32. Where’s Your Stuff?
THIRTY-TWO
Where’s Your Stuff?
TARA
Tara and John made quick work of unloading the groceries into Steve’s apartment. It wasn’t a ton, but John wouldn’t go hungry either. He was an eighteen-year-old young man with an appetite and, apparently, a fast rate of metabolism given his slender stature.
She closed the cabinet above the counter in the galley kitchen for the last time with a bit of satisfaction. “I think you’re all set now.”
“Yeah.” John wrung his hands together. “Uh... thanks. You’re really nice.”
Tara tilted her head toward the hallway. “So, all your stuff’s in the other bedroom?”
John switched his weight back and forth from one foot to the other. “Nah. I’m sleeping on the couch.” He gestured toward the backpack and duffle in the corner. “My stuff’s over there.”
“Where’s the rest of your stuff? Your clothes? Your... your stuff?”
“That’s all I could grab last night.”
“Son of a...” Tara caught herself before she let that thought fly. For John’s sake, she had to do better.
“That’s what Steve said.”
Turning resolute, Tara met John’s gaze. “Is your dad home now?”
John furrowed his brow in confusion. “Probably not. He usually works during the day.”
“Do you still have your keys?”
“Well, yeah. But why?”
She slung her purse over her shoulder. “Come on. Let’s get your stuff.”
“You’ll help me?”
“Of course.” Tara motioned toward the door. “Let’s go.”
Tara pulled up in front of John’s dad's house but didn’t cut the engine. She craned her neck to see if they could see anyone inside. “See anybody?”
“Nope.”
“Okay, then.” She pulled into the driveway. “Let’s go.”
John jumped out of the car and jogged up to the house to plug in the code that would open the garage door. To their delight, it worked. They stood by as the door opened, but as it raised up, John’s smile sank into a frown.
“Is that...?” Tara asked about the boxes filled with clothing and electronics and other things a high school or college-aged boy would possess.
“All my stuff? Yeah.”
They were already marked for goodwill. John wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. “He’s erasing me.”
Tara’s heart broke. She didn’t know his parents, but she already knew she couldn’t stand them. John’s world was collapsing, so she had to come up with an idea to hold him together.
She turned back and faced him. Grabbing his arms, she put on as determined an expression as she could. “Here’s what we’re going to do. John?”
He was still staring at the boxes of all his belongings. “Look at me, John.”
He met her gaze. “We’re going to start by taking whatever we can fit into my car, alright?”
“Okay.”
“And then we’re going to drive to my house and get my mom’s SUV and fill that up, too, okay?”
She smirked. “This is your chance to redraw yourself. But I need your help. Two sets of hands should make quick work of this, don’t you think?”
He finally smiled. “I can do this.”
“Yes, you can.” She turned to the boxes. “This is our show. Where do we start?”
John took a little bit to peek inside the boxes to see what was what. He set aside a couple of boxes with clothes and his game system. “Okay. We can start with these. But I need to run inside first. I’ll be right back.”
Tara went to work loading her car. John came back into the garage just as she finished loading the last one. He carried a laundry bag in one hand and a handful of video games in the other.
“I emptied my bathroom out and grabbed a couple of towels.” He shoved it all in the backseat. “Is there room for more?”
“A little bit.”
He snagged one more box and set it inside her trunk.
Tara sat back down in the driver’s seat and started the engine. “Now let’s get Mom’s SUV.”
They left Tara’s car in her parents’ garage which was just a few blocks away, and returned with her mom’s oversized SUV. Her mom loved having a car they could use for the whole family, even if they were all adults. On those rare occasions when they were all in the same place, Helen enjoyed being able to go out for a meal with her husband and four kids.
Tara grinned as they arrived for the second time. “There’s still a lot of stuff left, but we should be able to get a fair amount loaded inside the Bailey family transport.”
“I don’t need everything. But now at least, I won’t have to start from scratch. Now I’ll have to figure out where to put everything.”
“That’s easy,” Tara said as she picked up the first box John pointed to. “We have extra storage rooms behind the shop.” She grunted as she pushed the box of bedding as far forward as she could. John followed by adding a box of books right behind it. “Let’s unload this back at the shop and return for the rest.”
“Sounds good.” Despite his face being covered with cuts and bruises, not to mention his bandaged wrist, John’s personality was coming alive. Just having a bit of control over his life, even if it meant reclaiming a few boxes full of stuff, made him smile.
“One more trip and I should be good to go.”
They dropped everything off in an unused office below the grand staircase behind the bookshop. When they returned, his dad’s tow truck was parked outside on the street. Tara stopped a few houses away but still close enough to see John’s dad accepting money from a man with a large pickup truck. The rest of John’s belongings were already sitting in the bed of the pickup.
“He’s selling my stuff.”
“I’m sorry, John.”
“I mean, he’s been on my case for a while now, so I guess it’s not a surprise, is it?”
Tara pressed the accelerator and slowly drove on by.
They made the switch back to Tara’s car and unloaded the last of what he was able to claim from his former life into the storage room she designated for John’s belongings.
“You’re redrawing yourself, remember.”
“Yeah. I suppose.”
“Hey!” She gave a gentle backhand to his upper arm. “Do you have a job at the moment?”
“I don’t got a job.” He huffed out a sigh, and his shoulders slumped. “No.”
“You want one?”
His head popped up. “Obviously, but I can’t get a job when my face is all beat up.”
Tara ignored the reference to being beaten up. She’d assumed he was injured in his car accident. “Yes, you can.” Tara leaned against the wall outside the door of the spare room, now being used for John’s storage. She pulled an extra key off a large key ring and offered it to John. “Here’s a key to this office so you can get to your stuff whenever you need. In the meantime, we need help clearing out some of these offices to get them ready for new tenants. Mom talked about hiring a cleaning crew to do the work, but if you’re interested, you could do it. It would be like a temp job, but we could use the help.”
“Yeah! I’m interested.” He rushed forward and gave her a hug. “Thanks, Tara!”
Tara laughed as she happily returned the hug. “You’re welcome!”