Corey gives Ginny a suspicious look. Victoria covers her mouth with her free hand as she has her crash helmet in the other. She’s doing her best not to laugh at Corey’s indignation.
“I brought them for all of you,” Ginny quickly tells Corey, and I’m sure she’s trying not to get on his bad side.
“Really?” Corey beamed.
“Really. I brought them for all three of you as a welcome to your new home.”
Now, before anyone can say thank you we turn as we hear, “Stop fraternizing with the trash, Ginny.”
Corey jumps at the tone of Mrs. Lincoln. “I don’t know whatfratnizingis, but I understand trash.”
I place a hand on Corey’s shoulder to hold him back, but when Victoria speaks it is obvious to Corey who this woman is.
“Now, Mrs. Lincoln, that is not a nice thing to say about someone you don’t even know. I could call you trash, but I’ve more respect for you and for the way I behave. If you want to make yourself look like a nasty old lady that is your choice, but don’t expect us to be nice to you from this point, hmm,” Victoria has an eyebrow raised and has taken a stance that says we have to move this along, before the old biddy gets a face full of helmet.
“I agree. It is totally uncalled for, and if I hear you speaking like that again I’m going to report you to the Sherrif’s office for harassing these people,” Ginny says this with so much annoyance I have to say, I like her.
Corey surprises us all, “Hey, Mrs. Lincoln, my friend Lincoln said if you cause us trouble he’s gonna come and meet you, and he’ll shut you up for good. He said to shut your mouth.”
Mrs. Lincoln goes ghostly white right as she turns and rushes back to her house. Victoria giggles and Ginny joins in. Corey puffs his chest out and looks at Victoria. “I’ll tell her, Momma. She’s a nasty woman. Lincoln said since she has the same name as him, he’ll come and sort her out.”
“No more being rude to Mrs. Lincoln. Yeah, she is a mean woman. But we don’t go down to the gutter level she’s in. So, no more speaking to her like that. Leave it to me and Lincoln to deal with her.” Now, as soon as I say that Corey’s eyes twinkle with excitement, and I can see he’s hoping we have to deal with her.
“Okay, Dad. Whose car is that?” Corey asks, peeking around me at the SUV.
“It’s for your momma. A reliable SUV,” I hold the keys out for Victoria, and she takes them after placing her helmet on the ground.
“I’ll see you soon. If you ever need anything I’m just across the street,” Ginny waves as she quickly makes her way over to her own home.
“Bye Ginny, thank you for the cookies,” Corey shouts, and that made me feel bad because I never had the chance to say it.
“Come on, Corey, let's go look at the SUV.”
We spent quite some time going over the vehicle, and I can see Victoria likes it. Corey talks a mile a minute and climbs in and out of the vehicle until I’m damn dizzy.
“We can go shopping in this, Corey. Oh, and when it’s bad weather, we can stay dry when I take you to school. We can still use the trike when the weather is good…
The pair of them speak together as though they are mother and son, and it just hits you in the chest to see and hear it. If Vicky hadn’t saved him from the river, and I hadn’t got him from the fucking house this could have been a totally different story.
“Come on, let’s go find something to eat,” I shout out as I grab Vicky’s helmet and head for the door.
“Pizza…can we make pizza?”
Vicky laughs, “No, but we can have tacos.”
A while later while eating tacos we all discussed what we could do for the fundraising, and Corey had some great thoughts. Some of his ideas included a pizza sale, beard shaving, and a face-painting competition—all of which were valid suggestions.
Victoria throws out to us. “I’m going to discuss it with Bitty, but I’ll put your ideas forward, Corey. I like the beard-shaving idea because way too many have long straggly beards that are not looked after, so, off with the beards,” which she says like we would hearOff with their heads!
