spirit to see and hold his darlin’ Ellen if only for the few moments allowed by the passing in the night.
Ellen could hear her mother’s heavy Irish brogue and the unmistakable warning, “Come straight as an arrow, lass, do not tarry… for idleness is indeed, the devils work place. Your Father will be eager to fetch the stick if there be any delay in your comings and I, obliged to inform of such activity…though it may pain me to do so…be patient my lovely lassie!”
Ellen remembered well the stick of which she spoke. Her father was a practitioner of corporal punishment and the axiom, “Spare the rod and ruin the child!” but she would rather the rod as to miss the sweet and loving embrace of Eddie Renneally.
“I love you lassie… soon you will be mine forever… we will go to America and be rid forever of this god forsaken place. Soon we will have enough money for the trip, and I swear by my eighteenth birth we will be wed, and free of this oppressive place!”
She remembered the touch, the kiss and even as she resisted slightly, his moving against her, and how he had taken her hand and placed on his, oh very hard, so large, throbbing. She felt it jumping in her hand and she remembered feelings deep inside as he moved his fingers inside her.
Though his promise went unkept, his call to her from the seaside with the wind and spray at his back remained fixed in her mind, a sense so strong that she could never refuse the call of Eddie Renneally. And so she hugged the night shadows and the vivid memory of her sweet, sweet Eddie. Even all the years later on Shawnee Parkway she felt he would be there soon. To see him, to hear him calling her to hurry and come nigh, “Lassie don’t you know we’ve only a moment? Hurry girl before someone sees.”
The dark evening shadows covered her as even the large oaks covered her passage along the parkway. She entered through the side door off the veranda and waited a moment for any sign or sound. There was a faint sound of laughter on the second floor. Ellen made her way toward it and entered a small hall closet. She latched the door behind her and heard the sound of the lock much as she had heard the sound leaving home. She sensed that she wasn’t alone, then, she heard the burner from the hot water heater click on. It was warm; she removed her dress. The laughter was higher now heavy breathing and sounds of pain or joy interrupted it. She lifted a dust pain from its hook and removed the screw revealing a small hole through the wall. Ellen could see the occupant of the apartment, Kathy…there on the floor by the fireplace. She could see Kathy’s breast and the back of the naked young man making love to her.
As Eddie caressed and kissed the nipples, he massaged her thighs and soft spot between her legs. Ellen moaned, “It was there…very hard, throbbing, jumping… and he was in her…Oh my darlin’ Eddie!”
Something moved in the shadow of the hot water heater.
IN THE COUNTY JAIL
“Visitor for Hamilton”,
Hamilton jumped to his feet anxious for contact with anyone outside. He was led from the cell to a small room off the common area or ‘Pod’ as it was referred to. Thad waited, he heard voices, it sounded like Donohue and Hamilton cringed at the thought of another session of interrogation by this vicious, sadistic homophobic, and whom Hamilton knew was trying with all his insight, cunning and influence to make a case against him for at least one murder. Thad remembered the last lamentation of Christ on the cross, “Eli, Eli, Lama Sabacthani,”… that is, “My God, My God, why hath thou forsaken me?”
The door opened, Hamilton held his breath. It was Michael Pearlman, his old friend and attorney. Pearlman was startled to see his client under these strenuous conditions; Hamilton hugged him.
“No touching”, came the voice over the address system.
Pearlman backed away… emotionally touched by his clients’ reaction and condition; Hamilton smiled to relieve the stress. He remembered his attorney when he had hair, and he remembered how they had set some high precedent in the relationship of an attorney to a client who had to remain, at the time, anonymous!
Hamilton tried to remember how he had first met Michael Pearlman. He remembered more about the old-line firm Pearlman was with, Peabody, Peabody & Helm, and then it hit him. Hamilton had been required to attend a seminar on bank fraud, Pearlman was on a distinguished panel of lawyers, accountants and bankers. Hamilton was impressed at how young Pearlman was and how knowledgeable on the subject. Hamilton thought if I ever need an attorney, this is my man! And little did he know that he would need his help soon thereafter in the formation of a corporation.
They had done extremely well, this odd combination, even unorthodox, some would say. Some would say the methodology employed was creative and futuristic; some would say that it was nothing short of illegal. But the mind of Michael Pearlman was always one step ahead of those trying to prove that case!
The word on the street was that Mid-West Engineering’s most essential element in its drive to expanded operations was not the prestigious educational backgrounds of its officers nor its history of excellence in the performance of a range of engineering contracts but rather in the shrewd management, the innovative techniques in the solicitation of work which also involved Pearlman, its magic show, with money, through the wizardry of its vice president of management, Thad Hamilton. For his hardnosed tactics common to business among Sicilians, some said he had his named changed from Hamiltonini. There is always innuendo among the also- ran and those who just cannot figure it out.
Hamilton had only a cursory understanding of the engineering business and that was no doubt the reason that he took the firm in the most unconventional directions. He was surprised and honored when one of his customers from the bank approached him with the offer to participate as a principal in the establishment of an environmental lab. The clients’ enthusiasm and his partners’ academic credentials convinced Hamilton that the firm had promise.
Thad put up the money for an annual budget and the fledgling enterprise moved into a small office space in a building he owned. A slight of hand maneuver made possible by Hamilton’s bank officer status and his position to approve a loan without oversight from his superiors. In addition, his insider information on a bank client unable to make mortgage payments on an undervalued multi-function building provided Hamilton the opportunity and the gratitude of his client for the option of handing over the payments to someone he felt trustworthy and capable of making the mortgage payments on time, thereby salvaging for the troubled bank client’s credit standing! Of course the newly found net worth for Hamilton was reward for doing the right thing…a selectivity business event Hamilton would replicate over time, bolstering his confidence and standing in the business community.
The other two principals in the transaction, put up a professional contract with the government through the Environmental Pollution Agency (the EPA) which they had secured to monitor air and noise pollution on Interstate 64 and, they provided the technical expertise as well, to organize the work. But when that contract expired the firm melted back to the original partners. During a brain storming session to determine the future of the firm, Thad asked the partners the quintessential question, how does an engineer go about getting work?
Prolano, a brilliant PhD, went through the process of relating the methodology for getting professional engineering or architectural contracts. It wasn’t like any other business. Advertising yields nothing more than an institutionalization of the firm name for the future if you happen to be around long enough for someone to remember that you sponsored this or that program. Government entities on the other hand, the greatest source of work for the firm, advertise for engineers in the classified section of the local newspaper, asking the engineers to submit qualifications under what is known as Request For Proposals. The engineers submit copies of curriculum vitae and references.
“So
