My thanks to Omegapet-58 for the beta read and suggestions.
Copyright© 2024 by offkilter123
Four Days Ago
Perry "Plaid Jacket" Jackson (known to friends and family as PJ) looked appraisingly at his car lot (Plaid Jacket Jackson's Superior Cars and Trucks) from the sidewalk that ran parallel to the street in front of his dealership. PJ was constantly moving inventory around the lot and playing with different looks. You had to keep the place looking fresh and inviting. As the owner of the largest independent car dealership in Central Texas, PJ had an obligation to his customers and his community to present a positive image. He had learned that from his father, the previous Plaid Jacket Jackson.
PJ knew there were serious cracks in the foundation of his life and that those cracks would have to be dealt with sooner rather than later. PJ hated change as much as the next person and the thought of the changes that he was contemplating making, left him feeling unsettled and morose; two feelings to which he was unaccustomed. To take his mind off the tempest forming on the horizon, PJ reorganized the front sales lot.
Plaid Jacket Jackson's Superior Cars and Trucks was founded in the late '60s by PJ's grandfather, Peter. After spending a few years trying (and failing) to win over the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese people as part of Special Forces A-Team, Peter, had found himself back home in Jackson City, Texas, flush with cash and a limp in his left leg, courtesy of a 7.62mm round from an AK47.
Jackson City was located in Jackson County, about an hour's drive northwest of Austin, Texas. Founded by PJ's ancestor, Jeremiah "Buckskin Jacket" Jackson in the 1830s Jackson City had grown into a sleepy little village. Peter had looked around and had seen the future and had decided that, although Jackson City was a sleepy little village now, that would not always be the case. As Austin spread due to the University of Texas and the fact that Austin was the state capital, there would come a time when Jackson City would grow exponentially. Peter had to find a business that would grow as well. He knew cars and he knew killing, and although you could make a living with either one, he figured selling cars was the safer, smarter long-term play. So, he bought an existing car lot; a small dirt lot with "we tote-the-note" and "buy here, pay here" signs in abundance.
Peter's first upgrade was paving the lot so it was no longer a dirt lot. Peter's second upgrade was hiring Lara Pulver as a full-time salesman, although she kept referring to herself as a sales
person
. Lara was a gorgeous strawberry blonde with long legs and a high, firm bustline. A recent graduate of UT, she was unsure about what she wanted out of life. Although she had taken education classes at UT to become a school teacher, the more time she spent around kids as a student teacher, the less the idea of teaching appealed to her. What she never imagined was that she would be selling used cars. What she imagined even less was that she would marry the owner of a used car lot. Peter was six years older than Lara with a whole lifetime worth of cynicism after his time in Vietnam. But she brought out the absolute best in him and he loved her like he didn't believe it was possible to love someone else. They were a formidable team.
As time went on, Peter and Lara had a son, a boy they named Philip, followed by a daughter they named Penny. As Philip and Penny grew, so did Jackson City. Art galleries and cafes had sprouted as people discovered Jackson City and it was quickly becoming a bedroom community for the Texas state capital. As Jackson City grew, the car lot did not quite keep pace. Peter knew that although car sales were good, they should have been better.
Peter's father, Thomas, known as "Field Jacket" Jackson had been an infantry officer during WWII. He had seen action all over Europe and had come back to America with a chest full of medals and a German war bride. There is a strong Germanic culture and influence in Central Texas, so Bette Jackson was made to feel at home in her new land. Both children, Philip and Penny bore their mother's blonde hair and Germanic looks.
Peter eventually came to realize that working harder at the dealership was not getting him anywhere so he asked his father to meet with him to see if he had any ideas. They met at the Jackson County Country Club, where Field Jacket was not only a member but one of the directors.
Peter explained the situation and asked his father if he had any ideas about how to increase business. Thomas thought for a minute as he leaned back and sipped on his bourbon.
"Take a look around you, son. These are your potential customers. What do you see? Why would they drive to your dealership instead of another one? What would bring them in to see you?"
Peter had looked around the dining room. At that time, coats and ties were still required in the dining rooms of private clubs. It was the seventies and garish plaids and loud colors were the rule rather than the exception, when it came to men's suits and sport coats; especially at a golf country club. It also seemed to Peter that most of the clothes worn by the members of the country club were made from some sort of petroleum by-product instead of natural fibers. As Peter looked around the dining room, he had a flash of inspiration. He knew what Jacket to wear.
"You've given me an idea, Dad," Peter said. "I'll let you know how it pans out."
And Plaid Jacket Jackson's Superior Cars and Trucks was born. Taking a cue from a character named Herb Tarlek on a popular 1970s sitcom who claimed he purchased his clothes at a golf pro shop in Lexington, Kentucky, Peter soon began garishly dressing as a caricature of a used car salesman. Using himself in the ads and marketing and wearing the most outlandish sport coats he could find; Plaid Jacket Jackson became an icon in Central Texas. His commercials were funny and ridiculous. Peter was not afraid to poke fun at himself and refused to take himself or his commercials seriously.
And business exploded.
As his son Philip got older and began to take an interest in the business, Peter began to get sick. It wasn't long before he found out the cause of his sickness. The limp wasn't the only thing he brought back from Vietnam; Peter had been exposed to Agent Orange while in-country. As Peter became sicker, he began to turn the business over to Philip who with his mother, Lara's assistance was able to carry on with business as usual and without missing a step.
Penny married during her senior year in high school after being impregnated by her boyfriend, a starting linebacker for the Jackson City High School Jaguars named Brett who also happened to be her fourth cousin. After five years of marriage and a six-year break between kids, they would go on to have a total of three children before Penny's husband left to pick up a six-pack of beer, never to return. Penny barely noticed that her husband was gone, and truthfully, the only person who did miss him was his father Tig Jacket Jackson, and that was only because Brett was a genius at laying down a bead weld in the family-owned machine shop.
Philip was also married by then, with two small children while also trying to manage a car dealership. Philip had married a local girl, Wendy Taylor. Her pretty, girl-next-girl looks and ability to reflect back to people how she wanted them to perceive her, hid a narcissistic personality with an overpowering need to seek approval from men.
Wendy had left her position as an English teacher at Jeremiah Jackson Junior High when their first child was born; first, a girl they (at Wendy's insistence) named Candee followed three years later by a son they named Perry, who they called PJ. Wendy had instilled a love of literature in her son PJ, but her daughter had received her restlessness and eyes that would glance and linger a second too long on men who would then be drawn to her as moths to a flame.
Philip discovered his wife Wendy's fourth affair on the same day that his father, Peter succumbed to the cancer wrought by Agent Orange. He had tried; God knows he had tried to help her work through her demons, but this was too much. Sharkskin Jacket Jackson had prepared divorce papers after Wendy's third affair, so she was served with divorce papers the day after Peter's funeral—a funeral from which she was banned.
Wendy's attorney was generally considered to be the second-best divorce lawyer in Texas; the best divorce lawyer was Daniel "Sharkskin Jacket" Jackson of the law firm of Bonham, McLeod, and Garcia in Austin. B-Mc-G was not only the oldest law firm in Texas; it was the most respected and Sharkskin Jacket Jackson was the head of their family law department, in addition to being a Jackson.
Peter had put the dealership and the family farm into a trust so neither was considered in the divorce of Philip. Wendy walked away with what she brought into the marriage, plus the house in which she and Philip lived. She also got the mortgage on the house, an award for which she expressed anger and bitterness rather than gratitude for not being homeless. Assuming the mortgage meant refinancing the loan in her name only, which meant getting a job; yet another grievance that Wendy held against her ex-husband. She was rehired to teach English at Jeremiah Jackson Middle School and settled into a life of bitterness and promiscuity.
When asked by the judge, PJ said that he wanted to live with his father. His sister, Candee, older than PJ by three years, chose to live with her mother and would have very little to do with her brother or her father from that point on. She witnessed first-hand the parade of men through her mother's bedroom and after her eighteenth birthday, it was not unusual for the headboards of both mother and daughter to be banging against the walls of their bedroom in cadence.
It could have been anyone on a long list of felons, convicts, bartenders, muffler installers, and mechanics whose sperm slipped by Candee's overworked and underpowered IUD, who suddenly found herself pregnant. Candee thought that she could use the pregnancy to trap Raiford Mahl into marrying her. Raiford was the tall, handsome, former star tight-end of the Jackson High School Jaguars. Raiford was also the oldest son of a family of criminals, each named after a correctional facility. Raiford was a car thief, who shortly after the birth of Candee's son Billy, was sentenced to ten years for running a chop shop. It would not be the first such sentence for Raiford.
