Chapter 5
Lisa spent most of her morning wrapping silverware for work.She was bored out of her mind, but knew that if anyone came in for lunch, they’d be ready for them.When Shanda sat down beside her, she knew that she wouldn’t say much to her.Shanda had been a snitch for Janice before.And she knew that was how she’d found out that she’d given her notice at work.Janice wasn’t thrilled about her not working either.
“Where are you living now?”She nearly laughed, but didn’t.She usually enjoyed it when someone was right to the point, but not today.“I heard that you moved out in the middle of the night.That’s so you didn’t have to pay rent.”
“I moved into something cheaper.And I’m living with a friend of mine so that I can afford to not have to work so hard.”She asked her where she was living again.“Not far from here.It’s in a good neighborhood, too.I love it.”
“You still never said where you were living.Or is that a big secret?”She asked her why it was important to her that she tell her.“I just want to know in case I ever want to come by or something.No big deal if you don’t want to tell me.”
“I don’t.I hope that’s all right.Besides, you never came by to see me at my other home.Why would you be coming around there?”She shrugged, and Lisa went back to wrapping the silverware that had just come out of the kitchen.“I’m betting it won’t be busy tonight either.It’s turned cold, and no one wants to venture out into the weather.I know that once I get home, I’m going to enjoy having my car in the garage and not out in the weather too.”
They talked a bit more, Shanda still trying to get her address from her in other ways.Did she have to travel long to get to work?What was Davy doing about daycare?Was he still going?She didn’t answer any questions about her personal life and thought that she’d done fine in shutting her down.But just like Janice, she was on a mission to get the information, and there was no stopping her, apparently.Finally, she told her that she wasn’t going to talk to her anymore if she didn’t stop asking personal questions, and she went away with a huff.Good.One less thing she had to worry about.Now all she had to do was make sure that she wasn’t going to be followed home.She wouldn’t put anything past either one of them in getting the address that way.
At four o’clock, she was ready to go home.The weather had gotten nastier than it had been this morning, and she wasn’t looking forward to driving home in it.As soon as she got on the road, she noticed that there were no trucks out cleaning the road of the snow and wondered if Davy would have school tomorrow.Living in a rural area meant that back roads were gotten to last if ever, and there was no way the buses would be able to get through them, not the way they looked now.
It took her an hour to get home from a fifteen-minute drive, which was usually how long it took her.Getting in the house, she was greeted by Davy and Brenin waiting for her.Giving her hot chocolate and cookies was the perfect end to the day she’d had.Getting a kick out of Shanda and her questions, she laughed with Brenin about it, and Davy thought it was funny too.
“They said that you’re going to have to fill out paperwork at school for my new address and stuff.They also want to make sure that my insurance hasn’t changed.”She said she’d take care of it in the morning.“I don’t think we’re going to have school.My bus driver said the roads were too bad tonight, driving home.I wonder if we’ll miss too much school.”
“The weather is supposed to get better over the next several days.This snowstorm came out of nowhere, I guess.”She didn’t know much about the weather but relied on the app on her phone to tell her what she needed to know.“I guess we’ll have to get used to this all together now instead of just you and me getting used to it.Right?”
“The bus ride was fantastic.I got to sit where I wanted, and I sat with my friend from school.The bus goes to the daycare, too, where I was.”Brenin asked if he’d known not to get off.“I wasn’t sure.But the bus driver knew.Her name is Ms.Sally.She didn’t wreck us or anything on the way home tonight.”
“That’s good.”She was glad that he was getting to ride the bus.It would be a good way for him to be able to socialize with other kids, too, who were younger and older than him.“I guess we’ll have to worry about school in the morning together.I’m not working until noon lunchtime.”
After dinner, they sat in the living room and talked.Davy was playing quietly with his trucks when Brenin pulled out the ring and asked her to marry him.He even had a gift for Davy, another truck like the one he was playing with, and he asked him if he’d be his boy.Of course, it was a big hit, and she was glad that Brenin had thought about him.It was nearly eight o’clock when they called school off for tomorrow, and Davy was happy with that.He said he’d miss riding the bus, but he was all right with it since she’d be home in the morning with him.
When Davy went to his room, she and Brenin watched the television.She wasn’t used to having free time to watch it, so she didn’t have any idea what sort of programs to watch.Finally, they turned it off in favor of the quiet, and she liked that even better.At ten after ten, she was headed to bed, and Brenin said he’d be up for a while.He had some work to be done on the computer.After telling him goodnight, she headed to the bedroom that she’d been using and got ready for bed.
Almost like her body energized, she couldn’t sleep as soon as she got into the bed.Her mind was working on issues that had never been one before, and she worried about Janice.She wondered, not for the first time, whether she would try to take Davy from her, and that upset her.There had to be a good reason why she was doing the things that she was doing to her and her son, but she couldn’t for the life of her figure out what it would be.The one thought that kept going through her mind was that she wasn’t going to go away nicely and that someone was going to get hurt.She could only think that she hoped it wasn’t Davy, as he’d had enough trauma in his life for a seven-year-old kid.
Finally getting up, she got her laptop and started looking for jobs.She wasn’t sure that she wanted one, but it didn’t hurt her to look.There was an advertisement for a waitress position where she worked, and she wondered if anyone would apply, but she skipped over that one in favor of something that would be during the day.Finding nothing, she did a search on Janice just through the search engine and read everything with her name in it.
She’d not known that Janice had worked before she’d met David.He only called her a housewife, and when she pulled up David Senior’s death notice, she’d read where she’d been working for a local attorney’s office in Zanesville.While it didn’t say what she did for them, she had retired after thirty years and with good standing.Also, it told how she’d been thought of by the office for the loss of her husband.
Lisa had never met David Senior before marrying David.He’d been gone only a few years when they started dating, and that was all she knew about him from what he’d said about his dad.She did know that Davy had been named for the two of them, and he was the third David Manchester.It didn’t bother her at all that there would be no more Manchester’s from the family line.She thought that three had been plenty.Of course, that would depend on Brenin adopting Davy and giving him his last name.
Getting to work the next afternoon wasn’t as difficult as it had been in getting home the night before.All the main streets were cleared off.Even the parking lot at work had been gone over, so she was able to find herself a good parking place there, too.As soon as she got into the restaurant, she knew that the shit was about to hit the fan.Janice and Shanda were huddled together in a booth with their heads together.Whatever was going on, it wasn’t going to bode well for her.
“There you are.I thought you’d not be coming in today since there was no school.”She told Shanda that she was on the schedule and would work so long as she could get to work.“I was just talking to Janice here, and she doesn’t know where you live either.We’ve come to the conclusion that it must not be a very good place if you’re keeping it from everyone.Why don’t you tell us where you’re living?”Tired of the games, she said it wasn’t any of their business.“See?I told you that she’d not give it to you.She’s not been talking about a lot of things going on in her life.”
“As I said, it’s none of your business.”She went to clock in and was dismayed when they followed her back to the time clock.“Why do you care anyway?It’s not like you owned the house that I was living in, did you?I mean, that would just be cruel of you to raise my rent when you knew we were struggling.”
If she hadn’t been looking right at Janice when she said that, she would have missed her face turning an angry shade of red.Blustering about how she was on a fixed income and could barely afford her own house payment, much less one on a house that she was renting, Lisa decided that she’d had enough.She told her that she knew she owned the house and shouldn’t have been charging so much, as she was related to her.
“You’re not related to me at all since you asked.Davy is my grandson, and that’s as far as I’m going to allow you around me.All this intrigue is for the birds.Tell me where you live, or I’ll have to call the police on you.You’ve taken my grandson away from me, and I’m not going to tolerate it.”She snorted, thinking that was the craziest thing she’d ever heard.
Instead of getting into it with her, she went to the tables to make sure they were ready for the afternoon crowd.Or whoever might come in needing a good meal.Ignoring the two of them for things to keep her mind occupied, Lisa made sure that the tables were set that were usually used for dinner when five o’clock rolled around.It wasn’t until Shanda grabbed her arm and jerked her around that she got pissed off.
“What do you think you’re doing?Unhand me.”Shanda did let her go, but she laughed while she was at it.“The two of you are insane.I’m not going to tell you where I live now even if you did call the police.”
The slap to her face was unexpected and painful.Janice had hit her and was drawing back to no doubt hit her again when Mr.Weaver, the owner of the restaurant, stepped in.He asked what was going on and if Lisa needed help.She said that she’d been hurt by Janice and that she didn’t know why.
“I’ve called the police.See what they have to say about this.”Tasting blood on her lip, she let it go.If she had to, she’d press charges against Janice so that she’d be arrested.Assault wasn’t something that she had hoped would happen, but she was glad that she wasn’t healing right away.“You’ll have to give me your address now.”
The look on her face was priceless.She looked as if she’d won.Lisa didn’t know how it was going to work with the police coming by, but she was willing to bet that they’d tell her that she didn’t need to give up her address.It was personal, not something that everyone needed.She waited on a table when a couple came in just to prove that she wasn’t upset about it.
“Hello, Lisa.”She turned around when she heard Brenin behind her and was freaked out a little that he wasn’t around.“It’s Brenin.I should have explained earlier that we could talk to one another like this, but I forgot.Just think of what you want to say, and I’ll hear you.No one else needs to know that we’re talking.”
