I wanted to argue with her. I didn’t need her asking for handouts, but how do you argue with your grandma in a church? I may have been an asshole, but I couldn’t be one aroundher.
“You know where Memorial Cemetery is?” Johnasked.
“Yes,sir.”
“Go on down a mile from it, my house is on the left. Twelve, County Road Two. Come over Friday and we’ll see if we can’t get you somework.”
“Thank you,” I said, even though I wasn’t the least bit excited about whatever tending twenty acres entailed. I should have just called Grandma and told her I went to jail, then I could have just slept in thatday.
5
Hannah
Daddy waved at me from his shop when I stepped out of my car. “Hey,honey!”
Sampson ran doing circles around me, barking and wagging his tail so hard he nearly toppledover.
“Hey!”
“Have a good day atwork?”
“It’s work.” I sighed and headed up the porch steps with Sampson at my heels. “I’m gonna go startdinner.”
He nodded before he went back to whatever project he was workingon.
Just as I grabbed the doorknob, I heard tires roll over the gravel. I glanced around at the unfamiliar black pickup creeping down the drive before parking to the side of Daddy’s shop.Whoever it is, is probably the next “troubled soul” Daddy’s hoping to help.For as long as I could remember, he’d taken in those less fortunate, paying them for odd and ends jobs around the farm. He swore his plot in life was to give those people the second chance no one elsewould.
Sampson pawed at the screen door, dragging my attention away from the truck. “Okay, okay. Don’t be so needy,” I said, the hinges to the screen door groaning when I finally pulled it open. He shot inside, skidding around the corner. A hazy cloud of smoke crawled through the air, and my nose wrinkled at the smell of burntpizza.
“What the…Bo!” I shouted up the stairs, even though I knew he most likely had in earbuds which meant there was no hope he’d hearme.
Swatting the smoke away from my face, I headed into the kitchen, grabbed a potholder, and opened the oven. Plumes of smoke billowed out, and there, inside the oven, sat a smoldering, charred pizza. “Dear Lord,” I huffed before I yanked it out. I quickly set it on the counter and cracked the window over the sink, trying to guide some of the smoke out with myhands.
Momma did everything before she started chemo. God knows had Bo and Daddy been left to their own devices, they would have burnt the house down thatsummer.
After I raised all the windows and got most of the smoke out, I went upstairs to change out of my scrubs, stopping at Bo’s room. “Bo!” I tapped over the Lincoln Park poster tacked to hisdoor.
Nothing.
Bang. Bang.“Bo!”
The door partially opened, and he rested his forehead against the doorframe. “Huh?” His eyes were puffy and barelyopen.
“Were youasleep?”
“Yeah…”
I rolled my eyes. “So, you put a pizza in the oven and fellasleep?”
“Ohhhhh…. Yeah.” He frowned, brushing his dark hair out of his face. “Sorry.”
“Between you and Daddy this house is going to burn to the ground.” I motioned him out into the hall. “Go downstairs and throw some spaghetti in a pot, would you, while I go check onMomma.”
Tossing his head back, he groaned before shuffling out into the hallway. His dark hair was unruly, similar to Dave Grohl in the way it hung over his eyes. I swatted at the tangled hair covering his neck. “You need to cut thismop.”
“I likeit.”
“Bo, you lookhomeless.”
