Constant Pull (7 page)

“Yep
. How is it, by the way?” he asked, scratching his hair just above his ear.

“It’s totally fine
. I’m pretty used to job related injuries. I do appreciate the help.” I said, nodding.

“Anytime.”

There was a long pause.

He continued. “That guy that you were talking to
the other day, is he your Dad?”

“Murray?  No, he’s my boss.”

“Oh. That makes sense.”

He stood by the window still, unmoving
. He put his hands in his jeans front pockets and looked down the street.

“I didn’t hear you drive up.” I said.

“Oh, I actually parked down there” he said, pointing to his car. I lost my pocket knife the other day. My mom got it for me a while back when I became a fireman so I wanted to see if I could find it. I thought maybe I lost it when I was here. I’ve looked everywhere. I was all up and down the street that day so I’ve been checking in the front of these houses and in the backyard of this one. I was in the neighborhood.

“Any luck?”  I said, wondering if people were ever
really
in the neighborhood when they say they were.

“Not yet” he said, glancing up at the
nosey old lady who was still peeking out the window. He waved to her. I laughed.
              “I would help you look for it,” I said, “but I didn’t wear any shoes.” I felt a little silly and put one foot on top of the other on the brake pedal.

“I did notice that.” He said, smiling
. “That’s OK; I was just about to give up. I’m Wren by the way.” He put his hand in my window to shake my hand.

I took his hand and shook it
. His knuckles felt rough. “I’m Mel.” I said.

“Mel
. Is that short for something?” he asked, shoving his hands back into his front pockets.

“Yeah, short for Amelia.” I said.

“I like it.” He said, nodding.

I smiled
. I kind of wondered why he was still standing there.

“So, you’re a carpenter, huh?” he asked, kicking some gravel on the street.

“Yeah. I’m still learning but been a finish carpenter for a few years now.” I noticed his chin had a dimple and his blond hair was much neater today. It was brushed to the side and had a slight wave to it.
              “Do you have a business card?”

“Oh, sure.”  I reached into my
glove box and snagged a card out, straightening the corners as I handed it to him. It was only about the third one I’d given out in probably a year.

“Thanks.” He said, acting very interested in what was on the card
. He flicked it with his fingertips.

“Do you need carpentry work done?” I asked, wondering.

“I do if you’re going to do it.” He said, moving his eyes up to mine and holding them there, his gaze intense.

“Oh” I said, not sure how to respond.

“So, are you” he paused. “
with
anyone?” he bit his bottom lip waiting for my response.

I shook my head
slightly, holding his gaze.

“Do you think I could give you a call?” he said, looking at me with a sort of hopeful trust.

I nodded. I really wasn’t sure what to say, so I didn’t say anything.

“Maybe we can grab some coffee
. I was just going to get some, actually. I would ask you to come now, but there’s that shoe thing again.” He said, smiling. He had perfect teeth and I noticed his hazel eyes.

“If only I had shoes.” I said with a shrug.

Something occurred to him. “Are you an adventurous type of girl?” he said to me.

I looked at him sideways wondering exactly what he was referring to
. He laughed.

“Don’t read into that
. I meant that I actually have some rubber boots in my truck. I was helping my uncle lay cement. I could bring you with me to get coffee right now. Those would be the prettiest feet my boots have ever had in them.”

I smiled and looked down
. “I would, but I actually slept in this.” I said, pointing to my black yoga pants and lime green T-shirt.”

He shook his bent knee back and forth and set his hands on the sides of my window, leaning closer to me.

He spoke softly. “
I
don’t care if you don’t.”

I realized just then that I’d been playing with my hair
. I stopped abruptly and squinted my eyes, turning to him. “Can you have me back here in less than an hour?”

“That I can do.” He smirked.

“OK then, I’m in.”

“
Excellent. Let me grab those boots for you.” He smiled, jogging over to his parked car.

I hopped out of my truck, tossing on a gray hooded sweatshirt that I had on the passenger side
. I used the sleeve to rub my teeth, realizing that I hadn’t brushed them. I grabbed a credit card and an atomic fireball from my center console and sucked on it for three seconds, putting it back in its wrapper as my mouth burned.

I walked over to his car
, pulling my hair into a ponytail. Wren was in the trunk getting the black rubber boots out for me and turning them upside down to pour out anything that might have been inside. The bottom of the boots had a thin coating of dried cement on them. He set them down behind his car, taking the time to put the left on the left and right on the right facing me. He held his hand out to help me balance. I hesitated because he caught me off guard by offering his hand when I could have easily used the car for balance. I looked at him then took his hand, stepping into the boots. They were huge on me and I giggled. I had to point my toes up when I walked to keep them on my feet. Wren ran over to the car to pick up the pop bottles from the passenger floor while I clomped over to sit down. He opened the door for me from the inside, reaching over.

Wren’s car smelled like artificial coconut air
freshener. I found it funny. We drove over to a coffee shop just down the street. After were ordered, I offered to pay with my pocketed credit card but he insisted on buying. We sat down at a small table against the wall.

“My kind of girl.” He remarked, with a
mischievous smile.

“What do you mean?”

“Plain coffee and rubber boots in a fancy coffee shop. Any guy would agree. Any
sane
guy would agree.” He corrected. His jeans were distracting me and I was sure he caught me noticing them.

“So, what made you become a fire fighter?” I asked, realizing that I was staring at him
.

He stirred his coffee and hunched over the cup, thinking
. “Every kid wants to be a firefighter, right?  I guess it’s because I was drawn to the team feeling of it. You’re a team of people who grow to be family. Your sole job is to rescue people and help them and stop what went wrong. It’s dangerous, but you count on your team. You’re there for each other.”

“That’s a great answer.”

“Thank you” he flashed his perfect smile at me. “I get asked that a lot so I’ve had time to think about it. What made you become a carpenter.”

“Now I wish you would’ve asked me first
. My answer is way worse.”

He laughed
. “I’m sure that’s not true.”

“Well, it’s not as admirable, that’s for sure
. I just tried it and I liked it. Turns out I’m a bit of a perfectionist and that works well when you’re a carpenter.”

“No way.” He said, sitting back.

I raised my eyebrows.

“No disrespect” he said, placing his hand on his chest, laughing
. “No disrespect. I just put the term perfectionist with someone much more…….high maintenance. With high hair, and high heels.”

“Decent recovery.” I said, nodding.

“So, what brought you to the house today?  You looked like you were waiting for someone.” He asked, sitting back and crossing his legs.

“I came back there to see if the guy who was posing as the homeowner was going to come back.” I said nonchalantly.

“Really?” he seemed genuinely surprised. “What were you going to do if he showed up?”

“Confront him
. Find out why he would lie about that, I guess.”  I felt like I should’ve told him I was there for a different reason. This morning’s 200 pound phone call that prompted me to leave the house quickly dropped right back on my chest. I tried to quickly bury it in my mind so that my change in mood wouldn’t give him the wrong idea. I actually liked him.

“Interesting.” He nodded, looking at me and taking a sip of his coffee. He
seemed to have a habit of holding his coffee in his mouth before he swallowed, rather than just drinking it. I locked eyes with him. Most people look away when I did that, but he held my gaze for longer than most. Then he looked at his watch. “I only have 13 minutes left to get you back to your car and I’m already bummed about it.”

I wasn’t sure if
that was a line or not, but I smiled anyway. He had a very strong brow and his eyebrows were darker than his hair. His jawline was well defined and I could see his jaw muscles when he clenched his teeth which had done a few times already.

He drove me
back to my car and turned the car off which I took as a hint that he wasn’t ready to quickly drive away. So, I sat still and didn’t hop right out of the car.

“Well,
Wren
, thank you for the coffee and for the use of your rubber boots.”

“You’re very welcome.”

“I hope you find your pocket knife. It sounds like it’s important.”

“Yeah, thanks
, I hope so too. I’ve got a few more places to check.”

I started to pull my feet out of the boots.

“Well,-” I started.

“You can keep those
.” He rushed to say. “For now I mean. I don’t need them for a while and I wouldn’t want your toes to be cold. Gives me a reason to see you again. If you’re OK with that.” He said, looking down. He turned his lips into each other looking a little self conscious.

“I might be OK with that.”
I said in a low voice, looking at him out of the side of my eye.

“I’ll give you a call then.” He said with a shy smile.

“Talk to you then.” I said, as I got out of the car and shut the door. I walked in the giant boots over to my car where I felt flushed and a bit anxious. I’d never had an immediate connection with someone like that before. As I pulled away, I found myself struggling between the stress from my phone call and the encounter with Wren. What the hell kind of name is that anyway?  I smelled my sweatshirt sleeves up and down to see if his spicy smell might have lingered-nothing. I smiled as I drove. I didn’t want to think about when he would call or I might make myself crazy. Although I did set my phone ringer up a little louder than it had been, just in case he called.

I drove for about ten minutes and my phone rang
. I had turned it up so loud that it startled me and I snagged it quickly to see who it was. I should’ve programmed his number. An unknown number came across the screen. I tucked my hair behind my ear and answered in a much higher voice than my natural one.

“Hello?” I said, smiling
, excitement in my voice.

“Hi sweetheart, it’s Vita.”

“Oh!” I was caught completely by surprise and then I felt relief at hearing Vita’s voice. ”Hi Vita, how are you?”

“Just fine, just fine
. I wanted to see how
you
are. You were a little jumpy on Sunday and Kevin told me you had some strange things happening lately. Just wanted to check on you is all.”

I was quiet
. I felt a flood of relief that someone wanted to hear about all this. Someone I trusted. I wanted to gush and tell her everything.

“Mel?  You still there?”

“I’m here. Sorry. Actually, I’d love to fill you in on all my stuff if you’re volunteering.” I said with a nervous giggle in my voice.

“Of course! 
Would you prefer to meet me?  I’m free around lunchtime today or tomorrow after three.”

“Today is great.” I said
almost on top of her words. “I can drive to you.”

“Oh that would be
wonderful. Let’s see….it’s just after ten now. How’s about 12:30 this afternoon?  We can have lunch if that works for you!”

“
That sounds great. I will be there at 12:30 then.”

I turned in down the drive at Kevin’s parents’ house. It was a long, gravel drive and my truck bounced me all over the place. I was concerned that Vita would silently think I fell off the deep end. I admired her a great deal. Not only because of how I knew her to be, but how Kevin would explain how she was with him. For whatever reason, I really wanted her to like me. This feeling-this need it seemed-was unsettling to me because I typically didn’t give much thought to a person’s opinion of me. My grandma used to tell me that was a gift. I never really understood what she meant-but I was starting to. The concern about caring what someone thought of you was just plain inconvenient. I can’t imagine what it would be like to care what
every
person thought of you. I’ve always felt that people are going to judge you no matter what. It doesn’t so much matter what the outcome of their opinion is; it’s just their opinion and they can’t do much with it.

As I vowed to empty my bed’s toolbox next time I
drove down this driveway, I saw the house. It was the first time I’d seen it in the daylight. Seemed to be east coast inspired, if I had to guess, but it had a touch of english cottage look to it. It was white with a grey mottled roof and it had unusual peaks and a wraparound porch. There was a balcony on one of the upstairs bedrooms. A telescope sat on the balcony. All around the porch there were flowers turning brown from the fall and red shrubs. The landscape rocks were black and shiny. There was an arbor near the entrance of the dark grey windy front walk.

When I pulled in, there was a young guy standing next to a pickup truck talking with Mark, Kevin’s Dad
. Mark stood there, hands in his front pockets, as kind-looking as can be, baseball cap set back on his head, nodding and smiling politely. As I pulled up to park, he took the man’s hand to shake it, placing his other hand on top. Then, he smacked his shoulder in a friendly way before turning to me.

“Hey Miss Mel!  This boy here’s gonna make your trip down the drive less painful
-hopefully by the next time you come. He’s laying asphalt for us-paving the whole drive.”

“Oh
OK. That sounds great.”  I replied, nodding in a weird circular way that I did when I was not myself.

“Tomorrow then”, the man said and shook Mark’s hand again.

“Bright and early. We’ll be up. No time to sleep around here” Mark replied, and laughed a belly laugh like there was something extra funny about that comment only to him.

The man crunched gravel under his feet as he nodded to me and hopped into his old, blue pickup making the suspension creak
. It was a cool Chevy truck, a gray-blue with rust all over.

It took two tries to turn it over and it cleared its throat
. We turned to the house after a final wave and Mark said “She’s in the house waiting for ya. Come on.”  The way he spoke was so interesting to me. Some words lingered longer than usual and some were much quicker. He held his left arm straight out and held it behind my back, leading me into the house.

Vita saw me through the screen door and waved me in although she was on the phone
. She continued on the phone, “Donald, I will not change it to add big words for the sake of trying to sound intelligent. It’s nonsense!  I use the best word to describe my theory for clarity’s sake. These are concepts that need to be understood thoroughly. If you disagree with how it’s written based on the concepts, then let’s have that conversation. I want these people to grasp the idea of the piece and what it’s about, not what words I used to describe it. No use wasting nine more seconds of a person’s time on each sentence just to impress and annoy.”  There was a pause. “Do you remember that student who used the word tantamount all the time?  Yeah, that kid. I will not foster that kind of behavior. The
concepts
are doctorate level.” Another pause. “OK, well get through it and let me know if you still feel the same once you’ve read it through. Thank you Donald. Talk with you real soon. Bye now.

“Heeeey!  Heard ya coming, are you carrying silverware for a few hundred in that truck of yours?” She laughed at her own bad joke and smiled at me, giving me a bear hug
.

“I know, it was crazy, you should’ve heard it from in the truck”, I smiled back as I returned the embrace.
“I was on a job yesterday and didn’t get a chance to take my tools out.”  I always tried to make it a point to pull my tools out of my truck at night and toss them in the garage, but I was beat last night so I just put as many as I could into the truck’s box and locked it.

Vita wore blue jeans with wide rolls at the bottom and had purple polish on her toes
. She slipped on a pair of lime green flip flops with tiny fabric flowers of all colors on the straps. Her cantaloupe colored top was scrunched in odd places and sewn that way on purpose.

“Well, I imagine you were very tired too
. You work hard, sweet girl.”  She interrupted herself. “The kid you saw giving us an estimate-he’s laying a drive for us. I can’t wait. Friend down the road-his boy’s business. He’s fallen into some hard times so we decided now was a good time to have it done. I’ll tell you what, you’d think he was paving it with liquid gold. I can’t get over the price of asphalt. Course we didn’t bargain with him. He needs the money.” She said, with a gentle shrug at the end. “Seems like a real nice kid, too. Just had a baby girl.”  My stomach twinged slightly. I dismissed it as a hunger pang.

I wasn’t surprised that it was expensive; the driveway was hundreds of feet long
. It was more like a street. They lived on about 40 acres, I thought Kevin said once.

“Anyhow
. You hungry?”  she said, interrupting my thought.

I nodded, hands tucked in my back pockets.

“I know this little outta the way place if you’re up for some grill food.”  She shot me a broad smile waiting for my approval.

“Sounds great
,” I said with real enthusiasm. “I’m all about a burger right now.”

“Perfect!  I’ll drive
. C’mon love.” She said as she gave me a wave in the direction of the garage.

“Be careful, baby
.” Mark said to her, giving her a quick kiss on the lips.

“You know I will
.” Vita said.

As we approached the garage, there was a key rack on the outside of the door
. Vita grabbed the oldest looking key. The garage had six parking spots and the first car that we headed towards was a really old Jeep. It was very open air. No roof in sight. There was rust all around the wheel wells and it was faded yellow in color. There weren’t doors, either.

“You OK
with my Jeep?  Does it bother you much?  I just love it. Drive it every chance I get. “

I smiled widely
. “It’s actually
really
cool.”

“Idn’t it tho
ugh!”  She made a humming sound. “Hop in, honey. I’m loving this Indian Summer we’re having, but the guy from channel four says today’s the last day it will be in the 80s. Gotta put that seatbelt on or you’ll fall clean out when I make a turn.”

I tossed my bag on the floor behind my seat and
slid in. The faded black vinyl seats were cracked and felt funny to sit on. Part of the seat had been repaired with black tape. The seat belt had to go between my legs and connected one on each side. I felt like a baby in a car seat but it was still cool.

“I got a little crazy with the seatbelts
. When the boys were little and they wanted to ride with me I would get nervous. I check safety ratings on cars like crazy. This one I regard more like a motorcycle in terms of safety. But, at least it’s got a five point harness so you won’t fall out!” She turned on some Bob Seger and we made our way to the restaurant.

The restaurant was in Ann Arbor
. About 15 minutes east of the Banners’ house. We hopped out of the Jeep and walked to the restaurant. This city held a very eclectic crowd and Vita fit right in. I felt like maybe I didn’t. I wore dark jeans and an untucked shirt with a ruby swirl vest opened over it. I thought my mother would approve.

We walked into the grill and bar
. It was floor to ceiling wood. There was a life-sized bear at the front entrance hanging by its feet by very thick metal cables. It hung from the gable of the restaurant. The door handles were deer antlers and the rug in front of the doors read: Clever Cow Saloon.

Vita seemed to know everyone
. She waved at the bartender while she spoke sweetly to the lady who sat us and who was also our waitress. Her name tag said Val. She was insanely thin and about 5 feet tall with thin blond hair and a hoop nose ring. As we walked to the booth, I could smell her recent cigarette break wafting behind her.

“Heyyy
y” Vita said-to just about everyone she saw as we walked to our booth. She would bend the word in the middle.

“Wow, you know everyone” I said, feeling a twinge of envy
. How cool to walk into a bar and have everyone know who you are.

“She’s a legend around here
.” the waitress answered in her whiskey voice as we slid into the benches.

“Ohhh, you are just plain crazy.” Vita said with a giant
smile.

“It’s true”, she claimed, looking at me
. “Are you one of her students?”

“Oh
. N-no.”  Her question caught me off guard. I didn’t have a college education and it never really bothered me until right then.

Vita was quick to speak up
. “Mel here is out there giving us girls a good name. She constructs and creates and from what I hear she’s a hell of a fantastic carpenter. It makes me proud and envious at the same time. I would love to be able to do that.”

“Oh, it’s not that hard.”  I tried to sideline her
compliment.

“Don’t short change yourself, love.”  She looked at me seriously and leaned in to say more
. “The gifts we have may come easily to us. It doesn’t make them simple though. Maybe you could show me sometime.” She finished with a wink and came out of her lean, relaxing.

I nodded, smiling
.

The waitress continued as if we hadn’t been speaking at all, “Vita’s students come in here all the time
. They’re always studying. We hear she’s tough but they just about all have wonderful things to say about her teaching methods. And If they
don’t
have nice things to say, Ray tosses them out on their ass.” She said, laughing and pointing at the bartender with the top of her pen. He was listening and motioned with his thumb to the door and then slapped off his hands as if to dust off the imaginary riff-raff. We all laughed.

“Can I start you off with a drink, ladies?” she said, still a laugh in her voice.

“I’ll have an iced tea, unsweetened.” I answered.

“Two of those, honey” Vita added.

She gave us a few more minutes to look over the menu. It was full of choices like garden burgers, beef from grass-fed cows. Free range chicken. How weird for a bar.

“I just love this place
. Their menu is just marvelous. I tend to overlook their misuse of apostrophes on the menu when the people and the food are this good.”  She said with a belly laugh. I really had no idea what she was talking about but I was hoping there wasn’t going to be a test to have me point them out. I wasn’t exactly sure how to use apostrophes and never really felt like sorting it out so I just avoided them figuring it was safer that way.

I looked at Vita nonchalantly while she
looked over the menu. Her reddish hair was still wet on the underside and drying to a crazed wave. She had tiny braids sporadically placed and held in place with little yellow rubberbands. She had a modest wedding set on her ring finger and a thick old fashioned looking diamond ring on her right hand. Her fingernails were unpolished and short. She wore a substantial watch. Her freshly showered scent overpowered the beef smell in the restaurant.

I went for the blue cheese burger and Vita got the natural burger with a fried egg on it
. We ordered some organic steak fries and broccoli to share.

“
Have I ever told you about Kevin when he was a baby?” Vita asked. I shook my head. The server set down more tea in front of us. Vita picked up two sugar packets and shook them by the end mindlessly, getting ready to put them in her tea.

“Kevin was my touch baby
. That boy…..he stole my heart. He would just hold my face and smile. Then he’d plant his little juicy mouth on my cheek and try to suck on my face.” I must have had a puzzled look on my face because she went on to explain, “That was just his little kiss. No matter what was upsetting him as a baby, a person’s gentle touch would simmer him right down. He was a
wonderful
baby. He was a terrible sleeper, but I could hardly complain. Love always seemed to flow so easily for him. It’s probably why I worry about him so much.”  She stopped and smiled at me. She seemed to be thinking so I gave her a minute.

I noticed as she told her story, that Kevin had the same eyes as his mother
. They were mostly brown, but had both gold and turtle green streaks as well. Her irises were very detailed with tons of extra crevices.