Authors: Suzette Vaughn
She didn’t like to drive but sometimes it was necessary to have a car
to browse
a
market that
was
larger than Roy’s. That was why she’d bought it
;
but she’d driven it more on Friday nights getting Frank from the drunk tank than heading out of town.
She walked north across her property to the barn and opened both doors wide. The car took three tries to crank
in
the cold weather. Everyone told her to start it every now and again, but she never thought about it. It took a few minutes to warm
it
up.
Frank wasn’t a drunk. She wasn’t being fair in the way she was thinking about him. But she didn’t need to worry about him with everything else that had been on her mind. He also wasn’t a mean drunk, not even as
surly
as her father had been. Still he knew how she’d felt about it.
Slowly she pulled the car out of the
barn
. She could have walked but then Frank would be in her guestroom when Galen came over in the morning. And it would be hard to steer him down the road since he was drunk enough for Lucien to throw him in the tank.
She parked right in front of the jail and walked in. The door hadn’t even shut when two whistles erupted from the cell. Followed immediately by laughter.
Lucien had said he wasn’t alone this time. She assumed he meant Hollis was with him. Which he was, passed out asleep on one of the cots and half hanging off it. But Galen sat next to Frank with red eyes and a bloody nose.
“Maddy’s got a car?”
“Yeah
,
but she doesn’t like to drive it. Which would be why she’s a mad Maddy.” Frank’s head rolled toward Galen.
The both erupted in laughter at that. Lucien stepped out of his office.
“I tried to teach her when. . .” Galen scratched his head.
She broke in
,
not needing a rehash of more history than she was having on her own. “How did they both end up in there?”
“Seems like Frank and Hollis had a few early on, tried to start a fight with him, instead they all had a few more.”
“Together?”
“Yea
h
, then they decided to try the fight again.”
She tried to add it all together
,
coming up a little short. Staring across into the cell she couldn’t even think of what to ask to make it add up.
“I don’t know any
more than that myself.
” Lucian continued.
“
They were all laughing at each other when I went into the bar and they haven’t stopped yet.”
“Uh huh.” Maddy let out a deep breath trying to figure out what she was supposed to do with them both. “You keeping Hollis for the night?”
“Since he’s asleep, yes.”
“Guess I’ll walk Galen over to the inn and come back for Frank.”
“Well there lies the problem. Stan was over having a drink when the fight broke out. Galen knocked him square in the jaw and now Stan won’t let him stay there.”
She leaned on the counter and rubbed across her head where the ache was forming. “Alright
,
I’ll run Frank home and come back for Galen.”
“Well
,
I’m going that way anyway. I got Frank. I called ‘cause I didn’t know what to do with Washington there.”
It was an easy answer, she just didn’t want to do it. “It looks like my guestroom is going to have its first visitor.”
Maddy refused to help Galen make his way to the car while she carried his suitcase that Stan had the decency to pack up.
“If you throw up in my car. . .” She tossed the case in back.
“I won’t.” He smiled and stumbled into the seat. “That was fun.”
“Fun?” She raised her voice. “What is fun about getting drunk and fighting?”
“It’s a man thing.” He deepened his voice.
“I would assume so since I don’t understand.” She started the car.
“You need me to drive?” He leaned her way.
She pushed him back. “You can’t even walk.”
To prove her right, he fell twice trying to cross to her back door from the car. She went in the door and started a pot of coffee.
“Little kitchen.” He leaned against the doorjamb that led to the laundry room
.
He looked serious and kept blinking his eyes as if he was trying to believe what he was seeing.
“Big enough for me.” She pulled him off the wall and sat him in the chair in the library.
“I remember when you owned one book.” His head slid down his arm to the table. “Sorry
,
he called you. I expected to stay there ‘til mornin’.”
“Lucien doesn’t like to leave anyone in there if he can help it.”
“That’s very nice of him.”
She sat across from him.
“Galen, what is it you a
re doing here?”
“I had to find my Madelyn. She was supposed to be at home, waiting on me but she wasn’t.”
She went back to the kitchen and got a towel and a bowl of water. The bowl went on the table and his face in her hands. His eyes connected with hers.
“I had to leave.” She said firmly.
“So you keep saying.” His hands fell to her hips and pulled her down to his lap.
She kept dabbing at the dried blood around his nose trying to ignore the body that was so close. A body she knew
all too
well.
“How did we end up like this?” He continued looking intensely over her.
“Life took us here.”
His fingers pushed her chin so her eyes looked from the blood to him. “You were supposed to be there.”
“And you weren’t supposed to leave. Life isn’t perfect.” She pushed his chest and stood up. In the kitchen, she poured out the bowl of water and poured a cup of coffee.
She sat the cup on the table. “I’m going to bed now.”
He caught her arm when she tried to pass by. “Why can’t you treat me like a person?”
“You’re not a regular person. You’re just
…
Galen.”
She stopped at the end of the hall. “Your bed is in there and the bathroom’s there. Goodnight.”
Tossing and turning for hours, Maddy gave up and tossed off the covers. He had the nerve to talk to her about being a person. Downstairs
,
she planned on a cu
p of warm milk to ease her mind;
instead she stopped at the door to his room.
He slept without a shirt, the sheet hardly covering his lower body. Her body warmed
,
making her think he may get cold like that. She stoked the fire, watching the flame dance over the new logs.
Had they ever really had a chance? Images of them dancing with her in that pink dress mixed with the flames.
The dance was when Maddy realized things were changing, even more so than her and Galen. Her mother spoke to her as an adult.
The morning after, t
hey talked of the future but Maddy didn’t know what to say. She’d never thought too fa
r away. Never realized she had to
choose. She always assumed she’d find a husband and start a family like Mama and Pa had.
When Pa woke
,
they moved the conversation to the kitchen which was slightly warmer than the porch. Maddy remembered when Pa had been like this, before the accident. Though it was taking time for him to treat her like a person, he was coming around. That morning he decided she was too old to be sleeping on the couch and they needed to find a way to add a bedroom on for her. She also realized Mama was right, he hadn’t had a drink in a few weeks. Which explained why the smell of whiskey had disappeared.
Every now and again, he would set his face
and she’d wait for a push or yelling, but he would just stare at her and they would go on. Life was definitely going to be different. She wondered if perhaps even Galan’s daddy would come around in his own time.
The following weekend
,
Pa had enough wood to start on her room and more on the way. He sat at a makeshift table nailing as much together as he could
,
but it was up to Maddy and Cassie to put the boards up to form the room.
They moved up and down the ladders and Pa bellowed orders from the ground. He even tried to stop her from hitting the ground when she fell off the ladder. He ended up sprawled on the ground because his leg didn’t make it and she ended up with a bruise the size of a grapefruit.
She was sitting next to Pa on the flooring of her new room when Cassie handed her the bottle of aspirin. She took two and handed the bottle to Pa.
“I want a drink.” He snatched the bottle of pills from her.
“No you don’t.” Cassie stated.
“I can’t even stop…
” he paused and shook his head.
“Can’t stop what?” Maddy snorted. “I’ve had a lot of bruises over the years, most of them from you.”
“See what I mean. How am I supposed to do anything with this?” He gestured toward his leg.
“At least you tried. Means more to me than if you’d been between me and the ground.” She stood and grimaced.
“Cassie get her something cold to put on that bruise.”
Mama walked past him, kissing the top of his head.
“I don’t care how useless you feel Pa.” Maddy didn’t look at the anger coming over his face. “If you were useless there wouldn’t be what looks like the start of four walls to a room.”
She offered her hand to help him up. Taking the offer, he grimaced but not as noticeably as she had. It took a few limps to get him turned around so he could see the framed walls standing in place.
“Looks pretty good.” He nodded. “But you all did more of it than me.”
“Maybe
,
but if we did it alone it would have taken at least twice as long. I don’t think it would be straight either
,
and we would have gone through more nails.”
He chuckled. The sound caused her eyes to widen, she couldn’t remember him ever laughing.
“Don’t you two make a pair, leaning on each other.” Cassie handed a glass of water to Pa and a towel wrapped bag of peas to Maddy.
By the next Saturday, Pa had nailed together everything he could, including the window she was su
re came from Mama’s Aunt Vicky. That was a woman Maddy would miss greatly when she passed.
The girls just had to put them where they belonged and attach it to the frame. He’d even attached part of the lower wall
, at least what he could
without putting pressure on his leg.
“How are we going to do this Pa?”
“I’ve been thinking on that.” He took a hard breath. “You’re going to sit up there and attach the pieces of the roof.”
She rubbed the bruise that was still healing on her hip. The boards that he was
referring to
were a few feet higher than where she’d fell from the ladder. Still
,
she climbed up and sat on the highest board
,
carefully balanced as a nailed together set was passed up to her.
“Move it a little toward the house.” Pa yelled up. “That’s good.”
She jumped when the next voice sounded.
“What are you doing?” Galen didn’t sound happy. “Get down from there before you fall.”
“If you don’t stop yelling, you’re gonna make me fall.”
As she retained her hold on the board between her legs, she noticed Pa looking at Galen. She knew the look but couldn’t do much from where she was. Pa was thinking he should worry about that boy. It wasn’t even what Galen said
,
it was the look on his face.
Maddy’d seen that look on Pa’s face, she’d seen it on Mr. Langley’s too, and Pa knew it well himself.
“If you don’t like me up here then you can help.”
“Now just wait
a minute.” Pa’s brow furrowed fa
rther.
Galen kept his eyes on her. “Get down and I’m happy to help.”
“Donald.” Cassi
e tried to get his attention
.
Maddy was steadily shaking her head while trying to figure out how to get down, until Galen’s eyes grew. He turned to see the anger in Pa’s eyes.
“Sir, I’m just concerned for her safety,”
“I’m sure you are.”
Galen ran his hand over his head. “I’m having a bad day.”
“Madelyn, you said he was a boy I didn’t have to worry about.”
“He is Pa.”
“You don’t have to worry about me
,
sir.” Galen stepped back as Pa limped toward him. “I’ve been friends with your daughter for a long time.”
“Yes
,
you have.” Pa’s voice grew angrier.