By eleven o'clock on the morning of Eddie's last day (for a while) on the Island, he and Brian had Rita's clothes and furniture in Brian's pick-up. By noon, Rita was officially living in Eddie's basement. Their real good-byes said the night before; Eddie kissed Rita and was gone. The time spent alone with Eddie's family would be some of the best days Rita ever had. She experienced real family life for the first time and loved it. The action was back at her old home.
Not having Rita around was an open invitation for her father to drink to his heart's content. As Julie was a good sized woman, 5'6" or 5'7", and not particularly thin, she was able to throw them down right along with Big Bob. This generally made for a strange mix as the more Julie drank the more mellow she became, while her drinking buddy's demons seemed to awaken at the first sip and would clearly take over about three quarters to his passing out. That window, that hour or so, was a dangerous time to be around Big Bob Willis.
Julie spent the weekend trying to find someone to watch Robert. The only women she could find charged nearly as much as she could expect to make at the diner job Big Bob had found for her. By Sunday she'd given up and told Bob she would be staying home with Robert until she either found a job that paid more or a babysitter that charged less.
Officer Bob's tour was changing to midnight to eight A.M. on Monday and that would prove to be a major stumbling block to this newly organized little family. He came in Tuesday morning and tried to go to sleep just as Robert was getting up. After an hour of trying to keep him quiet, Julie finally had to get him out of the house. It worked. An hour in a stroller calmed Robert down and let Big Bob settle into the kind of deep sleep only someone consuming immense quantities of liquor every day can fall into. But even the simple mind of Julie Crandell realized she and Robert might be in for some tough times.
Problems were not unusual to Julie. From high school cheerleader to cocaine addict in one fell swoop her drug counselor used to say. Actually, it took three years, bales of marijuana and just the right group of friends.
Dr. J. Robert Crandell and his wife had five boys in nine years. With her insides nearing exhaustion and their desire for a baby girl no less diminished, they adopted Julie. A member of the Crandell family at the tender age of three days, she became a potential poster child for the genetics camp over their sworn enemies, the social environmentalists. With two brothers becoming doctors, one a lawyer and all five at least reasonably happy and well adjusted, Julie's personality, recent history and current state of affairs seemed to reflect needs unfulfilled. The Crandells, kind, gentle and family oriented to a fault, were also less than demonstrative with their expressions of love. That understood it was no wonder that amateur psychologists such as high school social workers and even Julie's probation officer recognized an apparently unfulfilled desire for love of a physical nature.
Though never ever really enjoying sex, Julie nevertheless began a free wheeling exploration of boys, men and finally women beginning at the age of twelve. Robert, interestingly named after her father, couldn't have been named after his father. For upon the most tedious reflection, Julie had been only able to narrow the candidates to four. Robert was conceived during the height of his mother's cocaine addiction when sex for drugs was a daily routine. She was eventually busted for selling to an undercover cop, sent to drug rehabilitation and was finally paroled - a two-year term only recently ended. She met Big Bob leaving the office of her parole officer for the last time and had been with him, faithful to him, for several months. Clean at the time of their meeting, she remained a compulsive personality looking for both overt assurances of love and a substance to fill in the gaps. Big Bob Willis, alcoholic and chain smoker, still trying to maximize his adolescence and young manhood, was at once her prince charming and worst nightmare.
It took but a few days for the Willis' home to permanently take on the look of a fraternity dorm on any given Sunday morning. Only the fact that Big Bob was coming in at eight-thirty a.m., half in the bag and collapsing into bed put off the inevitable flare-up. For by the time he'd awake from his stupor, Julie would greet him with what mattered most to him these days, sex and alcohol. Upon a hefty dose of both, she'd whisk him out the door, Robert in tow and he'd head for a place to fill the third branch of Big Bob's appetite tree, food. At that meal he'd consume most of what he'd eat for the day, then return home for more sleep and more alcohol. Often times the alcohol was consumed at a Greenport bar with some buddies in the hours before midnight and his tour of duty. But those nights were paving the way toward some serious problems for Officer Willis.
The hectic schedule Julie had designed to keep Big Bob happy lasted until a day Big Bob had been so hung over he'd worked without drinking and come home stone sober. Coincidentally, Julie had drunk so much the night before that Robert's crying and then screaming had failed to wake her. Walking into a house so dirty that you couldn't tell the color of the living room rug and smelling like the men's room at Grand Central Station, Big Bob went berserk. It didn't help matters any that Robert had climbed out of his crib and was pounding on the door of his bedroom, locked with a chair angled against the outside door knob. Big Bob's sense of compassion was not strong enough to let Robert out before dealing with Julie, but that turned out to be a blessing. With Robert screaming for his mother and continuing to bang on the door, Big Bob pulled Julie to her feet, shook her awake and told her "to clean up this shithouse." Only a few hours removed from finishing a bottle of brandy she'd found in Big Bob's hall closet, she wasn't nearly ready to gather herself together sufficiently to accomplish her new objective. He watched her wobble around for a few moments and took out his frustration on her face. The first open-handed slap knocked her against a wall and the second to the floor. The blood from her mouth temporarily frightened him and made him notice the sounds from Robert. He opened the door to find a (typically) soaking wet Robert hysterical, but now without the strength or possibly the desire to get up off the floor. Big Bob, acting totally in character, turned around and walked out the door. He headed for the ferry and "David's Pub", famous for opening earlier in the day than any bar on the north fork.
Around two o'clock on what would be a full day of drinking, Big Bob found himself sitting next to an old friend. Since Bob's leaving the Suffolk County force for a position on the eight man Shelter Island Police Force a few years ago their paths hadn't crossed. In a moment they were back in the old days of driving around in a patrol car together, alternately "kicking and finding a little ass." For all the reminiscing, the old friend made it clear, he'd slowed down. His drinking, never a real problem, was now even more casual and after years of one-nighters, he felt he might have found someone with whom he could have a lasting relationship. For his part, Bobby (as his old partner called him) was moaning and groaning about the mess he'd suddenly found himself in. His description of the problem gave Detective Randy Dunne an idea.
"Listen, the woman I've been seeing lost her job when the Woolworth closed down. She's got plenty of money so she doesn't need to work, but she's bored as hell. She's also still feeling like shit 'cause she was the last person to be with that guy that killed himself. You know the story, don't you? The..."
"You mean the manager of the Woolworth?" Big Bob interrupted.
"She was the woman he couldn't get it up for, right?"
"Yeah, she's no kid, but when you see her you'll realize that Stoneman guy was really fucked up. Anyway, what I'm getting at is maybe I can get her to watch your girl friend's child so she can get the hell out of the house and go to work. If I were you I'd have her pay for a fuckin' housekeeper with the money she made."
The two old buddies laughed at Randy's on-the-mark advice and exchanged telephone numbers. There was but one more bit of advice that Randy had for Bobby before he left.
"Listen, I heard from good sources, real good sources, the County is going to one-man cars at the end of the year. Maybe you better start cleaning up your act. Gotta go. I'll call you as soon as I talk to my girl friend."
Jesus Christ, Big Bob thought, the minute I maybe get one problem halfway solved, another one bites me in the ass. Well, I'll just have to cut way back, he thought, and I've got (he counted on his fingers) six months to do it. He felt good again and celebrated with a drink.
By the time he got back home to clean up and change into his uniform, Julie had gotten the house in respectable shape. Robert was actually sitting quietly in front of the TV and Julie was looking as hot as the day he first laid eyes on her.
. "I'm sorry I let the house get so bad and I'll be better with Robert. I'll keep him clean. You're not mad are you?" Julie's words came out of a smiling mouth but from behind wary eyes.
"Nah, forget it," Big Bob said magnanimously. "I'm running a little late so I'll give you the details tomorrow, but I may have someone to watch Robert so you can take that waitress job."
His last words were said as he was walking into the bathroom
to shower. He left a trail of clothes behind, a trail still
visible when he got home, drunk, the next morning.
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Material Copyright © 1998-2003 by Jim Bearden