Moorpark Palms - 22. Chapter 22

In early March, Donna came back from Tahiti to find her apartment trashed.
“Everything’s wrecked!” she raged, nearly banging through my door. It was one AM, and she’d just gotten off the plane. “There’s no food! No phone! There aren’t even light bulbs – I was tryin’ to dial the cops by the fuckin’ refrigerator!”
“Someone broke in?” I asked. I hadn’t heard of any problems.
“Well, I gave Joni my keys...”
Not burglary. Inbreeding.
“Good thing Garth went straight to Albuquerque!” she steamed on. “He’d take Mack’s head off, right in the courtyard!”
That was a fund-raiser.
I calmed Donna down with a healthy glass of Jack Daniels someone had given me for Christmas. By the time she left, the sun was nearly up, and it was too late for real sleep. Though I napped before straggling to work. First thing in the morning, Donna went to the cops – well, right after having her battery jumped by Triple-A.
“That bastard Mack! I gave Joni my keys for emergencies, and they put three thousand miles on my car!”
“Good thing the battery went dead. They might’ve driven to Tahiti.”
Donna was too angry for fun.
The police issued a restraining order, restricting Mack and Joni to fifty yards away, a neat trick when their apartments were across a twenty foot courtyard.
“I don’t blame Joni,” Donna railed on. “I said she could use my place and told her to eat anything that might go bad. And there’s really no stopping the kids. They’re gonna play wherever. But Mack should be flogged!”
“Why blame just him?” I reasoned.
“It’s why he exists!”
Soon, Donna wasn’t the only one blaming Mack: Pete and Denny had been flipping coins to see who had to post their eviction notice. And while Garth could have KO’d Mack, our former manager could have popped Pete in the dumpster while squishing Denny under his arm.
“Why’re they being evicted?” I asked. “Because of the restraining order?”
Pete laughed. “Hell, no! We could ignore that. Denny’s wife once signed one out, and they were still sleeping together.”
“Then why go through it?”
He clucked like I was a child: “Money! They owe us two grand!”
It seemed that even when Mack and Joni were only paying half-rent, they still sent bad checks. Since they’d been fired, there’d been no checks at all.
The eviction notice finally went up, and Pete and Denny tore-ass to San Francisco. “He wants to see his ex, and I gotta see my girl friend,” Pete pretended. I doubt “see” was the appropriate verb.
Mack pounded the managers’ door till it dented, but Pete and Denny stayed away all weekend.
“He’s gone apeshit!” Donna told me, as if that wasn’t obvious. “They can’t move. They have no credit. And they couldn’t beg a deposit.”
“Is Kyle working?”
“Little gigs that barely pay gas. He needs a commercial – a national one – to ride them outta here.”
“Do they want to go?”
“Oh, yeah! They hate the little blond punk, and they think his dark-haired fuck buddy’s an arrogant snot.”
“Strong words.”
“Mack’s, not mine.”
But I wasn’t sure she disagreed
Pete and Denny tried to steal home late Monday night. “WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS!” Mack greeted them. They were still in Pete’s car, and Mack was waving his eviction notice. “WHY IN FUCK ARE YOU TRYIN’ TO FUCK ME!!”
“Hey, man,” Dennis lied in his best California cool. “I’ve got no problems with you. But I’m not the one who decides.”
Mack turned on Pete.
“Hey, me neither, man!” Pete struck protectively. “If you’ve got a problem, you’ve got to call our bosses.”
“WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK I’VE BEEN FUCKIN’ DOING ALL FUCKIN’ WEEKEND!”
“You get the machine?” Denny asked.
“FUCK YOU AND THE MACHINE!”
“Can I pass on that?”
Mack slammed the balled eviction notice in Denny’s face. “WE AIN’T MOVIN’, SHITSCUM!”
“We don’t blame you,” Pete tried to sympathize. He and Denny were still trapped in the car.
“WHEN KYLE FINDS WORK...” Mack rammed on. “WE’LL FUCKIN’ PAY ALL WE OWE!”
“That would be great.”
“TILL THEN, YOU AND YOUR LITTLE COCK-SUCKING BUDDY BETTER STAY CLEAR OF ME AND MY FUCKIN’ FAMILY OR YOU’LL BE TRYING TO THUMP TO WORK ON EIGHT FLAT TIRES!”
“Hey! No getting personal!”
Mack stared at them evilly. But, having boomed, he seemed to wind down. He stomped to his apartment, slamming his door as hard as he could.
“Sorry you had to see that,” Pete told me afterward.
I’d been coming from the laundry room.
“I really wet my pants,” Denny confessed. “I had to piss from the drive. But that did it.”
“More than I need to know, bud,” Pete told him.
“C’mon. You’ve seen me covered with puke.”
“More than I need to know,” I agreed.
Over the next week, Donna steadily informed on Mack. “Know what he did this morning?” she chuckled. At least, she’d calmed down. “Kyle and Joni went off to some audition, then one of Mack’s buddies pulled in. They filled his trunk with Kyle’s judo trophies and pawned them all for the gold plating!”
“I’m surprised there’s anything like gold in them.”
“They may have hit a really dumb pawnshop.”
“What’d Kyle do when he found out?”
“Screamed! He’s no actor for nothing! Then he tore up his room!”
As I’d walked from the carport, I’d noticed his blinds had been replaced by kid sheets – badly-hung superheros.
“I’d be more careful if I was Mack,” Donna went on. “I mean, who knows about those karate moves? Kyle might kill him.”
“What about Joni?”
“She’s probably okay. But Kyle’s always been trusting about money. He’s really such a babe. I don’t wanna be around when he grows up and figures out how much his folks crapped away.”
“I thought there were laws...”
Donna laughed. “Laws don’t stop people like Mack. He knows too many ways around ‘em. I don’t know why I was ever Joni’s friend.”
Early Sunday, somewhere near three, my phone woke me. When it’s that late and probably a wrong number, I usually let the machine pick up. But this might have been a work emergency.
Not close. It was Garth.
“Hey, fella! How ya doin’?”
Trying to focus, I groped for my watch. Then I read Garth the time.
“That’s about right,” he agreed.
“Is something wrong?”
“Nah. Just wanted to give you a chance to say goodbye. Donna’s taking off.”
That woke me.
“She’s leaving?”
“‘Fore the sun comes up.”
“Where to? Is this another trip?”
“Our destination’s kinda secret, bud, even to good guys like you. Don’t want Mack findin’ out. But we’ve been sneakin’ all Donna’s good stuff out her back windows since eleven, and we’re ready to drive.”
“Give me five minutes.”
“We’re at Denny’s. We’ll order ya breakfast.”
I had to shout before he hung up, “Where’s Denny’s?” It wasn’t a place I ate.
“Sorry to do this,” Donna apologized as I eased into their booth. Garth was stacking what looked like three orders of pancakes on one plate. I hoped it wasn’t for me.
“I hate leaving this way,” Donna explained. “And I really don’t want to go – I love those kids. But when Mack’s losing it, things get bad.”
“He’s an asshole’s asshole,” Garth said, munching.
“Where are you going?”
She looked at Garth. He shrugged, but she smiled. “Vegas, for starts,” she said. “To see my kids. After that, who knows? Maybe I’ll hunt down a job. I do that when I’m bored.”
Donna no longer had to work. She’d invested all her Elvis money, and once won big on dollar slots. Everything was in mutual funds.
“I want her with me,” Garth put in. “But she says I have no life.”
“You’ve got a great life!” Donna corrected. “Just too much on the road.”
“I always come back to you.”
“And I’m not shutting the door.”
Still, Garth frowned. It may be the only time I’d seen him not having control. Then he instantly grinned, kissing Donna. I took that groggy moment to realize that part of the reason Garth seemed so different that morning was he was completely dressed.
“Anyway,” Donna continued,” I didn’t want to leave without saying good-bye. I can’t promise I’ll ever be here again – and I’m terrible about staying in touch. Sometimes, I forget to call my kids on their birthdays. But once I’m settled...”
“If she gets settled...”
“I’ll try ‘n’ call.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” I promised.
“Good.” She leaned across the table and kissed me. Garth smirked, then went back to his food, and I obediently ate what he’d ordered
In the parking lot, I expected to see a truck. But they headed for Donna’s tightly-loaded car.
“You’re leaving all your furniture?” I asked.
“The kids wrecked most of it, and I was getting tired of the rest.”
“Don’t wanna be tied by things,” Garth advised.
Donna poked him. “I don’t see you donating your boots.”
“I’ll leave these right here...”
“Don’t you dare! I gave you those as a present!”
Garth grinned, and Donna hugged me. Then Garth carefully shook my hand.
“Miss you, guy,” he said.
“Miss you, too,” I said, and I wasn’t lying. I realized it in that moment.
“High Five your friend for me.”
“Sure thing.”
That brought me back to reality, and I pictured them in the pool.
“Oh, damn!” Garth suddenly spun around.
“What, honey?” Donna asked. “Forget something?”
“I shoulda used the Guy’s Room.”
“Go ahead. We’ll wait.”
“Nah! Too much trouble.”
He popped his button-fly and started a stream right at our feet. I should have known Garth couldn’t leave without flashing.
In the restaurant, Donna gave me a check for Pete and Denny. I delivered it Sunday afternoon.
“She said you’ll have to cart away everything she left. And there’s some damage the kids did. This should cover it. And she said keep her deposit, instead of notice.”
“She didn’t have to do that..” Denny began.
“Yeah, she did, Den.”
“Well, I wish we could keep her,” he told Pete. “I really liked Donna.”
On that, Pete agreed.
“I’m sure you’ll find someone else soon enough,” I said. “Someone you can date.”
Denny grinned at that. He was occasionally seeing Lindsay, but she assured me “only as friends.”
“He’s funny and all,” she admitted. “But – like Pete warned me – when it comes to being an adult, Denny’s several hits short of a high.”
I doubted that would stop them all from having a good summer. And I looked forward to joining some of the fun. But first, we had to survive the last days of Mack and Joni.