Flight Risk

Capitulo Dos

Picture of Derik ---------------------------------------------->

Once Sam left, Mrs. Rodgers wasted no time beating around the bush. She immediately began commentating about how much the Evans boy had grown into himself since she had last seen him two Christmases ago.

"Quite handsome now, isn't he?"

He's always been handsome, I thought to myself, though I refrained from commenting.

Her cherry red lips turned up into a smirk. "I wonder if he's single."

"Should Mr. Rodgers be jealous?" I questioned easily.

"You know I love my Henry and it wasn't for me that I was asking these questions."

"I know; we both know you're asking for your Book Club. Don't think I haven't figured out your angle." I teased.

Her laughter brought a smile to my face, but she wasn't at all deterred by my teasing comment.

"So he's quite handsome now, isn't he?" She repeated.

Chuckling at her persistence, I decided to just go ahead and feed the flames. The older ladies of Serenity were worse than teenage girls when it came to gossip. They didn't even utilize text messaging or the wondrous mobile telecommunication contraptions also known as cell phones. Odds were I could ask Mrs. Rodgers right this moment what happened five minutes ago to any given person in the entire of Serenity and she'd have accurate up-to-date information even though she'd been with me for the last half hour.

"Yes he is, though I've always felt that way and you've always known it."

Her wrinkled face became even more so when she gave me a huge smile.

"Yes, I suppose I have." She admitted.

She finished off her coffee and placed three one dollar bills underneath her empty cup, same as she did every morning for as long as I'd known her. I'd asked her once where she got her endless supply of one dollar bills and she responded that the other girls weren't as good at Bridge. Since then, I'd been convinced that an underground old lady gambling ring was being run right here in Serenity, led by none other than sweet old Mrs. Rodgers.

"Bye sweetie, good luck tonight," she called before the door shut behind her.

I stood there confused before I realized what she was referring to; Sam was back and he had no place to stay other than with his family. Only this time, I was staying there too. That only stood to complicate things since Kristy and I had agreed not to tell Sam about our mutual financial difficulties. Apart we had struggled to make ends meet after the Granite Falls Grad Night Tragedy; it was a losing battle for me to try and make the payments for my parent's mortgage every month after they had died on grad night, and it was even harder for Kristy to provide for her five children that still lived with her on one income. That didn't even address the dwindling time she had for them after all the hours she had been putting in. Sam aside, none of her children had been old enough to help her and he was off getting famous with his band Flight Risk. Andy, the second oldest, was only 11 at the time. For five long years we went on like that and worked our asses off to keep our lives from crumbling completely.

Two years ago, on the anniversary of our loss, I ran into Kristy at the cemetery. Like me, she was there to give flowers to the family she had lost, more specifically, her husband. We had each been ignorant of the other's hardships even though we lived on the same street and so struck a deal that very day. I would come live with her and her family and sublet my parents' house so it would pay for itself. In exchange for a place to stay, I'd help her with the utilities and make sure her kids made it to school since she worked nights. Over time we developed the perfect symbiotic relationship, one where neither of us had to bear our burdens alone. I had grown to love Sam's family like they were of my own flesh and blood and I knew without a shadow of doubt, that they felt the same. We were family and without them, I'd be a ghost of what I was today, working without pause just to stay broke and alone.