THE NEVER-ENDING BUFFET

                Chapter 12

Thursday I stopped into Melissa’s flower and stuffed animal
filled room on my way to work. Mika was there with her, and the
three of us talked for a while about the possible futures. I held
little Jess and could not help but smile while she was in my
arms. This was a hell of a great way to start a day. I kissed
Melissa and Mika and told them that I would see them after work,
either here, or if they let her go, at Mary’s.

I was still tired after the long night, so it was a good thing
that I didn’t have much to do. I mainly supervised Dexter on a
couple of installations.

Mika called just after noon, and told me that she was taking
Melissa and the baby out to Mary’s, so I could see them there.

That evening Melissa was holding court in Mary’s family room, and
Leimomi and Mandy were making dinner for everyone. It was a fun
evening and the baby was smiling at all comers. She was a little
charmer, and I didn’t even get overly embarrassed when Melissa
took out a tit to feed her. I was so pleased to see how my new
friends had taken to Melissa, and how happy she was with her
situation. The change in Melissa just confirmed what I had
already figured out, I was in love with all of these wonderful
women, and blissfully happy for the first time in years.

Friday afternoon Dexter and I were going to do one last service
call before we called it a day. I was looking forward to meeting
Amy at the skating rink for a late date, and I expected to have
time after this stop to take a short nap to prepare for the date.
The interesting thing was that this last service call was to
Jennifer. She had told Sharon that the icemaker in her fridge was
giving her trouble, so we were going to fix it. I owed a lot to
Jennifer, but I still felt uncomfortable being alone with her,
which is one reason that I had brought Dexter along. He also
needed to learn how to deal with this situation. Repairing or
replacing an ice maker is not a big deal, but if you screw up the
mess can be extensive.

As we pulled up to her apartment there was a bright blue Ford
F150 4-wheel drive pickup, with chrome add-ons and western motif
decals on it, sitting at the curb. Glancing up at Jennifer’s door
I saw a broad back in a fringed suede jacket disappear as the
door closed. Carla had pointed out her ex’s truck at some point
last week, and I recognized it easily. I could think of no reason
for him to be going into Jennifer’s apartment that didn’t involve
trouble.

“Dex! We have a problem.” I tossed him my cell phone, “call 911
and get some police here.” If I had to apologize or pay a fine
for a false call, okay; but if they were needed, they would be
needed ASAP. I was reaching into the back seat of the Dakota as I
said this to him. In the compartment under the back seat, I kept
a couple of tools. Under the passenger side were the tire tools
and under my side were a few wood chisels, and the mallet I had
made for them. It was a 14” long piece of 3” by 3” hard white oak
that I had carved into a mallet. I had thought at the time that
it would make a nice weapon, and now I would get the chance to
prove it.

I tossed the tire tool to Dexter and headed for the door. I had
heard him talking to the 911 operator and assumed that he would
be behind me. I stopped at the door and checked to see if it was
unlocked. It was. I turned the knob, threw the door open, and
stepped inside.

The first thing I saw was a man holding Jennifer by her hair in
the center of the room. She was on her knees and he had a knife
to her throat.  I looked to the left and saw the man in the
fringed jacket. He had a gun in his hand and was turning to point
it at me. Not pausing at all, I brought the mallet down on his
wrist, knocking the gun loose. It fired as he dropped it and blew
the TV to smithereens.

The blast caused the other man to turn around to see what was
going on. The mallet had bounced up when I hit the gunman so
stepped past fringed jacket, slid my right foot toward the second
man, and used the momentum to backhand the knife wielder on the
side of the head with the mallet. I used the far side of his head
as my potential impact point and he went down without a whimper.
I turned back to the gunman and saw that Dexter had him under
control. Dex was standing on the gun with the tire tool poised to
strike.

I looked down at Jennifer, “are you all right Jen?”

“Thank god you’re here Walter. When they knocked on the door I
thought it was you and they forced their way in. Julio was
demanding money, he said that after they got done with me they
were going go see about Carla and Carmelita. The one with the gun
is Carla’s ex Juan, Julio was my husband. I’m okay; they didn’t
have time to do anything before you came in.”

I had heard sirens approaching and as I turned to the door, I was
told to drop my weapons and put my hands up. I did this and
discovered that the mallet was hanging by the strap I had
unconsciously put around my wrist, and that Julio had enough time
to stick his goddamn knife into my left arm. I saw that and the
blood pouring down my sleeve, and suddenly felt extremely faint.

“Do you mind if I sit down officer? I think I may need some
help.”

“Walter!!” screamed Jennifer. The next thing I knew she was on
one side and Dexter was on the other helping me to sit on the
couch.

Jennifer went into nurse mode, and took off yelling at the cop,
“Call an ambulance, that bastard stabbed my Walter. I hope like
hell his skull is cracked good.”

That son-of-a-bitch was quick; I didn’t even see his hand move.
If I had hesitated at all, he would have gutted me.

BLAMM!!

When Dexter had jumped to get to me he had uncovered the gun on
the floor, and Juan had gone for it, probably thinking that the
confusion would hide his action. Unfortunately for him, the
police woman in the doorway saw him and did not yell a warning or
anything, she just shot him in the shoulder. I would have
applauded her quick reactions, except that by then I was about to
pass out from the pain and blood loss.

Her partner was looking at her in shock, “sorry Bill, but he was
about to pull on your back.”

Dexter was thinking fast too. “Good shot Ma’am, serves him right
for grabbing the gun after you warned him not to. You might want
to secure that weapon sir,” Dex said to the male officer, who was
still standing there, lost and confused.

The man jerked into action, grabbing the gun as Jennifer came
running back into the room with a first aid kit.

“What the hell is going on in here, and has anyone called for an
ambulance yet?”

Dexter explained to her what had transpired, stressing the
warning given to Juan. Jennifer was working on my arm as the
female officer called for medical aid. She then came over to
Dexter.

“Thank you for standing up for me, but you don’t need to. It was
a valid shooting situation and I’ll be cleared for it.”

“Yeah, but this way it will be easier, no need to have an
investigation.”

“We got a dead one here,” the policeman said, “This guys skull is
caved in big time. Idiot over there will live, but this one is
gone. What the hell did you hit him with?”

I held up my right hand displaying the mallet hanging from my
wrist. “This.”

“Can you tell me what happened miss?”

“Sure, I was expecting Walter here to come over and work on my
icemaker. He is the service man for Wilks’ appliances and Sharon
said that he would be by this afternoon. When I heard a knock on
the door, I thought that it was him. I opened the door and my ex
husband was there with his brother. They pushed me back and
forced their way in. Julio had a knife and Juan was showing a
gun. Julio grabbed my hair and forced me to kneel. He held the
knife to my throat and said that he needed money and would hurt
me bad if I didn’t get it for him. He also said that when they
were done with me they would go to take care of Juan’s whore wife
and bastard daughter. Suddenly the door slammed open and I heard
a gun blast and a scream. I guess that was Juan, the asshole shot
my fucking TV. Then I felt Julio take the knife away from my
throat and turn away from me. There was a kind of a thump sound
and he dropped to the floor. I couldn’t actually see anything
because Julio had my head held back and he was blocking my view
of everything else. Walter saved my life, I know that.”

The corpsmen were coming into the room then, and one of them
brushed Dexter away from me and took his place. The other one
went to look at Juan. I motioned Dexter over to Jennifer.

“Hold onto her Dex, she is going to realize how close a call she
had in a minute, and will need some reassurance; you will too.”

The medic led me to lay on a gurney and told Jennifer that she
had done a good job on me.

“Dexter, call your mom and take Jennifer over there in my truck.
She does not need to be alone tonight. Have Sharon call Amy and
see if she will meet me at the hospital to take me home. Just
leave my truck at the shop; I’ll pick it up later.”

“Oh crap Walter; you want me to tell my mom that I let you get
hurt? She’ll have my guts for garters.” He paused for a moment at
the look on my face. “What the hell are you smiling about
Walter?”

“Sorry Dex, I was just imagining Sharon in garters and stockings;
a most enticing thought.” The shot the medic gave me must have
been taking effect. “Do what I asked please, I’ll make it okay
with your mom.”

That was all the time I had as the paramedics were pushing Juan
and me out the door. What I did have time for was to see the look
of wonder on Dexter’s face as he held Jennifer against his broad
chest. I couldn’t see her face as she had it pressed against him,
trembling. Very interesting.

I should have known better than to think that just Amy would show
up. By the time I got out of X-ray, the waiting area was filled
with females. Amy, Leimomi, Mika, Carla, Carmelita, and Mandy
were all present and accounted for. Mary had stayed home with
Melissa and the baby. I was told that I had no options and that
we were going to see them, and I would be staying at Leimomi’s.

I wouldn’t need to stay in the hospital for the night, as the
wound was relatively minor, but before I left I had to go through
the gauntlet with the police. An officer and a detective took me
into an empty room, and for over an hour we went through the
situation again and again. I had to explain how I had known whose
truck was parked at Jennifer’s and how I knew the women involved.
I tried my best to protect the reputations of the ladies, but I
think that the detective had some suspicions. He had seen the
cluster in the waiting room after all. When they were finally
through with me, I was told that there would be an inquest into
the death of Julio Gomez where the witnesses and I would be
required to testify as to my actions. The detective assured me he
didn’t believe that there would be any repercussions, as my
actions were totally justified. It was obvious that my intent had
been to disable Julio, and that his death was an accident. We
would also have to testify at Juan’s trial for the assault on
Jennifer, and the investigation of the shooting by the officer.

After that ordeal, I was definitely ready to go to bed. Most of
the ladies had left by then. Leimomi and Mandy were going to take
me with them, and we would stop at Mary’s.

“You don’t need to do all this Leimomi. Just take me home and let
me rest. The doc patched me up and I am good to go. I’ll be ready
to go to work Monday.” I hate it when I get like this, I was
exhausted, and the meds had worn off enough that my arm felt like
a sore tooth. I was getting whiney and short tempered, and she
didn’t deserve that kind of treatment just for trying to take
care of me.

“Like hell you will Walter. You are staying with me and Mandy and
I will take care of you. Carla is going to go by your place and
get you some clothes; you will go back to work when we say you go
back.”

I could see that there was no use in arguing, I would just be
overruled. At Mary’s I was explaining what had happened to Mary
and Melissa when Carla arrived with my clothes. After she left,
Leimomi took me to her house and helped me shower, and then she
put me into bed and climbed in with me. I snuggled up to her and
soon fell asleep trying to figure what I was going to do to make
it up to Amy for having missed our date.