The Day Bob Greeley Died

by Kimberly A Bettes

  Frank glanced back to the group at the soda counter. They spoke in hushed tones, undoubtedly talking about Claire Murphy and her secret relationship with Bob Greeley.

  “Frank,” Sara said without looking up from the shelf she was currently studying. “Where are the bandages?”

  “Top shelf. Behind you.”

  He watched as Sara whirled around quickly and picked up a tin of bandages. She walked directly to the register and handed them to Frank. He swallowed hard as he punched the numbers into the register with sweaty hands. This woman sure made him nervous.

  Trying to keep things friendly, Frank asked, “Everything okay?”

  Shaking her head and digging through her pocketbook, Sara said, “No. Henry cut himself on a glass and we’re fresh out of bandages. Isn’t that the way?”

  “Sure seems to be.”

  Frank told Sara the total just as the group at the soda counter got loud.

  Sara glanced at them over her shoulder before asking Frank, “How much did you say?”

  “Thirty cents.”

  She counted out the change and handed it to Frank. As he put it in the register, she picked up the tin of bandages and asked, “What are they saying about Claire?”

  Frank opened his mouth to reply, but before he could utter a word, Maude spoke over him.

  “Let’s go. Right now. Let’s just go over there and talk to her,” Maude said.

  Sara clutched her purse and her tin of bandages as she turned to face Maude. “Claire’s not home.”

  Leroy, Miriam, and Maude all looked at Sara before exchanging puzzled expressions with one another.

  “What do you mean Claire’s not home?” Maude asked.

  “She’s not home. She’s at work.”

  “Where does she work?” Maude pressed.

  “She’s a waitress at a restaurant over in Hoxton. She works all day on Saturday, and she won’t be home until late tonight.”

  “How long has she worked over there?” Miriam asked.

  With a shrug of her shoulders, Sara answered, “A few weeks I suppose.”

  As soon as Sara finished that sentence, the power went out. Everyone in the store looked up at the ceiling, at the now dark bulbs nestled in their fixtures. The sudden silence of the store was eerie, the motors of the refrigerated ice cream machines no longer humming.

  Sara turned back to Frank and said, “I’ve got to get these to Henry.” She hurriedly walked to the door, calling out her thanks to Frank as she went.

  After Sara was gone and the bell above the door had stopped ringing, Maude turned to Miriam and put her hands on her hips, the movement making the excess weight on her arms wiggle.

  Quietly, Miriam said, “He’s there. He’s at her house right now. He’s at her house almost every day.” She paused before adding, “He has been for a few weeks.”

  “But if she’s not there, if Claire’s at work over in Hoxton, why would he be there?” Leroy asked.

  Turning to Leroy, Miriam shook her head. “I don’t know. But he’s there. I saw him with my own eyes. He drove right past my house and pulled into her driveway. I’ve seen him do it dozens of times in the last month.”

  “It just doesn’t make any sense,” Leroy said.

  Frank walked back across the store and took his place behind the soda counter once more. He pushed the glasses up his nose and folded his arms across his chest. He considered what Sara had said, and then came up with a possible reason for the confusion.

  “Maybe Claire isn’t at work today.”

  “Sara said she was,” Maude retorted.

  “She could be wrong,” Frank suggested. “Maybe Claire usually works Saturdays but isn’t working today. Or maybe she got sick and stayed home.”

  “Maybe Bob just goes down to her house while she’s at work so he can relax.”

  “Now, Leroy,” Maude snapped. “Why would he do that? Why wouldn’t he just relax at home? In his own house?”

  Leroy shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe his wife nags him.”

  Miriam glared at Leroy. “Grace isn’t a nag. She’s a quiet woman. And why wouldn’t she be? He’s beaten her into submission over the years.” She put her hands on her hips in a huff and shifted her weight from one leg to the other.

  “I still can’t believe Bob would hit his wife,” Leroy said quietly, more to himself than anyone else. He stared at the floor, trying to imagine Bob in a fit of rage. It was virtually impossible because he’d never even seen Bob come close to getting angry, much less furious.

  “Well believe it,” Miriam said. Then she softly added, “You should’ve seen her.” Miriam reached up and touched her face gently with her fingertips, trying to imagine what it must have felt like for Grace to be struck by the man who had sworn to love her forever. To have damage inflicted upon her by the very hands that had surely at some point in their relationship held her, caressed her.

  “Why do you suppose the power’s out?” Maude asked Frank, changing the subject.

  Frank shrugged his thin shoulders and pushed the glasses up his nose again. “Could be an overload. I imagine every fan in the county’s running today.”

  “I hope it comes back on soon. I just can’t take the heat.” Maude fanned herself with her hand, even though the temperature in the store hadn’t dropped a single degree. Yet.

  Chapter 16

  When Emma first opened her eyes, she was confused. The confusion was brief though, as she quickly remembered how she came to be on the couch. She spent so much of her time in bed these days, it was rare to wake to anything other than the four walls and ceiling of her bedroom.

  Slowly, she sat up and rubbed her eyes. She didn’t dare move too fast or rub too hard, as that would chance bringing the headache back with full force, and that was something she absolutely did not want to do.

  With a dry mouth, Emma stood and made her way to the kitchen for a glass of water. She filled a glass from the faucet and dropped in a couple of cubes of ice from the freezer. She aimed the fan toward her and leaned against the counter, where she drank until the glass was empty. As she tilted her head back to drain the glass, the blades of the fan stopped turning. She lowered her head and looked at it, wondering why it stopped.

  She set the empty glass in the sink, taking one of the pieces of ice and popping it into her mouth. Then she went across the room and checked the fan. She saw nothing wrong and assumed the motor must’ve burned out. After unplugging the fan, Emma went into the living room to stand in front of the fan in there. To her dismay, the fan in the living room wasn’t working either.

  Emma wanted to get to the bottom of this mystery, but the heat was already wearing on her again, removing all traces of the affect the bath had had on her. Sweat beads popped out on her upper lip, and the back of her neck grew damp.

  She remembered that she had to go to the pharmacy for more Anacin, and decided that now was the best time to go. Her headache — though never truly gone — wasn’t bothering her as much at the moment, and she was getting hotter by the second. The thought of sitting in the cool air of the pharmacy and drinking a cold Coke was enough to make her grab her purse and head out the door.

  Before stepping out into the bright midday sun, Emma donned her sunglasses and wide-brimmed hat. Going out without either of them would’ve been instant pain. She’d learned a long time ago that sudden, bright lights induced a terrible headache.

  On the way to her car, Emma glanced across the road to the church, where Gerald and Ollie were painting. She passed the car and walked across the dirt road, purse on her arm and puffs of dust under her feet.

  “Hello, boys.”

  “Hey, Emma,” said Ollie. “How’re you feeling?”

  “Not too bad at the moment. And yourself?”

  “Oh I’m fine. Hotter than I’d like to be.”

  “It is certainly hot, that’s for sure. How’s Andrew?”

  “He had a stomach ache this morning, but we checked on him when we stopped for lunch a little bit ago a
nd he was fine. He was making a card to cheer up his friend Sue.”

  “Sue?”

  “Sue Murphy. A girl in his class.”

  “I don’t guess I know who that is. I don’t believe I know any Murphy.”

  “Andrew said she hasn’t lived her for long. Apparently the kids tease her at school, so he’s making a card to cheer her up.”

  “Well that’s mighty nice of him. I bet it’s a beautiful card too.”

  “It is. He drew a picture of her holding lemon lollipops. They’re her favorites.” Ollie smiled, obviously proud of his thoughtful son.

  “She’s just going to love that then. He’s such a good boy, Ollie. You two have done a marvelous job raising him.” She turned her attention to her husband, who was moving his ladder. “You fellas think you’ll be done with this today?”

  Gerald glanced at her. “Oh sure. We’re pretty darn close to being done now. And it’s a good thing too, what with the storm coming and all.”

  Emma looked at the sky. “It is clouding up, isn’t it? Maybe we’ll finally get some rain.”

  “We could use it. Fill the wells back up and water the gardens.” After getting the ladder the way he wanted it, Gerald looked at Emma. He noticed the purse on her arm and asked, “Where you off to?”

  “I’m going to the pharmacy. I need more Anacin.”

  “You don’t have to do that. You go on back to bed and rest. I’ll go get it for you. I promised Ollie here I’d take him for an ice cream when we finish, so I can get it then. Unless you need it sooner.”

  “No, no. I want to go. I want to sit in the cool air and have a Coke. Talk to Frank a little bit. Just get out of the house, you know.”

  “Maude’s at the pharmacy,” Ollie said.

  “See? I’ll talk to Maude while I’m there. It’ll be fun.” She smiled broadly at Gerald, melting his heart.

  “If you’re sure you’re up to it…” He still wasn’t convinced that letting her drive to town was a good idea. Especially knowing she was going to be around Maude when she got there. Maude was a good woman, but she was known to get rather loud. That would possibly bring about Emma’s fifth headache of the week, and that was the last thing Gerald wanted to happen. But what was he going to do? Emma was trapped in the house most of the time, stuck in bed and racked with pain. He couldn’t say no to her.

  “I am. I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me.”

  “I will anyway.”

  “I know.” Emma closed the distance between herself and Gerald. “But I’ll be fine. I won’t be long.”

  Gerald kissed her on the cheek. “Be careful. If you get a headache while you’re there, have Maude bring you home. Don’t try to drive.”

  “I won’t.” She smiled at Gerald and walked away, heading back across the road and to her car. She glanced over her shoulder and said, “The fan in the kitchen isn’t working.”

  “I’ll look at it later,” Gerald said. “Bye.”

  “Bye,” Emma said as she walked away, eager to feel the cool air of the pharmacy on her skin and the delicious taste of a cold Coca-Cola as it swished across her tongue. She smiled as she got in the car, the first time she’d smiled in a while. If the headache stayed at the level it was at currently, she could possibly enjoy the rest of the day. And that was something she didn’t get to do very often.

  Chapter 17

  When Sara walked into the bar, she didn’t see Henry. She stood just inside the front door until her eyes adjusted to the dark room. It was normal for the bar to be dark, but not this dark. The power outage had plunged the bar from dim light to no light, making it much darker than usual. The windows were covered with dark red curtains, so virtually no light could find its way inside.

  “Henry,” Sara called out as she pulled apart the curtains on the window next to the door, allowing some sunlight to enter. After pulling back the curtains on the next set of windows, she could see across the room now all the way to the bar, where Henry should’ve been waiting for her but wasn’t. “Henry, where are you?” A muffled curse word came from the back room, so Sara quickly headed back there, worried that something worse than a cut on the hand had happened to her husband.

  Henry stood with a flashlight in his mouth, the beam aimed at the fuse box. He still held the cloth against the palm of his hand, waiting for Sara to return with the bandages or for the bleeding to stop, whichever came first.

  “Here. Give me your hand.”

  Sara took Henry’s wounded hand in hers and applied the bandage. “What are you doing back here?”

  Henry took the flashlight out of his mouth with his free hand. “We lost power. I’m checking the fuses. But I can’t find anything wrong.”

  “You won’t find anything wrong with it.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Still working on his hand, Sara replied, “The power went out over at the pharmacy while I was there. It must be out all over town.”

  Staring at the top of her head, Henry said, “Huh. Well I guess that explains it.”

  Finished with the bandage, Sara looked up at Frank and smiled. “I guess it does.”

  Enveloped in an awkward silence, the two walked back into the empty bar room. It was finally Henry who spoke first, saying, “Thank you for getting the bandages for me.”

  “No problem. I didn’t know we were out or I would’ve bought some sooner.”

  Henry nodded. The two stood only a couple of feet apart, and for the first time in a long time, it didn’t feel like miles. Henry wanted to hug her close to him. He wanted to kiss her, to make love to her. He hadn’t wanted to do any of those things for such a long time, and he wasn’t really sure why he wanted to now. Maybe it was because after all this time, she showed an emotion for him other than annoyance. She showed that she did still care for him. He had seen it in her eyes when she saw his blood. In that moment, when she saw that he was injured and he needed her, she sprang into action without a second thought. Nothing else had mattered except him and his health.

  That warm and fuzzy feeling he had when he’d first met her was back. It showed itself in the butterflies in his stomach, the sweat on his palms, and the racing of his heart.

  Suddenly, he was overwhelmed with the urge to act on this feeling, to do something. So he pulled Sara into him and kissed her like he hadn’t kissed her in years. When she returned his kiss and wrapped her arms around his neck, the butterflies became birds, flapping their wings against the lining of his stomach, and he felt as if this was his first kiss.

  Lost in the moment, he didn’t notice the whiskey on her breath, or the smell of Jack Lee’s cologne clinging to her clothes and hair as he’d earlier feared he might. All he thought about was the feel of her breasts pressed against his chest, and the way her tongue wound around his.

  Sara pulled away from Henry’s kiss and stared into his eyes. “I’m sorry,” she said. “For everything.”

  Henry nodded. “Let’s just start over. Get things back to the way they should be.”

  “I’d like that.” Sara ran her hands down Henry’s chest and smiled. “I’ve missed you.”

  “I’ve missed you too.”

  Henry leaned in to kiss Sara again, but stopped when the front door of the bar opened. The room brightened, and Henry looked over to see a couple entering the bar, laughing.

  “Sorry. The power’s out. We’re going to shut it down until it comes back on.” Leaving Sara standing by the bar, Henry walked across the room. After ushering the thirsty patrons out, he shut and locked the door. He pulled close the curtains that Sara had opened moments earlier, and then used the flashlight to return to the bar, where Sara stood waiting for him.

  “What are we going to do now?”

  “I know what we could do,” Sara said as she grabbed Henry’s crotch.

  And just like that, Henry was swept away in a flood of emotions and feelings that he hadn’t experienced in a long time. From head to toe, he tingled, aching to touch his wife and to have her touch him. He’d pushed th
ose feelings so far down for so long that they didn’t merely bubble to the surface. They erupted.

  In a flash, Henry was atop Sara on the pool table, and both were undressed. It’s there that he feverishly made love to his wife for the first time in a long time.

  The bar room filled with grunts and groans and the smell of sex and sweat. Henry enjoyed every second of it, relished it.

  The sudden turn of events left him shocked and rendered him speechless. It all happened so fast, his head spun. Yet he couldn’t keep from smiling as what felt like the weight of the world lifted from his shoulders.

  When it was over and the two were separate beings once more, Sara said, “I just want you to know that I never…I never did that with anyone else. You know. While we’ve been married.”

  Henry fastened his pants and nodded. There were many nights when he had lain in bed unable to sleep, wondering if she’d been unfaithful to him. He’d never been sure, and had at times nearly been consumed with the notion that she had. The thought of his wife being with another man in that way threatened to drive him crazy. But now that she said she’d remained loyal, he believed her.

  After he fastened his pants, he kissed her on the forehead and helped her off the pool table.

  “What do you want to do now?” Henry asked, trying to get his breathing back to normal. “Go home?’

  “No. It’s hot there. It’s cooler at the pharmacy.”

  “You said the power’s out there too.”

  “It is, but it hasn’t been for very long. It’s still cool inside. Cooler than in here or at our house. We could sit in there and drink a soda. Maybe visit with the others.”

  Henry nodded, surprised to hear her suggest social interaction with other people. Usually, unless it was a man she was flirting with, she kept to herself. He took this as a good sign. Maybe they really could start fresh. “Okay. Let’s do that.”