“Angela. Stop. I hate you sometimes, you know that?”
“Yes,” I said
“I think you act irrationally and sometimes I wonder if you even notice the people around you,”
“Yes, I know,”
“I also think that you’re a good person underneath it. You’re just, I don’t know, stuck. It’s difficult to pull yourself from a pool of muck when there are so many people trying to pull you back in.” He said.
A voice boomed from behind Milo, “Milo, would you eat chicken If I made it for you? Maybe throw it in a casserole,”
“Yes, mom. That sounds good” He said over his shoulder.
Milo’s mom came over to the door to see who Milo was talking to. When she saw me, I could see her face light up with excitement and confusion.
“Angela?! It’s been way too long. Get your butt in here,”
“Mom, Angela was just saying hello,” Milo said.
“She can say hello in the house. You have her out here like she’s a damn solicitor. Come in, sweet girl. It had been too long,” Mrs. McDonough said as she pulled me in the house. “We need to catch up,” Mrs. McDonough said. Milo let out a sigh. He knew there would be giggling and possibly a discussion of something girly that he would pretend bothered him.
Milo was familiar with a room full of estrogen. Not only did he have three sisters, but he was also raised by his mother, Andrea, and his Aunt Sheila. This was on top of his father doing his best to see him throughout the week and the occasional visit from his Uncle Stu. Milo’s dad was around quite a bit, just never when Andrea was. Andrea wasn’t an angry person usually but there was something about her ex-husband that riled her up more than anything. What made her especially irritated was his insistence on being involved in his children’s life. The strained relationship between his parents never seemed to bother Milo. He had his mother who adored him and showered him with affection, and he had his father who taught him everything he knew and helped mold him into one of the most decent people I had known.
Milo’s dad also did his best with his daughters. Milo didn’t know his older sister as well. Katie went away to college, the first person we knew who decided to leave Manere, and she never came back. Milo was only ten and with his sister being eight years older, he didn’t remember spending a lot of time with her when she was around. Milo’s mother became an emotional wreck when her daughter practically vanished into thin air. She couldn’t be considered a runaway since she was a legal adult who not only had every right to leave her family, she was given stern warnings repeatedly that leaving Manere was not like leaving any other town. His sister, Lori, who was twelve when Katie left was never given a choice over where she would live after graduating Manere High. She knew that her future had been written for her as leaving their mom would destroy her. Lori also assumed that the stories about the world outside of Manere changing a person were true, why else would Katie disappear?
There was always something eccentric about the family, even when Milo and I were kids I could see it. It seemed abnormal for such a loving family to cut off communication with one of their own. I kept my opinions to myself, which was not an ordinary issue I had when complaining about Manere. Most people in town knew my thoughts, I just avoided talking about it when around Mrs. McDonough. “Milo told me you are going to Carnegie Mellon! Is that true?” she asked. I was touched that Milo had been talking about me and somehow knew my plans even with the heavy silence between us.
“Yes, I am. I leave at the end of August,”
“We are going to miss you.”
“I’ll miss you all too. It’s going to be really different.”
“I bet. I’ve been trying to get Milo to stay home but I know he needs to go off and see the rest of the world too. I understand, he can’t stay here forever.”
I did not expect her to be okay with Milo’s plans to leave. After Katie, I figured another child going would just be another devastation, but maybe she had accepted it. Perhaps because she had two more daughters, who would probably never leave home, letting her son go was a bargain she had to make.
“Right. I know it’s hard for my mom too. I think she’s happy for me though,” I said though I still wasn’t sure where she stood on the subject.
Mom had come home the night before. We had a quiet dinner with just the two of us. I didn’t ask where Peter was and there wasn’t much dialogue about anything. Since there had been so much time that had passed since the last time, we had a conversation with dinner, it was like we forgot how to do it. Was there a trick? What did we talk about? I wasn’t mad at her really, I was just drowning in the feeling that my mother had already said goodbye to me. She walked in the home as if it was already empty just as I did when it was. We were living our own separate lives in two different dimensions going through the same activities. I also couldn’t get past the unshakable feeling that she had been hiding something from me.
“Your mom will miss you terribly. We all will. You are such a sweet girl. I know you and Milo will miss each other very much too. I wish you two would spend more time together before you pack up and depart for the long haul,” Mrs. McDonough said. She swiped her aged hand across her forehead to move her red hair to one side. The creases in her eyes were more prevalent now. There had been tears, maybe not that day but many tears before it. “I’m hoping Milo, and I spend time together too” I looked over at Milo. Our eyes met, and we both smiled knowingly. I could feel my face getting warm and looked down immediately.
The three of us sat at the McDonough oak dining table and reminisced about our childhoods. Mrs. McDonough had stories that gave a clear picture of what Manere used to be like. It was not much different from what I was living through. It usually depressed me to think that things hadn’t changed in thirty years in Manere but being able to connect with Mrs. McDonough made it less so. I almost felt grateful to relate to someone like her. “When I was sixteen, there was an arcade next to the movie theater, that was a big year for us,” she said
“So that was true? I heard there used to be one, but people always say stuff like that,” I said.
“There was. There was also a rink for people to skate on in the bowling alley. To be able to bowl and roller-skate was quite the exciting Friday night.”
“I had no idea. Why would they take all that out?” I asked.
“I’m not sure. There was some town meeting. You know how those things go. They bring something in, a town meeting is called, and they haul it off during the night.”
“It’s because they don’t want anyone to have any fun in this town. It might make them forget about killing themselves for ten seconds,” Milo said. I looked at him with disapproval.
“I’m just saying,” he said and looked out the window.
“I don’t know why the town decided to remove these things. I do remember finding a lot of joy with them. A few of my friends from work talk about those days and they don’t know why it was all taken down either. Maybe they just couldn’t afford it.” She said.
“That makes sense. This town has never been able to afford much. I’m surprised it has lasted as long as it has all on its own,” I said.
“I think the early days were easy enough because of the money from the state.”
“What money from the state?” I asked.
“You don’t know? I guess a lot of you younger kids wouldn’t know this. In the 1950s when Manere was first building homes and trying to become its own town, the state tried to negotiate with the town for part of the land. I guess there was some valuable property to be had. I never found out if it was gold, or something else but there was something worth a lot of money on the land that the founders purchased. They sold it to them for a huge sum of cash. It was enough to build a couple dozen homes and buildings that make up the town. Your elementary school used to be for all ages, and it was one of the first things built. A few diners and places like that were also built. Even Finnegan’s park. Anyway, after a couple of years, some of the town’s peo
ple started getting sick. Seems the state was doing something to the water supply. Whether this had to do with the land they bought or not was never explained but seemed a bit too convenient. The state was so concerned that their mistake would get out that they paid the town another huge sum of money to stay quiet about the whole thing. Of course, that was decades ago. Manere could sustain itself for only so long. Money started getting hard to come by.”
“I have always wondered. Doesn’t Manere have to pay taxes to the state? My mom pays property tax every year to the town but where does it go? Doesn’t the state require you to pay taxes?” I asked. Mrs. McDonough appeared staggered. “She reads a lot. Not just what they teach in school. She finds information anywhere she can find it,” Milo told him, mom.
“Well, yes. That is supposed to happen, but few people in Manere are aware of that. At least not the ones who were born and raised here. I assume that was part of the agreement too. If we keep to ourselves, they don’t require it. That’s what I’m guessing,”.
Each day of summer led to a new piece of the town’s puzzle.
Chapter 12
Abby’s eyes widened when I walked through the doors on my second day of work at Hoagie’s. She rushed around the counter toward me in a barely audible voice, “Angela. I’m so sorry but Bob is on the warpath, and he was freaking out.”
“Slow down. What are you talking about?”
“Angela is that you?” Bob said coming out from the always intriguing backroom.
“I’m so sorry. I had to tell him because I need this job and I wasn’t sure if it was true but please don’t be mad at me,” Abby said speaking a mile and minute without taking a breath.
“Angela, can you come back here, I need to talk to you,” Bob said putting his stubby index finger up and flicking it back toward his office. “Um, okay,” I said and followed him in his office looking back at a worried Abby. There was no way of even guessing what I was in for because I couldn’t recall doing anything wrong. It was only my second day, so I didn’t have a chance screw up yet. Bob’s office was tight, what I assume former broom closet, he asked me to take a seat but the chair in front of his desk had practically no legroom. I pinched my legs through and positioned myself to prepare for whatever was to come next.
“How are you doing today Angela?”
“Fine. I’m a little worried now” I said looking around the room for Bob’s personal touches including a clock with different types of birds rather than numbers, and a bobblehead of some baseball player who was probably famous to those who liked baseball.
“The reason I asked you in here, Angela, is because I don’t this is working out. I’m not sure what your home situation is, but I can’t allow someone to work here if I can’t trust them,” he said.
“Trust me? You can trust me.”
“But you see, I can’t. I know it was you who took money from the register last night.”
Everything in the room froze. I looked around to see timecards stacked on Bob’s desk and a mug, with a cat in a striped t-shirt, holding his pens. I gathered my thoughts unsure if there was more, he was going to say or if he was merely accusing me of something I didn’t do and had no idea who would have. “Sir. I’m a bit confused. I didn’t take any money. This is only my second day, and I wouldn’t do anything like that,”
“Look, Angela. It’s pretty crystal clear. I hired you yesterday, you worked all day yesterday, and when Gabe went to count the money out last night, we were a hundred short. It wasn’t too tricky to figure that one out.”
“How do you know it wasn’t Gabe?” I asked.
“Angela. I have known Gabe for a long time. He wouldn’t do anything like that,”
“I wouldn’t either. Why would I take on a job and risk everything by stealing a measly hundred bucks? Why would I come back to work the next day if I did something like that?”
“Well, I would guess that it was because you, little lady, knew that if you didn’t come in here, you might get caught. It would be mighty suspicious if the money went missing, and you didn’t show up for work the next day,”
“But you just said I had to have done it because there was no one else to do it. I can’t win” I huffed thinking that Abby was also a perfectly reasonable suspect but pointing fingers at every possible person would only make me appear guiltier but also because Abby didn’t deserve it. Even if she did do it, she didn’t deserve to get caught for it.
“That’s just how the cookie crumbles Little lady. You’re going to have to turn in your smock and I will use the money you would have earned from yesterday to pay back the register,”
“What? You aren’t paying me? I worked for like nine hours and I didn’t steal a penny. That’s illegal,” I whined.
“Excuse me but you should be glad I’m not calling the police on you. You stole money from me and that is not alright. Now, I am going to forget about it and take your day of work as payment and I will not hear another word about it. I won’t be telling other folks in town about this, so you don’t have to worry about your reputation. It will just be between you and me. I just can’t have you working here.” Bob said and looked to the side at an empty wall which he undoubtedly imagined being where his window would have gone if his closet was a real office. I stood up thrashing myself out of the chair. The tight space made every movement appear more dramatic than I intended but I was still plenty pissed off. I threw my smock on his desk and stormed out. Abby caught me on my way out. “Angela, did he fire you?” she asked panicked.
“It’s fine. I don’t care. This job doesn’t matter”
“I wasn’t sure what happened. I didn’t take the money either and Gabe said you did but I know you didn’t because I was with you the whole time and I knew you would never in a million trillion years do anything like that, but they wouldn’t believe me. They just wouldn’t. I don’t know what happened to that money”
“It was Gabe. Obviously, that asshole had it in for me from the beginning. Bob won’t even consider that even though it is so obvious”. “I know but that’s because Gabe’s his son,” Abby said. I stopped and threw my head back laughing while shouting “Of course” to the ceiling. “Of course, that’s the only reason why a loser like Gabe would have a job. Ridiculous. This whole thing is ridiculous. I got to go. Sucks we can’t work together”
“One more thing Angela. I think Gabe knew we were snooping in the backroom”
‘You mean the buyout paperwork?” I asked.
“Yeah. Gabe asked me what we were doing back there.”
“Well, that’s just great. It was the final straw. He was going to find a reason to fire me and then found even more reasons to get rid of me. Just be careful or you may be the next to go,” “I won’t do anything to make him mad. That’s for sure,” Abby said.
“Nah. Don’t say that. It’s never much fun to let creeps like Gabe to walk all over you. Damn the man!” I said shaking my fist in the air as I left Hoagie’s Heroes for the last time.
Chapter 13
The second week of summer school had me cursing myself for thinking that sitting in a classroom in the middle of summer was a good idea. If the rooms were air-conditioned, it would be one thing, but the small class was trapped in a cinder block with nothing more than a few fans to cool us. One of my classmates who I couldn’t recall seeing before, though that could have been the heat getting to me, complained about the fans. “It’s messing up my sinuses. It’s making my nostrils dry. Can’t we just go outside?” he asked. We all laughed at him. Outside was not an option because it was July. There would be no breeze or shade, it would just be sitting on the dirt while we baked ourselves to death.
The days in class were also becoming excruciating because as much as I thought I would love to write poetry, I failed to think about how bad at it I was. Pushing words out and writing them down to make anything resembling a poem was nearly impossible. I was also distracted by the idea of sitting in a cold room with a view of enormous lush trees and rain on the windowpa
ne. I could not wait until I was sitting in a classroom in Pittsburgh.
Ms. Salvatore let the class out early. It was visibly apparent that she was not enjoying the heat either. The beads of sweat kept presenting themselves as reminders that we should be doing anything else besides talking about poetry. I decided that since there were only a few days left of the class, I needed to catch Ms. Salvatore in a conversation.
“Ms. Salvatore. Can I talk to you for a second?” I asked. She was pushing her books and binders in a leather bag that I made a mental note as something I needed to get after I moved. “Absolutely. What’s going on? Angela? Right?” “Yes. I was just wondering how you liked Manere,”
“Oh gosh” she wiped the sweat from her brow “it definitely takes some adjusting but I like it alright”
“Can I ask you how you moved here? We don’t get many people who just move from other places. Most of the people have lived here their whole lives. The other ones only come because they have no place to go. You’re a teacher though, and a poet so I figured you would want to live in a big city. If this is all too personal, you can shut me up right now. Sorry,”
“Oh, that’s quite all right Angela. Well, the truth is, um. I was just tired of my life and I guess I wanted to be somewhere that was my own. I don’t have a lot of family, as you know. I lost my foster sister about ten years ago. It was a shock, and I had been traveling when it happened, so it was tough. I also have had a few terrible relationships with men in the last decade or two so going to the middle of the desert didn’t seem like the worst possibility. Look at me going on with my student. Boundaries, I apologize,”
“How are you going to keep being a poet? This isn’t exactly the most literate town,”
“I’m not worried about that. Even in the bigger cities, it’s tough being a poet. There aren’t a lot of readers these days. I enjoy how simple things are here and I don’t need much,”
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