Page 75 of The Second Dance
I pick up one of the martin houses. It looks like a white plastic gourd. “I’m fucked.”
“Why’s that?”
I whip around, surprised to see Skyler Thomas staring me down.
“What are you doing here?”
He holds up a big metal post-hole digger. “What’s it look like?” He grins. “I’m volunteering.”
“You’re a bird watcher?”
He laughs. “No. But Aunt Tabitha is. And she called in a favor.” He tilts his head. “I didn’t realize you do actual installation. I just thought you were the idea lady.”
“I don’t usually do this part. I’m just trying to speed things along.”
Understanding dawns in his eyes, and he nods slowly. “Ah.”
I shove a few bird feeders into his arms. “How’s work? Isn’t it about time to start planting?”
He nods, grabbing some of the posts. “Just about. I’m just the support guy with all that, though. It’s not my full-time gig.”
“It’s not? I didn’t realize.”
He follows me up the slope. “I work remotely for a firm in San Francisco.”
“Oh, wow. Do you get to travel?”
He nods. “A good amount.”
We find the first location for a feeder and he starts prepping the ground. “What about you? How did you get into this ecology stuff? Didn’t you study something else in college? Communications or something…”
“Journalism.” I say, surprised he knew that much. “I wanted to work for a non-profit when I graduated. And my grandma and I were always really passionate about birds.”
“My grandma was, too.” Skyler says.
I watch him drive a post into the ground. It looks like it takes a good amount of exertion. Thank God I didn’t try to do this all by myself.
I hand him a house when he’s got the post in the ground. “Sounds like she was a special lady.”
“A living saint.” He says, smiling distantly. “I think Bo took it the hardest of all of us when she passed.” He gives me a quick side glance, like he’s aware he’s wading into dangerous waters and just can’t help himself. “He and grandma were really close.”
He keeps talking as I lead him to the next location. “Even in college, he was always going out to visit on the weekends. He’d mow her lawn or take care of things around the house. Made the rest of us look bad.”
He smiles fondly, kneeling to help me assemble one of the bigger Purple Martin houses. “Aunt Heather and Uncle Chad weren’t always the most… nurturing of parents. Cody and Bo spent a lot of time with grandma. It probably didn’t look like it, but those two guys were really struggling in high school.”
“I had no idea. He always seemed so happy.”
Skyler tips his head. “He was… when he was at school. That was the safe place, you know?”
“Well, I don’t know personally, because school wasn’t a safe place for me.”
He winces. “Yeah. I guess we were all having our own struggles, weren’t we?”
I shrug. “I guess so.”
“Good thing we all grow up, eventually.” He grins at me. “I thought he was doing pretty well until this beautiful girl sailed into his life and broke his heart… again.”
I sit back on my haunches. “You didn’t come out here just to volunteer, did you?”
