by Arianna Hart
“I told you, as soon as I get the shipment, you’ll get your parts. I can’t give you what I don’t have,” the voice shouted.
Grant tried to slip closer so he could get a look at the speaker, but his bionics chose that moment to creak.
“Hey! Who’s out there? Can’t you read? We’re closed.”
A guy Grant could only assume was his cousin Greg came out of the back room holding a cell phone and looking pissed off. He was probably only a few inches shorter than Grant, but he was at least fifty pounds skinnier. His hair was dishwater blond and long enough to be pulled back into a scraggly ponytail. Grant hadn’t seen his cousin for more than an hour or two since he’d left for basic ten years ago. The years hadn’t been kind to Greg.
“Who the fuck are you?”
“Your cousin.”
“Grant? Shit, when’d you get so jacked? I didn’t even recognize you. I thought you lost your leg?”
“I did, but only below the knee. How ya doin’?” Grant held out his hand and noted Greg had to wipe his palm on his jeans before he shook hands. Before Grant could ask why the door was locked, his mom came in.
“Aunt Sue? What are you doing here?”
“Hi, dear. Grant just moved back to town, and I wanted to bring him down so he could help you out at the store. I know I haven’t been much help since Ed got sick and I feel just terrible about that.”
“Help out? I don’t know—”
“How’s your momma? She sent a beautiful fruit basket when Ed was in the rehab hospital.”
“She’s fine, likes living in Florida with her sister.”
“That’s great. I know how lonely she was after Tom passed. It’s good to have her family around. Where’s Anita, by the way? Why are you all by yourself?”
“Uh, Aunt Sue, there’s a lot that’s happened since Uncle Ed got sick. I haven’t wanted to bother you with all the details.”
“I’m here now, so you can bother me with those details,” Grant said. Ellie’s bad feeling seemed quite accurate. There was something shady going on with Greg. He wouldn’t make eye contact with either Grant or his mom, he kept shifting his weight from foot to foot and his free hand rubbed his nose constantly. It didn’t take a genius to recognize the nervous tells.
“Well, you know that new big chain auto parts store opened up in Strasburg, and we can’t compete with their prices, so business has trailed off. I had to let Anita go and I’ve been running the store myself.”
“Oh, honey, why didn’t you say something? I could have helped out,” Sue said.
“You had enough on your mind with Uncle Ed. I didn’t want to worry you. How’s he doing, by the way? Is he still paralyzed?”
“Only on one side, and that’s coming along. Just yesterday he lifted his arm. And this morning, I swear his mouth moved more when he smiled. If he keeps working, who knows how much movement he can regain?”
“That’s great,” Greg said.
“So what can I do to help out around here?” Grant asked.
“I don’t know. I’ve got things pretty much covered. As you can see, we’re not overrun with customers.”
“That could have something to do with the out-to-lunch sign out front. Why don’t I take a look at the books? I bet it’s hard to keep up with the paperwork and run the store by yourself too.”
“Ah, I gave the paperwork to a friend who’s working on the books.”
“But you must have backups on your computer.”
“Wait, what do you mean?” Sue interrupted. “Ellie’s our accountant. Why would you give the paperwork to your friend?”
“I was just trying to cut costs. He’ll do it for a lot less than Ellie.”
“But Ellie’s been doing our books since she graduated college. She got our inventory computerized and set up our online catalogue too. She does more than just keep our books organized.”
“With all due respect, Aunt Sue, I know this is hard on you, but if I’m going to take over the store, I need to be able to do it without you looking over my shoulder and second-guessing every change I make.”
“Take over the store? What are you talking about?”
“Let’s be realistic, Uncle Ed won’t be coming back to the store. Even if he recovers from the stroke, at his age he’s not going to want to drive to Canton every day.”
“He’s not even sixty yet. He’s not ready to retire, and even if he was, that’s his decision to make. Your momma inherited Tom’s half of the store, Gregory Thomas, not you.”
“And she trusts me to take care of things. Why can’t you?”
“It’s not that I don’t trust you.”
“That’s sure what it sounds like. I can handle this. I know I’m not a Navy SEAL like Grant, but I can run this store and make it a success. I’ve already got new suppliers and I have several new clients on the line.”
“New suppliers? We’ve always done business with Georgia Wholesale Distributors. They’ve been in business over fifty years.”
“Times are changing, and you have to keep up with the times. This new supplier is out of Mexico and costs half of what Georgia Wholesale does. If we’re going to compete with the national chains, we have to have competitive prices.”
“Anderson’s Automotive was never about cheap prices. It was about quality products and service. Why, your daddy once hand delivered a spark plug to a man who lived in a cabin in the woods behind Dale.”
“No one cares about that anymore. They want cheap and fast.”
Grant could see his mother was getting more and more upset. “I think we need to discuss the changes at length later. Greg, why don’t you get the paperwork together and show my dad, mom and I what you have in mind? Maybe if you lay it out for us, we can talk about it rationally and find a business plan we can all agree on.”
“You can’t just come in here and take over. I’ve been working in the store since my dad died, and now you’re gonna bust on in and play hero?”
“I said present your business plan to me and my folks, you know, the other half of Anderson’s Automotive, and we can discuss it. I’m not trying to take over, but I will protect my parents’ best interests.”
“And I’m not? I’m trying to make this podunk store into something, man.”
Sue was wringing her hands, looking back and forth at her son and nephew, and Grant knew he had to cut this short. “I appreciate how much effort you’ve put into keeping the store going since my dad had his stroke. It can’t be easy having someone who doesn’t know the business coming in and questioning your decisions. Why don’t we step back a minute and take a breather. Here’s my number, call me when it’s convenient for you to set up a meeting. We both want what’s best for the store and our family. I’m sure if we cooperate, we can come up with something that works for everyone.”
Grant rattled off his number and watched as Greg entered it into his phone. “If you email Ellie the updated account information, she can go over it with me, no charge.”
“Yeah, uh, not all of it is in the system. I haven’t gotten the new supplier logged in yet.”
“That’s okay. You can bring that information when we have our meeting. Sometime next week?” Grant didn’t give him a chance to argue. “C’mon, Mom, let’s head out. I’m sure you want to get back to Dad.”
“I do, I do. I don’t like leaving him for long, even with Ellie. Greg, you say hey to your momma for me. I’ll talk to you soon.”
“G’bye, Aunt Sue. Grant.”
Greg watched them walk out of the store but made no move to take the out-to-lunch sign off the door.
As soon as they were back on the road, Sue pulled out her cell phone. “I’m going to call Anita right now and hire her back. I don’t care what Greg says. She has a family to feed and she’s worked at Anderson’s for ten years.”
“Just hold your horses.” Grant l
aid his hand over hers before she could dial the phone. “Let’s wait until we can sit down with Ellie and look over the books. I don’t know much about business, but maybe Greg has some good ideas? We can at least hear him out.”
“But cancelling our contract with Georgia Wholesale? They let Dad operate on credit for the first six months we were in business. No one does that nowadays. They took a chance on us, and now Greg is just going to toss them aside like yesterday’s newspaper?”
“Give me a little time to figure out what’s going on with the business. Does Dad keep any information at home? I need to do some research.” And a little after-dark clandestine investigation at the store, but she didn’t need to know about that.
“I’m sure he must have some things in his office, but I don’t know what. I never had all that much to do with the store other than helping out behind the counter when they needed me. Once we hired Anita, I was only there maybe one or two times a week, if that.”
“You said something about Ellie getting the inventory computerized. I thought she was an accountant?”
“She is, but when she started doing our taxes for us, she was appalled at Dad’s old-fashioned bookkeeping and kept at him until he let her install a whole new system. Lord, how your father hated that computer for the first month. I thought he was going to take a sledge hammer to it at least ten different times.”
“What changed his mind?” Grant had a hard time picturing his father behind a keyboard.
“The next time Ellie had to do the quarterly taxes, she was able to pull up all the information and turn in the paperwork online in next to no time. Suddenly, Dad thought it was a wonderful thing to have all the inventory, sales and expenses online. A year or so later, she built our website, although someone else maintains it for us. She doesn’t have the time to keep up with the day-to-day stuff.”
“What program did she install?” He didn’t know a lot about software, but his buddy Dingo was a computer whiz. Grant made a mental note to send Dingo a text to gather some intel.
“She created one for the store herself. Said there was nothing available that would do what she wanted, and since she was doing the taxes, she knew exactly what she needed.”
“Hold on, she created her own software program? That’s not something most accountants do.”
“I know. Which is why I’m madder than a wet hen that Greg fired her. And she didn’t say a word to me about it either. I’m going to have words with that girl.”
“Mom, how did Ellie know how to develop this program?”
“Oh, she double majored in computer engineering and accounting. Said she wanted to keep her options open. She was always a whiz at math and took to computers like a duck to water. If her grandma’s health hadn’t been so poor, she could have gone to M.I.T., she was offered a full scholarship there.”
“I think I remember her taking the senior math classes when the old high school closed down and we all went to Canton Regional, but she was two years younger than me and I didn’t really notice her.”
“For heaven’s sake, she lived next door. How could you miss her?”
“I was more interested in girls who looked like Chastity than in brainiacs in high school.”
“Just because she didn’t have breasts the size of watermelons was no reason for you to overlook her.”
“Mom, I was a teenage boy, all I noticed were breasts.”
“Well,” she said with a huff, “I’m glad to see you’ve matured in the last ten years.”
“Absolutely. Now I notice legs too, and Ellie’s go all the way up to her neck.”
“Grant Edward!”
“Relax, I’m teasing you.” Sort of. Ellie’s legs really did go on for miles, and he’d noticed them, all right.
“You could do worse than a girl like Ellie, you know. I never said anything about Chastity because she was your choice and I knew you were head over heels in love with her, but she was never the right girl for you.”
“Mom, what happened between me and Chastity was as much my fault as hers. It isn’t easy being married to someone who’s gone for months at a time.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about, although it isn’t like she didn’t know what you were gonna be doing before she married you. She was happy enough to brag to anyone who would listen about how her boyfriend was in the SEALs.”
“We were so young. And thank you for not saying I told you so.”
“Oh, honey, I can’t cast any stones. Your father and I got married the day after I turned eighteen. We didn’t have two nickels to rub together, but I loved him so much I couldn’t wait. I’m not talking about that. Chastity isn’t a bad person. Well, not completely bad, but it’s always been all about her. She had to be the center of attention and the center of your world. She loved the idea that you were going to be a SEAL because it was a feather in her cap, not because it was something you wanted and worked darn hard for.”
“That’s a little harsh.”
“But true all the same. Chastity was her daddy’s princess. It didn’t make her evil, but it didn’t give her a lot of substance either. She never had to struggle. You need someone with a little more grit, someone who has her own interests and internal fortitude.”
“I see you’ve given this a lot of thought. I didn’t realize you felt so strongly about Chastity.”
“What else was I going to think about while I sat around in your hospital room for hours while she’d flit in for twenty minutes and then leave? She’d come in, throw herself across you, weep beautiful tears when the doctor came by, tears that didn’t smudge her makeup, I might add, then she’d up and go. It was too hard seeing you all wrapped up like a mummy with tubes sticking in every inch of you, she’d say. Like it wasn’t hard for me seeing my baby hurt?” Her voice cracked.
“It’s over now, Momma. I’m fine now.” It absolutely killed him to hear his mother cry over his injuries. He didn’t remember most of the time immediately after the explosion. It was all a haze of pain and blood and needles, but he remembered seeing his mother’s face every time he woke up.
“Yes, you are. That bionic foot of yours is a miracle. If I didn’t know better, I wouldn’t even know you had a prosthesis.”
“It’s made my life a lot easier, that’s for sure. I don’t trip every time I try to go down a ramp at least.” But he’d never have his job on the teams back. Everything he’d worked for was lost to him, and no bionics could bring that back. The familiar bitterness crept up his throat and threatened to choke him.
“That’s something then.” She looked at her watch and a frown flitted across her face. “I’m gonna check on your dad and Ellie. He should be napping now, but I want to make sure everything’s okay.”
Grant was snapped out of his pity spiral by his mother’s words. He might not be able to serve his country, but his family needed him. This was his new life, and it was time to take charge of it.
“When we get home, I want to talk to Ellie about the program she installed and get a look at whatever paperwork Dad has in his office. Can you ask her if she’s going to be around?”
“Yes, dear,” his mom answered, distracted. “She’s not answering her cell phone. I’m gonna try the house phone.”
“She probably has it on silent so she doesn’t wake up Dad and it isn’t on her. We’ll be home in twenty minutes, why don’t you just hold off?”
“What if something happened? What if she was trying to help him to the bathroom and he fell?”
“Then she wouldn’t be able to answer the house phone either. Look at this logically. We’re on the only road in or out of Dale. We haven’t seen an ambulance come tearing past us and no one has called your cell. If there was a problem, I’m sure someone would have dialed 9-1-1 and then called you.”
“But—” She clutched her cell phone in a white-knuckled grip.
“Will it make
you feel better if you call?”
“I know it seems ridiculous, but, yes, it will. I’ll never forget walking into the house and seeing your father on the kitchen floor. I’d only run to Mary Ellen’s store for some milk. I wasn’t gone half an hour and my whole world changed. I swear, every time I leave him, the entire time I’m gone, I worry I’m gonna come home and find him dead.”
“Then go ahead and call.” Grant drove a little faster. It was the least he could do for making light of her fears. Just because she hadn’t faced enemy fire didn’t mean his mother didn’t have her own PTSD. It killed him to see her so worried when there was nothing he could do to help. Ellie better fucking answer the landline. If she worried his mother unnecessarily, he’d rip her a new one.
Stand down, man.
Okay, maybe his reaction was a little over the top. What did the shrink at the VA hospital call it? Transference? He was mad at himself for worrying his mom when he’d been injured, so he was taking it out on Ellie, who probably was just in the bathroom or something.
“Hello, dear, it’s Sue. I tried your cell and no one picked up. Oh, I see. You didn’t have to do that. No, no, it’s good for him. In fact, I was going to do that later today. I appreciate your help. Yes, we’ll be home in fifteen minutes or so. Do you need anything?”
“Everything okay?” he asked once his mom disconnected.
“Yes, of course. Ellie was doing some of his exercises, and her phone was on the kitchen table so she didn’t feel it vibrate. You were right, I was worried for nothing.”
“No, I was wrong to foist off your worry. I can’t imagine how hard it must be for you to leave him after everything that happened.”
“You can’t let the fear control you or you’d never leave the house. Isn’t that what you used to say?”
“I don’t know, was I that pompous? Don’t answer that. What exercises was Ellie doing with Dad?”
“She was stretching out his bad leg. Stroke patients often have trouble with muscle spasms and the stretches help. I usually do the exercises with him after his nap on days we don’t have PT.”
“That was nice of her. I’m glad she’s been around to help you out.”