enter the room. “He asked if I wanted some overtime, so I said maybe.” He sheepishly presented himself and leaned against the doorframe.

  “Maybe?” Brooke questioned angrily, lying on the bed, looking at the ceiling. She laid still for a moment then continued her persecution and blasted Dale. “You can get time and a half on a Saturday and you say ‘maybe’?” Her rage surfaced quickly. “We need the money!” she shouted while exhibiting her full belly. “This baby is coming in four weeks and we don’t even have a bed yet! Your car is falling apart, and you tell him maybe? Then you lie to him?” Dale’s lack of rebuttal and eye contact were not very reassuring. “Did you get fired?” she asked, yet Dale said nothing. “Did…you…get…fired!?”

  “It was a dead-end job anyhow!” Dale asserted. “We don’t need him!”

  “What am I supposed to do?” Brooke asked anxiously, changing her emotions from anger and irritation to worry and panic. “I can’t work! I’m scared! I don’t want my baby to grow up the way I did!”

  The young couple stared at each other from across the room.

  “Don’t you want this baby?” she asked.

  “Sure I do, sure I do!” Dale softly stated with a light, reassuring chuckle. He employed the use of his typical hypnotic mind tricks and hissed a lifeless, “I love you so much! Just be patient with me…we’ll be okay…you’ll see!”

  “How can you say that? You lay here getting stoned, then get fired, and tell me
to be patient? Patient for what?”

  Dale changed his approach. “Do you wanna get outta here? Get away from your mom?”

  “Well, yeah, but…” Brooke answered, confused.

  “No! No buts!” he interjected. “Do you wanna leave with me? Now? Leave this stupid town and go down to Mexico or up to Canada? California? Maybe live in the mountains?” The genuine smile in Dale’s face was quickly replaced with a distorted face the likes of which Brooke had never seen before.

  Brooke’s heart and mind began to fill with doubt, confusion, and nervousness. Unsteadily, she asked, “What are you talking ’bout?”

  “Do you love me…and want what’s best for our kid?” Dale asked slowly, and evilly, as he painfully squeezed her shoulders.

  Tommy slowly backed the restored 1941 Series Sixty-One Cadillac out of the small work barn. The engine hummed with a soft, smooth, low rumble as the dark-green body and tan roof reflected the early morning, summer sun. Tommy and Johnny Lee spent over two years of weekends, long nights, and summer and winter vacations overhauling the engine, refabricating the interior, and patching the dented and rusted body.

  “All right, ya’ll! C’mon, git in!” Tommy hollered out the window to the young pack. The rear doors opened and, with the exception of Danny Lee, all the boys hopped into the back seat. Danny jumped into the front seat next to Tommy. Sarah sauntered over to the driver’s side window and knelt down to eye level with Tommy as he started calculating. “We’ll be there in about forty-five minutes…probably have to wait in line a good hour…then hop on back here. It’s almost seven now, so that’ll be…”

  “Eleven-thirty or twelve,” she quickly answered.

  “Man, you’re good!” Tommy grinned. “Give me some sugar!” With that, he pulled on Sarah’s neck and kissed her.

  The boys groaned and made puking and retching noises at the mere sight of adults kissing.

  “C’mon, Dad!” Danny nagged with a tug at Tommy’s shoulder. “Let’s go! He’s gonna be gone by the time we get there!”

  With a deep breath Tommy pulled away from Sarah and rolled his eyes.

  The young lads rolled down their windows and chanted, “Superman! Superman! Superman!”

  “Augh! All right! We’re going!” Tommy howled in frustration. “The comic store’s not goin’ anywhere!”

  With small hands waving out of every window, the long green Cadillac pulled out of the gravel driveway and onto the local farm road.

  Instinctively, John and Jason both reached into one of the ice chests in the boat and pulled out a cold Shiner as the car full of children sped away. “What?” John asked, realizing that both he and Jason were on the receiving end of evil eyes from Joey and Monica.

  “Are you kidding?” Brooke exclaimed, flustered. “You know how much trouble we can get into?”

  “That’s only if we get caught!” Dale assured her. “We’ll be out of town before they even know who to look for! I run in, get the money, we get out of town, and they waste their time lookin’ here. It’s perfect!” he explained, almost professionally and nonchalantly while slithering his arms around the mother-to-be’s waist. Brooke contemplated the risks involved as Dale continued his artificial testimonial. “I love you so much and want everything to be perfect. I don’t want to be without you.”

  “I’m just so scared…” she confessed timidly.

  After a brief moment of silence, Dale coldly lied. “Me too!”

  The full pink-and-orange sun was beginning to peak through the tops of the trees as Tommy and the boys drove to the city to start off the fun-filled weekend. Danny sat in front on his knees with his back turned to the dashboard. The five musketeers’ boisterous conversation was interrupted by Tommy’s confirmation. “Yep! We’ll meet Superman then head out for the best fishin’ in Texas!” The back seat quartet pulled themselves up to the front seat to hear Tommy. “Ya’lls daddies and I been goin’ to Texoma since we was ya’lls’ age.”

  “Who’s the best fisherman?” Bobby asked. “Dad says he was always better ’n you!”

  “Doc is…” Tommy began to testify and hesitated for effect. “Doc has…and always will be…the best fisher of all us.”

  “See?” Bobby touted and pointed to his chest. “I told you my daddy was best!”

  “What about my dad?” Daryl asked anxiously. “Is he good?”

  “Daryl,” Tommy said apologetically, “your daddy couldn’t catch a fish if it walked on two legs and laid itself down in the pan.”

  The youngsters laughed and pointed their fingers at Daryl.

  “Shut up!” Daryl demanded as he punched Jimmy in the arm.

  “But I’ll give him this,” Tommy interrupted, looking at Daryl in the rearview mirror, “he’s a mean cook!” A broad smile washed over Daryl’s face as Tommy expressed his admiration. “We’d catch and clean all day and your daddy would batter ’em up with a little cornmeal ’n lemon…fry ’em up just right! Do up a little tater and okra and…man…alive!” He winked. “Your dad is an excellent outdoorsman!”

  “What about my dad, Tommy?” little Billy Williams squeaked, standing on the hump in the floorboard.

  “I hate to disappoint you, but your dad is just so goofy lookin’ I think he scares all the fish away,” Tommy joked.

  Billy slumped back in the seat with a frown. His little chin quivered while his friends laughed at him.

  “Hey,” Tommy warmly called, finding the boy in the rearview mirror. “Your daddy taught me everything I know and then some,” he confided, reaching his hand back to shake Billy’s. “Your daddy’s a great fisher!”

  Billy smiled broadly to his friends and resumed his place on the hump.

  While changing into a different shirt, Dale instructed Brooke on what to do as he led her though the unkempt and disorganized house. “Go on and get what you wan’ take wit’ ya, ’cuz we ain’t comin’ back!” Brooke stopped in the living room and gazed all about. Dale went into the kitchen in search of a bottle of Dr. Pepper. “We’re startin’ over!” he yelled, crouched down in front of the refrigerator door. “A whole new life!” He sauntered back to the living room and impatiently ordered Brooke, “Gimme your keys ’n I’ll go fill the car up.” She looked up at him, confused. “I’ll be right back, okay? C’mon. Gimme ten minutes.” He kissed her forehead and quickly walked to the door.

  “I love…” she tried to say as the door slammed shut on her words.

  “So who else do you boys like besides Superman?” Tommy asked.

  His ears resonated with torrential screams of, “Green Lantern! Batman! Spiderman!” The quintet then started shouting over each other to see who was the quickest at calling off the coolest of heroes. “The Hulk! Captain America! Iron Man! Fantastic Four! Thor!”

  “What about villains? Who do ya’ll like?” he regrettably inquired.

  Again the shouting and screaming ensued. “Juggernaut! Magneto! The Joker! The Riddler! The Penguin! Lex Luthor! Dr. Octopus! The Green Goblin!”

  “You know, being a trooper is almost like being a superhero,” Tommy said. The boys laughed and ridiculed Tommy. “No, no, no! Think about it!” he challenged. “We chase the bad guys, we got fast cars, got almost any kind a gun you could want like on S.W.A.T—”

  Now he really had their attention and was immediately rewarded with, “Really? No way! Cool! Ever shoot one?”

  Dale sat parked by the curb in Brooke’s car, impatiently honking the horn as she struggled to close and lock the splintering front door. The frustrated pregnant girl turned with a shrug to Dale. “Leave it! We ain’t comin back!” he yelled from the car.

  Brooke looked around to see if anyone was watching, and picked up the garbage sack containing her only worldly possessions. She then slowly and awkwardly waddled to the car. She flung the large bag over the seat and gracelessly squatted backward into the clunker. The young couple searched each other’s eyes in silent doubt, then turned for one final glimpse of their house before Dale pulled away.

  A few
minutes later, Dale was reviewing his plans with Brooke in front of a local ma and paw grocerette. “Okay now!” he plainly explained. “I’m gonna go in ’n act like I’m shopping then go up to the counter and ask for the money.”

  Brooke immediately began her unconstructive criticism of the plan. “Ask for it?! You’re jus’ gon’ walk right up and ask for his money!” The two stared at each other briefly before she pleaded with Dale. “Baby, don’t do this! Let’s figure out—”

  “I also got this for a little motivation!” he interjected and lifted his shirt to pull out a .38 revolver.

  “Are you crazy? Where’d you get that?” she exclaimed loudly. “Why do you need a gun?! Don’t you think—?”

  Dale raised his index finger and placed it over Brooke’s lips. Once her raving was silenced, he articulated simply, “I’ll ask for the money and flash the gun, that’s all! It’s just for show. He’ll give me the money and we’ll be outta here!” He closed the ill-planned plot with an additional lure. “Then we can start our new life!”

  “I don’t know, baby. I’m scared!” she confessed once again. “What if something happens?”

  “Nothing is gonna happen!” Dale contested angrily. “Geez! Will you please just give me a little freakin’ credit and have some faith? Huh!?” He abruptly opened the door and climbed out. Before slamming the door, he reached into the back seat, grabbed Brooke’s magazine, and threw it at her. “Read your book!” He leaned over and glared through the driver’s side window before turning to walk away. Brooke didn’t smile.