[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Actually, I fully expected him to ask how long we had
been together when I introduced him to Jack although
the old fart knew I wasn t dating anyone.
We walked up the pier and to a small side street that
ran alongside Grandfather s store. The streets weren t
busy, but not dead either. There were a few scattered
tourists mingling with the locals and a very mild flow of
traffic. Roofs of several professional fishing boats could
be seen between alleyways.
We entered The Outdoorsman and I was not
surprised to find the place dead. I also found it in dire
need of a good dusting. I ll give Grandfather one
thing& he had the smell down. The scent of the store
made you instantly think of being outside. It smelled
stale and slightly dirty.
Mac!
I heard his voice from the front of the store and
followed it. It was thick and gruff from the thirty-five
years of his life he had spent smoking. When grandma
had died of lung cancer, a direct result of her own
smoking, Grandfather had dropped the habit cold turkey.
If he was to be trusted (and I believed that he was), he
hadn t put a cigarette to his lips in just about ten years.
I walked to the front and found him hunkered down
in the floor, restocking a shelf of trail mix. It hurt my
heart to see how much he seemed to have aged in the
five months that had passed since I had last seen him.
Right down to the lack of any sort of real luster in his
eyes, he looked to have aged five years. I was happy to
see the slight glimmer of happiness in those eyes when
he saw me come around the corner.
He stood up and gave me a hug. I was relieved to see
that he wasn t as frail as he looked; he still had some heft
to him, particularly around the gut. His long hair was
almost all gray now, except for the few strands of black
just in front of his ears.
It s so good to see you, he said.
You, too, I said.
Grandfather was the only family I had left. With dad
dead and mother having remarried and moved on the
other side of the country, Grandfather was all I had.
Once the hug was broken, Jack stepped up and
offered his hand.
De& sorry, excuse me, Jack Keith.
I wondered if Jack was actually nervous to be
meeting someone that was so close to me. He seemed to
be tripping over his words a bit. I watched as they shook
hands and felt as if two totally separate sides of my
world were being thrown together at high speeds.
Smitty Lowery, Grandfather said. Nice to meet
you. Mac told me about the plane and your willingness
to help. I sure do thank you.
Not a problem at all, sir. If you can let me know
where the supplies need to go, I can start unloading it all
for you.
Here, I ll show you, Grandfather said. And I ll
lend a hand as best as I can.
Me, too, I said, not wanting my grandfather to
blow his back by trying to lift anything heavy.
Grandfather got two dollies from the back of the
shop and we rolled them around to the back. Pushing
them down the pier, I wondered if Jack had always been
this polite and helpful but I had just missed it due to the
awkward situation and my insistence on hating him.
I m not being fair to him, I thought.
It came out of nowhere, and it stung. It was true.
When you boiled the situation down to its core, I was
sort of being a bitch. I was acting spoiled and taking it
out on Jack. So what that he had beaten me to the punch
when it came to buying the plane? What did he owe me?
Nothing. It was business& plain and simple.
I watched him as he started to unload some of the
heavier boxes, sliding them to the edge of the pane s
hatch. Once he had a few of them out of the way, he then
did his best to angle the two crates to the edge of the
hatch; the crates contained kayaks and the nowmobile
which were the pivotal part of Grandfather s order.
I stood without moving, watching Jack move the
boxes and crates. He shifted them like a man that was
used to shifting around heavy things. I watched his
muscles flexing under his shirt and the look of stern
determination as he moved things around. I felt myself
getting what my mother had called twitterpated, a
stupid phrase she had lifted from Bambi. It also brought
to mind a hilarious sexual phrase I had picked up from
Sophie, my room mate in college. If she had seen me
then, watching Jack move the boxes and crates around,
she would have asked me, plain and simple: Is that
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]