Steve’s Birthday
Arlene and Mike Clarke had been coming into Tessie Cal’s bar for about three years. They had four beautiful children, Jason who was four, Mary who was six, John who was seven, and Steve who had just turned nine that day. They were planning a big surprise party for Steve, but they really could not afford to spend very much money.
Mike was a butcher and worked hard every day, but it seemed that all of the bills they had would keep them in debt forever. Arlene worked part-time in a pub about a mile away from Tessie’s bar, but it seemed that Arlene could never save a penny because every day she would gamble on the horses, or make another kind of bet. She thought that someday she would hit it big, and then her family would be happy. However, she kept getting further and further into debt.
That morning when Arlene was going to work, Mike gave her ten dollars and said to stop at the store and get Steve a nice birthday present. She agreed and went on her way. That day was also payday for Arlene, but like every payday, she had to hand her entire paycheck over to the local bookie to pay off her previous week’s debt.
When Arlene stopped in the local store to pick up a gift for Steve she knew just what to get. There was a toy airplane that Steve would always stop and stare at in the window, and that was what Arlene wanted to get for him. She figured that since the plane was only six dollars she would be able to pick up a little birthday cake, too. It would be such a lovely little party!
As Arlene left the store, she met a friend of hers who told her that he was on his way to the track. He said he had a hot tip, and that the horse he had picked would be a sure winner. Arlene could not resist because the race would end just in time for her to pick up her winnings after work. She decided that then she could buy the airplane and the cake. There would even be enough money left over to cover her loss of the week’s pay, guaranteeing that her husband would never find out what she had done.
Arlene’s husband, Mike, could never save a penny either. Every day when he left the butcher ship, he would go out with a few of the guys from work and stop for a few drinks at Tessie Cal’s bar. Mike would always start off by having a few beers. Tessie knew him well, and she could understand that he needed a few beers to relax after work. However, sooner or later Mike would say, “Tessie, bring me down a shot of whiskey.” Tessie knew that once Mike started on whiskey there would be a problem.
Sometimes he would have the kids with him. They were good kids, and usually they sat quietly in one of booths drinking pop and eating potato chips. But more than once Tessie had to drive Mike and the kids home. She finally told Mike, “If you’re going to drink shots you gotta leave the kids at home.” Mostly Mike left the kids at home; they had homework to do anyway. On occasion he would drink at the bar down the street, but tonight he came to see Tessie.
About an hour had gone by before Mike’s son John came in. “Daddy, when are you coming home?” Jason and Mary have all the balloons blown up, and we made a big sign for Steve’s birthday.” Mike told the barmaid, “Give my boy a coke and some quarters for the pinball game. While you’re at it, bring me down another shot and a beer. We’ll take off after I finish this one.”
Little John drank his coke and sat over in a booth with Bouncer. Bouncer seemed to understand that Little John did not really want to be there in the bar, so Bouncer licked his face and waited with him.
Just then One beer Tom the jokester stopped in Tessie’s bar ordered a small glass of beer and said
“Here is the joke of the day”:
A guy decides to take off work early from work and go drinking. He stays in the bar until it closes at 2 in the morning, at which time he is extremely drunk. When he gets back to his house, he doesn't want to wake anyone up, so he takes off his shoes and starts tiptoeing up the stairs. Halfway up the stairs, he loses his balance, falls over backwards, and lands flat on his rear end. That wouldn't have been so bad, except that he had a couple of empty pint bottles in his back pockets and they broke. The broken glass carved up his rear end terribly, but he was so drunk he didn't know he was hurt. A few minutes later, as he was undressing, he saw some blood. He checked himself out in the mirror and sure enough, his rear end is cut up something terrible. He repaired the damage as best he could under the circumstances and went to bed. The next morning, his head was hurting and his rear was hurting, and he was lying under the covers trying to think up a good story, when his wife came into the bedroom. "Well, you really tied one on last night," she said. "Where'd you go?" "I worked late," he said, "and I stopped off for a couple of beers." "A couple of beers? That's a laugh," she replied. "You were plastered last night - where'd you go?" "What makes you so sure I got drunk last night, anyway?" "Well," she replied, "my first big clue was when I got up this morning and found a bunch of band-aids stuck to the mirror."
Tessie’s boyfriend Danny was stoned and passed out in the booth next to them, and as Tessie passed by she wondered why she put up with this guy. She started talking to her friend Trina who had stopped in to see Tess. “Is he always stoned?” asked Trina. “No,” said Tessie, “just about fifty percent of the time. The other fifty percent he treats me like a queen. He is really a great guy; he just uses drugs like we use alcohol. What’s the difference? It’s just a way of relaxing after a hard day at work.” Trina, who had buried her husband three years earlier from a heroin over dose, said “Well in my honest opinion he does not look good, and the last five times I was in here he was passed out stoned in that same booth, and you were passed out drunk in the other booth. Do you think you may both be in denial?” Tessie was insulted and told Trina that there were not enough adjectives to describe how she felt about that statement and to mind her own business. “I appreciate your concern, but we’re all just fine around here. You’re my best friend and I don’t even like you lately.” said Tessie. Trina turned a blind eye and let Tessie be Tessie.
It was about time now for Arlene to be getting off from work, but she had to wait around to hear about the race results. She took a seat at the racetrack’s bar and waited to hear the good news. In came her friend, the man with the sure bet, no longer looking so sure of himself anymore. “Sorry,” he had his head down as he spoke, “the horse tripped and fell coming out of the gate. But tomorrow, for sure, I’ve got a sure bet!”
Now Arlene didn’t know what to do. How could she go home without a present for her son, Steve? She asked a few people who sat at the bar to loan her some money, but each one refused her since she owed them already.
Back at Tessie’s bar, Mike was still having “one more”. He told his son, John, to go home because he would be there shortly. It was getting later when in came a man named George, who Mike had owed money to for about six months. George sat at the other end of the bar and waited to see if Mike would say anything to him. Mike sent him down a drink and then said, “My wife will be stopping by shortly, and I’ll settle up with you about the hundred bucks I owe you.” Mike was expecting Arlene to have her paycheck. She had the car, so he knew that she would pick him up at the bar. Another hour went by, and Mike figured that Arlene must have stopped at the store for the present and cake.
Tessie passed out at the end of the bar and began snoring which woke up Danny who then woke up Tessie and said “I think you have been getting carried away with the booze lately and am concerned that you have a problem.” Tessie was insulted and told Danny that he should mind his own business and take a look in the mirror. You know I only sleep about four hours at night, and I like to take a four hour nap in the day-time. Next thing you know Danny took Tessie’s drink and threw it in her face and walked out the back door. Tessie was fuming and proceeded to drink shots. She then called a locksmith to change all the locks. Danny will have to find a new bar to live above, besides he only treats me good about 20 percent of the time and I’ve had it with him. I am done. No way will I let him back in my life again.
Mike was still waiting for Arlene and was getting drunker by the minute. “She should be here any time now.” said Mike. However, he had no idea what Arlene was up to. Arlene had other ideas in her head on how to get some money; she was sick of being broke. There was a gun in the drawer at the bar where she worked, and without anyone noticing, she took it and put it into her purse. She got in the car and decided that she was going to do this only one time in her life. She figured she could get away with holding up a liquor store. She knew someone that did it before, and he had gotten away with about six hundred dollars. She knew of a liquor store just out of town that was owned by an old man. In the trunk of the car was one of little Jason’s Halloween masks. He was a clown… or was she?
She put on the mask and waited across the street until she could see that the old man was alone in the store. She bravely walked in with the gun in her hand, “Give me all of your money now or you’ll die!”
The old man looked scared as he opened the register, taking out two hundred dollars. “Give me more!” shouted Arlene, “I know there’s a lot more than that!” At that moment, a customer came into the store, a young man about twenty-five years old. Arlene panicked and started shooting. She shot the old man twice, and he died instantly. The young man tried to stop her, so she had to shoot him three times to be sure he was dead.
With the two hundred dollars, she ran out the door. All she could think about was buying a present for Steve. The store would be closing soon, so she rushed all the way there. The storeowner was just locking up as she arrived. Arlene knocked at the door and pleaded, “I must get that toy airplane; it’s my little boy’s birthday.” The storeowner quickly got one for her and happily accepted the last sale of the night. She knew that the bakery would be closed, so she stopped at a grocery store to buy a little cake. Even though it didn’t say, “Happy Birthday, Steve” she knew it would make him happy.
She got in the car and went to pick up Mike at Tessie’s bar, not even realizing that she was three hours late. When she arrived at the bar and didn’t see Mike she asked Tessie how long ago he had left. Arlene could tell by the look in Tessie’s eyes that something had happened. Tessie replied, “They just took Mike away in an ambulance to the hospital. Mike and George had an argument, and Mike was hurt pretty bad.”
Arlene hurried to the hospital to see if Mike was alright. The nurse said that they had just taken him into surgery, and that his chances didn’t look too good. Apparently Mike had fallen and hit his head on the jukebox, which caused internal bleeding. Since he had so much to drink prior to the fight, it would make the surgery even more dangerous.
Arlene looked up at the clock and saw that it read nine thirty. Usually the girl down the block looked after the children until six, because Arlene or Mike would be home by seven at the latest. She knew the children would be okay because Steve always watched out for the younger kids until she or Mike got home. She found a phone as quick as she could and tried calling home. The phone rang and rang, but there wasn’t an answer.
Arlene saw a young woman crying as a policeman and a doctor tried to tell her that her husband was killed in a shooting at a liquor store. The woman just kept on crying hysterically. Arlene overheard the officer saying that the old man killed in the same shooting did not have a family, “We will just have to send him to the morgue and see if someone claims him.”
Again, Arlene tried calling her house, but again there was no answer. She asked the nurse to call her at home when Mike got out of surgery, and then she ran out of the hospital.
Arlene drove home as fast as she could, praying that the children would be alright. Maybe they went next door to the neighbor’s house; why else would there be no answer? When she pulled up to the house, she started screaming as she saw the fire department carrying her children out of their home. Thank God they were alive! It seemed that the kids got tired of waiting for their parents to get home, so they decided that they would light a candle and sing, “Happy Birthday” to their brother. Somehow a fire had started, but none of that mattered as long as they were all alright.
The phone rang, and it was the hospital calling. “Mrs. Clarke, your husband is alright, and it seems as if he will be back to normal in a few weeks. He was very lucky.”
Arlene had killed two men tonight, but her children and husband were alive. She hung up the phone and thought about shooting herself with the last bullet. Instead she became hysterical and called the police on herself because she knew she could not live with what she had done.
She has now served eight years of her fifty year sentence in prison. When she gets out Jason will be fifty-four, Mary fifty-six, John fifty-seven, and Steve will never forget his ninth birthday.
Shortly after this happened Tessie wrote this poem,
after locking up the bar with the new keys and
going upstairs to bed:
Rationalization
The deception suddenly was so convincing
that the consequences suddenly did not matter.
The blindness took a new perspective
then the destruction was the sacrifice.
Other means just never happened
and there no longer was a purpose.
Driven away unconsciously blind
but under these circumstances
we lose all fear and do not rationalize.
The key to the future is now in my hand
just like footprints in the sand
Suddenly I rationalize. Why not?
No comments:
Post a Comment