"SPRING"ING AHEAD... Better days (Part 170k)

“SPRING”ING AHEAD… Better days? (Part 170k)

I’d not mentioned Ruthe’s ex-husband but now there were two people, unconnected, who after hearing about her being attacked asserted that he was the person responsible. Bret seemed certain that he’d been the one. After hearing two people sort of accuse him I had to pretty much fall in line. Bret made some references to a few things he’d done back when they were in school together and shaking his head from side to side as he did. It made me curious about the guy but my phone rang and thinking it might be about Ruthe told Bret I’d catch up with him later. The call was from Bert (the president) wanting to know the name of the guy I’d gone to college with who had a business right down the street from the proposed new branch. After squaring him away I looked up and saw Bret huddled together with Trish and Cara. I, for sure, knew what that was about. I started flipping through my mail but kept an eye on Trish and, as I expected, she headed for Lorie. I knew next to nothing about Ruthe’s ex-husband other than he came from a somewhat prominent local Polish family. The father seemed to be in the newspaper a lot in his position as Executive Director of the agricultural co-op in town and for donating a lot of money for the hospital expansion. I also knew the father had shortened their name so as to lessen the Polish ethnicity factor. So, watching the three surviving members of the bank’s old “Polish Mafia” with their heads together gave me the impetus to pursue their interest in the now infamous ‘incident’ that I’d reported to Bret and to get the real ’scoop’ on him.

I waited until Bret returned from lunch. I’d decided to give up mine so that if Lynda called about Ruthe’s condition I’d be available. So, with Bret’s desk right in front of mine it was fairly easy to communicate with him without it being obvious. Reluctant, at first, to answer directly as to the guy’s moral character, I asked a couple of leading questions that broke though his resistance and then it was like I couldn’t shut him up. It was the question of what’s the first thing he thinks of when hearing his name that was the key. Bret, as I’ve alluded to, was a very laid back person and not very demonstrative. But that question ‘lit his fire’. It had to do with the championship football game when Bret was a senior. The game was important to both the school and the town because they hadn’t been in a championship game in a long, long time. The game was played at a neutral sight and the team had to be bused to it. When it was time to leave Eddie wasn’t there. Bret was the quarterback and Eddie was an offensive lineman who was to protect him but he wasn’t there. Long story short… in spite of the coach pleading with the team to get a good night’s sleep, Eddie went out and got drunk… and overslept. He got to the game on his own but the coach wasn’t going to let him play. Bret and the other players convinced him to change his mind and even though hung over he did a good enough job that the team won. Bret was still upset enough all these years later to offer up a bunch of expletives about him.

With that all said, Bret went on to give a bunch of examples of how he'd disregarded rules and stayed pretty much in trouble due to his drinking. He didn’t have the grades to get into college but his father made a big donation to his own alma mater to get him accepted but he got kicked out before the first semester was over. According to Bret, after that his father ‘put his foot down’ and made him join the Army. Bret, who was in college at the time, said he’d heard that he got kicked out in less than a year. There were other stories but they were hearsay to Bret. After his own time at college and returning home he ran into him only to find out he was now married. Bret editorialized a bit at this point to say he pitied the poor girl. I asked if he knew her and he said “No…” but that she was a year or two behind him in school. By this time I was getting a pretty clear picture of Eddie.

When it got to be 2pm and I hadn’t heard anything about Ruthe I called Lynda. She hadn’t talked with Bill but he’d called in to the office to say she was being operated on and would call as soon as he got any news. I asked how she was doing and she claimed to be OK… but worried about Ruthe. Again, I told her to call as soon as she had anything at all. I was a bit upset that she hadn’t passed on that little bit of information but let it pass. The doors of the bank were still open when one of the non uniformed policemen that had showed up at Ruthe’s house in the morning walked in looking for me. That was not a good feeling even though I’d done nothing wrong. He proceeded to ask if he could ask me some questions. I’d thought I done all of that back at the house. But, one thing that was a positive was that they were looking for Ruthe’s ex-husband as we talked as she’d identified him as her attacker. That made me wonder why they were back asking me questions. I was told the reason was because they wanted to see if he had anybody else in on the attack. The cop focused on just what my relationship to him was… if any. When I told him I wouldn’t know him if I fell over him, he apologized and got up and left. I remember feeling somewhat abused as I watched him go through the gate and out into the lobby.

When Lynda finally called I could tell she was a bundle of nerves from the sound of her voice. A concussion, broken jaw and nose, possible damage to her hearing on her left side and some broken ribs. She was awake but groggy and worried about her kids. She had expressed to someone that she was fearful that her ex-husband might try to take her kids. With all that went on in the morning I hadn’t thought about her kids and, in fact, if her parents had been notified. I asked Lynda but she didn’t know. If left me in sort of limbo. I was glad to have some information even though it raised more questions. After hanging up I got Bret’s attention and told him about Ruthe’s condition. With his wife being a nurse I was thinking that she might have some ‘connections’ at the hospital to get more news than what I had. He agreed to pursue it and promised to call me at home, one way or the other. Leaving the bank that afternoon I stopped to reflect on my day and knew it was one I’d never forget.

When I told Elle about it she focused on how and why and how I’d gotten involved with Ruthe and not on her condition. I had nothing to hide and using my grandfather’s advice…”Tell the truth and you’ll have nothing to forget.”, I explained and hoped she’d understand that I was just trying to be a nice guy. When I was finished I wasn’t sure where her mind was. It was while she was putting the kids to bed that Bret called. There was nothing more on Ruthe’s condition but he told me he’d made a few calls to friends in the police department who knew her ex-husband. They still hadn’t located him but was told they thought the attack was in retaliation for Ruthe having had him arrested for not paying child support. He’d spent a night in jail and raised quite a ruckus before his father bailed him out. Hearing that on top of what Bret had told me about the guy earlier in the day I couldn’t help but think that some things never change.

To be continued…