Small Town Angel

by K'Anne Meinel

  Amy finished folding up the clothes, pleased with how much had come out in the wash. She put them in the now laundered and clean bag and put that in the back of the SUV. “Let’s go to Green Bay, I know it’s a little far but we are going to find the best prices down there and it’s a nice day for a drive.” It was a nice day too, bright and sunny and a bit on the cool side as fall came to The Thumb. The drive was over in just under an hour and Amy let the kids determine if they would talk, if at all.

  “Do you think Grandma is in heaven?” Heather asked.

  “Yes I do. I believe that with all my heart,” she assured her.

  “Didn’t your grandma die?” Bailey asked from the back seat.

  “Yes she did. I was sad too,” she confided. She didn’t tell them she couldn’t go to the funeral though.

  They talked of this and that and then talked about what kind of appliances she would be looking for.

  “After we get those, we need to get you some new clothes,” she told them.

  “Why?” Heather asked concerned.

  “Because all our stuff burned down stupid,” Bailey said nastily.

  “Now Bailey, that isn’t nice. There is no such thing as a stupid question. Just stupid answers and yours was not only stupid but it was mean. You apologize to your little sister,” she ordered and waited for him to say a very contrite and almost whispered ‘sorry’ before she continued. “I think we’ll get you each a couple of pairs of jeans and shirts. You’re gonna have to help me choose some clothes for your mama too,” she informed them. They seemed to look forward to that idea.

  It didn’t take too long to find and order a washer and dryer set for the cabin. Now all she had to do was worry about getting the higher voltage put into the cabin and where to put it exactly. There wasn’t a whole lot of space anywhere in the place. She expected that Abby and the children would be staying with her indefinitely. She liked that idea but wasn’t making that plan without Abby’s input. It was solely up to their mother now and she’d respect Abby’s wishes, even if she did begin to cotton to the idea of them all living together.

  They had fun picking out jeans and shirts for both of the children as well as a couple of outfits for Abby. Amy resisted Heather’s suggestion of a t-shirt with some cartoon character called Sponge Bob on the front of it as well as the one that Bailey suggested with a picture of a pig. Instead she got Abby some nice button down blouses in her size and hoped she came close on the jean sizes based on the pants she had just washed earlier.

  After a good lunch at a fast food place they headed back up The Thumb. Abby had called to see where Amy was, pleased that the children were with her. “Do you want to meet me at the cabin?” Amy asked to make sure they were coming there.

  “I’ll be there. I hope you don’t mind me using your phone there?”

  “Not at all, it doesn’t get much use,” Amy assured her. She wondered if they were being so formal for the children’s sake or was Abby upset about something.

  “Do you mind if we stay with you for a while? Lenora said she’d take me around to look at rentals tomorrow. If it’s a problem, we have offers to stay with the Katzenbergers or others.”

  Amy was hurt. She’d made assumptions and although she’d logically known they were Abby’s decisions, she’d hoped they were on the same wave length. “You’re welcome to stay as long as you want. I thought we’d put the kids in the spare bedroom, maybe Bailey would enjoy using my old blow up mattress and the sleeping bag?” she glanced over at the listening boy and found him delighted at the idea. “We’ll figure it out. I should be there in about half an hour or so.”

  “Okay, see you there,” Abby returned distractedly.

  “Can Tabby sleep with me?” Bailey asked when she got off the phone.

  “She might pop the bed,” Amy pointed out and they shared a laugh.

  “If he gets Tabby in his bed I should get Toby,” Heather said from the back seat.

  “I don’t know if I want my furkids in your beds,” Amy drawled.

  “Furkids?” Bailey laughed at the word.

  “Well, I don’t have any real kids. So these beggers are my furkids,” she said squeezing Toby’s snout from where it popped up out of the back seat. He had known she was talking about him somehow. The kids shared a laugh with Amy.

  They returned to the cabin to find a patrol car in the driveway. Amy and the kids unpacked the SUV with Toby running around sniffing the yard thoroughly. Amy frowned as she glanced at him. He seemed awfully concerned about something these days. Some animal must sure be making tracks through the yard the way the dog was sniffing about. She was distracted when Abby came out of the cabin.

  “So, where’d you all go?” she smiled but was soon engulfed by both of her children. They hugged her, relieved to see that she was okay and alive. “Wait, wait, wait, what is all this?” she asked as both children burst into tears in relief.

  Through the tears and the hiccups the children expressed their worries to their mom. Amy left them, discretely taking in their purchases and laying them out on the beds. After due consideration she put Abby’s in her bedroom. She hauled her old blow up mattress out of the closet and set it up in her spare bedroom where she had the daybed set up. Both beds needed sheets and she put clean ones on each one. By the time both spare beds were made the family had caught up and made up.

  “Would you like me to start a fire?” Abby asked gesturing to the fireplace; it was becoming a bit chilly.

  They all shared a look at the word ‘fire’ and laughed uneasily as Amy nodded.

  “I put your clothes on each of your beds in the spare bedroom,” Amy told the children and then watched as the children ran off to check the clothes out.

  “I hear you got me a couple of outfits?” Abby asked with a smile.

  “Yes, I put them in our bedroom,” Amy informed her.

  “Our bedroom?” she raised an eyebrow at that.

  Amy shrugged. “I thought it best that you stay with me instead of out here on the couch.”

  Abby grinned. “Do you want me to have a conversation with my kids?”

  “About what?” she asked confused.

  “About our living arrangements.”

  Amy looked at her to see if she was being teased but unsure she said, “Well that’s up to you.”

  Abby stood up after lighting the fire and took Amy in her arms. “Thank you for buying us some clothes. I think they saved some of those in the truck load they will be bringing by. They are going to need to be washed but I hear you bought a washer and dryer.”

  “Are your children going to be okay with you living here with me?”

  “Do you want us to live here with you?”

  “It’s going to be cramped with the living space but if this works out, maybe we should add on?” she asked with a grin.

  “I love you Amy,” Abby said simply.

  “I love you too Abby,” Amy responded.

  “You do?”

  “Of course I do, how could you not know?”

  “You’ve never said it before.”

  “I thought I showed it instead,” she replied indignantly.

  “You do babe, you do in so many ways,” she calmed her, caressing her as she leaned down for a kiss. It was as they shared that kiss that Bailey walked into the living room from the spare bedroom.

  “Ohh, yuck,” he said succinctly.

  The two of them nearly sprang apart but stopped in time. “Bailey, I want you to be the first to know that I love Amy and she loves me,” Abby told him with a grin.

  “I knew that,” he said with a wrinkled nose.

  “You knew?” his mother asked surprised.

  He shrugged. “Everyone knows.”

  “What does everyone know?” Heather asked as she came into the living, surprised to see her mother holding Amy.

  “That Mom loves Amy and that Amy loves Mom,” he told his little sister.

  Heather turned to the two women nodding. “Yeah, everyone knows that,”
she said prissily.

  Abby turned to Amy. “And we thought we were being so discrete.”

  Amy laughed nervously. “So much for that.”

  “Do you mind much?” she asked worriedly. It was all so new now, even though they had been seeing each other for months.

  Amy shook her head and reached up for another kiss. They heard groans of childlike revulsion behind them. Amy turned to the kids, “Get used to it!”

  Later, after a supper that Amy cooked for them all, commenting that she was going to have to go shopping more often with a family to cook for, she heard Abby ask the children how everyone knew and when they knew about the two of them.

  “Grandma told us,” Bailey confessed around a mouthful of jello.

  “What did Grandma tell you?”

  “That you were seeing Amy. That’s why you went on so many night patrols,” Heather told her importantly. She too was sucking down her jello, a treat they only had occasionally in their own home.

  “And she didn’t seem to mind?” she queried further.

  “Nope, Grandma liked Amy,” Heather told her with all the innocence of youth.

  Abby exchanged a meaningful look with Amy.

  “Do we have to go back to school tomorrow?” Bailey asked. He had liked playing hooky today with Amy, especially knowing all his friends were being tortured by having to go.

  “Yes, and we are going to have to arrange for you two to ride the bus,” Abby informed them.

  “We get to ride the bus?” Heather asked excitedly, nearly bouncing in her chair. Toby was watching hopefully that she might drop something on the floor for him to clean up. Tabby was pretending that she wasn’t interested in the food on the table, and failing, it was a cat thing.

  “You like that idea do you?” Abby asked with a smile, their interests were so simple at this age.

  Heather nodded and so did Bailey. Living in town they had walked to school, frequently with Bonnie in attendance. She had called it her morning absolutions.

  “Well, the bus can pick you up in the morning and drop you off here in the afternoons.”

  “Until The Emporium is back up and running,” Amy interjected.

  “The Emporium?” Abby asked confused.

  “Then they can come to the store to do their homework and we will figure out other things. We are going to have to figure out a schedule once the station is back up and running and your schedule as well.”

  It was at that moment that Abby really realized how much she had relied on Bonnie for parental duties. That Amy would volunteer like this pleased her no end.

  “Are they going to build us a new house?” Bailey asked.

  “I don’t know yet,” Abby answered as she finished up her own portion of Jello.

  “I talked to the insurance agent,” Amy informed her.

  “When?” she looked puzzled as to when Amy had time to do that.

  “While you were talking to the fire chief,” she pointed out. She was done with her Jello and sat there talking with ‘her’ new family. She was happy but sad too at their loss. Hearing that Bonnie had not only liked her but approved of her relationship with her daughter in law, thrilled her to the core. Such acceptance from not only the children but now a dead woman made her happy.

  “Don’t I need to go see him?”

  “Probably, he said there might be a delay if they call it arson,” she said meaningfully. She hadn’t been totally oblivious to what it might mean if the police sub-station had been deliberately burned down.

  “What’s arson?” Heather asked as she played with her Jello on her spoon and her tongue.

  “It means someone deliberately set the fire. Watch what you are doing young lady and that’s not how you eat,” Abby admonished her.

  Heather guiltily started eating properly.

  “Do you think someone started the fire Mom?” Bailey asked as he finished sucking down his jello.

  She weighed the pros and cons of telling her son the truth versus the rumors he would unintentionally spread at school tomorrow. “I don’t know son, that’s up to the fire department and the investigators to decide,” she compromised.

  “You’ll arrest the bad guy if someone did burn it down?”

  She smiled at his faith in her. “I would if I knew they had,” she confirmed.

  “Bailey, you and I are going to do the dishes and Heather, you clear the table and bring us the dirty ones, okay?” Amy put in as she rose to take her dishes with her.

  “Why do I have to wash dishes?” he asked indignantly.

  “Because tomorrow, Heather will help me,” she told him firmly.

  “No,” Abby interjected shocking them all into immobility. “I’ll do the dishes with Bailey.” She looked meaningfully at her son. “It’s time you learned how. And tomorrow Heather will do the dishes with me and learn how. Amy made the dinner so she’s done.” Abby rose and took the dishes from Amy’s hands and smiled at her. “Thank you for dinner babe,” and with that she gave her a peck on the mouth as she stood there in shocked silence. The kids looked on, giggled, and hurried to do what their mom asked.

  “You think it will work out, them sharing a room?” Abby asked as they got ready for bed. She was using an overly large t-shirt that Amy had as a nightshirt. She’d already tried on and hung up or folded the clothes that Amy had bought for her, thanking her with a hug and a kiss. She’d even had the foresight to buy her socks and underwear, very nice underwear at that.

  “Until I expand the cabin,” Amy said as she slipped beneath the covers. It was cold and the fireplace hadn’t given out as much heat tonight as she felt they needed. She felt cold and shivered until Abby cuddled up next to her.

  “You’re going to expand the cabin?” Abby asked surprised.

  “Well, you and I should discuss it but if you all are going to be living here, I think we should don’t you?”

  “Looks like we have a lot to talk about,” Abby said as she leaned in with her nose, snuggling into Amy’s neck.

  “Your nose is cold,” she complained good-naturedly.

  “Well, that makes up for your feet,” she responded. “What do you do, put them on ice before you get under the covers?”

  Amy giggled in reply as she put her arms around Abby. “This is nice,” she sighed.

  “Can you believe those kids? Here I was worrying about how to break it to them and they already knew. Bless you Bonnie,” she said the prayer aloud and sent it up to heaven.

  “Poor Bonnie,” Amy said sadly.

  Sighing loudly Abby repeated it back to her, “Yeah, poor Bonnie. I’m going to have to make arrangements for her funeral tomorrow.”

  “I’m going to have to meet with Terry about the remodel here on the cabin and then the touch ups on the store,” she reminded her.

  “I’m going to want to talk to him about maybe rebuilding my grandparents’ house,” Abby mused.

  “Do you think the state will pay to have another sub-station put in?”

  “I don’t know. There are a lot of things up in the air. This is going to take a lot of time. With winter coming on I don’t relish the thought of dealing with it all. That reminds me, call Jacob Myers and ask him to put in a few chords?”

  They talked back and forth, common, everyday things until they both drifted off. Neither realized that this was the real romance of their relationship. Being able to sleep together, wake up together, be together…and accepted by two of the most important people in their lives who slept in the room next door.

  * * * * *

  “Do you think Mom will marry Amy?” Heather whispered to Bailey.

  He turned on the blow up bed, making a horrible noise against the plastic; he froze in case they had awoken Mom. She wouldn’t be pleased that they hadn’t gone to sleep. “I don’t know. I don’t think it’s legal anyway.”

  “What’s legal?”

  “Marrying another woman,” he told her importantly.

  “But Mom married our birth mom,” she told him. It had b
een explained to her, it was natural to her.

  “That was done with lawyers for us. It’s why Grandma and Grandpa fought with Mom until they worked out a compromise. Our birth mom was Grandma and Grandpa’s daughter. Mom isn’t. But they went to a lawyer and got it all worked out.” He was older and Bonnie had explained as best she could. So had Abby when he asked.

  “Maybe Mom and Amy will do that,” she stated hopefully.

  “You want Amy to be our Mom too?” he was curious.

  “Don’t you? She’s nice.” She had a nice store too.

  “Yeah, she is nice,” he said as he lay back and made the horrible sound again. He froze, listening to see if someone would come in their room from hearing them or their whispering.

  “But if it isn’t legal, does that mean they can’t get married in a church?”

  “Nope,” he told her as though he knew it all.

  “Well, we’re living here now. Maybe we can call Amy Mom.”

  “Don’t you be calling Amy Mom without Mom’s permission. You’ll hurt her feelings.”

  Heather nodded but he couldn’t see in the dark. “What do you think they will do with Grandma?”

  He shrugged, his arms were behind his head now and he was looking up at the ceiling in the dark. “Bury her I guess.”

  “Yeah, bury her,” she parroted. They both lay there until sleep claimed them. They didn’t have the worries that adults did.

  * * * * *

  It was nice to wake up in each other’s arms and exchange a kiss. They were both saddened by the events of the other day but they were alive, the kids were alive, and despite the tragedy of Bonnie’s death, they would survive and move on. They had a lot to do, not only today, but in their future together.

  Amy slipped out of bed first, after a good morning kiss, grope, and hug. She smiled at that and quickly got in the shower, making it short and thinking that in a remodel they were going to need a bigger hot water tank with this many people living here.

  While Abby got up and got showered Amy quickly put on her makeup and got dressed. She let Toby out as he was practically dancing in the kitchen with his need to pee. Making hot chocolate for all of them and setting out cereal, bowls, and milk she was supervised by Tabby who yawned at her efforts. She poured the last of her orange juice and parroted in her mind the idea of shopping more often with this many people living here. She didn’t mind.