The Lovely Chocolate Mob - By Richard J. Bennett Page 0,18

breath, and said, “We have children…”

“I’ve met one,” and smiled. “I think she’s quite a little girl; you two have done well. Tell me about the rest.”

“There are four of them,” she said. “Three girls and one boy, and he’s the youngest. Mindy is in college, one child is in high school, one in junior high, and one in grade school.”

“You really did have a family. Congratulations on that.”

She smiled. “Their names are Mindy, Beth, Lucia, and…”

I waited.

“J.R.”

“J.R.? As in Junior?” I asked. ”Now I was the one who was surprised. “I assume all your children are named after relatives?”

She smiled again. “They’re named after people we admire. The girls adore their father, as does J.R. I’m what you call the ‘bad’ parent. I make them mind, behave, do their chores, clean their rooms, do their homework.” She continued, “Franklin is the ‘good’ parent. He buys them gifts, takes them places, lets them do what they want. He adores them as well.”

She reached for her purse again, still on the table, and looked for her pocketbook. She reached it, opened it, and pulled out family photographs, pictures of herself and Franklin and the four children. I looked at them all closely for awhile, and listened as Helen pointed out the children and their names. They were a nice-looking family, almost perfect in appearance, and, somehow, this wound up hurting me. I was looking at a family that could have been mine, except, I’m sure any child I had wouldn’t be as pretty as the ones in the pictures. I was instantly smitten by the children.

“Helen, what the heck is he thinking?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I haven’t asked him about this. I just found out recently, and he doesn’t know that I know. I came to you for advice. I needed someone who…”

I waited, again.

“Mama needed someone she could trust.”

I looked up. Mindy had come back. I don’t know how long she’d been there.

I looked back at Helen. “You trust me? When did you decide this?”

Mindy didn’t say anything, because now she knew her Mom didn’t want her to talk. Helen looked a little uncomfortable by my question.

Trustworthy. That’s me. And loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous and kind. A nice guy. A nice guy who finished last.

I broke the silence: “Does anybody else know about this photograph?”

Now Mindy could talk. “Just my boyfriend, me, Mom, and now, you.”

“None of the other children?”

“No,” said Helen. “I don’t want them to know.”

“Now here’s a question that’s suddenly popped up in my mind,” I said, “and I’m not being sarcastic when I ask this. What do you expect me to do?”

“Randall, you were known for reasoning with people in college, making friends with different people in different groups. I don’t know what you can do. I guess I just needed somebody to tell. I need to know what to do.”

Why, you little Delilah. You’re married to this cheater and then you come crawling to me, the guy you threw over, so I can set your life straight for you.

“I’m glad you came to me,” I heard myself say.

Then I heard someone clear his throat. Looking up, I saw the manager of the restaurant, far in the distance. It was getting near to closing time, and he was hinting it’s about time to leave without actually saying it. I got the message.

“Helen, the restaurant is closing soon. I have to work tomorrow. Can we meet again, later, and can you share more information? Mindy, are you computer savvy?”

Helen said, “She knows more about computers than I do.”

Speaking to both, I said, “If you’d like, you can e-mail me your findings. Can you do this on a separate computer, one your father doesn’t have access to? Let me give you my e-mail address.”

Helen opened up her purse again and handed me a piece of paper. I wrote my e-mail down and slid the paper back across the table to Mindy. I held it to the table before she picked it up, which got her attention as she tugged on it. She looked into my eyes.

“I’m not asking you to betray your father. He may be an innocent man. I’d like to find out more about this woman, Susan Lovely. This picture really doesn’t tell the whole story. If he is innocent of any affair, we need to find out.” I released my e-mail address and Mindy picked it up, put it into her purse, and snapped it shut. “I understand,” said Mindy.

“You two contact me first

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