Chapter 5
Twenty-four years had passed.
The outskirts of the town of Burkeville, Pennsylvania, had spread adding twenty thousand new residents. The town changed and expanded its boundaries on the southern side of Primrose. That area included some new small businesses and stores that included a Walmart with two smaller industries.
The western expansion was restricted because of Lake Willow. Nothing had changed except for new wooden benches were installed five years ago.
The University of Burkeville had some minor additions and expansions. Student enrollments have doubled as it had established itself at an excellent institution of learning across the country.
A new neighborhood was built in the late eighties and was located in the southeastern area of Burkeville on the south side of Primrose.
It was ten that evening on Friday, June 9th, 1995.
The University of Burkeville was void of students, as the only activity was the janitorial staff doing their duty of keeping the campus clean.
On the first floor, Darin, now forty-one years old, pushed a cleaning cart down the hallway. His cart always had one squeaky wheel that you could hear him coming for miles. He would lubricate it, but that would only last for a few days. So Darin gave up, and the squeaking sound went in one ear and out the other.
Darin was one of those janitors employed by the university. The dean of the university insisted his janitorial staff wear a uniform with gray pants and a gray shirt. It had a patch on the shirt with the janitor’s name above the left pocket and the university emblem above the right pocket.
Darin remained tall and lanky as he aged. He hadn’t changed much and still had long hair that he kept in a ponytail. His hair was no longer blonde and turned dishwater blonde with some streaks of gray. Even though he hated keeping his hair in a ponytail while n high school, he didn’t mind it while he worked as a janitor. He also grew a beard twenty years ago, and he lacked the luster for life.
Even though he was forty-one years old, he looked ten years older, twenty-three years of smoking and eating a bad diet. His pearly whites had started to decay ten years ago, and he was in dire need of a super cleaning at the dentist office.
After Darin survived his suicide attempt back in June 1971, he was drafted into the Army in that following September. During basic, Darin learned that the square needle in the left nut was just a rumor to scare the recruits. He was so relieved.
After basic and Infantry training, Darin like so many other young men were sent off to the jungles of Vietnam. Darin was lucky even though he was one of the few that could care less he was killed; he survived the horror of that conflict.
After getting discharged from the Army in 1973, Darin returned home to Burkeville. He moped around his parent’s house for a few months. Then with the help of Jimmy Newton, who felt sorry for Darin, he landed a job as a janitor at the university. It wasn’t the university job he wanted two years earlier, but he didn’t have the desire to pursue a history degree. So he gave up on his dream job of being a history professor. Jimmy had Dr. Ervin Bowman help get Darin this job. Jimmy hoped that maybe Darin would get the desire to use his VA educational loan and get his degree after being around the classrooms. Well after twenty-four years of cleaning the university, that theory didn’t pan out. So he moped through the motions day in and day out and gave up on a happy life.
Darin was on the first floor and pushed his cleaning car to the freight elevator at the backend of the building.
Darin took the freight elevator down to the basement.
After the doors to the elevator opened, he pushed the car down the basement to where the janitor’s office was located at the far end.
While he pushed the cart to the office, he went past a locked door off to his right. That door had the “Restricted Access – Authorized Personnel Only” sign on it.
Darin was always curious as what was so behind that secretive door that Physic professor Dr. Ervin Bowman kept locked. He always thought Dr. Bowman was an odd duck even though he was a brilliant man.
Dr. Bowman was often seen leaving his secret room late on Friday night while Darin put his cleaning cart away.
Darin relaxed in the janitor’s office that had shelves that contained cleaning supplies and an old government gray metal desk. He kicked his work boots up on the top of the desk then removed a pack of Marlboro cigarettes from his shirt pocket. He removed a cigarette and lit it.
He opened up this right bottom desk drawer. He reached under some old university newsletters and removed a small bottle of Jack Daniels.
He smoked and took an occasional sip of bourbon while he waited for his shift to end in fifteen minutes.
He heard footsteps coming down the basement from the direction of the elevator.
He hid hit bottle of Jack Daniels back in the desk drawer and sat up in the chair.
“Archer,” said Elmer Johnson, his supervisor, while he walked up to the doorway of the office.
Elmer was a fifty-nine-year-old fat lazy slob that had worked at the university for the past twenty-eight years.
“Yeah.”
Elmer walked into the office, and he didn’t look happy as usual. “Get your ass back up the third-floor men’s room. You missed cleaning one of the toilets. It overflowed,” he said then turned around and walked away.
Darin flipped Elmer off behind his back. “Fat asshole,” he quietly said, as he knew the reason it overflowed was that Elmer was probably up there taking a dump. Darin knew he left that bathroom spotless.
He grabbed his cleaning cart, wheeled it out of the office and down the basement.
Forty minutes had passed, and Darin finally clocked out and headed back home in his white with red interior 1975 Chevrolet Impala Convertible. This car was rusty, and the convertible top had rips that were repaired with gray duct tape. But on Darin’s salary, this was all he could afford.
Darin drove his Impala with a freshly lit Marlboro in his mouth to the northern area of Burkeville to the Oak Paradise mobile home park.
He parked next to his wife’s red 1976 Chevrolet Monza at his 1982 Fleetwood mobile home.
He got out of his Impala, dropped his Marlboro butt into the dirt, and smashed it with his work boot. He went to the trunk of his Impala, opened it up, and removed a case of Rolling Rock bottled beer. He bought it on the way to work earlier today.
He went inside his trailer that had old furniture, and the place reeked of cigarette smoke. In fact, the once white ceiling now had a light brown tinge to it because of the nicotine that filled the air.
Darin saw his wife sitting on the couch with her feet propped up on the coffee table watching Nash Bridges on the TV.
The party girl from high school Tiffany Barnes was now Darin’s wife. She finally won her desire when in July of 1974 Tiffany caught Darin at a week moment. He was there at Lake Willow to watch the sunset like he did so many times with Sheryl. Tiffany knew Darin hung out at the lake and decided to fulfill her plan. She bought some joints and talked him into smoking. Since Darin still wasn’t over Sheryl’s death, he decided to get stoned.
So after Darin was stoned, Tiffany made her move. She sweet-talked him into getting naked with her. He had her doggiestyle on the bench and finished within a few minutes.
She got pregnant, and Henry insisted he marry Tiffany. After all, Henry’s supervisor was Tiffany’s father, so he strongly insisted Darin do the right thing and married the girl. He tied the knot on November 16th, 1974. And for the first couple of years, sex with Tiffany was great, and she loved to experiment and be kinky. Even though sex with Tiffany was great, Darin routinely thought about Sheryl and how much he missed her.
Tiffany had changed but not for the better as her body was skinnier. Her once perky breasts were now flabby and saggy. Her once tight shapely butt cheeks were also saggy. Her long black hair was a little thinner with more strands of gray than black. Her vibrant, sexy body was long gone. Plus her once pearly whites started to decay years ago along with Darin.
“Did you get beer?” she said with now a raspy voice from smoking since she was fifteen. She coughed up a bit of phlegm and didn’t take her eyes off her TV show.
Darin held up the case of Rolling Rock beer. “I did.”
Tiffany smiled. “Come to momma,” she said while motioning that she desperately needed a beer.
Darin placed the case on the small kitchen table, opened it up, and removed a bottle.
He walked over to Tiffany.
She grabbed the bottle, opened it up, coughed another raspy wet cough then took a much-needed gulp of beer.
She went back to watching Nash Bridges while Darin placed the rest of the beer in the refrigerator in the small kitchen.
Darin grabbed a Rolling Rock and one of the packs of Marlboro’s. He set the other pack on the small kitchen table and headed outside.
Once Darin got outside his trailer, he went one of the two wooden Adirondack chairs.
He sat down and opened up his Rolling Rock beer. He removed a Marlboro from his pack and lit it. He smoked and drank his beer while enjoying the nighttime summer air. He loved this time alone late at night.
He suddenly heard Tiffany singing from inside the trailer. She sang along with the Bruce Springsteen song Born in the USA, and she was awful. Darin cringed and hated it when she sang. He sure missed hearing Sheryl’s sweet singing voice. Please quit singing! He yelled out in his head while she sang louder. Fucking booze. He also thought as she did this after numerous beers.
An hour had passed, and Darin finished his fourth Rolling Rock and third Marlboro.
He sat there and stared at the quarter Moon in the clear sky. He hated his life. But knew he had nowhere to go. His job as a janitor sucked, but it was a job.
Darin polished off his beer and decided it was time for bed.
He went inside the trailer and saw Tiffany sound asleep on the couch. Six empty beer bottles were on top of the coffee table.
He walked over to the TV and turned it off.
He turned off the lights to the living room and headed down the hallway to his bedroom.
Darin plopped on his bed and went fast asleep.
Hours after Darin was asleep, he started to dream.
In Darin’s dream, he got out of a new red with red interior 1995 Chevrolet Corvette that he parked in the driveway of a charming middle-class home.
Darin got out of the Corvette with a briefcase, and he wore a nice tweed suit. He walked to the front door of the house and went inside.
“Hi, honey, I’m home,” he called out.
“Daddy!” called out two young voices.
A young girl blonde hair and a young boy with blonde hair ran up to Darin and gave him a kiss on his cheek.
A beautiful and sexy woman suddenly appeared with blonde hair walked over and gave Darin a kiss on his cheek.
While Darin kissed this woman, he felt his crotch being fondled. It felt good. He suddenly felt his pants being lowered while he kissed that woman.
Darin woke from up from his dream to find his pants were, in fact, lowered along with his boxers. It took him a few seconds to realize he was no longer dreaming. He looked down and saw the top of Tiffany’s head while she started to give him a blowjob. She still loved doing that after all these years. While Tiffany used her mouth on Darin, he closed his eyes and thought about that beautiful sexy woman he dreamt about. It didn’t take him long to finish.
Darin stripped out of his clothes and slept in his boxers and tee shirt. He and Tiffany lay on their sides with their backs pressed together. They were both soon sound asleep snoring.