Light the Fire

by Mary Manners

  “You’ll get it,” Rena soothed. “We just need to practice some more. You’ve only had the script for a week. You have a lot of lines to memorize. It’s going to take time.”

  Erin held her face in her hands. “I’m going to embarrass myself in front of the whole school. Everyone’s going to laugh at me.”

  “No one’s going to laugh because you’re going to knock their socks off with your amazing talent.” Rena picked up the script and smoothed crumpled pages. “Besides, since when do you care what everyone else thinks?”

  Erin shrugged. When she looked up, her powder-blue eyes glistened with tears. “My mom’s gonna be so disappointed.”

  Rena fished in her purse and found a tissue. She handed it to Erin. “Your mom will not be disappointed. She’s going to be proud. I promise.”

  “You really think so?” Tears turned to sniffles.

  “Yes, I do. You’re not a quitter, Erin. Now, dry your eyes and sit up. Let’s start from the top again.”

  “Oh, OK.”

  They went through the script three more times and by the last, Erin stumbled over only a few lines—despite annoying interruptions by misaimed basketballs. After the final run-through, Erin fanned herself with the script. Rena knew the gym had grown unbearably warm.

  “I think that guy you said you don’t know is really trying to get your attention. I bet he tossed that last ball over here on purpose, just so you’d have to toss it back.”

  Rena followed Erin’s gaze. Cody raced down the basketball court in a fast break, black hair flying while his powerful arms and legs pumped.

  “He’s been staring at you most of the afternoon while we’ve been going over these lines,” Erin continued. “I think he likes you.”

  Rena frowned and smoothed Erin’s hair. “I just wish he’d keep the ball on the court instead of in the bleachers.”

  “Maybe you can tell him that. He’s coming this way.”

  Cody loped up the court toward them, dribbling a basketball. He’d worked up a good sweat and moisture clung to his hair.

  “Oh, it’s six o’clock.” Erin stuffed the script into her backpack. “I’d better get outside. My mom will be waiting for me. She has an important board meeting tonight.”

  “OK.” She didn’t want Erin to go just then, but Rena knew the girl would be in trouble with her mother if she were late getting to the car. “I’ll see you Thursday, and we’ll practice your lines some more, all right?”

  “Sure, Miss Rena. Bye!” She raced toward the door, leaving Rena alone with Cody.

  “Hi again.” He smiled and despite Rena’s best efforts, her insides turned to melted wax.

  “Hi.” She busied herself collecting teaching materials and sliding them into her tote bag.

  “How’s the tutoring going?”

  “Good.” She stuffed notebook paper into the tote along with pencils and a calculator.

  “I noticed Erin practicing her lines for the play. How’s it going?”

  “OK.” In went pens and a dictionary.

  “I’m sorry we interrupted you with so many bad passes. The boys wanted to work on a new play and they don’t quite have it down yet.”

  “No problem.” She crammed in a paperback thesaurus and fastened the clasp.

  “I’ll carry that for you.” He took the heavy teaching bag from her and turned toward the exit. “What do you have in here, anyway? Bricks?”

  She smirked and picked up the pace.

  Cody placed a hand over his heart and mimed a blow to the chest. He stumbled backward and groaned. “You’re loquaciousness is killing me, Rena. Stop, please.”

  That drew a smile. “Sorry. I’m in a hurry.”

  “You should never be in too much of a hurry to eat. I’m finished playing ball and I thought I’d grab a bite after I shower. Wanna join me? Are you hungry?”

  “Yes, I’m hungry, but I can’t go to eat with you.”

  “Oh?”

  Rena paused, sighed. “I promised my mother I’d come to dinner tonight. My dad’s been traveling a lot, and he’s only in town for the night. She wants to have a meal together before he leaves again.”

  “I see.”

  “I have to go, Cody.” She took the tote bag back from him and hoisted it over her shoulder as she walked. “I promised I’d be there by seven.”

  Her cell phone rang. “Hang on.” She fished it out of her purse. “Hello?”

  “Darling, it’s Mom. Are you on your way?”

  “Yes, Mother. I just finished tutoring. Why?”

  “Your father’s fiddling in the yard again. I swear that man can’t go a day without opening the tool chest and laying a hammer to something. Now he’s building a shed.”

  “He’s not up on the ladder again, is he? You know his vertigo is getting worse. He could fall. Get him down from there.”

  “I tried, but you know how that goes. He’s determined to get the roof trussed before he leaves tomorrow. I think he throws himself into these projects just to get away from me.”

  She was probably right. “Get him off the ladder. Tell him I’ll get someone to help him.”

  “Not you, I hope. Women shouldn’t be playing around on the roof. That’s man’s work.”

  Rena rolled her eyes. “Just get him off the ladder—and the roof, OK? I’ll be there in twenty minutes.” She disconnected and slid the phone back into her purse.

  “Problems on the home front?”

  She shrugged. “Nothing out of the ordinary.”

  “Sounded like a crisis to me.”

  “It’s my dad. He’s climbing onto the roof again.”

  “Typical behavior for a builder, right?”

  “Right. But not so typical for him lately.” She paused, sighed. “He had a mini stroke a few months ago and since then his balance has been a bit off. He suffers from vertigo.”

  Concern shadowed Cody’s eyes. “So he needs to get down from the roof—quick.”

  “I know.”

  “How can I help?”

  She sighed. Cody was her only hope if she was going to keep her dad from taking a nosedive onto the asphalt. “Do you like seafood?”

  “Of course. Who doesn’t?” His eyes narrowed. “Why?”

  “Look, I can’t go to dinner with you, but you can come to dinner with me.” She’d resort to begging, if necessary. “I’m afraid my dad’s going to fall. He took a tumble last weekend and ended up in the emergency room. Cody, I know he’ll get down if you offer to help him.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “I know my dad.” She nodded. “I’m sure.”

  “Well, since you put it that way...” He motioned toward the locker room. “Just give me five minutes to grab a shower, and then I’ll drive.”

  ****

  Rena glanced out the car window. “Oh, turn here.”

  Cody swung into the entrance of a gated community. They paused at the security booth and Rena leaned across Cody to greet the guard through the driver’s window.

  “Hi, Ralph. How are you today?”

  A wide smile revealed the gap between his two front teeth. “I’m fine, Rena. And you?”

  “Good. We’re going to rescue my dad from a roof.”

  “Not again. You’d better hurry.” He pressed a button on the panel inside the booth and the entrance gates opened. “I’ll see you on your way out.”

  “Thanks, Ralph.” Rena fought the butterflies that suddenly invaded her belly as Cody eased back into motion. Throwing him into the mix with her parents could prove disastrous. Her mother was notorious for being spiteful and overbearing. It was one of the reasons Rena had fled to New York in the first place. But getting her dad the help he needed was paramount. Surely her mom could bite her tongue for one evening.

  “Turn left at the corner,” Rena said, craning her neck to see her parent’s house.

  “This is a new development. Your parents must have moved in just recently.”

  “They’ve been in the area for decades, but since my
dad is semi-retired he wanted to be closer to the golf course. They built here about a year ago, on the fourteenth hole.”

  “It’s a nice course, and these houses are amazing.”

  She angled her head to glance at him. “Do you golf?”

  “I’ve never been very patient with the game.” He shrugged. “I like a little more action in my sports.”

  Rena laughed. “Don’t share that philosophy with my dad unless you want to hear an hour-long soliloquy on the merits of golfing.”

  “Gotcha.” He nodded. “Golf is good. Yes, golf is fun.”

  “Golf is not fun.” She shook her head. “It’s serious business, Cody. Just remember that, and you’ll do fine with my dad.”

  “Yeah, serious business.” He tapped his forehead. “Filed for future reference.”

  “Here it is.” Rena straightened in the seat as they approached a soaring two-story brick house. “Home, sweet home.”

  Stately white pillars rose to the roof of an oversized porch that ran the length of the opulent front entrance. The yard was a garden sanctuary, steeped in lush landscaping. Rena knew her mother paid out the nose for perpetual upkeep by a nationally-acclaimed landscaper.

  “Your parents have good taste.”

  “My mother’s the perennial designer—she never rests. My dad, on the other hand, would be content in a lounge chair on the deck with hot coffee in one hand and today’s newspaper in the other…when he’s not tinkering up on a roof.”

  “Your dad sounds like a kindred spirit. Can’t wait to meet him.”

  Hammering echoed from the back yard. Rena frowned as she rushed up the walk. “And there he is. Let’s go haul him down from the ladder.”

  The front door swung open with a flourish. “Rena, darling.” Her mother strode onto the porch to greet them. Dressed in a crisp black linen pantsuit accented by a royal blue silk blouse and heavy gold jewelry, she practically shrieked wealth.

  “Hello, Mother.” Rena stepped forward to offer a perfunctory hug. Her mother pecked her on the cheek. “Sounds like Dad’s still in the yard?”

  “Of course. He refused to come in. I don’t know why he insists on dirtying his hands with that nonsense. We can certainly afford to have someone else do the work.”

  In all the years her dad had been a builder, her mother never did understand his love affair with sawdust and wood. But Rena did. He’d taught her to swing a hammer and use a drill before she learned to read.

  Her mother nudged her out of the way and turned to Cody. She ogled him like a shark about to devour its prey. “Who is this handsome young man?”

  Rena cringed. “Umm...this is Cody Jamison, the friend I told you about. We volunteer together at the recreation center. He’s going to help Dad.”

  “Hello, Mrs. Dunigan.” Seemingly unaffected by her piercing gaze, Cody grasped her hand. “Your home is beautiful.”

  “Please, call me Diane. And thank you, but what do you know about architecture?”

  Rena stepped between them. “That’s awfully blunt, Mother.” She sighed. How was it that two minutes into a conversation her mother’s words could reduce her to the rebellious teenager she’d once been? “Do you think we might come in before you begin your interrogation?”

  “Interrogation?” She feigned the perfect expression; her mouth rounded into a dainty oh of surprise. “It was a simple question. Your imagination gets the best of you, my dear, as always.”

  “Of course it does, Mother.” She grasped Cody’s arm as if it were a lifeline. “We’re going to talk Dad down from the roof now.”

  “Don’t be too long. The lobster will get cold.”

  They strode past her and through the polished foyer scented with strategically placed jasmine candles. The living room opened onto an expansive deck. Beyond it, Rena’s father balanced across a series of trusses as he punched a succession of nails into lumber with a nail gun.

  “Dad,” Rena urged. “Get down from there.”

  He smiled and waved, then shifted his weight to reach the apex of the truss. “Almost finished, honey.”

  Cody laughed. “I see where you get your stubborn streak.”

  “Very funny. Just—please—get him down from there before I have a heart attack, OK?”

  “Consider it done.”

  ****

  Dinner conversation was casual, to Rena’s surprise. They breezed through strawberry-spinach salads and the main course of lobster tail, and sailed right into a chocolate-cherry cheesecake dessert before the fireworks started. It began innocently enough, as Rena’s mother had perfected her meddling skills through many years of practice.

  “So, Cody, you help build those houses Rena’s mentioned?”

  “For the Shelter the Homeless program?” He nodded. “Yes.”

  “I see. So you must design low-income housing.”

  “Not exactly, but I help out with whatever’s needed. Just like Rena does.”

  “That’s very noble of you.”

  Rena’s stomach roiled and the cheesecake sat like a brick in her belly as her mother’s gaze swept back and forth between her and Cody. She could sense the wheels turning, and wondered when the next grenade would land.

  “I sure do appreciate your help with the shed,” her father chimed in. “Maybe I’ll get involved with that Shelter the Homeless program. It sounds like a good thing.”

  Her mother blanched. “No you won’t, Jack. You barely have time at home now, and here I thought we were retired. Besides, what would the neighbors think?”

  Rena groaned at the glitter of malice in her mother’s ink-black eyes. She’d seen that look often over the years, and knew all too well what followed.

  “Thanks for dinner, Mom.” She stood and began to clear the table. “Cody and I should get going. We both have to work in the morning.”

  “It’s still early, dear. Sit for a bit longer and relax.” Her mother glanced innocently over the rim of a delicate floral coffee cup. “Do you have any children, Cody?”

  “No, but I’d like to have some. When I get married, that is.”

  “That’s certainly the proper way to do it, but not everyone would agree.”

  “Excuse me for pointing this out,” Cody’s voice was mild, yet filled with resolve. “But I’m not everyone, Diane.”

  “No, you certainly are not.”

  Rena had to give him credit. So far, Cody had weathered the assault with grace. But she cringed at the thought of where her mother was headed. Her father deftly averted his gaze. He’d learned from experience that there was no point in trying to tame his wife’s tongue.

  Her mother cleared her throat and leaned forward conspiratorially. “Did Rena tell you...she had a child?”

  “Mother!”

  “Had?”

  The words tumbled together. Cody’s gaze locked with her mother’s and something passed between them...a hint of shock mingled with distrust.

  Rena’s face burned. “Mother. How could you?”

  “How could you not...inform him of this rather important detail of your life?” Her voice challenged. “Don’t you think he deserves to know?”

  “What we discuss is none of your business.” Rena’s chair toppled as she launched herself from the table. Her mother had stooped low at times, but this was a new record. “You’re never going to let it go.”

  “Rena, wait.” Cody rushed after her.

  She turned to face him and her throat clenched, rendering her unable to speak. She stood frozen. Her father was frozen, too, his expression a disturbing mixture of anger, pain, and resignation. Blood rushed through her ears and the room swam. Rena grabbed her purse and fled toward the foyer before tears spilled over to blind her. She stumbled down the hall. Her lungs burned, and she struggled to breathe.

  “Rena…Rena wait!” Cody reached her as she pulled open the oak front door. “We need to talk.”

  “Not here.” She shook her head and tumbled into the truck when he opened the passenger door for her. “Just take me home.”
Her fingers trembled as she tried to fasten the seatbelt.

  “Here, let me.” Cody nudged her hands away and slid the clip into its latch, securing the belt for her. His voice was oddly calm. “There, it’s OK now.”

  Rena drew a breath to sooth jangled nerves.

  He started the engine and pulled out, driving to the grief of Rena’s choked sobs.

  “I-I’m sorry.” She huddled in her seat, swiping hot tears that streamed down her face. “I should have told you.”

  “No. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for your hurt. It should have been left for you to share with me when you were ready, Rena. It was wrong of your mother to lay it out on the table. I won’t ask you, but I’d like—when you’re ready—for you to share with me. I’d like to know what happened. I’m beginning to care for you, Rena. I’m beginning to care for you very much.”

  His words shocked her. “Well, don’t. It’s wrong, Cody. You mustn’t care about me. It’s just wrong for so many reasons.”

  “It’s not wrong to care for someone.”

  Rena shook her head, unable to speak as Cody drove through the darkening streets in silence. There was so much she needed to say, but she couldn’t find the words. How could she explain the terrible mistakes she’d made and make him understand the beautiful blessing they’d led to...sweet Allie?

  But then that wonderful blessing had been torn from her, wrenched away in the breath of a moment, and the loss left a gaping hole in her soul that could not seemed to be filled, no matter how hard she tried.

  “Th-thank you for the ride,” Rena managed to sputter when they arrived at the recreation center lot where her car was parked.

  “Wait.” Cody reached across her to keep her from opening the door. “I don’t want to leave you alone like this, Rena. I’m worried about you.”

  “Don’t be. I’ll be fine. I have to go now, Cody.” She wiped tears away as fast as they came.

  “I’m going to follow you home, and make sure you get there safely.”

  “Please don’t.”

  “I’m going to whether you like it or not, Rena. It’s the right thing to do.”

  She closed her eyes and sighed. “Fine.”

  Tears dripped onto her lap as she waited for him to come around the truck and open the door for her. Why hadn’t she known the right thing to do when it had truly mattered? Why had she failed herself—and Allie—so miserably?