OH LAWD chapter 24

I've Been Saving My Money
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After I had my talk with Linda, I cautioned her not to tell Marly that she had given me the whole story.

I said, “Marly deserves to tell me her version without being influenced by what you have said.  

Even though both of you experienced the same thing you each will have reacted to it differently.”

She agreed and said she wouldn't say anything about our conversation.

As the day went on Marly never mentioned the car or what happened to them.

I waited for her to bring it up but she never did. After she and Linda went to the movies I left with my car, and neither Marly nor Linda knew I had got it back from O'Malley.

It seemed he was always getting that car from the bad guys and giving it to me. I drove it to New Orleans and got a garage to keep it in. I kept it polished up where it would brightly shine in the New Orleans sunshine.

I enjoyed taking the car for a drive and sometimes I would take one of the local gals with me. Although I wasn't interested in any of them as a girl friend, they were just good friends, and we enjoyed each others company.

New Orleans was a town that was wide open in parts and if you were going to survive working in the French quarter you had to keep yourself separate from the riotousness of it.

 

They would celebrate everything and Mardi Gras was the liveliest of all. It was three months since the girls lost my car and Marly still hadn't said anything about it. I knew sooner of later she would have to confess so I waited.

When I drove over to home I kept the car at O'Malley's so it wasn't seen by the girls.

On a rare occasion I got both Sunday and Monday off. This week was due to a local holiday so I came home and found Marly working and Linda just hanging out.

Linda and I were having a soda, when Marly came over and started confessing to me about their misadventure, and losing my car.

    
She told me every detail, punctuated every so often with, "I'm so sorry."

I didn't interrupt her, and let her get it all out and then she surprised me.

She reached in her apron and pulled out sixty dollars. She said this was all she had earned during the summer plus ten dollars Linda gave her and she wanted me to put it toward a new car.  

I said, “Thank you, but keep it for me until I get ready to leave.”

Since both girls had confessed, I decided it was time to bring the car out and get all this behind us. I met the girls as Marly was getting off work and told them I would give them a ride home.

 

Surprised
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They both looked at me suspiciously and thought I must have bought a bicycle.

When they saw the car they both started to speak at once.

They asked every question imaginable, and finally I had to stop them long enough to tell them what had happened.

This took me about a half an hour for they kept interrupting with questions.

 

They finally got the picture and then began to get angry with me.

They flung several insults at me for putting them through these months of thinking the car was lost and the guilt of losing it.

 

I reminded Marly that she had kept this from me about what happened - - until today.

She still was angry with me for my part in the deception, and even said some unkind things about O'Malley.

 

I told them, "I didn't tell you because I was mad.  I was mad at myself for allowing you have the car knowing that you couldn't be trusted with it.

I was mad because you had been placed in a dangerous position, because of me loaning you the car.

 

I was mad because I found out something about myself that I didn't like; which was, if either of you had been harmed in any way, I would have found a way to kill those who did it.  

Knowing that I was able to get that furious about something, made me angry at myself.

 

I was mad to think that I could care for you so much that I would be willing to do such a thing.  That was why I didn't tell you until you were honest with me."    

 

Oh Lawd!         

 

To be Continued