Berta Handles Her Business, True stories of people I know Options

[merle]

Stanking Hank didn’t actually stink, it was his ways that had a person crinkling up their nose and taking a step back. Once he became addicted to Crack, his life ran parallel to a country song. He lost his job, his woman, his home, and his truck. If he had owned a dog, I’m sure he would have lost that too. The problem was he bought his drugs on credit and his VA check had bid adieu long gone before he had a chance to cash it. He turned to thieving as a way to subsidize his habit.

Now addicts don’t eat much but Stanking Hank would’ve starved if it wasn’t for his daughter, Berta, who lived across the street. Berta was a solidly built woman with three roly-poly children who liberally peppered their conversations with mam and sir. Stank Hank would eat supper at Berta’s almost every night and on the nights he didn’t put in an appearance at her dining table, she would send one of her children over with a plate.

When Stank’s second career in thievery was a little slow he would pawn the few possessions he owned. Once he pawned his living room furniture and Berta bought him another set. After he pawned the second set, Berta just shook her head and rustled up a few red milk crates for Stank to sit on. Stank was content to sleep curled up on the floor next to the radiator in the winter and underneath an open window during the summer. And if he didn’t mind the sparse living conditions then neither did Berta.

Berta also had a husband but I never knew his name or cared to know it for that matter. He was one of those people who felt the world owed him something and payment was long overdue. It was during the summer of 2005 Berta lost her husband. She didn’t misplace him of course; he did that himself by being in the bed of another woman who lived down in the projects. The woman’s man came home early and simply shot and killed Berta’s husband as he was trying to jimmy open a window to escape. Berta went about burying her cheating husband in that stoic manner she possessed and I admired. It wasn’t until after what happened to Stank that it crossed my mind there might be more to Berta than I thought.

While Berta and her children were attending the funeral someone broke into her apartment. Berta came home to find all her belongings gone. She didn’t mind losing the television or stereo so much, it was the glass mayonnaise jar she kept in her freezer stuffed full of emergency money that caused her some distress. When Berta started asking folks in the neighborhood if they had seen anything she expected everyone to claim temporary blindness but to her surprise they did indeed see something…a U-Haul moving truck parked outside her place and being loaded up. No, they didn’t recognize the ‘movers, assuming them to be family members they didn’t seem suspicious.

Piece by piece Berta’s goods found their way home, first the television and then the stereo but sadly, never the money. Berta never inquired how or why this happened but the deliveries of items came back with the same byline…’Your Daddy sold this to me.’ She confronted Stank but he denied any involvement in the crime and life went back to normal.

A few weeks later while Stank was hanging with the dope dealers on the corner, a black Cadillac pulled up. Two men jumped out and attacked Stank. They whupped up on him pretty good and threw him in the car. I never saw him again and as far as I know nobody else did either. Eventually the milk crates were cleared out and his apartment was rented to someone else. It was never proven Berta had anything to do with her husband’s demise or Stank’s disappearance but I have a feeling Berta handles her business.