Damage

Chapter 33

I'm just seconds away from changing the station but when I look at him for a just a second, Luke's watching the road, one hand on the steering wheel, and he's smiling.

LUKE

We're almost there and I'm fighting every urge to not look over at her ever 10 seconds when I see her sit up quickly from the corner of my eye.

"What is it?"

"Nothing, it's just, someone's selling...I think, pumpkins at the side of the road."

I look over quickly and see a little yearning look on her face, mixed the tiniest bit of happiness.

It's still maybe 100 yards in front of us.

"Do you want one?"She leans her head against the window again. "Halloween's already passed, it's too late."

"That doesn't answer my question. Do you want one?"

She looks over at me momentarily. "Well, yeah, kind of, maybe one of the really tiny ones. But I barely have any money so it's - "

Without hesitation, I turn on my blinker and pull to the side of the road, putting the car in park.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm getting you a pumpkin," I say, opening the door and stepping on the grass that's nearly brown.

"No, Luke, really, don't. It's fine."

"No, it's okay."

"Look, I know you can afford it, but, really, you don't have to." She stands up in her little overalls and green turtleneck, pushing a curly strand of hair out of her face.

"It's just a tiny pumpkin, Mia. You want one, I want to get you one."

And before she can protest anymore, I'm walking towards the small, wooden stand.

"Hi, how much for the pumpkins?"

The man sitting behind the little wooden box of pumpkins stands up and looks over at my car, his eyes widening in surprise and his thick, salt-and-pepper eyebrows raising. His wrinkled, tanned fingers reach for a little grey cash box and he opens it up, peering over the bright orange pumpkins laid out on the table.

"Well, the pumpkins here are half price since Halloween just passed. What size were you looking for?"

I see Mia wander over to the side, perusing over the figs at the other end of the stand.

"Just a small one. The smallest you have."

"That'll be $1. You can pick out whatever you want. If your girl wants some figs, you can fill up a gallon bucket for $6."

His choice of words makes me look over at her for a second again. "Ok, sure. We'll take some figs too." I look over at Mia and she looks back in surprise, her big, round, almond eyes widening.

"Hmm?"

"Is two gallons of figs enough?"

She laughs a little and it nearly knocks me out. "Luke, that's a lot...you don't have to get figs."

"You can try some if you want," the man says, smiling at the both of us, his eyes crinkling at the sides. "The season's almost over so this is probably my last batch."

"See? The season's almost over, Mia. I have to get you as many figs as possible before they're all gone until summer."

She looks down, pushing a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "I don't like you buying all this stuff for me. First the clothes and now...all this...fruit."