Cry Baby Hollow

by Love, Aimee

  “Roger,” he said, pulling off the cover easily. Waves of steam came roiling out and he stuck a hand in the water to test the temperature. “It’s perfect,” he called in to her.

  It seemed to take Aubrey an eternity to dig out her bathing suit and pull it on. She closed the closet door and turned on the light, examining herself in the full length mirror for the first time since being home. Her body looked tone enough at first glance, but the scar on her neck was hideous. She felt like Frankenstein’s monster with her oddly mismatched flesh. She also had a puckered line down her side, bright white against her olive skin, and another that ran horizontally below her left breast, where a feeding tube had been inserted to keep her alive until she could eat again. There was also the small matter of the chuck missing from her right leg. She felt like she should be going to Vina’s Halloween party without a costume this year.

  She peaked out the bathroom door, checking to make sure Matt was nowhere in sight. She worked her way back to the hot tub and lowered herself into the water gratefully. Playing with the jets, she found just the right mix of bubbles and massage and leaned back, deciding this was the best idea ever. For the first time in a long time, nothing hurt. She wondered if they made motorized covers so she could do it herself every day. How much further would she be able to walk if she had this to look forward to every night?

  “You want some company?” She heard someone call. Aubrey looked around, thinking it must be Matt from the front yard, but instead seeing Joe standing on the end of his dock, waving.

  Aubrey’s heart froze in her chest. She hadn’t seen him, except from a distance, since returning home. He’d been a gentleman and respected her desire to recover in private. And now this. She heard Matt’s footsteps on the deck and knew that Joe would be able to see him any second. She closed her eyes, unwilling to look at the expression on his face, and wished that the entire world would just go away and leave her in peace.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

  First thing the next morning Aubrey grabbed the tennis ball and her cane and headed out the door. She taped a note to it telling Lettie and whoever’s turn it was to del

  iver food where she was, then struck out purposefully.

  Aubrey arrived at Joe’s while it was still very early, mist heavy on the ground. She went up to the door to the RV and knocked. There was a long pause and then a slew of curses before the door finally opened.

  “Mornin’,” Joe said, forcing a grin. He was wearing nothing but boxers, which he’d apparently pulled on in haste, since they were inside out and backwards. The tag stuck out jauntily from just bellow his belly button, and Aubrey had to force herself not to laugh.

  “May I come in?” She asked.

  “Sure,” he told her, stepping out of her way and then struggling with whether or not he should offer to help. She eyed the fold down metal grate steps and then looked at her cane. Joe stuck out his hand and she took it, allowing him to hoist her up into the RV. Drake scampered up behind her, found a spot under the table, and curled himself into a little ball contentedly.

  Aubrey had never been inside before, and was surprised to find it tidy and uncluttered, if a little dated. The drivers and passenger seats at the front were stacked high with books and journals, but otherwise it reminded her a lot of a ship, with everything neatly in its place. Joe motioned her onto one of the benches in the built-in booth and puttered around with the coffee maker. She slid in and hunched down, pushing up her shoulders so that the collar of her jacket hid the scar on her neck.

  “You know you don’t owe me any kind a explanation,” Joe said. “I mean I’m glad to see you but…”

  Aubrey had worked on her speech all last night and then again on the walk over. She had it planned down to the word, including his interruptions and her insisting that he let her finish. In her mind, in all of the versions she had imagined, it always began just like this. With him telling her she didn’t need to apologize or explain.

  “God damn it, Joe,” she exploded, sick and tired of the words she’d imagined him saying so many times. “Can’t you just be pissed? I told you I wanted to get better alone. I told you that as soon as I was up to it I’d call you, and the next thing you know I’m in a hot tub with another man and his car is parked in the driveway all night. Yell at me! Hit me with my own cane!”

  “You came over so I’d yell at you?” Joe asked, giving up on the coffee and pulling a beer from the tiny fridge.

  “No,” Aubrey told him, crestfallen. “I came over knowing you’d be nice and understanding and I’d explain things and that would be that.”

  “But you’d feel better if I hit you with your cane?”

  “Maybe,” she admitted. “But probably only because I’m pretty sure I can take you, even as weak as I am.”

  “You think because I don’t scream at you I don’t care?”

  “No. I think you don’t scream at me because I’m damaged, and you don’t want to make it worse. Vina’s the only person who doesn’t treat me any differently.”

  “I ever yell at you or hit you with your cane before?” Joe asked pointedly.

  Aubrey shook her head.

  “I didn’t have the cane before,” she pointed out. “But you yelled at Matt, so you are capable.”

  “Yeah, and look how well that worked out. He yells back that you’re fine and the doctors have checked you out and yet here I am, months later, not gettin’ laid.”

  “I don’t think I got septicemia because you yelled at Matt,” Aubrey said with a grin.

  “Well it didn’t help none, that’s for sure.” He was silent for a moment. “Did he really spend the night?” He finally asked.

  “In the loft, which I can’t reach.”

  “You gonna give me your explanation now? I can feel the rage bubblin’ up…”

  Aubrey explained about waking up and seeing the people on the dock.

  “People plural?”

  “There were four and maybe a dog,” she told him.

  “You call the police? You know Larry is acting sheriff now, so even if the state police aren’t close, you could call him.”

  “And say what? Arrest anyone you see out walking a dog? They were already walking away when I saw them. They’d have been gone before anyone could get here.”

  “So you called Heck? In Knoxville? Any particular reason you called him instead of me?”

  Aubrey bit her lip.

  “He has access to lots of guns and you don’t.”

  “He got anything else I don’t?”

  Aubrey shook her head.

  “I got somethin’ for you. I was gonna stick it in your mailbox, but I didn’t wanna get blown up,” he grinned and reached over to the counter, picking up a business card and handing it to Aubrey.

  She looked at it and didn’t know if she wanted to laugh or cry.

  “He’s the best in LA. The plastic surgeon to the stars. I had Germaine get it from Lilli. She said she can get you in.”

  “You’ve met Lilli?” Aubrey asked, surprised. Lilli didn’t often come home for visits.

  “Only in my dreams,” Joe said with a sigh.

  Aubrey picked up her cane and poked him playfully.

  “It doesn’t mean I think you need it, you understand,” he told her, suddenly serious. “I just thought it might make you feel better.”

  Aubrey nodded and stuck the card into her pocket.

  “My Dad had a brain tumor when I was a kid,” he told her quietly. “They took out part of his skull, I guess to relieve the pressure. Anyway, I thought it was pretty cool. I mean, I was just a kid and the idea that my dad didn’t have part of his skull was awesome to me. I wanted to look at it, but he would always pull away from me. He didn’t even like to be in the same room cause he knew I was staring.”

  “Finally, my mom bought
him a baseball cap. After that, everything was fine. I didn’t stare anymore and he didn’t have to be embarrassed. Anyway, I just mean… I’ve seen your scars. I watched ‘em change your bandages. To me getting’ em fixed would be like you puttin’ on a baseball cap. I’m not sayin’ you should. The only reason I care if you do is ‘cause it might let you be in the same room with me.”

  “Unfortunately, they don’t make baseball caps that cover your entire body,” Aubrey said. “What happened to your Dad?”

  “The tumor came back and he died.”

  “That’s not a happy story, Joe.”

  “Yeah, sorry. I got a limited number of happy sick people stories to draw from, and I already told you all of ‘em in the hospital.”

  Aubrey laughed.

  “You should do that more often,” Joe told her.

  She nodded.

  “You still doin’ the alone thing?” He asked.

  She nodded again.

  Joe drummed his fingers on the table. “Any idea how long it’s gonna last?”

  “I’ve decided I have to stop feeling sorry for myself when I can make it all the way around the lake.”

  Joe scoffed. “It’s a big lake,” he told her incredulously.

  “I can already make it to Wayne’s,” Aubrey said, stretching the truth a tad. She could already make it to within sight of Wayne’s was more accurate.

  “That isn’t even halfway,” Joe said with a groan. “You know I was just teasin’ about not gettin’ laid, right? We don’t have to do nothin’ if you don’t feel up to it. I just want to see you, and it ain’t the same with binoculars.” He was leaning against the counter, fidgeting with his beer.

  Aubrey stood laboriously and stepped over, using the furniture for support. “I miss you, too,” she said, leaning over to give him a kiss.

  “Hold that thought,” he said, slipping away. “ I gotta find somethin’.” He disappeared behind the RVs only door and returned a moment later with a bandana in his hand. He folded it into a triangle, then folded the tip down again and again until he had a long, narrow band of cloth. He held it over his eyes and tied it in the back. “Gimme your hand,” he told her.

  “What are you doing?” She asked.

  “Come on, just gimme your damn hand.”

  She reached out and took his hand. He pulled her gently against him and kissed her, hard.

  “You can go back to bein’ alone tomorrow,” he breathed. “You’re takin’ today off.”

  “Joe…”

  “I can’t see any scars,” he said, grinning mischievously as he groped his way toward the bedroom, dragging her along behind. “And I don’t care how fast you can run, ‘cause I’d really rather you didn’t.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

  Monday morning Aubrey got to work. She had a lot to do before the stair guy came that afternoon. She checked the load on the M9, fifteen rounds including the one in the chamber, and put in a shoulder holster under her jacket. Then she grabbed an old grocery bag and filled it with three empty dog food cans from the trash. Grabbing the tennis ball, she called Drake and they headed over to Joe’s.

  He was wrong when he said Wayne’s wasn’t even halfway. He ha

  dn’t taken into account the fact that she was turning and walking back, doubling the distance. When she could get as far as Vina’s, she wouldn’t have to turn, she could walk around the lake to get home. She knew she was only a week or two away from that, if she pushed herself, but today she wasn’t going to.

  When she got to Joe’s, she walked out onto the dock and dropped a can at its beginning, middle, and end. Drake stuck his muzzle into one, trying to lick out any leftovers, but she distracted him by throwing the ball and then headed home.

  Back at the cabin, she sat down at the computer and pulled up her security system. She disabled all the cameras except hers and Joe’s, since they weren’t helping her anyway, and cranked up the sensitivity on those. Only having three active cameras meant she had the disk space to make it acceptable, though it would still only hold about three night’s worth of footage before it started copying over itself.

  She disconnected the security system from the computer, so that it had to be accessed manually by plugging a wire in, inside her house, and then logged onto Amazon and ordered a new iPad with the fastest shipping they had, giving them Lettie’s house as the shipping address. She called Vina while she waited for Lettie to make her daily appearance.

  “I’m going to try to rig some exploding pumpkins for the party,” she said, as soon as Vina answered. “Like the mailbox. But I don’t want to hurt anyone so I need to run some tests with the detonators. Can you pass the word along not to worry if they hear any loud bangs from my place for the next couple of days?”

  “Sure,” Vina told her. “So I see you and the cute G-man have moved up to sleepovers. You know, Joe ain’t an idiot. You can’t tell him you need time alone on account of your all broken now and then go and have a dirty weekend with some other stud. That don’t work when you live right next door from somebody.”

  Aubrey massaged her temple in little circles.

  “Only I guess you must be really good in bed on account of he took you back quick enough.”

  Aubrey wondered if it was worth explaining and decided against it. Vina would believe what she wanted to regardless of what Aubrey told her.

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” she said. “Can you call off my keepers now? I don’t need the food or the people following me when I walk anymore. Tell them I appreciate it, but I’m getting much better.”

  “I guess so, two guys in one weekend. Sheesh. You want me to tell Erma to stop the groceries too?”

  Erma had been picking up dog food and other essentials for her and delivering them a few times a week. Aubrey thought about it. She could wear a turtleneck or scarf to cover her neck, since the weather was cooler now, but it would still mean hobbling through the Food Lion while everyone tried not to stare at her.

  “Ask her if she can keep it up a few more weeks,” she decided. “I can make a list of food and pay her when she drops it off. Do you think that’ll be okay?”

  “Sure. You need anything in the meantime? You got enough to eat before her next trip?”

  “Emaline already dropped off today’s meals,” Aubrey told her. “And my freezer is full of frozen dinners and leftovers. I’ll be fine.”

  “You aren’t gonna go all hermit on us now, are you? You know the last hermit we had around here got lynched,” Vina cautioned.

  “Skinner killed his wife and daughters. I’m not planning any rampages any time soon, so I should be safe. I’m just getting a lot more active and I don’t want to keep having to be around to meet people.”

  “More active? That ain’t what they called what you’ve been up to in my day, lemme tell you.”

  “Don’t forget about the pumpkins,” Aubrey warned and then hung up before Vina could make any more lewd insinuation.

  Lettie showed up twenty minutes later, all a twitter about the pumpkins. Aubrey had no idea what system they used for communication. Did Vina call a few people and then let it trickle out from them or did she call everyone individually? Whatever they did, Aubrey thought the government should be studying it as a model for crisis relief. It spread like wildfire.

  “Make sure you warn me about which ones they are,” Lettie told her seriously. “It’ll be fun to watch, but I don’t want pumpkin to get all on my party dress.”

  Lettie had been a librarian before she retired, and looked every inch the part. She was tiny and erect, with bright white hair that was always tied up in a tight little bun with a pencil stuck through it.

  “I don’t know if I have enough time to get them ready for this year’s party,” Aubrey told her. “Since it’s only a few days away, but I’ll be sure to warn you if I do
.”

  Aubrey took her over to the sofa so they could have a talk. She told her about the iPad she’d ordered for her and how it could connect to the internet just like a cell phone so she wouldn’t have to worry about coming over in person to help out, careful to stress that she wasn’t doing it because she didn’t enjoy Lettie’s visits, just that she was planning on starting to drive again soon and didn’t want to have to keep to a schedule. When she pointed out that now Lettie could surf her forums and chat rooms to her heart’s content, the older woman beamed.

  “I also arranged for a paycheck for you to be delivered every two weeks.” She held up her hand to stop the inevitable protest. “The store would have gone under if you hadn’t helped out while I was sick,” Aubrey pointed out. “And now that we’re both working, it’s doing twice as well as it was. You’ve brought in a lot of new business and cut the turnaround time in half. Besides, you’re so much better with the German distributers than I am.”

  Lettie accepted the praise and her new position as Aubrey’s official assistant graciously and looked at her watch. “When do you suppose the UPS people will bring it?” She asked sheepishly.

  Aubrey laughed. “Tomorrow.” She told Lettie that she’d already handled all the days orders and that she was going to the shed to work on the pumpkins, walking out with her and making sure she was really and truly gone before getting to work.

  The builder had promised to call when he was thirty minutes away, but even if they didn’t, they weren’t due for several hours. Aubrey went into the closet and came back with the M4.

  She lowered herself down onto the floor by the back slider and braced her right foot against its frame, crossing her left in front of her. Using her right knee to steady her arm, she pushed the door open a few inches and stuck the barrel out. She checked the load and safety, and then sighted down the barrel. It would have been better, she knew, to practice with the night scope after dark, but she didn’t want whoever was skulking around out there to know she had the big gun, and she could never be sure when they might be watching. The middle of the day, with all the residents of the hollow bustling around, seemed best.