Chapter 7
Anger was a funny thing.
It burned hot and bright like the sun for a short time, and then it seemed to dim and dull and peter out entirely. At least, that was how it felt to Bonnie as she sat alone in the kitchen of the house she was supposed to be sharing with Jeff and Leo.
Her anger had left almost as quickly as they had and now she was alone and sad.
She had completely made a mess of everything.
It was as though she had lost all control of herself and her world and had been freefalling from a terrible height only to hit the ground hard.
Her emotional bones were broken, and perhaps that was a good thing.
Sometimes a thing had to break to be remade new and better.
There was a gentle knock on the front door.
The last thing Bonnie wanted was company, but she got up and answered it anyway.
“Ah, you’re here,” Emily said. “I ran into Leo on his way into town.”
“Oh,” Bonnie said flatly. “Come in.”
She stepped aside and let Emily come in. They went to the kitchen and sat across the table from each other.
“I’m so sorry that your first full day here started like that,” Emily said kindly.
“I know what a shock all of this can be to your system. One moment you live in a built-up, orderly world, and the next you’re thrown into this chaos.
And this place is always chaotic. Sure, we’ve had a couple of weeks of quiet, but it never lasts. ”
She reached across the table and took Bonnie’s hands in hers.
“You know, when Felix came to me a couple of months ago and said he wanted to move into an apartment on his own, I think I had the same reaction you just had,” Emily admitted.
“I was livid and worried and confused. I kept thinking I must have done something to make him feel unwanted. Granted, our relationship wasn’t as solid and loving as yours is with Leo, but we still have a bond. ”
“I couldn’t see how Felix being on his own would be a good thing, and yet he’s surprised me,” Emily continued.
“He’s actually managed to be useful around town, doing odd jobs here and there.
He mostly looks after the apothecary below the apartment and makes sure that if Julie needs help, she has it. It’s good for him.”
“What are you trying to say?” Bonnie asked. “That I’ve been a fool? That hoping my godfather would want to live with me and my husband was a silly idea?”
“No,” Emily said, shaking her head. “Well, yes,” she amended her answer. “I’m sorry, but think how it must feel to be the extra person in a house. The one who is tolerated, not necessarily wanted.”
“But I do want him in my life,” Bonnie said.
“In your life, but he doesn’t want to be in your house,” Emily said. “How can you expect him to respect your wishes if you try to steamroll over his?”
There was a short moment of silence between them. Emily was right. How could Bonnie expect Uncle Leo to treat her with respect and understanding if she couldn’t manage to do the same for him?
“And Leo not being a gambler will help me with Felix to no end,” Emily said with a little chuckle.
“Leo hates gambling,” Bonnie said. “He always says he works too hard for his money to risk losing it. When he plays poker, it’s for chores and things like that.
His friends would always put the jobs their wives wanted done around the apartments on pieces of paper and whoever won could dole out the work to those who lost.”
Emily laughed. “I think Felix would love that.” She looked Bonnie in the eye. “Are you okay?”
Bonnie nodded. “I yelled at Jeff for taking Leo’s side though.”
“He should have known better,” Emily said. “I understand he went to the market with Anita?”
Bonnie nodded again.
“She’ll help him to work out a better way to disagree with you,” Emily said. “But you also have to help. You need to apologize to him when he gets home. He was right to support Leo’s decision.”
“I know,” Bonnie said. “I just don’t know what came over me. I’m not usually like this.”
“It’s probably nothing too dreadful,” Emily said reassuringly.
“You’re in a new place and you feel like you don’t have control over anything.
It’s only natural to try to hold onto something from your past. Leo is that something.
But you have to realize he’s not stepping out of your life by stepping out of your house.
He’s just giving you some space—and that’s not a bad thing. ”
“You’re right,” Bonnie said. “I’ve been such a fool.”
“Well, there’s nothing that fixes foolishness like some hard work,” Emily said. “So come on, put on your hat and let’s go.”
“Where are we going?” Bonnie asked, confused.
“Grace runs a bakery from her home, and she needs some help delivering her goods to the folks who order fresh bread and rolls and things,” Emily said brightly. “Since it’s the holidays, I volunteered to help, and I added you to the list too.”
“Oh, thanks,” Bonnie said with a chuckle. “But there’s so much to do here.”
Emily looked around. “Like what? Jeff is tidy. You can change the drapes another time. Come on. It’s good for you to get out and see the town. It’s your home, and it should feel like one to you. The better you know it, the more comfortable you’ll feel. Trust me on this.”
What could Bonnie do but go with Emily since she wasn’t taking no for an answer?
They walked the block or so to Grace’s house and found a man at the door with cardboard boxes piled up on the porch.
“Oh, thank goodness,” the man said.
“Morning, Hector,” Emily said brightly. “I brought Bonnie to help us get these out.”
Hector beamed. He had a friendly, boyish face, and he shook Bonnie’s hand happily, then spent a few minutes sorting out the orders and their delivery addresses, which were mostly, according to Emily, on the other side of the creek.
“You’ll have to use the footbridge,” Hector said. “Goodness, I hope you’re not afraid of things swaying and moving under you. I can’t do it. I’m too scared.” He chuckled.
“Can you swim?” Emily asked her.
Bonnie nodded. “Sure. I learned at a friend’s farm in their river.”
“Good. Then falling in the creek wouldn’t be too bad for you,” Emily said. “Hector, sadly, can’t swim.”
Hector nodded. “I would drown, and that bridge is more of a rope menace than a bridge.” He shook his head. “It’s terrible.”
“Okay, well, we’d better get going,” Emily said, taking a basket piled with boxes.
Bonnie did the same and soon they were walking down the street.
“He’s being melodramatic,” Emily said when they were far enough away that her voice wouldn’t carry. “The bridge isn’t that bad.”
When they reached it, Bonnie had to admit that she was right. The bridge was a typical rope one with slats of wood held in place and guide ropes on the sides. It was fine. Sure, it swayed, but she had a good head for heights, and the flowing water under her feet didn’t bother her at all.
Across the creek, the whole place was different. There were no houses, just blocks that looked like hastily built offices. There was a large building belching smoke and then the entrance to the mine itself.
“This was easier with the cart,” Emily said. “Most of these orders are the miners’ lunches, but we can leave them here at the office.” She directed Bonnie to one of the squat wooden buildings. There was a man behind a counter doing some paperwork. He looked up when they entered.
“Oh, the lunches,” he said. “You can put them on the table there.”
There was a table next to the door, and Bonnie and Emily set out the boxes in rows with the names of the folks who had ordered the food facing the front.
“Duncan, this is Bonnie,” Emily said when they were done. “She’s helping me today.”
“That’s great,” he said with little enthusiasm. “Is that all of them?” He pointed to the boxes. “We seem to be a few short.”
“No, we couldn’t carry them all at once,” Emily said with a sigh. “We’ll be back in a few minutes.”
They set off again.
“He wasn’t pleasant,” Bonnie said.
“He never is,” Emily said.
“Why do we have to bring the miners their lunch?” Bonnie asked.
“They don’t have a long time to eat, and the mine is quite large now. They don’t want to walk all the way to Grace’s house and then all the way back. They would run out of time,” Emily said. “Their break isn’t that long.”
They made three more trips before it was done, and during that time, Bonnie found out a lot about the town called Unity.
Although it was made up of different groups of people, the folks in the town were all committed to one goal—turning their little town into a flourishing city.
To that end, they worked together despite any disagreements and still managed to have smiles on their faces.
It was a breath of fresh air in comparison to the troublesome, negative place her home in Brooklyn had become before she left.
Bonnie was glad that she had decided to head out into the town with Emily and get to know it. She was right about a lot of things. Bonnie had felt that she had lost control of her life, and that was a terrible feeling she hadn’t been aware of at the time.
Now that she’d seen it, somehow it seemed to have lost its hold on her.
She hadn’t lost control of her life; she had changed the parameters, and that was all.
Her scope was larger, the possibilities almost endless.
And instead of being afraid, she should be happy and excited. That would most likely come.
Of course, it would all depend on whether she and Jeff could patch up their relationship after their disagreement.
When she was done helping Emily, she decided to head on home and wait.
It was late afternoon when Jeff came back, saddlebags bulging, slung over his shoulder.
“Hi,” he said a little sheepishly.
Bonnie sat on the porch sewing. She had found several shirts piled on a chair in his room, all missing several buttons. She had brought her sewing kit, and it was easy to match the buttons she had with her well enough to fix his shirts.
She looked up and smiled at him. “Hi,” she said. “Where is the horse?”
“Back at Anita and Kevin’s,” he said.
She nodded. “How was the market?”
“Busy,” he said, walking up the path to her. “How was your day?”
Bonnie bit her lip. There was a lot to tell him, but she didn’t want to blurt it all out in the front yard. There were folks walking by, and surely something like a heartfelt apology should be said in private.
“Why don’t we go inside? I bought some things from Grace, and we have lemonade and some cookies now. Would you like some?” she asked.
Jeff nodded. “I got almost everything on the list,” he said as he opened the door for her and let her walk inside first.
Bonnie had gathered his shirts up in her arms since she couldn’t find a laundry basket, and he seemed to only see them now.
“Are those mine?” he asked.
“Well, I would hate to think that you had piled someone else’s shirts high on a chair in your room,” she said with a chuckle.
And then, realizing that she had invaded his privacy, she quickly added, “I was starting the laundry, and I thought I would do yours too. I’m sorry I went into your room. I promise I didn’t snoop.”
Jeff frowned at her as he put the saddlebags on the kitchen table. “I don’t mind,” he said. “There’s nothing in my room you can’t see.”
“Oh, all right then,” she said, relieved. “I don’t feel so bad.”
She poured them lemonade, kept in the cool cellar under the kitchen. Then she put out chocolate chip cookies on a plate, and Jeff took one.
She had to say it now, or she never would.
“Jeff, I’m so sorry,” Bonnie said. “I was being silly earlier. You were right. Leo is an adult, and I can’t try to force him to do something he doesn’t want to do.”
“No, you shouldn’t be apologizing to me,” Jeff said. “I should be saying sorry to you. I didn’t realize that I was being a pigheaded, insensitive fool. Those were Anita’s words, by the way. I didn’t realize that I was dismissing your feelings. I’m sorry.”
They stared at each other.
“We’re both sorry,” Bonnie said and chuckled. “It’s quite ridiculous, isn’t it?”
“It is that the first day we’re together in town, we’re fighting,” Jeff said. “I never meant for that to happen.”
“Me neither,” Bonnie said. “But I think it showed us something we needed to see.”
“And that is?” Jeff asked.
“That we have a lot of work to do on how we communicate with each other,” Bonnie said.
“It wasn’t fair of me to expect you to understand how I was feeling when I didn’t tell you anything about it.
And it wasn’t fair of you not to listen to the full story of what was going on and just to go ahead and pick a side. ”
“Agreed,” Jeff said. He took her hand in his. “I promise to listen to you.”
“I promise to listen to you too,” Bonnie said.
Jeff smiled and bit into a cookie. He made a happy noise. “These are delicious.”
“I’m glad you like them,” Bonnie said, smiling in return.
“Okay, now, here are the things you asked for from the market,” Jeff said, pulling the saddlebags towards them. “I managed to get almost everything.”
Opening the bags, Bonnie took out a bunch of carrots, a string of onions, some gem squash, apples, a small bag of rice, and some other bits and bobs that she’d asked for. All he hadn’t been able to get were the tomatoes.
“They aren’t ripe,” he said. “But Mr. Pike assured me that they will be next week and then no problem. He’ll bring them to us.”
“Great,” Bonnie said, beaming. “Thanks, now I can make an actual dinner.”
She got started, and Jeff helped. As they worked together making a stew with rice, they talked about their day.
Bonnie told Jeff how she had worked with Emily that day, delivering orders for Grace and Hector and how wonderful she thought the town was.
In turn, he told her all about the market and the farmers.
Soon the dinner was ready.
They were just about to sit down to have their meal when there was a knock on the door.
“Oh, who could that be?” Bonnie asked.
“I’ll go see,” Jeff said. He walked off into the entrance hall and, a moment later, Bonnie heard an excited voice speaking loudly.
“We’ve done it, Jeff,” the voice, which sounded like Michael’s, said. “We’ve finally found El Aguila.”