A Call For Help
 

It had been a hell of a day and Richie was asleep almost before his head hit the pillow. The phone woke him after a couple of hours sleep, he answered it and glanced at his watch on the bedside table, 1:30 am.

“Yeah Roberts.”

“Hey Roberts, got one of your sheila’s here causing a problem, you wanna come and get her?”

“What…who is this?” Richie rubbed his eyes.

“A voice from the past, Hando. I got a girl here drunk and rolling drunks says you’ll come and get her, if ya don’t I’m callin’ the cops for her.”

“What are you talking about, who have you got?”

“Her name’s Rosemary, so are ya comin’ for her?”

“Um yeah, where are you?”

“Crossings.”

“Shit, that’s in Coffs.” Richie sat up on the side of the bed and ran his hand through his hair.

“No fuckin’ kidding, are ya comin’ for her or not?”

“Yeah, yeah I’m coming.”

Richie hung up the phone and got up to splash some water in his face and wake up. He fumbled around for his jeans and a tee shirt, got himself dressed and left for Crossings.

He pulled up near the door and saw Hando with her, he was already walking her to his vehicle.

Richie got out and opened the passenger door, “What’s goin’ on?” he asked Hando.

“I figure she’s workin’ the drunks. I’ve been watchin’ her so she’s all yours,” he said with a smirk.

“Just for the record, she ain’t mine,” Richie said in his face.

“I don’t give a fuck who she belongs to mate, I don’t want to see her back in here again, got it?”

“Fuck off, Hando,” Richie went around and got in his car and buckled up.

He looked over at Rosemary, “You wanna go get some coffee and tell me what the hell this is about?”

“I don’t want to go anywhere,” she sobbed.

Richie ignored that and drove to an all night diner and pulled her out of the Rover. He was half pissed off as he shoved her through the door to a booth and ordered two coffees.

“All right, talk.” He said and picked up his cup.

“I’m sorry, sorry you had to get involved.”

“Next sentence,” he said.

“I’m not worth talking to, just take me back to my room, I gotta a place to stay for awhile.”

Richie moistened his lips, “What are you doin’ around here anyway, why did you come to Coffs?”

“I wanted to see him, just to see him he don’t know who I am anyway it was a mistake, I shouldn’t have come.”

“You got a guy around here somewhere ?”

She looked out of the fogged window toward the parking lot, “Yeah, I had a guy but I don’t have him anymore.” She looked down in her cup and took a drink of her coffee.

“Is that what this is all about, you’re pissed off at some guy so you go out and roll drunks, was Hando right?”

“No, I’m not pissed at some bloke, I uh…it’s too complicated to talk about tonight.”

“Look, I got woke up to come and get you, you’re damn well gonna talk to me if it takes the rest of the night. Drink your coffee you need to sober up. You got a place around here?”

“Yeah,” she sipped her coffee, “I’ve got a room.”

Richie waited until she finished her coffee, paid up and put her back in the Rover and took her to her room in a sleazy looking hotel on the outskirts of Coffs.

Rosemary was beginning to sober up and felt embarrassed that Richie was with her in such a place. “It’s not much but all I could afford.”

“Why don’t you go wash your face and come and talk to me.” Richie sat down on the sagging mattress and lit a cigarette, he noticed the ashtray half full by her bed and got up and found a trash bin to empty it. It was a sad looking room.

Rosemary came back, her face clean, damp hair around her cheeks and he offered her a cigarette. She looked much younger and more vulnerable without makeup. “Ta,” she said when he lit her smoke.

“How old are you, Rosemary?”

“Um 21, I had a birthday not long ago.”

“You’re still a school kid, aren’t ya?”

“No,” she smiled a little, “got thrown out of school when I was 17, I was um at a Catholic school and I got pregnant.”

“Immaculate conception?”

“Uh, no he um went into the military and was sent away. He didn’t know I was pregnant. My parents sent me to Mercy to have the baby, I was supposed to put it up for adoption but I didn’t. They wouldn’t let me come back home so I stayed with a friend’s aunt and her boyfriend for awhile and then…I kinda drifted you know.”

“Where is he now, the kid’s father and where’ s the kid?”

“He went missing in Afghanistan, I heard that through the grapevine so I knew there was no chance there, he was just gone.”

“And the kid?”

“I um gave him away. I couldn’t care for him. I met a girl at a hamburger place, we ah worked the same shift and I went to stay with her for awhile with the baby. And um one day I couldn’t take it anymore, having nothing, going nowhere so I met this guy and left. I went to Melbourne with him.”

“You left your kid behind.”

“Yeah, I was gonna come back and get him, at least that’s what I told her but I never did.”

“How long ago was this?”

“Oh about three years ago.” She bit her lip and stubbed out the cigarette.

“So where’s the guy you left with?”

“I don’t know Richie,” she began to cry again, “there’s been a lot of guys since then.”

Richie put his arm around her and hugged, “So what do you want to do now? You came here looking for what the kid?”

“Yeah, the girl works at Andy’s I found out where she was in Sydney. She came to Coffs a couple of years ago and was working on the waterfront in a place and they referred me to Andy’s so that’s where she works now. I just thought if I could see him for a minute, you know. I don’t want to take him, he doesn’t even know me.”

“Rosemary, what makes you think she still has your kid?”

“I don’t know for sure but at least she would know where he is.”

“Do you want the kid back?”

“I can’t take him, look what I am, where I live…no I couldn’t.”

“Look, you’ve fucked it up okay but you’re only 21 years old,” Richie took a breath, “I’ll pay for your room until you can get yourself a job, will you let me do that? Stay out of Crossings and places like that. You’re not done Rosemary, I’ll help you get started again if you’ll let me if you’ll try to straighten yourself out.”

“Why, why are you doing this for me?”

“I haven’t a fuckin’ idea except it’s nearly 4:00 in the morning and I’m tired and I got problems of my own to work on in a few hours. I’ll take you to get your car, I think you can drive now.” He stood up and she caught his hands.

“Would you stay with me tonight?”

He thought about it, “Um, I don’t think so Rosemary, not tonight we both need some sleep and you’ve got to get out there tomorrow and find employment.”

Rosemary got up and found her jacket, “Nobody has ever been as nice to me as you have…nobody Richie.”

“Yeah well, I ain’t always nice so get a move on.” He opened her door.