Clear Visions 1

Derrick’s phone rang next to him. He looked at the name and answered.
‘Hey Jenny baby, can I help?’
‘Yes, I was wondering if you knew where the pram was?’
He thought for a minute. He didn’t think he had a clue. Why would he she never let him touch the thing. She had made it perfectly clear that the pram was hers. And that she wanted to be in charge of all of Shane’s stuff so she knew where it was at all times seen as though he was the one who worked all the time. He understood that. He could see her reason. Still he thought if he had seen it.
‘I think its in the closet.’
‘Thanks, its just I’m taking Shane for a walk. I was wondering if you could come home early tonight?’
He sighed. Why did she put him under pressure to do things she knew he couldn’t realistically do. Right now he didn’t have a real assistant. Only people who could file papers for him and plug in some equipment and move on. So he couldn’t leave. Not till everyone had done. Unless he could find someone who was qualified enough to stand in. With the bunch of misfit lay abouts which he had working for him that would prove to be very hard.
‘I’ll do my best baby, but no promises. You know I cant leave the office.’
‘That office means more to you than I do’
With that she hung up. Derrick placed the phone on the desk. Well she sure wasn’t making a hard situation easy for him was she? He couldn’t understand. Yes he spent too much time in the office. But at the end of the day it was so she could live a good life. So that if she didn’t want to work she didn’t have to. So they could afford the house they lived in and so they could afford health care if anything was ever to go wrong. Surely that was a good enough reason to work so many hours a week?
He sighed and stood up. Perhaps he should try and find someone who could take over for the day. It wasn’t that much to ask. Surely someone could sit behind a desk, answer a phone and jot notes for him to read the next time he was in? He walked out of his office and looked around. A group of people instantly looked at him. All wondering what he was wanting and looking with confused looks on their faces.
So he hardly came out of his office. Big deal. Was this a great reason for them all to stare at him like a dinosaur which no one had discovered? Like he was a nearly extinct animal in a zoo? Or like he was some monster which was bringing news on a zombie apocalypse? He couldn’t see so. So he walked over to them. One of them jumped back slightly and he grabbed their shoulder.
‘You, what’s your name?’
The man looked at him nervously. Then after a few seconds pause opened his mouth and spoke. His words came out as stutters as he did so.
‘My names… My names… Uh… Jimmie sir.’
Derrick looked at him curiously. He didn’t remember employing anyone called Jimmie. Still he wasn’t going to complain. After all a name meant nothing. It was just a word your parents had given you to be called. Which didn’t really mean much. What meant something was though this guy had backed away which had annoyed him slightly he looked smart. That was hard to find in this place. Someone who looks smart. Someone who looks liked they could just have a brain cell in their thick head.
‘Jimmie what?’
‘Jimmie Smith sir’
‘My office now’
Derrick headed off towards his office and Jimmie followed slowly as the whole group stared in wonder. This was the first time anyone had been called to Derricks office. No one knew what to expect. Especially Jimmie. He reached the office door which Derrick was holding for him and he went inside. His office was nice. Cosy. Something he could quite easily get used to. Leather seats with cushions and a coffee machine in the corner. The office was tidy, too tidy but that wasn’t always a bad thing. He looked around as Derrick closed the door and walked behind his fine oak desk.
The first thing you noticed was how he managed to make everything fir together so perfectly. Black leather seats, white walls, Oak desk and red blinds. Everything seemed to fit together perfectly. Jimmie wondered if his boss had gotten himself a designer to work on this, whether he had in fact spent more time and money on his office than his home. Still that was none of his business. He knew it wasn’t. Besides he couldn’t call him his boss. He didn’t know if he would be. He didn’t know why he had been called in here.
Though Derrick was young he felt power. He realised that when he approached that group he had shown true intimidation, though he had not meant to. He didn’t know if he liked that or disliked it. What he did know though was he did not like being called sir. Not at all. And it wasn’t something which he was about to get used to. He had to put a stop to that before it actually ended up driving him insane.
‘So Jimmie you know why I called you in here?’
Jimmie shook his head. He wasn’t lying. He didn’t have a clue. He didn’t want to know. He was nervous, scared almost. He was scared because if he was here for the reason he thought he was he was screwed. No one would ever employ him. No one had ever shown interest in him before Derrick. He had already been told that he had only been employed because he was cheap. Well the pay he was getting was good enough for him. But if he lost his job and he’d loose his money. And no one would employ, not after he had been fired. And that would lead to a lot of trouble. He had a wife, kids, he had a family to feed and this had been his first real chance to give them proper food and a good roof over there head.
‘No sir I don’t’
Derrick looked away. That word sent shivers down his spine. It made him remember when he was in school. It was what he had had to call his teachers. And he really hadn’t liked them. In fact they had made him swear to himself that he would never become a teacher, he had sworn to his friends that he would rather die than become a teacher. And he wasn’t going to be one, nor was he intending to work and feel like one. Not if he could help it anyway.
‘Jimmie, please don’t call me that.’
‘Call you what…? I don’t understand’
Derrick sighed. Maybe he hadn’t chosen the right guy for the job. Or maybe he had been unclear. Well Jimmie was in here now. He couldn’t send him away and call someone else. He had someone sitting in front of him who was prepared to listen to every word he would say. He hoped so too. He was paying him to do just that. He looked directly at Jimmie. This was his chance to do what Jenny wanted him to. And his fiancé meant more to him than this office. He just had to prove that.
‘Don’t call me sir. Derrick is my name. You can call me that.’
Jimmie nodded. He was happy with that. In fact he was more than happy, it made him feel important and it gave him a comfort zone. Surely his boss wouldn’t call him in here to fire him and tell him what he had to call him.
‘Jimmie, I need you to do me a huge favour, and please do tell me if I’m asking too much. But, would you look after the office whilst I go home and look after my kid?’
Jimmie thought, this was a big job. If he messed up he would certainly be fired. He had never run a office before. He didn’t know what he had to do, but he didn’t want to refuse either.
‘If you do, I’ll give you a promotion if it all goes well.’
Jimmie looked at Derrick as his face lit up. A promotion. He had never had one of those. He thought they only existed in the movies. This was something he was prepared to take.

Jenny put Shane into the pram. She couldn’t believe Derrick. All the time it was. Every single day. He put the office before his family. He had never done that with school when he lived with his mom. He had never told her he would be late from school cause he had extra work. In fact if he had had extra work he would have just thrown it to one side and that was that. Now he was with her though he didn’t have time.
So yes, things had changed and he had been through a lot since the days he had thrown things aside and said it didn’t matter. But he still spent so much time with the man who had gotten him into that trouble. The man who had hurt him so much and still dared to call himself his father. The man who made her sick thinking about him and what he had done to his own son, and the lack of caring when it had happened.
She opened the door and pushed Shane outside. She hated doing this alone, getting him down the steps was hard. Either she would jar her back getting him down or he would cry uncontrollably if she didn’t. If only she had the babies dad people said. If only Derrick was there to help her it might not be so hard. She looked at the empty drive and sighed then began getting Shane down the steps one by one.
She heard a door open and looked to see her neighbour coming out. She looked at Jenny and smiled with sorrow on her face. She hadn’t ever seen the man Jenny was supposedly with. Though she kept mentioning one she had never met him. She wondered if Jenny just said she was with someone cause she liked the comfort of it, or because she wasn’t ready for another relationship. She felt sorry for Jenny. Still she didn’t know how to offer the poor girl help. She didn’t want to sound rude, or imply that Jenny was a bad mother, She was a very good mother. She just needed some help. She kept walking. After giving Jenny a sad look.
Jenny wanted to cry so badly. Now the neighbours were pitying her. She didn’t want to blame him but right now it seemed it was all Derricks fault. He was never there for them, he wasn’t there for the people he should be. For the people who he loves, the one he said meant to most to him. Clearly the most wasn’t that much, or he’d be helping her and the whole street wouldn’t be convinced she was a single mom.
She reached the bottom of the steps and heard Shane cry. She felt the same. She wanted to cry, but she couldn’t. She stopped. Slipped his brakes on and went round to look at her son. She rubbed his nose and kissed him. He was so cute, so small, yet, he made so much noise. Still she wasn’t about to let that get to her. Her main problem right now was the lack of father figure which her son had. It worried her. She knew about kids who grew up without a dad and no matter what Derrick had said. It affected them. And in a big way.
She reached the park and sat on one of the benches over looking the river. She heard Shane giggling as he looked out at the water and the ducks on it. She smiled then leant back against the back rest of the bench. She closed her eyes. Though not for long. She knew she couldn’t. She would fall asleep. She hadn’t slept properly in days. But if she fell asleep something would happen to Shane she knew that. Derrick was known round here. She couldn’t say he was liked either. He was popular, but for what could be called the wrong reasons.
‘You can you know Jen.’
She spun round when she heard this. She knew who it was without having to look. She wanted to jump up and hug him. She resisted the temptation. That would show him something was wrong. She was pretty sure he would be sick to death of picking up the pieces for Derrick by now. He had done it since they had been friends and everyone knew that had been a long damn time.
‘Ben, you know I cant’
He sat next to her. Put her arm around her and hugged her close to his cheat. She could hear his heart beating. She smiled. Why hadn’t she chosen him? She had always loved him. She had always loved Derrick too. But Ben had always been the one. Everyone had voted they would get married. They should have done. Then maybe Shane would have a dad who was there for him.
‘I know your mad at him. But you have to understand why he’s doing it.’
She looked at him. Had Derrick sent him to do this? She wouldn’t be surprised if he had. It was the kind of thing Derrick did when he was sucking up to her. But Ben wasn’t the sort to listen to orders. Not at all.
‘What you mean? He has a reason for never being there?’
Ben nodded. He didn’t want to talk much. It would kill the mood. Seen as though he had seen she was upset he didn’t want to upset her more by speaking and possibly saying the wrong thing.
Jenny held onto him. She never wanted to let go. The best thing was so long as he didn’t have to go she knew Ben would let her sit there forever just holding him. He was watching Shane. She had the chance to do anything. She didn’t have to watch him. For the first time since they had got here she had someone else doing it for her and it felt great. She didn’t want to think. But she knew she had to. She knew she had to think about what and who she wanted. Where she wanted to be. And what Shane needed. Even if it meant breaking the heart of someone who deep down inside wasn’t such a bad guy. Ben was right. Derrick had reason to do all he was doing. He wanted the money to give Shane the very best. She couldn’t object to that.
She wanted Ben though. She needed him. He was warm, loving and there for her when ever she needed him. He always had been. As she thought about being with Ben she thought about leaving Derrick. Thought of the tears, his pain. She couldn’t do it. And as she thought of the lies she would have to tell Shane every time he asked who his dad was she cried and as she did she felt Ben hold her tighter and kiss her head. And she stopped she had made up her mind. She needed Ben and that was who she was going to have… What ever the price.