Strange, but after working with Ethan for near on a year, it’ll be the first time I’ve put that rule to the test. And as I watch Lily carefully removing the first of the cabinet doors in the decrepit kitchen, I know it won’t be easy.
Add in my now knowing what hides under those baggy overalls of hers, and they’re anything but a turn off. There’s also the fact they make for easy access whenever the fancy takes us, and as the day progresses, it’s amazing how often this is.
Come lunchtime, and we do, twice. Come mid-afternoon and I’m hanging out for a coffee. A quick check on Lily, who’s busy with the Lucky Break shop vac sucking up the drifts of cat hair in the front parlor, and I can see that she is, too.
“Okay, break time.”
Thanks to the racket being kicked up by the enormous vacuum, she doesn’t hear me. Rather than shout at her, I turn it off at the wall, leading to her looking at the hose and cussing it for cutting out on her again.
“It’s all good. I turned it off at the wall.”
She spins around, her eyes wide, one hand on her chest.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to sneak up on you. I need a break, and by the looks of you, I’m not alone.”
She drops the vacuum hose before clenching and unclenching her fingers to have them working properly again. “You’re not wrong. I’ll go get coffee started. See you at the trailer?”
I think about it for a second. While it makes sense to have our coffee at the trailer, if we end up back there, that’ll be us for the day. As appealing as that is, there are still things I need to sort out for Monday. And while I wouldn’t be averse to working here over the weekend, I’ve got plans with Zoe.
“How about out on the front porch?”
It’s a bit of a mission getting everything set up out front, but then I’m glad of it. There’s a relaxed familiarity sitting next to Lily on the top step, watching the world go by.
What starts out slowly soon turns into a steady stream of kids walking home from school, mostly in groups.
Having watched several groups pass, Lily gestures with her coffee cup toward the next lot. “That’s so weird.”
“What is?”
“Seeing kids walking home on their own. In San Francisco, their mom would have picked them up at the school gates.” She falls silent as another gaggle of kids passes by, laughing and shouting.
There’s a gentle smile playing around her lips right until we see two small girls with their mom. Honestly, all three are like something out of a Sears catalog, from clothes and hair, right down to their shiny shoes.
A sideways glance at Lily shows she’s longer smiling. Instead, she’s got her face as good as buried in her coffee cup.
All that changes when a little boy comes into view.
Unlike the trio who’ve just passed, his clothes are threadbare, with the only thing holding his sneakers together, being uneven, ratty laces. Instead of a cartoon backpack, he’s carrying a plastic shopping bag.
There’s also no missing that he’s too thin for his height. The large sores on his scrawny arms and legs are a sure sign he’s not eating well. If not for my mom’s ability to whip up a decent meal out of virtually nothing, my brothers and I would have looked the same.
The boy is in stark contrast to all the other kids, and by the wide berth they’re giving him, his clothes—it being Friday—must smell as bad as they look. It was something I was all too familiar with.
Next to me, Lily sits frozen, her coffee cup halfway to her mouth. Eventually, she puts it down. “Oh, that’s not right.” It’s when she leans forward as if to stand that I reach out and stop her.
“Don’t. Not in front of the other kids.”
Despite the brevity of my words, she sits down with a bump, before turning and staring at me. And hard as it is, I return her gaze, refusing to look down as I had so often as a kid.
It’s difficult coming clean about my upbringing. It was something I thought I’d left behind, but with Lily, I’m drawn to tell her. With her, I want to hide nothing.
TEN
LILY
I thought nothing could stop me from taking off after that little boy and seeing if I could help him out. Tyler’s confession shows me how wrong I was.
“Not that our mom didn’t care. She did. But after our dad took off, money was tight.”
