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PART THREE OF THIRTEENCHAPTER 5: He was in his office. It’d been a full year since the last he’d heard of his old friend. He didn’t dwell on it much, not anymore. That was something, thought Rodney Pollard. But at the moment he was on his mind, Jimmy was on his mind. One couldn’t save the world. And some things were written in the stars. It looked like his old bud was condemned to be part of that mass of humanity that would be living lives of quiet desperation—apologies to Thoreau.“Mister Pollard, there is someone here to see you sir,” said the voice over the intercom. “He doesn’t have an appointment.”“I’ll come out,” he said. Hardly anyone ever came to this office that wasn’t invited. It wasn’t that kind of office. 99% percent of his business was online and impersonal. He did meet with lawyers and real estate people somewhat regularly but never without appointments.Exiting the office, he saw a face he recognized. “Sammy?” he said, “This is a surprise.”“Yes, Mister Pollard, I needed to see you. I mean if you have a spare minute. I’m on a delivery and was nearby, so I made the decision to see if you could spare me a few minutes,” said Sammy. “The guard downstairs said it would be all right to come up.”“Certainly,” he said. “Come on in to my office.”“Denise, hold my calls,” he said.The two men adjourned to the man’s office.The big man took his seat behind his desk. His visitor took the seat across from him as the man indicated he should. “So, I’m guessing you have some information about our friend,” said Rodney. He was certain that the man did.“Yes sir, and it’s not good. I was making some deliveries downtown and I saw him. I saw him and I pulled over and went to talk to him but changed my mind. I decided to talk to you first, like I promised,” said Sam.“Sam, was he all right?” said Rodney.“Yes and no,” said Sammy. “He’s apparently not hurt or anything, but he’s clearly a broken man. He’s on the street, skid row, and not looking too good.” The other man’s face fell.“The street! The fucking street!” said Rodney.“Yes sir, I saw him go into the Salvation Army soup kitchen. He looked pretty ragged,” said Sam.“You didn’t talk to him then?” said Rodney.“No, no like I said, I was going to but changed my mind. I was afraid he’d blow me off or, well, something,” he said. The other man nodded.“The kitchen, you mean the one on Main?” said Rodney.“Yes, that’s the one. I figure he’s probably hangin’ out in the neighborhood,” said Sammy.“Yes, yes, makes sense.”“Look, I’m going to make the effort to see the man. I have some important news to tell him. He’s just got to straighten up and come to his senses,” said Rodney Pollard.“I don’t know about that, Mister Pollard. He’s pretty down. Has been since, well since . . .” said Sammy.“Yeah, yeah I know what you’re saying,” he said. “Look, thanks a million for coming in and I really appreciate you keeping your word to let us know when you heard anything. It means a lot. If there’s anything I can do for you just let me know,” he said.“Thank you sir, I will,” said Sam.The two men talked for a couple of minutes more and Sammy hit the road. He still had deliveries to make.******“I can’t believe it. I talked to Jenna a few days ago and she said that him being on the street might be a possibility, but I just blew her off; I just couldn’t believe something like that could possibly be real,” said Claire.“Well, believe it; it’s real. I will be finding the man and putting it to him pretty forcefully,” said Rodney.“We’ll go together,” said Claire. “I need to be there to kick his high school butt. The man just has to, well, man up!”“Okay, I’m not sure the both of us being there is a good idea, but maybe it is. Anyway, let’s do it,” he said.******Main Street was a drag maybe a shade under four miles long. It was one of the earliest streets to be developed in the main part of L.A. It was depressed now, economically. The homeless and the generally indigent saw it as a place of refuge. The Salvation Army had its kitchen there and its chapel too was just a few blocks away. Finding their man should not have been a problem. But, it was proving to be.They’d been cruising the area for almost an hour. They’d seen no sign of the man at all. Frustration was setting in.“Let’s try the kitchen. We should have started there,” she said. “I mean that is where Sam said he’d seen him, right?”“Yes, I guess you’re right. But it’s 3:00 P.M. I doubt if he’s going to be at the kitchen now,” he said.“Maybe not, but maybe someone who works there might know where to look,” she said. He nodded.“Yeah, makes sense I guess,” he said.He whipped a U-turn in his brand new Cadillac and drove the half mile back down the street to the Salvation Army’s kitchen.They pulled into the lot behind the sizable structure and went in. A few men and a woman with a small child were in evidence seated at the metal folding tables situated around the spacious eating area. The service area was closed at that moment, though one worker seemed to be setting things up for a meal, probably for the evening rush, thought Claire. The Army did do a lot of good work for the pilgrims of desperation row.“Let’s ask that guy behind the serving counter over there,” said Claire.They wended their way across the room. Rodney Pollard waved to get the attention of the man behind the counter who seemed very intent on getting things arranged for whatever.“Sir, can we speak with you for a minute?” said Claire, finally having gotten the man’s attention.“We don’t serve until 5:00 P.M.,” said the man.“No, no,” said Rodney. “We’re looking for a friend.”The server eyed him suspiciously. “A friend?” he said.“Yes,” said Claire. She pulled a photo from her purse and handed it to the man güvenilir bahis to look at.The man looked at it and handed it back to her. “Yes, I know the guy. He’s comes in here sometimes for breakfast. We serve breakfast and dinner here, no lunch, not enough funding. He never comes in for dinner though, don’t know why,” said the server.“When was the last time you saw him?” said Claire.“A few days ago. But, it’s been cold. A lot of guys try to find a place to hang where it’s warmer, know what I mean?” he said.Rodney Pollard nodded. “They still have to eat don’t they?”“They find a way. I know it doesn’t make any sense; I mean it’s warm in here, but when it’s cold the guys and some of the women, just don’t like to move about. Know what I mean?” he said.Rodney thanked the man and he and Claire went back to their car.“We’ll find him,” said Rodney. If he’s in town, anywhere in town, we’ll find him.”“We have to, Rod, we have to,” said Claire. The man just nodded.******“So Don, find the guy, okay?” said Rodney.“I will. Rod, finding the guy might take some time though. Guys who’ve been on the row for a while don’t exactly leave paper trails. But again, if he’s still downtown, it shouldn’t take too long,” said Donald McGinnis PI.“Okay, okay just do your best. We have a very good reason for wanting to find the guy and it’s for his benefit more even than mine or Claire’s, okay,” he said.“Okay, you got it,” he said, “I’m on it.”The two men parted, the one to hunt the other to wait.******He pulled into the parking structure of their condo’s building and breathed a frustrated sigh. Patience was not Rodney Pollard’s forte, no indeed. But, patience was the requirement for the time being. Donald would find their man, but he had a sick feeling that it might be a while in the doing and that was that.“So you’ve got Don on it,” said Claire, as her man came into the kitchen. She knew he’d had a meeting with their friend that day.“Yes, he’s on it, and he’ll find him. But when is the question,” he said, as he set his briefcase down on the kitchen counter. She nodded her understanding.“Okay, so I guess now we wait. Regardless of when he finds him, we still have the little problem of how to handle things. Boy, it’s going to be one heckuva scene when he finds out he’s a daddy who’s never even seen his child. I mean a scene,” she said.“I’m her daddy too, don’t forget,” he said. She took on a shocked look.“Oh my!” she said. “Honey of course you are. I never thought you anything else and you know that.”“Yeah, I guess,” he said.“You are the best daddy in the world,” she said coming up to him and kissing him. “I mean the best. Our friend is the sperm donor, and he’ll get to see his child, and I hope he wants to. But, as for who the real daddy is, it’s you.”“Honey,” he said. “There’s another potential problem that we haven’t much discussed.”“Problem?” she said.“Yes, she doesn’t know about any of this. She’s too young to explain it to her. But, at some point she’ll have to be in the know about it all. She’s not quite six years-old, and like I said too young to understand it all, but he may want to be called daddy. He may want . . . heck I don’t know what he’s going to want,” he said.“Yes, until we’ve been able to sit him down and actually have a coherent conversation with him we just won’t have any way to know how to deal with the situation. But Larabee has said we’re in the clear on most levels regardless, so I’m going with his estimation of things. We’ll be generous with our Jimmy. Hell, we’ve tried to be generous with him all along. But this situation is going to require some finesse on our parts,” she said.“Damn straight it is,” he said, “damn straight!”******The two men were sitting where they usually sat when tilting them back. “Hey, Jackie, another round over here, okay?” he said, loud enough so the flirty little offspring of Venus could hear and understand.“So you talked to them, told them what you found out,” said Henry.“Not them, just the guy, Pollard, but yeah, I told him I’d keep them in the loop, so I have,” said Sammy. His friend nodded.“Whaddya think they’ll do?” said Henry.“They’ll find him, talk to him, maybe convince him to get his ass in gear. The man needs to get with the program. He can’t just mope around forever. Ain’t no woman worth that much pain,” he said.“You guys gonna run a tab, or am I just gonna continue to collect for each separate round,” said Jackie.“Yeah, yeah run one,” said Henry, “we’re gonna to be here a while.” The girl nodded, turned, and noted their choice on the pad by the register behind the bar. She meandered her way down the bar and got them their second round.“Yeah, he does have to get it together. You did right cluing the cheaters,” said Henry. “For sure they can’t do any worse than we did in trying to get the guy to be doing things right.”“It may be that he’s mellowed a little over this last year or so,” said Sammy. “I mean if he’s been hanging out at the Salvation Army kitchen and maybe the chapel; he might have found religion or something. Jesus I hope so. He’s needs to find support from more than just you and me.”The other man laughed. “Well, stranger things have happened than a man finding Jesus to save himself from himself. I mean oh yeah!” said Henry.“Yeah right,” said Sammy. “But, who knows maybe you are right. I sure hope so. He’s my friend, had my back a few times over the years. I want him to survive, I really do. And from what I saw, when I watched him go into that kitchen the other day, he’s not doin’ too good, not too good at all.”“Well, all we can do is the best we can do. The man does have to do some of the heavy lifting himself; it can’t all be just us doin’ it,” said Henry.“You’re güvenilir bahis siteleri right. But the women, they got us guys by the short hairs and there’s not a damn thing we can do about it,” said Sammy.“I hear yuh,” said Henry.“You know I just had an idea,” said Sammy.“An idea?” said Henry.“Yeah, here we are yakkin’ about him goin’ to church and all. But well, we don’t actually know if he is, has, whatever; but if he hasn’t maybe we could arrange it so that he does. Or even better have some church guy invite him. Whaddya think?” said Sammy.******“He found him!” said Rodney. She looked at him; his message registered, she squeaked some unintelligible noises.“My God, or rather thank God!” she said.“Yes, it was a tough go. He’d apparently actually been out of town. Evidently him and couple of other guys down on their luck trooped it up to Littleton. Better places to shack up there I guess, that’s the word that Donald passed along to me. But they’re back now all three of them. They kind of watch each other’s backs if Don has it right. Anyway, I’ve got the location. We can go there tomorrow,” he said.“Oh my yes,” she said. “Where exactly is it that they live; I mean now?”“In a truck park near Third and Main. Six or eight blocks from the kitchen. They shack up in the back of a covered loading dock. Don says they act as unofficial unpaid security for the foreman there. The foreman is an ex-con who used to be on the streets himself. Don was asking around, and he’s the one who tipped him as to where to find our guy,” he said.“My oh my, so this is it,” she said, “almost three years.”“Yes, this is it, and I’m nervous,” he said. She nodded her agreement.******They were early, very early; it was a little after 6:00; the sun wasn’t even officially up yet though the glow of its impending arrival pretty well lighted their surroundings. They were parked a hundred yards up the street from the kitchen. He tilted back his McCoffee and sipped the steaming liquid. She was holding hers as if to keep her hands warm.“If he’s coming here to eat, it shouldn’t be too long a wait,” he said.“How are we going to do this?” she said.“Honey, just like we planned. We’ll wait for him to go in. Give him a few minutes to get his food, and then follow him inside and trap him between us,” he said. “Hopefully the morning rush will be delayed long enough for us to make our case and then, if there is a God, we’ll all, all three of us, go home.”“And if he refuses to go home with us which frankly I think is as likely as not even considering the information we’ll be sharing with him,” said Claire.“Then, it’s plan-B,” he said. “We write him off and get on with our lives. No more of this moping around through life waiting for that erstwhile blood-brother of mine and ex-husband of yours to get it together.”She nodded. “Okay, I guess that’s the best we can do,” she said.“Yes, yes it is,” he said, “and this time I mean it.”“I love you Rodney. You’re a good man,” she said.“And, I love you too dear heart, never doubt it,” he said. She smiled and nuzzled up against him.He raised his binoculars to his eyes and peered through them. “It’s him,” he said. “And he looks fucking emaciated and scruffy. Here, look,” he said. He handed her the field glasses.“Oh my God,” she said. “He looks pathetic. There’s a couple of guys trailing behind him but close, must be his back up.” He nodded.“Yeah, that’s likely,” he said.They watched as the trio of men walked inside the structure. Other men and a couple of women seemed to suddenly materialize out of nowhere, not a lot but quite a number at all events.“Rod, let me do this one alone. Seeing you . . .” she started. He looked her askance.“Okay,” he said, finally. “But if you’re in there for any length of time . . .”“Yes, then come and rescue me,” she said.“He pulled the car up closer to the doorway. She got out and headed inside. She was dressed down for this potential meet up, no use rubbing her prosperity in the noses of the local clientele.She spotted her prey sitting against the far wall at a four person table. The coffee urns were but a few feet away from where he sat. She was wearing a beanie and sunglasses. She made the decision to get a cup of coffee as a prop for her meeting with her ex; she could tell he didn’t notice her though she was but a few feet away from him at that point.Coffee in hand, she took the seat immediately next to him at the little table.“What the fuck are you doing here, Claire? We have nothing in common anymore,” I said. Oops, he had noticed her.“Whoa, I was hoping to surprise you,” she said, not unkindly.“Fuck it! I’ve had quite enough of your surprises and you being here, I mean here, is humiliating,” I said, “I mean humiliating! So get the fuck outta here and go have your caviar lunch and a couple of martinis with your rich pals. I ain’t up to your standards.”“Oh Jimmy, I’m not here to make things hard for you, really I’m not,” she said. “But, I’ve missed you, both of us have and I need to talk to you. It’s important.”“What, you need a kidney donation from me? If not, it’s not important enough for me to bother with,” I said.“No, it’s bigger than that, a lot bigger,” she said. “But that you’d be willing to sacrifice a kidney for me says a lot, and I appreciate it,” She didn’t crack a smile at her improvised attempt at comedy and neither did he. She did, however, now have his undivided attention.“Jimmy, you know I have a daughter, right?” she said.“Of course,” I said. “Got that piece of info from the mouth of my ex-best friend himself. So what? The two of you are happy I hope.”“Yes, well there’s something you need to know. Something he and I found out after you disappeared from the radar almost iddaa siteleri two years ago, actually going on three now,” she said.“So, what is it I’m supposed to know? Frankly, I don’t give a damn about you and your family any more than you really care about me!”Just then two other men showed up at the table interrupting their conversation.“Jimmy,” said the taller of the two intruders.“Yeah, Mack, Roy, this is Claire, my ex,” I said. The two guys stared for a short minute.“Oh, okay,” said Roy. “We’ll give you two a few minutes.” The two men took their plates to a table some distance across the room.“Nice of them,” she said.“Yeah, they’re nice guys,” I said, “a helluva lot nicer than you or my ex-best friend.”“Jimmy, the fact is you need to care about our family. You need to because you’re a member of it in more ways than one. Jimmy, you’re Rebecca’s biological father,” she said.I’d been raising my cup of coffee to my lips but it never got that far. My hand with the cup still in it was frozen in space and time. I stared. I lowered my cup very slowly.“What did you say?” I said.“You’re a daddy,” she said.“The hell you say,” I said.“It’s not the kind of thing anyone would be joking about, sport, and you know it. We’ve wanted to tell you for the longest time, but you were nowhere to be found; well, until now,” she said.“Where’s my ex-best friend,” I said.“Jimmy, he’s still your best friend regardless of what you think. He’d sacrifice that kidney for you if you needed one,” she said.“Yeah, and steal my wife and family from me in the bargain. No thanks about the kidney. I’d rather die,” I said.“Jimmy, your baby, our baby, is almost six years old. You need to meet her. I know this is a shock. How could it not be. But, it is what it is and that’s the long and the short of it,” she said.“A daddy you say. But you’ll still be keeping the baby with you, right. I’d get to meet her and that would be that. Then I’m back here, and you’re wherever you are, and that’s the actual long and the short of it to use your words,” I said.“No!” she didn’t quite scream. A few heads turned and noticed them. “You will not be shunted off to the side if that’s what you really think. You’ll be taking your place in her life just like the real daddy that you are. The both of us, Rod and me, want that for her and for you. Believe me I mean it, sir.”“I ain’t got no money, nothing. I get by and it’s enough for me. As for meeting the little girl, I don’t know. I’m not into any phony baloney fatherhood shit. I know for damn sure that I would always be in the second place behind the asshole that stole you from me, and that alone would never allow me to be around the lot of you.“I’d just be dreaming about being with her, going to the zoo with her, helping her with her homework, daddy stuff. But, I’m sure you can see that wouldn’t be happening; I’m too damn poor. So thanks but no thanks,” I said.“Jimmy, that’s one of the things that Rod and I want to discuss with you if you’d be willing.“You want to do those things with your child, our child? We will make that happen. Yes, Becca will be staying with us; I’m her mother. But, that does not mean that you can’t be there doing all of those things you mentioned and more. Mister, that’s what we, Rod and me, want you to do, to be able to do. I know you’re going to argue with me hard core, but the fact is the both of us need you to do those things with her. We want her get to know you and to grow in love for you. And yes, before you ask, she does call Rodney daddy. And as time goes on she will eventually also call you daddy. Lots of children have two moms or two dads. Rebecca will too,” said Claire Pollard.“I wanna talk to the asshole,” I said. I was not being kind, but this was a loop the like of which I had not imagined I’d be thrown. “Where did you say he was?”“He’s in the car parked down the street,” she said.“You have your cell?” I said.“Of course,” she said“Call him. Tell him to come in here. Him seeing me like this, well what the hell, a little extra humiliation won’t matter all that much.” She frowned, but pulled her cell from her purse and made the call.“It’ll be a couple of minutes,” she said, pocketing her cell. We sipped our coffees. I hadn’t eaten and hadn’t wanted to, but I was beginning to get hungry.I was never all that hungry in the morning. Semi-starving on the row had accustomed me to not eating all that much. I’d lost some forty pounds since my fall from the heights of the middle class. I was still five-six, but now I weighed in at 120 according the coin operated scale at the supermarket. I did feel good though, Slim had its advantages, and slim was what I was, okay, skinny.I noticed him first. He was dressed a lot better than his wife. It was just now that I noticed that she was dressed kind of poor, as in no money poor. I smiled, that had to have been for me. She knew where to find me so she had to know my financial status. She was trying not to rub my nose in it. He on the other hand had no such qualms.“You’re smiling. Can I count that as a good thing?” she said. I didn’t answer her; what would have been the point. He came up to us.“Hello Jimmy,” he said. “You invited me in here. Does that mean we get to talk? I mean seriously talk?” His tone was serious but also condescending; well, that’s the way I read it to be.“Some,” I said. “So, she calls you daddy?”“Jimmy if this is going to be . . .” he started.“No, no, the question was rhetorical,” I said. “Your wife says you have plans, or at least intentions, to include me in meaningful ways in the life of my daughter. That the truth?”“Damn right it is. Does your question mean that you’d be willing to lighten up some on us and maybe consider being part of the family again; I do mean the three of us as well as with Rebecca?” he said.“Not sure. Depends, I guess. I need to think about things. Maybe get back to you in a few days. That all right with you?” I said.Rodney Pollard looked over at his wife.