CHAPTER 14:
The goddess Listens
‘You’re fired.’
‘Noooooo, please, no!’ Tucker stood in front of his boss, Rita out the back of the tavern in the office. It was 11pm and he had to hitch hike home. He was hot and sweaty and his hair was a mess. He was so tired, he felt like dropping to his knees to beg for forgiveness but figured he’d never find enough strength to get back up. ‘I’m telling you, it’s not my fault. Rod set me up. He deliberately left me in town so that I would be late for work.’
The busty, middle-aged woman peered coldly at him. ‘Tucker, you have come up with some real crap in your time, but that is just ridiculous. Why would Rod take you to a rugby game just to set you up so you would be late for work? What a load of absolute rubbish. I’m surprised that you would offer me… the woman who so kindly gave you this job because she felt sorry for you, such an utter load of BS.’
‘Please, talk to him. He’s here, right?’
‘No, he has the weekend off!’
Tucker stared at her unable to believe what she said. Rod had told him that he was due back here at the same time as him. However, as he thought about it he realised it had to be a lie. Rod would have been late too by the time he and his pals left for home. ‘Ring him! You’ll see!’
‘Very well.’ Rita walked over to the office desk and picked up the phone. She pressed a speed dial number.
Tucker waited, feeling the nerves dancing inside his stomach. The room alone gave him a foreboding feeling, thanks to the clutter on the desk and the boxes of supplies piled high in the corners of the room. The smell of stale cigarettes seemed like the smell of doom and he began to wonder whether he could rely on Rod to support his story, after all he hadn’t been able to rely on him to get him back to work on time. Perhaps it had all been a plan by him to humiliate Tucker and have him fired?
‘Hi Rod? It’s me, Rita…Good. I have a question for you... Please humour me for a minute. What have you been doing today… Really?’ What she said next made Tucker gasp. ‘So, you weren’t in town at all today…? So, I take it you haven’t seen Tucker Pyles today…? No...?’
Tucker flinched and knew right then that he had been well and truly set up. If he was any more hung and dried, he’d be in the middle of the Sahara Desert tied to a cactus.
‘Well yes he is late again and he’s told me some wild porkies about being at the rugby game… I don’t know who won, no… OK, Rod. Well we’ll see you next week. Bye.’ She hung up the phone and turned to face Tucker, her eyebrows low.
‘He’s lying!’ Tucker appealed.
‘No, Tucker. It seems you’re the one who is lying. What were you really doing, huh? Oh, it doesn’t matter, I’m sure I’d never get a straight answer out of you anyway. Sorry, Tucker, but when I employed you I expected reliability but you have proven yourself to be very unreliable. So, you can leave now. There will be no further work available here for you at the tavern.’
Tucker arrived home that evening; his head hung low and his pace even slower than usual. His rundown old house looked the way he felt right then. ‘What have I done to deserve this?’ he asked as he approached the doorstep. Oh goddess, Vanessa, what did I do that upset you so much? Was my faith in you not strong enough?’
He opened the door and stepped inside. He’d hoped his mother would be in bed by now, but she was in the lounge watching a movie.
‘Well there’s no need to make such a ruckus getting in the house!’ His mother shouted from the lounge. ‘You’ll wake your father up!’
Tucker wasn’t aware he’d made any noise apart from opening and closing the door, which he’d made a special effort to do silently in hope of avoiding his parents. His hadn’t even creaked like a lot of the doors did in their house. He treaded lightly into the kitchen, feeling peckish and hoping that his mother had left his dinner in the fridge to be heated up later.
‘There’s nothing there!’ his mother called out from the lounge. ‘I decided to eat it myself during the movie.’
Tucker gave a quiet groan. The day had been bad enough without coming home to a dinnerless house.
‘Not that you need it!’ her voice rang out again. ‘All the bits and pieces you get to snack on at the tavern. I hear you get a massive amount of leftovers and scraps.’
That wasn’t true, as most of it went to the pigs of one of the local farmers. Whenever Tom had caught him cleaning up leftovers from plates, he’d gotten a good rap over the knuckles.
‘How was work?’
Tucker checked the fridge for a snack. ‘Ah… it was ok, Mum.’ He didn’t feel like telling her that bad news tonight. Maybe tomorrow after a good night’s sleep and a hearty breakfast. But even then, it would take a lot of courage on his part.
‘Keep your voice down you jolly idiot!’ She shouted. ‘I told you, you’ll wake your father!’
All Tucker could find was a stick of celery, which was hardly the ideal snack for an empty stomach, but it would have to do. He took it and entered the lounge.
‘Give me that!’ his obese mother said.
Tucker reluctantly handed it over.
She sat on one of their ratty old easy chairs with her feet up on the old wooden coffee table. ‘I could do with a snack. That plate of food of yours barely hit the spot,’ she waved to the plate sitting on the coffee table beside her feet.
Tucker didn’t argue or complain. He could see that his mother was in a good mood, so the last thing he wanted to do was rile her up, especially not after the day he’d had. He glanced around. There was washing piled up on the couch and their golden and white cocker spaniel, Puss occupied the other easy chair, not that he had any desire to sit and watch a movie with his mother. Glancing at their old box TV set he could see that it was some boring chick flick. A chance for his cantankerous old bat of a mother to dream of a better life where she could be desirable to men and have romance in her life.
He shuddered at the thought of any man romancing her mother. She was almost as fat as he was and her wrinkly face was usually set in a constant scowl, but on this occasion, she seemed enchanted by the movie. He was glad of that, as it meant he would not have to deal with constant nagging and criticism. ‘I’m going to bed, Mum,’ he said softly. ‘Good night.’
‘Well do it quietly,’ she boomed. ‘How’s anyone expected to get sleep with you blundering around the house. It’s bad enough that you’re distracting me from watching my jolly movie! Go on, scram!’
As lightly as he could, he headed to his room and his head had barely touched the pillow when he drifted off to sleep.
The following morning, he could not muster up the courage to tell his parents about being fired. He considered gazing at the picture of the Goddess for a little while, just to put himself in a better mood. Instead of going to his bedroom shrine with the candles, he took her framed photograph, put it in a bag and headed out. It was a sunny day, so it seemed like worshiping the Goddess in the middle of nature was the way to go. Maybe she would hear his prayers and take mercy on him.
He decided to take a stroll out into some of the farmland nearby the domain. He didn’t intend walking too far unless he got tired. But there were plenty of trees and shrubs and overgrown farmland around to take refuge in and find a place of solace. He found a secluded area near the Rocky River and confident nobody else was around sat down to conduct his worship.
He placed the picture of Vanessa down on a rock and gazed at it for a few minutes. ‘Oh goddess, Vanessa, thou art God’s most exquisite creation… well actually I guess as you are the Goddess then you are your own most exquisite creat… wait… how does that work? After all, if you can’t have something without it being created, then you can’t have a god, surely? After all a god… or a goddess would have to have been created too. You can’t have it both ways. Oh, I don’t know. You’re still worthy to be worshipped and adored, oh daughter of Aphrodite. Somehow, I have angered you. You allowed me to be fooled by Rod Williams, you allowed him to lure me to the rugby game, in
a trick to have me left behind, thus resulting in me being late for work, thus resulting in me being fired. Oh, Goddess, why must thou test me so? No matter what happens to me, I will never stop worshiping you oh, Goddess Vanessa, because you are worthy to be worshiped. But Goddess, I pray that you will bring justice. That you will teach that devil Rod Williams a lesson for deceiving me and having me fired. And please protect me from the beast, my mother, who will no doubt flay me alive when she finds out I’ve been fired again. Oh, thank you goddess, Vanessa and thank you for being so beautiful that I can gaze at your photograph all day long and never get tired of it. Amen… I mean A-women. After all, you are a goddess, not a god.’
Deciding that he’d had enough of this location, he rose to his feet and moved on.