by Nick Younker
As Bob and his children, Sebastian (Bob called him Sebby) and Ellen, stepped into the cabin, he took a deep whiff, breathing in the dusty smell, and then remembered that Ellen had severe allergies and the dust might bother her. The kids smelled the odor right away also and Ellen was less than happy about it.
“Oh my God, Dad! Could you have gotten us a crappier place to stay?” Ellen said as she laid down her suitcase and covered her nose.
Bob turned around to face her and smiled.
“Oh, come, now. This isn’t so bad. It’s just what a cabin smells like. It’s good to be one with nature. That’s what this is all about,” Bob said.
Sebby set the tackle box and fishing poles down beside the door after he closed it, and then walked through the cabin. He traced through the first level, climbed the ladder to the exposed loft and only found a bed.
“Seriously? No TV? What in the heck are we supposed to do all weekend?” Sebby asked.
Bob just smiled at that as he pulled his coat off and started putting kindling in the makeshift fireplace.
“How about we make supper, and then play a card game?” Bob said as he ruffled Sebby’s hair. “I’ll teach you how to play poker.”
Sebby shrugged his shoulders, but he looked interested in the notion. Although he really wanted to watch TV, he had also always wanted to play poker, especially with his Dad. But he didn’t want his Dad to know he was no longer disappointed, so he just shrugged his shoulders and wandered away.
They had gone directly to the lake when they got to Patoka and hadn’t even checked out their cabin first. Sebastian was excited about fishing on such a big lake after all the stories Bob had told him. Bob had said they would not only be fishing on the pontoon boat, but they would also be seeing a lot of flamingos (which were actually heron, but he didn’t tell Sebby that), bald eagles and maybe, if they were lucky, they might even be able to spot a bobcat drinking from the lake. This last part scared Ellen, but Bob had reassured her that they would be in the boat the whole time and that bobcats couldn’t swim out to hurt them. He had also pulled her aside and said that bobcats were more afraid of people than people were of them, so it was more likely they would not even see one while they up there. He didn’t want his little Sebby to hear that, though, since it took a lot of convincing to get him to come up there in the first place. Bob really loved taking his kids places and seeing them happy. But they were also being heavily influenced by their mother (and grandmother) to believe that Bob was a bad person, and the kids had expressed a lot of negative sentiment toward him lately. He just wanted to do whatever it took to make them like him again.
Things weren’t going so well that weekend. First of all, when they got there, they didn’t catch any fish. They didn’t see any herons or bald eagles, and when they saw the wild turkeys, they were somewhat small and unimpressive. After about an hour on the boat, the kids started to get restless and bored. Ellen complained several times that she just wanted to go home and Sebby sat back and stayed quiet. He even looked disappointed, but only when he could see Bob looking at him. When the rain started to pour down, they had made their back to the dock and packed up all their stuff and run back to Bob’s Jeep Wagon.
For Bob, it seemed like it got cold way too quickly and even though they were having an unseasonably warm day, he didn’t like the sudden shift in temperature. He didn’t think too much of it, though. He had stopped at a small store on the way to the cabin and picked up hamburger meat and Grippos barbecue chips. They already had the root beers in the back of the wagon, so now all they had to do was make supper. He was sure that at some point that night he could get them in better spirits and maybe make them a little less disappointed in him.
They ended up playing cards that night, but Ellen did not want to learn how to play poker. She only wanted to play Go Fish, so that’s what they played. Sebby’s disappointment ended in him going to bed around 7:30, not long after they ate supper. Ellen read her teen magazine until she fell asleep around 8:30. That just left Bob, awake and concerned that he was losing his kids. They had kept telling him they wanted to go home.
For Bob, home just meant going back to the same old thing. They would sleep in their rooms at his two-bedroom apartment in the Beach and he would sleep on the couch all weekend so they could each have their own bed. But it might have also have meant going back to the home they shared with their mother. Bob’s old home that he still paid a monthly mortgage on. The home where he had built zip lines between the trees for the kids to glide across the yard. The same home that he bought before he met Sandra, in hopes that he would one day raise his family there.
I don’t want them to be unhappy. Maybe I shouldn’t have brought them out here. Maybe we should just pack it up tomorrow and head back to the channel and salvage what’s left of the weekend with something that will make them happy.
Bob went over all the options in his head that would make them happy. Just a year ago, it was a lot easier. He would take them one weekend to Holiday World down in Santa Claus, another weekend they would drive down to Opryland and other times they would visit the zoos in Louisville, Cincinnati and even Indianapolis. They had such a great time and they were always smiling and so happy to be with him. Now, they seemed to loathe being around him.
Bob fell asleep around 2 a.m. and they all left Patoka the next morning at 8. That would be the last trip Bob would ever take them on.
***
2
The day was darkening from an impending thunderstorm looming somewhere west of Fogstow over the Ohio River. Kelly was busy wiping off the lunch counter and getting ready to shut the ’Bend down at quarter to five that evening due to the town coming together for the Elk’s Club brain sandwich dinner that night.
Izzy Lives was going to be playing down at the Stow Tavern later in the night as well, and Kelly and Pete always shut it down for the Friday night events. Pete wouldn’t have stayed anyway. He would never miss one of his daughter’s live shows, even if they were playing that goth-rock music that Izzy wrote so passionately.
Kelly had turned the pretzel warmer off and pulled the last pretzel out and put it on a plate. She would have shared it with Lucy, but Allen and Burnley came over and took the girl to the hay bales so she could jump around and play on them. They always did that in the early evening hours. They loved Lucy, just like most of the town.
The bell chimed as soon as the door opened. Dr. Amy Strange walked in. Kelly was sitting behind the lunch counter picking apart the giant pretzel when Amy approached and casually sat at the counter across from her.
There had always been an unspoken tension between Kelly and Amy. Linton had dated Dr. Strange for a couple of years and had even stayed with her when he needed to stay in Fogstow for one reason or another. That was before he made accommodations above the Co-op in his office.
Amy Strange was a few years older than Linton, and they had had a passionate relationship. A little more than a year before, they talked about children, and that was where the relationship started to fade. Amy did not want to have kids at that point in her life. Linton, although he wasn’t unsympathetic to her feelings, drifted away from Amy and eventually broke it off. A month later, he had started seeing Kelly and things had blossomed quickly.
Although Kelly had seen Amy around town on occasions, she had never really spoken with her after she got involved with Linton. Every time she might have had a chance to, it always felt like this giant elephant was in the room, and she cowered from the task. She supposed Amy knew this and might have come here at that moment with just that in mind. Although there was no animosity between them, it just seemed like the right thing to do: To allow the awkwardness to pass and live together in a small town. They both had equal standing in the town, and being on the same page meant being comfortable and happy around each other. They at least owed it to the town, so that the townsfolk never felt like they would have to pick a side.
Amy did not look at Kelly as she sat down, and Kelly plucked away at the
pretzel. She was fairly confident that Amy wasn’t there to a put an order in, so she just stayed there and waited for Amy to speak.
When Amy finally looked up, Kelly joined her. Amy smiled at her in a sympathetic and caring way, but Kelly could not return the gesture. She was taken off guard, as if she had been backed into a corner. She didn’t feel threatened by the situation, just unprepared. Kelly quickly looked back down at her pretzel and tore the already-torn pieces into smaller pieces.
“I know this has been awkward for you,” Amy said as she fidgeted with a straw on the counter. “It’s been awkward for me, too.”
This calmed Kelly’s anxiety. She picked apart a piece of her pretzel, looked up at Amy and finally gave her a smile. Not a manufactured smile or one of her patented half-smiles, but a smile that said she cared.
Kelly pushed her pretzel plate halfway between them both and picked a piece for herself and nibbled on it. “It doesn’t have to be.”
That relieved Amy, too, and the two shared bites of the pretzel for the next ten minutes in a comfortable silence.
When Amy picked up her purse and jacket to leave, she gently touched Kelly’s four fingers sitting on the counter. Kelly did not look at her, but smiled and accepted the gesture.
***
3
Linton was wrapping up his rounds in Fogstow. He parked his Bronco in front of the Co-op just as he saw Kelly walking out of the ’Bend and locking the front door. It was already past five and he wanted to check in on Stark and Holder before he left for Derbie that night. He and Kelly had to make sure to stop at the Elks Club and drop by the Stow for one of Izzy’s songs, so they were both hustling so they wouldn’t get caught in the weather that was guaranteed to drown them.
“You got your things packed? Where’s Lucy?” Linton asked her.
Kelly walked up and kissed Linton and they both walked into the alley toward their separate stairwells. “Will you run over and grab Lucy from Burnley? I think he has her, since Allen’s running the grill over at the Elks.”
Linton abruptly turned around and went for the front of the Co-op.
“Linton?” He turned back to Kelly. She slowed down and smiled at him as she went up her stairwell. “I’m glad we’re going to Carolyn’s tonight.”
Linton just smiled and shook his head at her as he made his way to the co-op.
* * *
Burnley had Lucy in the back lot, letting her jump from hay bale to hay bale and then into his arms. When Linton walked in he could hear her laughing and jumping. Burnley might have been an old man, but he was never too old to play with the youngsters.
“She keeping you young, old-timer?” Linton said to Burnley.
Burnley caught Lucy in mid-air and turned around, an abundance of joy on his face. Lucy was still laughing when she called out for him.
“Win-ton, Win-ton!” Lucy said as Burnley let her down and she ran into Linton’s arms. Linton pulled her up and she immediately kissed his cheek.
“You ready to go, little gal?”
“Yep! Momma got our luggage packed last night and we’re alllll ready!” Lucy joyously punctuated that with her arms spread wide open.
Burnley picked up Lucy’s drink and handed it to Linton. Lucy carried around a large plastic Indiana Hoosiers cup that said 1987 National Champions on it. She always had to have orange juice or lemonade with her. She thought that she could die from dehydration if she didn’t. Kelly washed it every night for her and filled it up then put it in the refrigerator so her drink would be good and cold the next day.
Lucy had been fighting a fall cold and she’d been prescribed amoxicillin, which came in a pink liquid. Burnley had run down to the store and picked it up for her and had given the first dose just about an hour ago. Kelly had asked Lucy if she wanted her to mix it into her drink, but Lucy liked the taste of the pink stuff by itself.
“Hang on just a second, Linton. I have her medicine in the fridge,” Burnley said. He went and got it. “Also, Marvin Kramer called and said you don’t need to be back at 10 a.m. tomorrow. He said Cliff Holder tugged a few purse strings and got a judge to set bail. Stark let him go about an hour ago.”
Linton let Lucy down and handed the medicine to her. “Run this up to your momma, sweetheart. She needs to put it in her travel bag.”
“Okay,” Lucy said. She took off like a lightning bolt out the front door.
They both watched her go and shook their heads.
“I think she’s really excited about going to Derbie tonight,” Burnley said.
“Yeah. Last time we were down there, Mom made homemade donuts and glaze with her, and she told Lucy they would make fudge when she came back.”
“Sounds like she’s taken to Carolyn.”
“Mom really enjoys her. They usually send me and Kelly off somewhere else so they can do things by themselves. Well, I should say Lucy sends us off. Last time, we went to a movie down in Barrelton.”
“What’dya guys see?”
“‘A League of Their Own.’”
“Oh yeah? Didya know they filmed that down in Evansville?”
“Well, they filmed some of it there. I think at an old stadium named Bosse Field.”
“Yeah, that sounds right. Old Walt took little Renny down to sit in the stands while they were filming it. They did a drawing there for all the spectators in the stands and little Renny won five hundred bucks. Ain’t that the darndest thing. That five-year-old boy had more money than his own grandpa.”
About that time Alice Konicke was pulling her car in front of the Co-op. She liked to creep her car forward and tap whatever was in front of her. Fortunately, the parking spaces in front of the ’Bend, the Co-op and the Elks club were angled in, so she just tapped the telephone pole. Several people in town had tiny dings in their vehicles, though, from Alice’s car. Allen had pleaded with her to get her eyes checked, but she was too stubborn to do it. No one really minded. Alice was just a sweet old far-sighted lady who always eased her way into places.
They both had a good laugh at that. Linton patted Burnley on the shoulder before he left and thanked him for watching Lucy.
He waved to Alice as he walked by, and when she got out of the car, she asked him if he would be at the dinner. He told her he would, but only for a few moments because he had to get down to Derbie to eat at his mother’s house.
* * *
That night was going to be a great one for Linton and Kelly. But first, they had to stop in at the Elks Club dinner and then drop by the Stow for Izzy’s performance. Linton had told Kelly they wouldn’t be staying long so they could get on the road and be at Carolyn’s before it got too late.
They both wanted a brain sandwich at the Elks club, but only had time to chat with other townsfolk. Lucy did not like the brains and she wanted to save her appetite for when she got to Carolyn’s. The truth was, she likely would not be eating much supper in Derbie, either, because she was craving the homemade fudge.
Most of the people who frequented the Elks club dinners were older folks. They always brought their grandchildren, and there was a table set up just for the grands, who liked to carry on with juvenile stunts and conversations. The boys would do silly things like make fart noises with their hands in their armpits. The young girls, even though their grandparents dressed them up nicely for the event, would crowd around the boys and take part in the crude behavior. One thing about southern Indiana girls: They might be pretty and nice, but they were also women of the world and did not subscribe to the posh etiquette of civilized society.
Linton made his way around to each table for a visit and a handshake. He had shaken many hands, including those of Herb and Milly Rogier, Barry and Tracy Denton, Patty McCallister (whose husband was elsewhere shaking hands) and Alby and Maggie Peters.
Alby, Roman, Herb and Alice Konicke were all on the town council along with Allen Morgan.
Alby and Maggie, who were sitting at a table beside the serving booths, were tickled pink to see Linton. They had always though
t Fogstow was going to hell in a hand basket with the modern state of youth and their general disrespect for elders. But Linton had been quick to turn that trend around. And given what had just happened with Bret Holder the week before, they were more certain than ever that Linton was the best man for the job.
“Well, hello there, Alby,” Linton said as he reached out to shake his hand. The room was noisy, with everyone talking about the upcoming basketball season and their chances of a sectional victory over Smirna, who were East Jamison’s main rival in the area for Class 1A. Barrelton was obviously closer, but they were Class 3A, which meant they would never meet in the post-season.
Alby couldn’t hear Linton, so he stood up to converse closer. He grabbed Linton’s hand firmly and shook it. Like most of the older generation in Indiana, he believed a firm handshake between men was a sign of respect. “Hello, Linton. How’s your day been?” he asked.
Kelly approached behind Linton with Lucy in tow. They were squeezing between tables, and most of the older women were admiring little Lucy by touching her hair and telling her things like, “Don’t you just look precious tonight, darling.” Lucy smiled and giggled at the first couple of ladies, but she quickly retreated inward and became shy. She had her right index finger in her mouth and kept her head down while Kelly guided her by the left hand through the dining traffic.
When Kelly approached, Maggie Peters stood up and hugged her. “Hello, dear. You both look gorgeous tonight,” Maggie said.
Kelly blushed at the compliment. “So do you, Mrs. Peters.”
Lucy lost her shyness and gently waved at Maggie. She was starting to come around.
“Say, Linton. Have you gotten any news on the state rankings yet? I hear Smirna’s at number 5 in class 1A,” Alby said close to Linton’s ear.
