Son for Hire: Chapter 96

Before long I am turning the final corner and up ahead I see the local Episcopal Church and attached community hall.  On the street pole on the corner is a sign advertising tonight’s charity drive happening in the hall tonight.  The doors were propped open and folks from the neighborhood, seniors mostly, milled about and chatted with each other.  Out front a man and his kids were pulling out bags of stuff from an SUV to drop off.  They are all smiles as they carry their donations into the building to the greetings of those gathered.  Old folks being old folks the arrival of children causes quite a stir, as if a celebrity had unexpectedly made an appearance.  Even from a distance I could feel the good vibes of people united in trying to good in the world.  This was much more than a simple charity drop off.  This was community.

As I get closer I could see set up on the inside of the entry area were tables with food and drink and more people talking and laughing together.  I nod my hellos to a few of the gray hairs out front and step through into the building.  Behind one of the tables selling baked treats a familiar jade haired woman calls out to me.

“Hey cutie.”  She says with a smile.  It was Harper, the cafe owner.  She introduces me to those gathered around her table.  “This shy boy with a big appetite is Donny.  Alan and Evelyn’s new tenant.”  They welcome me warmly.  “What brings you out tonight cutie?  That sweet tooth get the better of you?”  Harper teases, calling back to the over-sized, over-sweet order when I was in her cafe.  She waves her hand across the table of plastic wrapped goodies.  “We’ve got a lot to choose from.  All profits go to a good cause.”  She nods over toward the corner.  “Coffee’s free if you want one.”

Reaching to my back pocket I find only Alan’s wrench.

“Thank you.”  I say softly.  “But…I forgot money or…my wallet.”  Pulling the tool from my pocket I say.  “I…uh…came to donate.”

“Just a wrench?”  Says a man to my right.

I nod.  “I just moved.  Got rid of my old stuff.  It’s all I had to give really.”  It wasn’t mine to donate of course but on the spot like this I couldn’t think of another reason for being here.  I’d buy Alan a replacement as soon as I could.

Harper chuckles.  “Well, it’s the thought that counts.  Through that door for donations.”

“Thank you.”  I say.  “It was a pleasure to meet you all.”

With that I walk for the door she’d pointed at.  Behind me I hear somebody say, “What a lovely young man.”

I walk through to the next room to find the main hall area.  Directly ahead of me were two long folding tables set end to end for people to drop off their donations.  Currently the man I’d seen out front and his children were speaking with a elderly man on the other side of the table.  Beyond were other tables set out where locals, women mostly, were sorting the donations into different categories.  There were lots of clothes but there were other things as well.  Vacuum cleaners, DVDs, pictures, lamps, a desk, even a full sofa; anything and everything that the well-to-do of this neighborhood wanted to get rid of.  And there, among the piles of clothes, I see my scarlet haired angel speaking and laughing with the woman beside her as they sorted.

For an instant a shot of panic runs through me.  Would she be upset at my unannounced appearance?  Would she be angry that I risked us being seen together in public again?  Would she be disappointed that I wasn’t strong enough to wait for her at home?  I am almost considering bolting when, in the middle of a jolly laugh, her eyes pan across the room and quickly lock right on me.  From across the long hall our eyes meet and the world melts away around me.

On her beautiful face blooms…joy.  Pure radiant joy.

Feeling humbled and so undeservedly special I am frozen to the spot.

“Sir?”

“Huh?”

The old fella manning the table had evidently been talking to me.  “Are you here to donate?”

“Uh…”  I look down at the wrench and back up to him.  “…yeah.  Yeah, this.”  I pass him the tool.  “Is that okay?”

He looks at it curiously, and me even more curiously, then shrugs his shoulders.  “Every bit helps.  Thank you.”

“Donald Garcia.”  I hear Evelyn’s upbeat voice.  “This is a surprise.”  She comes around the table and hugs me.  With all the prying eyes around it was just a quick hug, the type of hug you’d give a friend, but it still felt nice.  Holding me out at arm’s length she is all smiles.  “What are you doing here?”

I bow my head, my feet shuffling nervously, and say in a voice only she could hear.  “I did something stupid.”

“Oh?”

“I didn’t know where else to go.”

“So you came to me?”

I nod.  “I’m sorry.”

She initially says nothing, she simply beams in that way she had.

“I’m…not bothering you, am I?”

“No baby, you are not bothering me.  Come on.”  She turns and leads me back to the table where she’d been sorting.  “Donald, this is Pamela.  Pam, this is my new neighbor Donald.”

“So this is the handsome artist Evelyn’s told me about.”  She reaches over and shakes my hand.  “You’ve made quite an impression on your landlord young man.”

“Oh stop.”  Evelyn laughs.

“He’s come to help?”

Evelyn turns to look at me looking as proud as she could be as she awaits my answer with Pam.  “Yes Ma’am.”  I say.

“Excellent!”  Pamela says.  “You are a godsend.  This has been one of our busiest drives yet and we could really use the help.”  She turns to Evelyn.  “I’ll leave him with you, alright?”

Holding back her smile Evelyn says calmly.  “Okay Pam.  I’ve got things here.”

“Awesome.”  She says then looks back to me.  “Welcome aboard Donald.”  And with that she hurries off to help at one of the other tables.

“It is pretty simple.”  Evelyn says as she turns toward the table in front of us.  “We weed out anything not fit to be used then organize by sex and size, and then we move them to the appropriate table at the back of the room.  You’ll pick it up as we go.”  She glances toward me with a happy glimmer in her eye.  “Just ask if you have any questions.”

“Yes Ma’am.”  I move beside her.

Looking at all of the myriad of different clothes I just reach my hand out and grab one, a pair of men’s swimming trunks.  She shows me what differentiated good donations from trash.  Items had to be clean, unstained, and in good condition to make the cut, which most of these were.  Anything that needed just minor mending or a button sewed on were put in its own category for volunteers like Evelyn to take home with them and patch up.  As a guy who’d worn far more pre-owned clothing in his life than new I was used to being on the other end of this process.  It was interesting being on this side and I couldn’t help but imagine these things hanging on the overstuffed racks of a charity store or identifying with whatever lower income person ended up purchasing and wearing these.  It was only luck that found me here and it wouldn’t take much for me right back on the other end of this again.

Another bag is brought to us and dumped out for inspection.  With the crash course given we set to getting through the ever growing pile in front of us.  As we work shoulder to shoulder, sorting good from bad and organizing what remained, we talk in low voices.

“Interesting outfit.”  She says to break the ice.

“Yeah.”  I look down at my sweats, t shirt, and runners combo.  “I wasn’t expecting to be going out tonight.”

“Mmm.”

I let out a sigh.  “I was really stupid Mom.  And I said some hurtful things.  I feel awful about it.”

“Okay.”

“And I might have…I don’t know.  I might have got Alan wondering about us.”

“Oh?”

Careful to keep my voice just between the two of us as I try to appear calm for any onlookers I describe to Evelyn everything that had happened between Alan, Kitty, and I.  I tell her about the offer, the kindness, the jealousy, and the resulting petulant explosion.

“I’m such a…fuck up.”

“No, you are not.  You made a mistake.  That’s all.”  She says firmly.  “I do not want you talking that way about yourself.”

“Yes Ma’am.  I also had some really dumb thoughts on the way here.  Bad thoughts.”

“You feel your emotions unfiltered.  It’s what makes you so empathetic.  It’s what makes you my Donald.”

“Aw Mum.”  I sigh.  “I messed up.”

“Yeah.  You did.”  She says without an ounce of judgment.  “Don’t we all?”

“I didn’t mean to say those things to him, or to Kitty.”

“I know baby.”  She says.  “Your sister knows too.  You’ll apologize?”

“Yeah.  I will.”  I say.  “Alan’s gonna hate me even more than he already did.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure about that.”  She looks over at me.  “He’s a Dad.  The Dad of another strong-willed man.  You don’t think he’s dealt with something like that before?  He and Eugene used to butt heads all the time.”  With a wistful smile she whispers more to herself than to me.  “He actually offered you the old T-bird?  He offered to teach you?  That sweet old…”  Her voice fades away as her mind casts back to better times between them.  “He’s always been a good Dad.”

“Yeah.  I can tell.”

Turning back she returns to sorting the clothes though her mind was definitely elsewhere now.  “Kitty stayed?”

“Yeah.  I think spoiled the whole mood though.”  Being reminded of my sister I take out my phone and shoot her text to let her know that I was alright.  When I pocket my phone again I say.  “I hope she gets the car.  I think she really liked it.”

“She will.”  Evelyn nods.  “Alan quite likes her.  He never got a daughter.  Between you and me…when I was pregnant, I think he hoped Eugene would be a girl.”

“You guys never tried for a second?”

“We tried baby.”  Evelyn whispers.  “We tried.”  She swallows and lets out a long breath.  “We were blessed with one healthy, perfect, beautiful baby boy.  That was enough.”

There was a story here, a painful one.  This was not the place to have it.  Gently bringing the conversation back to tonight I say.  “We need to tell him.  Alan.  At some point…we have to.”

“I know.”  She says.  Keeping her hand below the level of the clothes in front of us Evelyn reaches over and takes my hand.  “But not yet.  Things are just…perfect right now.  Let me have a little more time my Prince.  Just a little more.”

I squeeze her hand back.  “I love you.”

“I love you too baby.”

Chapter 97