Straight from the Heart

by Layce Gardner

  “Yep. I hate the canned stuff,” Steph said.

  Rosa wheeled back in with Anne in tow. Steph quickly checked her out. She wasn’t exactly pretty, but she was blond and blue-eyed. She didn’t look like Rosa’s type, but who knew anything anymore.

  “This is Anne,” Rosa said as if Steph didn’t know.

  Anne stuck out her hand. “It’s so nice to finally meet you.”

  Steph shook her hand. “You too.” She wiped her hand off on her apron.

  “Rosa has told me all about you,” Anne said.

  “I’m sure she has,” Steph said.

  Amy butted in. “Hi, Anne. I’m Amy. Parker’s girlfriend.”

  “Hi! It’s nice to finally meet you, too,” Anne said.

  Rosa led the way to the counter and pulled out a barstool for Anne to sit. “Here you go. Front row seat.”

  “Thank you,” Anne said. She sat.

  There seemed to be an elephant in the room. Steph continued to busy herself at the stove, not looking, not even acknowledging the others.

  “I was just pouring,” Amy said. “Would you like a glass?” she asked Anne.

  “Please, it’s been one helluva day,” Anne said.

  Amy handed Anne a glass of wine.

  Rascal trotted into the kitchen. He looked like he was going to jump on Anne but Amy commanded, “Rascal, no jumping. Sit.”

  Rascal dutifully sat at Anne’s feet, his tail thumping, waiting patiently for Anne to pet him.

  “Hey, Rascal boy, how ya been?” Anne asked him. His tail thumped faster. She put down her glass of wine and scratched Rascal’s big head.

  Steph couldn’t believe it. This Anne person even knew the damn dog. How was it that everyone seemed to know this woman and Steph hadn’t heard of her until today? It was surreal.

  Steph abruptly turned to face the three women. “So, you seem to know most of us, including the dog,” Steph said to Anne.

  “I get around,” Anne joked.

  Steph said sourly, “So it seems.”

  Anne smiled tensely, but said nothing. Amy and Rosa exchanged worried looks.

  Steph threw back half a glass of wine and sat the glass down firmly on the counter—like a cowboy gulping down a shot of courage before the shoot-out.

  Parker came in and broke the awkward silence. “It’s almost turkey time. I’d say another twenty minutes. Is that going to work for you?” she asked Steph.

  Steph exploded. “You know what’s going to work for me? For my wife—oh sorry, we’re not married, are we? I want my girlfriend to explain to me why she’s having an affair with this woman and none of you…” she pointed her finger at them all, “have the balls to tell me about it.”

  Amy choked on her wine.

  Anne inhaled sharply.

  “What?” Rosa asked.

  “Yeah, you heard me. You don’t need to put on an act with me. I know what’s happening.” Steph said. “I’m done. You can do what you want, but I am right the fuck out of here.” She ripped off her apron, wadded it into a ball, and tossed it on the counter.

  “Anne and I aren’t having an affair. I don’t know where you got that idea,” Rosa said.

  “That’s what all cheaters say,” Steph said. “Well, you can just fuck off. All of you.” She marched out the front door, slamming it behind her.

  She was halfway down the block before she remembered the rolls in the oven. What did she care? Let the whole damn house burn down. How fitting would that be? A firefighter’s house burning to the ground.

  ***

  Ruth opened the door to her apartment. Steph stood there on the small porch, her eyes red and puffy. “She won’t admit it, but I know. I saw them together.”

  “Get in here,” Ruth said. “I’ll pour you a brandy. You look like you could use one.”

  “Because I’m in shock?”

  “Yeah, I think we’ll start there.”

  ***

  That evening, Ruth drove Steph back home. As soon as the sun set, the temperature had dropped. The next time I run away from home, Steph thought, I need to remember to grab my coat on the way out the door.

  Ruth pulled away. Steph slowly walked up to her house, across the dark yard, and onto the unlit porch. She had her hand on the doorknob when she saw a big lump sitting on her porch swing. The lump turned out to be Parker, wearing a down coat and dark beanie.

  “How long you been out here?” Steph asked.

  “For as long as it took to get from wherever you were, I’m assuming Ruth’s, and back to here.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The GPS tracking on your phone,” Parker said, holding up her iPhone. Its light gave an eerie glow to Parker’s solemn face.

  “I keep meaning to turn that off.” Steph sat down on the swing beside Parker. She wrapped her arms tightly around herself. “They said online that it’s not a good idea for people to know where you are because they can rob your house when you’re gone.”

  “You know, you’re completely off base on this,” Parker said, putting her phone back in her coat pocket.

  “I see you’ve chosen sides,” Steph said.

  “I’m telling you the facts.”

  “Your facts.”

  “Steph… Rosa is not having an affair. Anne is her physical therapist. I set up a therapy room in my garage. That’s where Rosa goes every day. Anne comes once a week to check on her progress and fill out the paperwork for the workers’ compensation. That’s how we all know each other.”

  “I might believe that if Rosa showed any progress. But she hasn’t. So either Anne is the worst physical therapist in the world or their idea of physical therapy is different from mine.”

  “Por Dios! Will you get hold of yourself?” Rosa said. She was sitting in the doorway in her wheelchair. She had opened the door without Steph noticing.

  Parker stood. “Show her, Rosa. She won’t believe me, she won’t believe you, unless you show her.”

  “Show me what?” Steph asked.

  “Go ahead, Rosa. It’s time,” Parker said.

  Rosa stood. She held on to the doorframe to balance herself.

  “What’re you doing?” Steph asked, alarmed. “You’re going to fall.”

  “Show her,” Parker commanded Rosa. “Walk.”

  “She can’t do that…” Steph said.

  Parker interrupted Steph, saying, “Shut up. Watch.”

  Rosa picked up her right foot and slowly arced it high over the threshold. She placed her foot on the porch, shifted her weight to that foot, grimaced, and began the whole agonizing process over with the other foot.

  Steph, unbelievingly, watched as Rosa walked toward her, step by painful step. “You can walk,” Steph whispered. Tears filled her eyes.

  “Don’t get too excited,” Rosa said, grabbing the porch railing for support. Her knees buckled, but Parker grabbed her from behind and guided her to the swing.

  Steph felt the tears running down her cheeks. She had so many emotions going, she didn’t know what to say, what to do. She was humiliated for believing the worst of the woman she loved. She was proud of Rosa’s accomplishment. Her heart was filled to bursting with conflicting emotions.

  “I’m not doing as well as Anne wants, not yet anyway, but I’m getting there.” Rosa’s breath was labored and came out in white puffs in the cold air.

  “You can walk,” Steph said.

  “You already said that,” Rosa said.

  “Right,” Steph said. The full realization that Rosa wasn’t having an affair and that she could walk, washed over her like a tsunami of relief. “Forgive me,” she pleaded, her voice cracking. “I just love you so much and… I don’t know…this whole thing has made me crazy. I’m so afraid of losing you. I’m sorry. Can you ever forgive me?” She placed her head in Rosa’s lap.

  “Geez, you’re worse than the dog,” Rosa said. “Of course I forgive you.”

  Steph looked up. “Thank you.”

  Rosa said, “I love you, you fool.”

/>   They kissed.

  “I thought I heard you out here,” Amy said, stepping out onto the porch beside Parker. “Welcome back. We did the dishes, put the food away, and saved you a plate.”

  Steph rose. “I thought you all had to go pick up Millie and the girls?” Steph asked. The full import of what she’d done—mainly messed up Thanksgiving— hit her. “Oh god, this is awful. I ruined everyone’s holiday.”

  “Not really,” Parker said. “We didn’t even notice you were gone.”

  Steph’s eyes widened. Everyone laughed.

  “We did put a good face on it,” Rosa said. “Anne was mortified, but with the help of several bottles of wine we got her through it.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me? About your therapy?”

  “We wanted it to be a surprise,” Parker said.

  “I wanted to really be able to walk for you, not barely make it from the door to the railing,” Rosa said.

  “Oh,” Steph said. Now she felt really stupid.

  “Mabel will be extremely grateful,” Parker said.

  “Why’s that?” Steph asked.

  “Because you screwed up the holiday instead of her for once.”

  “Great,” Steph said. “I’m worse than Mabel.”

  “Clara and the girls are spending the night at Clara’s family’s. It seems Edna kept Mabel so busy she didn’t have a chance to ruin the dinner,” Parker said.

  “Whoa, that is impressive,” Steph said.

  “Clara thinks it might have been the Monopoly that saved it. Come to find out the whole family loves the game and, as we all know, Mabel likes to win and she did by a large margin. So they’re going out for a big breakfast and then I’ll go pick them up tomorrow afternoon,” Parker said.

  Amy opened the door, saying, “We’ll leave you two alone for a moment.” She grabbed Parker’s coat sleeve and tugged her inside the house, closing the door behind them.

  After a moment, Rosa said, “Okay, I have something else to tell you and I don’t want you to freak out.”

  Steph braced herself. “Okay. What is it?”

  “Anne is in our bed. And she’s not wearing any pants. But it’s not what it looks like. She had too much wine, threw up all over her lap, and passed out. I didn’t know where else to put her. Her pants are in the washer.”

  Steph laughed and took Rosa’s hand in her own. “I’m glad you explained it before I saw her.”

  “I know, right?” Rosa said with a chuckle. “Listen, seriously… I want you to know something.”

  Steph looked at her.

  “You’re the only one for me,” Rosa said. She lifted Steph’s hand to her lips and kissed her knuckles. “The only one.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Rosa walked between the parallel bars, slowly lifting and moving one foot at a time. Her legs were getting stronger and she was off the pain killers. That was the good news. The bad news was, she’d been demoted at work.

  “I wouldn’t call it a demotion,” Parker said. She’d taken to lifting weights during Rosa’s sessions. Rosa needed a lot less help these days. Parker filled her time getting more fit as she rode the stationary bike, ran on the treadmill, and generally killed time while Rosa did her workout. Parker was not a time-waster.

  “I’m off the streets for good. I’ll never be able to pass the physical.”

  “How do you know that?” Parker said between grunting out her last set with the twenty-pound weights.

  “Because I can’t run,” Rosa said in a ‘duh’ voice.

  “Not yet.”

  “Parker, come on. You know as well as I do that my seven-minute mile days are over. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad I even got this far.” She reached the end of the parallel bars and slumped into her wheelchair, sweat pouring off her forehead. Parker tossed her a towel and she wiped off.

  “Tell me what happened when you went to see Chief Bob Ed.”

  The scene played out in Rosa’s mind. Her fellow officers were glad to see her. They’d brought in donuts and she’d gotten slaps on the back, but still, it wasn’t the same. She was now a reminder of the risks they were all subject to whenever they went out to serve and protect the citizens of Fenton. It could’ve been any of them that got shot that day. They could have died like Gary or ended up in a wheelchair like her, their careers finished. She saw the fear in their eyes as they looked at her wheelchair.

  They all played it cool—laughing and acting up. Randy, the station clown, rubbed white powered sugar from his donut under his nose and made like a coke freak talking to an officer, “Who me, doing cocaine? No way, man.” Sniff, sniff. They all laughed. Then the Chief came out. He welcomed her back warmly and they went into his office. They all knew what that meant—Rosa was getting benched for the rest of her career. She’d be filing reports until the day she retired.

  “Rosa, you know how sorry I am to do this, but I can’t have you out there,” Chief Bob Ed said.

  “I know. I would never put my fellow officers at risk like that,” she said.

  “You understand why I have to do this.” It wasn’t a question.

  “Of course. I’ll be fine. Lord knows, we need a desk jockey around here. These guys can’t even spell. I’ll take care of the mountains of paperwork they’re always bitchin’ and moanin’ about.”

  “Thank you for making this easy on me,” Chief Bob Ed said.

  “I’m just glad I still got a job.”

  “You’re only two years from retirement,” he said optimistically.

  “Yep, that’ll help,” Rosa said with false bravado. She needed to get out of there and fast before she cried. She couldn’t do that to the Chief.

  “Stay out until you’re ready. You’ve still got time left on your workers’ comp. I recommend using it all.”

  “You and my physical therapist,” Rosa said.

  “Rosa?” Parker snapped her fingers. “Are you coming back to me?”

  “Sorry, I drifted.”

  “It was bad?”

  Rosa nodded. “I almost cried, but I put my best cop face on and got the hell out of there. Going back to work will be one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I’ll watch the guys go out for their shifts while I slowly die under the weight of endless paperwork and never-ending boredom.”

  “Stick it out until you retire,” Parker said.

  “Then what?”

  “Find something else to do. There’s a whole wide world out there that needs people like you,” Parker said.

  Rosa sighed. “I suppose you’re right.” They both knew she didn’t really believe it. Once a cop always a cop. “Maybe I’ll learn to write crime fiction,” Rosa said wryly.

  “Do true crime, it’s my favorite,” Parker said.

  “Well, just for you I will,” Rosa said.

  ***

  At the fire station, Steph was teaching Ruth the fine art of dirty gin rummy when a call came in. There was a fire over on First Street at a child care facility. Eric had the engine up and running when Steph and Ruth hopped on board.

  “Let’s hope it’s small and the caregivers were on it quick,” Steph said before putting her ear protection on.

  “They damn well better have,” Ruth replied.

  Eric maneuvered the fire engine out the garage doors. They were on-site in less than ten minutes. Steph didn’t like what she saw. One of the facility’s walls had caved in. Smoke and flames poured out of the roof where parts of it had collapsed.

  Ruth, Eric, and Sal got the hoses out and connected them to the nearby fire hydrants. Two other fire trucks from the other side of town pulled up behind them. Police cars with their sirens screaming followed.

  Steph ran over to a nearby adult. She was a harried young woman who was holding a clipboard. She was nervously bouncing from foot to foot. “You work here?” Steph asked.

  The woman nodded. Steph could tell the woman was on the verge of losing it.

  “Is everyone out?” Steph asked.

  “I’m still counting. We had a l
ot of temporary children because of Christmas break,” she said.

  “What’s your name?” Steph asked. She needed to keep the woman calm and knowing her name and position would help make a connection between them.

  “Tara. Tara Penn. I’ve only been working here for two months. Our manager had a family emergency so she’s not here today.”

  Another young woman ran up. “The police corralled the kids by the playground. The paramedics are checking them out.”

  “This is Linda,” Tara told Steph.

  “Okay, Linda, how many kids are we talking about and their ages? Tell me how many you had and if all are accounted for,” Steph said.

  The women quickly compared notes. Tara’s face paled. “We’re missing two.”

  Steph’s stomach lurched. Kids. Why did it have to be kids? She quickly got hold of herself. “Tell me about them, who are they, and their ages.”

  Linda glanced down at her attendance sheets. “Sam Elliot,” she said.

  Steph froze. “You mean Jeb Marshall’s adopted son, Sam? That Sam?”

  Linda nodded. “Yes, and a three-year-old girl, Taylor Smith… Oh, God.”

  “Why would Sam be at day care?” Steph asked. She grabbed her radio to transmit the news to Eric.

  “It’s day camp. We have older children over Christmas break. Their parents often work so we offer a day camp,” Linda answered.

  “Okay, so we’re looking for Sam and Taylor, a nine-year-old boy and a three-year-old girl,” Steph told Eric over the radio.

  “Roger that. I’m going in,” Eric said.

  “Wait on me,” Steph said. She raced off, leaving Linda wringing her hands. Over her shoulder she called out, “We’ll get them out, don’t worry.” God, she hoped so.

  Steph found Eric on the side of the building. “Sal and Ruth are with the North Heights firefighters. They’ve got the roof covered but it’s starting to come down on the west side. The Chief is with the Windrock guys. The east side is the only way left in. So it’s you and me. You okay with that?” he asked.