Better Late Than Dead: Episode 10

   This is episode ten of the novel Better Late Than Dead. It is the 7th book in the Rich Larsen Adventure Series. An episode will be posted every Monday and Friday. However, it can be purchased on Amazon in the Kindle or paperback versions.  

Rich has returned to the home he ran away from six years earlier. He’s back living with his parents, hoping to make amends for the pain he caused them. Two years have passed since returning home. That’s where this story begins. 

Episode 10 (Originally posted on the Jittery Goat)

Rich drove from the park in his Jeep and had breakfast at a diner. He sat in a booth. It was more private. The waitress was nice. No one recognized him. He had a second cup of coffee after he finished eating.

He mulled over the event with Stan at the park. He wondered what pressure was put on Stan. He didn’t deserve this. Why drag him into this?

Thoughts about his mom and dad swept through his mind. It was something he felt compelled to think about, but too disturbing to visualize. They didn’t deserve to die like that. I think they would have come around. Our last night was our first real try at managing what happened nine years ago. I should have eased into things rather than plopping it down on the dining room table. We needed some space again. Going back to Maine would have given us both time to come to grips with things. They’ve lived like that all their married life and probably before. I broke away from it. And I was lucky to find good people along the way. Mom and Dad needed good people in their lives. Endless nights at bars; they only exchanged their miseries with other people, just as wanting and just as desperate.

Rich folded a dollar and placed it beneath his cup’s saucer. The waitress walked by and noticed the dollar. She sat across from him in the booth.

“That’s a big tip around here.”

“You’ve been kind and efficient,” Rich said, smiling.

“I know who you are,” she said.

Rich tried to give a crooked smile. “Nearly everyone knows who I am.”

“I didn’t mean it that way,” she said and added, “Do you know who I am?”

“No,” Rich said, “should I?”

“Jane Burks,” she said, “we went to school together.”

“Yes,” Rich smiled, “I see it now. The smile; you always smiled. You had good teeth. History and English.”

“That’s right,” Jane said. “You got a good memory.”

“For pretty girls,” Rich smiled.

“That’s something,” Jane said. “I’m flattered.”

“I don’t flatter,” Rich said.

“So what ever happened to you?” Jane asked. “I mean, I read the papers and watch the news, but I mean, all of a sudden you were gone from school.”

“I left home at the beginning of my freshman year,” Rich said.

“Really,” Jane said, “I would have sworn you were at homecoming our sophomore year. You didn’t end up in the reformatory, did you?”

Rich chuckled. “Now what would make you think that?”

“Everybody from our end of town, if they suddenly don’t show up for homeroom, odds are they’re in the reformatory. Remember that black kid named Howie?”

“Yeah, an old buddy.”

“Reformatory. Now the big house. How about Benny Staples?”

“I remember Benny.”

“Reformatory. He is the groundskeeper at some cemetery, now, and has a paper route.”

“How about Tinker Baldwin?” Jane said.

“Reformatory?” Rich replied.

“Only if,” Jane said. “Dead. Tried to hold up some bar, The Royal Flush. There’s a few more, but I don’t mean to depress you. You got your own problems.”

“Indeed, I do,” Rich said. “To satisfy your curiosity and fill in some blanks, I went up to Maine. I lived there for three years. I learned how to write and worked for a newspaper.”

“Yeah,” Jane said, “I wondered how you got a job at a newspaper. You were a dropout. I even thought for a while they were talking about another Rich Larsen. Then I saw your picture.”

Rich pulled out his wallet. He tugged out a picture and handed it to Jane. “That is me and my boat. That’s some little island in the Pacific.”

“It sounds like you’ve been around,” Jane said.

“What about you?” Rich asked.

“Oh, I’ve been around all right,” Jane said. “Got knocked up on graduation night, married four months later, divorced two years ago, and raising a kid on my own. I’ve been around.”

“There’s something I remember about you,” Rich said. “You weren’t afraid of anything. And you stuck your neck out for others. I remember when you stood up to Mr. Brimmer. He was wrong, and nobody would tell him he was wrong except for you.”

“You remember that?” Jane exclaimed.

“Yeah,” Rich said, “and you can choose to believe this or not, but I often thought about you when I needed courage. This place here is only your beginning.”

“You know something,” Jane said. “I’ve never told anybody this, but I have my eye on a place that I think can be turned around. It will just take hard work.”

“Let me tell you something,” Rich said, “you draw up a business plan, take it to a bank, and just be you.”

“You’re something,” Jane said. “You’re facing a terrible fate, but you’re taking the time to give me a little boost.”

“Nah,” Rich said. “You already had it in ya.”

Rich stood and held out his hand to help Jane up. He walked to the door and turned around. Jane was clearing the table.

“Jane, I owe you more than you will ever know.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Eighth-grade dance, do you remember it?”

“Sure do.”

“That was the first time I ever danced with a girl. You weren’t the first girl I danced with, but you were the one I danced with most.”

Rich left with a smile and drove to Hiram’s office.