by Simon Archer
“Not bad for a day’s work,” Theo said. He was right. Even without walls, the shape of the house was definite.
“I can’t thank you enough. All of you,” I said. I would’ve liked not to include Trevor in the statement, but there wasn’t any reason to be blatantly rude.
“You’ll have to wait long enough for us all to stop being sore before we have another one of these little shindigs,” Charlie joked. Abe slapped him on the back and offered his hand to first Charlie, then me.
“I hate to build and go, but I still need to take Trevor home,” Abe said.
I glanced at Abe, slightly confused. His wife was with Ellie, Leah, and Bev, who had gone back to Bev’s house to prepare dinner. “What about Gr…”
“That’s too bad, Abe,” Charlie cut me off. “I’ll give you a call this week. Let’s set up something a little more relaxing to do.”
“Drinks it is!” Abe agreed.
“Thank you, gentlemen,” Trevor said. “Let me know when your next house-building session is. I’d love to help out again.”
“Sure thing, Trevor,” Theo said coldly. He turned and headed for his truck. I heard whispering from a few feet away. Macy and Kennedi were talking about something, and they were both excited about it.
“You ladies ready to go?” I held my arm out, indicating they should get in my 4Runner.
“Yes, sir!” Kennedi said happily. We all parted ways, heading to our own vehicles. Once we were in, I started the engine, did a u-turn, and started the drive back to Theo’s house. Charlie and Kevin followed. The last car out was Abe’s. He would have to follow us back to the house in order to get to the main road.
“What are you two girls giddy about,” I asked Kennedi and Macy.
“Just that I can’t wait to sit in my tower!” Kennedi said. “Macy is going to come over, and we are going to read for hours!”
“Macy, I didn’t know you liked to read,” I said.
“Indeed, I do,” she replied. “There’s something about absorbing information instead of downloading it that is appealing in some cases.”
“I could see that,” I agreed. I focused on the open desert in front of me. It was pitch black out now. The only lights were Theo’s tail lights off in the distance. Before long, we were pulling around the side of Theo’s house, then parking next to the barn. Charlie pulled in behind me, and Abe kept going. He gave two short honks of his horn to say goodbye, then was gone.
Charlie, Kevin, the girls, and I met Theo on the porch. He opened the door to the house, and we all filed in. As soon as the door closed behind us, I turned to Charlie.
“What’s going on with Abe? He does realize that his wife is still here, right?” I was still confused as to why Charlie had so quickly interjected when I was about to ask Abe about Gretchen.
“Abe came to me a few minutes before we met up with you to check out our handiwork. He had no desire to have Trevor stay for dinner,” Charlie told me. “He will be back after he takes Trevor home.”
“Ahhh, that makes more sense,” I said.
“Good!” Theo nearly shouted as he headed down the hall to the kitchen. He stopped at the doorway and looked in. I caught up to him and looked in as well. The kitchen was empty. Then the light sound of laughter floated in.
“They’re outside by the firepit if you’re wondering,” Kennedi told us. “They’ve been waiting for us.”
“Again, something else that makes sense,” I joked. A few minutes later, all of us were settled into either chairs or loungers surrounding the firepit. The fire was fully stoked and blazing. Bev, Leah, and Gretchen were continuously giggling about something.
“What is so dang funny?” Theo raised an eyebrow at his wife. Nobody answered him. Instead, they all simultaneously held up whiskey glasses and started laughing harder. Theo rolled his eyes and smiled.
“We’re in for a show tonight, ladies and gentlemen,” he said humorously.
“I imagine you are!” Ellie chimed in, standing up as she spoke. “I’m going to bring dinner and drinks out. It’s a simple meal tonight.”
“Can I help?” Kennedi offered, standing as well.
“Sure,” Ellie answered. Macy stood up without saying a word, and the three headed to the kitchen.
I relaxed back into my lounger and felt the heat of the fire on my face. My phone dinged, and I checked my messages. It was from Krysta. She had decided to go ahead and stay one more night at Cora’s house. A wave of disappointment flowed through me. I knew she wouldn’t do anything to do that intentionally. I just missed her, I realized. I texted her back and then put my phone away. I looked around the fire and reminded myself of how fortunate I was to have these people, and the ones in the kitchen, in my life. I made sure they all looked comfortable before turning my attention back to the giggling women. Their giddiness spread smiles on everyone’s face.
“Here you go, Clark,” Ellie said softly. I hadn’t heard her walk up. She was holding a whiskey tumbler out to me with one hand and a plate in the other. I reached up with my good arm and took it from her. Then she unfolded a tray holder that she was carrying tucked up under her arm, set it up beside my chair, and set the plate down on it.
“Thank you, Ellie,” I said. She smiled at me and headed back to the kitchen to grab more plates and drinks. Kennedi and Macy were bringing plates and drinks out as well. They set a tray up next to an empty chair and put a drink on it, no doubt for when Abe returned. When everyone was served, I checked out the plate in front of me. It was piled with skewers. Instead of your standard meat chunks and vegetables, though, each skewer was laced back and forth through a thin slab of beef. There were separate skewers that only had vegetables on them, and a third type with pineapple chunks, and apple slices on it.
As soon as Ellie set down the last plate, she announced, “For those needing a reminder, or those who are new to dinner by the firepit, the meat and vegetables on your skewers are raw. All you have to do is set them on the grate in front of you, over the fire. Five minutes for the meat, fifteen minutes for the veggies. You can char the fruit to your liking.” The first time Ellie had served skewers around the fire, there had been a mishap, and someone took a bite of raw steak, so she had learned to announce when things needed to be cooked.
“Everything looks delicious, Ellie,” Bev told her. “I feel a little guilty for not helping more!”
“Oh, no, you don’t, Mrs. Beverly!” Ellie scolded her jokingly. “You deserve to sit right there and have someone cook for you once in a while!”
“Well,” Theo commented. “Technically, she still doesn’t have anyone cooking for her. All her food is raw!” Theo teased. Everyone present started laughing as Ellie put her hands on her hips and glared at Theo.
“What’s all the noise about?” a voice from the doorway asked. It was Abe. Gretchen hopped up and went to give him a hug and a kiss.
“Good to have you back, Abe!” I said.
“Took you long enough,” Charlie joked. Abe rolled his eyes.
“The whole way to his house, I was just praying that Trevor didn’t ask me where Gretchen was, or how she would’ve gotten home,” Abe recounted. “He didn’t, thank goodness.”
“I’m just happy you had the good sense to take him home first!” Kevin chimed in. “He seems nice enough, but completely rude at the same time.”
“Yes!” I agreed with Kevin. “Ever since I met him at Leah’s community event, I’ve had a weird feeling about him.
“Before today, I would’ve told every one of you how helpful, and pleasant, he’d always been,” Abe said. “The last couple days though… totally different story.”
“Oh, boys,” Bev piped up. “Stop gossiping about the new kid!” She chuckled at herself, which made Leah and Gretchen giggle, and the laughter circle continued. One more drink each and who knows what those ladies would get up to.
“Bev is right,” I said. “No need to worry about Trevor when we have such great company right here!” I raised my glass, and everyone else di
d too.
I plopped my vegetable skewer on the fire grill in front of me and sat back with my drink. My glass was filled with Theo’s three-hundred-dollar whiskey again. I savored the smoothness with which it passed over my tongue. Kennedi settled into a chair next to me when she was done serving. She turned to Leah.
“What details do you have about your big event? It’s four days from now, yes?” Kennedi asked Leah.
“Yes! It’s in four days,” Leah started. “It is the UsForThem Silent Auction Dinner. All the proceeds will be going to rehoming abandoned CGs.”
“It sounds like it’s turning out to be a pretty big event,” Kennedi added.
“It most certainly is, and Belavi is catering it,” Leah started, tossing a thankful look over to Bev and Ellie. “We began by selling twelve tables. They went so fast that we switched venues and added another five, then ten, then twenty. We are now up to thirty-two eight-top tables!”
“What will that look like, fund-wise?” Kevin asked Leah. He would be working the event with her.
“So far, at five-hundred dollars a plate, we’ve raised sixteen-thousand-dollars,” Leah boasted. “That doesn’t include what we will bring in on the silent auction.”
“That is truly inspired, Leah,” Gretchen spoke up. “What types of things will you be having up for auction?” Leah looked over at Macy.
“There will be an array of items,” Macy answered for Leah. “Everything from weekend getaways to handmade jewelry. We wanted to have something for everyone.”
“Want to talk about a genius,” Leah started. “Macy and Kevin went through the guest list and researched the people who will be attending. Then they went on the hunt for product and service donations that would appeal to those specific people, based on what they’d learned about them.”
“Now that is just good marketing,” Charlie spoke up. “Knowing your audience is half of the sales process!”
“I can’t wait to go!” Kennedi said, bouncing in her seat a little. Then her face turned thoughtful, and she looked at me. “Did we get a table?” I smiled at her, reached over, and took hold of her hand.
“Yes, we have a table,” I told her. “I didn’t know what I was buying a table for, but I put us down for one the moment Charlie told me about the event. He was so excited at what his wife was accomplishing that I couldn’t tell him ‘no.’” I nodded over at Charlie while Kennedi clapped her hands together and squealed a little. Charlie looked at Leah and winked.
“Thank you for that, Clark,” Leah said. Before I could reply, she got up out of her chair and walked over to where her husband was sitting. She leaned down and gave him a long kiss. “Thank you, my love.” She meandered back to her chair and took a seat. I got a whiff of the vegetables cooking in front of me, and it reminded me to add my beef skewer to the fire. Once I’d done that, I looked over at Abe.
“So, Abe,” I started. “How does a distributions guy get so good with a hammer and saw?” He had been a remarkable help in building the house, and I felt like getting to know him better. Just the fact that he was Charlie’s friend was enough for me to give him a shot.
“My family owns a residential construction company,” Abe answered. “I started working there when I was fourteen. That was where I learned about supply chains. The normal construction company has endless trouble with materials deliveries. I decided to figure out a way to change that.”
“But then you got out of the business, right?” Charlie added.
“You are correct, Charlie,” Abe said. “Well, out of the construction part of it, anyway. I found that I was good at arranging efficient, guaranteed transportation methods that would save companies a lot of money.”
“If that is your specialty,” Ellie started. “Why did you need to hire Trevor? Isn’t he a supply chain quality control guy?” It was a valid question for sure.
“I hired Trevor to check out the companies I was contracting with,” Abe explained. “He was checking their supply chains. The more complicated the chain, the more I end up paying in the long run for transport. For example, if a company regularly ships computer parts from Utah to California, but I find out the parts are actually made in Washington, I can negotiate a better route for those products to be moved.”
“Why on earth would anyone ship something from Washington to Utah, just to send it back to California?” Theo sounded astonished.
“Because they don’t know any better,” Abe said. “Say the company has light bulbs that do transport from Washington to Utah, and they stay there. The company will often be under the misconception that moving the ‘computer parts’ with it, so that they don’t have to go back to Washington to get them, is more efficient. I had gotten so busy with my own supply chain evals that I hired Trevor to do the secondary research. He ended up locating several areas where I could consult with companies to make their process less expensive, which means money and referrals in my pocket.”
“I had no idea that getting something from one place to another could be so damn complicated!” I told him.
“Oh, yes,” Gretchen joined in. “So complicated, in fact, that if you hear about it for long enough, your brain just shuts off and you hear nothing at all!” She winked at her husband and started laughing. The rest of the girls started cracking up as well.
“I find it fascinating.” Kevin was literally on the edge of his seat, listening to Abe. Abe noticed his eagerness and turned to Charlie.
“Any use for supply chain knowledge in your organization?” Abe asked Charlie. “I’m more than happy to impart some knowledge to young Kevin here. He seems like he would be okay with that.” Charlie looked over at Kevin and smiled proudly.
“Look at you, Kevin. You’ll do anything to end up in a different job than the one you already have, won’t you?” Charlie teased. “Of course, you can study under Abe if you are interested.”
“Really?” Kevin double-checked, trying to keep his excitement in check. He hadn’t even asked Charlie if he’d be okay with it, and he’d received permission. He didn’t even mind being teased about it. “Thank you, Charlie. And thank you, Abe! I would love to learn from you!”
“Good! Let’s touch base this upcoming week and figure out when you have free time that lines up with my availability,” Abe told Kevin.
“Perfect!” Kevin agreed happily. He sat back in his seat, a beaming smile on his face. Charlie had chosen a very motivated young man to groom for his company. I saw Charlie reach forward for his skewer and was reminded that I needed to check mine. I pulled both the beef and vegetables off the fire. They were roasted to perfection. One by one, everyone pulled their food out of the fire and started eating. According to Ellie, the beef had been marinated in an Italian tomato paste and seasoned with cilantro and pepper. It had a tangy flavor to it and was incredibly tender. The vegetables were sprinkled with salt and pepper, and that was it. The fire had infused the smoky flavor they carried.
Once we’d all finished our main courses, and started eating our fruit skewers, after roasting them, the compliments started flowing. Not a single person around the fire had roasted fruit before. The smoke combined with the pineapple created a tropical flavor that was both rich and refreshing. The texture of the apple slices, with just a little bit of char on them, was a perfect balance to the softer pineapple. By the time we’d finished our entire meal, every one of us was stuffed.
Our guests stayed for an after-dinner drink before heading out. I walked them to the door, and we bid our goodbyes. Charlie stopped long enough to set an appointment for the two of us to get together the next day and start developing the business and marketing plans that we had promised Isamu. Soon after, Kennedi, Ellie, Theo, Bev, and I watched as the Lindys’ car and Abe’s car pulled out of the driveway.
As their tail lights faded, I noticed how much more black the night had become. I also noticed how tired I was. I decided to call it a night, and Kennedi and I headed to the loft. It took no time for me to fall asleep once I was in my bed. The last thing I
remembered was Kennedi cuddling up next to me, laying her head on my shoulder, and purring.
27
The next morning I woke up to someone yelling from the house. At first, I thought I was dreaming until I heard Kennedi yell my name repeatedly. Her voice was getting closer, and more panicked, as I shot up out of bed. I had my clothes on in less than thirty seconds and was stepping onto the loft ladder when Kennedi burst into the barn.
“Clark! Thank heavens, you are up!” she yelled. “You have to get in the house right now! It’s Krysta.”
I finished climbing down the ladder and ran through the barn and across the drive to the house. Kennedi was holding the door open for me when I ran up the porch steps. I made it as far as the kitchen before stopping. I looked in and saw Bev, Theo, Ellie, and Cora sitting around the island. Bev’s eyes were red, and Theo looked distraught. Cora looked more scared than anything, and there was a glint in Ellie’s eye I’d never seen before.
“What is going on?” I demanded, walking into the kitchen. Theo looked up as he was rubbing his wife’s back to calm her down.
“Cora stopped by this morning to drop off a recipe she’d created, and she and Ellie got to talking,” Theo said softly. He looked at Cora.
“Ellie asked me how Krysta has been doing with my books the past couple of days,” Cora choked out.
“Clark!” Bev cried out. “Cora hasn’t seen Krysta since before you left for Japan!” Bev broke down crying, and Theo took her into his arms. I looked at Cora.
“What do you mean, you haven’t seen her?” I growled. “I talked to her on the phone and got a text message from her telling us she was with you.”
“I don’t know why she would tell you that,” Cora replied weakly. “I swear, I haven’t seen her since last week, and I haven’t talked to her since the day before yesterday.” Cora’s face switched from scared to hysterical. I felt a new type of anger rise up inside my stomach. It was mixed with fear and guilt. I had known it wasn’t like Krysta to not come home but had ignored my gut. My face grew hot, and I had to take an intentionally deep breath to calm down before I said anything more.