Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
Bea
“It’s takin’ forever,” Devo said as we stood half an acre away and looked at her framed and soon-to-be-drywalled house. The roof was next to go up, and the windows and doors would be delivered later in the week.
“I know it may seem like a long, chaotic process,” I said, “but this is what Brand’s really good at. He can manage the shit out of simultaneous builds. Actually, I think he thrives on the chaos.”
“Oh, I know he’s bustin’ his butt for us. I didn’t mean it that way. It’s just that this will be my home with my wife , after we tie the knot anyway, and I’m so ready to live out here with her.”
“Home is where the heart is,” I said.
“Yeah.”
Devo gazed out at the view as we took in the land and the blue morning sky high above us. An eagle soared in the distance. It screeched, and then we watched it dip and descend into the trees, probably to eat a mouse or something.
“So,” she said, “if Brand’s the chaos coordinator, what’s your job?”
“I’m the dipshit director.”
She laughed. “Huh?”
“I boss the crews around, make sure they’re doin’ what they’re supposed to. I take all the supplies Brand brings us and direct my guys so all those supplies turn into houses.”
“That sounds kinda fun.”
“I love it.”
She turned to face me, shading her eyes with her hand and squinting against the sun’s glare. “You single?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Just curious. You seem like a pretty rad person. I was just wonderin’ if anybody’s figured that out yet.”
“Ha!”
“What?” she asked when I barked my laugh in her face.
“No, I don’t think so. I used to have a husband, but he never got wise.”
“That why he’s not your husband anymore?”
“No, it’s ’cause I murdered him in his sleep.”
I fixed my hands on my hips and cocked my head to the side. Devo squeaked and covered her mouth with her hand.
“Kiddin’! Jeez. Do I look like a murderer?”
She scanned me up and down. “I’m not sure. I think you’re too short to do any real damage, but I like you.” She laughed. “Where you from? Your twang is a little twangier than we usually hear around here.”
“Appalachia. The mountains and valleys of the majestic state of North Carolina.”
“Ah, that explains it.”
“The town I’m from, Mays Hollow, isn’t much bigger than Wisper.”
“I bet it’s pretty this time of year.”
“Oh yeah,” I said, picturing my childhood home and the surrounding fall foliage that would be peaking right now. I could hear the babbling brooks and see the stones beneath the slow water, glittering in the sun as orange and yellow leaves danced and floated down the streams.
Memories of those rivers and trees were really all I had left of my home.
I took a deep breath, forcing myself to see the beauty in front of me in the moment. Western Wyoming was no wilting daisy. There was a lot here I could see myself getting used to.
“It’s gorgeous here, though.”
“Yeah,” Devo said, bending to pick a purple wildflower from the meadow we stood at the edge of.
The fields seemed to go on forever in the distance. They swayed lazily in the autumn breeze, all the blades of grass and flowers flowing in one direction, but then the wind would shift, and they’d sway back the other way.
Aspen trees glittered like gold at the edges of the meadows.
The white and black trunks reminded me of wood elves, standing guard beneath the gilded canopies so winter wouldn’t come to steal the gold too soon.
The evergreens sprinkled throughout the aspen groves stood like blue-green soldiers sent to protect and defend the elves and their forests’ bounties.
And the mountains? The Tetons had to be female, if mountains could claim a gender, because I’d never seen anything more terrifyingly beautiful and commanding.
“Well,” Devo said, “guess I’d better get to work. Can I drop you somewhere on the way?”
“Yeah, thanks. I’ll just have you drop me back at Bax’s house, if you don’t mind. My truck’s there. The crews won’t be here till tomorrow. Brand gave ’em a few days off so I could get my bearings, so today, my to-do list consists of findin’ a hardware store.”
She nodded. “You’ll wanna head to Jackson for that. Bob over at the feed shop sells some of that stuff, but I’m guessin’ you’ll have more specific hardware needs than he can provide.”
“Actually, today I just need road reflectors and some solar garden lights.”
“Oh, perfect. Bob will have those for sure. You can follow me. I drive right by there on my way to the community center.”
“Cool,” I said as she turned, and I followed her back to her truck. “So what do you do at the community center?”
“Lots of things. I’m the assistant director, which basically means I do everything.
There’s a lot of management to my job, but I also work with the community on different projects.
We offer education and employment services, and we do a lot of outreach and fundraisers and things like that, but the best part of my job is bein’ there for people when they need a helpin’ hand or guidance or they just need someone to talk to. ”
“That sounds awesome, and like you work your tail to the bone.”
She laughed. “Yup. Every day, all day, but it’s worth it.”
“You and Abey both work in town. Why didn’t you build your house there?”
“Oh, ’cause this is our dream. Abey grew up on this land.
She loves it and her family, and we’re startin’ a community garden out here.
See there?” She stopped and turned to point to a plot of land beside her future house, where I now noticed rows of small plants growing.
“That’s where we started. It’s our first growin’ season.
Right now, we only have carrots, onions, radish, and some squash, but we’ve got big plans for next year.
” She smiled with so much pride, I felt it inside my own chest. “Abey left some of the spoils in your fridge in the cabin before you arrived. Hope you like veggies.”
“Thanks,” I said, feeling like the kindness I’d experienced in the last twenty-four hours since I’d hit the Wisper town limits would soften me to the point of crying, or at the very least, make me reluctant to yell at people as much as I normally did.
“Where’s the grocery store? I’ll get some noodles and chicken stock and make soup. ”
Bob’s Feed and Tack, a dusty little store on the outskirts of Wisper, owned by Bob himself, whom I met along with his wife, Linda, sold everything but the kitchen sink, including but not limited to hay, horse/sheep/cow tack and feed, cowboy hats, plastic wading pools filled with baby chicks, jerky of all varieties, and WD-40.
If you needed to stop somewhere to pick something up real quick on your way home, no matter what it was, chances were Bob had it.
Or he could get it, and he’d send Linda to deliver it to your house for a small fee.
Bax had asked to tag along. He said he needed to pick up a few things from the grocery store and put in an order at the feed store, but when Bob and Linda fawned over him as we entered, I would’ve bet my favorite tape measure he regretted the decision.
“Bax,” Linda said in a pitifully sweet voice. “How are you, honey? How are you and Athena holdin’ up?” She patted his shoulder over the checkout counter when we stopped to ask if they had road reflectors, her big, teased gray hair bouncing with the movement.
“We’re good, Linda. Thanks for askin’. This is Bea. She’s workin’ for Brand on the new cabins out at my place.”
“Nice to meet ya,” Bob said, offering his hand. I shook it while Linda offered a “Welcome, hon.”
“You too. Thanks.”
“Bob,” Bax said, pulling a crumpled ball of paper from his pocket. “I’ve got an order for you.”
Bob took the paper and smoothed it out over the counter. He read it and said, “Some of this stuff won’t be here till tomorrow. We’ll get it all ready for you when it comes in, and Linda can deliver it.”
“Thanks,” Bax said. “Sounds good. You should have a card on file for us.”
Linda focused her eyes on Bax’s cast. “You poor thing. I’ve been meanin’ to get out to your place to bring y’all some food.”
“Thank you, Linda. That’s very kind of you, but I promise, we’re okay.”
“Nonsense,” Linda went on. “Big man like you, raisin’ a daughter on his own no less? I’ll make up some casseroles and bring ’em out tomorrow when I deliver your order. You can freeze them…”
She droned on and on, and the more she babied him, the tighter Bax’s hands gripped his crutches’ handles, so I hurried to the aisle Bob had said I’d find the reflectors in, grabbed every last one they had, and rushed them up to the counter.
“Girl, you sure you need all these?” Bob asked when I plopped the open box and the second unopened box in front of him.
“Yes, sir,” I said. “Ring ’em up.”
It seemed glaringly obvious to me that Bob’s and Linda’s concern made Bax uncomfortable, but they hadn’t caught on.
He was polite and kind to them, and he answered their questions the best he could, but he kept tossing glances my way, hoping I could help him somehow get out of the awkward conversation.
I pointed behind Bob to a poster hung on the wall of a landscaped backyard that had been lit up with solar pathway lights. “You got those?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said “Just came in.”
“They come eight in a box?”
“Yup, as is standard.”
“I’ll take six boxes, please.”
“Six?”
“Yes, sir,” I told Bob. To Bax, I said, “ Sweetie , why don’t you go ahead and wait in the truck while I check out.
” I tried really hard not to laugh because the look of surprise on Bax’s face was priceless, and I had a feeling he was having a hard time not laughing, too, when I called him Sweetie.
“I’ll only be a minute, babe, and then we can swing by the grocery on our way home and pick somethin’ up for dinner. ”
But it shut Bob and Linda up.
Like a good boy, Bax crutched himself out to my truck after he thanked them, told them how nice it was to see them again, and promised to say hi to his mama for them.
I watched him go, fixing my eyes on his ass in an appreciative manner and then turned back to Bob, who was now blushing, and miss Linda seemed to have lost her voice.
I used my company card and bought the lot and then skedaddled right on out of Bob’s Feed and Tack.
I dumped my bags in my truck bed, and then Bob and Linda crowded together in the doorway to watch us go as I reversed out of their parking lot.
Bax waved and smiled at them through his open window, but as soon as we hit the highway, he let out a wild, “Yeehaw!” and slapped his good thigh with the flat of his hand.
He whooped it up for a minute, laughing and stomping his foot on my floorboard.
“Watch it! Your big boot’s gonna poke a hole in my truck.”
“That was so much fun!” He chuckled and relaxed back in his seat, tossing out directions as I drove.
When I parked and shut off my truck in front of the Food Mart in town, I asked, “Is it like that all the time?”
He sighed. “Pretty much.”
“That sucks.”
“Yeah, I mean, it’s nice people care, but it’s been three years since my wife died. And what the hell did Linda mean? ‘Big man like you all alone?’”
“I know, right? Men can’t boil a pot of water for macaroni?”
“Hey now, I make a mean steak, and I can cook you up the best spaghetti and meatballs you ever ate. The secret is pork ribs. You gotta let them flavor the sauce while it cooks down, and I serve it with a boiled egg. Well, I could make it for you if I could stand on my own two feet.” He eyed me cautiously.
“You know the whole town’s gonna think we’re together now. ”
“Yeah, I’m from a small town too. I know how it works, but gossip’s better than people feelin’ sorry for you.”
“You ain’t lyin’. C’mon, let’s get the shoppin’ done. The grocery store is worse. I guarantee you we’ll see at least five people I know in there. Best just to get it out of the way.”