Five Feet or Less

by Erik Schubach

  She placed a warm hand on my cheek that warmed other parts of me I'm too embarrassed to share. She softly said, “Don't sweat the little things Ree. I had a blast too. Ummm... you... want to like... do something again? I mean you paid for everything, let me make it up to you.”

  I felt a smile twitching around at the corners of my mouth again. “Sure! I'd love that!” I replied.

  She let go of my cheek and skipped to the drivers side and got in. She gave the cutest tiny wave as she drove off. I just smiled and watched her go until she turned at the end of the block then I made my way inside, humming to myself. I'm in such a flippin' good mood!

  - - -

  The next four weeks were filled with the same. I had never had so much fun in my life as when I was doing things with Sarah. She was so... I mean she looked... I loved it when she touched me.

  I was feeling closer to her each time we were together. I had a fascination with her lips. I could watch her talk all day. I had to kick myself a few times when I felt myself leaning in for a kiss. Shit, can't ruin my only friendship. I wrote it off to these new emotions of happiness she instilled in me.

  We were inseparable. I can't imagine a time when her hand was not on my shoulder as she walked beside me.

  Chapter 5 – Beautiful Music

  One morning, really early, I got a call. I grinned as I saw who it was and I tapped accept on the iPad that was sitting on the nightstand beside the bed. “Well hello there early bird. Aren't you supposed to be getting ready for work instead of chasing the worm?”

  Sara answered in playful mode. “Well, I was... kinda hoping... You know, that you'd come to work with me today. It is my half day. To see what I do. I want to share that with you.”

  Before I realized I was speaking I had blurted out, “Kay, see you at your place in a few.” I didn't really have any work to do today anyway, I had most of my clients already squared away. The evil red headed sprite knew this too.

  I was hopping into my chair and hurrying off to the bathroom to prepare for the day. I couldn't help singing in the shower. I noticed I started doing that a few weeks ago. It sort of coincided with the arrival of Sarah in my life.

  And the smiles that stayed on my face for hours after she visited me here started around then, too. It is kind of funny watching Marcie and Gwen have death glare showdowns with her every time she comes. Sarah won't back down from anything. I wonder what the girls' problem is with her? They're getting almost obsessively protective.

  I was done and knocking on the girls' door lightly. Getting a growled, “What, Wheels?”

  I rolled my eyes and smiled at myself. “I'm going to work with Sarah today. I won't be here to wake you up for work. I'll be home after noon sometime.”

  Groans and growls accompanied a grumpy. “Whatever, just let us sleep, it's early!”

  After completing my exit ritual I was down the stairs and into Bessie at record speed. I drove past the grocery store and turned on the familiar side street two blocks later and pulled up to Sarah's little brick house. It was her family home growing up and Sarah kept it when her mother got a good job offer in Colorado. I blinked a few times while looking at it before I dismounted from the van.

  Something new had been added since I was here three days ago. A shiny new wheelchair ramp up to the landing on the front porch. The steep and shallow, worn concrete steps were too steep for me to navigate, I have always had to go to the back door by the kitchen and pop up over the concrete pad to enter.

  I wheeled slowly to the ramp. She did this... just for me? She stepped out of her front door and sat on her porch swing with a little miss sweet and innocent look on her face. I had to laugh at how comical it looked. That expressive face gets me every time.

  She looked at me. “Weeeell?”

  I grinned again and easily wheeled up the ramp. And stopped in front of her. I pushed her legs to get her swinging. I tilted my head. “You did this for me?”

  She snorted. “Don't flatter yourself. You have such a big head... I just figured it was about time I made my house a little more accessible.” She paused with a lopsided smile as she stopped the swinging motion. “Of course I did it for you. It feels creepy forcing my best friend to use the back door all the time.”

  I melted a bit. I could just... oh. Her eyes captured me. Dang, it's getting hot out here. I gotta see the doc about all these hot flashes I've been getting lately. “These things are expensive Sarah!”

  She shrugged. “Well, mom helped a bit... fine, she helped a lot. OK, whatever, she paid for it.” Then she paused. “Oh hey, did I tell you she finally got it verified that she will be here tomorrow for that seminar? She'll stay overnight and for most of Saturday to visit!”

  I grinned, I knew how much she loved her mom, she spoke about her all the time. I shook my head. “No you didn't, that's exciting!”

  She grinned then asked, “Mind if I try something?” She looked at me with a certain mischief in her eyes that was looking for silent permission. I nodded timidly as she gently grabbed my legs and put my feet on the ground in front of the chair and unbuckled the belt. Then she stood over me with our toes and knees touching. What is she up to?

  I almost asked, but she grabbed my forearms and surprised me with one swift motion and yanked me straight up. I rotated up almost to a standing position, her knees stopping my legs from simply folding forward and she twisted my body with the momentum and I plopped into the porch swing and she flopped down beside me and started us swinging as she giggled.

  I was staring at her in shock and amusement as she just stared forward with a huge smile on her face as we swung. She mumbled in mirth, dragging out the first word. “Coooool. It really works. Saw how to do that on YouTube.” Then she turned her comical expression to me before I could ask a million things. “What are you just sitting around for? I gotta get to work. We're in walking distance.” She stood up and started walking down the ramp. She turned and looked back at me. “You coming slacker?”

  I was still at a loss for words. That was cool. Freaky, but cool. Wait. She's looking up stuff like that online? Gawd this woman knows how to melt my heart... I mean... make me feel good.

  I transferred back into my chair with a chuckle and followed her to the sidewalk as she asked, “I hope you didn't mind that. I mean it looked cool and easy and I have been dying to try it.”

  I grinned at her. “Well you could give a girl some warning first. I may have peed a little.”

  She put a comical scrunchy apologetic look on her face, crinkling her nose. “Would you have let me if I told you first?”

  I grinned at her like an idiot. “No.”

  She nodded in victory. “Well, there you have it then.”

  Her victory was short lived as I swung my chair to hit the back of her knees again, dropping her in my lap. Two can play at that game! I stuck out my tongue at her as she snuggled in and pointed dramatically like a captain of a ship, and saying, “To Mercelli's my good woman!”

  At the end of the block she had to, regrettably, get off my lap as this intersection didn't have disabled ramps and I didn't know if I'd be able to pop the curb with her. I reveled in the faint chocolate aroma and heat she left behind. Behind? I looked at her behind. What the hell am I doing? Her hand found its familiar place on my shoulder as we went along.

  In just four short blocks we were back on the main drag and heading into Mercelli's Strings through the side door she unlocked with her key code. I admit, I actually snuck in here a week ago on her day off when I was out, finally getting my hair cut. Well trimmed is more like it since Sarah says she loves my long hair. I figured I was already out in the world on my own, I may as well take a peek. Curiosity about where Sarah worked was killing me.

  We were in what looked like a storage area with floor to ceiling shelves divided into slots, with various instruments in the numbered slots. There was a workbench on one side with all kinds of tools and what appeared to be the parts of a standup jazz bass strewn about.

 
She walked through a curtained off doorway and into the main retail space where dozens of violins, cellos, bass and string guitars were for sale. She flipped on the lights and swapped the closed sign to open as she unlocked the door.

  She brushed her fingers along a few instruments as she walked back to me. She was showing me her electric violin that she stored behind the counter. It was so cool to me. It looked like a skeleton of a violin and it had hookups for an amp. The bells over the door tinkled and I looked over. Sarah caught my head motion and followed my gaze. Hmmm it must be the higher tones she can't hear well.

  An older man with silver hair who was impeccably dressed walked in. Sarah grinned. “Hi, Mr. Mercelli. This is Reese, she's job shadowing me today. Well, I'm forcing her to job shadow me today.”

  The man looked at me and spoke with a heavy accent... Itallian? “Yes. Hard to say no to this one, yes?”

  I nodded with a smile as he shook my hand. Sarah was putting her violin back in its case and he stopped her. “No fiore delicato, why don't you show her what you can do?”

  Sarah was turning beet red now. I have never seen her so embarrassed. He looked at her sternly and she pulled it back out and hooked it to a foot pedal and an amplifier. She looked at us nervously, and I nodded encouragingly as Mr. Mercelli crossed his arms and stood next to me with an expectant look on his face.

  She hesitated a moment longer then raised the instrument delicately to her chin and laid the bow across the strings. She dragged it experimentally across the strings a couple times and adjusted the tuning on the violin then the amp a bit.

  Then Sarah got a serious look on her face and began. What happened next floored me. Nothing could have prepared me for the beautiful music that she brought fourth from the strings. I recognized it as Bach's Partita No. 2. I could feel emotions reeling about in me as she played. Her eyes looked so sad.

  I just found myself floating away with the melody as it swirled around, painting a picture of beauty and emotion. Then she stomped on the foot pedal and the music was suddenly full of fury and wonder as it sounded like an electric guitar now. It kept building reaching a pinnacle and she hit the foot pedal again and the beauty was back as a counterpoint to what had just come before. Bringing us back down to Earth with a happiness that filled me with hope. She sustained the final note like a prayer being thrown out to the universe.

  Before I knew what was happening she was already unplugging the violin and storing it back in its case. Mr. Mercelli had a look of pride on his face. “Bello il mio piccolo amore,” he whispered.

  I finally remembered how to speak. “Sarah... Sar... that was amazing!”

  She shrugged and joined us at the counter.

  Over the next few hours she showed me how she tuned and repaired instruments. She placed one under my chin and put her arms around me and told me to close my eyes and listen to the sound and feel the vibration in my jaw. Then she would adjust the tuning and strike the same notes. I could actually hear and feel the difference. When it was in tune, there was a... I don't know how to describe it... a resonance? Oh... that would be the harmonic resonance that she says helps with her tinnitus!

  Then Mr. Mercelli took it from me and he used some sort of electronic tuning device on it as he tried different notes. He nodded satisfactorily and grinned at me. “She has this knack for tuning the strings by tone and feel even though she can't hear the full spectrum. I have to use my electronic tuner to lock in the tuning. It is her gift. As is her playing. Dono degli angeli. A gift from the angels.”

  She looked embarrassed. The door chimed and Mr. Mercelli swept his eyes toward the front for her and she looked over then went to help the customer.

  This gave him a chance to speak with me alone. “So you are the angelo that has brought the smile to her face? It is so much nicer than the sorrow she has always worn like a cloak. It makes my heart swell to see her happy these past few weeks. And her music is so full of hope now.”

  What? I shook my head. “I'm no angel, Mr. Mercelli. She's the one that has brought a smile to my face.”

  He grinned at me. “Well, then it seems you two are good for each other. No?” He nodded, signaling the end of our conversation, then turned back to work repairing the stand up jazz bass he had been working on all morning.

  The rest of the morning went like that. Sometimes a customer would be in to pick up a repair and Mr. Mercelli put me to work handing me a call ticket and matching it with a shelf slot and wheeling the instrument up front for him while Sarah gave me comical looks all morning, keeping me laughing.

  Then it was noon and time for Sarah to get off. But before we could Mr. Mercelli stopped us and leaned the finished jazz bass toward her. She rolled her eyes at him and started plucking at the bass in an upbeat jazz number. Then she shook her head. “There's something wrong with the bridge. I can feel some sponginess on the upstroke.”

  He loosened the strings then pulled the bridge out from under them and flexed it's feet with his fingers, then smiled at her as he threw it in the trash and grabbed another one and flexed it then nodded satisfactorily. He then shooed us away, “Go now my two bella ragazze. Have fun.”

  I told him what a pleasure it was to meet him and we were off in a giggly and happy state, with her hand on my shoulder as we went along. I stopped and Sarah shot me a questioning glance. I looked at her, getting lost in her eyes and spoke softly, “You never told me.”

  She scrunched up her face in confusion. God, I loved her expressive face. “Told you what?”

  I grinned, still captured by her sparkling green pools. “That you could play like that. I mean, you said you played. But that... was a whole world above simply playing. I swore a choir was going to join in at any moment.”

  She blushed. “Eh... I'm OK.”

  I slapped her arm playfully and she changed the topic as we got to the turn off to her house. “Lunch! I'm starving!”

  I agreed and started turning down her street and the chair stopped moving on its own. I'm used to it now and have never really cared that she did that. With her and her alone, as it was no different than grabbing someone's arm to stop them. I looked back at her.

  She grinned in triumph and said, “No, not at home. Bergie's Burgers!” She had the most comical forced grin on her face. Her and her burgers! She knows I'm still uncomfortable out in the public. I tried to escape but she's freakishly strong. My front wheels left the ground as she started dragging me backwards down the road toward Bergie's.

  I comically pleaded with the world. “Help? Help me?”

  This only got a fiendish laugh from the red headed sprite as she spun me around and lowered my wheels to the sidewalk then walked beside me with her hand on my shoulder as we went along. Truth be told, she can drag me anywhere.

  Chapter 6 – Mother Type Unit

  The next day around five in the afternoon, just as I had finished adding some social networking aspects to Silent Bob's Cascade Experience website, well Valentine’s Cascade Experience now, my devices were all screaming at me. I knew who it was without looking. I had been expecting this call all day. I glanced at the screen and smiled. I put my headset on as I brought my garbage that had piled up on my desk today to the kitchen trashcan. “Well hello there Sarah. What an unexpected surprise. To what do I owe the honor of your call?”

  She snorted. “Yeah, laugh it up Miss Innocent-ella. You know damn well what's up. Help! Mom is here and she won't shut up about meeting you! Make it stop. I beg of you! I will pay you to shut her up!”

  I chuckled then replied, “Well it's your own damn fault. Fine. If I must, I'll be right over.”

  She assured me vehemently. “Oh... you must!”

  I happily got ready and as I was writing a note to the girls, Marcie got home from work. I cautiously spoke, “I'm going to Sarah's I'll probably be home late.” She just nodded to me and continued on into her room. I made a decision and called out, “Marcie. Can we talk sometime this weekend?”

  She stopped at her door and turne
d and nodded, I think I almost detected a smile there, then she disappeared into her room.

  I grabbed my keys and purse and checked that the green envelope was in its spot then headed out the door. I would normally wheel the mile to Sarah's house but it would be dark when I came home so I mounted up in Bessie and was on my way.

  I cringed. Crap. I should really bring something for her mother. So I pulled into the grocery store parking lot and performed my dismount in a handicapped spot since the lot was full with people stopping by after work.

  I got to the florist area. I didn't want roses... to cliché, so I looked in the cold case. There was a nice bunch of carnations on the top shelf. I stretched, it was out of reach, there was no way I could get them with my tipper stick since they were in a big black tub of water. I looked around for a salesperson. The only one I could see was over by produce. As I started wheeling off, a man came up to the case and grabbed that last bunch of carnations. Damn it!

  I hated this. When I don't need help, everyone is always asking, but when I actually need help, nobody is around. I'm surprised at how often I find things out of reach out here in the world when it seems that at home, there is almost never an occasion for me to go high. I started thinking about that a little as I perused the other flowers and settled on a small mixed bunch. Better than nothing. Hmm... it seems a little odd to me now that I think about it, it's not just the fact that I put things low for me to reach. I guess I never paid much attention to it. Maybe Marcie and Gwen do more than I think.

  After paying then remounting Bessie I was off to Sarah's again. That always makes me smile when I think about it. A short ride later I was parking behind a Trusty Rental car at her place. I saw them talking through the front window. Sarah caught sight of me and waved cutely with a smile that started the butterflies in my stomach. I returned the smile and wave then got out of the van. I wheeled up the ramp to the front door with the flowers on my lap and Sarah opened it before I could knock.