Shelton Family Saga

Chapter 16

Homecoming
Sat, Sept. 02, 1974, 10:07 a.m.
Bus Station - Helmsville, WY

Brisha was so excited to have Hollywood coming home. Now they would be able to start their life together. It still felt surreal knowing how long Hollywood had been gone, but in just a short amount of time he would be standing there in front of her.

Chhhhhhhhh. The sound of the big Greyhound passenger bus had pulled into the bus station. All the passengers had exited from the opposite side from where Brisha was waiting. She stood across the street in front of her car patiently waiting. After about ten minutes when everyone had gotten off the bus, the big Greyhound rolled away.

And there he stood. Tall and lanky. Not quite as skinny as she remembered him ten years ago, but still on the slender side.

"Oh my gosh, it's my man."

She ran up to Hollywood and wrapped her arms around him tightly not letting go for several minutes. Then she began to softly sob.

"Heeyyy it's alright. It's alright," Hollywood said as pulled away from her a little bit to see her face. "I'm home now."

She just couldn't believe the love of her life had made it home. He was finally out of the penitentiary. She was so glad to have him there in her arms. It was hard having last seen him when she was only fifteen and not again for ten years. Now they were reunited, her at twenty five and him at twenty seven, picking up where they left off. Brisha had been the only female to catch his eye. She was quiet and stand-offish toward him in the beginning, but he had been persistent. Hollywood had always been a gentleman by carrying her books to her classes for her and pulling her chair out for her in the lunchroom. She never really said much to him, but she allowed him to do it cause he was always so sweet about it.

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Hoochie & Hollywood
Sat. Dec. 23, 1974 - Helmsville

It had been three months that Hollywood had been back on soil in the free world. He had made his way around to a few places back in Helmsville since getting out of prison, but he hadn't really ventured out. Now the Christmas holidays were here and everyone was about to see what made Hollywood and Hoochie just who the fuck they were. Truthfully, with Hollywood out of prison and back in Helmsville, there was no telling what was about to take place.

Hoochie sat in the chair by the window of the little motel and joyfully whistled the tune of Santa Claus is coming to town. He had a firm bristle boar brush in his left hand as he gripped the Stacy Adams dress shoe by the tongue with his right thumb on top and four fingers underneath. Dutifully, he used short soft strokes back and forth across the toe of the shoe to get the polish buffed in. His khaki's lay across the foot of the bed with a perfect crease in them from the starch he used to steam press them with the iron. After an additional twenty two strokes across the tip of the shoe, he sat the shoe and brush down next to the can of polish on the newspaper by his chair. He grabbed the whiskey glass on the table beside him, and took a sip from it savoring the straight Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey. As he waited patiently for Hollywood to show up, he let his mind wander which was something he never did. He thought about some of the last times he spent with his momma when she was still alive. One of his favorite memories was always how the week before Christmas he and his brothers toy pistols and holsters would go missing. He and his older brother would go on a desperate hunt for the missing items and only after they'd exhausted their efforts with their search leaving them empty handed, they'd always run to their momma in a last ditch effort asking, "Momma, you seen our guns and holsters?" She would lovingly reply to them, "No son, i'm sorry, but maybe it'll turn up sooner or later." He and his brothers would always be so despondent over their missing favorite toys; but then on Christmas morning, their guns and holsters would somehow magically end up in wrapping paper under the Christmas tree, and he and his brothers were back to playing cowboys and Indians. They may have been poor, but in his mind he was rich. He had the love and support of his momma back then and therefore needed or wished for nothing more. But then things changed and he had to grow up faster than he wanted. He had younger siblings and he felt it was his job to see that everyone was taken care of cause he was among the older kids, but most importantly, he'd been his momma's favorite. She never told him that, but he knew it. He just felt it. Taking another swig of his Kentucky Bourbon he set the glass down and stood up. Taking a deep breath, he walked over to the window peering out from behind the brown plaid curtain in wonder of what was taking Hollywood so long.