Dancing Hours

by Jennifer Browning

  Boisterously, he lifted one hand and slapped it down on David’s shoulder. “I’m sure we could work out a package deal for you and your daughter.”

  David was startled from his reverie. “I’ll have to think about it and get back to you.”

  “Alright.” Said Tony “I’m sure I’ll see you again soon.”

  “How did you know I have a daughter?” David wanted to know

  “It’s a small town, Mr. Bastion. Everybody knows everything. Can’t keep a secret here to save your life.”

  “Heh.” David chuckled dryly, hoping it wasn’t true.

  “Here.” Tony said handing David two pieces of paper “The gym contract and dance class schedule.”

  David thanked him before resuming his jog. His muscles had tightened while he stood checking out the gym, but the stop was definitely worth it. He decided that it wouldn’t hurt to get to know Andy a little better. She would be leaving in the Fall, so there was no risk of getting involved in a tricky relationship. She probably thought of him as an old man anyway.

  He began noticing new things about her after that day. The way her hair was brown in some light and almost blonde in the sun. The way her eyes went from dark blue to deep gray. He knew that on her visits at his grandma’s house, he wanted to see her smile, which she did often.

  He made sure his work schedule had Saturdays off and he began to spend a little more time shaving on those days, spent a little longer lingering in the kitchen. His grandmother noticed, but was too polite to say anything. David was grateful for that.

  If he hadn’t been pretending to love the dishes the girls made for Jessica’s sake already, he would have done it for Andy. She made him enjoy just sitting and talking again – at least as much as they could do with a princess always dancing and singing nearby.

  By the time July rolled around, David knew he had to tell her how he felt. She would be leaving and she might reject him outright, but he had to say something. The 4th of July picnic at her house seemed perfect. It would be a social occasion, his grandmother could watch Jessica and under the cover of darkness he might not lose his courage.

  After his spat with Noah, they hadn’t talked much. David knew his brother had some stuff going on in his head that he didn’t want to talk about and they weren’t the kind of brothers that talked much about their feelings anyway. David knew that when it really mattered Noah was there – well, most of the time.

  Noah was home that morning when Jessica was helping their grandmother finish another peach cobbler to take to the party. The smell of warm peaches filled the house and wafted halfway across the lawn, promising to melt on the tongue with natural sweetness. Jessica was full of questions and excitement about fireworks when Noah sauntered into the kitchen and plopped down in a chair at the round table drawing a raised eyebrow from Mrs. Merchant.

  “Are there going to be pink ones?” Jessica wanted to know.

  “Maybe” David offered

  “What about purple ones?”

  “I don’t know, we’ll just have to wait and see.”

  Jessica looked unsatisfied with the answer. “Noah, do you know what color the fire mirks are going to be?”

  “Fire works” David corrected.

  “That’s what I said.” She put her hands on her hips.

  Noah cracked open a soda can before answering “I’ll bet they will have every color in the rainbow.”

  “Really?”

  “Maybe there will even be a light show with princesses and dragons and knights.” He stood up and mimed each of the characters to Jessica’s delight.

  Jessica looked like her head would explode with the possibility. Unfortunately, David knew that Noah was setting her up for disappointment. He would not be around when Jessica crashed from too much excitement, sugar and staying up too late and when she had a complete melt down because the fireworks were just plain and white.

  He tried to head off the inevitable let down “I think that might be a little fancier than we’re going to see here. They probably don’t have a big fireworks budget.”

  “What’s a budget?”

  “Why don’t we go watch fireworks in Greenville then?” Noah interrupted.

  “Because we’ve been invited to a party here.”

  “We have?”

  “Well, we have.” David motioned to the others in the room and himself.

  “Are you saying that I’m not invited to… where’s the party?”

  “Andy’s house. And I don’t know if you’ve been invited or not, but that’s where we’re going.”

  “Oh, I see. Well that sounds like fun. Grandma, do you have Andy’s number? I think I’ll call and find out if I’m invited.”

  David bristled at the idea.

  “Yay!” cheered Jessica “It’s going to be so much fun!” To prove her point, she began dancing around the house imitating the sound of fireworks.

  David didn’t see Noah again that day and began to think Noah was just bluffing about coming to the party which put his mind more at ease. Getting ready, he considered what he would say to Andy. “I like you.” seemed too juvenile. When nothing sounded right, he decided to play it by ear.

  He went to talk to Andy right away when he got there, but before he could really get a good read on the situation his brother showed up, no doubt looking for trouble. Or maybe he was just trying to piss David off. If so, it was working.

  David saw how Andy brightened when Noah walked up and he was crestfallen. She smiled and blushed and tucked her hair behind her ear. Had she ever reacted that way to him? No, he didn’t think so.

  Then, on the walk to the park to watch fireworks, she started asking questions about Noah. She wanted to know more about him. David felt a little betrayed by them both and he didn’t mean to, but he took it out on Andy – he did all but call her a foolish little girl for being interested in Noah. It was mean and he felt badly about it. Once he realized how mean he sounded, he stopped talking. Best thing to do when you’re in a hole is to stop digging is what his grandmother would say.

  Catching up to Noah and Jessica ahead, the whole scene seemed surreal to him. He recognized a large portion of the crowd from the grocery store, church, just from the street. In California, crowds gathered in huge fields or parking lots with thousands of strangers hoping to get a semi-decent glimpse of some fireworks – if they weren’t busy pretending to be too cool to watch at all. Here, the crowd that gathered in the center of town was probably smaller than his high school graduating class.

  The small crowd murmured approvingly in between explosions and David found himself pensive. Here he was, pretending to be a father to his brother’s kid – who was the most awesome kid ever, but it was still strange – standing with a girl he had a crush on who was clearly into his brother. He lived with his grandmother and had a job in a shoe store making terrible money. No wonder she wasn’t interested in him. Perhaps he should just wait for the anvil to fall out of the sky.

  When the fireworks were almost finished, Jessica had to go the bathroom and David was thankful the city municipal building was open so they didn’t have to walk all the way back to Andy’s house yet. Jessica seemed to understand that there were no princess fireworks because there was no “bug jet” for them, but it didn’t make her happy.

  They returned to see Noah with his arm around Andy. He looked pointedly at David across the courtyard and winked then pulled his arm away before David reached them as though nothing had happened. When Andy later agreed to go with Noah, David wasn’t surprised. Whatever it was that girls saw in Noah was about to claim another victim.

  He returned to Andy’s house where Ms. Nessa, his grandmother and several others were still sipping the loaded ice tea. It was hard to hide his sullenness, so he made excuses about being tired and needing to take Jessica to bed. His grandmother came along too. She said she was planning an early day and needed her beauty sleep. Ms. Nessa chuckled a little and the two women exchanged looks.

  Once Jessica was asleep, G
randma Merchant came to rest next to David on the couch. She patted him on the knee. “Don’t you worry about them, David.” She said. “Andy’s a good girl, a real sweet one. I’ve never seen or heard a bad thing about her. I told Noah that he ought to try to get to know her, that’s all. She’s good for Jessica, good for this family. You’ll see. Everything’s going to work out alright.”

  “You told Noah to go out with Andy?”

  “Well, no, not in so many words. Noah does things his own way. You know that better than anyone. But I think he needs to know that some girls his age are pretty and smart and mature and… nice. He could use a calming influence.”

  “Great. And what if, instead, they run off together and Bonnie and Clyde it.”

  Mrs. Merchant laughed heartily.

  “Someday Noah is going to wake up and want to be worthy of a good girl, but that day was not today. And Andy may think that she can fix the bird with the broken wing, but that’s not happening today either. I think you are going to be pleasantly surprised at how this turns out.”

  David smirked in disbelief, still feeling a little dejected. Part of him realized that Andy hadn’t rejected him at all – because he’d never done anything to suggest he wanted to venture outside the friend zone- but that was a small part.

  It wasn’t until Noah came home before ten o’clock, for the first night possibly ever, that David thought things may not be what he thought they were.

  “Did you have a good time?” he asked Noah acidly.

  Noah smiled slightly “It was fun. She’s a cool chick. She sure does like you a lot.”

  David sat up a little straighter. He didn’t want to sound like a kid and ask “What did she say?” so he went with the ever so much more mature “What do you mean?”

  “You know what I mean.”

  David sat there wanting to know more, but not wanting to have to get the information from his brother. “She seems to like you a lot too.”

  “Relax, bro. She hardly knows me. We talked a lot. I told her everything…”

  “Everything?” David interrupted hopefully.

  “Well, not everything everything. But I think she gets the general idea. She’s way too nice for me. I don’t think there are enough living saints on the planet to keep up with her. She’s perfect for you.”

  “She’s just a friend. That’s the way it’s got to be. I’ve made my decisions.”

  “As long as you know those are your decisions. Maybe you should give her a chance to make her own decisions. Anyway, I’m going to bed … early day tomorrow.” He turned toward the hall that led to their room and then looked back at David “Don’t wake me up when you come to bed.” then chuckled at his own joke before leaving.

  David flipped mindlessly through TV channels considering the possibility that he’d committed himself to a dateless existence for the next dozen years. It was a sobering thought, but he had seen enough daytime talk shows to know that he was the only one responsible for making himself happy.

  He decided to go for a run to clear his head. The smell of wet sulfur still hung in the heavy air. A few people were still out and about after the fireworks display, having a good time sitting inside screened in porches or hovering near a citronella candle to ward off mosquitoes. They seemed to breed in mid-air in the thick humidity.

  David found his body had forgotten the rhythm of a run. It took a while to find it again, but eventually he did. After several more minutes his chest was pained by gasping for air. He was out of shape, he decided, vowing to himself to fix that.

  He stopped running to find himself on Andy’s block, unsure of whether he had come there on purpose. He walked that block and was relieved to find that their party had ended and no one was sitting in front of her house. A couple of lights were on upstairs and he paused to look at them. Was she thinking about Noah? He supposed it didn’t really matter. He enjoyed her company and for as long as she was here, he would just relax and see what happened.

  “Evening.” Boomed a voice from behind him, startlingly loud.

  He jumped and turned to see Tony walking a dog.

  “Hi, How are you doing, Mr Lazarro?”

  “Tony,” he insisted “I’m doin’ okay, but I think I’ve seen that look before.”

  “Look?” David asked, then realizing what Tony must be thinking “Oh, I was just out for a run. It’s a nice night.”

  “Yes,” he agreed “a nice night for being in love. Look at the moon, it’s smiling at you.” He smiled looking up and took a deep breath, putting a hand over his heart. His hound dog looked up lazily appearing a little annoyed at this interruption of his evening ritual.

  “But, I’m …” David stammered, starting to explain.

  “Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.” Tony interrupted.

  “Uh, thanks.” Was all David could manage as Tony walked off.

  “Don’t mention it.” Tony called out without turning back.

  When David turned back toward the house, all but one light was off. He decided to head home and crash. The next morning was confusing. Jessica was up early as usual chirping about a new bed. Noah got up and showered before David was even out of bed. Something was clearly not right in the world.

  He wandered out to find Andy in the kitchen, but whatever was going on happened so fast he hardly had time to process it. Noah was in a surprising good mood and he, Grandma and Jessica left quickly leaving him standing there in the kitchen alone with Andy smiling sweetly at him.

  In the shower, he realized that Noah had set this up. His completely unreliable, goofball brother had actually thought of someone besides himself. David wasn’t going to let the opportunity slip away. Jessica had at least one reliable sitter and David was going to enjoy the day.

  For a while there, he forgot to be so serious. Ms. Nessa had given him some alcoholic drink and he actually got to talk to Andy. They had a lot in common – she wanted to travel and he told her about his time in Europe. She wanted to know if he had ever been to Paris.

  “No, I never did go. I mostly spent time in Italy and Spain. You could spend a year in Rome and never see it all.”

  “What was your favorite part?”

  “Oh man, that would be like picking a favorite beach. Everything was just a different kind of awesome. The Vatican is mind-blowing with this amazing art everywhere. They have ancient ruins just sitting around along the side of streets. It just really makes you feel like there’s history all around you.”

  “That sounds fascinating.”

  “What about you? What do you want to see?”

  David watched as Andy’s face lit up with excitement. She told him about the postcard in the photo album, how the first time she saw it she thought the Eiffel Tower was the most beautiful building she’d ever seen. It was beautiful and strong and also delicate at the same time. He was impressed that she seemed more interested in the Parisian architecture than the shopping.

  When the conversation wound back around to his family and how they ended up in Palmetto, David had a healthy buzz going. He was careful to use the right words. He didn’t want to lie, but he couldn’t tell the truth. And she listened like she really cared. She wasn’t digging for information on Noah. She was here, with him.

  At the arcade, David began to feel like they were on a date until a dozen of her friends showed up. The mood definitely shifted, but David didn’t mind. They were some pretty cool kids. Kate was an absolute riot – the kind of girl that lived out loud. She loved to laugh and when she was around even Andy seemed to loosen up, which was fun to watch - until she got sick.

  It could not have happened on a worse day. David felt like he did the first time he was alone with Jessica and she got a bad fever. He had no idea what to do and was pretty sure he was unqualified to do anything. All he could do was watch Andy and hope she got better. He was grateful for Kate, who helped him get Andy home, but she wasn’t very useful for this kind of situation either. Luckily, Ms. Nessa came over and helped out.

&n
bsp; She sent David home with some excuse that he shouldn’t see a young lady like that and he couldn’t agree more. Not because it made Andy any less attractive, but because he felt helpless. Nessa encouraged him to take Andy’s Jeep to get home, but he had forgotten about the vomit until the smell hit him hard. He took it to a full service car wash three towns over and paid a disgusted kid handsomely to clean out the inside. If he couldn’t do anything to make her feel better, at least he could do that.

  He got back to his grandmother’s house before dinner and found Noah packing. A fight ensued that went pretty much like all their fights. David accused Noah of running away. Noah yelled about not being wanted or needed. David wanted to know how he could just leave like that. Where was he going? Was he coming back?