Perchance (5 page)

             
I dropped the plate lunch on the table by Eric
and plopped down in the chair beside him.

             
“Um…thanks Cooper.  What’s the matter with you?”

             
I just shrugged.  I could be nice to this guy, but I was not talking to him about girls. Not gonna happen.

             
“Well, we’ve got a few more hours to go and then I’ve got to go to work tonight.”

             
“After working all day?” I asked.  Certainly the guy had to sleep right?

             
“Yeah, Saturdays kick my butt hard.  But I usua
lly sleep all
Sunday
afternoon
to make up for it.”

             
He shrugged and then ate his lunch. 

             
After a few more hours we packed up the furniture back into the truck.  Eric had sol
d a bunch, so we only had less than
half to put back.  I found myself looking around for something and it hadn’t registered what until Eric brought it up.

             
“Whatcha lookin’ for Cooper? A girl maybe? Maybe…I don’t know…Remi?”

             
“Pshhh…No, I don’t look for girls, they look for me.”

             
“Oh yeah, ‘cause from where I stand, you look like a goose with a rubber neck lookin’ for somethin’ or someone.”

             
“Wha
tever…” He chuckled at me as I tried,
not so well
,
to be nonchalant about this whole thing, but truth be told I was looking for her.
I was looked
for a just a glance of her hair or those warm light brown eyes.   D
isappointed, I got back into Eric’s truck and we stopped at a local Diner, the Cast Iron Skillet, for dinner. 

             
We stayed mostly silent during the meal except when we ordered.  I thought for sure he was going to grill me about Mom or about growing up but he didn’t.  I was relieved.  Maybe he was only doing this out of a guilty conscience.  Maybe he just wanted to say that he tried.

             
After eating, w
e paid the ticket and left.  When we got home, not home, but his house, I went my way a
nd he went his after we had unpacked the leftover furniture.
  A little while later I heard his truck come to life and looked out the window to see him with his uniform on, headed out to work. 

             
I turned on some Steppenwolf and unpacked my stuff. 

             
“Crap, I forgot to call Mom” I yelled at myself.

             
I quickly dialed the number and after only a half of a ring she picked up.
I walked outside on the front stoop of my new digs to get a better signal.

             
“You had one more hour before I called Eric.” She said softly.  When she wasn’t yelling you knew that you were
really
in trouble.

             
“Mom, I’m sorry, again, we were out all day at the flea market and then we stopped for dinner. Then Eric went to work and I started unpacking.”

             
“Ok, ok, ok, so how is he?
What’s he look like? Tell me everything.”

             
“He looks, well, he looks like me.  He’s fine I guess.  He doesn’t talk a lot and he said I could drive his car.”

             
“Shut up.  He’s
going to let you drive the Cuda?
  I have some good memories in that car.”

             
“Mom, gross, not cool.”

             
She laughed at me and sighed.

             
We talked more about how her work was and I told her everything I could about the day.  She yawned and I told her to get to bed and it was more for me than her because I was spent.

             
I hung up the phone and let ‘Magic Carpet Ride’ wind me down enough to go to sleep.
  But as I entered that phase between sleep and awake I pictured her and she took my breath away.

             
She hadn’t noticed me yet.  Aunt Brenda gave her a hug and walked into the room.  Aunt Brenda was telling her that her niece was here too and she turned to greet me.  She laughed loudly and clapped her hands together lightly and said before Aunt Brenda, “It’s Remi.”

             
Aunt Brenda spun around with a surprised look on her face.  “How do you know her?  She just got here yesterday.”

             
Edith was laughing still and hugging me while she explained, “Remi and I became friends on the bus didn’t we darlin’?”
I was so embarrassed.  The reason that I bared my soul to her on the bus was because I thought I would never see her again. And here she was in front of me.
Just my luck.

             
“Yes Ma’am.” Those were the only words I could choke out.

             
“I was on a trip to see my son Deacon and on the bus back I met Remi.”

             
We walked into the tiny apartment and sat in her living room.  She talked about her family.  Aunt Brenda mentioned that she had seen Eric at the flea market
. Edith said that she wished Eric would visit more but he worked weird hours.  I wondered why Aunt Brenda didn’t mention Eric’s son to her, but kept my mouth shut.  Edith would look at me every once in a while and wink.  She knew all of my secrets and my past.  I was going to have to make this woman cookies or something; she needed to be bribed.
We stayed and visited with Edith for about an hour and then made our way home.
Before we left I picked up an application.
That way I could work and keep an eye on Mrs. Knows All My Skeletons.

             
When we a
rrived at her house, I asked Aunt Brenda
if there was anything I could do for her.  She said that I could help her in th
e flower beds pulling weeds.  I wanted to help out so that I didn’t feel like a burden until I could get a job.
I didn’t want to be peddled off again.
I changed my clothes and she changed hers and we spent the afternoon pulling weeds and talking.  She told me that she was a teacher at the high school that I was to attend, but she taught Senior English and I had already taken enough English language credits so I wouldn’t be in her class.  She also volunteered at the retirement home and Edith was one of her favorite residents there.
 

             
We sat back on our haunches and smiled at our handy work. 

             
“Whew” She wiped her forehead with the back of her gloved hand.  “That usually takes me all day by myself.  It’s pretty nice to have some help for a change.”

             
I smiled at her.  It was nice.  Mom was never home, not because she didn’t want to, but because she was stuck with two f
ull-time, but low-
paying jobs.  She had never gotten an
education because my Dad told her she didn’t need to work.  He would take care of her and us.  And she fell for it.  She never went to school and didn’t even finish high school that I know of.  It was a mistake I would not be making.

             
“So Remi, would you mind walking down to the grocery store and picking up some tomatoes? I’m gonna make us some BLTs and I think I’m fresh out.  It’s just a couple of blocks up the street.  I’ll give you directions.”

             
I started to take my gloves off.  They were glued to my hands with sweat. 

             
“Yeah, sure.  Just point me in the right direction
.  Can I change first?” I hoped so since I wa
s
covered in dirt.

             
She laughed. “Of course Remi, you wouldn’t want to go out like that.  What if you see a cute boy, huh?”

             
I rolled my eyes at her. “I’m not really a boy magnet Aunt Brenda, and I don’t want to be.  But thanks.”

             
We walked back into the house and I changed and walked where she pointed me to.  It was dusk and the mosquitoes here were ridiculous.  There were clouds of them.  I turned the corner at Cypress Street like she told me to and spotted the small grocery store at the end of the street.  As I got closer, I heard a voice, but only one coming from the left somewhere.  I looked up and saw Cooper.  He was right outside the door of what looked like an above the garage apartment.
Even his silhouette in the moonlight amongst swarming mosquitoes was a sight to behold.  Screw the regular rendition of Romeo and Juliet.  I was the girl here staring up at the boy in the tower.
He was talking on the phone to someone and laughing. I had to ad
mit that the boy was really drop dead handsome
.  Then he started swatting with his free hand and before I knew it he went inside the door and shut it behind him.  I was kinda sad that he didn’t see me. 
And the night was suddenly darker without his presence.

             
A boy like that will only see the shell Remi, not the substance. 
That’s what my Mom always said
about any guy that I thought was cute or nice or any male of the species who talked to me.  But there had to be a good one out there somewhere right?
  Right?

             
I got to the small grocery store and the pudgy man behind the counter smiled at me as I checked out my two tomatoes.  I walked back to the house and made myself not look to the apartment where I knew he was.  I made myself not wonder what he was doing or who he was talking to. 
M
ade myself not think about when he was looking at me earlier in the day.  Nope, not thinking about him at all.  Yeah…right.

             
Aunt Brenda and I chatted
over our BLTs and she said that school started in six days.  I was nervous about starting a new school, but it wasn’t anything that I wasn’t used to.

             
We had moved several times with my Mom to new jobs or new apartments or just a new start.  Plus there was Tuesday’s little clepto problem that kept my Mom moving us from the local law enforcement throwing her into Juvi.  I told Aunt Brenda how once she stole some clothes from the mall and came out the next day wearing them to school and didn’t think that Mom would notice.  And she was so tired that she probably wouldn’t have noticed but Tuesday forgot to take the tags off of the
shirt and Mom spotted it over breakfast. 
Dummy.

             
Aunt Brenda cleared her throat and said “Remi, I..um…I wanted to take you clothes shopping before school starts, if that’s ok.”

             
“Oh, that’s not necessary, really but thank you.  I mean you did enough just paying for me to get here.  I don’t want you to spend any more money.”

             
“Look, I took some money out of savings yesterday at the bank and I really want to.  We can go into Baton Rouge and go to the mall or wherever you want.  I mean, I would really love to do this for you.  I never got to see you much as a kid.  So think of it as me catching up on being that aunt that spoils you.”

             
I let out a sigh.  I did need some new clothes, but I felt bad taking money or stuff from her. 

             
“Don’t over
think it Remi.  Let me do this.  Please, I want to.”

             
I smiled, “Ok, ok, you don’t have to beg.” I gave her my best exasperated groan
and she laughed at me.

             
“Ok, good.  So how about tomorrow after church?”

             
“Church?”

             
“Yes Remi, you know
the place where people go to worship God. Church.”

             
“I think I know now where I got my sarcasm from and yes, I know what church is.  But we almost never went as kids. I think we went once for Christmas when I was ten or something.”