Trailer Park Baby Chapter 16 & 17

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Chapter 16: Bob

I left Sarah sitting there. I think she started crying again. I was about to do one of the cruelest things I could think of. I didn't want to do it, but right now there was only one person that could help Dave, and I wasn't that person. I looked down at Thor and whispered, "Well Thor, you have to help Dave, and he isn't going to be happy about it." Thor looked back up at me.

I walked over to Dave's with Thor tagging along. I knocked on his door and he didn't answer. Well that didn't surprise me at all. I knocked again, still no answer. I tried the door, hoping that Dave hadn't locked it, it opened. As I opened the door Thor came up to follow me. I turned and told him to sit and stay. He whined, but sat there.

As I walked in, I heard Dave say through his sobbing, "Sarah go away."

"It's not Sarah, it's Bob."

"You go away too. You helped her."

I went into his bedroom, and saw him there on his bed still crying. "Yes, I helped her. I'm not really proud of that, but I'm here to try to fix it."

"I don't want it fixed, I just want you to get out," he yelled sitting up.

I swallowed, and thought 'God, why do I have to do this. I didn't want kids. I didn't want the responsibility, and why the first time I really get the responsibility do I have to be so cruel.' I looked down at Dave and summoned all of the 'I'm an adult male and you will do as I say'ness I could and commanded, "I won't get out and you will listen to me."

I winced as Dave cringed and collapsed back down. Then I continued, "Right now Sarah is sitting where you left her, crying."

"Good," he interjected.

"No, it's not good," I kept on, still projecting my voice. "I could spend time here trying to convince you that Sarah never meant to hurt you, but since I helped her you won't believe me. I will tell you though that both of are very sorry that we did what we did. Now if I could I'd have Judy over here talking to you, but she's at work.

Now before I do leave I want you to get ready for bed, while I get some stuff ready for you."

He got up and went into the bathroom, cringing as he got close to me. I kept a stern look on my face, until he was passed me. I grabbed his mattress and pulled it off the bed looking at the sheets that Sarah and I had spent hours shopping for while he was in the hospital. Sarah surprised me when she told me that Dave had identified every airplane in the design. Like Sarah I thought they were just generic pictures.

I went to his linen closet and got all of the towels I could find telling him at the same time to brush his teeth and go to the bathroom. The towels I used to line his mattress, the mattress itself was waterproof, but I wanted something absorbent there, because I was going to make him wet the bed.

He came back into the room, "Why's my mattress on the floor?"

"Because, I put it there. Now get into bed." I said pointing at the mattress.

He pulled off his pants and shirt and laid down on the mattress, "It's all lumpy."

"I did that. Now you lay there and go to sleep." While he lay there crying, I walked back to the front door and very quietly called to Thor. Thor came up into the home and padded down to the bedroom. I followed him. At the door Thor woofed once. I could see tense up and turn to look at Thor. Thor slowly walked up to him, and I could hear Dave give out a little squeal.

As Thor lay down on the floor next to him, I could see Dave pulling away from him. "You stay in that bed, mister," I said in the same tone I had used earlier. Thor turned his head towards me and growled somewhat menacingly. When Dave had settled back down, Thor turned back to him and licked his face. After Thor nuzzled him, Dave reached over and hugged Thor and started talking to him.

As I left the room, I told Dave, in a much more normal voice, "Just let Thor out in the morning, he'll be fine until then." And I thought, 'I hope you will be too.'

I left the two of them and walked over to Joe and Judy's, I hoped that Ashley was sleeping already, but it was kind of early still. I knocked on there door and Ashley answered, "Hi Bob, where's Thor?" She was looking past me.

"He's busy right now. I need to talk to your dad, okay."

"Sure," she answered me, and then yelled, "Daddy it's Bob and he wants to talk to you." I cringed a little at her voice.

Joe came up to the door and I asked him to step outside, as he did I could just hear Ashley say, "More 'man stuff,' huh?"

"What was that about?" I asked nodding towards where Ashley was.

"Oh, I had a talk with Dave, and I told Ashley that it was 'man stuff.' Actually we talked about him and Sarah."

"And."

"Well, Dave explained it all to me and if that's what they want to do. It's fine with me." I relaxed a bit. He continued, "Where is Thor, anyway?"

"He's with Dave."

"What!?"

"That's what I need to talk to you about. Dave and Sarah had a fight, well not really a fight. Basically Sarah told Dave the truth about what happened during the summer."

"And that was?"

"Ummm, she basically, after the first time, set him up so she could dress him up. And I helped her."

"She did what?"

"It started off as a game to her, I think. And it got out of hand. I'm not really sure, since she hasn't told me the whole truth. Well, Dave didn't take it well and ran out of her house crying. Sarah is probably still sitting in her kitchen crying."

"Oh, God. What did you do?"

"I went over to Dave's and treated him the way his father would have, minus the hitting. I basically got Dave where he could lay with Thor, and then I brought in Thor."

"Why Thor?"

"Because your wife is at work, and your daughter is way too young."

"What, why my wife or daughter?"

"Dave needed someone he could trust, there's only three people I could come up that he would trust. First choice would have been Sarah, but that's where the problem is, second would be Judy, but she's at work, and third would be Ashley, but well, she shouldn't have to deal with anything like this. Lastly is Thor, Dave knows that Thor loves him, he also knows that he loves Thor even if he is terrified of him."

"Okay, so how do we fix it?"

"Well, Sarah will get over it when Dave comes back. She just upset that she hurt Dave. Dave though, emotionally he's probably like a screwed up six year old. He doesn't recognize love or friendship very well, and slips right into fear, hatred, betrayal and other negative emotions. The only good thing is that once he's convinced that Sarah wasn't really being mean he will completely forgive her like a child does."

"Now what the hell are you talking about?"

"Ever see two little kids scream that they hate each other, and then a little while later they are best friends." He nodded. "That's the way Dave is, at least I think so. You heard how he grew up."

Joe nodded again, "Okay, but how do you know about all that?"

"I'm a watchman, what do you think watchmen do?"

"I'll bite, 'watch'."

"Nope, most of us read. It's a pretty boring job, at least at night. Mostly you just sit around, every couple hours you might have to make rounds, but otherwise it's boring. At least you hope it is. So we read, well some do puzzles, I read all sorts of things. I started with Westerns, then read some Sci-Fi and Fantasy, some Thrillers, but eventually got bored with all of them. I saw an ad for the college book buy back, and went and intercepted some textbooks. I've read everything from Accounting to Zoology, but what interested me the most, were the Psych books. I've probably read two-thirds of the books a Psych major would use."

"So why did you come over here to tell me?"

"Two reasons, first so you could tell Judy and have her show up to talk to Dave, then Sarah. Dave needs someone to talk to him, he's probably going to spend half the night talking to Thor, but Thor can't really answer back. Secondly, I needed to cool down. When I left Dave's, I didn't know if I wanted to cry, or get drunk."

"So why don't you get drunk, not that it will solve anything."

"Because I have to go to work in a couple of hours. I'm going now, don't forget to tell Judy." I shook his hand and headed home.

Chapter 17: Dave

I woke up cold and wet, 'What the hell' I thought. The next sensation I felt was warm and furry, and it was under my left arm. I cracked open my eyes afraid of what I'd see.

Yep, it was Thor under my arm. Now I was less cold, but wetter. Everything that had happened yesterday started coming back and my eyes began tearing up. Thor reacted by licking my face, and wagging his tail. I couldn't see his tail, but I could hear it rhythmically thumping on the floor.

"Well Thor, I guess I should get up now. You probably want out too," I said. I hugged Thor, and got up. Thor stood up also, still wagging his tail. I grabbed my robe, and walked down to the front door. I opened the door and said, "Go on home Thor, I'll be okay."

Thor looked a little reluctant, but went outside and seemed to be headed home. I sighed as I watched him. Once he was out of sight, I shut the door and headed back to my bedroom. The mattress was lying on the floor, my sheets sodden with piss. I stared at it for a little while and realized that I was getting cold again. 'I guess a shower is good place to start,' I thought.

I got into the bathroom and reached to turn on the shower. As I grabbed the faucet handle, a knock on the door interrupted my shower before I could get it started.

"Coming," I yelled and I walked down to the door. I opened it and saw Judy standing there. "Hello Judy," I said listlessly.

"Good morning Dave. Are you okay?" She asked as she walked in.

"No," I said, trying not to burst into tears.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No I don't," I said forcefully.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure," I said, dropping into a kitchen chair.

"Dave," she started. She paused and I looked up. She continued, "Dave you're all wet."

I looked down, my robe fell open and I could see my wet underwear. "Yeah, I'm all wet."

She grabbed my hand, and pulled me into the bathroom, "Dave, you take a shower. I'll get you something to wear."

I went undressed and got into the shower. While showering I could vaguely hear her moving around in my trailer. The bathroom door opened and closed a couple of times. I wondered what she was doing. I finally finished and stepped out of the shower. My wet clothes and robe were gone and clean clothes sat on the vanity. While I was drying off, I heard the washing machine start. 'What is she doing,' I thought.

When I stepped out of the bathroom, she walked up and looked at me. "Good, you're done. I made some coffee."

Before I could even say anything, she gently pushed me towards the kitchen and then grabbed the towel I had just finished using. I walked into the kitchen and poured myself a cup of coffee adding the necessary amounts of cream and sugar. Sipping it because it was hot, I walked back to my bedroom, and saw Judy drying off my mattress with the towel I had just used.

She looked up at me, "This is the only towel that Bob didn't put on your mattress."

I looked at her with a stunned expression on my face, "You didn't have to do all of this."

She turned back to me, and I noticed next to her a bucket with a sponge in it. "I know that, but I wanted to. Besides I thought that you could use the help. Here, this is as dry as I could get it with this towel; help me put it back on the frame."

The two of us put the mattress back, and I realized that it would have been a struggle by myself. She continued on, "You know it's a good thing that mattress is waterproof, otherwise it would have been ruined."

I started to sit down at my desk and stopped. She looked at me, "Come on," she said. Let's go sit in the living room and talk.

"I don't want to talk," I said sullenly.

"Well, let's go sit and I'll talk," she answered.

I grabbed my coffee, and we walked to the other end of the trailer. She stopped at the kitchen, "You go sit down, and I'm going to get some coffee."

I walked over to the couch, set my coffee down, and dropped onto the cushions. I looked over at the TV and realized that I probably looked like Ashley had yesterday afternoon. That almost brought a smile to my face.

Judy walked in a moment later with her coffee, "Are you sure you don't want to talk?"

When I shook my head, she continued on. "Okay, then just listen." Judy started talking. I wasn't listening, just nodding and grunting during pauses.

I'm not sure how long she talked or what she was saying, but I finally realized that I was being rude. She was here trying to help me and I was not being very nice. During her next pause, I cut in, "Judy, I'm sorry. I haven't been listening to you. I know you want to help, but..."

"Dave, are you ready to talk now?"

"Yeah, I guess. Let me get some more coffee though. Then we can talk." I got up and refilled my coffee and hers.

When I came back she had moved over to the couch. I sat down next to her and she pulled me closer and hugged me. "I can make this quick, why did you go over to Sarah's yesterday?"

"Well, Joe, your husband, invited me to your barbecue this weekend. Since I didn't want to have an accident there, I went over to get some help."

"Why did you go to Sarah for help?"

"Actually I got the idea from Harry Potter."

"Harry Potter?" She asked with a very puzzled look in her face.

"Yeah, after we saw the movies, I bought all of the books and read them. In one of them Harry needs some advice, he thinks of asking his parents, but they are dead. So he comes with the idea of asking his godfather. I have parents, but can't ask them for advice so I came up with the next best thing, Sarah." I started crying again.

"Dave, what's wrong?"

"I can't believe I trusted her." I said between sobs.

"Dave you can trust her. You said you thought of her as a parent." I nodded, she continued, "Well, I'm fairly sure she thinks of you as her child."

"She does, why?"

"Her family has owned this land a long time, it's all that's left of a huge farm. Her grandfather sold most of it and her father sold all but this and made this a trailer park. He died of a heart attack, when she was around 20. She was engaged then, but her fiancé dumped her when she wouldn't sell the trailer park. After that she was so busy running this place that she never had time to date. Joe and I moved in shortly after we were married, and Sarah spent a lot of time helping us. I think she was thinking of us as her family. Once I was pregnant, she helped even more. After Ashley was born, I couldn't turn around without seeing her. By the time Ashley was two, she was spending almost as much time with Sarah as with me. Sarah wanted a family, and she kind of adopted mine. Now she has done the same with you. I think though with you it will last longer, since you won't grow up on her like Ashley has."

"So I'm her surrogate family. If that's true why did she hurt me?"

"I know that she didn't want to hurt you, and I doubt that she thought it would be as bad as she it was. But she must have really needed to tell you the truth. She was probably feeling pretty bad about having lied to you. And she must not have wanted you to find out accidentally."

I cut in and asked, "How would I have found out accidentally?"

"Well Ashley knows she doesn't have a niece, and probably would have said so if you mentioned her niece. Now do you think you can forgive her?"

"I think so, but I still can't go back."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm awfully sure I told her that I hated her, and I might have said some other things that were pretty mean."

"Dave you didn't have any friends when you were little did you?"

"No, I don't think I had any friends 'til I got into college. Why?"

"Don't take this wrong, but you sound like a very little kid. Little kids do that all of the time. When they are hurt they yell things like that. I'm fairly sure that Sarah didn't believe you, if she even heard you. Now do you want to go talk to Sarah?"

"I guess so."

"Good let's go see her then, because I know that she want's to see you."

We got up and headed to the door, I put the coffee cups in the sink and Judy opened the door. "Ummm, Dave what would you do, if Thor was sitting outside."

I froze where I was, I couldn't see Thor, and my brain said Thor loves me, he wouldn't hurt me, but that part of my mind that controls fear, said there was a monster out there that wanted me. I tried real hard to stop myself, and I did, but a little too late. The front of my pants was wet. I started to cry again, and Judy was there holding me and comforting me. Finally when I stopped crying, she told me, "Dave you go change and I'll get rid of Thor. I promise you that he won't bother you until later."

I went to change and heard Judy go outside. I peeked out my window and saw her dragging Thor away. Thor really looked like he didn't want to go. I finished changing and watched for Judy to come back. When I saw her without Thor I went out to meet her. We walked together over to Sarah's.

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Comments

Trailer Park Baby Chapter 16 & 17

Bob has proven to be a real good friend to both Dave and Sarah by doing what he did. I hope that Dave can overcome his Fear of Thor because that lunk is nothing but a big baby. And Judy is like Dave's big sister in the way that she treats him. For some reason, I can see Dave dressing up with Ashley in some of her ply cloths or costumes and having a bit of fun.

    Stanman
May Your Light Forever Shine
    Stanman
May Your Light Forever Shine

You have some interesting

You have some interesting insights Stan. Judy probably comes across as a 'big sister' because in some ways she is based upon my sister who is a nurse.

Thanks for reading.

Another Fantastic Chapter

You have another wonderful chapter here and I am eagerly anticipating the new content that you have hinted at.

No I am not giving anything away.

Jayme Ann
The answers to all of life's questions can be found in the face of a true friend

The answers to all of life's questions can be found in the face of a true friend