THE BOLAN CHRONICLES: Reading #26

26. Approximate Minutes Reading (AMR): 3

Introduction to Characters

THE BOLAN CHRONICLES

Chapter 3

A House

**Garage Sale Furnishings**

Another holiday season passed, and before they knew it, Jake and Donna had been living in their little rental for over a year. The house now had a real family look to it; the makeshift furniture replaced by the real thing purchased mostly at estate sales that Jake had found. The brown leather couch and love seat were a hit with visitors, and Donna had found a couple of oriental rugs at a garage sale at a posh home near Canoe Brook Lake, an upscale neighborhood 15 minutes northwest of their house. When she had stepped out of the car to look at the rugs, a sixty-something lady wearing tight-fitting pajama bottoms and a flannel button-down shirt took one look at the baby and fell in love. Donna let her hold him, and the questions commenced; when was he born and where, does he look at all like his daddy, 'cause he sure looks an awful lot like his momma! Was he colicky at all? And she had stories about her four kids and her thirteen grandchildren. 

By the time she had left the house, Donna had purchased the two beautiful rugs for less than half of what the grandmother had originally asked--a lot less than half, and Jake could hardly believe it when she had told him. They were a perfect match, color and style, with their furniture. 

With the addition of a thick shag carpet and a full size cloth couch that Jake had received from a produce driver he’d befriended at work, the Jake Bolan Peace Room was by now a bit warmer. A rather shoddy but comfortable leather lounge chair was a payback item for having helped one of the restaurant cops who was looking for someone with a truck. He’d purchased a new curio cabinet from Eastman’s Furniture and couldn’t quite get it to fit in his panel van. 

Jake had added a stereo with two large speakers. Jake’s boss had a friend who had two ‘pretty damned good’ Pioneer speakers that were in perfectly good condition and he didn’t want nor did he have a place to store them. Ken immediately thought of Jake and called the restaurant. “You’ll have to pick them up yourself.” He’d said. Jake was happy to take them off his hands. When Ken’s friend had opened the garage door to reveal the speakers, Jake was taken-aback. They were much bigger than he’d imagined. And when Donna saw them in the back of the truck she had smiled real big and clapped her hands and ran to meet Jake as he stepped out of the truck. 

He had dragged them down to the Peace Room by just after noon, and Jake spent the balance of the day and night playing with his new toy, the Panasonic turntable receiver amplifier with the biggest speakers he’d ever seen. He had never been a music fanatic as such, enjoying occasionally some of the country music that his dad had periodically played. So Jake was happy to fiddle with the dial until he found a static-free station. When a commercial for Ball Park Franks came on, Jake laughed when Redd Foxx said, “I like the original, ‘cause I’m the original, Dummy!” And suddenly Jake remembered the comedy record albums that his father had given him. “Holy shit!” he cried gleefully. 

He pulled the box of records from the top of the half-full bookshelf. He placed a Richard Prior record called ‘That Nigger’s Crazy’ on the turntable, gently set the needle, and backed into his shoddy leather lounge chair. By the end of the first track titled, ‘I Hope I’m Funny,’ Jake was curled over in pain for having laughed so hard. The idea that he now had access to a training session in sarcasm and wit via a few dozen record albums made him happy, and as Richard Prior spewed forth more and more filthy hysterics, Jake became more and more pleased with himself for having created a personal world in the basement of his very first abode.