A Simple Life: Chapter 121 (Patreon)

As we eat and chat I notice the color return to Grandpa’s face and the sweat dry.  He was breathing easier again and looked as well as he had when I left him this morning but his moment of frailty still had me shook.

“Well, I gotta get going.”  Briar says after looking at the time.  “Meadow gets cranky when I’m late to the lab.”

“Meadow?”  Grandpa asks.

“Only my best friend on the island.”  Briar laughs.  “Besides Kayla.  And Avery of course.  Oh and Winnie too.”

“Don’t forget C-Cain and Riley.”  I say.

“Oh yes, they’re great too.”

“The most popular girl on campus!”  Grandpa says.

“HA!”  She snorts.  “Yeah right.”

“Well you can count me among that number.”  Grandpa offers a hand and they shake.  “It was great to meet you Briar.”

“You too, Mike!”  She stands and brushes herself off.  “It was great seeing you Avery.”

“You too.  And I’ll s-see what I c-can do about getting another game going.”  I wink.  "I’ve got some p-pull with the Fable Master.”

“Putting that 100 Charm to work?”  She giggles.  “Okay, see ya!”

Once her pack was slung she trots off back toward the building I met her.

“I’m thinking someone else has got to get going.”  Grandpa glances at his watch.  “You’re going to be late, Buttercup.”

“I’ve got a little more time.”  I say, even though I didn’t.  I get up and start to fold down his stool and keyboard stand.  “You take a c-c-cab today?”

“Yep.”  With Briar gone he immediately pulls a smoke from his pocket and lights it up.  As I hurriedly pack his stuff up he takes a draw and lets out a big cloud of stinky smoke.  “Avery…”

“Come on.”  I say.  “I’ll w-walk with you to the cab stand.”

“Avery.”  He says again, this time as he stands up.  In an instant I am at his side helping him to his feet.  With a warm Grandpa smile he pats my shoulder.  “Thank you.”  He looks me in the eyes.  “I’m okay, Avery.”

“You sc-scared me there.”

“I know.”  He says.  “I’ll take it slower next time.  It’s easy to forget sometimes that I…”  A hacking cough interrupts the thought.  I give him water, which he takes gratefully, then says.  “I’ll be more careful.  I promise.”

“You better.”  I warn.  “You heard W-Winona.  I’m a straight up b-bad ass.  I’ll k-kick your butt!”

“Ha!”  He laughs and pulls me into a hug.  “Well I wouldn’t want that!”  Pulling back he cups my cheek in his free hand.  “Now get going!  I know you’re running late.”

“Let me help you to the stand.”

He takes a breath and looks around the greenery and at the old stone chapel.  “I think I might just hang out here for a bit longer.”  After another long breath he says.  “We should go camping again.  We haven’t done that in a while.  One more time.”  He slowly nods.  “Yeah.  That would be nice.”

“One more…?  Oh Grandpa!”

“I shouldn’t have put it that way.”  He pulls me back into a hug.  “I’m sorry, Buttercup.”

“I’ll go c-camping w-with you.  Anytime you w-w-want.”

“We’ll talk about it.”  He kisses my cheek.  “Okay?”

“Okay.”

“You okay?”

“I’m ok-kay.”  I sigh.  “This is r-really tough.”

“I know, my boy.”

“I c-can stop by tonight.”

“Nah.  I heard you were heading up to your girlie’s place after work.”  He chuckles.  “I guarantee you’ll have a better time there.”

The quip makes me smile.  “Girlie!?  D-Don’t let her hear you s-say that.  Unlike me she’s an actual bad ass!”  As he laughs, looking for all the world to be right as rain again, I look at him.  “You sure you’re okay?”

“Groovy, daddio.”

I hesitate a moment longer before giving him a nod.  “Okay.  See ya soon.”

“Count on it.”

Taking comfort in his words as well as his healthy pallor I smile then turn and take off running in the same direction Briar had.  I zip through the campus back to my dirt bike then rip my way back to work as fast as I safely could.  As I come storming through the back door of the store Brenda sticks a head out of her office.

“Avery.”  She warns.  “I know you’ve got a girlfriend now, but…”

“Sorry!  S-Sorry!”  I wave to her on my way to the staff room to grab my apron.  “W-Won’t happen again!”

Flustered, out of breath and sweaty I start the second half of my shift but soon I settle into the humdrum of routine.  With Grandpa foremost on my mind and the anticipation of seeing Winona after work a very close second my thoughts were able to escape the circular spirals of thinking about my birth father that preoccupied the morning.  Thank goodness!

The afternoon was passing by like any other until a familiar voice, low and somber, interrupts my stocking.

“Hey Avery.”

I turn around.  “Josh!”

With a bush of scraggly dark hair beneath a black wool cap and a thick mustache, wearing his signature dirty jeans and flannel shirt of course, the middle Beckett brother looked more lumberjack than truck driver.  Of the four of us he looked the most like our dad, and was also the one who took Dad leaving the hardest.  Remembering the last time one of my brothers popped by to see me at work I am instinctively on the defensive, but right away I could tell something was different.  Josh’s normally hard steel blue eyes, which were a rare sight as he always wore shades, looked somehow…softer today.

“Hey.”  He says as he holds his ground two paces away.  I make no move to step in as Joshua always liked his space.  As I found his size intimidating that was okay by me.  He takes a breath and swallows, then says in his usual blunt way.  “I just heard about Grandpa’s cancer.”

“Oh!  Uh…yeah.”  I say softly.  “M-Mom t-told you?”

“Yeah.”  He says.  We stand silent for a moment as he struggles with what to say next.  “This fuckin sucks.”

“Yeah.”  I say.  

“How’s he doing?”

“Good.  He g-gets tired easy though.”  I say.  “He’s b-being r-really brave about it.  I wish I c-could be.”

“You’re his boy.”  He says.  “Fuck.  This has gotta be killing you, man.  If you need anything or whatever, well…ya know.  The usual.”

“Oh, uhhh, you t-too.”

“Yeah.  Actually…”  He blows a long breath, his fists clenched at his sides as he summons his courage.  My middle brother was usually a brick wall emotionally but right now he seemed downright vulnerable.  I’d never seen him like this before!  I wasn’t the only one being effected by the big family news.  “…there is something.”

“Wh-Wh-What is it?”

“Could you just…tell him…”  He sighs.  “Just tell him that I’m still going to that shrink and, uh, and tell him…thanks.  Okay?”

“Shrink?  You!?”  He couldn’t have shocked me more had he said that he’d just been elected president.

Scratching the back of his head and shifting his weight from foot to foot Josh was getting increasingly uncomfortable as the conversation went on.  “Yeah.  He paid for some sessions with this therapist guy and…I dunno, I kind of stuck with it.  I think he’s helping, I dunno, work through some shit.”

When Grandpa paid for my sessions he never said a word about also trying to help Joshua.  But, as I thought about it, Josh  being the private kind of person that he was I shouldn’t be surprised.  Grandpa would never have betrayed Josh’s trust by blabbing about his mental health.  Wow.  That was so cool!

“Wh-Why d-don’t you tell him thank you y-yourself?”

“I will.”  He says.  “I keep meaning to stop in but…we’re not really close like you two.  Just tell him for me?”

“S-Sure, Josh.  Of c-course.”

He nods, seemingly satisfied that he’d gotten off his chest what he’d come to do.  “Mom and Chris are trying to make a big deal out of the boat.  You know that?”

“I know.”  I whisper.

“Don’t let her get to you.  She’s going through some things.  They’ve been hitting it hard lately.”

“Yeah.”

“Listen, Avery.  If Grandpa wants you to have it I got your back, brother.”  He says.  “Paige too.”

“Paige?”

“I was just talking to her.”  He said.  “She said she was going to call you.”

“Oh, my phone’s b-back in the staff r-room”

“Yeah, well.  We’re happier knowing that one of us has Bella.  Doesn’t seem right to sell her.  Mom’ll come around, Avery.  Don’t worry.”

“Oh!”  Geez!  He was bringing a tear to my eye!  “Th-Thank you.”

“Hey.”  He steps in and gives me a little supportive punch to the shoulder then steps right back again to a safe distance.  “You wanted to talk.  I think I got some things to say to you too.  Been a minute since we really caught up.  We still gettin together?”

“Oh, yeah.”  I say.  “I-I’d like that.  Tomorrow?”

“Perfect.  Call me.  Anytime after 6.”  Taking another backward step he thumbs behind him.  “I gotta go.  I’m technically on a run.”

“Oh, sure.  S-Sure Josh.”

“You’ll tell Grandpa?”

“Yeah.  F-For sure.”  I say.  “Hey, it w-was…it was g-great to see you.”

His dark mustache rises in the closest approximation of a smile that his mouth ever got.  “You too.”

Pulling a pair of Oakleys from his breast pocket he slips them on then turns and walks down the aisle before disappearing when he turns the corner.  I stand there a moment just staring in the direction he disappeared.  Huh.  Just when you thought you had your family all figured out.

After work I check in briefly on Grandpa, who I find chilling and watching an old movie.  He gives me some good natured grief about wasting my time checking on him, but in his eyes I could see that he appreciated it.  I pass on Josh’s message, which lifts his heart to hear, before I am chased off of the Bella so that I could go spend my night with Winona.

When I return home to get ready for my evening I find Brayden was out, I hoped with that tattooed girl from the pet store, so putting my phone to speaker I return my sister’s long distance call as I hurriedly readied myself as well as gathered more overnight supplies in the hopes I wouldn’t be sleeping in my own bed.  Paige wasn’t nearly as behind the keeping Bella idea as Josh made it seem.  I’m not sure if Mom had gotten to her or if she’d simply misled Josh in the first place, with Paige you could just never tell.  Thankfully we don’t dwell on that topic for long.  In fact we don’t dwell on anything for too long as I hadn’t even gotten to ask her how things were going in Washington when she says that she’s got to go.

“Hahhh.”  I sigh as I pick up my phone.  I could not wait to get to Winona’s and stop thinking about my family.  This stuff was exhausting!  My mood brightening by the second I dial her up.  The phone rings…and rings…and rings for much longer than usual before she picks up.  “Hey!”  I say brightly.

Coming back over the line is my girlfriend’s voice, as flat as a still mountain lake.  “Hey.”

The lack of the usual enthusiasm throws me for second.  “How you d-doin?”

“Fine.”  She says.

“Okay.”  I say.  “H-How was your d-day?”

“Fine.”  She says, then after a strangely long pause asks.  “Yours?”

“Kinda up, kinda down.  M-Mostly up I think.”  I smile.  “And g-getting better.  I h-have so much to tell you.”

“Hm.”

“Oh, uh, okay.”  I say, my suspicions rising that something was off by her one word answers.  “Everything ok-kay?”

“Yep.”

This was so frustrating.  Something wasn’t right but her emotionless voice gave me no clue what was happening.  Was she sad?  Angry?  Tired?  Distracted?  I just couldn’t tell.  It would be way better when I could actually see her and touch her.

Hoping to brighten her mood I ask the question I was originally calling about.  With a giggle I huddle in close to my phone.  “Hey.  C-Can I be b-baby girl again tonight?”  There is a long pause.  “I was th-thinking, maybe, I could try b-being a goth girl tonight.  I’ve g-got this tight black t shirt I think would be c-cute and, he he he, I found this b-black choker in the sofa that I thought I might b-borrow.  What d-do you think?”

“That sounds…really…really…nice.”  She whispers.  “But not tonight.”

“Oh?”  My voice rises, eager to hear what she had in mind instead.

“Actually, I…”  There is another long, confusing pause.  “I think I want to be alone tonight.”

“What!?”

“Sorry, Avery.”  She says.  “I’m just really…tired.”

“That’s okay.  I-I-I c-could m-make you some food.  We c-could just chill and…”

“I’m not going to be good company tonight.”  She sniffles.  Was she crying!?  What was happening right now!?  Why was she crying!?  “Now is not a good time.  I’m not good company.  Okay?”

“Winona?”

“I’m glad you had a good day, Sprout.  Really.  After that really shitty morning…I’m happy it got better for you.”

“I wanna come see you.”

“Not tonight.”

“But…”

“You be a good girl and listen, okay?”

“Please t-t-talk to me.  I d-don’t understand.  What’s wr-wrong?”

“I don’t want to talk right now, Avery.”  She says, her husky tone hardening.  “I just need to be alone.  You can understand that, can’t you?”

“Yeah.”  I say softly.

“Maybe another night.”

“Maybe?”

“I…I gotta go.”

“W-Winona."

“Yeah?”

“I love you.”

“Mm hm.”

“Winona?”

“I…love you too.”  She chokes.  “Bye.”

Chapter 122