FOR FOLLOWERS OF THE MOTHER ROAD SERIES:
This is not a linear chapter from the Mother Road series. Instead, it's a more detailed look at the relationship of Walter and Dotty which bloomed during the events of Mother Road Chapter 5 -- One For The Road, and Mother Road Chapter 6 -- Mile Marker 10. Since my Muse RiverMaya enjoys the series and characters so much, I wrote this specifically for her. If anyone else happens to like it, well, that's just icing on the cake.
FOR NEW READERS:
Mother Road 5 & 6 introduced Laura McFarland's lookalike younger sister Dorothy "Dotty" Harmon, 43, and her 5-year-old son Trent, who enter the story being pursued by Dotty's abusive and drug-dealing husband Sonny.
Mother Road 5 & 6 also brought back 6'4", 250+ pound ex-mob enforcer (now 50 and retired), Walter Connor, who was instrumental in bringing Olivia's baby daddy Brad back to his senses back in Mother Road Chapter 2 -- Dangerous Curves. (To this day Walter swears he had nothing to do with Brad's classic 1994 C4 model Corvette catching fire, and I, for one, believe him.)
As fate would have it, when Dotty's tweaker husband came to take back his son Trent by force, Walter intervened, meeting and falling for Dotty in the process. Dotty's green eyes immediately captured the heart of longtime bachelor Walter, just like Laura's eyes captured Tom's heart back in the original Mother Road timeline 15 years prior.
This is a more detailed story of how Walter and Dotty's relationship grew. As Walter once said, "it's just like that Julio and Juliet story".
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Walter Connor
My first home was Mucci's Pizza Palace in Kansas City. Well, to be accurate, it was the dumpster behind Mucci's, which is where they found me after I'd been abandoned as a small week-old newborn -- if 18 pounds can be considered small. I don't know much about babies.
I was adopted by the fireman that found me, Gerald Connor. He and his wife Jackie were my parents until he was killed by a burning house that fell on him. I was 3 years old. After that, my mom fell into a crippling depression and was institutionalized.
Back then there was no such things as anti-depressant meds, instead they just locked you up in the looney bin and that was that. Since my mom was no longer able to care for me, I ended up relinquished to the foster care system in the State of Kansas. I never saw her again.
I was in foster care until my 18th birthday. Lucky for me, I was a big kid, always off the top of the age charts for height and weight. I was quiet and shy, but in grade school and high school, fucking nobody picked on me. Anybody who tried found out how strong I was, quick. Anybody messed with me, I hurt them. Simple.
Sure, I got suspended a few times, but didn't care. I never had any girlfriends or nothing. I had no money for dates anyway, so I stayed home a lot. On my 18th birthday, I was kicked out of foster care with a duffel bag of old clothes and about $18 bucks in my pocket. I had nowhere to go, so I joined the Army.
I didn't make it through basic training because I couldn't do pull-ups or run any distance. One thing I could do, though, was shoot. I always got the best marksmanship scores on the rifle range, and by a lot, not a little. My ambition was to be an Army sniper, but because I didn't meet the physical requirements, I was discharged. I mean, everybody knows snipers don't run, they lay in hiding for days at a time to take that one-in-a-million shot, right? Fucking Army assholes.
I was pretty angry for about a year afterwards. If I happened to be in a bar and saw a guy in an Army uniform, I'd pick a fight and beat the shit out of him. I never lost. Physical requirements, my ass. Fucking Army assholes.
I'd been discharged for about 18 months and working for cash as a bouncer and living in a run-down hotel. Coming home one night, I heard a noise in the alley behind my hotel. Two guys were beating up this skinny kid. I ran up and made short work of those assholes. I beat them to a pulp, then took their wallets and some cash envelopes what was in their pockets for good measure.
Looking back now, what I did was fucking nuts. I shoulda been more careful, they could have had guns. Then again, I was always angry, so it probably wouldn't have made no difference. I was so pissed off, I felt bulletproof.
The kid told me his name was Eddie. He was beat pretty bad, so I told him I'd walk with him to make sure he made it home safe. We walked a few blocks into a warehouse, and there was a bunch of tough-looking guys in there. They was all wearing nice suits.
Turns out Eddie was a runner for a local mob boss, 'Quiet Sal' Bartolo. Eddie was on his route making cash pickups when he got jumped, which is when I stepped in. I give them the money I took off the punks. The suit guys asked me if I had a job. I said no. They told me I had one now, working for Mr. Bartolo.
For 30 years, I did whatever needed doing. I never had to kill nobody, but I collected a lot of payments and roughed guys up when it was necessary. After a few years, I even stopped being angry. One time Mr. Bartolo asked me to help a friend of his, Tom McFarland, who had a problem in Oklahoma. His daughter Olivia had gotten knocked up by a fucking frat boy who turned his back on her, the rat bastard.
Long story short, we scared the crap out of the frat boy, enough so the kid finally come around and did the right thing by Tom's daughter and married her. Mr. Bartolo sent me to their receptions to deliver a new minivan as a wedding gift, and that's when I met Tom's wife Laura.
Laura was one of the most beautiful women I ever seen, red hair and freckles and a nice figure. When she and Tom danced at the reception, I could see there was something special between them. I decided someday I'd be in love with a woman just like her.
Over the years I never had no girlfriend, the only women I'd ever had sex with were rented, but when I seen what Tom and Laura had, that's what I wanted too. It took 15 years, but I finally ended up with a woman as beautiful as Tom's wife - her sister, Dotty.
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Dotty Terhune Harmon
I'm Dorothy Harmon, the fifth child of Silas and Ruth Terhune's fourteen children, but everybody that knows me calls me Dotty. Of fourteen kids, there were ten of us Terhune girls and we all looked like our mother - red hair, turned up nose, and freckles, but we all inherited our father's deep green eyes.
I was the last of my siblings to leave the house. Everybody else had moved out, but I stayed and took care of our mother and father until they died. After they passed, I was married for 6 years to Sonny Harmon and we had a 5-year-old son, Trent.
When Sonny got into drugs and became abusive to me, I thought about leaving. When he became abusive to Trent, I took my son and ran away. I spent a few days hiding at a battered women's shelter, mostly using the shelter's computer to find my siblings to see if they could help.
By this time, most had scattered as far away from our hometown of Rankin, Texas as possible. The closest one I could find was my oldest sister Laura, in Wellston, Oklahoma. That's where I headed, and that's where I met the true love of my life, Walter.
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Walter
I was 50 years old when Mr. Bartolo told me I was officially retired. I was the oldest of his crew, all the others were in their 20s and 30s, and I wasn't getting around as fast as when I was younger, my knees bothered me sometimes. With nothing to do, to keep myself busy I went into business with Tom McFarland, advising his architectural clients on security systems. It made sense when he proposed the idea. It takes a thief to catch a thief, right?
One day, Tom called me for help. Personal help, not business help. Turns out his sister-in-law Dotty and her kid were hiding on his farm from her abusive ex-husband, and the stupid meth-head had somehow tracked her down. He'd come out to the farm and ordered Tom to hand Dotty and his kid over. Tom told him to fuck off; knowing the guy would be back, though, he called me for advice. I came out, and that's when I met Dotty.
I'm not too good with words, and when I saw Dotty all I could manage was "nice to meet you," or something, and I mumbled about how she and Laura looked like sisters. Which they did, very much so. Dotty was a younger version of Laura, a little thinner in her face, but those deep green eyes were the same. I couldn't stop looking at her until her son ran into the kitchen. He was a little guy, barely taller than my damned kneecap.
Dotty introduced us, telling him that I'd come to help Uncle Tom and Aunt Laura in case his Daddy tried to take him away and hurt him. Having grown up with no one to ever defend me, I decided right away that there was no fucking way anyone would touch this boy as long as I was drawing breath.
I knelt down and told him, "Don't be scared, little guy. I'm on your side. You know how sometimes you think there are monsters under your bed? I'm the guy the monsters are scared of. Nobody's gonna hurt you as long as I'm here." I meant it. I've always been a man of my word. Ask anybody I worked with, if Walter Connor says he's gonna do something, it fucking gets done.
The boy wrapped his little arms around my arm and told Dotty he wanted me to stay. When Tom and I stepped outside to talk about security arrangements, still in shock, I told him, "Tom, that little boy hugged me. He doesn't even know me, but he trusted me. Just like that."
Tom answered me, "Yeah, Walter, just like that. Kids can be good judges of character. He could see you're a good man."
I asked him, "Is this what it feels like, being a dad?" Turns out, yeah, it was.
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Dotty
When Walter walked into the kitchen, it took my breath away. My first impressions were, first, he was ruggedly handsome. Clean-shaven and square jawed, with salt-and-pepper hair, this was a man, not a boy. Second, he was huge, easily a foot taller than me. Dressed in a black suit, blue silk shirt and gray tie, he was a physically fine package. Then Trent ran in.
Having never seen anyone as tall as Walter, Trent instantly clung to my leg in fear. I tried to reassure him that Mr. Connor was here to help us, so he didn't need to be scared. I was stunned when Walter knelt down and gently spoke to Trent, promising him no one was going to hurt him.
This giant of a man was speaking to my 5-year-old son on his level, calming him and letting him know he was safe. That's when I began to fall hard for with Walter Connor.
Walter had no clue of course, but at that moment I decided I wanted him in my bed, and to have his babies. Hell, Momma had fourteen, Laura was on her tenth, I knew I could handle whatever number of kids he threw at me. Now, the only barrier was if he was feeling the same way.
He and Tom stepped out of the house; when Tom came back inside, I discreetly asked about Walter, if he had mentioned me at all. Tom was blunt, "He didn't need to say anything, Dotty. In case you couldn't read his reaction, those damned Terhune family eyes of yours got his attention."
Then he went on to warn me, "Walter may be older, but he's never been in a real relationship. If you want to get to know him, you might have to help him with the words to express his feelings."
