Untrusting (Troubled) (2 page)

Maria and I find each other and we
sit with our families to eat.  Shay sees Bob and is off and running with
Maria behind him.  I watch from the table as Bob, Shay and Maria talk a
few minutes.  Bob carries Shay back to the table and sits him down at his
plate, telling him he has to eat so he can grow up big and strong.  Bob turns
to answer his mother when she calls him Roberto then excuses himself, it’s his
turn at the grill.  Maria’s father smiles at her and she frowns back.
 Her parents are always trying to “encourage” her to “find a man,” better
known as “pushing.”

Steve comes by to say “Hi” and
after a short polite conversation, wanders off to talk with his fellow
firemen.  Mom and Dad notice and look at me.  I look at Maria to find
her looking at me, too.  I shrug at them.  We finish eating and leave
to make room of other diners.  Besides, Maria has to put Shay down for a
nap and I need a shower to cool off from sitting in the heat.

Maria calls me after Shay’s down
for his nap.  “Did I see you smile at Steve?”

“I don’t know.  I did a lotta
of smilin’ at people today.  I know I saw you smilin’ at Bob.”

“I had to be friendly, didn’t
I?  I smiled at a lotta people today, too.”

“Yeah.  The food was good,
tho’.  I’m glad the minister mentioned the barbecue.  I didn’t know
anything about it.”

“The priest mentioned it at our
church, too.  Why didn’t they put out posters or something?  Most of
the people I spoke to hadn’t heard about it before church this morning.”

“Ya know, Maria, maybe we should
offer our services to help advertise the town’s charity functions.  We
have about two hours a day where we could do something like that.  What’d
ya think?”

“I don’t know.  I don’t want
to be bogged down with extra work.  But if we did it in our spare time at
work, I wouldn’t mind.  I just don’t want to take time away from Shay.”

“Okay, now that we’ve decided to
talk about it, how would we let it be known?”

“Word of mouth, I guess.  You
know how many secrets are kept in Granite Bluff?  None.  So I’m sure
free help for charity events will get around almost as fast.”  We laugh at
that, tho’ it’s too true to be really funny.  Many times the teller of
their secret hasn’t finished telling it before the whole town knows, or it
seems that way.

After we hang up, I take my laundry
over to Mom and Dad’s to use their washer and dryer.  I talk to them about
the event idea.  They like it.  They ask if club events might be
included.  They figure there’re about half a dozen clubs and about that
many charity events during the year, so they shouldn’t take a lotta time. 
I’ll talk to Maria, again, at work.

Monday morning’s busy, but the
afternoon is slow.  Maria and I discuss the charity and club advertisement
idea again and decide to try it.  It’ll keep us busy and help the town
out.  Maria and I spend the rest of the afternoon calling the churches to
let them know we’d be glad to make up posters to advertise their charity and
social events, and they’re welcome to spread the word.

Tuesday, we start getting calls.
 Maria and I decide to ask for written schedules of events with where,
when and why, so we can start on them.  Bob and Steve heard about our
“little” volunteer venture and come by to offer help, if we need it.  Bob
can draw and…Steve can work a stapler.  We agree to call if we need
them.  I have a color copier and the cartridges are easy to get. 
Maria and Bob go out to get six more of them, just to have a few on hand.

Steve stays with me and we talk
while I clean the exam rooms and the kennel room, preparing to close the
office.  Then Bob and Steve have to go, they’re on duty tonight. 
They invite us to stop by the station, as they’re leaving.

“That was nice of them.  I
thought it would just be us workin’ on this.  I didn’t know there was that
much goin’ on in this dinky town. Guess it’ll be a bigger job than I originally
thought.”  Not too big I hope.

Maria smiles, “These
activities were sure kept quiet.  We have seventeen calendars comin’, but
some of the events are this weekend.  How are we gonna get it done and out
in one day?”

“This weekend may have to be
skipped, but we can get out next week’s events.”

“Maybe what we need is an event
newsletter posted at different places that covers a month.  Then posters
as reminders.”

 “Maria, I think that’s
genius.  We’ll just need to design one heading for the newsletter then
we’ll be free to design the posters as needed.  I don’t believe posters
are necessary for club meetings, do you?”  She doesn’t either.

As we walk out, locking the front
door of the clinic, five people are coming toward the door with their schedule
of events.  I take them home with me and start correlating them.

Wednesday, just after we open the
office, the waiting room’s full.  There’s only supposed to be three
appointments today so I listen to the conversations.  Maria’s talking to
most of them about events, the response is amazing.  Maria’s hands are
full of calendars and there’s more being held out to her.  She excuses
herself to take care of our first appointment.

In the exam room, Mrs. Walters
praises us for our help in getting the word out about the charity and club
events.  She’s here because Miss Minnie, her cat, has a little
cough.  I give her medicine and instructions and Mrs. Walters leaves a
schedule for her Cat Lover’s Club.  Maria puts it with the stack she’s
already collected.  Mrs. Walters can barely get to the door with Miss Minnie’s
carrying case.

Bob comes in as Mrs. Walters is
leaving.  He asks what’s going on and when he hears the answer he starts
collecting papers at the door, clearing the waiting room in about ten
minutes.  Maria and I can’t thank him enough.  He’s off till five and
thought he would check with us to see what kinda response we’d had.  He
hadn’t expected this, either.  He says he’d be back about lunch time and
wants to know what we do for lunch.  One of us usually goes out to get
lunch and brings it back, so he offers to bring us lunch, along with a box for
the event schedules.  He suggests the box sit outside the door to keep the
clinic waiting room from being mobbed.

The rest of the morning is quieter,
seems the rush is over.  Everyone’s happy about the events newsletter and
promise to look for it.  They hope it’ll bring in more help with the
charities and enlarge the clubs’ memberships.  Maria and I hope we’ll get
through the next few days and complete the work.

Steve and Bob, with a little white
haired lady, brought in the box Bob had promised, and a sign that requests the
schedules be placed in it with a contact person and phone number on them. 
The lady with them is Steve’s grandmother, Lili Williams.  After lunch,
Miss Lili and Steve leave for a while.  They come back with four large dry
eraser boards and begin to put tape on them to mark out the days of the
month.  When they finish, we each get a schedule and start to fill in the
days.  We get most of the schedules finished in the three hours we have to
work on it.  Miss Lili saved our lives and says she’d be glad to help out
any time.  We notice its time to close the office and they leave.

Maria and I clean the reception
area and straighten the office before leaving for home.  Bob and Steve are
waiting outside when we come out.  We talk for a few minutes then Maria
has to get home to Shay.  Steve and Bob have a briefing over at the
station and I have a shower calling me, at home.

I stop to pick up a frozen pizza at
the grocery store and run into Miss Lili.  I ask her how she’s getting
home.   Steve’s going to pick her up after his meeting.  We walk
and shop together, even tho’ I’m through shopping and she only needed a few
things, which she already seems to have.  Just as we’re checking out, the
fire alarm goes off at the station.  We go outside to see the fire truck
leaving with several private trucks behind it.  I ask Miss Lili if I can
take her home and she accepts.

I’m surprised when we get to her
house.  She lives in the Georgian house across from the city park, the
founder’s house.  I help her inside with her groceries and we talk a bit
about the house and its history.  I try to excuse myself, but Miss Lili
won’t let me go without giving me a couple’a slices of lemon cake to take with
me.  I ask her for her phone number so I can check on her.  She says
she’ll be fine, but she’d enjoy talking to me.  Her number in my pocket
and my thawed pizza dripping on my seat, I drive home.

Maria calls as I’m getting the
pizza out of the oven.  We talk about the events of the day and Miss
Lili.  She’s surprised Miss Lili’s a descendent of the founding father of
Granite Bluff.  Ol’ what’s his name?  I tell her there’d been a fire
alarm and the whole volunteer force had gone out.  She hopes, like all of
us, the fire’s easily contained and doesn’t spread.  A fire in this
weather and drought can be devastating to everyone.  We hang up and I call
Miss Lili to see if she’d heard anything.

Bob and Steve are home, after
putting out a barbecue fire.  Miss Lili puts Steve on the phone as I’m
telling her it isn’t necessary.  He explains that when the fire hazard’s
this high, every fireman’s required to respond.  We speak for a few
minutes then he has to shower.  He and Bob and two others are the only
full time firemen.  He and Bob expect to be at the office after lunch
tomorrow to help with the calendars.

I shower, watch the ten o’clock
news, tho’ there’s nothing new, and go to bed.

Today’s easier, with the box
collecting the schedules.  I can’t believe there’s so much going on in town. 
Miss Lili is here with lunch for us and stays to help.  When Steve and Bob
come in about one thirty, things are coming together.  Tomorrow the
newsletter will be ready to print.  Bob gives us a couple of letterheads
he’d designed for it.  We like them both and decide we’ll alternate
them.  Miss Lili asks if we’d heard from the senior citizens center. 
We haven’t, so she and Steve run down to get their schedule.  Now we have
something from every place any of us know of that has events and a dozen or so more
that we knew nothing about.  Now, we have to make good on our promise and
get the calendars out.  No posters are necessary this week.

We decide we’ll post the
newsletters at stores around town and if they’ll let us, reminder posters will
be stuck in one their windows when necessary.  Steve and Miss Lili will
take care of lining up the windows and stores.  Maria thinks small
collapsible A-frame stands for the flyers will cover parts of downtown and the
park.  We like the idea.  Miss Lili says she’ll get a couple of
friends at the senior center to make three or four.  We want to make the
flyers big event reminders and the newsletters will have to be bi-weekly
because of the number of events that need to go on them.  There’s more to
do in this dinky town than is common knowledge.  Maria and I decide we’ll
work on the next calendar tomorrow.  Since we’re not busy, she can bring
Shay to the office.

We’ve worked most of the morning on
the newsletter and are about to print them for the first two weeks, when Steve,
Bob and Miss Lili come in.  Shay takes off for Bob as soon as he sees him
and Bob scoops him up mid stride, to say “hi”.  Miss Lili is taken with
Shay and offers to babysit anytime.  The five of us get to work printing
off two dozen calendars.  Steve, Bob and Shay leave to distribute
them.  Bob brings Shay back after about an hour, seems he needs changed
and they didn’t take anything to cover that “end” of things.  Maria laughs
and takes the toddler to the bathroom to remedy the problem.  Steve
arrives, having finished distributing the calendars.  It’s three and we’re
all tired and Bob and Steve have to go to work.

Miss Lili wants to get something to
eat and the rest of us realize we’re hungry, too.  Shay didn’t remind us
of lunch time, as he usually does, and Maria’s curious about it.  Bob has
to admit he had gotten him a hot dog while they were out.  “I didn’t see
any mustard or ketchup on him when I changed him.” Maria says.

“Oh.  Does he like mustard and
ketchup on his hot dog?  I didn’t know so I didn’t put any on it.”

“Did he eat it?”  Bob admitted
every bite was devoured.  “By Shay?”

“Yeah.  He’s a neat eater,
didn’t drop a crumb.”  Bob’s smiling with pride, like he’d accomplished
the unheard of.  Maria smiles back at him and we all see the instant Bob
falls for her, it’s strong and obvious.  Maria seems to be oblivious to
it, as she turns to pick up Shay and get ready to go home.  Bob opens the
door for her and helps her get Shay in the car.

When he comes back in, Miss Lili
asks “Did you get her phone number?”

He looks a bit shocked, but answers
a low “No.”  And before any more comments can be made, asks Miss Lili
where her bike is so he can put it in his truck to take home for her. 
Once she tells him, he’s gone.  Steve and Miss Lili laugh at him, say
goodbye and leave.  I’m clueless, so I straighten up the office and the
waiting room, lock up, closing an hour early, and leave, too.

Maria calls after Shay’s in
bed.  Bob comes up in our conversation.  She says Bob’s nice and
mentions Bob has become friends with Shay.  She mentions Steve, but I
haven’t really noticed anything about Steve so that topic’s short lived,
too.  The subject of Miss Lili takes over the conversation.  After
half an hour, she has to go, its late.  I ask her about the three of us going
out for supper tomorrow night and she agrees it’s too hot to cook.

Friday we have a few appointments
and clean the clinic the rest of the day.  We’ll start on the next event
newsletter next week.  I go home for a shower and fresh clothes before we
go to and uneventful supper.

Saturday morning I ride Izzie,
staying in the shade by the creek.  I thought to put on my bathing suit so
I could go for a swim.  As I sit in the grass next to an Oak tree after my
swim, I notice the creek is getting low.  The swimming hole is still quite
deep but the stream of water filling it is slow.  I listen to the birds
chirping in the branches and the trickling of the water.  It’s very
calming, relaxing me into a sleepy, not a care in the world attitude.  Izzie
neighs and brings me outta the feeling of floating on a cloud.  My swim
suit’s dry so I get dressed and we go home.