“What’s going to happen to Bobbie now?” Malyna asked curious for more knowledge about the subject.
“The police doctors are going to give him a shot to make him sleepy then they’re going to examine his head if there is a wound that will affect his brain they won’t press charges, but if there isn’t a wound they will assume that he had been making threats of his own accord so charges will be pressed and he will receive time in jail.” Richard said looking at the spot on the floor where moments before Ronald had laid and added. “But of course he will have to pay for Ronald’s medical care. And he will be pressed a few hundred dollars for deliberately hurting someone.”
Then Malyna asked one more question the last one for the day. “When will Ronald get better? In time for the trial?”
“I hope so, now let’s go and get ready for bed and Emily?”
“Yes?” Emily asked.
“Can you phone the people that you and Onisty visited today and tell them it will be tomorrow morning at 12:00 pm?”
“Sure,” Emily said veering off into the kitchen to phone the people, while Malyna ran up the stairs and to her room.
Malyna quickly changed into her cat pajamas and crawled into bed, and yawning she turned out the light and fell asleep.
Chapter 17
“Rise and shine,” said Richard pulling open the window and letting a rush of sunshine into the room therefore waking Malyna from her dream.
Malyna yawned and then stretched her arms out and sleepily said. “Why do I have to be up so early?” Malyna rubbed her eyes; trying to get them adjusted to the bright morning light. “Don’t you remember?” Richard asked putting a folded pile of clothes on the foot of her bed. “Today’s the burial and we have a lot to do, now get dressed and join Emily, Carl and me for breakfast.”
“Ok,” Malyna said and started to get dressed.
“Hi everyone,” Malyna said walking into the kitchen and sitting down. “What do we have to do today?”
“It’s good you asked that Malyna,” Emily said looking worried. “We were just about to discuss that.”
Emily looked through her notes and started giving out orders. 10 minutes later Malyna found herself and Carl driving to the flower shop.
“Hello, how can I help you,” said an especially pretty woman at the front desk.
Carl walked over to the counter and handed it to the lady (whose name was Sydnie according to the name tag that she wore).
“Hmm,” Sydnie said looking at the notes. “Are you sure these are the flowers you want,” she asked doubtfully. “You could get these.” She gestured to an array of perfectly arranged bouquets hanging on the wall behind her.
Carl looked uncomfortable but finally he said. “Normally I’d love one of those bouquets but these flowers are for my horse’s burial.”
“Oh,” Sydnie looked startled. “I’m sorry to hear that, in that case you should probably take a look at these,” she opened a booklet to a page and slid it over to Carl who looked at it. Carl started flipping through a section marked funerals. Every once and awhile he would give Malyna the booklet and ask her if the bouquet was good enough finally Malyna saw a bouquet that was good enough for Steven. The bouquet that that Malyna picked out was a beauty it had pink and red roses arranged in a circle with two black roses poking out of the middle.
“Aaah,” Sydnie said nodding her head in agreement. “This is a great choice; one of our best funeral bouquets. How many do you want?”
“Uhh,” Carl looked down at the list he was holding and quickly skimmed it.
“Oh, here it is,” he said. “We will need 20 bouquets by 12 o’clock today.”
“Hmm,” Sydnie mumbled scrolling through a document. “Let’s see 20, 5 dollar bouquets would equal…” She checked her calculator. “100 dollars but because it is a funeral for a horse you get a discount that brings you to $85.27 please.” Carl paid with Emily’s debit card and left to go home.
When they got home they found out that Richard wasn’t back yet.
“Where did he have to go?” Carl asked placing the receipt from the florist’s shop on the table in front of Emily.
“He had to go rent some chairs from the city hall; we can’t have people always standing especially the older people that are coming.” Emily said reading the receipt.
“Wait,” Emily cocked her head to one side obviously listening to something.
“There’s Richard now.”
Malyna listened intently for a few seconds and sure enough she heard the sound of the truck door being slammed and footsteps coming up the stairs.
“Hi,” Richard said breathlessly. “I’ve ordered 150 chairs to be delivered here … I hope it’ll be enough.”
“Emily,” Richard said turning towards her with a look of panic on his face. “Exactly how many people did you invite?”
“Oh,” Emily looked down at her notes. “145 people.”
Richard let out a sigh of relief.
“I’m glad I ordered enough chairs,” he said looking at his family. The relief showing on his face was obvious.
Just then Emily decided to look at her watch. “Oh, no,” she cried springing from her seat and to the telephone.
“Um, mom?” Malyna said looking surprised at Emily’s sudden burst of speed. “What’s wrong?”
“I have to call the person who is going to give a speech so that Steven can go to heaven properly.” Emily flipped open to a page in the phone book. “Ahh, here it is; Mr. Austin Abbott. (678)-473-7389.”
“Hello, this is Emily Cooper (780)-992-0751. I’d like you to come and give a speech about Steven? Yes I phoned a while ago. I’m phoning again because the funeral is now at 12 o’clock. Yes I know this is very short notice. Do you have anything else happening at this time?” Emily paused. “Oh! That’s great! I’m so glad you can come. Okay bye.”
Emily put the phone back in its cradle and came back to the table and sat down.
“There that’s done. Now when are the chairs going to be here?” Emily addressed Richard who replied.
“Umm,” Richard checked his watch and leapt to his feet. “They should be here any minute,” he said and dashed out the door.
Carl ran out the door just a few seconds later. Malyna shrugged to her mother and followed.
Just a few minutes after everyone (not including Emily) were outside; a van came speeding up the driveway and screeched to a stop just a few feet away from where Richard was standing.
A big strong man jumped out of the truck and said: “Hello I’m Levi Goodman.”
And directing his question to Richard he asked. “Are you Richard Cooper who ordered 150 chairs?”
“Yes,” replied Richard.
“Then here are your chairs that you rented.” Levi said jerking his head in indication that they were in the back of the truck.
“Good then let’s unload them,” Richard said rubbing his hands together anxiously; they were already running out of time.
“Uh, just one second Mr. Cooper,” Levi said nervously. “You need to sign here.” Levi indicated the batty and worn out, brown clipboard that he was holding in his hands.
“Oh, sure,” Richard said pulling a dirty black inked pen out of his breast pocket and signed his name with a flourish.
“Okay now we can unload the chairs,” Levi said replacing the gloves on the dashboard with the clipboard and pulled on the dirty oil stained gloves.
“C’mon,” he said beckoning them to the back of the truck.
When they walked around to the back door of the dirty mud covered truck. Levi opened the door. Then pulling a plank out so that it was a ramp Levi hoisted himself up and disappeared inside it. He reappeared seconds later lugging a stack of 50 or so chairs on a carpenter roller. Richard helped Levi get it down the ramp; because the ramp was so steep the stack was in danger of just rolling down at its speed (really fast).
“Whew,” Richard said mopping his brow with his handkerchief after the 5th and last stack was delivered.
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Malyna looked over to see that Levi had sprung back inside the truck and pulling the plank in that way, he then jumped out a shut the door with a big BANG!
“Well,” Levi said shaking Richard’s hand before he climbed into the truck.
“I’ll be back at 5 o’clock for the chairs.” Levi yelled as the truck sped off meeting another vehicle on the way: the florist’s van.
“Dad,” Malyna called to her father as he started to hoist one quarter of the chairs in one stack up. “You might want to wait until the florist has left.” That got his attention as he turned his head so fast to look at the pretty pink van zooming up the driveway at surprising speed that Richard kinked his neck.
“Hello,” Sydnie said cheerfully bounding out of the van and jumping right up to Richard she grabbed his hand and shook it.
“Hi,” Richard said still rubbing his neck.
“I’m Sydnie, c’mon,” she said beckoning them.
With a loud screeching noise she pulled open the doors and inside was tons and tons of bouquets.
“Here,” Sydnie said pushing the bouquets into their arms and giving Richard a receipt she drove off shouting. “Sorry but I got to run; 12 more deliveries to make.”
After they watched her drive off. Richard turned to Carl and Malyna and said, “We better get everything set up,” gesturing to Malyna and Carl who were kind of staggering under the weight of the bouquets in their arms.
“Right,” they groaned and putting the bouquets on a rented table they each grabbed an armful of chairs and started setting them up.
“Right this way,” Carl said offering his arm to an elderly lady. Who shook him off and said that she was quite capable of walking; at this her lady friends howled with laughter as they hobbled to their chairs in the first couple rows.
Carl gave Malyna an all-purpose shrug and went back to where he was supposed to be greeting people.
Meanwhile Malyna was standing at the end of the rows showing people where to sit when they didn’t want to be escorted by Carl.
After everyone was sitting and quiet the funeral started. Some people that Malyna never saw in her life read poems and wished Steven a great life in the sky, finally with much tears the bulldozer dragged Steven’s body into the hole and covered him up with dirt.
Slowly everyone started to leave and when the last person left Levi came back took the chairs, left and the family drove off to the hospital to visit Ronald.
Chapter 18
“Right, this way please and quietly,” The head nurse Jayden said as she led Malyna and her family down a white corridor to Ronald’s room.
Jayden showed us to Ronald’s room and whispered, “try to talk quietly; there might be a concussion with the head wound. And turning around she briskly walked a few feet then she did a double take.
“Is she under 11?” Jayden asked referring to Onisty.
The whole family nodded.
“Then you’ll have to come with me,” she told Onisty firmly.
Before Onisty could start to wail about why she wasn’t allowed in Emily quickly said. “Onisty you need to go with Jayden for a while and if I find out that you have been a good little girl you can have an ice cream on the way home. Does that sound like a good idea to you?” She questioned Onisty.
“Yes it does,” Onisty softly replied and taking Jayden’s hand they made their way back down to the ground level.
Emily held the door open for everybody and they all softly went in.
“Hi Ronald,” Malyna said softly. Ronald was awake and cheerful, even though his room had an ugly shade of cream on the walls.
“Hi everyone,” Ronald said weakly trying to sit up.
“Hi,” everyone replied as Ronald succeeded in sitting up.
“How was the funeral?” Ronald asked in what he hoped was a cheerful tone.
Richard answered that question. “Good,” he paused. “Well as good as a funeral can be.”
“That’s good,” Ronald said sinking into the soft flower scented purple pillows behind him. But then he bolted upright again wincing; he should not have moved so fast.
“Wait, before Bobbie threw me he was really mad! Did he hurt anybody else?” Ronald asked.
“No…” replied Carl.
“Thank god,” Ronald sighed.
Carl continued to speak, “…and he’s in jail right now but he still has to have a trial because he might have been acting that way because of a concussion.”
“But,” continued Richard. “He will still be in jail because he hurt you and threatened to secretly shoot Malyna and her puppy that she was rescuing at the time.”
Ronald shook his head sadly “I really shouldn’t have brought Bobbie to your place. Look at the mess I made doing that!”
Emily went over to Ronald’s bed and sat down on the edge and creasing the edge of the sheets she softly said. “Ronald, don’t beat yourself up about it, you didn’t know that Bobbie would turn into a raving lunatic.”
“She’s right you know,” Richard softly added. Walking over to where Emily sat and he laid a hand on her shoulder.
Ronald looked relieved. “Thanks,” he said. Then laying back in the bed, his eyes closed and he went off to dream world.
The family tiptoed out of the room and down to the waiting area where Onisty was waiting for them.
Chapter 19
Back at the house the telephone was ringing as they trooped through the door.
“Oh, no,” Emily said sprinting for the phone. “Hello?” She asked breathlessly.
“Ya…Okay... 1 minute.”
Emily held the phone out to Richard who took it and began speaking rapidly to the person on the other end. After a few more minutes of talking Richard finally hung up the phone.
“Who was it,” Malyna asked curiously.
“That was the police at the jail, Bobbie had just woken up and the doctors conclude that he did NOT have a concussion.” Richard said sounding afraid.
“So,” Malyna said slowly. “So you mean to say that he would of actually shot me.” Malyna said in a trembling voice.
“Yes, I’m afraid so.” Richard sighed. “But Bobbie’s trial is going to be on this Wednesday, the day after today. And Malyna remember your birthday is next week.”
“Yes. That is something to look forward to,” Malyna said smiling a wide smile at the thought. “That is definitely something to look forward to.”
When Malyna woke up to a house full of chaos, it was the day of the trial; Emily was running around ironing all the clothes that they would wear. Onisty was busy being under everyone's feet trying to show off her new purple and pink frill dress.
Carl and Richard were especially handsome in their new tuxedos, and Malyna and Emily had matching green layered frill dresses.
Finally they were ready and with much preparation they drove to the jail’s courtroom with another thing with them; a tape recorder.
A man in a green suit directed the truck into a special visitor’s parking lot. Then he escorted them through a brown hallway without any windows to a larger room filled with chairs. One chair stood out though, walls about three feet high surrounded it and big ugly grey chains stood out like a splash of color against white walls.
Mr. Chivas the judge of the trial said. “Thank you for coming, now please take your seats as we’re already running late.” He gestured to a row of seats just behind the ugly chair and the family all sat down; the trial began.
The first thing the judge did was to call a group of 5 army workers who were in charge of the jail cells, to bring Bobbie in.
The group returned in a few minutes with a struggling and angry Bobbie.
They quickly chained Bobbie to the chair and closed the door on him so there was no way out, and then the trial actually began.
Chivas actually named The Judge in trials asked Bobbie a lot of questions about what had happened.
The Judge looked down at Bobbie with much distaste and asked. “You did throw your brother Mr. Ronal
d Guyfield against a cement floor. Correct?”
“Not correct,” Bobbie roared his voice echoing around the large room.
“Ah, I see,” Chivas said. “You are denying this statement in hope of your release from jail. I must warn you Bobbie, lying will get you nowhere except a longer sentence in the jail.” Bobbie started to whine again with the “…but I am telling the truth.”
“Silence!” Chivas roared knocking loudly on the judge’s table with a large hammer.
After Bobbie whines reduced into muttered swears under his breath, The Judge continued. “And, we have two of the three witnesses right here and the third is your brother who is watching this whole trial from his bed in the hospital on a special TV set which when it comes his time to place a statement he can. Isn’t that right Ronald?”
Then a magnified voice of Ronald’s rang through the room. “Yes, that is right.” It said.
“Okay,” replied Chivas. “Now Bobbie, were you going to shoot Malyna that day she rescued a puppy.”
“Yes,” Bobbie replied gleefully.
“Why did you not shoot her?” The Judge asked.
“Because,” Bobbie swore. “She was moving too dang fast.”
“No swearing,” Chivas roared.
“Now,” Chivas said. “Ronald do you wish to press charges against the accused?”
“Yes,” Ronald said. “I wish to press charges against Bobbie for stealing what my father had left me in his will, and for hurting me.”
“Very well,” The Judge said banging his hammer once again on his desk.
Chivas turned to Malyna and Richard. “Do you want to press charges?”
“Yes,” Richard replied. “For illegally trapping on my land and for putting my animals and children in danger.”
“That shall be done.” The Judge said banging the hammer yet again. “Case closed, Bobbie you are to receive 5 years in jail…” And the rest of Chivas’s words were drowned out by Bobbie’s yelling and swearing.
“Whew,” Chivas said coming out of his judge box to talk to the Cooper’s family. “Bobbie was certainly a riot today. Wasn’t he?”
“Definitely,” Malyna said smiling a little.