by Tracy Krauss
the trailer. With a yelp he snatched his finger away and squeezed it with his other hand. A few choice words escaped.
“I told you it was too heavy.” Patsi cocked her head to one side in an ‘I told you so’ manner and raised her brows.
“Need a hand?”
Lester looked up sharply. A man was standing on his third floor balcony, overlooking the operation. He was tall and broad and was wearing a worn T-shirt and a dirty ball cap.
“Um… yeah. That would be great,” Lester called back.
“Be right down.” The man waved and disappeared through his sliding glass doors.
“My lucky day.” Patsi beamed up at her brother. “Your new friend can take over from here.”
“There’s still plenty of small stuff,” Lester said.
Patsi rolled her eyes. “I was joking.”
Lester sighed. Sometimes his sister acted so immature. Okay, she was only seventeen, but she needed to start acting more grown up. He wasn’t much older when he’d been thrown into more responsibility than most guys his age had ever dreamed of.
“Hi!”
Lester glanced back up at the building. Two small boys were watching from their own balcony two stories up. One had chocolate brown skin, while the other had straight black hair and an olive complexion. He just waved. Those little kids probably had nothing better to do, so let them watch if they wanted. He noticed the curtains moving in another window on the second floor. It was hard to remain anonymous in a place like this. Where everyone was all squished together like sardines in a can. Oh well. It was the best he could do.
The helpful neighbour was approaching so Lester turned his attention back to the matter at hand. “Thanks again for offering to help. Name’s Lester Ray Tibbett.” Lester stretched out his hand.
“Jed Malloy.” Jed had a firm grip and his hand almost dwarfed Lester’s.
“Good to meet you. Me and my sister are just moving in,” Lester said.
Patsi rolled her eyes. “Obviously. Duh.”
Lester pointed a thumb back at Patsi. “My sister Patsi Mae.”
“Just Pat,” Patsi mumbled, looking down.
Jed smiled. “Pleased to meet ya. I got a couple a sisters of my own back ‘ome. You’re mighty lucky to get the place. Ol’ Tucker was ‘ardly even cold when the place was advertised. A real ‘ousing shortage these days.”
“You from out east?” Lester asked. Jed’s short clipped words, extended ‘r’ and lack of ‘h’ quickly betrayed his background.
“Yeah. Newfoundland.”
Lester nodded. “Thought so. The accent kind of gives you away.”
“I ain’t the one with the accent. I keeps tellin’ you westerners, but you’s don’t listen too well.” They all laughed. “Well, we’d better get you moved in.” Jed clapped Lester soundly on the back and then went straight for the trunk. “Where’s this beast going?”
With a grunt the two men hoisted the heavy trunk and started lumbering for the entrance.
Jed was taller than Lester by several inches and at six feet Lester wasn’t exactly short. Jed also looked to be broader and very muscular. Lester’s own muscles were hardened by hard work and fine-tuned by riding broncos – one of his hobbies - but he wouldn’t want to meet the other man in a fight. He just might lose.
The threesome had the remainder of the truck and trailer unloaded and into the apartment within half an hour.
“Thanks man,” Lester puffed, winded from the last trek up the stairs with a particularly heavy chest of drawers. “I don’t know how I would have managed with only Patsi for help.”
“Hey, I’m no sissy,” Patsi protested. “I could have managed.”
Lester shook his head and snorted his doubts.
“I could have! Mostly…”
“No problem. That’s what neighbours are for. I was glad to ‘elp. I could use a cold one, though. As a thank you.” Jed winked. He pulled off his ball cap to reveal a shock of dark hair that stood out at odd angles.
“Sorry,” Lester apologized. “We haven’t got anything to offer just yet. We could make coffee if we could find the coffee maker.”
“Why don’t you come over to my place?” Jed offered. “My fridge is always stocked with the essentials. Like beer, that is.” He chuckled.
“Sounds good to me. I should move that rig out of the way first, though. I’ll just be a minute.”
“Sure. I’ll just ‘elp your sister move some of these boxes around.”
Lester left Patsi and Jed to rearrange the boxes into their respective rooms while he moved the truck and trailer to a better location down the street. He returned in a few minutes to find them already waiting in the hall.
“A beer sounds pretty good about now,” Lester said. “Got anything for my sister?”
Patsi stuck her chin out. “I can have a beer if I want. I’m not a baby.”
Lester just raised a brow. “Only if I say so.”
“It’s not like I haven’t had a beer before. Besides, I’ll be legal in four months.”
“Nineteen?” Jed asked.
Patsi shook her head. “Eighteen.”
“Right. Legal drinking age is eighteen in Alberta.” Jed shook his head. “No wonder the kids in the bar are looking younger and younger these days.”
Lester and Patsi followed Jed down the hall to his apartment, three doors down from their own. It was a typical bachelor’s pad – mismatched furniture arranged for optimal television viewing with dirty dishes and left over food littering every available surface.
“Excuse the mess,” Jed apologized, going straight for the refrigerator and collecting three long necked bottles of beer. The first bottle let out a hiss as he twisted the top off. He handed it to Patsi and winked. “Ladies first.”
“Thanks.” Patsi looked pointedly at her brother and took a sip.
“Guess I can’t say no now that you’ve put your germs on it,” Lester said with a slight grin. “But don’t get any ideas.”
Jed distributed the remaining beer. “Have a seat.” He did a wide sweep of the room with his free arm. Patsi and Lester found seats on the sofa and Jed stretched out in the armchair. “So? What brings you to the city?”
“Work,” Lester replied. “That and my sister going to college.”
“His idea, not mine,” Patsi said with a sullen edge to her voice. She sipped tentatively from her bottle of beer.
“Education is a good thing,” Jed said. “Something that can never be taken away. So my Ma says. Too bad I didn’t listen.” He grinned. “You seem kinda young for college, though.” He squinted at Patsi.
“December baby,” Lester explained. “Moving here should help her adjust.”
“You talk like I’m not even here,” Patsi protested. “Besides, I would have been just fine.” As if to prove it she took a long drink of her beer. Suddenly she sputtered, choking as it went down the wrong way. Her diaphragm jerked as she tried to control the coughing and she glared at Lester, as if it was his fault she was choking.
Jed pointed with his free hand. “Bathroom’s that way, if you want.”
Patsi got up from the couch without looking at either man and headed down the narrow hall. Lester’s eyes followed her.
“Where’d you say you come from again?” Jed took a long swing of his beer.
“Farmed near Coulee Creek,” Lester said.
Jed nodded. “I know it. That’s nice country.”
“It’s home. But there have been a few bad years. Drought. Poor grain prices. It costs about as much to put the crop in as any profits you might get. I figured I’d rent the land out for a bit. Let somebody else have all the headaches and just collect a pay check for a change.”
Jed took another drink. “You gotta do what you gotta do. I came all the way across the country, so I definitely know.”
“How long have you been here?” Lester asked.
Jed cocked his head to one side. “Let’s see… Four years now? Something like that. Long enough that I �
�ate to give up my job and move back ‘ome. Besides, ‘alf of Newfoundland is out west so’s its not so bad. One of my brothers is coming out soon, too, or so ‘e says.”
“That’s nice. Family is important.”
Jed eyed Lester over the top of his bottle. “So it’s just you and your sister?”
“Since our folks died, yes. Sometimes I feel more like her father than her brother.”
“How long your folks been gone?” Jed asked.
“Nine years. She was only nine, so she’s spent half her life without them.”
“And there was no other family to take care of ‘er?”
“I don’t believe in shirking my duties,” Lester responded quietly. “We had an old aunt in Saskatoon, but it was best for her to stay put in her own home. That’s what my folks would have wanted.”
“You must a been pretty young yourself.”
“Twenty-three.”
Jed let out a soft whistle. “Pretty young to have to take on that kind of responsibility. Took over the farm, too?”
Lester nodded. “I was planning on working along side my folks anyway. It just happened sooner than expected.”
“I see.”
“It’s a good life,” Lester said. “On the farm, I mean. Good place to raise a kid.”
“Keeps ‘em out of trouble, I suppose,” Jed agreed. “You might ‘ave your ‘ands full ‘ere.” He grinned.
“Not if I can help it.”
“I know a thing or two about teenage girls. I’ve got sisters of my own and when they put their mind to somethin’ they don’t give in easy. I’d watch ‘er if I were you.”
“I intend to.” Lester let out a sigh – one far too deep for a casual first meeting. “It’s one thing I plan on doing right.”
“Sounds like you’re