Brent Stallworth sat up in bed, lazily thumbing through the remnants of his Sunday paper next to his wife, Luann, as he tried milking every bit of relaxation out of his weekend before turning out the lights and getting some shuteye before heading to work at the crack of dawn to start yet another week of extremly well paid slavery at the Pharmacudical Company he had given the last 27 years of his life to.
"Do you have the Funnies over on your side of the bed, Honey?" Brent quipped.
"No.. I think one of the boys took it off the kitchen table after dinner," Luann Stallworth replied without looking up from the romance novel she was nearly two thirds of the way through.
"Anything good in that book.. got to any good parts yet?" Brent curiously asked when he saw how engrossed his wife had become.
"Nothing you'd be interested in Old Man," Luann slyly shot back, feeling her insides get giddy, knowing the man she loved was peeking over her shoulder at the pages of the book like an emboldened young school boy.
Sensing his wife might be on the cusp of a little fun before bed, Brent decided it would be a good thing to keep her talking until she finally put the book down.
"I wonder how Tony Caldwell enjoyed the weekend at out beach house?" Brent matter of factly asked, trying to subtly tear his occupied wife's attention away from the story.
".. Who.. what... ?" Luann distractedly asked.
"Tony.. Tony Caldwell... from the sales division at the plant.. remember I told you a few weeks ago that I told Tony that him and his son, Malik, could go down to Myrtle Beach this weekend and stay at our place," Brent routinely reminded his wife. "You rememer him from the company picnic a few years back.. he was there with his ex-wife.. remember how all the other women there thought she was such a bitch. "
"Vaguely," Luann sighed. "I was the only sober person there that day.. you'd think I would remember everything. "
"Anyway.. I hope they had a good time," Luann continued. "I just hope they did a good job cleaning up the place.. Roxanne Ingle from the bank.. her and her Daughter asked if they could use the beachhouse next weekend... Roxanne's the one that just had one of her kidneys removed for that transplant with her Sister a few months back.. she was just looking for a weekend to get away from everything with her youngest Daughter whose starting college this Fall. "
"Yes Darling... I remember Roxanne from the Bank.. she didnt exactly stay sober either at your Christmas party last year if memory serves," Brent snidely interjected. "So what's the deal... her husband isn't going along.. what is it.. a vacation for him?"
"No," Luann snapped back, trying to keep herself from laughing a little. "That's rude.. like I said... her Daughter is getting ready to head off to college.. The University of Georgia I think.. Roxanne just wanted to spend some time with Tina before she leaves the nest... you know when our kids get to be that age.. you'll want to do the same thing. "
"You're probably right," Brent admitted as each returned their attention to the things they were reading.
"I just wished you would have reminded me about Tony having the place this weekend... I like to keep a record of who has the place in case something happens or gets broke," Luann said more to herself than her husband as she leaned over to the side of the bed and reached inside her purse to grab the date book she kept her random notes in.
Use to his wife babbling to herself when she was perusing her day calender in bed, Brent Stallworth thought it was kind of strange that Luann went stone cold silent when she opened the date book.
Looking to his left at his stoic wife, Brent asked her if everything was OK.
"You said... Tony... Caldwell... and his son... had the place this weekend.. right?" She cryptically asked.
"Yeah," Brent replied.
"UH-OH," Luann blankly stuttered. "I've got... Roxanne and Tina... down for this past weekend at the beach house.. I dont know why I thought it was next weekend.... there's got to be a mistake here somewhere.
Brent and Luann's stunned faces turned to face each other as they rested underneath several sections of scattered newspapers.
"Here it is Sunday and neither of them have called to tell us about the mixup," Brent soberly offered.
"Yeah... really," Luann agreed. "They're adults though... I'm sure they worked out something.... I just can't believe I made the mistake with the scheduling.... I'm sure I'll get a call from Roxanne tomorrow. "
"I'm sure Tony will have quite a story whe I see him at work tomorrow too," Brent added.
"I just can't believe neither one of them called," Luann mystifiedly shook her head as she contemplated the awkwardness that the two pairs must have endured.
_____________________________________
Tony Caldwell had been working as a salesman for Augusta, Georgia's Voss & Randolph Pharmacudicals for over 12 years and finally, at the age of 43, he had been able to steal away to the beach for the first time since he was a teenager.
He could have probably found time for a weekend getaway on numorous occassions in the six years since he had been divorced from his wife Patrice, but with the huge amounts of money he was paying her in alimony and child support, Tony's $75,000 a year salary never quite stretched as far as he hoped it would go.
With Malik turning 18 a few months earlier, the child support provision was removed and Tony finally decided to take one of his co-workers (Brent Stallworth) up on his offer to use the beach house that he had in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for a weekend.
The fact that Tony could also spend some quality male bonding time with Malik, away from the watchful eye of his Mother was another reason he had been anxious to get the weekend away from home. Tony continued to harbor an immense amount of guilt over the fact that his son had been forced to repeat the 7th grade back in 1996 because he had understandably lost focus when his parents' marraige was dissentigrating.
With both his Mom and Dad alternating between aloofness and anger for well over a year, Malik found himself straying, staying out late and falling in with the proverbial wrong crowd and it ended up costing him a year of school. Every since then, Tony had held himself accountable for not being the Father figure he should have been over those turmultuous years and this trip to the beach was a small way to gain a little of that lost time back while Malik was young enough to still appreciate it.
It would be a chance to talk about anything and everything, a chance to sail out on a fishing boat for the first time in either of their lives, a chance to watch and comment about the women on the beach together and most of all, just a chance to be a Father and a Son before the pressures of the adulthood tore Malik even further away.
By the time Tony Caldwell pulled his Izusu Trooper into the beach house's driveway at a little after 7pm that Friday night, he and his son were more than anxious to get out, stretch their legs and set up camp inside.
A little before 7:30 however, as Tony and Malik were unpacking their supplies for the weekend and making themselves at home, they were surprised when they watched a dark blue and well traveled Volvo pull into the driveway, directly beside their Trooper.
_____________________________________
But Tony and Malik weren't nearly as surprised as the occupants of that dark blue Volvo.
Roxanne Ingle and her 18 year old Daughter Tina had decided to steal away to Myrtle Beach for many of the same reasons Tony and Malik had.
With Tina preparing to start her Freshman year at the University of Georgia in the Fall, it was one of the last opportunities for Roxanne to spend some quality time with her youngest daughter before the nest was completly bare.
The weekend getaway also provided a rare opportunity for some rest and relaxation for Roxanne as she continued to heal from the surgery she had a few months earlier where she gave up one of her kidneys to help with her oldest sister's transplant.
By the time Roxanne Ingle pulled her blue Volvo onto the street that Brent Stallworth's vacation house was located, the two women were desperate to get out of the car, stretch their legs, take a much needed bathroom break, unpack and try to perhaps find a good sit down seafood meal before it got too late.
So when Roxanne and Tina saw the Izusu Trooper parked in the Stallworth's driveway, their first reaction was that one of the neighbors, thinking the house would be abandoned for the weekend, had allowed some of their guests to use it as a parking space.
After each woman grabbed her purse and a piece of luggage, Roxanne and Tina made their way up the walk towards the front door. Each of them stopped cold in their tracks however when they saw that the door was already half opened. Looking around, not knowing what really to do next, Mother and Daughter looked at each other pensivly before jointly deciding to move forward.
Once they got close enough to peek inside the partly opened door, Roxanne and Tina immediatly knew they had made a mistake when two rather tall and imposing black men met them in the entranceway.
_____________________________________
As the expected conflict played out between the two diametrically opposed factions, that had each driven all the way from Augusta, Georgia to Myrtle Beach with the sole intention of enjoying a weekend away from the hussle and bussle routine of home with someone close to them, finally a level of rational decision making started to take over.
Tony Caldwell was first to make the offer of getting another place to stay for the weekend eventhough he did subtly interject several times the age old concept of 'squatter's rights' considering he and Malik had gotten to the beach house first.
Knowing she couldn't argue with Tony's reasoning on that point, Roxanne was on the verge of making a counter offer to get a motel room for her and Tina before the awful thought of having to explain a credit card charge for a motel on her husband's credit card statement and the mixup that went with it flashed uncomfortably in the older woman's mind.
With the beach condo having 4 bedrooms, each party finally came to the rational and well thought out conclusion that there was enough space for everyone for two days considering Tony and Malik would be gone all day Saturday on a fishing charter and Tina and Roxanne would be spending some time on the beach as well as checking out the many shops lining the waterfront.
After helping each other unpack, both parties retired to seperate parts of the house to catch their breath and re-evaluate their expectations for the weekend.
___________________________________
Tina and her Mother retired upstairs to Roxanne's room.
