XXL Pt. 02

Less than a month into his year, both Coach Daigrepont and Father Brighton let Richard know they were very unhappy with him. They had expected, as the assistant coach, he would let his players skate by in his Math classes.

"Thought y'all hired me to teach," Richard had said.

"We're here to win, damn it," Father Brighton had growled.

"Look, Trahan," Daigrepont had grumbled. "Begnaud's got good hands, and he's got good speed. Who gives a fuck he can't add x plus y, huh?"

"I do. I give a fuck," Richard had spat. "What happens to Begnaud he can't catch or run anymore?"

"We get someone who can," Father Brighton said.

"And we get someone who'll pass him too," Daigrepont threatened.

"Pray 'bout it yeah," Camille, Richard's mother had said when Richard had let her know about the conversation with the head administrator and the head coach.

"Praying just get through this," Richard wheezed as he made another pass through the thick grass.

After he finally finished, Camille made Richard clean up. Then she fed him some ham steaks.

"Yard looking good," Camille smiled.

"It better," Richard said and finished eating. "Love you, Momma, but got get my own yard done now."

"Oh. Okay. You don't forget, coming get me for church tomorrow, hear?" Camille reminded him again.

"Yes ma'am," Richard said.

When he had received the money from the sale of 1109 Daniel Drive, Richard had found a three bedroom ranch style home on Batio Street. He put half the price of the home down and financed the rest with First Union in Bender. Then he put a good portion toward furnishing the home, including a six person hot tub for the back patio, and an eight foot tall privacy fence around the back yard.

Arriving home, Richard thought very seriously of putting off cutting his own grass until tomorrow. Then he remembered, he'd promised his mother that he was taking her to church in the morning. Camille's glaucoma had advanced to the point that she did not feel safe driving.

"Thank God she can still see good enough to cook," Richard said and let out a tremendous belch.

Richard phone rang as he was putting his lawnmower back into the shed. He saw that it was his mother and immediately worried.

"Hello?" he asked, mopping the sweat from his face.

"Got us a friend coming with us church tomorrow," Camille said.

"Oh. Okay. We taking your car?" Richard asked.

"Well yeah," Camille said, as if Richard was stupid for asking that question.

"All right Momma. This ain't that Marie, huh?" Richard asked, suspicious.

"You don't worry 'bout who it is," Camille snapped and hung up.

"Momma, that Marie so ugly have tie pork chop 'round her neck so the dog play with her," Richard said to the dead phone.

Marie Soileau, formerly Duvalier had been an unattractive young woman when they'd gone to school together. Camille had always liked the homely, obese woman. Richard had to agree, Marie had a very pleasant personality.

He did have to wonder about the deceased Harry Soileau; he'd never met the man. But Harry Soileau and Marie had managed to have four ugly children, now three ugly adults and one very ugly, very ill-mannered and ill-tempered teenager. And Camille kept finding reasons to put Marie and Richard together.

Richard was always polite to his former classmate. He'd even thought to himself that he could turn off all the lights, make sure the curtains were fully drawn, then imagine he was once again with Mandy Wolff. Marie and Mandy were close to the same body type.

"But ugh! Those kids of hers!" Richard thought. "Got three my own kids ain't worth a shit, well, Peter ain't that bad, but still..."

Even though Richard taught at Cabrini, Richard did not attend St. Richard, the Catholic Church attached to Cabrini. He found Father Brighton's style of celebrating Mass to be abrasive. And, Richard found Father Brighton himself to be hypocritical.

"Know it ain't my place judge," Richard said. "But hard get the message when I just don't trust the messenger."

And Camille liked Father Goldbridthe at St. Thomas Aquinas, so mother and son went to Nine Thirty Mass at St. Thomas Aquinas on Sundays. Then, depending on their mood, they would either go to Side By Side for the breakfast brunch, Tornadough's for doughnuts and coffee, or drive out to Elgee for a country fried steak breakfast at Dusty's.

"It that Marie and what's her girl's name? Patty Ann. It Marie and Patty Ann? We going Tornadough's. Get that over with quick," Richard decided as he jumped into a much needed, much welcome shower.

Alone, in his shower, needle spray pelting him, Richard thought of Mandy, sweet, beautiful Mandy. It did slightly amuse him that he rarely thought of Mary Beth. Especially when masturbating. His thoughts went to the young girl he'd only been with for nine months, rather than the woman he'd been with for more than half his life.

"Ugh!" he grunted as he blasted a torrent of sperm onto the wall of his shower, thinking of Mandy's large buttocks jiggling as he hammered into her from behind.

"Yeah, that's it, Baby, shake that ass," Richard said as he pumped his cock, working those last spurts out.

Richard did think of calling Mandy, asking her how she was doing. But the last time he had called her, she'd broken down in heart wrenching sobs and he'd broken down and sobbed as well. Richard just did not want to inflict any more pain on the beautiful, sweet girl and just did not want to rip the scab of his own heart open again.

He thankfully remembered to set his alarm before drifting to sleep. Then, exhausted from mowing two full yards in the brutal early September heat, Richard drifted off to sleep.

In the morning, Richard ate a power bar and drank two cups of coffee then shaved and showered. He dressed nicely and steeled himself to be nice to Marie and Patty Ann Soileau.

"You going earn grace in Heaven," Richard said, echoing something Camille always said when he had to do an unpleasant task. "Jesus see what you doing and He going give you extra grace."

"But suppose I already got too much grace?" Richard would always respond, earning himself a slap from Camille.

"Jesus sees you, and I see you," Camille would respond. "Believe me, you ain't got too much grace, boy."

He drove his truck to his mother's house, then parked on the street. If they were taking Camille's 1989 Cadillac Eldorado, he'd need plenty of room to back the land yacht out of the garage.

"Yes, Momma, your car is that big," Richard said as he walked to the front door of Camille's home. "Thing's visible from the Space Station."

"Momma, I'm here," Richard yelled out.

"Ain't got yell," Camille fussed, coming down the hallway of her home.

Richard smirked. Camille's hearing was also starting to fail her. If he spoke in a normal voice, she accused him of mumbling. If he yelled, she yelled at him for yelling.

"So? Where's Marie?" Richard asked when Camille bustled into the room.

"She ain't coming," Camille said, giving her baby boy a kiss on his cheek.

"She ain't. I am," Mandy said, stepping into the living room.

Richard sat down, hard, on the floor. Mandy's beautiful dimpled smile appeared as she continued to walk toward him.

"You, you're here," Richard said.

"I know, I know all the things you said, and they're all true," Mandy said, sitting down on the floor in front of Richard.

"Huh? Y'all mumbling," Camille accused.

"You are older than me, I am just a kid, I do have my whole life ahead of me," Mandy repeated all of Richard's arguments.

"I don't care about any that shit," Richard blurted.

"And I don't care neither," Mandy said, tears beginning to form in her eyes. "Richard, I just want to be with you."

"I love you," Richard admitted.

Sitting on the floor of his mother's living room, Richard and Mandy kissed. He hugged onto her with the desperation of a drowning man. She hugged him just as hard.

"We still got Mass go to yeah," Camille reminded them.

Sitting through Mass was sheer torture for Richard. He wanted to grab Mandy, run out of the church, take her home, to his house.

"We going Side By Side, you going love it. They got them this omelet bar?" Camille said as Mass finally crawled to an end.

Over omelets stuffed with cheese and meat, Mandy and Richard talked. Camille reminded them, often, that the buffet was 'all you can eat' and that they were not getting her hard earned money's worth.

While with Richard, Mandy had begun to vet more sensible about her eating. She even began to do some calisthenics. The girl had gone from two hundred and nine pounds to one hundred and eighty six pounds.

Then Richard had backed out of her driveway and Mandy had said 'to Hell with it.' She'd ballooned back to two oh nine in a few weeks' time.

She had waddled into Benny's Burger Bar and Jackie, Richard's daughter had smiled in greeting.

"Give me a one pound bacon cheeseburger, double fries, and a large chocolate malt," Mandy had ordered.

The smile froze on Jackie's face. Then the girl shook her head no.

"You're getting a half pound, medium, single fries and a root beer," Jackie said.

"Trahan, what are you doing?" Kenneth stillman, Jackie's manager hissed.

"Mandy, food isn't the answer," Jackie said, ignoring her boss's consternation. "Whatever you're trying to do? Food isn't going to fix it."

"It's pronounced Traw haw(n)," Mandy said to Kenneth as she paid for the order as Jackie had rung it up.

After eating her meal, Mandy walked out of Benny's Burger Bar, giving Jackie a friendly wave. Then she drove back to Stanley's.

Stan Murdock smiled as Mandy entered the store. The girl had her dimpled smile on her fat little face; it'd been a while since he'd seen her smile.

"Mr. Murdock? Need put in my two weeks' notice," Mandy said as she clocked back in.

"I uh, what?" Stan stammered. "Hey, uh, listen here, Wolff. Trying get a raise? Threatening to quit isn't going cut it, hear?"

By the end of the night, Stan saw that Mandy was serious. He sighed and began the laborious task of sifting through the stacks of applications they'd received in the past three months.

Her landlord was not happy either; Mandy had been a good tenant. Within moments of posting the available apartment on-line, he had two applications. One from Jackie Trahan, the other from Rebecca Sanders. During the initial walk-through, Rebecca flirted shamelessly with the seventy two year old landlord, really pumping up the man's ego.

The landlord's seventy one year old wife called Rebecca's former landlord and found out why Rebecca was in need of another apartment. So Jackie, who wanted to have a little freedom, and wanted to give her mother a little freedom, was awarded the apartment.

"This way, you and Mr. Curtis don't have to sneak around," Jackie told Mary Beth, causing Mary Beth to blush hotly.

Mandy drove through some truly beautiful landscapes. She saw none of it; she only saw the road ahead. She only saw the endless miles of asphalt between her and Richard.

Richard had given Mandy his mother's address; Richard had told her he'd be staying with Camille until he found his own place. Mandy punched Camille's address into her phone and drove, following the turn by turn directions.

Mandy pulled up in front of the neatly manicured lawn. She groaned, truly exhausted, then opened the door of her little Toyota.

"Sorry, sorry, sometimes just don't hear the bell me," Camille apologized, opening the door. "Help you?"

"Miss Camille? I'm Mandy," Mandy said. "Mandy Wolff. I, Richard here?"

"Aw you just missed him yeah," Camille said.

"Ma'am? I know you don't know me, but I'm about to pop," Mandy admitted.

Camille let the total stranger into her home, showed her where the bathroom was, then asked the girl if she was hungry. Over ham steak, Mandy told Camille who she was and why she wanted, needed to see Richard. Camille smiled and patted the girl's cheek. Then she called her son and told him they'd have company with them when they went to church.

"You be staying in Richard's old room, hear?" Camille said. "You do go to church right?"

"Haven't since my momma kicked me out of her house," Mandy admitted.

"But why your momma done that?" Camille asked.

"Dropped out of school," Mandy said. "Said she wasn't supporting no high school dropout."

"She just trying get you go back," Camille deduced. "But Church ain't got nothing do with none of that so why you ain't going to church?"

Now, over brunch, Camille fussed that neither Richard nor Mandy seemed very interested in eating. She praised the cinnamon buns, she praised the biscuits and gravy, and she praised the hash browns. But Richard and Mandy just kept smiling at each other, not eating.

After pulling her car into the garage, Richard was treated to one of his mother's ear pulls. She pulled him by his ear close to her face.

"She a sweet girl; you don't be treating her bad, hear?" Camille ordered.

Yes ma'am," Richard agreed, smiling at his mother.

Amanda managed to get a job at St. Pious, in the cafeteria. Her work day started at ten in the morning and ended at one in the afternoon. At first, she started visiting Camille after getting off of work. But the interests of a twenty one year old and a woman nearly in her eighties were vastly different. Amanda just could not develop an interest of the lives of those in Miss Camille's favorite soap operas.

Amanda never could erase the image of that little girl that could not, or would not smile when she and Richard had volunteered at the homeless shelter in Benhurst, Colorado. So Amanda took to volunteering at the homeless shelter on Banks Street in DeGarde, Louisiana.

Looking at the meager provisions of the shelter, and realizing that St. Pious threw out more food in an afternoon than the shelter provided in a week, Amanda cornered Father Brighton.

"Fine, fine," Father Brighton grumbled, just to get the girl out of his face. "Boyfriend's a pain in the ass; you two are made for each other."

A month into Amanda's volunteering at the shelter, an allegations of one of the staff members being inappropriate with the children at the shelter surfaced. Amanda was tireless in assisting the investigation. She was tireless in comforting the victims. And after the arrest of Len Richards, Amanda was promoted from volunteer to Assistant Director of the facility.

(Father Brighton was not sorry to see Ms. Wolff go. In his eyes, the girl had proven to be as big a thorn in his side as Richard Trahan had become.)

Carmella Anko, the Director of the shelter asked Amanda if she'd see about securing them some more donations. At first, Amanda was reluctant. Then that little girl's face flashed in her mind and Amanda nodded.

Gordon King of King Sanitation agreed that Amanda Wolff could speak to his workers. With that little girl's face in front of her mind's eye, Amanda gave an impassioned plea for time, for money, for just a kind, encouraging word for the shelter and their inhabitants.

"I know that little girl does not remember my face, but I will, I can never forget that little girl's face. She wasn't even five years old and yet she had already lost hope," Amanda choked out. "You. You could make the difference between a little girl giving up, or aspiring to make it out of that situation. Please, please give what you can."

"What did you do?" Carmella asked when Amanda came the next day. "We had to give half the stuff to the shelter in Elgee!"

"Miss Manda?" a little boy asked, holding up a dump truck. "Look! I got a truck!"

"That is just awesome!" Amanda praised the little boy.

"There's more that can be done," Carmella did say as Amanda got onto the floor to play with the truck.

Dean Robert Simms of the University of Louisiana at DeGarde did agree that Amanda Wolff could address his faculty at the next black tie dinner. Amanda almost backed out when she realized she'd have to wedge her flabby body into an evening gown for the presentation.

"Oh boy!" Richard smiled. "I cannot wait to see you in a little black dress."

"Richard, I'm fat. I'm big as a house," Amanda whined.

"You ain't small," Richard agreed.

Then he kissed her.

"But God damn, you sure are sexy," he whispered into her ear as he grabbed a handful of her butt.

"You're crazy," she said and jammed her tongue into his mouth.

Amanda hated the dress. She hated his way she looked in the dress. But Richard seemed incapable of keeping his hands off of her while they sat for a very boring dinner, and very boring presentations.

Then it was her turn. Amanda gently pushed Richard's hand away from her stocky thigh and walked up to the podium.

She looked out into the bored faces, the sneering faces of the university's faculty. She was a high school dropout; what made her think she had any right to stand in front of these people?

The little girl's face flashed in front of her. Those vacant, hopeless eyes. The pinched, gaunt face.

"Five miles away from this beautiful campus is a not so beautiful building. Five miles away from these buildings that house learning is a building where people learn a different way to live," Amanda said. "These people learn not to turn their back on their back pack, or it won't be there when they turn back around. They learn how to go through dumpsters looking for the food we throw away. They learn how to lie, cheat and steal for anything that they want. They learn how to survive when they've lost everything."

Amanda told the now somewhat uncomfortable attendees of the day to day squabbles, the daily struggles that happened just a walk away from their campus, their sheltered isolated campus.

"It's not just as simple as opening your wallets," Amanda told them. "We need you to do something a little harder than sticking a crowbar into those wallets, those purses. We're asking you to give us your time. We're asking you to come to our shelter, to teach these indigents, these transients, these unfortunate people that there is hope. That there is something to aspire for beyond their next meal, their next cigarette. That's what we're asking. I'm a high school dropout and a man loved me enough to sit and teach me and now I've got a high school diploma. You better believe I'm proud of that piece of paper. But if that man had not given me his time? I'd still be a high school dropout, with no hope of getting a diploma. And we're asking you to give us your time. We're asking you to give someone else hope. Thank you."

The dinner ended at nine thirty. It was nearly eleven o'clock before Richard and Amanda strolled to his pickup truck. Professors kept asking the young woman questions. Teachers kept offering suggestions, volunteering time.

"My God, what would you have become if you'd graduated from college?" one woman opined as she spoke with the bright, articulate young woman.

"A fat, lonely shoe salesperson," Amanda smiled, clutching Richard's hand.

THE END

And, the end of the XXL, series.

**Author's Note: I write these stories for my pleasure; I post them here for your enjoyment. I do thank you sincerely for reading my stories.

I especially thank those that take the time to leave comments, good and bad, and those that take the time to rate my stories.

Lyle Curtis is a character from 'Serpent's Trail' in the Loving Wives category.

Father Brighton and Coach Marvin Daigrepont are characters from 'Five Trailers, Lot C' in the Romance category.

Have a super day. Give a little of yourself to someone else.