Coming Home (Norris Lake Series) (14 page)

Chapter 11

Haze hung thick in the air over the pool tables.  A wooden bar with red leather bar stools was crowded with happy hour celebrators.  A dull hum of noise thrummed as a background for the jukebox which belted out an old Hank Jr. tune.  A few couples danced on the small tiled dance floor. 

Later that evening the Pigeon River Boys, a local country band, would sing the top forty country hits for an even larger crowd.  It was a popular hangout.  Country boys and cowboy wannabes sat alongside young men in suits. 

High-topped tables held small groups of either men or women, but not often both.  About a dozen people stood among the tables trying to make conversation and then dates for later that evening.  He leaned, barely sitting on the bar stool, with a pool cue in one hand.  Eyeing the table, he watched his opponent line up the winning shot and sink the eight ball in the far corner pocket. 

"That’s game,” the winner said with a sly smile on his face.  "You gonna pay up or do you even have it, Lawson?" 

"Yeah. Yeah I have it," Dominic Lawson said slamming the pool cue on the table and digging into the front pocket of his wranglers.  He pulled out a well-ordered stack of bills and selected a twenty out of the bundle.  He threw it towards the other man, grabbed his longneck and turned away from the pool table.  The man stared at the twenty that had fallen to the floor at his feet, looked at Lawson and then bent to pick up his money. 

"You know, Lawson, you are a loser," the man said, "No wonder your wife left you."  Dominic Lawson turned on his heel and swung all in one motion at the man.   The man ducked and then landed his own punch in Dominic’s midsection.  Dominic let out a heavy rush of air and fell to his knees bent over at the man’s feet. 

"Don’t throw those unless you are willing to accept the consequences," the man growled in his ear as he held a handful of Dominic’s hair pulling his head back.  Dominic winced in pain his eyes closed. 

"After all, I am not a woman.  I can defend myself against a bully like you.  If you want to play that game you better pick on the ladies, like you usually do,” he said letting go of Dominic’s hair and walking off towards the bar. 

Dominic dropped his head back to his chest and held his midsection for a moment before he struggled to his feet. 

"Are you all right, man?" his friend, Chris, said helping him to his feet. 

"Yeah, I am okay.” Dominic jerked his arm out of Chris’s grasp as he leaned on the bar stool.  Grasping his beer, he downed the rest of it in one shot and signaled a passing waitress for another.  

"He caught me blind side.  I didn’t see it coming.  If I had I would have decked him in a heartbeat.  He’s lucky that I have been drinking or I would make him eat those words,” Dominic explained to his friend as he stood up and put on his cowboy hat. 

"Oh, yeah, I know you would have,” Chris agreed nodding his head.  "You are just upset about Caitlyn leaving that’s all.  You’ll get over it."  

"That bitch." Dominic’s tone was menacing. "She had no right to leave me like that without any word or nothing.  She should have had the balls to stand up to me and tell me she was leaving face to face. Not just disappearing off into the night like some sort of whore who has stripped you of your wallet.  I’ll find her and then I will make her sorry for leaving.” Dominic’s words slurred together. 

"What do you want her for anyway? Hell, you said all she ever did was nag you and bitch and moan about everything you did.  What does it matter if she left or not?  Now you can sleep around with anyone you want and stay out all night without anybody saying a word about it.  I mean, I envy you man.  My old lady will never leave." 

"She owes me, Chris.  She owes me.  I put up with her shit for four years and then she just walks out.  She’s probably whoring it up with some other guy or something or has rat holed all our money and left with it." The hate in Dominic’s voice was almost tangible.  "You mark my words.  I will make her pay.  I told that cunt if she ever left me, I would kill her.  And I will." 

"Man, just forget about her.  She’s not worth the trouble,” Chris said softly, trying to calm his friend’s increasingly angry mood. 

Chris knew that Caitlyn had been worth keeping and much more.  Many times he had been at Dominic’s house and seen the way that Dominic treated Caitlyn.  It was almost as if she were his servant instead of someone Dominic loved. 

Caitlyn would spend an afternoon cooking Dominic’s favorite meal, trying to please him.  When she brought it to him, he would look at it and then say he wasn’t hungry, to put her down and back into her place.  She would stutter a minute and ask why.  Then all hell would break loose.  Dominic would take the plate and throw it against the wall shouting at her for disturbing him and nagging at him.  All the while he would shout about how she had caused him to be angry now and ruined his evening. 

Chris was astounded, but didn’t say anything.  He’d look at Caitlyn and she would smile softly and shake her head as if to plead with him not be become involved. 

Once he had tried to stand up for her.  All he had done was tell Dominic to lighten up.  The next day when he had called for Dominic, Caitlyn thanked him, but told him not to do it again.  She had said that Dominic had accused her of sleeping with Chris behind his back.   

Chris knew that Caitlyn was better off somewhere else away from Dominic, but didn’t want to anger his friend.  After all, he had been friends with Dominic since grade school and knew that Dominic was like he was mostly because his parents had both been alcoholics and abusive.  Dominic had come in day after day with great black and blue welts all over his back from his father’s whippings with a belt.  Once when his father was gone, Dominic’s father had handcuffed Dominic to the bed while he went out drinking.  Eventually his father divorced and married another woman who took care of Dominic but by then it was too late.  The damage had been done.  

Dominic had gotten a poor start on life and now he took it out on anyone who got close enough who couldn’t defend himself or herself in Caitlyn’s case. 

Chris liked Caitlyn even though she was kind of high falutin for Dominic and Chris’s crowd.  She had been used to books and fine restaurants and family gatherings, while their crowd was into fast cars and drugs and partying every night.  Over the years she had gotten used to a lot of the things that they did, but had never really fit in with the crowd. 

Chris thought about the situation a minute and grabbed the waitress who had brought Dominic his beer. 

"Hey honey, how about helping out my friend here when you get off work?" Chris asked the pretty little blonde waitress.  "He has had a rough time of it and really needs some cheering up tonight in the way of some serious female company.  There’s a hundred in it for you." 

She looked at Dominic with his tousled black hair and bright blue eyes.  He smiled a slightly crooked smile at her and winked.  She turned to Chris,

"Sure thing what do you have in mind?" 

Dominic reached around her back and squeezed her breast.  He nuzzled her neck below her ear and gruffly said, "This is what I have in mind.  Want to join me?"  He pressed her back against him and his growing hardness.  She giggled and reached around to squeeze his pants. 

"You bet honey."

Later that evening, he rolled out of bed, grabbed his pants and headed home leaving the waitress asking for too much of a commitment. 

As he walked in the door of his home, he reached for his cell phone. 

“Hey honey, are you okay?” The sweetest female voice in his world spoke softly to him as he put his ear to the phone.  It was sleepy but full of concern.  “I know you are upset and wanted to make sure you were okay, baby.”

All of the tension went out of him and he was okay for the moment.  “Mom I am okay.  I am just tired.” 

“And sad baby,” she finished his sentence.  “I know you are hurting.  I think you really love her.  I didn’t think you would ever find someone that you loved more than yourself, but I think you finally did.” 

“I don’t want to live without her mom.  I never thought I would have to and I just took her for granted.  I thought she would always be there no matter what I said or what I did.  I know now that I have to have her in my life no matter what it takes.  If I have to beg, that’s what I will do.  I can’t live without her.” 

“I know baby,” his mother consoled him.  “Why don’t you give her a call or write her an email and tell her how you feel.  It will be a start.  I will help you get her back if that’s what you truly want.  I can’t stand to see you hurt so.”

“Okay, mom.  I will write to her again.  I have been since she left but she’s not answering.  Hell, I don’t even know if she’s getting her email.”

“She is.  She’s just as obsessed with computers as you are.”

“Okay.  Maybe I can make her understand how sorry I am and how our lives will change.”

“You do that and remind her how much you love her.”

“Yeah. Good night, mom.”

He turned on his desktop computer looking at the pictures on his desk.  There was one of them at a Christmas holiday party each in their finest attire.  There was also one of her taken at Glamour shots, ages ago but he always saw her that way. 

In fact, his first view of her was at lunch. She was wearing a gray suit, her hair all put up on top of her head and him in a business suit.  Later that evening he’d seen her in a more casual environment with her hair down.  She pulled off her shirt as they made love on the sofa in her condo and he sighed as he wrapped his lips around a perfect nipple on a perfect breast.  Switching on the computer he began to write the most important email of his life.  It would be short and sweet. Maybe she would answer him this time. 

Chapter 12

“Here’s how you hook up the wireless hub and then since your new laptop has a wireless card built in it should find the internet with no problem.”  She pushed a couple of keys on the PC and the little wireless light began flashing. Caitlyn went back to the logon screen, chose Internet Explorer and smiled as the Google home page came up.  “See it works fine.” 

“You make it look so easy, my dear.  I wouldn’t have been able to get this working by just reading the directions.  I owe you one.  Now show me the site you were telling me about over lunch,” Jesse said sitting next to Caitlyn in front of a large oak desk looking out a picture window over a beautiful lake setting. About 100 yards away down a hill through hundreds of fir and oak trees was water like a mirror with a bright light bouncing off its surface. 

“It is easy, Jesse.  Here let me show you a couple of places to go which should help you with your research for your lost relatives.  I know we don’t have much to go on but Google is a strong search engine, the archives of the Norris paper is online and there is a local
chat room which we can try to see if anyone in the area is an ancestry or history buff.” 

Caitlyn pressed a few more buttons typing in a URL and selecting a room, a small white box appeared at the top left hand corner of her computer screen.   As she entered the room, DRCAT appeared on the screen.

“What’s DRCAT?” Jesse asked peering intently at the screen. 

“It’s my screen name which is doctor Cat.  It’s a joke with some of my students who call me that.  It’s my degree which is a PhD plus my nick name, Cat for Caitlyn.”

“That’s cute.  I understand now” Jesse smiled.  “I wonder what my screen name should be?”

“I have one that fits.  How about BANKROBBER? Or maybe JJWRITER? 

“I like BankRobber.  It fits with the name.  I’ll think about it.”

Here are a few people in the room.  I will show you how it works. 

Hola! RAJSUR1

Hello DRCAT.  How are you doing? OLIVER_71

Hi OLIVER_71. I am fine.  I am looking for someone with information about a family named James who used to live in the Norris area about 50 years ago. Know anything about them? DRCAT

I don’t know anyone by that name.  Sorry.  OLIVER_71

Watch for BASSMAN.  He’s been in the area a long time and knows much.  RAJSUR1

Ok. Thanks RAJSUR1.  DRCAT

Bye all. DRCAT

Caitlyn clicked the logout option.  “See you just type in your screen name and then you can interact with anyone you want.  You don’t have to share any more than you want but hopefully since this is a regional chat room, you might run in to someone who knows something about your ancestors,” she said turning to Jesse.

“Show me how to logon to the local newspapers and search.”

“Yes, ma’am.  I will in exchange for another piece of sweet bread.”

“Deal,” Jesse said heading for the kitchen.

They spent the afternoon of hard work looking through the Norris town paper’s archives looking for any trace of Jesse’s relatives. Then they searched TVA history where they found important information about the town. 

The purpose of Norris initially was to house the workers building Norris Dam four miles away on the Clinch River. The town was small which allowed neighbors to visit one another, go to the post office, visit the grocery store and meet their children after school.   The houses weren’t on top of one another but close enough.  Each had a chimney against the cold of the east Tennessee weather and cedar shingles to help each blend into the forest. There were no billboards and the signs were small wooden banners rather than the ugly flashing neon lights of most towns.

Unfortunately they didn’t find evidence of Jesse’s ancestors living in the town.  They would have to expand their search into the surrounding areas.  There was one story which recounted a fire of a house belonging to a reclusive family.  This was an option so Jesse made some lengthy notes from the history pages and put the pages on desk to her right. 

“What about Oak Ridge?” Jesse inquired.  “There was some reference that they could have lived there.” 

Caitlyn typed in a search to look for Oak Ridge, Tennessee.  She read the information on the screen “Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a city born of war in 1942, existed for seven years as a truly "Secret City." Oak Ridge, Tennessee was not shown on any maps, did not allow any visitors other than by special approval, had guards posted at the entrances to the city and required all residents to wear badges at all times when outside their homes.  Caitlyn had visited Oak Ridge on many occasions and she loved it.  She continued “The "Secret City" grew to a population of 75,000, was the fifth largest city in Tennessee and was not even on the map.”

“We’ll that sounds appropriate for our search today. Information that’s not listed,” Jesse said sitting back in her chair, putting her intertwined fingers on top of her head and closing her eyes against the huge flood of information they had taken in today.  With a sigh, she closed her eyes. 

“Come on Jesse.  Let’s keep going.  We need to post a few more items on the Norris blog before we quit”. 

They worked on until the sun began to fall in the late summer sky. 

“Okay that’s enough.  I can’t stand any more websites or Google pages.  We have to stop for today,” Jesse said rubbing her eyes. 

“Yes, you’re right,” Caitlyn agreed.  “I have had enough history too.  We’ll locate your information but it will take more than today.  Maybe one of the forums we posted on will give us the answer you are looking for.”  She sat back in her oak chair and rolled her neck from side to side and rubbed her left shoulder with her right hand working out the tension of having sat for hours that day in the same position. 

“How about some dinner? I can warm up the bread,”  Jesse tempted.  A short wave of pleasure went through Caitlyn’s mind as she pictured warm homemade bread with melted butter.

“You have my attention now,” Caitlyn said pushing back from the desk, standing and walking to the wall of windows at the back of the room overlooking a large redwood deck stretching down to the lake.  A yellow lab and the little black Pom raised their heads from the kitchen floor in unison.  The lab ran to the door his tail wagging excitedly.  Patty waited a moment and then ran to the door too.  The dogs had spent the afternoon in the house. 

“Let Ranger out for me,” Jesse asked.  “He needs to stretch his legs”.   

Caitlyn opened up one side of the glass French door and let the dogs out into the yard surrounded by the 5 foot privacy fence. She watched to make sure they were playing well together and when her worries were assured, she shut the door.  Jesse stood and went to the refrigerator to begin making dinner. 

“You’ll stay.”  It was more of a statement than a question as she sliced a loaf of bread and put them in the oven.  “I hope broiled chicken and
homemade veggies is okay with you?” Jesse inquired waiting for an answer. 

“At this point, I would eat the cardboard off my notebook,” Caitlyn quipped, “but yes I would love some
homemade vegetables”. 

Jesse poured some oil in the pan for stir fry and pulled out a bottle of red wine.  “Some for you?” She asked. 

“Maybe just one.  That would be great,” Caitlyn responded, the tension of the last few days dwindling away as she looked out the back windows at the setting sun.  It had been a good day, she thought.  Research with a friend, company of her dog and a good meal. What else was there in the world?  A moment caught her as she thought of Dominic.  The love of a good man waiting for her at home. 

“Thank you.”  She sighed turning to take a goblet of sweet grapes from Jesse’s outstretched hand. 

“What are you thinking about darling?  Is there something I can help you with?  You’ve helped me so much today.  Let me do the same for you.  Talk to me.” 

Caitlyn walked to the door, let the dogs in and then turned to sit down at the kitchen table.  “It’s hard to know what to do Jesse.  I have had so many people giving me advice about my marriage and I don’t know what is right or what is wrong and what to do?  It’s just such a mess.  I miss Dom terribly but need to know that he also misses me.  I need to know that he needs me as much as I need him.  I need to know it’s not the money nor the material things that are important but rather what is important is that we are together.” 

“I know, honey,” Jesse said as she walked up to Caitlyn and gave her a warm hug.  “I lost my husband, Thomas, a few years ago and I miss him so.  I don’t know if we ever took enough time with one another.  He was an important man, a VP of a publishing company and I was a promising author.  It was so important that we were successful at our work.  We didn’t focus enough on the most crucial part of life which was each other. 

Now he is gone.  He died of a heart attack at work and I never even had the chance to make sure he knew how much I loved him and counted on him for support.  I talk to him every evening before I go to bed and hope he hears me, but I will never know for sure.  Don’t make the same mistakes I did”.

Jesse stood directly in front of Caitlyn searching her eyes.  “Make sure he’s the one and then take the time to be with one another.  Being successful is fleeting.  Being a vital part of someone else’s life lasts forever.”

Caitlyn nodded her eyes filling with tears as her most recent pain surfaced with amazing intensity.  She held them back except for one that slipped down the side of her nose. She swiped it with the back of her hand then Caitlyn did something that was completely out of character stepping forward to hug Jesse back. 

“Thank you,” she murmured under her breath and smiled.  “I will make it right.” 

“Okay then let’s eat,” Jesse said pouring both their glasses full and carrying their plates to the kitchen table.  They sat down and ate talking about the information they had found during the day and happenings around the town. 

About 9:00 p.m. Caitlyn, satiated, put Pattycake in the truck and by the moonlight drove towards the lake house comforted by Jesse’s words and in finding a friend.

Jesse waved back and went back into the house.  She stopped in front of the large wooden desk and powered up her computer.  “Okay, Ranger” she said patting the dog as she took her seat.  “Let’s see what we can find”.