by Lila Felix
“Nice truck.” I said, breaking the silence I swore I would keep, but it was driving me up the wall.
“Thanks. I’m glad you like it. Well, here we are.” He pointed at a small white house, older, but not too old. He pulled into the driveway and I got out and reached for my suitcase and headed for the front door.
“Um, Cooper,” he said as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Look, your mother said that you were a pretty responsible kid, real independent and so I thought maybe you would want to stay in the apartment above the garage. It’s not much, but maybe you would be more comfortable there while we get to know each other.”
I nearly dropped my suitcase on my own feet, but I was soooo playing this cool.
“Yeah, that’s cool. Thanks. You live here by yourself?”
He laughed and said, “Yeah, I’m an old bachelor.” He started to look uncomfortable.
“So, um, yeah, I usually work nights and the plant is about an hour away so I will be gone from about seven at night until seven in the morning. If I work overtime, maybe longer.”
“Oh, ok, that’s fine. School?” I questioned.
“Yeah, I already signed you up and they are ready for you. And, um, I don’t want you to have to ride the bus, so you can use this.”
He walked towards the garage and unlocked a padlock and opened it.
He pushed the garage doors open and I nearly fell to my knees.
It was a 1971 Hemi Cuda, blue and silver and she was a beauty to behold.
Eric chuckled as he gauged my reaction. “You gonna be alright there kid?”
I had to inhale first. “Yeah, that’s some sick car.”
“Yeah, it was mine when I was a kid and my Mom held on to it for me. I recently had it painted.”
He threw me the keys and said, “Stay careful and don’t take advantage of the fact that you have your own place and I work nights, ok?”
I nodded and said, “Yeah, that’s fine.”
He clapped me on the back and walked towards the house and then stopped swiftly.
“I’m glad you came, son.” And then he continued walking and shut the front door behind him.
Remi
We were almost there. The bus was taking us to Baton Rouge, but then my Aunt Brenda was picking me up from the bus station and driving me to where she lived. It was Saint something or other…I couldn’t remember. The whole way Edith, the older lady with the medicine cabinet, had managed to pry my whole life story from me.
I don’t know how she did it as I usually didn’t talk much about my family or my Mom or him.
But every time I would wince at her asking a question, she would say it was ‘ok’ and pat my leg and then I would end up spilling my guts. I don’t know how she did it, but she did it well. That woman could pry State secrets from the President, I was sure.
She was such a lovely lady and I was never going to see her again, so it didn’t matter. I went on and on about how my Mom was overwhelmed and worked her tail off and how Tuesday had sticky fingers and shoplifted every chance she got. She was really a pro by now and had only gotten caught twice. But she did it daily. I told her about how my Dad was a drunk and he left us when I was eight and I hadn’t seen him since. I told her how my Mom preached this semi-feminism to me and how I couldn’t trust any of the male species…ever.
I wasn’t perfect by a long shot. I hated school. It was the bane of my existence but I went every day and tried to make decent grades so that it would be one less thing for Mom to worry about. I did it for her and her only. If it were up to me, I would probably get my GED and go to school and study American History. It was the only class in school that I liked and I read biographies and history books in my spare time.
I was in the middle of a tangent about how much I love history when the bus stopped and I looked out to see a sign that said ‘Baton Rouge’. I looked over to Edith and she was gathering her things to get out. She looked at me and gave me a half sad smile and said, “It was so nice meeting you dear. Don’t let the mistakes of your parents be yours too.”
I debussed and was met right outside the doors by a woman with black hair and the sweetest smile. It was contagious. I smiled back at her and she hugged me until I feared for the welfare of my innards. She touched my face and said, “Oh, aren’t you a doll?”
I shrugged and she waved me off like I didn’t know what I was talking about.
We got my monstrous suitcase from the baggage claim outside the bus and made our way to her car.
I scanned the parking lot for Edith, just to wave goodbye, but she was already getting into a taxi and he was taking care of her suitcase.
We got into Aunt Brenda’s older model compact car and headed towards her house.
She asked if I was hungry, but I wasn’t. I was just tired and ready to get settled.
“Oh Remi, this whole thing is going to work out, I can feel it.” She gushed.
“I hope so.” I wasn’t as enthused, but it didn’t bring down her giddiness. I rode most of the way with my forehead leaned against the windows.
We pulled into her driveway. She lived in a smaller khaki colored house with red shutters and a red door. There were hanging baskets on the porch with flowers and plants in them. There were flower beds lining the walkway and circular ones in the front yard. It was certainly nicer than I was used to.
I smiled at her and she hugged my shoulder with her hand.
“It’s gonna be ok Remi. We’re gonna be just fine.”
“Ok, I hope so.” I whispered. I got out of the car and went to retrieve my suitcase from the back of the car and brought it into the house. It was small, but tidy and it was simple. No knick knacks or tons of pictures or worse, fake flowers.
“Ok Remi, your room is in the back on the left.” She pointed down the hall.
“Thank you, for taking me in.”
She didn’t move to hug me, which I appreciated. Mom must’ve told her that I wasn’t really the touchy feely type.
I walked into my room, unpacked, found the bathroom, took a shower and then passed out on the bed without even turning down the comforter.
Cooper
I woke up the next morning to the sound of some kind of power saw. And every time it would stop, I would fall back asleep only to be jolted wide awake by the next slicing of the wood.
“Mom sent me to live with a carpenter.” I groaned.
I stretched my muscles and threw on an old Pearl Jam t shirt and a pair of cargo shorts and went to see who the carpenter was and how I could make him stop. A quick look at my watch told me that it was only six thirty in the morning…on a Saturday.
I walked down the stairs, taking two at a time, from my apartment to where the sound was coming from. There was a small red shed outside in the corner of the chain link fenced yard with the doors wide open and The Doobie Brothers were blasting in between sawing.
He had to like the same music as me right? I couldn’t just be his opposite so I could hate him the easy way.
I walked into the shed carefully. I didn’t want to be the victim of a runaway piece of wood or nail. Hanging from the ceiling were chairs and little tables and water wells. They were hanging everywhere with price tags hanging on them.
A throat cleared. “Mornin’ Cooper”
I met his gaze and nodded and said “A very early Saturday mornin’”
He chuckled and put away whatever he was working on.
I pointed to the ceiling and the hanging furniture.
“These are cool. You make all this stuff?”
He looked up to where I was pointing and said, “Yeah, make it all myself. In fact, we are going to the flea market up in town to sell some of it today. They only have it on Saturdays and it brings in a good bit of money. If you help, you can earn some gas money.”
“Yeah, hey, I’m starving. Got anything for breakfast?”
He shook his head and laughed and said “We’ll grab something on the way. We leave in about an hour. And we need to load all of
this stuff into the truck.”
“Yeah, ok, can I go change and get a shower? You might lose customers the way I am now.”
“Get to it; we need to get our butts in gear. Booths are first come first serve at the flea market”
“Ok”
I ran up the stairs and realized halfway up that I hadn’t treated Eric the way I should’ve. I mean, I was nice to him. What the heck? I was supposed to hate him and be arrogant and selfish and mean. Oh who was I kidding? Mom said I didn’t have a mean bone in my body. And right now, I believed her.
When I got inside my apartment my phone was ringing and I answered it out of breath.
“Hello?”
“Cooper Richard Neal you did not call me last night when you got in from the airport and you didn’t call this morning. I have a mind to come over there and tear your…”
“Mom, I’m ok. I’m sorry. We got in late after eating in Baton Rouge and then I went straight to sleep and just woke up a few minutes ago.” I spewed it all out in one run-on sentence and in one breath.
“Ok, sorry, I just got a little frantic when you didn’t call. I was going to call your father next if you continued not to answer. “
“Sorry, Mom, but I really can’t talk right now either. We are going to the flea market. Eric makes all of this wooden furniture and I have to shower Mom. I will call you tonight. I promise.”
“Sure, sure. Fine, but if you don’t call me tonight so help me…”
“I will Mom, I love you, ok, gotta go.”
“Ok, love you too son, bye.”
I hung up and got some clothes and ran through a hot shower as fast as I could and was back outside in less than ten minutes. Eric had already loaded some of the furniture and I went to the shed to get a few pieces to help out. This way I could earn gas to put into that sweet ride.
We stopped at a little shack that looked like it had once been a bait shop or something. It was called the “Biscuit Shack” and we ate while we rode the rest of the way through the small town to the center where the flea market was. Booths with canopies covering them were lining the streets selling everything and anything.
Eric parked and we got out and started setting up the canopy first. Then we placed tables and furniture out and people came immediately and started looking. I had to admit, the guy made good stuff. I had to take my black rimmed glasses off several times to wipe off the sweat from my nose. I guess it could be worse.
Remi
After getting dressed I heard a knock at the bedroom door and flung it open right away. Aunt Brenda squealed and threw her arms in the air painting her ceiling and hallway walls with a good coat of creamed coffee. She put her hand across her chest and breathed in and out so heavily that I looked around for a phone to call 911.
“Goodness me, Remi, you scared the crap out of me. I expected to have to come in here and wake you up with my air horn.” She patted her pocket to show me that she did indeed have an air horn.
“No Ma’am, that’s Tuesday you must’ve been thinking about.”
“Ah, I see, well you’re already dressed. Want some breakfast? I made muffins and if you like coffee there’s to go cups in the cabinet above the coffee pot. Get that done while I clean up this coffee mess.”
“Where are we going?” I asked on my way to the kitchen.
“We are going up to the flea market. It’s really an open air market. People come and sell their homemade things. I thought we might look around. Get some lunch. After that we are going to visit an old friend of mine in the retirement home.”
“Yeah, sounds good.” I grabbed a muffin and skipped the coffee and grabbed a bottle of water instead.
We headed through town in her little car and parked in a field across from the school but near the canopies that marked the flea market. I got out of the car and wiped my sundress clean of muffin crumbs, grabbed my purse and started catching up with Aunt Brenda.
There were so many different booths. Some had fresh produce and baked goods, some had homemade soaps and lotions and we passed one that had chairs and little end tables that looked handcrafted.
We walked the length of the booths and then made a u-turn and made our way down the other side. We were walking through and talked about what to have for lunch when we stopped at the booth with the furniture.
“Well, Mrs. Lambert, how are you today?” The man asked my Aunt.
“I’m good Eric. Still working at the plant?” She said as she touched a small bookshelf.
“Yes Ma’am, still there and selling this stuff too. Oh, and this is my son, Cooper Neal.”
“Oh Eric, I didn’t know you had a son. Nice to meet you Cooper. This is my niece Remi Harris. Remi, I taught Eric Neal when he was in high school. Ain’t that right Eric?”
“Yeah, and I was a pain in her rear end too.”
I looked over and Cooper was already sizing me up. Oh, I knew this type. He was a girl chaser and heartbreaker for sure. He had on black rimmed glasses which preempted pale green eyes encircled with dark lashes. He wore a plain black t shirt and jeans that were slung low on his hips with a brown leather belt. He smiled, the way he probably smiles at every female prospect but I wasn’t buying it. I looked for a way out and spotted a vintage jewelry booth. He smiled at me but didn’t say anything and I almost fell over as if his smile had tilted the turn of the planet just a little. But Mr. Heartbreaker was not in my plan.
“Aunt Brenda, I’m going three booths down if you need me.”
“Ok, Remi. Do you need some money?”
“Nah, I’m just looking.”
“I’ll be there in a second,” she said and I nodded and walked away.
The vintage jewelry booth had tons of cool pieces and in particular I loved the cameo necklace, but instead of the regular peachy color, this one was black and white and on a red satin ribbon. The lady at the booth asked if I wanted to try it on, but I decided not to. I shouldn’t even be shopping until I got a job and some money in my pocket.
Aunt Brenda and I went to find something to eat. There were street vendors everywhere serving every kind of Cajun fare. I finally decided on jambalaya, which looked the most normal of any of the food and we found a table off to the side to sit at. We were sitting and eating and she gave me several suggestions as to where I could find a job and one of them was at the retirement home where we were going later. It sounded like a fun job, reading and playing cards with the older people.
As we were cleaning up the table, I looked around for a garbage can and had to do a double take. That Cooper guy, the one at the furniture booth was looking dead at me, or that’s what I thought. The tingles took over and I felt like every cell of my skin was buzzing. I looked behind me to see what he was staring at and when I returned back to him, he was looking down, eating. Wow, I’m imagining things.
I threw away our trash and Aunt Brenda and I decided to walk to the retirement home since it was so close. We walked in and it looked more like an indoor apartment building than a hospital. That’s what I thought it would be. There were quite a few cars in the parking lot, so I assumed the people here could come and go as they pleased. We walked down a long hallway and Aunt Brenda knocked on a door. After a few minutes, the door creaked open. After I looked around Aunt Brenda’s shoulder to see who it was, I saw Edith.
Cooper
I walked back to the booth with Eric’s plate lunch in my hand fuming…at myself. She saw me looking at her and like a spazoid I looked away. I had probably stared at her for ten minutes before she caught me. But God, she was gorgeous. She had long curly hair that was the color of a long burning fire braided over her shoulder. Not quite brown and not quite red. And she was wearing a cream colored dress that had reddish flowers on one side with flip flops on her feet. And she had some kind of silver bracelet around her ankle. I got one good look at her approaching the booth and I swear everything down to my toes was sweating. I couldn’t even say ‘hello’ or anything because I was afraid if I did, it would come out in a wave of �
��Biscuit Shack’ vomit. I smiled at her, but it was as if she was too beautiful for any words that could come out of my mouth. I never ever have gotten nervous around a girl…ever. I’m not a player, not even close to it, but I’ve been on my share of dates. But never have I broken out in a sweat just at the sight of a girl. Maybe it was just the heat down here. Yeah, that had to be it.
I dropped the plate lunch on the table by Eric and plopped down in the chair beside him.
“Um…thanks Cooper. What’s the matter with you?”
I just shrugged. I could be nice to this guy, but I was not talking to him about girls. Not gonna happen.
“Well, we’ve got a few more hours to go and then I’ve got to go to work tonight.”
“After working all day?” I asked. Certainly the guy had to sleep right?
“Yeah, Saturdays kick my butt hard. But I usually sleep all Sunday afternoon to make up for it.”
He shrugged and then ate his lunch.
After a few more hours we packed up the furniture back into the truck. Eric had sold a bunch, so we only had less than half to put back. I found myself looking around for something and it hadn’t registered what until Eric brought it up.
“Whatcha lookin’ for Cooper? A girl maybe? Maybe…I don’t know…Remi?”
“Pshhh…No, I don’t look for girls, they look for me.”
“Oh yeah, ‘cause from where I stand, you look like a goose with a rubber neck lookin’ for somethin’ or someone.”
“Whatever…” He chuckled at me as I tried, not so well, to be nonchalant about this whole thing, but truth be told I was looking for her. I was looked for a just a glance of her hair or those warm light brown eyes. Disappointed, I got back into Eric’s truck and we stopped at a local Diner, the Cast Iron Skillet, for dinner.
We stayed mostly silent during the meal except when we ordered. I thought for sure he was going to grill me about Mom or about growing up but he didn’t. I was relieved. Maybe he was only doing this out of a guilty conscience. Maybe he just wanted to say that he tried.
After eating, we paid the ticket and left. When we got home, not home, but his house, I went my way and he went his after we had unpacked the leftover furniture. A little while later I heard his truck come to life and looked out the window to see him with his uniform on, headed out to work.