Chapter Four
Taylor stepped back and stared at the doorway. Ramon watched her open and close her fist. It was a sure sign that she had gotten nervous real quick. His gut tightened as he looked toward the door. Had her drunken father come back again? That was usually his style. Leave for several months and then come back to try to beat everybody up.
As Tish came through the door, she noticed the look on Taylor’s face. She was quick to try to calm her. Although she wasn’t her natural mother, Tish and Taylor had a great relationship. Right now, Tish was counting on it.
“Taylor, it’s OK,” she started, “Pastor Jim and I have been talking with this gentleman ever since y'all left to come over here.” With tears in her eyes and a smile on her face she pulled Taylor to her for one of their famous bear hugs.
As bubbly as anything Taylor had ever heard, Tish continued to explain, “Oh, Taylor, he’s got one of the greatest ideas…..and I can’t tell you because he wants to…..but it’s a great idea……and something you’ll be interested in because we’ve talked…….” She was so excited that she could hardly contain herself. Tish knew that she was about to spill the beans so she abruptly stated, "I-I-I-I-I-I’ve got to shut up right now.”
She released Taylor and pulled out her chair and began giving orders, “Now, everybody just sit. And, I’m going to sit by Taylor, if that’s OK?” She looked for approval from the gentleman. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she gushed as she rose from her chair and stepped back to the door. With a short laugh at her own nervous faux pas, she grabbed his arm and pulled him in and added, “And he’s going to introduce himself in a special way or something. Did I do OK?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he chuckled as he came through the door and into their line of sight for the first time. It was evident that Taylor was more curious than she was nervous. No one at the table had expected to receive a visit from such a distinguished member of the Armed Forces. His warm smile was as genuine as can be. Yet, there was something in his demeanor that called for a great deal of respect. The guys recognized his rank as being a Major General. Strangely, the left side of his uniform had no ribbons of any sort. His name tag read, ‘Bennett.’ It was a familiar name to Arthur from somewhere.
They all stood up as he entered the room. He took a couple of steps toward them until he was directly in the center. His smile widened as he pointed to Taylor and replied, “Your name is easy, young lady. It must be Taylor.”
There was something about this guy that you just couldn’t help but like, she smiled and replied, “Yes, sir.”
He raised his finger and pointed to each one in line. “And you must be Ramon, you must be Marci, and that leaves you to be Arthur,” he finished.
After they all replied in the affirmative with accompanying smiles, Arthur opened with, “And you are?”
His smile grew a bit as he reached inside his uniform and pulled out a 4 x 6 glossy photograph. He looked at all of them but let his gaze rest on Arthur as he said, “I have given one of these to your mother as I came into the Emporium. This one is yours to keep. The original is sitting on my mantelpiece at home. I have some very serious business to discuss with Taylor. I have an astounding proposition. It is so astounding, in fact, that I was hoping to have someone here that could vouch for my integrity. Unfortunately, we honored his home going today.”
Something tingly went off inside of Arthur. That’s where he had heard the name Bennett from. It was from some things that he remembered his great-grandfather and Fred Lee talking about. But, what was it?
The General continued as he held out the picture to Arthur, “So the next best thing that I could ever have to introduce myself is with this picture. You will, perhaps, more readily recognize the man in the middle.”
Arthur took the picture out of his hand very tenderly. His eyes widened as he recognized the man in the middle. He showed the other three as he said, “Hey, its grandpa. Look!”
“Wow.”
“That’s him alright.”
“He was so handsome. No wonder your great-grandmother fell for him.”
Arthur asked, “How long ago was this taken?”
“Around forty years ago.”
They passed the picture back to Arthur. He took a look at the picture and thought out loud, “Hmmmm. The older gentleman is your father. I see the resemblance. Wait, he has on a Marine Corps uniform and you are an Army General.” He pulled the photo up a little closer, “Your father was a Brigadier General at the time this……….wait.” He looked up, and declared, “Your father is the one they called War Horse. You must be….uh…Charles.”
“Absolutely correct,” he said as he clicked his heels and snapped a short salute with a smile. “Major General Charles E. Bennett.”
Arthur got up from the table, went around it and embraced Tom’s friend from the past. “It is certainly a pleasure to meet one of grandpa’s longtime friends.”
Taylor nudged Ramon and whispered, “A friend of Tom’s? He’s OK for me.” Ramon nodded his agreement.
“No, Arthur,” he said, “the pleasure is all mine. Believe me; I owe a deep debt of gratitude to your great-grandfather, for snatching me out of a life of misery.” With a raised eyebrow and a couple of nods of his head, he added, “And for straightening out my father who really was an old War Horse and several other things that couldn’t be mentioned in mixed company.”
“Oh, my gosh,” Arthur declared. “Where in the world are our manners? Please, please, have a seat.”
“Thank you, Arthur,” he said, “I appreciate that.” He began talking before they were all completely seated, “Now, Taylor, before I get to the point, I want to tell you WHY I came here to see you.”
Everybody looked toward Taylor at the same time. Her face turned red and she started fanning herself nervously. She choked out, “Oh, my gosh. When you said that and called my name, I got this …goofy feeling. Nervous, excited, scared…..I don’t know what.” She put her hands up to her face and looked at Tish, “Oh, gosh, Mama Tish, I think I’m………excited.”
Tish clapped her hands several quick times and exclaimed, “Taylor, Oh, just wait ‘til you find out. I hope you like it, because I do…..Oh, I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t mean to interrupt.”
General Bennett chuckled as he said, “That’s perfectly alright. And I do have something important to offer you. First, though, I think I need to tell you why I came to see you.”
Everyone seemed to settle down as the General began, “The short story is, that Tom Dandridge’s influence kept me from leaving home and becoming …….whatever. He kept me from running away from home long enough to change my dad’s view about a lot of things. He taught me a lot about making tough decisions and sticking with them no matter what. Case in point, I joined the Army because I didn’t want to ride into the Marine Corps on my father’s coat tails. You’d better believe that a Marine Corps brat trying to make it in the Army, I had to work twice as hard.”
Everybody chuckled at his remark. He continued, “There were many times I had wanted to quit but I didn’t. The hard work ethic and the tenacity that Tom and my dad drilled into me paid off. As sure as I know that my name is Charles E. Bennett, I know that Tom has drilled the same get-it-done attitude inside every one of you here at this table.”
They all looked at one another and shook their heads while Ramon added, “You are so right General. I don’t think ‘drill’ would be the right word. ‘Beat’ was the right word for me.”
“Overtime is another word,” Taylor added. “He had his hands full with me, too.”
The General agreed, “Yes, then you all admit that Tom, by virtue of his actions, stayed true to his mission even though it was hard. AND, by virtue of completing his mission, he taught each one of you to be faithful to what you know is the right thing to do.”
“I’ve never heard it put quite like that,” replied Marci. “But, that does sum it all up in just a few words, General Bennett.”
Everyone agreed.
He paused and looked from one to another and said, “You would do me the greatest honor, if you would just call me, Charles. Did you notice that I am not wearing my ribbons?”
Ramón answered first, “Yes, sir. I know you must have a chest full of them.”
“You are quite right,” he admitted. “There again, our mentor made mention of the fact that it’s not the outside that determines a man’s character, but the inside. Did he ever use that one on you?”
“Now that you mention it…….Charles, he did say that a few times,” Taylor conceded.
“I guess you could say that he taught it to us in everything he did,” Arthur added.
Charles was fixing to start his serious talk when Arthur whispered over to Ramon, “Did it just get a lot quieter out there?”
Folks, they should have known that anytime Eddy’s Hamburger Emporium gets quiet it is either when it’s empty or the Jakester is about to pull one on somebody. And right now it is the latter. He opened the door real quick, yelled, “A-h-h-h!” in mock surprise and closed the doors back. Then he said loud enough for everyone to hear, “You people put your clothes back on. You should be ashamed of yourselves.”
The crowd began to laugh as Jake went into his routine. They knew that just about every time he came out into the dining room from the kitchen, he had some diabolically funny stunt to pull. Even knowing there was a general in there he pulled this one. Maybe ESPECIALLY since he knew there was a general in there he pulled this one.
He put a hand on the door, looked at the crowd, and said, “And for my grand finale.” He pushed the sliding folding door open for everyone to see and declared with a wave of his hand, “Wah-lah, they are all dressed.” Without waiting for any reaction, he began to bow and say, “Thank you, thank you, thank you very much.”
Of course, the crowd loved it and gave him his applause. Do you think that people might have been hanging around just to see what the Jakester would do? Yeah, probably.
Once inside, he closed the doors, took one look at Charles and said, “Hello, what is this. Is he……….”
Quickly Marci stopped him before he went any further, “Don’t do it, Jake, please.”
Knowing Jake had a thing for her, Taylor added, “He’s here on official business to talk to me. And, he’s a longtime friend of Tom’s.”
“Well,” Jake settled down a bit. He did have a lot of things to do, so he got down to business. He took out his pen and a pad and began, “Ladies and gentlemen, I will be your personal waiter and cook. I want to take your orders myself so I can get your burgers just right for this special occasion.” As he smiled at Taylor he added, “Which gets speacialer by the moment.” He put his pen to his pad and looked at Arthur.
“I’ll take the pizza burger, straight with some curly fries and a Coke.”
Marci ordered, “I’ll take the Old Goat Special with curly fries and a Dr. Pepper.”
Charles interrupted, “Wait. I can figure out the pizza burger, but the Old Goat Special?”
“Yep,” Jake answered as he finished writing. “That’s because it’s my own concoction. Ground beef with onions, Worcestershire sauce, a dash of Texas Pete, oregano and cooked in two quarter pound sections. Just before they are finished, I pile some bleu cheese on one and slap the other one on top. I have a special metal cup I put over the top to let it cook all the way through. It’s good.”
“Hmmmm, sounds interesting,” Charles said. “What are you going to have, Ramon?”
Ramon slapped his hands in anticipation and beamed a smile at Jake as he answered, “I’ll have the Volcano Special, curly fries and a Dr. Pepper, please.”
Charles’ eyes widened as he asked Jake, “Ok, what’s that one?”
He answered with a big smile, “My favorite concoction. The same beef as the Old Goat but with double shot of Texas Pete. Instead of bleu cheese, I put in pepper jack. I serve it in a small bowl because I pile my home-made chili on top of it until it looks like a volcano.”
“And it tastes like a volcano,” Ramon finished for him.
Taylor answered, “That means it is almost red hot. There’s so much chili on it, you have to eat it with a fork. Anyway, Jake, I’ll take the regular.”
“Plain burger, cheddar cheese, doubles lettuce, double tomatoes and vinaigrette instead of mustard, curly fries and a Dr. Pepper.”
“You’re the best, Jake.”
He answered in a straight-faced matter of fact tone, "And as well as being VERY attractive you are a very astute judge of character."
There were chuckles all around the table. Besides Ramon and Arthur, Taylor talked to Jake more than any of the other guys. They just always hit it off.
“Tish?”
“Nothing for me, Jake,” she answered as she shook her head. “I’ve got to go and help with our Saturday afternoon rush.”
“Oh, Mom, I forgot all about that,” Taylor. “Oh-h-h-h, shoot.”
“No, don’t worry about it,” Tish countered, “I already got some substitutes. I knew it would be best for you and the rest to be together.” Then looking up at Jake, she changed her mind, “Yeah, just bring me some……oh yeah….those Cajun fries with the nacho cheese on them and a Coke. “
“You got it, girl,” Jake responded with a wink. He turned to Charles and asked, “Do you want me to give you a rundown of what I make?”
“Absolutely not,” he said emphatically, “I’ll take that volcano special, curly fries and a Pepsi, thank you.”
Jake warned him, “That chili is my own recipe and it only comes hot. There’s no such thing in my vocabulary as a mild chili.”
“I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
“You got it then. Eddy told us to anticipate the crowd so the burgers are probably almost finished right now. You guys order the same thing all the time so I already had Reggie and Millie fixing them. Five minutes at the most guys.” With a wave of his hand, Jake opened the folding curtain and started out. However, he was almost run over by an almost blushing ‘Berto.
Excitedly he ran in with a pitcher of water and a cleaning towel in his hand. “Hey, does anybody need……aw, man. Y’all don’t even have glasses. Ok. I’ll go get you some.”
Taylor called to him, “’Berto, hey, hang on just a minute.”
“Yes, Ma’am?”
“Come here and let me look at you.”
“What?” he asked as he looked down at his clothes.
Ramon spotted it, too. “Hasn’t been here five minutes, guys, and already he’s got the women swarmin’ all over him.”
A little flushed, ’Berto shot back, “Aw, no I don’t. I swear I don’t.” As his eyes darted back and forth between the four of them, he shook his head and began, “All except for this old lady out there.”
Marci, “Old lady? 'Berto, you’ve got lipstick all over your cheeks, both of them.”
“Aw, man,” he said as he began rubbing his cheeks with his cleaning towel, “I should have known. Man, I didn’t get through cleaning the second table when she ran up to me and began saying what a handsome young man I was. And, she had her husband take my picture and then pictures of me and her together and she kept on looking at me. Then she kissed me on both my cheeks and then SHE took pictures of me on her phone and was going to send them to……goodness knows who or where.”
“Come here, lover boy, I’ll help you get it all off,” Taylor said as she reached into her pocket book and took out some lotion. Then she put it on ‘Berto’s cheeks and began cleaning him up.
Just as she was getting finished the door cracked open a bit. It was the elderly lady. “There you are, ’Berto,” she said. To the others she apologized, “I’m sorry for barging in but my husband said that we had to get on the road back home. I just wanted to take one more look at this handsome worker y’all have here.” She had dark features and a slight Spanish accent herself. She took her sunglasses off and held his face in her hands. Her gaze seemed as if she were trying to memorize every line. “You are such a handsome young m
an, ‘Berto, would you mind if I come back to see you some time?”
With a bashful smile, ‘Berto answered, “Thank you for the compliment, Ma’am. And, sure, I would love to see you again.”
She almost looked as if she was going to cry when she hastily put her sunglasses on. She bent down and gave him another kiss on the cheek. She chuckled as she said to Taylor, “You missed a spot.” As she started toward the door, she said, “Bye ‘Berto. And bye, everyone. Thank you for letting me burst in like that.”
“That’s OK.”
“You’re welcome.”
As she closed the curtain door behind her, everyone looked at ‘Berto. He just shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. He tried to say something, but he had no idea what to say.
Ramon quipped, “Hey, dude. Pass around some of that after shave you’re wearing. Me and Arthur could use some if it brings the chicks running like that.”
“Leave him alone,” Taylor scolded him playfully. As she cleaned off the last little bit of lipstick she said, “There ya’ go, pal. Who was that lady, anyway?”
“I don’t know. She said her name but I was so scared I forgot it.”
Marci leaned over and asked Taylor, “Was it just me, or did it look like she was studying his face?”
“Yeah, it did kind of look like that. Maybe she thinks she recognizes you from somewhere.”
Arthur jumped in, “Guys, the plain fact is, ‘Berto is a very distinguished looking gentleman. His body says he’s fourteen, but his demeanor says he’s about nineteen.”
Taylor admitted, “That’s about the size of it. You better stay sweet, young man and don’t go breaking girls hearts, you hear me.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said grinned real big and headed toward the door.
Ramon called after him, “Hey, if you snag a blonde that you don’t know what to do with, bring her in to me.”
“A blonde?” scoffed Taylor. “You’re too much of a Goober-head to know what to do with a blonde.”
Ramon looked at Tish and pleaded, “You see the way she treats me. After all I do for her and she calls me a Goober-head.”
Before she knew it, Tish blurted out, “Well, just call her a Tater-head like I do.”
“MOM!”
“Oh, my gosh. I can’t believe I said that.”
“Well, I believe you said it, cause I heard it and so did ever body else.”
Charles began chuckling and then let it roll on into a full-fledged belly laugh.
“See there,” complained Taylor good-naturedly, “now I’ll never be able to go into the service.”
Charles forced himself to stop laughing long enough to say, “No, no. I’m not laughing at you. Well, I am, but you just don’t know.” Everyone had to wait until his next wave of laughter subsided. They could only chuckle and smile at something he knew to be hilarious. “Tater-head is, I can only reckon, the first nickname my daddy ever had.” Another wave of laughter hit the Charles E. Bennett shore.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Marci said, “a Marine Corps general with a nickname like Tater-head?” I can understand War Horse but not Tater-head.”
As he pulled out his handkerchief to wipe the tears out of his eyes he explained, “I’ll tell you one thing. It sure wasn’t his subordinates that dared give him that nickname. He got that one when he was in basic training. The guy that was cutting his hair noticed a couple of bumps on his head that he had to be careful of cutting around. It was him who brought it to the attention of Dad’s drill instructor by saying, “Looky hear, Sarge. Looks like you got a tater-head for a recruit.” All through basic, that name stuck. But, he only took it from the Drill Sergeants. He SURE didn’t take it from any of the recruits. BUT, by his own admission, that’s where his attitude came from that earned him the nickname I gave him, War Horse.”
The curtain opened and in waltzed Jake’s Aunt Millie, “Ok, everybody. It’s din-din time,” she sang. She brought in a tray with the drinks and served everybody without asking which one belonged to whom. She had been through this drill long enough with this group. And she presumed that the extra must belong to the general by default.
Behind her was Uncle Reggie pushing a cart with their burger plates. He, too, knew the routine. He grabbed Ramon’s and Marci’s. With his back to the curtain, he looked at Taylor and mouthed the words, “’Berto wanted to bring yours to you himself.”
Taylor grinned and looked over at Marci. She had understood what Uncle Reggie mouthed and giggled. This ‘Berto kid was becoming something else.
As Uncle Reggie picked up Arthur’s plate, he stepped around to the other side of the table and, thus, made room for ‘Berto to come in.
The little gentleman came in holding Taylor’s in his hands. As their eyes met, he broke out into an embarrassing little smile and gently set hers down in front of her. Taylor pulled him over to her and gave him a little kiss on the cheek. “I’m sorry I don’t have any lipstick on, ‘Berto,” she giggled.
“That’s OK, Ma’am,” he replied as he handed her some silverware. “I can come back for seconds. That’ll give you a chance to get ready for me, Babe.” And, with a wide grin, he quickly vanished though the curtain leaving the others to their laughter.