by T. K. Chapin
I nodded in agreement. “What makes you say that to begin with?” I asked, leaning back on my hands with my feet kicked out in front.
“Work. We just got hit with a health inspection and if we don’t comply within a week to these crazy requests, they’ll shut us down.”
“That’s rough… Where do you work?”
“Stix. It’s a restaurant-”
“On Nevada Street,” I finished her sentence.
“Yeah,” she grinned. “You know about Stix? Most people I tell about it haven’t ever heard of it or been there. It’s fairly new… just been open under a year.”
“I’ve eaten there. It’s good. My favorite thing I had was those little warm donuts with the different dipping sauces… chocolate, white…”
Kristen laughed and covered her mouth as she threw her head back. “Sorry, I just can’t help but laugh.”
“Why?” I asked, leaning in smiling.
“Those are always what people order when they come in. My boss hates it. He has all this fancy duck and steak on the menu and people come back for the donuts every single time.”
I smiled. “They are delicious.”
She nodded. “They are pretty good. And I love my job… it’s just hard sometimes being part of management.”
“I’m sure it is.”
“I just got promoted at the beginning of the year after one of the previous assistant managers moved back to California. Since that happened, it feels like I have no time at all. The good news is I do have a vacation coming up shortly.”
Nodding, I looked over at Blake as he was talking to Christopher. “Have you seen an impact on Blake since you took the promotion?”
“Yeah.” She looked over at him. “He seems more distant. That’s why I try to keep him busy with the church and whatnot… I don’t want him to end up getting into trouble.”
“Yeah, it’s a crucial age.”
She nodded. “It really is.”
All the parents began getting up and gravitating towards the garbage cans to dump their plates and head over to the football field. We both stood up and joined the movement to watch the game. On the way over, Tyson jogged up to my side.
“Hey, a few of us older guys are going to toss the old pigskin around on Sunday after church… you want to join us?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know…”
Cole overheard us. “I’ll go if you go,” he said from behind us. I looked over my shoulder.
“Alright, I’m game,” I said, nodding.
“Awesome… the game’s at 1 PM out here on the football field after service.”
“Right on,” I replied, and Tyson jogged further into the crowd to tell the other guys about it.
“He’s a good guy,” Kristen said.
I nodded. “Yeah, seems real nice,” I replied.
The rest of the afternoon and partway into the evening seemed to fly by as all the parents lined the bleachers to watch the football game. Sitting with Cole and a few of the other men from the church in the bleachers, I learned of a men’s retreat that was coming up in the fall. I wasn’t sure if I’d end up attending, but it sounded interesting. It was a multi-church retreat up to a place outside of Spokane called Suncrest. In big bold letters across the top, the little pamphlet Cole gave me said: “A weekend full of promise.” I put the pamphlet in my back pocket and pushed it out of my mind.
After the game and on the way out to my car in the parking lot, I saw Christopher getting in a car with Blake and some of the other youth. Shooting a wave over to them, I smiled when he waved back. Christopher might be mixed up with some bad kids like Kegan, but he had a good heart.
CHAPTER 6
Rising early the next day, I found the quietness in the apartment refreshing after the last couple days with Christopher around. I loved the kid dearly, but I also appreciated my own space and life. After putting on a pot of coffee in the kitchen, I headed outside to figure out exactly where the leak in my garage roof was. I could have called the landlord, but I’d spent my fair share of time on rooftops back in the summer before my senior year of high school, and I felt confident in my own abilities. As I was setting up the ladder against the garage downstairs from my apartment, my phone buzzed in my pocket. Slipping it out, I saw it was Emily.
“Hello?” I answered as I held onto the top of the ladder.
“Hey, how’s Christopher?” she asked.
“He’s doing good. He’s with some of the youth from Valley Baptist at something called a ‘LAN party.’ ”
“A what party? You let him go partying?”
Man, she was dumb, I thought before I responded. “No, Emily. It’s like with video games… and I said from Valley Baptist… you know, a church? Anyways… why? What’s up?”
“Okay… I’m on the way back from Mom’s right now. She’s getting worse, Kane. She’s getting weaker… I don’t know if it’ll even be months.”
I glared out over my garage and towards the park just over my complex’s chain-linked fence. I could feel fear and worry rise inside of me. With tears welling in my eyes, I cleared my throat and said, “I want to go see her.”
“That’s also why I was calling. I think you should go see her… I don’t know how much longer she has.”
“Stop saying that Ems… you’re worrying yourself too much. I’ll go see her.” Glancing at my phone, I saw it was still relatively early. Nine o’clock. “Dang it. Christopher isn’t here yet… he won’t be here until about noon.”
“Well, I can call him and just go pick him up from wherever he is at.”
I didn’t think it was a very good idea. Christopher needed those Christian boys’ influence as much as possible right now. But knowing my sister was very anti-God, I couldn’t let her in onto that fact. So I said it in a way that made sense for her. “He’s having fun… just let him be over there.”
“Okay, well… I don’t want him at your house alone.”
“Yeah, just come over here and hang out until he gets dropped off.”
“Alright,” she replied. “I’ll talk to you later.”
“Sounds good.”
I hung up and looked across the roof from atop the ladder. I figured I would at least try to see if I could find the leak before I left to my mom’s house. Scanning the shingles, I couldn’t spot any real issues with my naked eye. Climbing up onto the roof, I began walking in search of any damage I could spot. Coming over to the valley, the spot where my garage intersects with my neighbor’s garage, I noticed something amiss. The shingles in the valley were overlapped improperly. Dropping a knee down, I inspected. Sure enough, it was backwards. The water had been running directly down the shingle and straight into my garage. My attic must have been catching the run off.
As I returned to my ladder, I called my landlord and let him know about the issue. I offered him to let me charge the supplies and labor against the cost of my rent if I was willing to fix it. He said he had a guy that could do it, so he’d send him over to fix it sometime in the coming week.
On my way back up to my apartment to grab my keys, my phone buzzed in my pocket. I bet it’s Christopher, I thought to myself. Pulling out my phone, I saw it was the Chief.
“Hello?” I answered partially excited, partially scared.
“McCormick,” Chief Jensen replied. “I want to let you know that you are free to return to work in the morning.”
“Yes!” I shouted as I jumped a little as I made my way up to my apartment.
“Don’t get too excited yet, McCormick. This is just temporary while we continue the investigation. Foster was in my office this morning and he was calling for you to get fired. I was able to pull a few strings on the fact he was upset with you, and the police Chief and I both agreed he had some vendetta against you. You need to keep yourself out of hot water. For good this time.”
I nodded as I said, “I don’t even drink anymore, Sir.”
“Whatever. Just keep straight and narrow with your duties around the station and k
eep your cool off the clock.”
“Okay. Thanks!” I said.
“You’re welcome. Have a good day. We’ll see you in the morning.”
“Yes, sir!”
I hurried into my apartment and called Cole immediately.
“Dude, I’m back tomorrow!” I said.
“I heard. That’s great, McCormick.”
“I know, right?” I asked as I grabbed my keys off the counter. “Thank you for all your help in this, Taylor.”
“You’re welcome.” I could hear his boys getting upset in the background. “I gotta go, but I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Alright, take it easy.”
My sister showed up as I hung up. Opening the door, she came inside. “Hey,” I said, greeting her.
She went into the kitchen and poured a cup of coffee. She looked stressed. Opening the fridge, she looked around for something inside before looking over at me, “No creamer?”
“Top shelf, in the back. It’s behind the Soy milk,” I replied.
“Great,” she replied with a heavy sigh.
“Calm down, sis,” I said.
She scoffed and turned to me. “Try telling me that after you see her.” She looked back into the fridge and snagged the creamer from the shelf. As she poured the creamer into the coffee, she looked at me. “Stop standing there looking at me like that… I’m fine. Go see Mom, dude!”
“Alright, alright,” I said, raising my hands up as I backed my way up to the door. Grabbing my shades off the end table near the door, I put them on and headed down to the parking lot.
As I pulled into the driveway at my mother’s house, I immediately got a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. The way my sister was talking, I didn’t know what to expect even though I was just up at her house a few days back. But when my mom didn’t step outside to greet me like every other time I had visited over the years, I began to worry. Looking through the windshield, I saw the screen door flap in the wind like something out of a horror movie.
“This can’t be good,” I said, as I turned off my car. Getting out, I walked the gravel up to the front door. Knocking lightly, I said, “Mom?” I glanced into the living room window and didn’t see her on the couch. Turning the doorknob, I stepped into the house, not knowing what to expect.
Seeing the back sliding glass door open, I spotted her sitting outside on the back porch. I felt relieved as I walked through the house and approached her.
“Mom!” I said, as I walked past her down the steps and turned to face her. “Are you okay? I was scared to death.”
She set her cup of tea down and stood up to hug me. “Of course, I’m okay, Kane!” she said with a grin.
“You didn’t hear the door? I was knocking,” I replied as we embraced.
She shook her head as she sat back down. Picking up her tea she took a sip and said, “Not at all. I just came outside a few minutes ago because Roofus was getting restless. I wasn’t able to play fetch with him the last couple days your sister had been here. She’d only take him for a walk! And wouldn’t let me go outside at all.”
I laughed.
“Don’t you laugh!” she said with a laugh in her tone. “Your sister kept me cooped up in the house.” She paused. “She means well, but dang it! I need to be able to move around and breathe!”
“I agree with you, Mom. Emily is way too strict with you and freaked out about all this…”
“Son?” she asked, quieting her voice.
“Yeah?”
She set her tea down again and reached out her weathered and aging hands to grasp onto one of my hands. Holding it close to her chest, she said, “Would you take me up the mountain? The one we used to walk up when you and Emily were just a couple of kiddos?”
I recalled our day hikes with picnic lunches as I looked out over the forest covered land towards the mountain in the distance and replied, “I know what mountain you’re talking about, but I don’t think walking that many miles would be a good idea in your condition, Mom….”
She laughed. “I meant to just take me to the summit. We can go park off Tod Road, that will cut quite a bit of time off the trip.” I knew exactly where she was talking about. It was a patch of dirt off to the side of the mountain road that had the perfect walking trail up to the summit.
I mulled it over in my mind for a moment before making eye contact with her. Her ocean blue eyes had so much hope in them, I couldn’t possibly turn down the idea. “Okay, let's do it.”
We got into my car and hightailed it over to Tod road which took about fifteen minutes by car. As I got out and shut my door, a flood of pleasant memories rushed through my mind. I saw the tree that we carved our names into so many years ago. The smell of the pine trees filled my nose, and the quietness of the still forest brought a smile to my face. Suddenly I heard my mother trying to open her own door by herself. I hurried around the car to go assist her.
“Jeez, Mom… You should have waited for me to help.”
“You look like you were having a seizure judging by that blank stare over there.”
“What?” I asked, confused.
“Whenever someone just stares blankly like you were doing… it’s a seizure. Doctor Ricardo told me that years ago.”
I laughed. “Whatever, Mom. I was just reflecting.” I gently grabbed her arm and helped her the rest of the way out of the car. Looking up the trail that was before us, I smiled and thought back to Emily and me racing up to the first fork in the path. “This place brings back so many memories,” I said.
She smiled as she intertwined her arm with mine. “I know… I love it. You know you kids were so good for me when you were little… if I didn’t get blessed with well-behaved children, I don’t know what I would have done. Your father, even when we were still together, was always gone off out of the country and traveling.”
I nodded as we continued up the path. “You were always an amazing mother to us. If there was an award for ‘best mom,’ you would have gotten it.”
She scoffed as she turned and looked into the woods. “I don’t know about that, Son.”
“Well, in our eyes you have been nothing but amazing.”
She smiled softly and tightened her hold onto my arm as we ventured up a steep incline in the path. We walked for a bit until my mom became tired and sat down on a log that lay next to the path. I joined her on the log as she looked around at all the trees that surrounded us. She said, “Isn’t it amazing?”
I looked up and around. “It’s pretty cool up here.”
“God designed all of this, Kane.”
I nodded.
“My hope is you know where I’m going after this old body finally kicks the bucket.” She patted my leg. “I’m going to be with Jesus and your brother Kyle.”
“I know…” I replied softly. Even though I was aware of heaven and where she was going, it didn’t make me feel any better about it. I wanted my mother, here on earth with me, not in heaven. And heaven was still difficult for me to fully comprehend.
“You seem conflicted,” she replied.
“I just don’t get it all…” I said. “It’s hard for me to wrap my mind around the concept of God at times. We have billions of stars, unknown amounts of galaxies… yet the Earth is the center of it all? It’s all out there because of Earth? Because of us?”
She smiled and looked to the tops of the trees. “God created this earth. Created light. Created everything, dearest Son. And I think it's possible that all those galaxies and space out there was a result of God’s creation. He spoke everything into existence and what we know about speech, we know there is sometimes an echo. So basically, all that other stuff out there would be just an echo through eternity of His original creation.”
I smiled. “You’re such a deep thinker, Mom.”
She nodded. “Everything has its purpose, Son. You have to know that.”
I shook my head. “There’s no purpose in death. There was no reason why Kyle had to die over in Iraq or that you had to
get cancer.”
She shrugged. “I don’t believe God causes bad things to happen. He cannot sin and He’s not the author of it. However, I do believe God can work the most pitiful situations into something beautiful. God trades our ashes for beauty, and our pain for joy.”
“But how do you know you’re right about everything?” I asked. “I just need something solid.”
She laughed a little as she stood up. “You have to have faith, Kane. And faith is felt with the fingertips of your soul.”
“I love you,” I said, smiling, rising to my feet and pulling her up.
“I love you too, Son,” she said as she kissed my cheek. Latching back onto my arm, she looked forward down the path, and I began leading her further up the trail to the summit of the mountain.
CHAPTER 7
Ted and Micah were in the multi-purpose room upstairs at the fire station the next day when I arrived. Walking in, they both looked over their shoulders at me and nodded.
“You’re back already?” Ted asked as he looked back at the television set.
“Yeah, the investigation is still on-going, but the Chief told me I could come back,” I replied.
“Did you get those new rims on your ride yet?” Micah asked, getting up from the couch as he came over to me. Micah loved my car more than any of the other guys at the station. He even went with me to pick it up in Oregon back seven months ago.
“Oh, yeah, man! I forgot to tell you the other day. You want to come check them out?” I asked.
Micah glanced over at the clock on the wall. “Yeah, I have some time.
On the way out to the parking lot, he asked, “How’s your mom doing?”
“She’s good,” I replied. “Just got back from seeing her last night. Went up there for the day.” Going out the side door to the parking lot, I held open the door for Micah.
“That’s good.”
“Yeah. I’m hopeful she’ll be around for a while,” I replied as we came out to my car.
“I’m sure she will be. Oh, wow, those are some nice rims, McCormick!” Micah said as he bent down.