Finding Madelyn (9 page)

“Are you ready?” He whispered to her.

“It might be best.” It would at least get her away from Rita.

He slid out of the booth and popped Harland on the shoulder while she slipped into her coat.

“In case I don’t see you again, Harland, have a good visit.”

“Have a Merry Christmas, Madelyn.”

They passed Olivia carrying food when they started out the door.

“Why does Harland date her?” Maddy couldn’t keep the question in any longer.

Galen chuckled, “Because, believe it or not, he loves her.”

Maddy stopped walking. “He what?”

Galen stopped a few steps ahead and turned back. He looked good with his hands in his pockets. His hair just sticking out from under the hat with the Christmas lights from the hardware store twinkling in his eyes.

He came back
and linked his arm with hers. “With all her faults, he loves her and prays that she will grow up. Soon.”

“It would explain why she’s always around him, but I don’t understand it.”

“She doesn’t understand us, I’m sure.”

“I don’t even understand us, yet.”

“We will figure it all out and have plenty of time to do it.”

It
turned out to be the
point where Galen was wrong. They grew up far too quickly and still, time was their greatest enemy.

Maddy locked the diner door behind Paula, wondering why Galen hadn’t eaten tonight. The grocery wasn’t bad, but cooking on Stan’s old hot plate was not real food. Being left alone all day wasn’t good either. Remembering was painful. Even staying in the good memories.
It was still another time, another life, almost another Maddy.

Frank stopped by for dinner, but didn’t distract her enough to stop her from burning two pork chops. They went in the trash with the five hamburgers from lunch.

She put her lunch and dinner for the next two days in a bag, with a few extra meals, just in case someone else was around and hungry, and locked the door for the weekend. She’d hardly made it halfway down the block when she heard him behind her.

“Want someone to walk with you?”

She turned and he was circling his hat around his fingers. Some things never changed.

“Where have you been all day?”

“Spent most of it in my room. Thought it was safer.” His face said he’d been wrong.

“Did you at least eat?”

“Yes. There’s a really nice diner in town that has orders to go.”

She smiled. “I didn’t even notice how many of those I did today.”

“A little pre-occupied I assume.” His eyebrow
rose
.

“You could say that.”

He stepped forward. “Madelyn. . .”

“Not tonight, Galen. I expect to see you at my house early tomorrow.”

He stepped back and let the look of hope fall, “Fine by me. How
do I get there?”

“Go to the water and head north.” She turned around and started home.

“Be careful, Madelyn.”



Galen watched her until he couldn’t see her shape anymore. He’d hoped they could talk tonig
ht. At least start to talk;
instead, he would go b
ack to his room and be left with his thoughts.

There had to be a better way to spend the night. He took a deep breath and turned around, coming directly in contact with a hard object to the face.

“Hit him again, Frank.”

He recognized the laughter of Hollis.

“I plan to.”

Galen checked that his nose wasn’t bleeding and did his best to dodge the two shapes around him. “I don’t want to do this.”

“I do.” Frank slurred the words just a bit, and fell a little sideways.

“It’s not a fair fight if you’re drunk.” Galen laughed.

“There’s two of us.” Hollis objected before his attitude became more jolly. “And we ain’t drunk. Just feeling
good
.”

Galen pushed Hollis away when he tried to take a swing. “Good, show me to the bar.”

“What?” Frank stumbled into the gutter and fell.

“I’d rather drink with you than fight with you.” Galen held his hands out. He’d spend enough of his life fighting.

“What you think, Hollis?” Frank was still flat on his back and breathing heavy.

“I think we’re feelin’ a little too good to be dancing around in the streets.”

Galen waited as they tried to get up then helped them when he saw they couldn’t exactly do it alone.

The bar was across the street from Maddy’s diner and shocked Galen that it wasn’t an absolute hole in the wall. There were a few couples dancing to the music, but mostly it was men sitting at the bar.

Hollis le
d the way to a table on the far side of the bar and sent a few hand signals to a waitress, consisting of the number three and a point to the table. Apparently,
Galen would be
drinking what ever made these two stumble through the streets.

He was happy to see it was simply beer. There was no problem with that, verses some of the things he’d drank across the ocean that could make you forget a week at a time.

“I’m too drunk to beat you like I planned, so we have to find some way to settle this.”

“There’s nothing to settle.” Galen helped the waitress pass the drinks around the table.

“Sure there is. I can’t have you hanging around her or thinking you’re gonna take her back west.”

“No one’s made Maddy ever do anything she didn’t want.”

“I can see that. Everyone can see that.”

“Not my father.”
Fredrick never saw anything that everyone else could see. Most of all
he never saw
what Maddy was to him.

He took a long drink of the cool liquid, listening to his father’s voice ringing in his ears.



“You won’t see her
, anymore
.” Fredric stood behind
the heavy desk, papers scattered across it.
His dark eyes glinting with something Galen couldn’t pinpoint.

“Why not
?
” Galen matched his tone
and volume
.

It was the
week
after the dance, and Fredric ha
d heard the gossip around town, mostly from his own secretary.
His son out with Madelyn Mur
ph
y, in his car. Holding hands when they walked down the street.

“It’s disgraceful. If you had half the sense God gave a skunk, you’d know that.”

The fight had just started but
Galen had been expecting it
. Fredric expected him to be a good son and date someone like Rita. Money, a name, and connections.

“I don’t see anything wrong with Maddy. Unless you’d like to point out
her
faults.” He pressed his fists onto the desk, keeping them far from his father. If this went as far as blows he’d hurt as bad as Fredric.
And Mama would have a fit.

“You know her faults, and don’t play even stupider.” Fredric turned toward the window and ran his hand across his face. “You don’t marry down
,
son.”

“So
,
that is what this is all about?”

“Of course.”

“I don’t care about social standings. I don’t care about the money—.”

“Well you should. How about if I just stop paying for anything until you start thinking straight.”

“I’ll get a job.” Galen calmed his voice further.

“
You think so?
Who’s going to hire you.” Fredric matched his
stance, with fists on the desk but the edge was still in his voice.

Galen thought a moment. “Uncle Will.”

Fredric leaned back and laughed
, nodding his head
.
“That he will. Go ahead and get a job down there, you’ll last less than a week.”



Maddy made it home without the past disturbing her. Galen had sparked it this morning but
tonight
he’d brought her some peace too. He was going through the memories himself and that alleviated some of her personal anguish.

She hoped that she wouldn’t
be leaving her home anytime soon. It was a beautiful old place and she loved it. Mostly because it was hers. It wasn’t stately, but it also wasn’t a two room shack. She shook her head over the last thought, apologizing to no one that could hear as she unlocked the door.

The front door squeaked, the floorboards creaked, and it felt like home. She went through the three-foot square foyer and straight into what would be a dining room if she used it as such. Instead, it was her library. Pine bookcases full of books lined the front wall around the window and the six feet that connected to it on the southern wall. A small drop leaf pine table where she ate was on the opposite wall flanked by a door to the restroom and one to the kitchen. She’d left the paint the same pale blue as when she’d moved in.

She took the food into the kitchen and stored it in the little fridge. For someone who owned a diner, the kitchen was small. Just big enough for her and maybe one other person to be in comfortably.
She didn’t need more than that and she didn’t plan on sharing it with anyone.

From the kitchen, she could see the dock at the end of her property. The porch was screened in
,
allowing her to sit out there for most of the year. Normally she went to the dock instead of the porch but it was still a wonderful spot. There was also another door to the restroom from there and one to her laundry room on the south side.

She started laundry before flopping down on the sofa in her parlor. The little room was open to her library and consisted of nothing more than the sofa, a chair, the fireplace, and a radio.

It’d been her house for two years and the furniture was sparse but still more than enough for her. The sofa in the parlor had been added when Frank continued to come around. Sitting at the kitchen table wasn’t the way to make a guest feel welcome. Not that she wanted anyone to feel too welcome to her home.

The guest room finished off the first floor, with only a three-quarter bed, a dresser, and a nightstand. She’d yet to have a visitor stay there but she had to do something with the extra room. It’d sat bare for nine months
until
she couldn’
t take it anymore. Two doors le
d to the guest room, one from the parlor, and one from the hall that led upstairs.

The only thing up there was her room. It took up the space of half the house. There used to be two small rooms but someone before her had taken out a wall and made it one. She had a large bed, a large closet, and a chair by the window that overlooked the backyard and her dock.

She hoped that after tomorrow she would still be able to call this home and not a cell in Washington. She would tell Galen everything she dared and find out her fate from there. Either he would believe her and leave it at that. Or he would think she lied and drag her back to Washington. In that case, she would fight him every inch of the way.
And she wouldn’t be fighting fair.

She didn’t rest on the couch long, she still wanted a hot bath and a good book, both should distract her from tomorrow.

The hot water poured from the ta
p
.
She enjoyed the book in the bath until the water cooled off too much. Then she slipped into her nightgown and continued the book in the chair by the window of her bedroom.

The phone rang and she stared at it trying to decide if she really wanted to speak to anyone. Frank was normally the only person
who
called her and she didn’t expect it to be him.
Stan was allowing Galen local calls, but he’d already been turned down tonight.

She put down the book and crossed to her nightstand. “Hello?”

“Maddy,” Lucien didn’t sound happy. “I need you to come down here and help me out.”

“Frank drunk
,
again?”

“He’s got company this time.” Lucien wasn’t in the same jolly mood he’d been in when talking about the new guy in town.

She sighed, “I’ll be down in a bit.”

She slammed down the phone. At least when her father had gotten drunk he’d stayed at home. Of course, the way she’d been treating Frank since Galen got in town she didn’t blame him for letting off the steam. She just wished Lucien wouldn’t call her when he got rowdy at Ray’s.

She pulled on trousers and a button up over her
camisole and undies
.
No need to be fully dress
ed
, Lucian wouldn’t look that close and Frank would be too drunk to notice.
She pulled the keys to her Buick of
f
the wall of the laundry room and went out the porch door.