CHAPTER 7
It didn't take long for Screw Tooth Bill to pop open an icy cold can of Schlitz beer from the fridge. He was just seven years away from retirement and now this termination nonsense over some lousy mail boxes he had plowed over at four O'clock in the morning. How had he been caught anyway? Who was up at that hour to witness such a thing? He kicked back in his flea infested lazy boy he had found thrown out along the curb and propped his feet up when he heard a knock at the door. It was the usual rat-a-tat-tat old school knock.
Bill sprung to his feet without the slightest clue who could be at his door. He hadn't invited anybody over and it was way too early for one of the grand kids to pop in on him for a surprise visit after school. Bill was tall and when he answered the door he was looking down at a full mop of strawberry blond hair. The nineteen year old fellow looked up at him and Bill immediately recognized him but could not remember his name.
"Hey I remember you! You're that kid that was doing that book signing down at the library...did you really write that story all by yourself?"
Jeremiah sullenly nodded his head. "Yep...100% all my work...unfortunately not many people wanted to read a story about a gifted young boy growing up fatherless being raised by demented homeless men and living in a junk yard."
Bill smirked,"Really? Sounds kind of interesting. If I wasn't ADHD I might have tried to read it....what happens in the story?"
Jeremiah was so short he felt like talking to Bill was like trying to talk to a cat stuck up in a tree. "Well...the young boy never goes to school and spends all his free time tinkering with stuff from the junk yard. He starts to notice throughout life that the majority of the homeless people are men and he starts to feel a certain way about it."
Bill couldn't help but have sudden interest in the boy's story.
"Really? Well how so?"
Jeremiah giggled. "So bad in a way that he uses his mechanical engineering gift that he had to build a time machine, go back in time and have a serious talk with Susan B Anthony's husband about his wife's aftermath concerning her power trips."
Bill had taken a sip of Schlitz while listening and he nearly choked on it as hearing the word "power trip" caused the bubbly stuff to go down the wrong hole. He pointed his long finger right at Jeremiah while scrunching up his right eye.
"Boy lemme tell ya something...a story as wild as that will sell for sure...however....I don't feel you came over here to discuss you're book...what can I do for ya bud?"
Jeremiah bit his lip. "You're right...I didn't....I work for Miller Enterprise now. Bob Miller sent me out here to talk to you. He really wants to meet you but he's kind of shy."
Right away Bill flung his hands up and took a step back.
"Whoah , Whoah , slow down son! Ain't no such thing as a gay garbage man...Bill here walks the straight and narrow."
Jeremiah looked up at him and smiled. "No funny man, Mr.Miller isn't gay either. He's filthy rich but he really needs you for something."
Bill crossed his eyes. "Son I think you have me confused with someone else....I just told you...I'm the garbage man! The high school drop out garbage man! Ain't no rich mutha sucka want to chit chat with me!"
Jeremiah pleaded with him. "Sir that's my point exactly. You've been a garbage man for like ten years right?"
"Yeah so?"
"Bob Miller is a very cautious and careful man. He doesn't feel comfortable googling things. He says garbage men are the most knowledgable and most powerful men in the world."
Bill suddenly recalled the agent storming into his termination ceremony at his work. "Hey wait a minute kid...I remember now...this got something to do with that stranger in a dark suit storming in on me at work and handing me that business card with a bunch of numbers on it?"
Jeremiah curtly nodded his head. "That's our special agent....he probably didn't talk much cuz he's a deaf mute ...he's our messenger."