Living in a Small Town

It didn't take long for Uncle Darren to realize he was making a ton more money from the arcade in the 'back' room than he was from the tattoo parlor. He moved all the tattoo equipment upstairs and stored it away, expanding the arcade through the entire ground floor. Stan asked him at one point if he regretted getting forced into running the kid's hangout instead of doing his art. Darren quickly replied that he had always wanted kids, but they were never going to happen for him, so having nearly all the kids in town for a few hours a day was like a dream come true.

He didn't just put a bunch of gaming machines around the place and ignore the kids either. He organized study groups, so none of their grades suffered because they hung out at his place. He also arranged for weekly board game nights where all the machines were turned off and the entertainment was time honored games like Monopoly and Chutes and Ladders for the younger ones. There was even a weekly roleplay gaming event where Darren served as a coach while one of the teens was the gamemaster, and Darren helped the players keep up with their character sheets.

Through all of this, Little Kaden kept looking at his adopted uncle and giggling softly. He, Janie, and Nicky all played the roleplaying game, with a lot of help from Uncle Darren and Tommy. Those particular games were kept a bit less intense than the older kids played, and the teens and older kids seemed to get a bigger thrill out of helping the little ones play than they did when they played the more serious games themselves. Darren insisted that the little ones only play wholesome games that helped them learn. Therefore, he was completely shocked when he learned from Janie and Kaden how devious two little angels could be.

Janie and Kaden walked in the front door of the arcade one afternoon each holding a hand of an adult, a very particular adult. Darren had to fight to not have his mouth fall open in shock as Auntie Rita walked into his hangout with his two favorite little gamers. The kids led her all around the building showing her some of their favorite games and introducing her to their big and little friends. They finally led her over to where Darren had been sitting the whole time, watching her.

"Unca Darren, you got a great place, but it's still missing one thing," Kaden announced precociously. "You need a snack bar. But Mama Stan says kids can't work it by themselves, not even big high school kids. There's gotta be a growed up watching over them."

"Well, those are very good and true points, Kadester, but they also won't let me watch over a snack bar, because I'm already watching over the whole place," Darren agreed.

"That's where Auntie Rita comes in," Janie said with a grin. "She can run the snack bar for you while you keep making everybody behave and learn and have fun."

"I thought you worked with the sheriff's office, ma'am," Darren said quietly.

"I discovered that answering calls about people's bad news all day is not a pleasant way to earn a living," Rita told him. "Janie here had a distant cousin on her grandmother's side that took over the job as of today. I am currently unemployed, but if I do say so myself, I'm pretty good with kids."

"Auntie Rita is awesome with kids," Kaden assured Uncle Darren loudly. "She took the bestest care of me even when it wasn't easy because of my old parents, but she likes my new parents lots better, right Auntie Rita?"

"I absolutely do, Kadie sweetheart," the woman agreed with a smile and bent to kiss him on the head.

"Auntie, you can't call me that in front of other kids," the little boy whined, but he leaned up and into the kiss eagerly. "Well, I guess you can on account of family is poseta embarrass kids in public.

"I have been saving up for something like this, if you're willing to give it a go, ma'am," Darren said. Instantly, he remembered saying those same exact words to this same woman years before over the phone. What's more, she remembered, too.

"Tatmandu?" she questioned in a whisper that only Darren could hear. It was the secret name he had used when he had called her during her phone sex days. He couldn't speak, so he just nodded as he blushed. "You called me every Thursday at 7pm."

"You remember that?" Darren gasped.

"You were the most polite, nicest, and most innocent man I dealt with through those years," she told him. "I was actually sorry I didn't get to keep hearing from you when that du… when that job ended abruptly."

"They're going to talk growed up stuff now, Kade. Let's go see if Tommy and his boyfriend want to play Go Fish," Janie said as she pulled a giggling Kaden away.

"Good luck, Auntie Rita," the boy called out. "You're welcome, Uncle Darry."

"If I were British, I would call that child cheeky," Darren grumped with an affectionate grin.

"Oh, he's a special little angel all his own category, that's for sure," Rita agreed. She turned back to face the man. "How long have you known who I am?"

"A couple of months or so," Darren confessed. "I wasn't going to say anything, though, because it ain't my place to tell your business."

"The name makes sense now," she giggled a little bit. "Tattoo man."

"I didn't want to be too obvious, but I admit to not being all that creative," he shrugged and blushed a bit.

"You know, I lived for your call every Thursday," she told him. "All the other guys wanted what the business was there for, what it was about. You were the only man I'd ever even heard of that called a phone sex line and asked the tramp how her week had gone. You never seemed to want to talk or listen to anything dirty, you just wanted someone to listen and treat you like a friend."

"Oh, I had my dreams, ma'am, but hearing your voice, I just couldn't ever bring up the nerve to say anything naughty or dirty, and then as time went on, I got to where the dreams weren't about a night together, but about years together instead. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that."

"Yes, you should have, because I was having those same dreams. I was married at the time, but he had never loved me, and any love I had ever had for him had long since died, but you…. You made me feel special and cared about in ways that he never had."

"Well, ma'am, that just proves he was an idiot who didn't know when he had the most wonderful person in the whole universe beside him," Darren told her.

"Why do you keep calling me ma'am?"

"I haven't been given permission to call you anything at all, and ma'am is the most respectful thing I can think of as it is what I always called my mother," Darren blushed.

"Well, I certainly don't intend to take her place and be a mother figure to you," Rita snapped.

"No, ma'am, I would rather you weren't that either," Darren agreed with her.

"For heaven's sake, the name is Rita Sue, or just plain Rita, if you prefer," she sighed in exasperation.

"Nothing about you is plain, and if that ain't the most fitting thing ever," Darren smiled.

"What is that supposed to mean?" she questioned.

"The name Rita has a history and background in a couple of languages and cultures, but interestingly enough, it means pearl in all of them, a beautiful, elegant pearl."

"You silver-tongued rogue, you," Rita blushed. At that moment the unmistakable sounds of 'game over' blared from a nearby machine, accompanied by a string of curse words in a teenage boy's voice. "Bradley Jonathon Applegate, does your mama know you talk like that?" Rita called out. A hush fell over the entire arcade. "Because she will if I ever hear another word like that out of your mouth in front of all these little ones. You want to cuss like shameless redneck trash, and prove to everyone how dumb you are, that's your business, boy, but you won't do it in here in front of innocent ears."

"Yes'm, I mean no ma'am, I mean… sorry, Miss Rita," the boy in question stammered as he hung his head in shame.

"Brad, you knew that kind of language is banned in here, didn't you?" Darren asked him. The boy nodded and whimpered a yes sir without lifting his head at all. "You know that means you're not allowed to play any games for the rest of today, don't you?"

Again, the boy nodded and answered affirmatively. "I'll go home now, Uncle Dare."

"Did I tell you that you had to leave? Come on over here. If you ain't playing, you can make yourself useful, and earn some free games when you come back tomorrow. Help me and Miss Rita move some things around over here to make room for her snack bar we'll be putting in."

"Yes sir, Uncle Dare," the boy said much more upbeat. "I'm a lot stronger than I look, on account of me helping my dad build cabinets for people remodeling their kitchens."

"Well, now, I wasn't aware you had professional skills and connections," Darren said, patting the boy on the shoulder. "Now I know who to call to have the snack bar built."

"Yeah, Dad's super good at it," Brad agreed. "He just finished up remodeling the mayor's kitchen two weeks ago. So, he don't have a project going right now."

"I'm pretty sure Darren meant you, Brad," Auntie Rita said with a smile.

"Oh, but I'm not licensed or nothing," the boy pointed out quickly.

"You let me and your dad worry about that," Darren told him. "Now, get over here and get to measuring and designing. You don't need a license for that. You tell me what we're going to have to rearrange and move around, and I'll help you until the actual construction starts. That is out of my skill set."

"Yes, sir, Uncle Dare, sir. I promise I won't let you down again, Aunt Rita," Brad vowed seriously.

"You didn't let me down," Rita told him as she ruffled his hair. "You had a teenager moment, and those happen sometimes. I just had to remind you not to have them in front of little ones that don't know any better than to repeat what you just said. Now, get busy, but don't let this project interfere with your school work. That will disappoint me and your mama."  

Within a few weeks, Brad was in charge of a whole corner of the arcade, although the plumbing stuff had required the arcade to be closed for a few days and Uncle Dare had spent those days staying in the motel out by the highway. Brad made sure he got his homework for classes done, because he now actually believed that he would need those dumb school lessons when he took over the building business from his father. He also seemed to think of Uncle Dare and Aunt Rita as a second mother and father, something even the little kids seemed to notice and emulate. After all, if one of the biggest, baddest teenagers in town said yes ma'am and no sir to the couple running the arcade, all the kids should.

Within a few months, the town had settled into maybe not a completely new existence, but definitely a different level of comfortable for everyone. It was a mentality that everyone in town mattered just as much as anyone else. No one cared that there were a few boy boy couples at the high school dance, or that there was also one girl girl couple as well. It didn't affect anyone's personal life that the night captain of the sheriff office who gave them a speeding ticket went home to a husband in the morning instead of a wife. It simply wasn't their business. And a few years later when a certain young man suddenly stopped wearing shirts everywhere to hide his back and began going topless to show off his tattoo of a black panther with angel wings, well, no one seemed to mind a bit. In fact, quite a few people simply smiled and told the young man, "I always knew you were an angel."