Burnt

by Lacy Hart

  “No trouble at all; I’m glad to do it. Mary lives over on Kelsey Place, right?” he asked as he got up from his stool.

  “That’s right,” Sophie said to him. “How did you know?”

  “Well, it’s a long story,” he said, looking down and feeling a bit embarrassed. “Let’s just say we went out once or twice and leave it at that. I’ll go corral Mary and get her home. You two have a nice talk. I’ll see you tomorrow morning around nine, Travis?”

  Danny broke me from my trance of staring at Sophie. “Yeah, nine is perfect. Thanks for your help, Danny.” I said as I looked over at him.

  “My pleasure,” he said. “You two have a good night now.”

  We both watched as Danny went over to Mary and helped her out of her chair, putting one of his big arms around her small waist so he could guide her out the front door.

  I looked around the restaurant and saw the place had cleared out. Some of the wait staff and bus staff were clearing the tables, including Abby.

  “Well I guess I’m walking home from here,” Sophie said to me with a light laugh.

  I nervously placed a bar towel on the bar. Mom nudged my elbow and pointed at Sophie with her chin.

  “I can walk you home,” I said to Sophie.

  “That… that would be nice,” she told me as she pulled her purse over her shoulder.

  “You two go on,” Mom said to us from behind the bar. “I’ll get Abby home with me when we are done here, Travis. Take your time.”

  “Thanks, Mom,” I said as I walked from around the bar and stood next to Sophie.

  “Shall we?” I pointed towards the door. As we were walking out together, I passed by Abby clearing a table and patted her on the head. She looked up at me and smiled.

  “See you later Dad,” she said to me, her voice sounding a little tired.

  I held the front door open for Sophie to walk out ahead of me. Even though it was August, the air had gotten noticeably cooler than what it was this afternoon. The streets were very quiet, with all the local stores long closed and most people home and in bed hours ago. Sophie and I walked along in silence for a few steps.

  “Your daughter seems very sweet,” Sophie said to me, trying to start a conversation.

  “Oh, you met Abby?” I asked her. She just nodded as we walked along. “Yes, she’s a great kid. A little challenging at times lately, but overall she’s great.”

  ‘Well, girls that age tend to be something of a challenge,” Sophie replied. “Trust me, I see dozens of them a day. There are lots of highs and lows.”

  “Wonderful,” I said to Sophie. She just laughed at me.

  “It seems like you’re doing a great job so far, you should be proud of yourself,” she told me as we reached the corner of the street.

  “Thanks,’ I said to her humbly. It was just then I realized I had no idea where we were walking to.

  “Where is your place?” I asked.

  “Oh, I’m just over here on Hodges,” she said to me. “I bought the old Gilbert place when Mr. Gilbert finally moved out.”

  “I remember Mr. Gilbert,” I said to her fondly. “He owned the hardware store, right?”

  “He did,” Sophie said with a nod, looking down. “I figured if I was buying a house I was going to get it from someone I knew took good care of it before me so I wouldn’t have to do much.”

  “You always were smart, Sophie,” I said to her fondly as we walked. I kicked a loose stone on the sidewalk.

  “Not always,” she said quietly.

  We made a left onto Collins Drive and started walking down towards the end of the street where Dad’s, now my, house was. We stayed quiet for a bit until we got close to the house. Sophie looked up at the house and then over at me.

  “So what’s happening with your Dad’s place?” she asked me as we got close to the fence around the front yard.

  “Well, he left it to me,” I told her casually. “I’m not really sure what to do with it just yet. Danny’s going to come have a look at it tomorrow for me to see what it might need.”

  “It’s yours huh?” Sophie seemed to brighten a bit as we walked further. “Does that mean that you’ll be sticking around for a while?” There seemed to be a hint of hope in her voice.

  “I don’t know yet,” I said to her as we crossed the street over to Hodges. “Maybe.”

  A few short steps later we were standing in front of her house.

  “This is me,” she said as she pointed to the front porch. “Thanks for walking me home Travis. It was wonderful to see you tonight.” She turned as if she was going to walk away and up the porch.

  It’s now, or never, I said to myself.

  “Sophie,” I called to her. She turned around and came down the two steps she had climbed as I walked closer to her.

  “Would you like to get together tomorrow night? You know, to catch up? I’d be happy to take you to dinner,” I said to her.

  “The only place worth eating dinner around here is either your Mom’s place or the pizza place, and I’ve been to your Mom’s two nights in a row. Besides, it gets awful noisy in there on Saturday nights.”

  I felt like she was rejecting me, and was disappointed in her answer.

  “How about you come over here tomorrow night?” she said to me, looking up at me with a smile. “I can fix us some dinner, and we can talk some more.”

  “That sounds perfect,” I said to her, feeling relieved.

  “Okay,” Sophie said, feeling perky again. “Let’s say around six?”

  “I’ll be here,” I said to her as she walked back up the porch.

  “Good night Travis,” I watched Sophie open the screen door and then her front door as she went inside. I stood outside her house for a minute, staring at it, feeling exhilarated. I saw Sophie peek out from behind the curtain in her living to look at me, and then she quickly drew the curtains closed again.

  I turned and started walking back, realizing my car was back at the Homestead so I would need to go back and get it. The walk back to the restaurant seemed to take no time at all as my thoughts were occupied with how well things turned out today. Before I knew it, I was in the parking lot getting to my car as Mom and Abby were locking up the front door and coming out.

  “Your back already?” Mom said to me, acting worried that I wasn’t gone long enough.

  “I just walked her home Mom,” I said as I unlocked my car. I could see in Abby’s face that she was tired from working hard.

  “How did your night go, kiddo?” I said to Abby as I gave her hug.

  “Great,” she said to me through her yawn. “It was hard work, but I made fifty dollars in tips,” she said to me, impressed by what she got.

  “That reminds me,” Mom said as she handed me an envelope. “Here’s your share of the bar tips from today.”

  “You don’t have to give me anything Mom,” I said, trying to reject the envelope.

  “Take it; you earned it,” she replied, pushing the envelope back to me. “You did great work tonight,” she said to me.

  “If you don’t want it, I’ll take it,” Abby said to me, looking up at me with sleepy eyes.

  “Nevermind,” I said to Abby, stuffing the envelope in my pocket.

  “So how did it go with Sophie?” Mom asked as she leaned against the hood of my car.

  “Fine,” I said to her.

  “Fine? That’s it? That’s all you have to say?”

  I smiled at my mother wryly. “We’re having dinner tomorrow night at her place.”

  Abby looked up at me, suddenly appearing awake. “You have a date?”

  “Yeah, I guess I do,” I said as I rubbed her head.

  “Good job, Dad,” Abby said as she hugged me again.

  “Thanks, Abby.” I hugged her back and shooed her to get into the car.

  “What I am supposed to do for a bartender tomorrow?” Mom asked me.

  “Are you serious?” I said to her, worried that she needed help tomorrow.

  “I’m me
ssing with you, Travis,” she told me, pushing me to get into the car. “Boy, you need to work on your sense of humor before your date tomorrow. I can work the bar tomorrow, no problem.”

  I got into the front seat of the car and turned the engine on. “Do you want a ride back to the house?” I asked Mom.

  “No, I always walk, you know that,” she said with a smile. “I love to enjoy the peace of the town this time of night. Makes me realize why I love living here. I’ll be home in a few minutes.”

  I pulled out of the parking lot and turned to head back towards Mom’s house. Abby was already practically asleep by the time I made the turn. I passed Mom walking down the sidewalk, by the dry cleaner just down the street, and waved to her. She casually waved back as I drove on.

  “Today was a good day,” Abby mumbled to me as she turned towards me, eyes closed.

  “Yes, it was,” I answered her as I stroked her hair with my right hand.

  16

  Sophie

  For the last few days, a good night of sleep seemed pretty elusive for me. At least last night I had a good reason to have trouble falling asleep. I was so excited by what had taken place between Travis and me that I couldn’t think of anything else. The previous day had gone about as well as it could, right down to Travis walking me home. The only thing that would have made it better is if he had bent down to kiss me goodnight, but I guess that was too much to ask when we hadn’t seen each other for fourteen years.

  By seven AM I was wide awake and trying to plan out my day. I had just under eleven hours before he would be here again, and I wanted to make sure everything was perfect for our date. I checked around the house, cleaning up what little I had to put away. Since it was just me at home, there wasn’t much of a mess at all to worry about. I threw some laundry on, put a few things away, and ran the vacuum over the floor just to make things a bit better.

  As I stood looking around and admiring the clean house, I realized I didn’t have anything to cook for dinner that night. Most nights I ate pretty lightly, and a quick look at my fridge let me know that unless Travis wanted yogurt and lemonade for dinner, I was going to need to go to the store.

  I started to panic even more when I realized I had nothing nice to wear that night either. I had worn my best dress last night, and after rifling through my dresser drawers and closet, I fell back on the bed feeling panicked about what to wear. I needed to call in reinforcements for help.

  I decided to send Mary a text message, a simple “I need your help!” to get her attention. I was going to call her, but I figured she probably was feeling a bit hungover from last night and maybe a ringing phone would not put her in the best of moods to start her day. I was more than surprised when she answered me right away, saying she would be here as fast as she could. Since it was only eight in the morning, she must have been feeling a lot better.

  I was still wearing my pink t-shirt and pajama shorts about forty-five minutes later when I heard a car pulling up out in front of my house. I looked out the front window and saw a pickup truck there coming to a stop. I looked a little closer and could see the words “Seaver Contracting” on the side of the truck. Mary got out of the passenger side, wearing a blue t-shirt, denim shorts, and dark sunglasses, and closed the door to the truck. I saw Danny pull away as Mary made her way up the walk to my front door.

  I opened the front door before she had a chance to knock and greeted her with a smile. She pulled open the screen door and brushed past me.

  “Do you have coffee made?” she asked as she made her way into the kitchen.

  “You know where the pot is,” I told her as I followed her in and sat down at my kitchen table.

  Mary poured herself a cup of coffee and slumped into the chair across from me, still wearing her sunglasses.

  “How are you feeling?” I asked her, trying not to laugh.

  “Oh, just peachy,” she said to me snidely. “This is all your fault, you know.” She took a big sip of coffee and placed the mug down on the table.

  “How is this my fault?” I replied, wondering what I had done.

  “If we didn’t have to spend all night at the restaurant waiting on Mr. Wonderful, I wouldn’t have drunk so much and…”

  “And just what is it that you did, Mary?” I said, waiting smugly for a reply. “Or should I say who?”

  Mary looked up at took her sunglasses off, revealing the dark circles under her eyes. I tried to stifle a laugh.

  “If you had driven me home, Danny would never have been there,” she said, trying to defend herself.

  “I didn’t make him stay with you; that was all on you,” I retorted.

  “It’s fine,” Mary answered, taking another sip of coffee. “After I threw up on him we had a great time.”

  Mary went on to explain to me that as he was helping her out of his truck last night, she threw up all over his jacket, shirt, and shoes. She apologized profusely to him, threw up again on the bushes in front of her house, and then he helped her inside. She offered to wash his clothes for him, he said no, and he helped her get upstairs. She woke up early in the morning and found him sleeping on the couch, and one thing led to another after that.

  “Mary! You didn’t!” I said, shocked that she would do that.

  “Oh, stop Sophie,” she said to me. “We had dated a few times awhile back and had fun, I just didn’t want a serious boyfriend, so I stopped seeing him. He’s very nice, has muscles in all the right places, and knows how to use them,” she said with a grin.

  “How did things go with you and Prince Charming?” she asked as she had more coffee.

  I went into all the details of our walk home, and how I asked him over for dinner tonight.

  “So all you did was walk home?” she said, astounded. “No deep talk, no kiss goodnight, no taking you on the kitchen table?”

  I blushed at the thought. “No none of that. But Travis is coming over tonight, and I have nothing to make for dinner, and I have nothing to wear that looks nice. I really need your help, Mary, please.”

  Mary let out a deep sigh, took a sip of coffee, and then put her mug down.

  “Fine,” she said to me. “Go take a shower and get ready. By the time you are done, Simmons should be open. We’ll see what we can find for you.”

  I went over to the other side of the table and hugged her and kissed her on top of the head. She placed her hand quickly on top of her head.

  “Easy,” she said to me, wincing a bit. “My hair hurts.”

  I laughed and raced upstairs to shower quickly. I went through my routine as fast as I could, put on my basics with a simple t-shirt and jean shorts, and came back downstairs without wasting time. Mary was on the couch, her left arm draped over her eyes, trying to protect them from the sunlight coming through the front window.

  “You ready?” I said to her, having trouble standing in one place.

  Mary peered over her arm and looked at me, and then slowly came to a sitting position. She slowly got to her feet.

  “I guess so,” she told me. “Let’s go.”

  We walked out of the house, and both realized neither one of us had a car to drive. Mary’s car was back at the Homestead and mine was still at the school. They were both about the same distance from my house, so we decided to walk over to the school and get my car since Mary didn’t feel up to driving. She barely felt up to walking too and moved the entire way slowly to school. More than once I had to wait for her to catch up to me, and the school is only a few blocks away.

  We finally got to the school and my car, the only one in the parking lot on a Saturday in the summer. I unlocked the doors with my remote and Mary climbed in the passenger side. I hopped in behind the wheel and slammed the door shut, causing Mary to flinch and give me a dirty look.

  I drove over to Simmons Department Store, the only store of its kind in Canon and the one that pretty much everyone shopped at when they needed something that wasn’t food. When we got there, it was a little after ten, and they were open for
business. The parking lot, which was the largest in town, was already was about half full. There were lots of parents milling around, getting items for their kids at the back-to-school sales they were running.

  Simmons was not only the only department store in town, but it was the tallest building outside of the town hall. It had three floors to comb through, making it the only place in town with an escalator. Mary and I walked in, and the bright lights of the store made her put her sunglasses back on right away. We walked over to the escalator to go up to the third floor where the women’s department was.