9. Samantha
9
SAMANTHA
S am was just jotting down a few ideas after her last meeting when Captain Anderson opened the front door of the office, kicking the snow from his boots before stepping inside.
“Hi, Cap,” she said.
Captain Anderson kept asking her to just call him Erik, but that seemed incredibly disrespectful to Sam. So, she had settled on calling him Cap, and it seemed to be a good enough compromise for them both.
“Sam,” he said with a big smile, seating himself in the chair opposite her desk. “I hear you went above and beyond once again yesterday.”
“Wolf Cassidy,” she realized out loud. He must have said something.
The captain nodded.
“I can’t believe he got in touch with you,” she said, gratitude squeezing her heart. “With everything he has going on right now, that was really kind of him.”
“Well, you and your sister went out of your way to make him feel at home,” the captain said with a warm smile. “That instinct to serve is why I hired you, but I never would have asked you to sacrifice your personal time when you have so much on your own plate.”
Sam felt a burst of pleasure that the captain was happy with her. She spent so much time worrying that she was underqualified. It felt good to know that she was doing some things right, even if it was only painfully obvious things.
“One look at that big man with that little baby, and anyone with a heart would have wanted to help,” Sam said, shrugging but unable to keep the smile from her face.
“Well, I’m glad you were here,” Cap said. “And since you put in so many extra hours last night, you should head on out now.”
“Oh, no,” she said right away. “It was nothing. I was glad to help.”
“Get out of here,” Cap laughed. “Go do some Christmas shopping and pick up your sister. Have fun.”
She didn’t have any more meetings scheduled for the afternoon. And the idea of having a few minutes to shop for Amelia was actually really nice. Sam pretty much spent all her free time with her sister, and she had been trying to figure out whether she could buy something at the bookstore without Amelia noticing.
“Thank you so much,” she told him. “I really appreciate this.”
“From here on in, I expect you to let me know when you work late,” he told her sternly.
“Yes, sir,” she said, cleaning up her desk quickly.
“And thank you again for taking good care of one of our vets,” he said as she stood to get her coat.
“Thank you for this job,” she told him. She wanted to say more, but suddenly she had a lump in her throat.
“Get out of here,” he said gruffly, waving her on.
She bundled up and stepped outside into the cold, sunny afternoon. The air here was so sweet and clean compared to in the city. Sometimes she wondered if being here was going to add years to their lives.
Glancing at her watch, she realized that she had enough time to stop by the bookstore and still walk up to the elementary school and grab Amelia before she got on the bus.
Sam headed down Park Avenue, gazing into the shops as she went. There were new handmade Christmas mugs in the window of Locally Made, each one filled with a sprig of holly.
Wags to Riches, the dog groomer’s place had greenery around the window with little animal ornaments hung from it, and a sign announcing special hours around the holidays, which made Sam smile. Humans weren’t the only ones who wanted to look their best for special gatherings.
The beautifully knitted scarves and shawls in the window of Scandinavian Sundries looked so soft and warm that Sam was sorely tempted to stop in and take a look. But she knew that besides Amelia’s Christmas, she really needed to save all her pennies if she wanted to go back to school.
The owner noticed Sam peeking in the window and waved to her from where she was arranging a display of old-fashioned Christmas cards on a shelf that also held Polish pottery.
Sam waved back and kept walking.
“Hey, Sam,” someone called out from across the street.
“Hi, Holly,” Sam said with a smile as she spotted her new friend jogging across to greet her with an armload of bags from the local shops.
“I was just on my way back to work from a little shopping break,” Holly said with a smile of her own when she arrived in front of Sam.
“My boss just sent me to do the same,” Sam said.
“Isn’t it great to be able to get the things you need without getting in a car?” Holly asked. “Where are you headed?”
“The bookshop,” Sam told her.
“Oh, Sarah’s got some really nice things for Amelia,” Holly told her. “You’re going to have a blast over there. Tell Sarah I said hi.”
Holly gave her arm a quick squeeze and then jogged back across the street to head to Jolly Beans .
Sam kept walking with a warm, happy feeling in her chest. She and Amelia might be new here, but it felt good that they already knew a few people, and that town was starting to feel like home.
An hour later, she was walking north to the elementary school with a smile on her face.
There had been so many things in Sarah’s shop that Amelia would love that Sam had a hard time choosing just a few.
But she had managed to make her purchase and even drop the bag off at their apartment, tucking it away from prying eyes at the back of her closet before heading back out to the school.
The whole apartment had smelled amazing. Sam had started pulled pork in the crock pot this morning and it was clear that it was going to make a great dinner.
She called the school office on her walk up, to let them know she would be picking her sister up today, so she wouldn’t have to worry about catching her before she got on the bus.
Letting herself relax a little, now that her afternoon was under control, Sam looked around the tree-lined street. The homes up here near the elementary school were a little more spread out than the ones in town.
A man was setting up a snowman decoration in the front yard of a pretty stone colonial. Sam wondered whether she and Amelia might be decorating a front yard of their own one day.
Housing in town was expensive, but it didn’t hurt to daydream.
She pictured her sister making snow angels with a friend in her own front yard while Sam strung popcorn and seed balls to hang on the porch railings for the birds, and waving to the people they knew as they walked by.
Please let her make some good friends, Sam prayed inwardly.
Amelia was such a great kid. Sam knew from her own experience that the thought of having an episode in front of people probably made her feel embarrassed. Sam had gotten over it eventually, and was able to enjoy herself around her friends.
On the other hand, Sam had enjoyed the advantage of going to the same school her whole life. Most of her friends had known her long before the epilepsy. And Sam was also pretty outgoing and easy with people. Amelia had a quiet nature even before her diagnosis.
She’ll find friends, she told herself. She’s an amazing kid. It just might take her a little extra time.
Moments later, she found herself outside the elementary school along with a cluster of other parents and caregivers.
A lady with a toddler in a stroller smiled at Sam and she smiled back, wondering if it was weird to go up to her and introduce herself.
Sam was younger than most of the adults at pick-up, for obvious reasons. But this lady looked like she was still in her twenties.
The bell rang before she got up her nerve, and children in brightly colored coats and scarves began pouring out the front doors and filling the front lawn of the school with laughter.
Amelia was among the first out. When she caught sight of her sister, her face brightened up and she sprinted forward happily.
“You don’t have to work?” Amelia demanded breathlessly as she arrived in front of Sam.
“Nope,” Sam began.
But before she could explain why, she was interrupted by a little boy in a blue coat who came dashing across the lawn after Amelia.
“ Amelia ,” he yelled after her. “ Ameeeeeeelia .”
They both turned to him, and Sam could hardly hide her smile.
“Hi,” he said brightly to Sam as he reached them. “I’m Justin Cassidy. My dad is the sheriff. And you’re Amelia’s big sister. I made you a bookmark, Amelia.”
He had spoken so quickly and so enthusiastically that it took Sam a second to catch up.
“Nice to meet you, Justin,” Sam said as the boy thrust a bookmark with a crayon drawing of two smiling figures at Amelia.
“ Look, Amelia ,” Justin said excitedly as she took it. “That’s you, and that’s your sister.”
“Thank you,” Amelia said quietly.
Justin beamed and then dashed away to greet another child.
“He seems nice,” Sam said. “Did you have a fun day?”
Amelia nodded as she looked down at the bookmark.
Sam’s heart lifted a little in hope. Her sister had at least one friend already, even if she wasn’t making a lot of noise about it.
“So, what are we going to do now?” Amelia asked.
“Whatever you want,” Sam told her. “Within reason. What did you have in mind?”
“I don’t know,” Amelia said, frowning.
Sam instantly felt kind of bad. Did she really work so much that her little sister couldn’t think of a single fun thing a person could do after school?
“Do you want to get an ice cream?” Sam asked.
“I don’t know,” Amelia said, looking torn.
She did love ice cream, but they probably did that more often than they should since the shop was so close to the office. Maybe it didn’t feel like a special treat anymore.
“We could go window shopping,” Sam suggested. “Maybe see what they have at the toy store?”
She said a silent and probably hopeless prayer that her sister wouldn’t ask to go to the bookshop instead.
“Yeah,” Amelia said, not looking super excited about the toy store.
“How about the library?” Sam offered quickly, before her sister could think of the bookshop.
“We could get a book to read to the baby,” Amelia said excitedly, her whole body seeming to fill up with happiness at the idea.
Sam knew she should say no. But for some reason, she had been sort of wanting a reason to stop by Wolf’s place again too.
The captain is right, I do have a pretty good instinct. And it’s a sure thing that Wolf could use a hand.
“That’s a very nice idea,” Sam said. “After the library, maybe we can stop home and grab the dinner I made and bring it over.”
“Yes,” Amelia said. “Yes, yes, yes.”
She looked almost as pleased as little Justin had been a moment ago, and Sam felt a rush of gratitude to Wolf, baby Ezra, and the universe for giving her sister such joy.