Larkspur (6 page)

“
It will reduce my
overhead,” Sandy said. “I can bring home more of what I make. I’m
adding hours too. Early and late. Pete has agreed to stay on and
help with cleaning up even though I can’t pay him. He feels like he
owes it to me.”

Sandy shrugged.

“
Speaking of clean up,”
Jill said. “Did you find out about Rosa?”

“
She was angry,” Delphie
said.

“
Why?” Jill
asked.

“
Like Pete, she feels like
we’ve done a lot for her,” Delphie said. “She wanted to keep her
same schedule for less money, but she also understands that might
not work long-term. They’re going to only come in every other week
for major clean-up. The rest is up to us.”

“
Noelle and Nash have
agreed to help with the cleaning,” Sandy said. “Rosa went through
the house with them and told them what needs to be done where.
They’re excited to do it.”

“
If Noelle and Nash do the
work that pretty much means you do it,” Jill said.

“
Yeah,” Sandy nodded. “But
it helps us get closer to breaking even. You know Katy’s on laundry
duty.”

“
I heard,” Jill
said.

“
How close are we?” MJ
asked.

“
Thousand dollars. A
month,” Sandy said. “As compared to our expenses last year. Aden
bought a couple cords of wood to keep the fireplaces going. That
should help with the heat bill.”

“
And the solar,” Jill
nodded.

“
Even with that,” Sandy
said.

“
We’re still a thousand
short,” Mike said.

Sandy nodded.

“
Any ideas?” Jill
asked.

“
None,” Sandy said.
“You?”

Jill shook her head. Sandy looked around the
table. Everyone shook their heads.

“
We’ll just have to do our
best to cut back,” Sandy said. “Wear sweaters, shorter showers,
stuff like that.”

“
I’ve certainly done that
before,” Jill said. “Gosh, before we moved in with Jacob, we were
always short.”

“
Us too,” MJ
said.

Delphie and Sandy nodded in agreement. They
ate the rest of their lunch in an uncomfortable silence.

~~~~~~~~

Wednesday afternoon — 3:07 p.m.

“
What’s the final word?”
Charlie asked Nash.

Nash clicked through his computer and read
down the spreadsheet.

“
Thousand dollars,” Nash
said. “Short. A month.”

Charlie nodded.

“
That’s a lot,” Sissy
said. Noelle nodded.

“
Noelle and I are doing
the cleaning,” Nash said. “Katy’s going to help, mostly with the
laundry ‘cuz she’s so tiny.”

“
That saves money but
doesn’t bring any in,” Charlie said. Nash nodded.

“
What did you come up
with?” Nash asked.

“
I got a job at Sam’s No.
3 downtown,” Charlie said. “Busing tables and prep cook. After
school.”

“
What about basketball?”
Noelle asked.

“
Coach cancelled the
season,” Charlie said. “He was pissed, but what can you do? Half
the team is in jail.”

“
I thought they asked if
you could play at Regis,” Sissy said.

“
They did,” Charlie said.
“Doesn’t change the fact that we need a thousand dollars a month.
What did you get?”

“
I got two jobs,” Sissy
nodded. “I’m going to help out with the little kids at Denver
Ballet. That’s three days a week. And I took a Scottish dance class
on Sunday.”

“
Scottish dance?” Nash
asked.

“
She used to do it when we
were kids,” Charlie said.

“
What about joining a
ballet company?” Noelle asked.

“
What about it?” Sissy
shrugged. “If it happens, it happens. I haven’t heard anything
final and we need money now.”

“
How much is that?”
Charlie asked.

“
Um, twenty-five dollars
every Sunday,” Sissy said. “And just minimum wage for the weekdays.
You know they’re all about the honor of working with the
theater.”

“
Did you try the private
schools?” Charlie asked.

“
This is what I could
get,” Sissy’s voice rose with anxiety. “I’ve been so focused on
dance and school and getting better that I don’t have the contacts
with the private schools, or kids to teach
or . . .”

“
It’s good,” Charlie
smiled. “You did good.”

“
Where does that leave
us?” Nash asked.

“
I’ll make about four
hundred a month,” Charlie said. “Maybe more. I was thinking of
getting my driver’s license so I could deliver pizza.”

“
That’s a good idea,”
Noelle said. “We could help.”

Charlie nodded.

“
With Sissy and Charlie’s
money, we came up with six hundred,” Nash nodded.

“
It’s not a thousand
but . . .” Charlie smiled. “It’s really
good.”

“
We can babysit,” Noelle
said. “My friends at school do it every Friday and Saturday
night.”

“
You have to take the Red
Cross class,” Nash said.

“
How much is that?”
Charlie asked.

“
Twenty-five dollars
online,” Noelle said. “I have enough left over from last summer for
me and Nash to go.”

“
I can babysit too,” Sissy
said.

“
Not with everything
else,” Charlie said.

“
Sometimes people make
good money babysitting,” Sissy nodded.

“
You’re doing enough,”
Charlie said.

“
You’re sure?” Sissy
asked.

She gave Nash and Noelle a worried look.
They nodded. Charlie nodded and went through the spreadsheet
again.

“
Shit I could make a
thousand dollars a day selling drugs,” Charlie said under his
breath.

“
Yeah, but you wouldn’t
live long,” Noelle said.

“
Don’t do it, Charlie,”
Sissy said. “You wouldn’t be able to live with us
anymore.”

Nash gave him a long look and Charlie
nodded.

“
We’re close,” Nash said.
“That’s what matters. We’ll keep our eyes and ears out. Maybe
something will come along.”

Nash looked at Noelle and then at Charlie
and Sissy.

“
We’ll get through this,”
Nash smiled.

“
We’ve had to do this a
bunch,” Sissy said. “Seemed like every time we stop working, we’d
have to start again.”

“
Yeah, but we had Sandy’s
money to make up the difference,” Charlie said. “We don’t this
time.”

“
We also have food and
clothes and a nice place to live and . . .” Sissy
nodded.

“
We’re helping,” Nash
nodded. “Not just sitting around like some dumb kids.”

“
Right, that’s what
matters,” Charlie said.

“
Right,” Sissy
said.

They smiled at each other because no one
wanted to admit that they felt sad that things had changed.

“
Have to get to work,”
Charlie said.

“
Me too,” Sissy
said.

Nash and Noelle watched them go. They looked
at each other and set off to do their Wednesday cleaning tasks.

~~~~~~~~

Wednesday afternoon — 9:07 p.m.

“
How did it go?” Heather
whispered. She got up from their bed.

Blane was standing over Mack’s crib. He
smoothed Mack’s hair and turned to her. Heather’s eyes scanned his
face. He gave her a quick, tired smile and held out his arms. They
hugged. He stepped back and touched her face. She smiled at
him.

“
How did things go?” Blane
moved into their bathroom. “We delivered a healthy baby boy, if
that’s what you mean.”

He stuck his head out of the bathroom.

“
They paid us in
chickens,” Blane smiled.

“
Again?” Heather
asked.

Blane nodded.

“
I think we should raise
them,” Blane said. “He said we could come to get them in the
spring. Wouldn’t that be fun?”

Heather smiled.

“
I know, I know, who would
have time?” Blane smiled at her. “If we collect our chicken debt
we’d have fourteen or something like that. He said he’d build us a
coop.”

Heather chuckled.

“
I think we should do it,”
Blane went into the bathroom.

Heather waited while he took a quick shower.
He came out with a towel wrapped around him.

“
Before you ask, I’m
feeling good, strong,” Blane said. “How are you?”

He put his hand on her belly.

“
How’s my boy?” he
asked.

“
Good,” Heather
said.

“
What’s the word at the
Castle?” Blane asked.

He started putting on his pajamas.

“
Charlie came up with a
plan where all the kids work,” Heather said. “Jill was furious.
Sandy cried. But truthfully, they need the money.”

“
Are they still short?”
Blane asked.

“
Four hundred dollars,”
Heather said. “They think. Everyone’s scrambling. Do you think we
could . . .?”

“
Sure,” Blane said. “Sam
and Jake bought this house, did all the remodeling. We’d be
scrambling if you didn’t have the job at Simply Moore and we didn’t
get money for fostering Tink.”

“
We’d be in real trouble
without the health insurance,” Heather said.

“
Right,” Blane said.
“Plus, I’m not going to be working much. I can always take on a few
more acupuncture clients.”

“
Jake doesn’t need you?”
Heather asked.

“
We’re running smaller
teams,” Blane said. “Jake’s going to be in the field all the time.
I can manage his calls, email, and stuff from wherever I
am.”

“
It seems like a lot,”
Heather said.

“
I’m glad to do it,” Blane
said. “There’ve been lots of days when I was too sick to work but
took full salary. This is just a chance to return the
favor.”

“
I feel bad because you
had all that time off for Mack, but Jake won’t have it for the
boys,” Heather said.

“
Sucks, but there’s
nothing he can do,” Blane said. “I’m hungry. You?”

“
I’d like some tea,”
Heather said.

He nodded his head toward the stairs and she
followed him to the kitchen.

“
What jobs did you guys
end up taking?” Heather leaned against the opposite
counter.

“
Sewer lines,” Blane shook
his head and took out a loaf of homemade bread. He turned on the
electric kettle. “Sure you don’t want a sandwich?”

Heather nodded.

“
With the drought, a lot
of people’s sewer lines have broken,” Blane said. He took turkey,
cheese, and sandwich fixings from the refrigerator. “Especially in
this drought. The Hargreaves’s rooming house is the first one on
the list. That’s two lines. Bambi’s working a team through that
neighborhood. She’s doing the rooming house, Colin’s house, and
Erin’s. They went today to check it out and the people across the
alley asked if they’d do theirs. They’re going to offer free sewer
scopes around the neighborhood and see what pops up.”

“
They can give people good
deals since they’re there already,” Heather said.

“
That’s exactly right,”
Blane nodded. “Rodney’s running a crew in Five Points. They’re
already booked out for a month. People need clear sewer
lines.”

“
Who’s closing up shop?”
Heather said.

“
Jerry, a couple other
site managers, Sam, a couple crews,” Blane said. “They should be
completely out of the large site by the new year. They sold the
trailers to those guys who left Lipson. I was there when they
brought the checks. They were so smug. I don’t know how Sam kept
his cool, but he did.”

“
He knows he’s doing the
right thing,” Heather said.

“
What’s necessary,” Blane
said. “These guys are so sure they are right. They won’t even
listen to what Jake and Sam are saying. I just
hope . . .”

Blane gave her a worried look. Heather
patted his chest. He shrugged and went back to making his
sandwich.

“
Sam was able to return
the leased equipment,” Blane said. “Mostly the big excavators,
loaders, and scrapers. We’re left with the smaller
equipment.”

“
What will happen when
you’re off the site?” Heather asked.

“
We close all our state
projects,” Blane said. “I assume those guys will follow along
behind us, buying up trailers and taking over the jobs. It’s going
to take a couple months to transfer all the work to other
companies.”

“
Then what?” Heather
asked.

“
Who knows?” Blane noticed
how worried Heather looked. He set down his sandwich and hugged
her. “It’s going to be all right. Sam’s been through this very
thing a couple of times. He doesn’t seem worried. Why are
you?”

“
It’s my specialty,”
Heather smiled. “I come by it naturally.”

“
Because your mom is so
good at it,” Blane laughed.