By this time they pulled into a parking lot adjoining a huge strip mall that featured a K-Mart sitting square in the middle. “Come on Rudolph, we have got some shopping to do,” Douglas said as he parked the car between a pick-up truck and an older model Ford that happened to be near the front and almost half way between the doors marked ‘Entrance and Exit’.
For almost an hour the two shopped in what seemed to be every department in the largest store Rudolph had ever seen, much less been in. Tommy quickly determined Rudolph’s sizes and tore through the racks of shirts and pants finding at least six shirts and just as many jeans and khaki pants. He found a heavy jacket, a couple of sweatshirts and several packages which included under shorts, T-shirts and socks. Next they went to the shoe department where Tommy picked out a pair of work type shoes and a pair of tennis shoes made by a company in China or some other foreign country. As soon as Tommy was satisfied Rudolph had enough clothes he was off to what Rudolph called the drug store part of the giant K-Mart. In this area Tommy quickly threw soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, a comb/hairbrush set and though Rudolph had only shaved a few times Tommy added shaving cream, a razor and some Aqua Velva aftershave into the now overflowing shopping cart. “Can you think of anything else you need”, Tommy asked Rudolph as they headed for the long row of checkout registers. “No sir,” Rudolph was using words he never used before, hoping it would keep the dream alive for just a while longer. Rudolph was amazed; he could not believe his eyes. He had never seen a store this big, he had never seen this much merchandise for sale under one roof and never dreamed one person could ever buy this much ‘stuff’ at one time. The best part was that it was all for him, Rudolph Crumpton, the dumb kid from Matewan, West Virginia. It seemed like it took forever for the lady at the cash register to go through each piece and add each price to the growing stream of paper running through the top of her register. All the time Rudolph was sure when she finally had a total and told Tommy how much it was he was going to scream in panic and run out of the store leaving him standing there to explain how all this ‘stuff’ had gotten to the check-out lane in the first place. Rudolph was literally holding his breath when the lady finally hit the total button and the numbers flashed on the screen at the top of the register. One hundred seventy-four dollars and seventy-eight cents ($174.78), Rudolph could not breathe or even look. The next thing he knew Tommy was peeling two one hundred dollar bills away from a roll he pulled from his pocket and handing them to the lady at the register. As he received his change from the lady he turned to Rudolph and handed him two sacks the sack boy had not been able to get on the once empty shopping cart and motioned for Rudolph to carry the bags while he pushed the cart now full of Rudolph’s new ‘stuff’.
By the time Tommy and Rudolph unloaded the shopping cart and Rudolph returned the cart to the cart lane, and both men were in the car ready to leave, the tough little kid from the coalmines of West Virginia was wiping tears from his eyes. Rudolph did not want Tommy to see him cry but never in his nearly sixteen years had anyone ever been so kind or spent so much money on him. Tommy had the kid exactly where he wanted him and he knew this kid was going to return his investment many times over. Tommy had just set the bait on a catch that would be paying dividends for years to come. Tommy could see the day when he would be moving into sales and management exclusively and Rudolph would be the muscle and brawn for all the work Tommy could bring in.
Tommy hurried Rudolph back to Maxine’s boarding house and helped him take all the bags into the house and up to his room. No one was around when the two hauled what seemed like a dozen big shopping bags into the house and to the room Roxanne and Agnes had shown him earlier. “It gets quite around here this time of the afternoon,” Tommy told Rudolph, “the girls are supposed to be cleaning and getting supper ready but I think they take a nap before starting to cook. You’re going to love the food here, they make it their mission to see that you are full every time you leave the table,” Tommy said smiling at Rudolph like he was onto a big secret between the women. The two piled all the bags onto Rudolph’s new bed and Tommy turned to go back through the door. “I’ll pick you up around 9:00 tonight,” Tommy told Rudolph as he started down the hallway and back to the front steps. “You try on your new clothes and get everything put up before they call you for supper and I’ll see you later,” with that Tommy was gone. Rudolph did not want to take anything out of the bags. He sat down on the edge of the bed and just felt each bag over and over. He savored the smell of new clothes; he handled the comb and brush, opened the Aqua Velva bottle and smelled the sharp but wonderful smell of the bright blue liquid inside. All this was more than he had ever owned in his life. A few times he could remember having one new pair of jeans or maybe a new pair of gym shoes every now and then, but never more than one of anything at one time. The only hard sole shoes he ever owned were shoes that his mother salvaged from the little outreach mission in Matewan or handed down from his dad or some distant cousin he never knew or even saw. All this was his, bought for him, for only him to use and he was totally involved with every item he touched and clung to. Rudolph had a fleeting thought about grabbing everything on his bed and running as far away as he could get so no one could ever take it away from him. After over an hour he began to carefully place each item in the chest he examined earlier. He carefully hung each shirt on its own hanger he found in the hanging part of the closet. With the same care he hung each pair of pants in the same closet on separate hangers all with the tags still fastened exactly as he had seen them in the store. He neatly arranged the toiletries in the top drawers, leaving comb and brush in the plastic container they came in, only removing the scotch tape that held clear plastic cover in place. Even the toothbrush was left in the little plastic tube it came in and he neatly placed the toothpaste next to the new toothbrush. After he finished placing everything where he thought it should go he folded each of the big shopping bags stuffed them into one and shoved them under the bed in case someone came to reclaim his treasures and return them to the store he just came from. With everything in the places he thought they should go he left the doors to the hanging section open where he could see and still smell all his new possessions. He lay down on the bed and simply stared in amazement at what this day had brought. Rudolph had apparently fallen asleep because the next thing he knew was when he was startled awake by the sound of either Roxanne or Agnes’s voice coming from a woman standing above him telling him to wake up. The room was much darker than when he and Tommy returned. “Wake up honey,” the voice said, “you better get them feet off Miss Maxine’s bed and get yo’self cleaned up fo supper.” “Miss Maxine ain’t gonna like no boy dirty as you sittin at her table and we bout to eat in :20 minutes.” “Yes mam,” was all he could get out before the woman was out the door and gone. Rudolph jumped up and quickly made an inventory of all his new possessions before trying to continue the conversation with the quickly disappearing figure heading down the hallway toward bathroom and the back stairs. Quickly shaking the cobwebs out of his head, Rudolph took a bar of soap from the pack of three, a wash cloth from a pack of six, a towel, his new comb and headed for the bathroom. He quickly peeled the flannel work shirt he had worn for four days off and gave himself what his mother always called a sponge bath. He was still wearing his old work suit pants he had taken from his uncle and the old work shoes he inherited from his dad but at least his upper body was relatively clean. He combed his hair for the first time since he left Kentucky, tried the Right Guard deodorant Tommy insisted he pickup in the store and even tabbed a little Aqua Velva on his face. Tommy could not believe the way he smelled. He had only smelled one man that smelled as good as he did that night and that was Mr. Bud Brown, the man at the funeral home in Matewan in charge of his father’s funeral. He picked out one of his new collared long sleeve shirts, pulled it out of the closet and took it off the hanger he earlier placed it so carefully on just an hour or so earlier. He checked himself in the mirror above the dresser and smiled at the thought of wearing a brand new shirt while knowing five more were still hanging in the little closet he just recently stocked.
By the time he finished he heard either Agnes or Roxanne calling from downstairs for everyone to come to dinner, and to come right now, it was time to eat.
(to be con't)
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