Tom's Workshop
Lately Tom had been dividing his time between working at the service station five days a week - he worked Saturdays but he took Wednesday off - and Alice. They had incredible sex every day. That took a couple of hours, not counting the time they spent in twin comas afterwards. They talked. They talked about everything - growing up, discovering their sexuality, their families, pets, the people they both knew in the very small town of Axlerod, movies and TV shows they liked, music, math, computers, theories of the Universe and future plans. A couple of times Tom repeated his favorite story about his grandmother's dying declaration. On her death bed, this woman had the presence of mind to tell him in her semi-grammatical grandmotherly way, "Sonny, I've lived a long time and there is one thing you need to know about life. Sex is the best part and it don't last forever. Get it while you can." Alice liked the story. She was grateful to grandmother Quick for pointing Tom in the right direction, so she never pointed out that she had heard about the horny old lady three or four times in their relatively brief relationship.
Future plans. Tom had pretty much decided to work for his Dad in the service station. He was mostly self-educated anyway and he was not interested in the social aspects of college. He figured that with his intelligence and talents he would get on fine. Alice was another story. She was already in the process of applying to colleges. She wanted to be a mathematician. The kind of mathematician she wanted to be would involve four years of undergraduate college and, probably, three years in a PhD program. After that she wanted to teach in a college somewhere and do research in an area of math that was so cool that she was not yet equipped to know what it might be. One thing they were firm about was, they would not be separated. Tom would follow Alice wherever she went to school. He could always get a job as a mechanic or even a computer programmer and support them both. They probably wouldn't need much money. After all, their main source of entertainment was free.
They were discussing the future when Mr. Elton knocked on the door of the garage. Alice opened the door to the workshop and let her Dad in.
"Good morning, Tom. Good morning, darling." He and Alice kissed. Tom just shook his hand. "You guys already found out something?"
"Yes, Henry." Henry had asked Tom to call him by his first name. Mr. Elton was too formal and Dad was a bit premature for Henry, at least. "The only real drug dealer in Axlerod is a guy in his early twenties named Chickie Watson. I have known Chickie for a long time. I figured I could wait until this morning to tell you. There wasn't much to be done last night anyway. I wanted to tell you that you didn't need to call out the SWAT team. Chickie is just an ordinary guy, not a gun-toting member of a drug cartel. I'm sure you can set him up and bust him without anyone getting hurt."
"I take it you have dealt with this Chickie professionally?"
"You know I have had some experience with drugs. It was always very casual and I don't touch them from week to week. In fact, since I only ever use some occasional marijuana, it might be legal in this state very soon."
"I'm not worried about your drug use, Tom. I know who you are. I would just ask you to be very careful since any connection between me and drugs could ruin me in this town."
"Henry, I would never do that to you. I know that if your daughter's boy friend was known to be a drug user it would look very bad for you."
"Tom", said Alice, "I want to tell Dad about Angela. That's the only way I can see to protect her."
"I think you are right, sweetheart."
"Ok, Dad, here it is. Angela was, by her own admission, a bad girl. Actually, I don't agree with her. I think she just made some very bad choices, as I have myself sometimes. Not Tom, of course. Tom is a very good choice."
"He is, Alice."
"The night Bill died Angela was having group sex with eight boys."
