Hearthville Serial: Book 7
Episode 3
Any Truth, Proper Grammar, or Correct Spelling is totally coincidental if not accidental.
All characters are fiction. This story is fiction. This story makes no claims about any real person.
By Charles Peters
Copyright 2021
All Rights Reserved
Chapters / Episodes
Victor Duddley had his checkbook pressed up against the front door to the Bingo home. He finished writing the check and then tore the check from the checkbook. He put the checkbook away. “Mrs. Bingo, Maureen, I am Victor Duddley.”
“Victor. I don’t mean to be rude but it is kind of late.”
“I know. But I was looking at the building you had suggested for a flower shop. I will finance you at that location but I think I have found a better location. I found an entire shopping center that is for sale. There are several people I would like to set up in business and the shopping center seems perfect. I also have some inside information that more traffic will be coming to that area.”
Maureen Bingo opens the door. Victor sees how pale she looks. Her face looks clammy with sweaty. “Oh my God, I should not have come this late. I am so sorry that I have frightened you so.”
“There was a ghost. Then I saw the fireball in the sky. And Billy crashed a bottle. And there was knocking at the front door.”
“Oh my God. Are you afraid of me? Should I come in to help you. I am not sure how I should react here.”
Maureen smiled at Victor. “Do come in. I am being so rude. I am sorry. I know that you would never hurt me.”
Victor walked into the Bingo home. He closed the door behind himself. He handed Maureen Bingo the check.
Maureen looked at the check and saw that it was made out for $500,000. Her mouth dropped open in shock. She was not expecting Victor to invest that much money in her business. Maureen swooned. “I think I am going to pass out.” And she did.
Victor reacted quickly. He jumped and dashed his arms out to catch her. He grabbed her up into his arms and carried her to the couch. Victor called out, “Bess, if you are home, I need help here.”
Billy came out of his bedroom. He stared at Victor and saw his mother was on the couch.
Victor looked at Billy. “When I gave your mom the check, she passed out. I need a wet towel or something.”
Billy ran toward the sink. He pulled some paper towels off the roll and he turned the faucet on to wet them down. He turned the faucet off. He then ran and handed the paper towels to Victor. Billy looked at the check his mom somehow still clutched in her hand.
Billy said, “$500,000. You are giving my mom $500,000.”
“It is an investment in the flower shop I am helping her to set up.”
“That much money. It will be your flower shop. It will not be hers.”
Victor put one of the wet towels on Maureen’s forehead. She took the towel off her forehead and sat up. She handed Victor back the check he had given her. “Billy is right. I can’t accept this check. I want a business that I own.”
Victor said, “Choose your own location. I am sorry I was trying to interfere. I will just be an investor. It will be your business.”
Maureen said, “It is not the location. I hate the location I had decided on but it was what I could afford. It is the $500,000. It is too much money. You are a very nice man. And I owe you. You don’t owe me anything. I just can’t accept this amount of money from you.”
Victor handed the check back to Maureen. “Please. Take the money.”
“I am married. Taking this money and feeling even more in debt to you just feels wrong.”
“I am not asking or expecting you to betray your husband. I know that you are happily married.”
“He is out in the gulf and I am here. I think right now happy is an over statement, but I love Frank.”
“Of course you do. I have seen the two of you together.”
“When?” Maureen stood up from the couch.
“It was a long time ago, up in the mountains. I patted your stomach because I was amazed that there was a baby inside of you. And Frank put his hand next to my hand and he kissed you. I could feel the baby kicking. I am not sure how old I was then, but I would guess I was around Billy’s age now.”
Maureen thought a second. An image flashed in her mind. And she remembered Victor and Stewart at the mountain retreat. She nodded and smiled. “I do remember.” Maureen walked from one side of the couch and then to he other side as she contemplated the check in her hand, staring at the $500,000 check. Then she stopped pacing. She gritted her lips together and she started to hand the check back to Victor. But Billy took the check and put the check into his pocket. Without saying anything, but with a sly and happy grin on his face, he returned to his bedroom.
Maureen shakes her head. “What does the little shit think he is going to do with that check?”
Victor said, “When you set up the flower shop bank accounts, put Billy’s name on the account along with your name.”
Maureen nods. “Okay.”
Victor pulls a small tablet from his pocket. Then a pen. He writes down an address and draws a map. “Here is where the shopping center is? Tell me what you and Billy think about this alternative location.” Victor tears the paper from the tablet and hands the address and map to Maureen.
Taking the paper Maureen said, “I feel so conflicted and confused. What am I going to tell Frank? Frank likes working for David Jenkins. He likes being a mechanic on machines and cars. He may think he will need to quit his job to help me with the flower shop.”
An image of David Jenkins and Amberline Darko flashed in Victor’s mind. He didn’t say anything about the memory flash. Victor said, “If you do not want Frank to quit his job, just tell him that the two of you need the money from his work to help make your dream come true.”
“Lie.”
“If you want him to keep working, would it be a lie?”
“But I do want him to be here with me or I want to be there with him. But he likes his job. Still, he never knows where he is going to be working and if I unsettled the kids from their school and friends I would just have to do it again in a few months. That is why I haven’t moved us to be with him. I do love Frank.”
“I understand.”
“I love Frank but we have had our problems.” Maureen saw how attractive Victor was. He was young looking and nerdish. She guessed he seldom combed his hair. But he was good looking and she felt so alone. Then she struggled against the thought that was creeping into her mind. She knew she must not consider Victor as a man. She changed the direction of her thoughts. “Maybe it would be good if Frank came back to Georgia to help with the flower shop. But owning a garage and working on cars would be more his speed.”
Victor smiled. “And my speed. I think Frank and I would be friends if he moved back to Georgia.”
Maureen smiled. She thought, “Friendship. That is what Victor is offering. Why does my mind want to turn to sex?”
“Whatever you decide to tell Frank is cool with me.”
“Thank you.”
“You are very welcome. Are you okay now? Are you feeling better?”
“I am good. I am embarrassed that my emotions became so overwhelmed that I swooned. But that is all that it was. I am fine.”
“Good. Well. I guess I had better be going. Bye.”
“Bye.”
Victor turned and left the apartment. Maureen walked to the door that Victor had left open. She closed the door and she watched him climb into his orange mustang.
“Strange. He was at the same cabin campground up in the mountains as we were when Billy was born. Weird. And until Victor mentioned patting me on the stomach when he was a child, I did not remember it. But I remember it now. It happened. And he was such a sweet young boy, why would I forget that.”