“And next time, don’t be so mean, Miss Lady,” he quipped.
Startled, I snapped my neck back. “Excuse me?”
“It wouldn’t hurt to be nice. You’re not in the big city anymore. Smile. Might even lower my price for ya.” And out popped his sly grin again.
I turned on my heel and led him to the front door. Once he was safely on the other side of my locked screen door, I yelled to him, wagging my phone, “I’ll call you again if I need you.”
“Oh, you’ll definitely need me. ’Cause I got the best price in town. Ain’t that why you called me in the first place?” he chided.
He was right about his fee, but I was willing to take a part-time job if necessary in order to keep from calling him again. I closed the main door without answering his question.
He laughed loudly and shouted, “I’ll be waitin’!”
I leaned back against the door and took deep breaths. The nerve of him, lecturing me, offering me a discount if I addressed him pleasantly. What did he think I was, an escort?
Three rapid knocks shook my shoulders. My breath caught.Wardell?No way was I letting him back in that house. If he’d forgotten a tool, I’d chuck it to him through an open window.
“Grandma!”
My lungs emptied in a deep sigh at the sweet sound of Elijah’s voice. I felt like hugging him, but the sweat on his face and neck and his “boy” smell postponed the move.
“Guess what?! We found turtles and frogs in a pond!”
“I see. You’re going to need a shower before we go to the LEGO club at the library.”
He raised an arm and turned his nose to sniff the aroma, gauging himself. “My shirt doesn’t smellthatbad.”
I laughed. “How bad must it be for you to wash yourself?”
“Ummm…a seven. Right now I’m a five.”
“You’re a nine,” I assured him. “Shower.”
He took another whiff. Smiled at me. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Boy, you knew all along you were a nine.”
With a chuckle, he took off toward the bathroom.
Elijah’s return and his silliness pushed the dread about the oven issue away, giving me my sound mind again.
I said a silent prayer that my grandson would never grow up to be like Wardell, or my ex-husband, or any person who thought they were God’s gift to other people. But for real, I needed a gift from somewhere to fix the oven. I prayed for that, too.
Chapter 8
The LEGO club was more like the LEGO cult. When I tell you these children and their families love those toys, I am not lyin’. Not only did they bring an ungodly amount of LEGO bricks, but they also had clothes and shoes and jewelry encrusted in them. Elijah must have felt like a loser with the one little section of his backpack full of the hard, foot-maiming toys.
Nonetheless, he had found his people. After meeting the leaders of the group and making sure Elijah felt comfortable, I wandered back to the main part of the library to take a gander at books. The nostalgic smell of aged paper and ink inside the ancient library brought me a sense of peace. I was thumbing through a Victoria Christopher Murray book I’d been meaning to read, when Eileen sang out my name.
“Joyce! So good to see you!”
“Yes, hello. I’m here with my grandson. LEGO club.”
“Wonderful.”
It did my heart good to witness the glint in her eye. Always a pleasure to be welcome.
“We’re about to start the group meeting I was telling you about.”
