Lacy's Lane

by Patricia Strefling

  He laughed out loud.

  “You haven’t laughed like that since high school.” She glanced at him.

  “You’re right. Life has been too crazy. It’s good to be back in Michigan. With Gannon and with you and Allison.”

  “Good. We all need a break from our regular lives don’t we?”

  “Yep.”

  He was quiet, so Lacy watched the fields fly by; cornfields thick with winds blowing through the leaves, old farmhouses and rusty farm implements a part of her everyday views.

  “I’d like to go to Bensen again if you don’t mind. Gannon wants me to pick up some papers at his attorney’s office.”

  “Fine with me. I have all day.” Lacy said quietly.

  “Great. Because we have a lot to talk about.”

  Lacy waited a few moments and couldn’t stop herself from asking. “Nothing bad, I hope.”

  “Sorry…no I should have said that. Just stuff that needs to be worked out.”

  “Okay.” She blew out a small breath. Of all things she hated confrontation and people putting her into situations where they wanted answers. Now.

  For that reason alone, she hated speech class. Thad had passed with flying colors. He could schmooze anyone into believing anything. Alas, and he was an actor now, proving her point exactly. He could be anyone the public wanted him to be. She thought that was great. Until now. How awful to be only what people wanted you to be. You could never be yourself. Actors must struggle with that. She voiced her thoughts then added, “Do you struggle with knowing who you are?”

  His quick gaze at her while he was driving, surprised her.

  “Why?”

  “Just wondering. Actors become the people the public want but do you have a hard time remembering who you are?”

  “Actually, since you asked, I have been struggling. That’s why I came back here. To remember where I came from, for at least part of my life. The good part.”

  When he didn’t say any more Lacy let him be. She knew enough about men that if they wanted to talk they would.

  Half an hour later they pulled out of the attorney’s office parking lot with a large manila envelope. Thad had tossed it in the back seat.

  “Okay, there’s this really small out of the way place. I’d like to take you there.”

  “Sure. Love new places. Small ones, too. Fewer will recognize you.” She added.

  “Exactly. When people think they know me I just tell them in a different voice that I look like that guy; that everyone tells me that. It usually works.” He smiled slightly.

  “That’s the hard part about being a star isn’t it? If you shine too brightly everyone wants to be near you.”

  “Exactly.”

  After a twenty minute drive they pulled off the main road into a tiny bump-in-the road place. It was so small inside Lacy wondered if they offered eat-in dining.

  The young girl greeted them with a southern drawl.

  “Ya’ll sit down. I’ll be right on over.” She pointed to an area with a few tables and two booths.

  “Her Southern speech reminds me of my grandfather from Arkansas.” Lacy whispered.

  “Here, let’s get back in the corner out of the way.” Thad slid into a bench seat.

  In a moment the girl welcomed them and tossed down the paper menus. “Midafternoon, got the place all to yourselves.” She took their drink orders.

  “Fine with me.” He said.

  “Ain’t you…”

  Thad didn’t look up. He’d forgotten to disguise his voice.

  “You are. I can tell.” She said quietly. “Don’t worry I won’t tell a soul. If you could just leave your autograph on the back of your ticket, I’d be obliged. My name’s Ila Mae” She whispered even though they were the only patrons.

  “Sure no problem.” He said and smiled up at her.

  “Thanks ya’ll. I’ll be back in a jiffy to take your order.”

  Lacy smiled. “You were very nice.”

  “Yeah. Used to it. Can’t have people hating you when you are competing for ratings.”

  “I don’t suppose. What’re you having?”

  “I love the fried chicken here and the gravy. It’s to-die-for. I don’t worry about my weight when I’m home. I can work it off when I get back.”

  Lacy stirred sugar into her tea and watched him do the same with coffee. “So you better get talking before people come in here and see you. We’ll have to run out if you make a scene.”

  He laughed. “That’s why I came home Lace. To sit with good people who know me and know how to live with integrity and truth. That kind of thing. Out there you tell people whatever they want to hear and they do the same with you. You never know where you stand.”

  “I would hate that.”

  “I do, but I’ve got a bit of an issue.”

  Lacy put her spoon down and waited.

  He took two sips of his coffee, put the cup down. “My girlfriend told me she’s pregnant.”

  Lacy lowered her eyes. Troubles. The way of the world since the beginning of time. “Are you happy about it Thad?”

  “I might have been until I heard from a friend of hers that she doesn’t know if it’s mine or another guy she’s been seeing.”

  “Oh dear.”

  “That’s why I was calling her. She won’t take my calls. And I don’t know what to do. I care about her and thought we were exclusive, but the more I hear the less I know her.”

  “Takes time to know someone. But when you live in the world you’re in, it doesn’t happen easily and when it does, well…relationships don’t last long in Hollywood.”

  “You’re telling me.” He lifted his cup and swallowed.

  “Look I just found out this morning, so I’m pretty well trashed for much of anything else. But the reason I originally called was to talk to you about Gannon. We’ve got to do something different. He’s slowly dying of loneliness out there on the farm.”

  “Oh no.”

  “Hey, look Lace. It’s not because of you. You’ve been a saint. He told me everything you were doing. And I am here to apologize to you. I should have been back before now instead of letting you handle everything. I’m sorry about that and I’m going to make it right. But I wanted your opinion before we make a move. There is an assisted living place here in Bensen that is really well-staffed. I’ve already talked to the manager and she says there are a couple openings. I talked to Gannon about it and he’s ready to walk out the door.”

  “Really?”

  “Yep. Truth is he knows you are overworked. So does Allison. She let me have it the other day after church when you weren’t around.” He smiled. “In a good way. I’d have never known how much you’ve been doing for my grandfather and trying to keep up his place.”

  She shrugged.

  “It’s going to stop. Right here. Right now, Lace.” His finger tapped the table.

  “I don’t mind….I just…”

  “No excuses. No guilt. This is my grandfather not yours. My responsibility. I want to know your thoughts though. Do you think he would do well? I want to take you over and look at the place. The manager said we can visit anytime. The facility is always open. Would you mind going with me?”

  “Of course not. I would love to see the place. Make sure he’d like it.”

  “Good.”

  A huge plate of fried chicken was set down in the middle of the table. You want mashed potatoes or biscuits.”

  “Biscuits.” Both said at the same time.

  “Coming up. Butter and honey?”

  “Yep to both.” Thad said.” Let’s dig in. You first.”

  Lacy chose a leg.

  He forked a piece of the steaming chicken, a breast, and set it on his plate. “Best chicken you’ll ever eat up north.”

  Lacy said a quick prayer and started to eat. Biscuits arrived along with a bowl of soft butter and a pitcher of honey.

  “Nothing better than chicken, biscuits and honey.”

  “And you a guy from Conne
cticut.” She buttered her biscuit.

  “Not from the heart, honey.” He gave her a look. “Michigan is my home state.”

  She smiled not sure what to make of that comment.

  After half an hour, both were patting their stomachs, sitting back in their seats and wiping grease from their fingers.

  Thad addressed a note to Ila Mae and signed his name with a flourish. Then he left her a one hundred dollar bill under the salt shaker.

  “That was really nice of you.” Lacy said.

  He shrugged. “Let’s get going. The facility’s not far from here, we can double back and be there in about fifteen minutes.

  “No problem. I’m free today.” She said happily as Thad held the car door.

  * * *

  Two hours later the two of them were heading back to Marston. It was past dark and they had enough information to know the elder Mr. Gannon would soon be a resident there in one of the nicest suites. Thad must have spent a few minutes signing the contract and more than fifteen minutes slashing his signature on all sorts of items. A magazine someone grabbed, the t-shirt they were wearing, a handkerchief, a baseball hat, whatever people could find. The elderly folks had plenty of time to watch television and he was a favorite, Lacy learned. He was kind and accommodating. More than she would have been. So if that’s what it was like signing your name as an author all the time and everyone talking to you at the same time, she knew why she never wanted her book out. It was tiresome and the people who thought they knew you, knew only the character you played. More than a dozen times folks called Thad by his character name instead of his real name. To Lacy, that was sad.

  For all the ones who think stardom is bright and shiny, she saw a sad side to it tonight.

  On the way home she was quiet. And so was he. The decision had been made. Mr. Gannon would no longer be her neighbor. For some reason she was relieved and in another way very, very sad. In three days her life had been turned upside down. Her little sister was grown up and moving out, Gannon would no longer need her either. Now what was she supposed to do?

  Chapter 11

  Thad dropped her off at her place, thanked her three times and pressed a kiss to her cheek before he made sure she was inside and then drove down the lane. Lacy’s Lane. Memories of summer days spent with her family flooded back.

  He knew Lacy’s father had named it that because of his only child. They never expected another so had planned on leaving the farm to her when they passed, and made sure she would own it by naming the road after her. He had been so proud of his daughter. Then later on, Allison had come along. But everyone knew this was Lacy’s farm.

  * * *

  Lacy locked the door behind her, turned and leaned against it. What a day. How could her life take such a huge turn in just days. She kicked off her shoes and wandered about. The smell of zucchini and cinnamon still floated through the kitchen. She stuck the two mini loaves in the fridge. Thad didn’t care about that right now. He had his own problems.

  She was too full to go to bed and too tired to think straight. What she needed was some work. She tossed off her clothes and put on some shorty pajamas and went through several drawers in her room. It had been ages -- years since she dumped them out and threw stuff away. But with everything in her life going crazy right now, maybe she’d better clean up around here while she had the chance. Thad would be here for another week, maybe more since he’d be moving his grandfather, no doubt.

  That quick. She snapped her fingers, talking aloud. Life is that quick. She was just twenty-eight and barely remembered the last four years. She’d lost herself in other people’s lives and now had what?

  I’ve got the farm. That’s what I’ve got. She talked to herself as she dumped old lipsticks, dried up bars of soap, old rusty nails into the trash. When she finished the first drawer she realized she hadn’t saved one item from it. No wonder she was so crazy. She hadn’t taken time to clean up her own place. Sitting cross-legged on her bed she worked into the night, wondering what Gannon and Thad were doing. Gannon would need help going through all his stuff too. Thad would have to get back to his girlfriend and to the show. One false move and there would be five hundred applicants for his job. Nope, Hollywood was not a place she’d like to live in.

  Lacy wondered if Thad had heard back from his girlfriend. Come to think of it, he never mentioned her name.

  Six drawers were cleaned out and she stared at the keep pile. Two old coins, one barely decipherable penciled note her mother wrote to her third grade teacher, Mrs. Kaiser, two pictures of Allison when she was a baby and one of her and her parents taken under the new sign, Lacy’s Lane; her father pointing up to it. Sally Jean, Gannon’s sweet wife had taken the picture. Lacy remembered it was her fifteenth birthday, the same year Thad came to live with his grandparents.

  Thinking that a whole lot more was going to change, she crawled into bed, her mama’s ancient fan next to her bed buzzing her to sleep. Tomorrow, she was going to focus on cleaning up this old farmhouse.

  * * *

  When the sun was coming through the crack in the curtain Lacy turned in her bed, curled into her pillow for a longer snooze and realized it was morning. She sat up and looked at the time. Half past seven?

  She flew out of bed, ready to head down to the garden, when she remembered she didn’t have to get breakfast for Gannon or Al. She stretched, dressed for the day and went down the stairs and had a cup of tea, cut a piece off one of those zucchini loaves and munched as she stood next to the kitchen window gazing out at the late summer flowers. She opened the side door and felt a soft breeze blowing the Ash tree near the house. It was cooler than yesterday.

  What to do? She finished her breakfast and had only dirtied one cup. No pots and pans and dishes today. The beans had to be picked first. She geared up, went out and finished in half an hour. She knew one of her friends from church had picked most of the beans, corn, tomatoes and zucchini, probably while she was gone the last few days. The little orange flags had signaled where they stopped. The woman was mother to five children, her husband in jail for bank fraud. She had free picking rights whenever she needed food for her children.

  There was nothing pending, so she dashed up the stairs, and cleaned out the old dresser with the round mirror. It was her mother’s bedroom set from the 1930’s when she was a child. Memories came flooding back when she found her mom’s favorite cotton nightdress and a hairbrush with her hair. But the odd thing was she didn’t feel the pressing heaviness on her heart, only smiled and closed her eyes picturing her mother sitting at the dresser combing her beautiful dark brown hair before bed.

  When that was done she sat on the bed. It was dusty and sad to be in their room. After the funeral was over she didn’t know what else to do with herself, so she’d come in and made the bed, just the way mother did every morning. And it had stayed that way.

  She sat down, opened a bedside table and found things. Things that brought back more memories. She sat on that dusty bed and went through each piece, then put it all back. Tears flowed as she read her mother’s handwriting, a little poem daddy had jotted down to mother, written with his ever-present pencil lodged over his ear, his pocket knife coming out once in a while to whittle the point sharp.

  All of it stayed in the drawer. Today, she had faced her fears and went in the room. It was enough. Right now she needed to be outside. She fed Redd, Al’s horse and talked to him for a while then picked a bouquet of wildflowers, daisies, sunflowers and some fern up near the house and put them in a canning jar and set it inside on the table. It brightened up the space. She hadn’t done that for a long time.

  Allison called and wanted to come out and get a load of stuff and pick up the zucchini bread. Everyone was asking about it, she said. The insurance company called to remind her that it was time to pay the annual property insurance again. She made a note on the calendar and decided to take the old bike out for a ride down the lane.

  She dusted it off and got on, the front wheel wobbling
along until she got her stride and then she pedaled faster, the dust flying. She saw Thad’s car coming down the lane and pulled to the side.

  “Where are you off to on that thing? I remember Al learning how to ride on that bike.”

  “Yep. No place in particular. Everything go all right last night?”

  “Just as planned. Gannon is ready to go. I was just coming down to use your phone.”

  “Sure go on up to the house. Door’s open. I’ll visit Gannon and be back after awhile.’ She wondered why he was always coming down to use her phone. He could easily have used his cell phone. Probably needed some privacy. Or maybe his girlfriend was still avoiding his calls.

  “Great.”

  Lacy rode on down and knocked at the back door like always. But today and every day from now on would be different. That was for sure. Soon Gannon wouldn’t be here. She wondered what family might buy his farm, maybe with a passel of kids to run around and play.

  “Gannon. Good morning. Did you eat breakfast this morning?”

  “You might say that. Come on in Lacy. We’ve got some talking to do.”

  Lacy took her usual chair.

  “You hear I’m moving.”

  “Sure did. Are you happy about that Gannon? Really? Tell me the truth.”

  “I am. Thad and I have been talking and it’s about time I got out and made myself a real life. I’ve been sitting in this chair, with you waiting on me for too long now. It’s time to go. Everyone has to leave their home place sometime. Besides…” he paused…”Some nice family’ll like my 16 acres and make better use of it than me sitting here watching it all go to ruin.”

  “You’re right. I’ve got 16 acres over there that could use the same thing. A nice family with lots of kids.”

  “What? You hold onto to that farm, Lacy Lee Linden. You’re young, time for you to have a big family and bring it to life over there again.”

  Lacy laughed. “You think so do you?”

  “Yep. You, Thad, Allison, you’ve all got your lives ahead of you. Don’t waste it like I’ve been doing. When I went to church last Sunday I felt renewed. Ready to get out and meet people again. And…” he winked….”Mrs. Anderson has agreed to step out for dinner with me.”