Sunday 12 June 2016

Fictitious Facts I: 'Cultivation of a Murderer.' CH 21 "Leaving School."



Chapter 21
Leaving School

Tim’s time in prison was nearing the end of sentence. The last few weeks seemed like a year and the last few days like six months. His parents noticed a great change in his self-confidence and a degeneration of social harmony. On his release appointments were set with an agenda involving professional counsellors to discuss with him and his parents the difficulties he may encounter in adapting to outside life. They were told everybody handles the transition differently and all take time to adjust. Their advice was nothing more than a common sense approach and like most professional advocates they advocate the obvious and enunciate the self-evident; they were no help, and hardened in the job to the stage of easily detaching themselves from truly caring.
Rene considered the destruction of any persons will to live as deplorable and equal to no other measure, and established jail to be the perfect environment to nurture such destruction. On the drive home Tim shed a dolorous tear from the taunts of confinement, he wept under the cover of his hands effectuating his mother into an overwrought position of pity. For Tim, the immediate conditioning to freedom was draining, yet allowed for a vague phantasm of hope. When he got home his room and belongings were exactly how he left them and the warmth, strength, and tenderness of family support was an indispensable component for helping reaffirm his place in society. Aiding positive adjustment was ongoing because the loss of self-worth was not easy to repair, and the belief others were staring and whispering behind his back lowered further his opinion of himself; internal emotions were difficult to manage.
Don was just over fifteen years old during this stage of Tim’s adjustment back into mainstream society, and the last thing his parents needed was aggravation from him. His hate for school had never waned and he could not wait to leave. In impressing upon his parents his yearning to abscond they tried to signify to him the importance of a good education. The differences in opinion led to discontent from his parent’s because in the end his determination was unwavering. Ted and Rene accepted the fact; if they forced him to stay at school it would only result in failure and squabble, besides they were obliged to continue Tim’s rehabilitation and did not want to put further pressure on what was getting back to being a stable home life by arguing daily with Don. Don respected his parents but had no reason to stay at school. He saw others with cars, motor bikes and out enjoying themselves with money to spend and time to spare; he wanted to be like them. In hope of Don’s failure to get a job and remain at school Ted offered a compromise;
       “You can leave school if, like your brother did, you get a job straight away. I mean before leaving school, not after.” Don agreed. Without his parent’s knowledge he already made a few preliminary investigations to test the waters for workplace vacancies. He was familiar with his brother’s first place of work, where he lost his eye, and was on a first name basis with the staff. The owner of the establishment liked Tim and reckoned if Don was as good a worker as his brother then he should be worthy of a trial. He hired him on the spot. Don went to school the next day, completed the necessary paperwork before ten ‘am’, and was free to start work after lunch time. His job was to serve customers who wanted petrol, oil, tyres checked and windows cleaned. The money was poor but more than the nothing he previously earned. Working there was an ephemeral form of joy in his teenage years; before turning seventeen he changed jobs twice more.
The first change was working with his mother for what was measured as good money for his age; twenty dollars a week. She had a cleaning contract involving the polishing and vacuuming of a bank premises and a bowling club. They would commence duties at midnight and finish before seven in the morning. The hours were good to begin because it allowed the rest of the day to loaf about, but boredom became his worst enemy. With so much idle time he made his intentions clear to his mother early on he was looking further afield for more interesting work with reasonable hours. Albeit, the job was not without its stimulations from what was thought to be from the clandestine schedule of thieves looking for easy riches. When he and his mother arrived to clean the bank they would access through a secluded alley leading to the back of the premises where a tree overshadowing the door blocked the faint streetlights luminosity. On a few occasions this door was found to be unlocked and at times slightly ajar; the reasons were unknown. It could have been through neglect or someone had plans to steal the change locked away in the cashier draws, or worse the break into the vault. Rene was forever cautious and concerned she was being set-up as part of a trap to test her honesty. These contracts were difficult to obtain and the competition was fierce, she did not trust anyone and never hesitated to ring the bank manager at any time to advise him of abnormalities.
Despite the tranquillity of the desolate dark mornings, combined with the normal fatigue associated with an early rising, there was always an air of alertness, vigilance and apprehension when going to work. One morning Rene and Don arrived on time, she was not relaxed in her surroundings, a sixth sense, or women’s intuition alerted her to a danger of sorts. She tried to hide her disquietude so as not to expose a daunting scenario for Don and carefully continued her approach to the side gate. They had to enter through the side gate to walk the path to the back entrance and unlock the door to access the bank. The silence of the night was broken by the old wooden gate creaking, and to her it seemed as loud as the sound of an axe splitting a piece of timber in an echo chamber. When they reached the back door she was relieved it was locked and with nervous scuttle placed the key in the lock, opened the door, and pushed Don in with such force he stumbled on the mat and fell to the ground. She slammed the door shut quickly behind her. Don questioned her actions with surprise;
       “Mum! What was the push for? You nearly broke my neck.”
       “Oohh nothing,” she responded meekly. “You’re too slow. I’ll get out the polishing machine and you start cleaning the toilets.”
       “Okay.” She went about her duties cleaning the floors with the whirling sound of the machine making imperceptible any outside interferences. Don went to the storeroom near the rear of the bank to fetch the equipment for cleaning the toilets, on the way back he noticed the side door ajar. They did not have a key for this door and rarely checked it, it was obscured by a feature wall, besides they had no need to use it and never had they known it to be open. With cold shivers through his spine and a pounding heart his distressful shout to his mother grabbed her undivided attention;
       “Mum the side door is open.” She released the trigger on the polishing machine and rushed to join him at the door to confirm his cry of admonition, and with reflex action, not bravery, she went to push the door open outwards to quickly look for irregularities before wanting to slam it shut; on opening the door she came face to face with a tall, rugged, blonde haired man, huge enough to be a heavyweight wrestler and in one hand he carried a torch and in the other a leash with a ‘German Shepherd’ attached to it. Don jumped back in arrant shock and his mother fainted; she fell like a bucket of shit.
Security had always been employed by the bank to carry out periodical surveillance, but they beefed up their patrols to perlustrate the whole area because of the reports Rene had been sending about doors being unlocked. The guard was concerned about her fainting spell and took appropriate actions to revive her, faithfully apologizing with sincerity. When she regained full consciousness he made her a cup of tea and recited a light hearted joke over a similar incident; she was not impressed. The guard was at odds to explain the unlocked door and promised he would have words with the manager to ensure it was his responsibility to check each exit before going home in the afternoons. He said;
       “The problem is, the manager passes the responsibility onto others and sometimes they forget. Someone may get the sack this time. He doesn’t like doing it himself because it means he can’t go home early. He hates being the last one to leave; he’s rarely here anyway.” Rene was never the same in nerve going to work again. Each day they finished cleaning the bank around three in the morning and spent the next three or so hours at the club, she was a lot more composed when the sun came up.
The other part of the contract, the job at the club, offered extra benefits because of the twenty four poker machines, they had to be cleaned of grime and stored away. As each one was polished, Don and his mum would wheel them into a separate room for lock up. Moving them was achieved with a ‘fridge trolley’ and when the machines were laid back at a forty five degree angle or more the coins would fall out of the holding box and onto the floor. They were never so greedy as to be questioned about the practice; one could guarantee the profits were not all being put through the books and if management reported a few extra coins missing they would only incriminate themselves. There were also disadvantages; one being, the revolting necessity to clean the toilets. The urinals were many and long, much worse than the bank’s one steel trough. Don’s job was to clean the spew, spunk, snot, shit and any other foreign matter from the troughs, he would retch on each occasion and never did adapt. The women’s rooms were no better than the men’s. There was blood on the walls from ‘pads’ being rubbed across them and lipstick scrawled everywhere. He could never fathom why anyone would want to be so unhygienic. The floor was always covered in waste of all sorts and over time many a number of empty purses and wallets in the bins; presumable stolen.
Between the cleaning of the bank and club his mother would at times be asked to help out with other contracts. If someone wanted a holiday or became too sick to carry out their tasks, firms would help each other out. Her friend was in an agreement with council to clean the basketball stadium when it was required; usually after games. This was not the first time they were asked to help with a general clean of the stadium. On this occasion, to abide by normal contractual agreements the plan was for Rene to drop Don off at the stadium in the early hours of the morning after they gave the bank a quick clean, then she would go to the club and begin her job there; when each job was complete she would go back to help Don. Rene neglected to tell Don the basketball finals were the night before and there could be a huge mess to tidy. On entry his eyes bulged to behold a clutter of overfull garbage bins and empty drink bottles and paper scattered throughout. It looked worse than it was as most of it was superficial. He set about the task of picking up the bulk of it and went to investigate the change rooms and toilets. Into the ladies dressing room he marched and much to his surprise he found, lying asleep on the bench, a long, slender dark haired girl still in her basketball uniform. She looked over seventeen and was wearing a blue tunic with a white hem and blue knickers to match. Her sports bag was under her head for a pillow and littered throughout the room was empty champagne bottles, cigarette stubs and food remnants. Don assumed this to be one of the winners of the finals who did not make it home and decided it better to crash there than on the road.
She was no beauty queen and looked to be part ‘Aboriginal’. Sleep was made apprehensible to Don even without the grog to kayo the senses, because, the smell of diaphoresis, liniment, stale alcohol, nicotine and egesting of bodily wastes, stung his eyes and could certainly dull ones mental faculties into a yawning abyss. He was unsure if to wake her but figured he should because once he started cleaning the noise would anyway. He gave her several nudges on the arm and stood back each time in case of a hostile reaction. She rolled over half awake, dazed, and maybe still ‘stoned’, her chest was athletic and as flat as a thong. She licked her lips and coughed with jerking motions while rubbing her eyes. In a disorientated state, she asked;
       “Where am I?”
       ‘Basketball stadium.”
       “What happened?” She made struggling breathing sounds while taking a sitting position.
       “I have no idea,” answered Don. “I’m here to clean the stadium. It’s about three thirty in the morning. I assume you’ve played basketball, and hopefully won, partied on and fell asleep.
       “Ooohhh Yea,” she said holding her head between her legs.”We did win, didn’t we?” He replied with a grin;
       “I have no idea. Com’n I’ll help you up.” He held her elbows and helped her to her feet. She was wobbly but mobile so he suggested she take a shower and wake up proper before going home. He offered to make her a cup of hot coffee for which she was grateful;
       “Thank you. I could kill for one. I’ll have a shower first.” Don’s manhood was as ambitious as his wandering eyes, he followed her slender legs and well portioned arse as it waddled towards the shower. He thought to himself: ‘Get your mind off it and back to making the coffee’. He walked into the canteen, made the coffee, and took it back to her. The shower door was closed so he knocked and told her the coffee was ready and sitting on the shelf outside. She made a request;
       “Can you bring it in please? My throat is a dry as a nun’s cunt.” He laughed and took it in.There were no doors or curtains on the showers; they were communal. She was stark naked and did not batter an eyelid to his presence, there was no attempt to cover herself, instead she looked him up and down and gave an aphrodisiacal air of consent. Soap was lathered all over her dark velvet skin and she looked a picture of delectability. Outside of her uniform she bared a small petite pair of breasts with nipples much better than first anticipated. An instant erection crammed his pants and he was stupefied as to the experience of her freedom from restrictions, she had no reservations, in fact she was very forward and said;
       “Put the coffee down and come rub this soap into my back.” Don knew he was not an ‘Errol Flynn’, but he was aware he had charisma where the females were concerned, although he never thought he had this much, it all seemed so easy. Strange things happened in his sexual encounters and he wondered to himself what it was that interested the ladies: ‘She is definitely still drunk. Maybe she can’t think straight.’ But he did not deliberate enough to distract from the request and leant in so-far as not to get soaked and used a flannel to scrub her back. The temptation to get in and fuck her became harder to control, yet she encouraged the idea by turning around to welcome the caressing of her front. Then she gently dragged him into the shower; clothes and all. With her arms wrapped around his neck she sucked on his lips. He shed his wet clothes with great impatience and put his arms around her soft body, slipping and sliding into the suds, and bodily shapes fitting each other’s contours, and their hands and fingers hungrily exploring areas like her clit and his cock. Don was in heaven, the world only existed in this moment. His hands caressed her skin and his teeth nibbled her ear as he pulled her into a tight embrace. Her pleasurable sighs and mutters of acceptance together with her hands rasping up and down his thighs put him on cloud nine. He never felt his cock so big and hard before and knew it was about to blow a storm. She felt tingling inside her vagina and the need for something to inflame her passion. She laid her back against the wall and pulled him in to help negotiate his aim. The warm, tight, spasmodic fit gave ecstatic exploitation as she clasped her hands around his rump and tugged harder. She breathed heavier with every movement of his projectile reaching unexplored areas; he went faster and faster, she was uttering noises of pleasure in zealous pursuit of climatic intensity;
       “Ooohh more, more, more. Ahhh, Oooohhh.”
       Don was puffing like a steam train and could not hold back any longer because the excitement was too much. He blew so hard it gave the feeling a bunch of sparrows was flying out of his cock; her body went into stiff shuddering spasms before relaxing limp in his arms; the best, most incredible climax ever.
Once they dried they went to a room with signage ‘Sick Bay’ where a bed was waiting and had intercourse two more times. Don completely lost track of the time. As they sit there recuperating and talking a knock at the front entrance sounded.
       “Oh no! Shit! I forget,” Don exclaimed in a startled manner.
       “Forgot what?”
       “I forgot, mum was coming to help me. Shit; shit; shit.” He panicked. “Quick get dressed.” She grabbed her clothes and ran to the changing room to dress and get her bag. Don’s clothes were still wet but he had no choice but to wear them. He was well aware he was in a right old predicament, as the knocking continued he shouted out aloud;
       “Who is it?”
       “It’s Tom,” came the reply. ‘Thank god, it’s not mum,’ thought Don. It was a friend who helped occasionally. He was much older than Don and favourable in character. Don opened the door and let him in. Unaware the sun was breaking dawn he put his hands to his eyes. Tom said;
       “How ya going? Your mum rang me and said she would be hours yet, and asked me to come and help you.” He looked around. “You haven’t done much, have you? How come you’re all wet?” On the end of his last question the girl came out of the changing rooms, she was out of her uniform and dressed in prettier clothes stored in her sports bag. On the way out she squeezed past both of them, looked at Tom first and said;
       “Hello,” Then looked at Don. “Thank you for letting me in to get my bag. I didn’t want to lose my purse. See ya later.” That put an ease on faces of astonishment and helped explain the many more questions Tom was sure to ask. But his curiosity was not completely appeased by her quick thinking, maybe rash justification, and he could not refrain from comment;
       “God, she was alright. Where did she come from?” Again he asked; “How come you’re all wet? Don tried espousing appropriate levity;
       “TOoomm; one question at a time, she was here for my body. Now are you going to help me or not?” Tom was not satisfied with his answer;
       “Yes but how come nothing is done and your wet? He was not going to give in.
       “Okay, don’t tell mum, I haven’t had much sleep lately and I fell asleep for a while until, whoever she was, came knocking at the door for her bag. And I’m wet because I was rushing to the door thinking it was mum and tripped over the mop and bucket; happy now?”
       “Not really, there must have been a bloody lot of water in the bucket,” he said with a chuckle. “But it will have to do won’t it? I believe you, many wouldn’t.”
They went about the business of cleaning the stadium. Don continued with a grin of achievement from ear to ear. In his recall of the encounter there was no time for the capacity to cogitate about her circumstances and he was sorry he did not ask her name. On reflection of the moment he remembered Fran blaming him for her pregnancy and thought: ‘Shit, talk about being taken by surprise, it was great, but again I got carried away with the situation and forgot about pulling out. I hope it doesn’t come back to bite me in the arse like Fran’s little tattle.’ Preventing potential conception can only be attained by someone who thinks with his brains, not his dick; Don was not that someone. To date he never used any type of contraception and remained to pusillanimous to source them, and even now, after the scare over Fran’s pregnancy still playing heavily on his mind he would not buy them. The consequences were much torment of probabilities regarding his current venture and it was to plague any future contentment for many months to follow.
The cleaning job was still too much for Don. He warned his mother soon after he started working the contract he was looking to get another job and now more than ever he wanted a change in employment. After only six months of working with his mother, a timely and favourable combination of circumstances arose for the acquisition of his third job. His father still worked for the ‘Council’ and one of the foremen whom he made friends with needed another labourer for his gang. As the old adage goes; ‘It’s not what you know, it’s who you know’. Ted saw fit to persuade his friend to talk to the hierarchy about hiring Don. The mission was successful and Don was employed as a ‘carpenter’s’ labourer on bridge construction for which he remained committed to for years. He began seven months before his seventeenth birthday. The pay was a lot more than he had been getting from his mother, and as always he was thrifty with his money. So far he saved a good sum considering the short amount of time served in employment, and a lot more was feasible after he joined the Council.
When it came time to obtain his vehicle learners permit he had enough money saved to pay for the latest model ‘Mini Cooper S’; nearly two thousand four hundred dollars. Ted and Rene were not amused by his choice as these cars were small and fast, so fast the police utilized them as their own pursuit vehicles. The issue was; his parents could never erase the conscience-smitten misery they still silently brooked from Tim’s accident. Don’s procurement of a car with a reputation for speed and racing generated once again acute mental images and psychological pain for both of them. When Don passed his driving test he was forever out, unbeknown to him, his parents would lie in bed awake all night until he returned home safely; a habit most parents could do without. Without friends his own age a lot of the trips were to visit Mrs Rob and Mr and Mrs Clay. Although he had avoided the company of his old buddies he remained in good relations with their parents because they had always been caring and civilized to him and they allowed him to park his car on their allotment when he went shooting on the surrounding properties.
Sam remained committed to omitting Don from his everyday life and never acknowledged his presence; the feelings were mutual. Sam finished school not long after Don and was now working at the same sawmill with Sterge and Weepy; making the three thicker than thieves. Cars gave everyone a lot more freedom and provided the ability to break the routine of a bush lifestyle and explore further afield for progress in self development, but not his old friends, for them the simple normal pattern and everyday methods and procedure remained the same. They had no ambitions and no enterprising or energetic drive. Fran was no different to the boys in such she remained as static as them, only difference was she was unable to hold down a regular job. After trying her hand at various duties like customer service and pumping petrol she did not have the dedication or required social habits to please an employer. Her excuse was she found it difficult to travel the distances needed to find suitable work, and days were wasted at home annoying her mother who’s energy and patience was sapped by the constant flow of men Fran entertained. She always had money to buy cigarettes and ‘Pepsi’ and lavished herself in fine adornments, gifted and paid for from her many meretricious relationships.
One Saturday morning Don was pressure spraying his car clean at a garage in town when much to his surprise Sam drove in and stopped with good bearing by way of an affable smile and a congenial conversation. Don reluctantly forced hospitality in reply to the many questions posed regarding work and life in general and tried hard to return Sam’s cordial temperament, but amicability was taxing for Don, he was mistrustful of such a return to comity. After a mix of chitchat Sam said;
       “Sterge, Weepy and me, we’re going shooting. Do you want to come? Don was not totally receptive to Sam’s proposal because of his dubiety in the reasoning behind the invitation. He presupposed: ‘Sam asking me to go with him would have to be with Weepy and Sterge’s knowledge. Still, I’ve grave misgivings about their reasons for wanting me to go.’ He thought long and hard: ‘Because I was once a regular in their company I guess there’s no harm. Surely they would have grown to be more sociable and learnt to act with sound practical judgments by now. Maybe they really want to be friends.’ He agreed tentatively;
       “Yea. Okay. I’ll see you there tomorrow. What time?
       “About ten. See ya,” replied Sam saying his goodbyes and driving away. Don had contrasting views about going; he was glad they were making the attempt to socialise, but was unconvinced it was with a benign intentions.
Next morning on his journey out to Sam’s he was having vacillating afterthoughts: ‘Why am I doing this? Sam has always been against me; they all have; especially Sterge.’ But the exquisite pain of forlornness was always present and their forthcoming meet was in hope he could re-engage everyone’s companionship. On arrival Sam pleasant enough and said;
       “The others have already gone. We’ll meet them at the top paddock.” This was about a half mile hike. Don had been there many times and knew the track blindfolded. When they caught up to the others Weepy acknowledged him with a “hello” and consented to his presence without protest, but few words were spoken. The ailment affecting his eyes had worsened and the weeping incessant and distracting involving extra attention in care. Sterge had not changed, he was his usual contumacious self, and still displayed a reprobate and sociopathic personality. The treatment and care, if any to control his disease, was obviously not working because his gums looked more sickening than Don remembered them; all the while he still sucked on grass stems to ease the pain. Sterge chose to repudiate Don’s existence with an attitude of degradation;
       “What the fuck are ya doing ‘ere? You’re not welcome. Are ya still a fuckwit? Don had no idea what was going on, he was under the impression Sterge was aware he was joining them. Sam said;
       “I told ya he was coming.” Don gave opinion by doing something he once regretted; he stood up to him;
       “What ‘ave I done to you? You’re always a cranky bastard.” Sterge spat out his stalk of paspalum and swung his fist to Don’s jaw knocking him to the ground before he could count to one. Retaliation from Don would have been a desperate and foolish mistake. He was no match for Sterge and any cycle of reprisal would have proved to be a pathetic attempt of bravery: ‘Maybe I’ll grab a lump of wood and smash him,’ he thought. But that was not to be either. Sterge held the rifle to Don’s head for an instant with his finger on the trigger and scowled imperiously before lowering the gun and marching off. Don was petrified.
       “Com’n, get up. Don’t worry ‘bout ‘im,” said Weepy. Don was worried, very worried, he wondered why he was stupid enough to think things could change because they were older, yet he continued on because he was not game to walk home alone. He believed he was safer with the company of Sam and Weepy and stayed well out of the way of Sterge. Everything was going as near to normal as it was going to get, they shot plenty of rabbits but Sterge was shooting at anything and no-one was going to reprimand him. He shot a kangaroo and on close inspection of his kill he found it to have a ‘joey’ in her pouch, he held the gun to its head and pulled the trigger without so much as a blink of the eye. Then he stuck his thumb and finger in its eyes, one at a time, and pinched them out of their socket. He did nothing with them, just squeezed them to appease his crazed fascination with eyes; Don had never witnessed this behaviour before and had no doubt he was mad.
Everyone knew Sterge could be very brutal and heartless to anyone or anything, to what degree depended entirely on his mood. They come across this huge ‘lace monitor’ with long strong claws, powerful legs and over six feet in length. It was dark grey in colour with creamy scales forming bands and blotches over its body, and when alerted to danger approaching it scudded up the nearest ‘spotted gum’ where it clung tightly to the bark and out of harm’s way; so it thought. Don was amazed by its size, strength and beauty and was happy to leave it in peace, but not Sterge. He aimed his rifle from the hip and pumped six bullets into it while laughing out loud; it fell to the ground dead. There was no innuendo or contradictions towards his actions from the others, they sanctioned the kill with words of praise and took pleasure in its annihilation. Don, without thinking, could not hold back, he foolishly questioned Sterge;
       “Why would you shoot a defenceless animal? You’re so cruel.”
Devoid of emotion Sterge shoved the rifle butt into Don’s face dropping him like a ‘hot spud’ while traducing him to the rest. He split his lip and spilt a lot of blood and just walked away as if nothing happened. Don wanted to shoot him dead, anything less would have been suicidal because he was too unpredictable to leave standing. He curbed his temper and did not carry the complaint further for fear of dying himself. Sam and Weepy did nothing, they were cowering in fear and enjoying the ridicule and persecution of another. Both were scared of Sterge’s volatile behaviour even moreso than in their younger days and could not, or would not help Don. They had now lost their individuality and become docile and conformable puppets to his whims; they chuckled at Dons debacle.
Don could not understand why he was invited. He thought; ‘Maybe Sam really wanted to reconcile differences, and it might have been different if Sterge was not in attendance. I have no idea. I hate them all even more than before.’ He was deeply embittered by their conduct; it was as plain as the blood on his face they did not want him around. At this point he came to the realisation he should have adhered to his uneasiness when Sam first invited him as it now proved beyond doubt their friendship had grown apart too far for any sort of reconciliation. Their personalities resembled beastly wretches which seemed permanently mutated into a state of dark malevolence by virtue of being themselves; malicious, spiteful and nasty. He thought: ‘Finally I’m sure I’ve learnt my lesson, this is the last time I will ever hang out with them. I have to get outta here now.’


No comments:

Post a Comment