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We spent the next few hours wandering through the town square. Despite the cold temperatures, it was comfortable walking around. The combination of a sunny day, the crowd, and strategic placed outdoor heaters took most of the chill out of the air. The town really went all out on the event, with dozens of booths, games, kids’ activities, and wondering Christmas carolers.
Liz and I browsed the booths, got corn dogs, shared a funnel cake, and she kicked my butt in whack-a-mole. I even let her drag me onto a few of the carnival rides. I wouldn’t have expected it, but I was actually having fun. Especially when I was pressed up tight against her on the tilt-a-whirl. Due to the momentum of the ride, of course.
I couldn’t help but reflect on how different this town was from where I’d grown up. It was a similar size, but the atmosphere here wasn’t the same at all. Everyone back in Aumsville walked around with looks of misery. People mostly kept to themselves, other than when they were in their gossipy groups. Poverty was as rampant as drug abuse and domestic violence. An event like this in Aumsville would be raucous, filled with several loud and belligerent drunks.
I was pleasantly surprised that the residents here seemed to employ moderation and were enjoying each other’s company.
In fact, Pine Bluff reminded me of one of those small towns in the Christmas movies my sister always loved watching on the Hallmark Channel. Everyone was friendly and nice and unexpectedly welcoming to me. It was obvious that Liz was well liked in town. Nearly everyone we passed greeted her by name or stopped to give her a hug.
“Did you grow up here?” I asked Liz curiously.
“No, I grew up on the East Coast.”
“How long have you lived here? You seem pretty popular.”
“Hmm. I moved here when my kids were young, so maybe twenty years ago.”
“How’d you end up in Pine Bluff?”
“I was living in New York when I met my husband. Ex-husband. He came into the restaurant where I worked, and he didn’t like something he ordered and was being kind of a jackass about it. I came out to give him a piece of my mind and somehow we started dating. I’m not even sure how it happened, honestly.”
He sounded like a tool, but I didn’t say that out loud.
“Eventually I got pregnant with my daughter Annabelle, so we decided to get married. My ex worked in heating and cooling. He’d always had this dream of living in a small town and raising a family there, which sounded nice to me too.”
She paused to say hello to someone, then continued, “Somehow he heard about a company that was for sale here in Colorado, and we decided to go for it. I’ve lived here ever since, raising our kids, and helping with the business. What about you? Do you live in Denver?”
“A little north of there, but my office is in Denver.”
“How long have you lived there?”
“I moved to this part of the state when I went away to college, so it’s been a while now.”
“What about your family?”
“My mother’s dead and my father, well, he’s in prison.”
She sent me a sharp look, but I appreciated it when she didn’t ask for more information. I wasn’t even sure why I’d said that, I didn’t typically tell anyone about my asshole father.
“I’m sorry,” she said softly. “Do you have any siblings?”
“Yeah, I have one sister, Steph. She lives near Denver too. She works for the governor’s office,” I said proudly. “She’s his emergency management director.”
“What’s that?”
“She helps plan for emergencies like earthquakes, wildfires, pandemics, that kind of thing.”
“Wow, you must be proud of her.”
“Yeah, I am.”
She rubbed her hands along the sleeves of her puffy jacket, the official winter coat of every Coloradoan.
“I’m starting to get cold, and I really need to eat something that’s not fried. What do you say we head back to the apartment?”
“Sounds good.”
Liz
