but, mercury's not in retrograde!

by McCarthy, G. L.

  As the two women ate their dinner under a tree, Alex filled Carol in on her meeting Sam and what was hopefully in her future. Carol asked caring questions, as would any good friend or parent that didn’t want their friend or child to get hurt. Alex reassured her that she had gone over all the pros and cons in her mind several times and even though they had only known each other for two weeks it was like a lifetime. When Carol asked when Sam was coming to visit, Alex laughed. She said sixteen more of the longest days imaginable. Then Alex brought up the question of any other lesbians in the area. She used the reason of wanting to find more friends than just the other teachers who were gay. Carol mentioned she’d never really thought that much about who was or wasn’t gay in town. But she would ask her son, Jason, as he seemed to know everyone and everything that was going on.

  “So Jason is the go-to man in the local news department?” Alex didn’t have a problem talking to him, but had wished Carol knew all, as well.

  “He seems to be the one all the kids confide in. He would never tell a secret, but if you want to know who’s dating who or what kids are hard workers or goof offs he’s your man.” Carol was very proud of her youngest. He was a good person.

  “Well, I’m not sure if asking him who’s gay wouldn’t be breaking a promise not to tell. But I’m not looking for teenagers, more adults between the ages of twenty-five and fifty. Would he have any idea about that age group?” Alex needed info on Roy Spicer’s kids too.

  “He knows about everybody in town. How he finds out I don’t know, but he wants to be a police detective when he gets out of school, so he’s very good at getting information.” Carol used him to find out information for credit approvals for new residents.

  “Do you think he would like a job tomorrow? I was planning on moving all my stuff out of storage and into my new place. Would he be too tired after tonight’s game?” This would be a great way to bring up all her questions in casual conversation.

  “I’m sure he would. He’s saving up for a truck and I must say, he drools over yours every time he sees it. I’ll ask him tonight when he gets home.” Carol would have volunteered but she needed to do the early shift at the store.

  “That would be great. I can have him drive my truck to go pick up lunch. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind. Do you?” Alex figured he may take his time doing that errand.

  “Oh, I know he would love it. You’d better send him before you get hungry, because he may take a few detours on the way.” Carol knew he would take great care of the truck, but also knew he would want to show it off to all of his friends.

  “No problem. It’s a very cool truck and I’m lucky to have it. I was able to buy it from my best friend who is also Sam’s cousin.” Alex loved her truck very much and would never part with it.

  “So, Sam comes with excellent family references. I can see now why you are so high on her as a girlfriend.” Carol was beginning to understand that Alex was much more careful going into this relationship than the one she just left.

  “Absolutely. If she wasn’t Jessie’s cousin I wouldn’t be moving this fast. But Jess’s seal of approval goes a long way with me. If Sam and I can’t make a go of it, I think I’ll stop trying and become an old maid.” Chuckling as she said it, Alex meant it too with all her heart.

  “Oh no, you must never give up. There is someone out there for everyone. It’s just knowing when it’s right and when it’s wrong. It sounds like this union will be right. Although you will let me meet her before you two sign any papers.” Carol thought she was a pretty good judge of character and hoped Alex would think so too.

  “No problem there. Although we won’t be signing any papers. If we are together for the rest of our lives, it’s because we chose to be and not because of a piece of paper.” Alex realized this was another thing she and Sam needed to discuss.

  “I like the way you think. Bob and I feel the same way, but you know how society looks at children born out of wedlock. So, we say we did it for the kids, otherwise we would still be living in sin.” Carol liked the fact that she and Alex were on the same page in this regard.

  “Well, I guess we’d better join the others. It looks like it’s getting close to game time.” Alex saw Cyn give her a wave as the group was moving towards the stands. Alex threw the keys to Cyn who ran to get the sleeping bags out of the truck. Alex and Carol exchanged phone numbers as they waited for Cyn to return. They put their plates in the trash, and headed for the stands. Carol put her arm through Alex’s and huddled close as it was getting colder, but still no rain. Alex smiled and grabbed Cyn’s arm as the three made their way along, and gave her a wink letting her know that the mission had been a success.

  The time before the kickoff was filled with chit chat with parents who were retelling quick stories of their child’s exploits of past games. Carol was a proud parent, but not quite so vocal about it, and reserved those stories for another time and place. Bob, Carol’s husband, arrived just in time and sat with the three women, along with Sheriff John and one of his deputies who had twins on the team. Alex would have liked to have been able to talk to the Sheriff, but thought she may get more information from Jason. Hopefully, he would be less suspicious about the questions regarding Roy Spicer and his kids.

  The game was a nail biter as the lead changed back and forth. But as fate would have it the Monroe team fumbled, probably from frozen fingers, and a Hastings lineman was able to scoop up the ball and run it back for a touchdown. The fans went crazy as the clock ran out and several players hoisted the lineman up on their shoulders. It was one of those heartbreaking endings for the other team and a minor miracle for Hastings. They were the underdog going into this crucial game. This win put them on top of their division and towards a possible title, if the fates allowed it to happen. The sleeping bag had definitely worked for Alex and Cyn. They where very warm and the envy of several parents, including Carol, Bob and the Sheriff who would remember this trick for the next game. As everyone made their way towards the parking lot, mother nature decided it was time to water the lawn again and the skies opened up. At first it was a light rain that thankfully waited until everyone was safely at home before turning into a downpour.

  Chapter 19

  There’s something different about getting up early to go to work versus getting up early to do work for yourself. Alex was up with no complaints. The excitement of getting her stuff out of storage and into her new place was the driving force. She wanted to let Cyn sleep and was trying to be as quiet as possible, but she no sooner came out of the bathroom than she heard her in the kitchen making coffee.

  “I’m sorry if I woke you up. I wanted to let you sleep in.” Alex thought the only noise she made was flushing the toilet.

  “You didn’t. I was awake and lying there waiting for you to get up. I have a strange built-in alarm clock that gets me up early on Saturday. Now tomorrow, I will sleep until noon, but not today. What would you like for breakfast?” This was their first weekend together since Alex came to stay and Cyn wanted to have a nice leisurely meal.

  “Whatever you usually have on Saturday mornings. I need to call Carol and see if Jason is coming.” She dialed her cell phone as she made the statement. Carol answered very quickly.

  “Good morning, Alex. You’re up and about early this morning.”

  “Good morning, Carol. You sound like you’re in the car. Are you on your way to work?”

  “Oh yes. I’m opening this morning. Jason will be arriving about eight to help you move. He was very excited about making money while getting to drive your truck.” Chuckling to herself, she wished she was getting paid to have fun driving around town.

  “Well, it won’t all be fun and games. My stuff is filthy from sitting in storage for so long so he’ll earn his pay just having to deal with that much. But for the most part we’ll have an easy day of it that is, now that we have a third person to help.” Alex was hoping three trips should do it.

  “Be sure to have him do all the heavy lifting.
He’s used to it. We don’t want you girls hurting yourselves as we still have one more game to win and you two seem to be our good luck charms.” Having squeaked by to win games they weren’t supposed to was a sign to Carol.

  “Well, thank you for all the credit. We hope we can keep up the streak.” Alex wondered if that was it or if Carol just liked having them along to talk to about something other than football.

  “Well, I’ll let you go. I know you have a lot to do today. Talk to you later. Bye.” Carol was all about short and sweet calls. She never did like chatting on the phone all that much.

  “Thanks again. Bye.” Alex was liking Carol more and more as she said what she needed to say and was off the phone. These two were going to get along great.

  “Can I help you with anything?” Alex could see Cyn had it pretty much covered.

  “I’m good. But you could do the toast, if you’d like.” Cyn knew she could handle that task.

  “I would love to.” Alex was glad she could do something to help.

  Breakfast was ready in no time and the two friends had a nice, leisurely meal. They noted the weather was holding and hoped they could complete the move without the skies opening up again. But Alex remembered that it was supposed to be good luck to move in the rain, so either way she was fine with what transpired during the course of the day.

  They put on their grubbiest clothes, expecting to get extremely dirty. Alex put her hair in a ponytail and grabbed a cap to at least try to keep her hair somewhat clean. Cyn had a red bandana and was all set. She looked like a pirate. Both women were ready to go when Jason arrived, right on time, driving a very old Honda civic. Needless to say, Cyn showed him where he could park it for the rest of the day.

  Tossing him the keys, Alex wanted to see just how he would drive her precious truck. Catching the keys, Jason jumped in behind the wheel and gently started her up. Smiling from ear to ear he engaged the clutch and the three were off. Alex was impressed with how he was handling her baby and hoped he drove like this all the time and not just when she was sitting next to him.

  As they approached the town limits, there were a lot more cars on the road. Everyone was out running errands. Jason was waving as friends honked at the sight of the teenager behind the wheel. Alex looked at Cyn and smiled, wondering what it was like to be young and driving a cool car. She’d had a bike that got her around town and school. Having to put herself through school, a car was a luxury she had never even considered.

  As Jason drove into the storage yard, several cars followed, full of friends who were also on the football team. Jason enlisted them to help at no charge, if they wanted to be able to look under the hood at the old engine. Alex and Cyn found themselves giving directions more than moving boxes. The first load was in the bed of her truck within fifteen minutes, with the other boxes going in the support vehicles. Driving back with a caravan of cars, Alex never realized that having Jason as a helper was going to make this job a piece of cake. There wasn’t that much more to retrieve, but Alex wanted to take everyone to lunch at the local burger joint. Unloading everything into her garage, several of the kids commented on Cyn’s blue Mustang and how cool it was. Alex made note that it was the first time any of them had seen it and so she let them assume it was her other car. Several of the guys commented on how lucky she was to have two great vehicles and if she ever wanted to sell either of them to let them know. Jason informed them all that he had dibs and they needed to get in line. Cyn had been taking boxes into the house and Alex caught her before she came back out.

  “What do you think about telling Jason what’s going on with your car?” Alex wanted to tell him everything, considering he wanted to be a police detective someday. She was sure she could trust him to keep it to himself.

  “Sure, if you think it would help us find out who it is.” Cyn was ready to try anything as she missed driving her own cool car.

  As the two went back outside, Jason was closing the garage door and locking it. Alex asked everyone else to meet them later for lunch. They were going to make one last trip to her storage container, get the rest of her stuff, close out her account, and then meet them all – her treat. Everyone gladly agreed. Alex figured quarter to twelve would be about right and asked whoever got there first to save the three of them a seat. She decided now would be a good time to ask Jason her questions as they had a good half hour drive back to the storage yard.

  “Jason, your mom told me you wanted to be a police detective, is that right?” Alex thought asking that question would be one way to segue into this conversation.

  “Sure do. I’ve wanted to be in law enforcement for as long as I can remember. Why do you ask?” Jason thought it was an odd question to ask out of the blue.

  “Well, Cyn has a problem with someone messing with her Mustang and we wondered if you had heard anyone bragging about maybe getting their hands on one. Or if there were some shady characters in town recently?” How could Alex come right out and point a finger at anyone?

  “I haven’t heard anything about it. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be one of the locals. I just don’t hang with the criminal element at school. I mean, we have a few guys, but it’s more of them just wanting to be different than seeking a career in crime. What exactly do you mean by messing with it?” Jason hadn’t seen any damage to the body and wondered what had been done.

  “Nothing blatantly damaging to the car, but things being disconnected on the engine. There was the rotor, a battery cable and the starter wire all partially disassembled but easily fixed. We can’t figure out why anyone would be doing this, so who would be doing it is a total mystery.” Alex could see Jason’s mind processing the information and he looked puzzled.

  “That’s so weird. It’s like gremlins or some poltergeist is messing with you.” Jason was also a big sci-fi and supernatural buff. He loved this kind of stuff.

  “We hadn’t even thought of that. But why now? Nothing is new and it all happens at school while she’s teaching, never at home.” Alex liked the spirits at school, as she hoped they had saved her. So why would they mess with Cyn’s car? What could they have against her?

  “I’m just talking out loud. I’ve never heard of anything weird going on out at Taylorwood. But it would be cool if it was. Have you dusted for prints and run them by the Sheriff?” Jason also liked the science behind criminal investigations.

  “No. We haven’t gone that route yet. We were hoping a solution would be simple and quick, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Can you dust for prints?” Keeping this matter as quiet as possible was Alex’s priority right now.

  “Sure. I can do it when we get back to Cyn’s. I have all that stuff in my car.” Jason was having one of the best days of his life driving a classic truck and getting to play detective!

  “Great. But I have one favor to ask: that we keep this just between the three of us. We don’t want to tip our hand about proceeding this way. It may scare them off. Would that be okay?” Drawing attention to this matter was the last thing Alex wanted for herself or Cyn.

  “Mum’s the word. Speaking of mum, does she know any of this?” Jason knew his mom and Alex were friends.

  “No. The only other people who know are the Sheriff and Frederick at school.” Alex wanted to be able to mention Roy Spicer and the truck, but not sound accusatory.

  As they continued on to get the last load, Alex quickly briefed Jason on all the events that had happened since the first time with the rotor. When she mentioned the white truck watching the house, she could see a change of expression on his face. He gave them both a quick glance, as if to say this sounds like someone is serious. His look really changed when she told him she had seen a similar truck leaving school and was told it was from Spicer’s Auto Repair delivering parts. Jason shook his head at that comment and told them he knew the Spicers and they were all good, honest friends of his family. The youngest, Steve, had been an honor student all through school and was off at college and Tiffany was very nice and worked
for her father. Their mother had died when the kids were very young. He couldn’t imagine any reason for them to mess with the car when Cyn was already a customer. Alex and Cyn both agreed which put them back to square one with no suspects and no leads. Hopefully there would be fingerprints. Alex thought the person behind all this was pretty sharp and wouldn’t leave any, but it was worth a shot.

  Closing out her account at the storage company felt strange, like she was leaving an old friend. Her things had been there for almost five years. But not having to write that check every month would be great. Heading for the burger joint, Alex was looking forward to trying it out. She realized that there were several places in town she’d overlooked all these years. As requested, three places had been saved in the large booth in the back and everyone was hungry and happy to see them arrive. Lunch was ordered quickly as everyone at the table was trying to talk to both women. Both Alex and Cyn were trying to listen to all the conversations that were happening simultaneously, but were only getting about half of what was being said before they were pulled into another topic. The arrival of the food brought a sudden quiet to the table and the food was consumed at a rapid rate. At the completion of the meal several, of the boys excused themselves with errands that still needed to be finished, but thanked Alex for her generosity. A few lingered as they still wanted to look under the hood of her classic truck. Jason excused himself and took the remaining boys to check out the engine with Alex’s blessing.

  “Wow, that was an experience! And I thought girls talked a lot!” Alex’s ears were still ringing.

  “I never saw so many teenage boys trying to get attention from adults before. It was like they all wanted us to hear what they had to say. It was very sweet. It reminded me of my family’s dinner conversations when all three of us kids would be talking to my parents at the same time.” Cyn hadn’t thought about those family meals in a long time.