It felt like I’d just fallen asleep, when my cell phone rang and woke me up. It was Ed’s sister, Cathy wanting to know if I knew what the hell was going on with her brother. Something to do with someone holding him hostage and threatening to beat the shit out of him unless she came down from across town with 100$ to pay them off.I was like WTF??? She tells me she had been in bed sleeping for about an hour after a really long trip that day when the phone rings, and it’s Ed saying these people were going to beat him up so she wanted to know if I knew where he was. I told her about the whole day’s events, even telling her where we knew his truck was parked.
She started asking me if I knew he gotten 1500$ stolen from him, when her other phone rang and she talked to the “terrorists”(lmao) while I listened to her side of the conversation. She has gotten him out of more trouble than he has ever deserved. I told Cathy that if I were her I wouldn’t, do it, what they were asking her to do sounded risky
These people wanted her to drive alone and throw the money in a parking lot, then drive away. After they picked up the money, then they’d call her back and let her brother loose. I told her that sounded like a bunch of bullshit and privately thought he had probably smoked up 1500$ worth of crack and now owed the dealer another 100 bucks.
I told her not to do it, but then Ed got on the phone and said they had broken his nose. Cathy was frantic, and I told her if she was going to do this thing I’d go with her, since I knew where he was supposed to be. I met her down the road at a gas station, parked my car, and laid down on the back seat of hers so no one would see me.
The sense of unreality was tripping me out, it was almost comical, and I was still pissed as hell at Ed for doing this stupid shit at Easter instead of spending time with his kids. We pulled into the parking lot of a Valvoline Oil Change, and talked to Ed on the phone and Cathy was arguing with him about something, and told him I was in the backseat.
Then something was mentioned about an envelope, and she said they had already said to just wrap it in rubber bands. Ed wasn’t happy that I was in the car and told her to drop me off at the Steak ‘N Shake half a block down the street, so she did against my protests.
I went inside the restaurant and went into the ladies room to kill time, and then stood by the doorway to make sure I saw when she got back. There were some teens outside smoking so I went out and bummed a cigarette. Blowing smoke rings into the cold Easter air, I shook my head in wonder at all the bullshit that had happened that day.
Someone was coming out the door so I moved aside. It was the same chick who lived in the apartment complex that told me where Ed was. I told her of the drama as I puffed away, and she told me the bald guy I saw earlier was that Tammy chick’s boyfriend and yes, he WAS in that apartment, but the truck had been moved about 3 hours ago.
All I could do was shake my head as the girl told me goodnight. I was right, I knew he had been in there! Just then Cathy drove back up and I jumped in out of the cold into the front seat this time. She gets back on her cell phone and calls Ed’s number, apparently it was safe to some pick him up, he was let go and now walking down the street.
We found him just a few blocks away, and we let him in the back. He tried to sound beat up, but I wasn’t buying it. He had a little blood across the bridge of his nose, and it looked like there was some in the crack of the side of one nostril. I thought “Hell, when he broke my nose that one time, I looked a lot worse!”
Ed was going on about how they held a knife to his throat, kicked and punched him, blah blah blah. I still wasn’t buying any of it. I had lived with this man and known him far too long to believe anything that comes out of his mouth. Cathy told him that was the last time she would ever help him out, and dropped us off at my car.
Getting in my car he started tell me his sorry-ass story and I didn’t give a shit and told him so. My whole take on the subject was that he should have been home with his kids instead of out running around and he got what he deserved. And now that he had no money, I had to use my own cash to pay for my gas back home.
The bad thing about that is that I’m so strapped for cash, and my twin’s 17th birthday is today and I can’t get one of them a present or the one still living with me what I know he’d like, Guitar Hero II. But Ed (as always) turns an argument into a personal attack on every past deed I’ve ever done to him, what do they call that? Oh yea, projection.
As I drove in silence he told me to pull into this liquor store around the corner from his apartment, his local hangout, so he could get a beer and I told him “Fuck that! I’m driving your home and if you want a beer you can go walk there and walk back, I’m DONE!” I pulled into a parking space, and we both got out.
Ed walked ahead of me and was throwing a hissy fit going up the stairs to the apartment. When we got inside, I told the kids to get their shit together, we were leaving. Ed quit his bitching and said sorry to me (big fucking deal) and went into the kitchen to eat.
I got to check him out under the bright lights of the kitchen and could see he was fucking higher than a kite, his eyes gave it all away. The tale he was telling Randa, Matt and me just wasn’t meshing with what I knew his movements of the day were. In other words, he was lying through his remaining teeth (he’s lost a couple due to fights, lol).
Cathy called Ed’s phone and wanted to talk to me, so I took the conversation into the bathroom. She wanted to go over in detail everything that had happened and the one thing that stood out brightest, if these people has stolen his money, why didn’t he go to the police in the first place, something he refused to do.
I told her the whole ordeal was a crock of shit, and I was thinking of taking my other twin home with me since Ed was bringing dangerous people into his life, but my son opted to stay with his Dad. Probably cause he’s got cable TV now, lol, and his Dad still hasn’t gotten him in school.
The boys took forever getting all their crap together, so it was getting late by the time we left. During the long drive home I reexamined the entire day, and realized it could have also been an elaborate plan to say the money was stolen so I wouldn’t’ be able to get child support in addition to his smoking it up in crack.
With that man, I wouldn’t put anything past him . . .
