Chapter 11 – Father Knows Best

It took a very special day for Barbara Kanker to use one of her coveted vacation days. She certainly appreciated waking up the sound of birds chirping, rather than the buzzing drone of her digital alarm clock. The sunlight trickled through her window-blinds, and danced all around her cotton bedsheets in patterns of vibrant yellow. She stretched with a yawn before getting out of bed and dawning her soft white bath robe and heading out for a smoke. The clock next to her bed flashed the time, 9:15 AM.

With her three daughters off to school for the day, Barbara found the quiet peacefulness both enjoyable yet lonely. These three girls were her whole world, and it was exceedingly rare that she ever had the trailer to herself. Work commanded the vast majority of her time, time that she found she had less and less of these days. She slipped across the empty living room and through the front door, pushing open the screeching screen door and sitting down on the wooden steps and so delicately led themselves up to the door.

She sat down, still half-asleep, and lit up her menthol cigarette, smoke billowing from her mouth after her first drag. She peered around at the empty trailer park, everyone either still asleep or out to work themselves. This is the first time she'd ever taken a personal day on a normal weekday in a very long time, so she wasn't familiar with how the trailer park looked during daylight hours. Her head was also heavy; heavy with all the memories and emotions that had strung behind her in life. Her little girls were growing up fast, and soon would be let loose in the world. She knew Lee would be fine, but she worried about all of them equally. They had to grow up far too fast, and he blamed it all on herself. She squinted her eyes and took another drag, smoke flying up higher and drifting away.

It wasn't five minutes before she closed her eyes and heard the crunching gravel under the pressure of fully-inflated tires. The sound transported her back to a different place in time, where the low hum of that engine roared as she would be sitting on the stoop with Butch, casually passing the hours after school until her father pulled into their driveway. She opened her eyes and in one brief second, she caught the full sight of that car, now pulling into the trailer park and up to her trailer. Daddy had come back to see her, his car very much the same one her daydreams had shown her from decades prior.

Mr. Kanker slowly pulled up to his daughter's trailer in his 1975 Lincoln Towncar, the brown finish still glossy and fresh. Barbara smiled as she stood up and walked over towards the car, putting her cigarette in her mouth for a quick drag before returning it to her fingers.

After engaging the car's parking brake in a quick ratcheting jolt, Mr. Kanker popped the door open and lunged two-or-three times until he finally stood up out of the car. He mumbled under his breath a few seconds before slamming the door behind him, that heavy metal thud echoing over the trailer park.

There stood the man himself, tall in stature yet also quite thin and frail. His wrinkled, shaven face bore the sight of years of hard work and pain, and his bright blue eyes sat behind large-framed glasses. His hair was a snowy-white color, and was neatly brushed to one side, dropping slightly over his wrinkled forehead. His outfit, typical of a man his age, was nothing too elaborate; cream-colored bomber jacket, white New Balance tennis shoes, and a dark grey polo shirt tucked neatly into his pleated khaki slacks. His face turned into a giant smile as he saw his daughter walking towards him."

"Daddy…!" Barbara called out as she finally met her father outside his car, her arms extended outward as she embraced him in a tender hug.

"Barbara, my dear…" Mr. Kanker replied as she shared his daughter's embrace. The two clung together in a loving embrace for several moments before she finally detached, looking up at him with her large smile.

"You got here so early!" she said, finally leaving the embrace and stepping back a bit, long enough to take a puff from her shortening cigarette. "I mean, I knew you'd get here early, but I didn't think it would be this early…"

"Well, I left the house at five-thirty…" he replied. His Dutch accent, while muddled and broken at this point, was still quite noticeable. "I didn't want to get caught up in that traffic coming out of the city, so I said the hell with it and left as soon as I got dressed. I brought a few things with me, they are in the car!"

"Just leave 'em for right now, Daddy. I'll have one of the girls get your bags when they get home from school. You shouldn't be carrying stuff that heavy at your age." Barbara said, resting her hand on his arm.

"You're only as old as you feel, sweetie…" he said, as the two started walking back to the trailer. "I used to lift things five times as heavy back when I was a boy…"

"Oh hush your fuss, Daddy. You come on in and sit down for a little while, I'm sure that drive must have tired you out…"

"That is probably not a bad idea…" he said as the two walked up the steps to the trailer door. Barbara opened the squeaky screen door, which caused her father behind her to shake his head and commence to fussing.

"Aye Barbara, why do you live like this?" he said, turning around. "I've got some spray in my car, I will take care of this at once!"

"No Dad, really. It's okay! You don't have to, it's just a small squeak!" Dad,…"

"Small squeak, ha!" he said as he opened his car door, dug around for a second, before pulling out a tiny can of WD-40. He closed the car door and walked back up to the front door. "Half of the neighborhood could hear this damn thing squeaking, but I have just the thing for this…"

He stepped back up to the screen door and shot three sprays of the WD, one spray for each hinge of the door. He moved it back-and-forth a few times as the squeaking ceased altogether, a smile coming across the old man's face. He placed his can in his jacket pocket as the two proceeded into the house, the door now quietly closing behind them.

"Come in the kitchen, Dad. I'll fix you a cup of coffee…" Barbara said, walking off into the kitchen with her voice trailing behind her.

Mr. Kanker stood for a second and surveyed the living conditions that his daughter and granddaughters were living in. He was impressed by how tidy and clean everything was, but was dismayed at the overall condition. He saw wallpaper peeling away, laminate flooring chipped and worn, and rusted metal all around. He simply shook his head and walked on into the kitchen.

"That's awfully nice of you, dear. A cup of coffee would go nice after that long drive. I had two before I left the house…" he said, sighing as he sat down at the small, square table that sat to one side of the trailer kitchen. "Look at you, in your jimmy-jams! Don't tell me you just woke up…" he said, looking up and down at her bathrobe.

"Of course I just got up, Dad. This is my first vacation day in a long time from work, and I thought I'd treat myself by sleeping in a little…" she replied, pouring some coffee into a white mug from her Mr. Coffee maker and bringing it over to him, along with her own cup. She sat at the table, opposite from him, and smiled back.

"Sleeping in! Who ever heard of this…!" he replied, waving his hand in the air. "I've gotten up before sunrise every day of my life! Why, back in Rotterdam, if a man wasn't up before sunrise, he wasn't allowed to even pick the cabbage!"

"Well this isn't Holland, Dad. This is my trailer. And when I have an excuse for a little relaxation, I'll gladly take it…" Barbara replied, playfully smirking back at him.

"I was only teasing you, sweetie. You deserve a break; you work too hard as it is. You look so tired now, I don't know how you do it… I'm eighty years old, yet I feel younger than you look!" he said, laughing as he lightly hit the table.

"Oh Dad, you behave!" she said, tapping his arm. "I honestly don't know how I do it a lot of days. It's easier now that the girls are older and able to look after themselves, but before that…I don't know. I'm so lucky to have poor Lee around, otherwise I wouldn't make it. Now that she's working at her little job, it makes things a little easier."

"You mean little Lee has to work to help support the house?" he asked, leaning forward to hear better.

"Ooh yeah, she does what she can, poor thing. I feel so bad having her pay me rent every month, but otherwise the lights would get cut off, and probably the water too…" Barbara replied as she meekly sipped some hot coffee from her mug.

"Barbara, this is unacceptable!" he replied, grabbing her hand. "I cannot sit by and let my little girl suffer like this! It's no way for a woman to live, and this house is no place for girls to be raised in! Look at it – there's cracks and breaks everywhere. The wallpaper is peeling off, the floor is coming up. It sounded as if the door was about to come off the hinges before I fixed it…Barbara, this trailer simply won't do…"

"I know Dad, I know…" she said, again sipping her coffee. "But this little thing is all I can afford on my own. Housing is expensive around here, and God knows my credit is way too awful to get a mortgage in one of these cul-de-sacs. I'm hoping that once the girls grow up, it'll be easier with me just living here. But it's all just a tight squeeze."

"If you had a decent man in your life, this wouldn't be happening…!" Mr. Kanker replied, lifting his mug with both hands to take a sip. "Your mama and I, bless her soul…" he said, crossing himself, "…we worried so much about you moving down here those years ago. We knew it wouldn't end well, and that you and the girls would be in trouble. You should have never left Rod, he was such a good boy! How could you just let a good Dutch boy like him walk out of your life, and leave you and the little girls all alone!"

"Dad, you know me and Rod just didn't work out. Yeah it was nice in the beginning, but he started drinking too much, and I started going out too much, and…I don't even wanna think back on it…" Barbara sighed as she rested her head on her hand.

"Shh, shh dear, I didn't mean it like that…" he said, rubbing her arm with his great calloused hand. "I just meant that it's an awful shame that you and the girls have to live like this. Come back to Detroit, I beg you! The house is so empty now that your mother is gone, and Lord knows there's plenty of room for everyone. Come back, get back on your feet, meet a nice boy to settle down with and finish raising the girls. I promise it'll be a lot better than living here…"

"Dad, that's just not realistic! I can't just pick up everything and go back! I have a job here, and the girls go to school here. Plus have you seen Detroit lately…? Not exactly the place I wanna be raising three teenage girls. It was bad enough when we left, Dad. Plus I don't wanna put that burden on you. We're doing okay by ourselves. It might be a tight squeeze sometimes, but we make it out okay…" she said, looking sadly into her coffee.

"Oh it wouldn't be a burden at all, dear. I get so lonely now that your mother isn't here anymore, and all my friends are dying off now. Hell, I might as well go back to Nederland at this point, I have more living family over there….but just listen to me…" he said, leaning forward and dropping his voice "anything has to be better than this. Our neighborhood is one of the nicer ones, you know that…the girls would be going to a great school, they'll make new friends. And I'm sure you could find a good job there, too."

"Dad….I just can't…" she replied, getting up from her chair to pace around the kitchen. "We've made our life here, Dad. And I don't really wanna go back. There's too many memories in that city for me, this place gave us all a fresh new start. And besides, I think you need to sell the old house anyway and move somewhere closer to us…"

"What…!?" he asked, lifting his head up in confusion. "Sell the house, you cannot be serious Barbara…I built my life on that house, raised you in that house, raised the girls in that house. Talk about memories, I wouldn't know how to live outside of that house…"

"You gotta understand, Dad. You don't really have anybody up there anymore. If you came down here and got a little apartment or something, then we'd be able to come by everyday and check up on you. At your age you never know what could happen…"

"I don't know, Barbara. I'll just have to think about this first. But I'll say with you as long as you like. There's no rush for me to go back home, and you know this…so, are the kinderen at school then?"

"Yeah, they have to be at school really early…" she said, taking a seat again and sipping her coffee, feeling a little more at ease. "Do you wanna come with me to pick them up later? It'll be a tight squeeze in the car, but it could work…"

"Oh no it's fine, Barbara…" he said, waving his hand. "I could just wait here, watch a little television maybe."

"Of course Dad, make yourself at home please. If there's anything you want, tell me and I'll get it for you. We'll make you a nice bed on the sofa in there and you're welcome to any food we have."

"I appreciate that, dear…I won't try to be too much of a burden. At this age just knowing where the bathroom is, is good enough for me…" he responded, chuckling under his breath.

"Okay Dad, if you say so…" she said "Marie won't be here directly after school though. She usually doesn't get home till around four-thirty or so…she has afterschool tutoring for her chemistry class."

"What's going on? Is she doing poorly?" he asked.

"Well, she told me that she wasn't doing well in the class. I have this strange feeling that she's failing. So the teacher has arranged one of his better students to tutor her, so she stays back a few days every week to do that…" she said, swigging the last of the coffee in her mug, walking over to place it in the sink.

"Marie needs to understand that school is important, she's too bright to throw it away by failing!" he said, slightly frustrated.

"I think she knows that Dad, she just struggles sometimes. Marie is very emotional, much more so than Lee or May. I think she has depression, but she refuses to go to the doctor about it. Half the time she lives off in her own world, and doesn't say much of anything. I do know one thing though, she's got a little crush on the boy that tutors her…" she said, grinning at her father.

"How do you know that?" he asked, perking up.

"I've noticed how she acts when she comes home from tutoring. She's got that fuzzy feeling all over her, and she's always blushing. I've got it figured out, but she doesn't think I know. Plus Lee's told me a few things about how long she's had a crush on him for. I think it's adorable, and Lee says that he's a really upstanding, smart boy. I haven't even met him yet, I think she's too scared to bring him around me."

"The young man had better be an upstanding boy, if he's going to court my granddaughter! You know I always had a soft spot for little Marie, poor girl doesn't have a father at all. At least little May still has her, and you might as well be Lee's, after Butch went. Maybe it is best that I stick around for a while longer, the girls could use a little bit of a male figure around the house…"

"Aww Dad, you're so sweet in your old age…" Barbara said, smiling at him and walking over to hug him. He happily returned her embrace.

"You're just saying that…" he said, grinning. "And I'm also going to get to work repairing some of the things around here. I had a feeling some things would be worn out, but I didn't expect it to be this bad…luckily I brought my toolbox with me in the trunk. Gotta have something to occupy my time with, ya know…"

"Oh Dad you shouldn't be repairing things at your age, what if you fall and break a hip…?"

"Darling, I've been working since I was twelve years old, I don't think I'll suffer too much from some light repair work. Nothing is seriously wrong, but a little goes a long way on these old trailers…" he said, putting his hand to the fading wallpaper. "Some glue here, a little putty there, and this place will look a lot better. Hell, if I was a younger man I'd fashion this trailer into a home by building around it and making it a hell of a lot bigger. But I'm too old for that now…"

"I've always thought about expanding out on the trailer, but Lord knows the money would never be there…" Barbara replied. "I'm sure the girls would love to have their own rooms. Right now they all share the one, and it already gets sporty at bedtime."

"Maybe one day I could get your cousin to come down and do a little work on that. But he's such a lazy drunk, I doubt he'd get up long enough to do it…"

"That's alright Dad, we make do. Sometimes it's nice just to think, ya know…?"

"I understand, dear…" he said, "I used to do that all the time in my war days. I'd sit around and wonder what life would be like outside that uniform. I spent most of my time figuring out what to do when it was all over, and that was the hardest part. That's why I ended up coming here, it worked out for the best…"

"And don't go depressing the girls with your army stories again, Dad. You nearly made poor May cry last time you did that…"

"If you think it nearly made her cry to hear it, imagine what I felt like having to live through it! Those damned Moffen nearly turned me into a monster!"

"Alright that's enough Dad! I don't want to hear it either… anyway, I'm going up to get ready because I'm going to grocery store before picking up the kids. Do you want to go with me?"

"I think I would like to stay here, get a few things done on the repair first, and maybe watch a little television too. You go on and do your shopping dear, I'll be fine here…" he said, walking into the living room.

"Okay Dad, just don't get carried away. If you have to take a break, please do. You don't have to do anything if you don't want to…"

"Yeah yeah, I'll do what I feel like, you just go off and buy your groceries." He said, going out the front door which was now perfectly silent.

"Okay…don't push yourself…" Barbara said as she disappeared into the bathroom.

She closed the door behind her and untied the knot around her robe, taking it off to reveal her naked body before the mirror that hung on the back of the door. She did a few cheeky poses, which reflected back the body she wished hadn't aged the way it did. She waited no longer to hop in the hot shower, steam billowing out over the shower curtain and blanketing the bathroom.

Mr. Kanker was already fussing under his breath as he pulled out his toolbox and commenced to do some serious repair work on the trailer.