Imagine my shock when the order came in from the web site.
Client: Mayor Charlotte Granger
Trip Details: Mayor Granger will need an escort from home to home on River Road and throughout Middle Valley for three full days. You will be expected to wait between meetings and take her from home to home. Itinerary details and map are attached. Thank you!
The mayor … hiring me to take her around all day long!
This was a MOMENT!
Sure, “Bentley with a Bentley” has had steady work for years now, but mostly proms, weddings … never something like this. Three full days with the mayor!
I won the lottery once … the numbers, you know, where you “pick 5,” pay the attendant and get a ticket with your four numbers and an alternate, a special one. Every day in high school, I’d played the same five numbers – 8 (my baseball jersey number), 25 (my football jersey number), 36 (the age my mom was when I was born), 39 (the age my mom was when Dad left), and 87 (how long I figure I’ll live).
Finally, two days before graduation … PAYDIRT! Half-a-mil later, I’m cruising down River Road in a Bentley (yes, I was named for one after one of Mom’s River Road clients drove up the driveway in a Bentley. She went nuts.). I had the roof out, summer breeze smelling of river in my hair. Took that car to graduation, got my paper, and I had arrived!
I didn’t know from where I had arrived, or where I was heading, but there I was.
Turns out a half-a-mil doesn’t go far, even when you’re living in your mother’s dining room. So, with the money that was left, I got creative. Two accounting courses and one incorporation later, “Bentley with a Bentley” was born.
Four years in, I would say it’s a bit of a “thing” in these parts – everyone knows about it. I mean, how many Bentleys do you think roam the streets here in the valley?
I’ll tell you: One. Mine.
The work’s been steady, I have to say. The furthest I have ever gone for a job is seventy miles out and back – some high-flying executive who talked on the phone the entire trip. I pride myself on the distinctive touch, even for the flightiest of prom-goers or the tipsiest members of the “ladies who lunch” crowd. A small shop like mine needs friends. Mom says I have Dad’s “scene-stealing” personality and that I should put it to clever use in these pursuits, but I, of course, have no clue if it’s true.
In any event, I was popular back in high school – I mean, the football team and all. I was a catch and, well, let’s just say I did a little dating. It’s not unusual to run into one of my old ladies on the job, one of the day-to-day hazards, I must say. Jolie’s the one that scares me most. She lives around the corner in her parents’ guest house on the river with two dogs and a bird. I think she’s taking classes somewhere; I really don’t know. I keep telling her my rates have changed and she can’t afford me. The one time I drove her to the airport, when we got there, she changed her mind and said she had the wrong day, then asked if I could take her home and pick her up in 24 hours. I thought nothing of it, figuring it would be another fare. Then, the next day, the same thing happened. When I called her on it, she burst into tears. “I just want to spend time with you … don’t you get it? I LOVE you!!! Can’t you see??”
The gurgling went on for 20 miles.
“We both live here,” she snorted. “Why can’t you see?”
It was the only moment since graduation that I had wished I had gone to college.
I hadn’t ever thought about going to school after graduation, honestly. The psychologists I’ve seen blamed that on not having a father figure in my life, but I don’t think so. I just never thought about what would happen … well, after. I know people see value in it, but I never did. I was simply happy to get through high school – and get away from Jolie and her ilk. I have to think that this is a turning point for my little corner of the universe. A three-day appointment with the mayor!
Maybe it’s finally time to move out of the dining room.