A Little Common Sense

Chapter 5
Part 5

The next morning, I arrived home to find an unholy mess going on outside. Geoff stood at the front door, screaming his head off, while two uniformed policeman tried to restrain him. I heard other voices from inside the house, not quite as loud.

"Pop," Geoff yelled as I parked the car. "You have got to stop this."

"Mr. Henderson, Mr. Henderson," several people called out.

I raised an arm. "I’m an old man, one at a time, please. What’s going on here? And you be quiet, Geoffrey."

"Mr. Henderson, I’m officer Kent, we were called here because your son was accused of causing a disturbance. We had the report from several of your neighbors as well as the workman here. He’s

insisting that they let him inside to monitor the work."

"Mr. Henderson?" one of the men from inside the house said, "I’m Tannenbaum, from IT?"

"Yes, I know your name, Mr. Tannenbaum."

"I have a Mr. Phillips from ADC with me. We were going over the house, again, when your son showed up."

"I was just checking," Geoff said.

"Did I ask you to?" I added. "Look, I’ve had some real concerns about corporate spying lately, and I had the alarm people out yesterday evening to check, and you wouldn’t believe the amount of equipment they took out of my house. Bugs, video, computers, it was amazing. Someone must have spent a bundle to spy on me. I asked the company security people to come back this morning to double check the house and make sure we had it all out."

"You didn’t tell me that yesterday," Geoff said.

"Why would you need to know, unless you had something to with installing that spying equipment in the first place?" I asked, sweetly. I couldn’t help grinning.

"I.... They told you, didn’t they? Okay, I was the one that had it installed."

I looked over at the policemen. "Officer Kent? I am formally charging this man with trespassing, industrial espionage, invasion of privacy, and anything else I can think of. I will press charges."

"Mr. Henderson," the policeman said. "You are under arrest, you have the right remain silent...."

"Pop, don’t do this. I’m your son. I was only thinking about you."

"I know that song, sonny boy, and it will go worse for you if start singing. Geoffrey, even after all that I told you last night, you can’t stop thinking of me as a doddering, old, senile, fool. I told you then, and I will tell this to you again, I want you out of my life and my wallet. You have not shown me any respect due a human being let alone your father for months. I have bailed you out of hundreds of messes, without hardly a thank you from you. If you are in jail I won’t have to worry about you gambling or interfering with my life. Is that clear?’

"Yes," he grumbled as the policemen lead him away.

I was felt out of sorts as I drove into the office, not sure what to do from here. Maybe it was time to move on, sell that house, and buy someplace bigger, lots of room for kids, swimming pools, a state of the art security system and computers controlling everything in the house. The kid in me liked the idea, but that wasn’t me at all. Or was it?

If I could keep Geoff on ice for the next two or three years it would be one thing, but even without my help I would bet he would be out on the street again tomorrow, if not today. What did I want?

Giving up that house would be cutting off my right arm and leg. I had developed my first soft drink there, I had lived my entire life with my wife, and kids there. I would have all of my memories wherever I moved, but would I give up the sewing room that was never used?

I rode the elevator up to the executive offices, and asked Donna for the security report. The workmen had been there, removed another fortune in listening devices from my office, but pronounced the rest of the building clean. I sat down behind my desk, closed my eyes, and prayed.

The phone rang. "Hello?"

"Hey, Dad, it’s me. Geoffrey asked me to bail him out, and I refused, hope you don’t mind."

"No, up to you."

"You sound horrible. Are you okay?"

"Depressed, and I need a vacation. Made a minor out of one son and a jailbird out of another. I’m thinking about moving to a bigger place, more security, latest gadgets, you know."

"Kevin would love it, but I’m not sure if you would. Dad," Bobby said. "Do you want to move in with us? I have room, and lots of kids for you - us to play with."

"No, I don’t know," I said. "I don’t know what I want, yet."

"I’ll meet Kevin after I get off and get him that bike."

"Okay, sure. Meet him at my house, I’m leaving here, early."

"Nice bike," Pete said running up behind me. I wheeled my new machine into the garage.

"Yeah, my Uncle Bobby got it for me.

"I’m going to the seven-eleven, you wanna come?"

"Yeah!" I said, and closed the garage door.

I couldn’t remember how long it had been since I had really walked anywhere. Although with Pete we tended to run, walk, tightrope walk on the edge of the sidewalk, and battle our way through endless hoards of alien invaders.

Pete pushed his way through the door, first, and headed for the candy aisle. I went back to the cold drinks, and took out a "Choco-Ice."

"They let you drink that?" Pete asked me.

"Yeah," I said with a shrug. "Mr. Henderson makes these, you know."

"You’re kidding? You aren’t kidding. I love these, but Mom wants me to drink healthy stuff."

I looked at the bottle. "It’s got half the calories of soda, and you know, chocolate is made from beans, and beans are vegetables, so this is vegetable juice, just like that," I said and pointed at the "V8".

He laughed, and nodded his head. "I like the way you think. Okay, here," he put two dollars in my hand. "If you buy me that I can tell my mom that you bought me vegetable juice, and it’s cool. I just wish Mr. Henderson would make something healthy that tastes good."

"You try that Energen stuff?"

He gagged, and tried to throw up.

"You like it more than me, then...." I looked at him, then had a sudden thought. "Maybe he won’t, be we will."

"What do you mean?"

"You and me. We can make that healthy drink. Doing the healthy stuff is easy, it’s getting the taste right that’s the hard part. So, you and me can do the taste and Mr. H. can do the healthy stuff and we have a drink. Made for kids, by kids."

He looked at me, and grinned. You’re serious, aren’t you? It’s a deal."

I bought the drinks, and we walked outside. He sat down on the sidewalk and opened the bottle. I followed suit, then glanced around the parking lot. I stood up as I spotted a "For Sale" sign in front of a large house, a very large house, down the street.

"You know anything about that place?"

Pete glanced up and sighed. "Yeah, that’s the Baldwin house. It’s got everything. Man, they’ve got a pool inside, and...."

I wrote down the number of the realtor. That would work. A big house, pool, more room than I could ever use, and I would have it wired with everything. "I’m gonna buy that house."

"Oh, yeah, right."

"No really. Mr. H. is looking for a place, and that’s perfect, and that creep son of his doesn’t know about it. He could move while Geoff’s in jail and.... I gotta talk to him. Meet me over at my place tomorrow and we’ve got work to do. I gotta get that house, now."

"If you do, can I come over?"

"All the time."

I ran back to my house, and skidded to a stop at the sight of a small boy standing on my driveway, tossing a ball around. He looked up at me. "Hi, are you Kevin?" he asked and his voice faltered.

"Yeah. I haven’t seen you around before. What’s your name?"

"I’m Paul - Paulie. I’m eight. They said.... They said I...."

The kid had tears in his eyes. For the first time I saw how gaunt he looked, and the fact that he was wearing rags. I cut in, "Paulie? Are you hungry?"

He gave me a quick nod.

"Why don’t I get you something to eat? Come on."

He looked at me, then at the house.

"It’s okay, there’s no one home but me. Mr. H., he’s the guy that owns this place, he’s great. I don’t have a last name, and no one is gonna hurt you, okay, or call the cops, or anything else."

He nodded again, but it was all I could do to drag him inside. He cringed every time we walked into a new room. I hated to think what this one had been through.

"Okay, we’ve got everything," I said as I parked him at the kitchen table. "Ham and cheese? Peanut butter and jelly?" I asked opening the cabinet. He nodded at that, and pointed at the peanut butter jar. "Look, Paulie, you can eat as much as you want, okay. You can always get food here. For supper tonight I can even order us a pizza, extra large with everything, okay?" I saw the expression on his face start to glow. We’ve got TV and you can sleep here tonight, if you want. You can take a bath and I’ll get you new clothes and everything. You can stay here as long as you want, but I want you to promise me, even if you don’t stay, that you come back when you get hungry. Okay?"

I put two loaded sandwiches down in front of him, and a large glass of milk. He trembled as he took a sip of the milk, and I saw his eyes moving, everywhere as he drank some more. Like a wild animal, I thought, always looking for predators.

"We’re going to be moving soon. Mr. H. is getting this really big house, with an indoor pool, and we are going to have everything. You can move with us if you want."

I chatted, and he ate. I sat down with a glass of milk myself, and shut up. I made him two more sandwiches. I didn’t know if I could help this kid, or not, but I really wanted to.

He finished, drank another glass, and looked at me. "Do you have Mom and Dad?’

I shook my head. "They died," I said quietly. "I’ve been on my own for a while."

He wiped his eyes, and nodded. "My Mom and Dad died, too. They sent me to this place -- they hurt me," he said. "I ran away."

I nodded. "I did too. I found Mr. H., or maybe he found me, and I’ve been here for a couple of days. We’ve got rules, but he’s okay."

He looked at me.

"See, the rules are, if I make a mess clean it up. If I make dinner wash the dishes. If I take a bath, I clean up the towels and things, and if I sleep here I make the bed. He bought me clothes, and a bike. I can take them, but right now, I’m staying here. You?"

"He’d buy me clothes?" he said, and picked at his shirt.

"Yeah, anything you want. You want a bike?" He shook his head. "I’ll get Uncle Bobby to drive us down to Alexander’s store. Looks like you need everything."

For a second, I thought he was going to bolt. "I - I.... He’s okay?" The way he looked at me made me want to cry.

"He’s okay, really. He’s Mr. H.’s son. He’s got kids of his own. He won’t hurt you."

"I - I could sleep here?"

"Yeah. No one’s gonna bug you, or bother you. You want new clothes and pj’s?"

Paulie nodded again.

I grabbed the phone on the kitchen wall, and dialed. "Hey, uncle Bobby. It’s me, Kevin. I need a grown up like now."

"Sure, Tiger.... It’s Kevin, the little one that Dad’s watching. What’s up."

"Paulie needs new clothes and pj’s and everything. He’s eight. He’s staying here tonight."

"You’ve got a street kid?"

"No, I’ve got a kid that’s starving and needs a bed, and clothes, and a little love. And pizza. I’m ordering an extra large with everything tonight and you’re invited or send Bobby back here. We could have a sleep over."

"I think you need a grownup tonight. I’ll be right there."

"Before you do, could you do me an even bigger favor? Call this number, it’s a realtor and tell them that your Dad wants to buy the Baldwin house. They have the listing."

"Okay," Bobby said and I could hear the confusion in his voice

 

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