Five
Craig
I’d over done it and now looked like an idiot.
My leg throbbed and my toes hurt. Turning and walking away from Rilee I had to hold my core tight to keep the bad-leg-waddle out of my step.
Holding so much tension did things to my back I’d regret later.
She’d said yes, but in the most hesitant ‘I’m humoring you’ way.
If she hadn’t seen the brace would she have said yes?
After that cup of coffee would she smile and pat me on the elbow like the rehab nurses handing me my discharge papers?
What had I been thinking? She hardly knew me. To her I was some strange guy she’d run into at the hardware store. To me she was the woman I couldn’t get out of my head. She made me crazy by doing nothing at all. Totally not her fault, I was just going nuts.
“Hey, you done?”
I was standing useless, like a cut log in a ditch, with the pull ropes limp in my hands.
“Yea, I’m done,” I admitted to the guy standing nearby.
Muscle spasms were tickling my butt and fiery tingles were starting to drip down into my foot.
I’d definitely done too much and was going to need to sit for a few hours.
I gathered my things and made my way to the truck before the pain got worse.
By the time I’d made it back to the house everyone was already gone.
They were all trying hard to give me space but I knew they’d wondered where I’d gone.
I sent a quick text to Kathy that I was back from the gym and sorry I missed everyone this morning.
Then I took a long hot shower. I avoided pulling out the shower chair, but just barely.
Bolting down a palm full of ibuprofen I grabbed a banana and glass of milk, sat down on the reclining part of the couch and turned on the TV.
Daytime TV is terrible and on demand streaming sucks when you don’t know what you want.
If you don’t know what you want, whatever you choose is guaranteed not to satisfy.
Around ten I clicked through an outdoor show.
Some southern guys were stalking turkeys in a western pine forest. The ponderosas were tall and straight and collections of undergrowth and fallen branches littered the ground.
There was also a lot of bark beetle kill, browned trees with dried needles.
Crunchy. Not a healthy forest, a fire trap just waiting for a lightning strike or some fool to drop a cigarette.
The pair of good old boys were whispering away about the birds they heard but hadn’t seen and totally ignoring the state of the forest around them. I couldn’t watch and clicked it off.
Shaking my leg out I walked around and rummaged through the fridge for some real food. Halfway through deciding between leftover chicken or pouring a bowl of mini wheats my phone rang.
“Craig Green.”
“This is Casper Logistics. We have an application here for a driver position and wondered if you could come down and talk with us tomorrow around two?”
An interview!
I’d applied to Casper months ago and they hadn’t responded to my follow-up calls. I’d written them off.
“I can do a two o’clock tomorrow,” I answered, trying to control the shake in my voice. Grabbing one of Darren’s math assignments stuck to the fridge I took down the appointment details on the back. Darren had a ton of A’s and wouldn’t miss this one.
“Sounds good. I will be there,” I finished before hanging up.
A job! And something in my skill set. Casper Logistics drove short haul deliveries, usually for small grocers.
The job required the ability to handle small streets and good navigation skills.
Finding your way over highways and city streets was a piece of cake after twisting logging roads. And they’d called me!
Taking a photo of the meeting details, I put the assignment back on the fridge and closed it.
I wasn’t hungry anymore. Instead, I needed to tell someone.
An interview and coffee, with someone other than Veronica.
I drove to the store. Midday, Kathy and Lukas would both be there.
I found Kathy in the office but no sign of Lukas, which was fine by me.
“I got a phone call,” I blurted before my sister could look up from her spreadsheet.
“A phone call, huh,” she muttered, finishing her keystrokes. My words sunk in when she saw the excitement in my eyes. “Oh. Great! Who from?” Maybe it was the broken‐down state of my life but she already knew what we were talking about, I really didn’t have a lot going on.
“Casper Logistics. I have an interview tomorrow afternoon.”
“An interview,” the sharpness in her eyes dulled.
Yeah, it was an interview, not a job offer, but she was still happy for me.
“They are a good company. We used to work with them.” ‘We’ always meant the Nursery.
Her and Lukas. “That’s great,” she repeated absently before adding, “Do you need any interview prep? We could go over sample questions, Lukas and I interview quite a few people.”
She and I had done this before. This wasn’t my first interview since the accident, though it had been a while since the last one.
I’m sure she meant well, but Kathy couldn’t help but point out we had moved into her area of expertise.
Need something cut down or nailed up, call Craig.
Need to talk to someone or put a report together, better get Kathy, Craig is going to make a mess of it.
We’d done the interview prep thing before which hadn’t helped employers look past the big ugly brace and cane in the room.
Most of my practice had been listening to Lukas talk about how to turn the accident into an asset, which it wasn’t. I really couldn’t take that again.
“I also got a date.”
Kathy choked on her own breath, coughing out, “A date?”
Yeah, a date, take that. Well just a cup of coffee, but some people call that a date, or they used to. Maybe Rilee Horner wouldn’t call it a date, but Kathy can. Especially if I told her it was a date. Anything to not talk about interview skills.
“Yeah. I’m going for coffee with a girl I met. Also tomorrow, but later.”
“Oh. Where did you meet her?” I had Kathy’s full attention now, her keyboard forgotten and her hands clasped in her lap.
“I ran into her at the gym this morning while I was doing PT.” That was plausible and true, and fully ignored the fact that she’d been running through my dreams for weeks. “We’ve run into each other a few times before,” I shrugged. “Guess we’ll see what happens.”
“Craig, that’s so great. Veronica really treated you like dirt at the end. You deserve someone nice.” Kathy added quickly, “She is nice right?”
What am I going to say to that? She likes to kick disabled kids for fun? She won’t leave when things are tough? “Yea, she’s nice. She does some work with kids in the community, I think. But I just met her,” I cautioned. “And it’s just a cup of coffee.”
“Who has a cup of coffee, it’s after lunch?” Lukas said behind me. “Craig, good to see you, can I get in the office?” Stepping out of the doorway I let Lukas through.
“Craig has a date tomorrow,” Kathy beamed. “And an interview.”
“With the same person?” Lukas asked.
Kathy laughed. It was her natural free flowing laugh which I hadn’t heard in a while.
The sound of it made the pit of my stomach hard.
She was counting on the interview and date more than I was.
“No silly,” Kathy chuckled. The sound was as startling to Lukas as to me.
I must weigh on my sister more than I realized.
“Seriously, a date and an interview tomorrow. When did all this happen?” Lukas continued.
“It’s just coffee, and the interview is a call back on an application from a couple months ago.”
Nodding thoughtfully Lukas said, “That is a good sign. That means they are really interested if it took them that long to get back to you. Do you need any interview practice? We’ve got some things going on but we could work in some time.”
“No no. We did that before, I remember.” Not going there with Lukas again.
“Well okay, if you change your mind in-” Lukas glanced at his watch, “the next four hours let me know.” Turning to Kathy he added, “Ulrich really is everything you said he’d be. I think the bonsai trees were a really good idea. We already sold one this morning before he got here.”
“Which tree?” I asked.
“What?” Lukas turned back to me absently.
Feeling dumb for repeating the question I answered, “Which bonsai tree was sold?”
Lukas shrugged, “I don’t know, one of the two‐gallon junipers.”
I pictured the grove in my head as I asked, “The lightning struck one or the, uh one perched on the rock?”
Looking at me as if he’d never seen me before Lukas rubbed at his chin. “I don’t know. You’d have to ask Ulrich. He’s out working on the bonsai display right now.”
“Who’s Ulrich?”
Kathy smiled her I’m-answering-my-child’s-question smile, which just reinforced that I’d been living in her house way too long. “Ulrich is the Bonsai Master we hired to curate our trees. He stopped in to look at our display and do some maintenance.”
A little tree master? What the heck was that?
“You like trees, Craig. Go talk to the guy.” Kathy said dismissing me. “I’m super excited about tomorrow for you.”
“Sure,” I agreed but was already wandering out to the back patio.
The bonsai display was as I’d left it, but the greenhouse door was open and a thin figure moved inside the opaque walls.
Looking around at the collection I searched for the pair of battered plants that had caught my eye before.
With a sigh I hadn’t known I was holding I found them.
The lightning blasted tree looked tidy, as if it had received a gentle hair styling.
The work emphasized the contrast of the live wood against the dead white structure, highlighting the tree’s struggle to survive.
A similar tidying up had occurred with the juniper growing atop the rock, drawing attention to the shape of the tree itself, that it was a tree, not just some stick wrapped around a rock.