Speak

Chapter 06 - She and He

She had bigger things to worry about.

"Mom?" she called through the front door. "Mom, I'm home with groceries."

No response. No surprise.

She sighed and rested the shopping bags on the wide kitchen island she'd become so familiar with in the past month. She slumped against the countertop and rubbed her temples. This day had totally drained her.

Lucy had realized halfway through lunch with Peter, when he began talking about his great new job at the local amusement park, that she had no income at the moment, and she was slowly using up the cookie jar cash. Her dad had worked at a maintenance shop a few blocks over, and she'd always intended to become his assistant when she really needed the money.

Now, she really needed the money, but couldn't exactly get that job. She was sure that some of the guys at the shop would recognize her and help her out, but she didn't think she'd be able to handle the memories. It was enough smelling his lingering cologne when she walked through her own front door, and seeing his razor when she went to the bathroom to fetch her mother's beauty supplies, but working where he had worked, being where he had been for the better half of the last ten years of his life - well, she thought that just might kill her, too.

Lucy slowly opened up one of the bags and pulled out the newspaper she'd bought at the last minute. It seemed she did everything in one of two ways now: reluctantly or impulsively. It hurt her to breathe, yet she still found herself able to throw hard objects across her bedroom without a second thought.

She flipped through the paper, spotting happy articles and sad ones, pausing at the obituaries, until she finally landed on the business section. She grabbed a pen and uncapped it with her teeth, and thus began circling any offer that intrigued her, like she'd seen in the movies.

The cap still in her mouth, Lucy scanned the list with vigor, only finding three or four jobs that interested her. Her eyes landing on the final column, she noticed an offer that made her pause. It was for a local ice cream parlor that she and her dad had frequented before his...departure.

Without circling the ad, Lucy slowly set down the newspaper and capped her pen. She stared at the paper for at least thirty seconds before pulling out her cell phone. The beeping of each number as she dialed it seemed strangely ominous to her, and she hesitated before pressing the green button that would officially send the call.

"Hi! You've reached Daisy's Ice Cream and Soda Shop! This is Cindy, how can I help you?"

Lucy realized she was holding her breath and let it out slowly.

"Hello?"

She cleared her throat and shook away the memories with a sharp movement of her head. "Um...hi...uh, this is Lucy Shires. I...um, I was calling about the ad in the newspaper? It said you were looking for a waitress?"

"Oh, I am so sorry, sweetie!" Lucy could practically hear Cindy's smile from the other end of the line. "But just a few hours ago someone accepted that job!" Her thick southern drawl made Lucy almost glad about not being able to work there.

But, remembering her father's laughing face, and the way he always got ice cream all over his nose and, often, his nice shirt, made her fight the tears she'd been holding in for weeks. This job would have made her feel close to him in a way other than melancholic, like she'd been feeling for weeks.

Not to mention, it would be a good distraction from the condition of her mother.

"Oh," was all she could say.

"I really am sorry, dear," continued the drawling woman. "I wish you the best of luck in finding a job soon!"

Lucy's voice sounded strange in her ears, like it wasn't even hers. "Yeah. Thanks."