Renewal 2 - Echoes of the Breakdown (7 page)

“Amen to that.”

Bill handed the rifle to Neil, and said, “The watch is yours, Neil.”

“The watch is mine, Bill.”

Bill stepped over to the edge, and executed a daring exit from the platform. Terry couldn’t see how he did it, but the ropes thrashed wildly until he heard Bill’s boots hit the ground.

“Neil, it was good to meet you. I’m sorry about your family,” Terry said, as he considered how he would get down the ladder.

“Likewise Terry. I’m sure I’ll see you later. Hey, two helpful tips for you. One, just step off the edge and let your feet snag on the way down. Let your hands guide you on the ropes, but don’t try to hold on. Two, watch your back. Sally has been talking smack about you all afternoon.” Neil grinned and winked at Terry. “Enjoy your brief life as an eligible bachelor.”

“Uh... Great, I guess,” Terry replied, clearly uncomfortable. “See you later.”

Terry looked over the edge, and thought Neil’s advice was suicidal, but he figured it was another test he couldn’t afford to fail. He stepped off, turning 180 degrees as he did. His right foot snagged on the fourth rung of the ladder; his hands hooked loosely around the ropes. He alternated feet every few steps, snapping the rope ladder around wildly, until almost before he knew it, he hit the ground hard and fell on his butt.

Bill laughed and said, “Not bad, wild man. Takes practice is all.”

Terry laughed too, surprised he didn’t break an ankle. He got up and dusted himself off, rubbed his friction-heated palms together, and the men headed back to the little town.

As they emerged from the shade of the trees, Bill said, “I’m about talked out. Haven’t said this much since... well, yesterday.” He laughed. “It’s about 4:30 now. We’re going to have a little gathering tonight around 5:30 or six. Until then, feel free to do whatever you want. Wander around, talk to folks, it’s up to you. We’ll gather in the town center, ok?”

“Ok, Bill. I can go anywhere I want?”

“Sure, just don’t wander into anyone’s bedroom. That might be a big surprise.”

Terry chuckled and said,  “I’ll try not to do that. I’d be the most surprised one there.”

“Depends on the bedroom, I guess. I’ll see you in a hour or so.”

They crossed the gravel perimeter lane and Bill turned right, heading towards the creek. Terry walked straight into town, feeling conspicuous and not quite at home. He realized this was the first time he had been left alone. He stepped into the little open area in the middle of Teeny Town. It wasn’t quite a town square, but he could tell that was the idea. The gravel was tightly packed and free of dust and debris. All four of the corner buildings had deep porches and at least a bench or two for sitting and talking, except for the church, which had a simple facade. Four broad wooden steps led up to a small porch painted battleship gray. Two large flower pots full of pansies adorned the entrance and framed the white double doors. The side held a row of simple double hung windows, no stained glass to be seen. The church’s only other mark of pride was that, in a town full of rustic brown buildings, the whole church was painted white, from the stone lower walls up to the galvanized metal roof.

On the opposite corner, the northwest, there was a more typical building. In fact, it was the mirror image of the tavern he had visited, which was on the northeast corner. Its porch was lined with benches, where the tavern had small round tables out front. There were no signs on any of the places, so Terry could only guess at what was inside, but the last building on the square had a vaguely official look about it that he couldn’t quite identify, but if he were to guess, he would have called it the town hall.

As he surveyed the square, a stout older lady with rosy cheeks and curly silver hair burst out of the double doors across from the tavern. She saw Terry standing there and waved vigorously in his direction.

“Hi!” The word was drawn out into about four syllables. “You must be Terry!” she said, trundling over to where he stood.

“Hello, ma’am,” Terry replied, shaking her hand with a little bow of his head. “Yes, ma’am. I’m Terry Shelton. I’m pleased to meet you.”

“I’m Eleanor Tate. Call me Ellie, please. I’ve heard so much about you,” she said, practically gushing over him.

“You have?”

“Oh, sure. It’s a very small town.” Ellie laughed at her own joke.

Teeny Town. Got it.
“Well, I hope it wasn’t all bad,” Terry said, joining in the fun.

Ellie threw her head back and cackled, a full belly laugh that had her entire body shaking. Terry caught a whiff of her breath and realized that she had either gotten an early start on the celebration, or she just liked to drink. From the visible blood vessels in her cheeks, he would have guessed the latter.

“Well, Terry. It was a pleasure to meet you. I have to finish up my work before the gathering starts.”

“Uh, Ellie, if you don’t mind me asking, what is it that you do?”

“Oh, not at all. I’m in charge of the records, over at town hall.”

“Oh, I see.”

“It’s boring, but somebody has to do it, right?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Well, I’ll see you in a little while. Go in and say hi to Aggie. She’s been saying nice things about you.” Ellie looked him up and down with a look that was approaching a leer. “I can see why.” She winked at him and pinched his cheek like a long lost aunt. She paused for one more look and scuttled over to the building he had guessed was the town hall.

Terry’s next guess was that the store must be the place Ellie had just left. He walked over, stepped up on the porch, and tentatively opened one of the broad French doors. Sure enough, Aggie was standing behind a polished wooden counter ten feet in from the front doors. The counter held a mechanical cash register that could have been easily 150 years old, and a row of large jars holding a variety of foods and other tidbits.

“Hello, Terry. Did Bill talk your ears off?” Aggie said, smiling at him.

Terry stepped inside and let the door close behind him. “Yes, ma’am. He did, but it was interesting, so I didn’t mind at all,” he replied, smiling in return. “I also met Sally. I think Bill said she’s your second daughter.”

“So I’ve heard, but I really don’t know where she came from. Maybe the stork brought her.”

Terry responded with a confused expression. “Uh...”

“Never mind. Old story... Anyway, I heard that you have met. She was in here earlier telling me all of your flaws.”

“I’m not surprised. She told me a handful too.”

“What about her? Did you see any flaws to tell? Here’s your chance to get even.”

“Except for her being mean as a rattlesnake, no. She seemed fine to me.”

“Seems like you figured her out. I don’t know where she gets it. We think she spent too much time training with her Uncle Kirk... or eating gunpowder; we’re not sure.” Aggie’s smile grew into a slightly evil grin, which infected Terry as well, until he realized it and felt sort of stupid for sharing this private moment with Sally’s mother.

“Terry, why don’t you wait out on the porch while I close the store? Then we can watch the setup for our gathering. Won’t be long now.”

“Ok, Mrs...” Terry said. “I just realized I never caught your last name.”

“We didn’t mention it. We were waiting to see what you decided. Until then, we thought it better to keep it a little mysterious. Anyway, it’s Carter. See you in few minutes.”

Terry turned and stepped out the front door, waving as he went. He was mildly shocked to see that the square had already changed. A group of people were setting up long picnic tables in rows across the open space, and younger kids were carrying a bunch of folding chairs, setting them in place on each side of the few tables without built in benches. Those were placed in a row along the tavern and church side of the square.

Terry decided to pitch in, and took two steps off the porch when a man with a huge mustache said, “No, no. It’s not your turn. Have a seat, Mr. Shelton.

Ok, that was a little creepy
, Terry thought. Everyone knew his name, and he only knew a bare handful of people. He went back to the porch and plopped down on the bench nearest the doors. He sat for a few minutes, watching all the activity, before the weight of all the changes started funneling through his mind, and his eyes began to stare blankly into the distance.

He vaguely noticed the footfall on the steps, when he heard, “Hey there, Lazybones. You just gonna sit while everyone else does all the work?”

His attention popped back to the moment and he looked up at Sally, standing there with a hand on her hip, which was jutting out in a fetching fashion. He was ready for her this time. “No. I was busy watching all the crying babies crawl by. They can’t even walk yet, but they can still scream your name.”

Sally seemed to approve of his response. She took three steps over and leaned on the rail in front of him. “They can also climb a rope ladder faster than you.”

“Well, sure they can, when they’re running from the Terror of Teeny Town.”

Sally was struggling to keep her face locked in a stern expression. “I could throw one out of the watch post, and they would still land on their feet.”

“Wow. Word really gets around in this place.”

“It’s all in who you know,” she said, smiling with impending victory.

“So far, almost everyone I know is related to you. They’re are such nice people. What happened to you?”

“Dropped on my head as a baby... twice.”

“That explains it. Were you climbing a rope ladder at the time?” Terry asked.

“No. I was putting the roof on the barn, with a hammer bigger than your head.”

“Well, at least it didn’t break any of your cute freckles when you fell.”

The smile fell away from her face as her mouth dropped open and her cheeks turned bright red. Insults, she could handle. Compliments were another thing altogether.

“Ok, well... you... have big feet,” she said, knowing it was weak.

Now Terry was grinning at her, amazed that his conversational victory came so easily. “All the better to run when I see you coming, my dear.”

“Don’t call me that. I’m not your dear! And I’m sure as hell not CUTE!”

“True, Sally. Cute doesn’t cover it.”

Her face found a deeper shade of red. She gave an audible huff, and strode angrily off the porch and across the square. Just before she disappeared around the corner of the church, Terry called, “See you later, Sally!” People pretending not to watch were smiling and whispering to each other.

He heard a shuffle over his shoulder. Aggie was standing in the doorway; he didn’t know how long she had been there.

“I see you two are getting along,” Aggie said, wearing a crooked smile.

“Famously.”

Aggie walked around him and sat down on the bench next to him.

“She’s not used to a challenge. She comes on so strong; it’s a rare thing when she doesn’t get her way.”

“I’m sure we could have traded insults all night. She’s really good at it.”

“Yes. Let’s blame her father for that trick, shall we?”

Terry looked in Aggie’s eyes and replied, “If you say so.” He smiled to let her know he was joking.

Aggie face turned red then, not unlike her daughter’s reaction. She even had freckles that showed when she blushed. “Hmmm. Can’t fool you, Mr. Shelton.”

“Can I ask? Was your hair ever red?”

“What do you think?”

Terry just kept smiling.

Aggie decided to change the subject. “Look there.” She pointed at the southern barn. “She always ends up there when something is bothering her.”

Terry could see Sally’s slim silhouette leaning against the back rail of the fighting platform on the barn roof. Maybe she wasn’t kidding about roofing the barn as a baby. She was looking south and pulling her fingers through her copper hair.

“I didn’t mean to bother her,” Terry said.

“Oh, I didn’t mean it like that. She just goes up there to think. It’s been her special spot since the first time she climbed it.”

“Ah. What does she think about?” Terry asked, mostly thinking out loud.

“Who knows? But if I had to guess, she spends a lot of time thinking about the world beyond our  little place here. We teach history, and she knows what was lost during the Breakdown.”

“Yeah, she probably knows better than I do. They don’t teach much history in town, either from before or after the Breakdown.”

“The word is that they only teach what they want you to know.”

“I figured that. I was lucky. My grandfather was kind of a bookworm. We spent hours listening to him read out loud, and then later, I was always getting in trouble for reading when I was supposed to be working.”

“Good for you, Terry. You can’t learn too much,” Aggie said thoughtfully.

“So far, every time I think I know something, it turns out I knew nothing, really.”

“That only gets worse, I’m afraid.”

“Great,” Terry said, applying a healthy dose of sarcasm.

Aggie smiled, “Well, it looks like they’re about ready...”

“Oh, I meant to ask. I wanted to help out, but a man told me it wasn’t my turn. What does that mean?” Terry asked.

“We have everyone divided into teams. The teams take turns with town functions. The teams have an unofficial competition to see who can throw the best gatherings. That’s one reason.”

“What’s the other reason?”

“You’ll see,” Aggie replied with a devilish grin. “Let’s go take our seats. Bill is here.”

Aggie led Terry across the square, which was rapidly filling with people. She showed him a chair at the center table in the row with actual chairs, rather than picnic benches. Bill gave him a nod, and placed a polished wooden box on the table. No one was seated yet. They hovered around the tables chatting in twenty different conversations. Terry stood behind his chair, smiling at everyone who looked his way.

Aggie leaned close to speak into his ear. “Get ready for a lot of hand shaking. Also, be sure to remember every single name. There’s a quiz afterwards.”

Terry looked shocked, and felt a surge of panic rise up.

Aggie leaned back in. “I was just kidding, Terry. Relax.”

Terry laughed softly at himself. He saw Bill look at Aggie, and she just shrugged in return, turning her head towards the barn.