“What the hell did you do? Did you fuck him, so that he would give me my job back?” As soon as the words left his mouth, he regretted saying them, but it was too late.
“No, damn it. I gave him a blowjob so that he would give you your job back. I fucked him because I wanted to.”
JoLynn was steaming mad as she slammed the bedroom door. Her words hurt him more than anything else had in his entire life. He could tell that she was furious, but she had no idea of the demon that she had let loose. Rayburn spent the night sleeping in his truck.
After grabbing some breakfast, Rayburn waited in the company lot for the payroll office to open. Waiting was bad because it gave him time to think. He replayed the events of the previous night over and over. He always stopped when he got to JoLynn ‘s confession or whatever it was. “No, damn it. I gave him a blowjob so that he would give you your job back. I fucked him because I wanted to.”
He watched as Benny Cordetti arrived in his black Cadillac. Hell, nobody drives them anymore. Finally, when he felt that everything should be up and running he went in.
The girl in payroll seemed hesitant to make out a check for him but eventually did. He signed a few termination forms concerning medical crap and tax info, before leaving. Rayburn breathed a sigh of relief as he walked out, but he was too late.
“Hey, Rayburn. What the hell is going on?” In the daylight, Benny looked even bigger and pudgier. “Didn’t you old lady tell you? Everything is Okay. I un-fired you.” Rayburn waited as he walked towards him. Several of the workers stopped what they were doing and stared their way.
“I am sorry about all the misunderstanding, Rayburn. I am sure that things will be fine from now on. We are all looking forward to you and your wife being at more of our parties.”
Benny Cordetti looked at Rayburn Watley with a big smirk on his face, and that was a mistake. Benny was a foot taller than Rayburn and had him by at least sixty pounds. None of that made a difference.
The big man stood on his feet for longer than Rayburn had expected. Finally, Rayburn felt, or rather heard, a few ribs crack. That sent Benny to one knee. A steel-toed shoe quickly broke the knee cap that was in the front, dropping him to the ground. Benny’s exposed gonads were the next target and when he rolled on his back for protection, Rayburn was immediately on his chest. Most of the blows from there on fell on Benny’s face. One that missed, broke a collar bone. A sudden pain in his right hand caused Rayburn to start using his left. Cordetti’s face was a bloody mess by the time several of the workers pulled Rayburn from the beaten body. Two of them ended up on the ground and then they all let him go as he walked to his truck. A few of the men were helping Coredtti, but most of them were watching Rayburn in awe. None of them had ever witnessed a spectacle like that.
[]—[]
Bryan and Tyson were playing in the sideyard when he got home. Rayburn opened the door and whistled. In no time, the two boys were in the truck. Rayburn watched in the rear view mirror as JoLynn stood on the back porch yelling and waving her arms. Tough shit.
An hour later, they were on Interstate 81 going South. The boys were eager for lunch at Mickey D’s but started to ask about their mother. Rayburn tried to change the subject by telling them about the good times that they were going to have at Aunt Nadine’s.
Rayburn stopped by to see Nadine who sent him directly over to Fletcher’s place. He had just gotten married and rented a house that was twice as big as he needed, to make his new bride happy. She had a four-year-old son from a previous marriage, so that would work out well.
Fletcher and Grayson were down in Arlington working. They usually left Monday morning and came back Friday night. It was not the best situation, but it was good steady work. Nadine and Fletcher’s wife, Garnet, spent most of the evening with Rayburn. Nadine had plenty of free time so she was going to go up to Pennsylvania and get all of the boy’s clothing and toys. Rayburn laughed when she volunteered as quickly as she did. If anybody could handle JoLynn it was Nadine. She was mean, hard, and nasty as hell. Rayburn never could understand how she got a man to marry her. He figured she must have scared him into it, or else he had a wooden leg and couldn’t run away. She wasn’t amused when he mentioned it. Nadine insisted that Roger married her for her looks and pleasant personality. Then she would always burst out laughing at her own joke.
[]—[]
She left at first light and arrived at the house by lunch.
“Who the hell are you?” JoLynn was still not dressed. It was obvious that she had been crying.
“I hate to say it, but in this case it is true. I am your worse nightmare.”
“Oh, crap. Now what. I can’t take much more of this.” Nadine watched as JoLynn slowly walked into the living room and fell into the sofa.
“I am Nadine. Rayburn’s older sister. I promise not to hurt you, but I will not put up with any bullshit. Do you understand?”
“No. I don’t understand. You are in my house and you are not the boss of me. As long as you are in my house, I will do and say what the hell I like. I don’t care if you like it or not.”
All of a sudden Nadine knew why Rayburn had married this woman. She looked like a Barbie Doll, but she had balls. What she couldn’t understand was how come she and Rayburn hadn’t beaten themselves to death over the last six years. If any woman had talked to Rayburn like that, he would have punched her clock, female or not. From the looks of things, Rayburn had never given this one an attitude adjustment.
“JoLynn, do you have anything we can eat for lunch? I didn’t get any breakfast today.”
“Yeah. Com’ on in the kitchen. I can rustle something up quick. Do you want coffee?”
“I’d rather have a coke if you got one.”
Neither woman talked for a few minutes. Nadine sat and Jolynn served and then sat. “Where the hell is my husband?”
“Why do you care?”
“He is my husband and he has my kids. Where are my kids?”
“With your husband. They are safe and having a good time.”
“Where, damn it? This is my house. Quit playing cutesy little word games with me.?
“They are home in Rockingham County.”
“Why?”
“Because if he stayed, he would probably kill you.”
“Why the hell would he want to kill me?”
“Because you cheated on him. That is something no Watley man will stand for. Hell, I can’t figure out why you are here now.”
“Oh, crap. I knew I screwed up the minute I said that. Dumb, dumb, dumb.”
“Do you want to explain that?”
“Do you want another coke?”
“No, but I’ll have some coffee now.”
JoLynn pours two cups of coffee. Nadine waved off the cream.
“When I came home from that damn party, I told Rayburn that his boss relented and that he still had his job. When Rayburn made some smart assed remark about me screwing his boss so that he could keep his job, I hit the ceiling. I was furious. The fact that he would even think such a thing was more than I could take. I did the only thing I could think of, I gave him a smart assed answer. That’s what got me in trouble.”