Читать книгу Stories at Happy Hour - A.M. Hoot - Страница 11

Alex ended up visiting with Keira more and more. They started sharing lunch and took turns paying for the meal. They became close friends. Almost a year had passed, and Alex asked Keira if she wanted to go out for a drink. She was in the mood to get out but didn’t want to hang out with anyone but Keira. Keira thought a drink would be nice. They went to Oscar’s. It was near Keira’s house and it was her favorite place to go.

Keira was at Oscar’s when Alex arrived. Keira was seated at a table. She had a bowl of popcorn on the table and she was sipping on a bloody mary. Alex walked in and looked around. She saw the bartenders, nodded her head as to say hi, and kept searching the crowd until she saw Keira. Keira looked up, smiled, and mouthed “Hi,” as she waved. Alex smiled back and walked quickly to the table. “Hey, sorry if you have been waiting for a long time, the last patient took forever. How are you? What’s up with the sweatshirt, you know you live in Minnesota, right?” She laughed. Keira was sporting her Green Bay Packers sweatshirt. Keira rolled her eyes and laughed. The bartender came by and asked Alex what she wanted. Alex looked at Keira’s bloody and it looked pretty good, it was almost gone. Keira chimed in and said the bloody marys there were very tasty. Alex ordered a bloody mary but she didn’t want it spicy, no salt on the rim and she wanted extra fixins’ with a beer chaser. After she was done with the order, she looked up at the bartender and flashed him a huge grin, and said, “Thank You, Baby!” She was so excited to be out and to be out with Keira.

They stayed out until the bar closed and talked about everything under the sun. Keira had one bloody mary after another, but she ordered them exactly the way Alex liked them. She gave Alex most of the garnishes and all the beer chasers. Alex drank the beer chasers and had multiple captain diets. She was feeling good. Keira shared with Alex about her husband cheating on her with a man. Alex swore never to say anything to anyone about it, she knew even though it happened 20 plus years ago, it was still painful, and people like to talk. Alex opened up about Darius. It felt good getting it all out. She liked talking to someone who didn’t know who he was and didn’t know Alex and Darius as a couple. It gave her the opportunity to share their story.

Alex even shared with Keira that she always had problems falling asleep and staying asleep even as a little kid. She told Keira about this farmhouse she and her family lived in for six months. Her parents were covering a pastoral leave at a church in a small rural town in northern, Minnesota that consisted of maybe 4,000 people. The farmhouse was owned by an elderly couple, Elmer and Betty Bailey, who owned 500 acres. The elderly couple built the farmhouse when they were young, and only had 2 acres of land, over time they acquired more land. They never had any kids of their own. When they were in their 30’s they took in foster kids for about 30 years. Alex heard that the Bailey’s would have the foster kids help them with chores on the land such as; picking corn and manning the fields, but most of the time the kids enjoyed playing on the farm. There was a huge treehouse that Mr. Bailey helped the kids build. Over time, foster kids would come and go, but none of them stuck around. Alex thought it was weird that none of the kids, not even one, stayed to work on the farm. The Bailey’s were so kind to give them a place to stay and care for them, but no one stayed. Alex understood that it was a boring town, but still, didn’t anyone care for this couple, who gave so freely of themselves?

When the couple turned 65 years old, they built their dream house nearby the old farmhouse. Since they weren’t fostering kids anymore, they must have gotten lonely because they turned their dream house into a bed and breakfast, calling it Bailey’s Bed and Breakfast, and started renting out the old farmhouse. The church put Alex’s family up in the farmhouse while her parents were covering the pastoral leave.

Alex was 10 and her brother Braxton was 14 years old when they lived in the farmhouse. When they were kids their family moved around a lot, with every move Brax and Alex would take turns having the first choice of their room. Since Braxton got the first choice at their last house, Alex got the first choice in the farmhouse. It was a two-story farmhouse with five rooms and one bathroom. Two bedrooms on the main floor. And three small bedrooms upstairs. Alex said she wanted a bedroom upstairs. Brax took the room next to the family room on the main floor and their parents had the master bedroom on the main floor. Alex got all three bedrooms upstairs. She made one room her bedroom. Another room her schoolroom for when she needed to do homework and the last room was the nursery for her babies.

When they first moved there Alex and Brax liked living on the farm. It was summer-time and they got to run and play all day long. They were allowed to roam on the property and the Bailey’s even told the kids they could pick corn and eat it fresh off the cobb, as much as they wanted, it was sweet corn and the best corn Alex and Brax ever had. The Bailey’s noticed how much Alex and Brax liked spending time picking and shucking corn, that they ended up paying them to pick and shuck corn for them, and all the sweet corn collected went to the farmer’s market.

When Alex and Brax weren’t picking corn, they played hide and seek in the fields or played in the treehouse that Mr. Bailey made with the foster kids. The treehouse was huge. Brax thought about 10 kids could hang out in the treehouse comfortably. Alex and Brax wished they could take sleeping bags out to the treehouse and stay overnight but their parents would not allow it. It would have been really cold at night, considering even though it was summer, overnight temps could get down to the '40s.

Mr. Bailey told Brax and Alex they could work on the treehouse to make it their own seeing as it had not been used in over a decade. Brax spent a lot of time working on the treehouse switching out bad boards with new boards. Once school started Brax met some boys that would come over and help him out on the treehouse. Alex had a hard time meeting friends at school. She was quiet and kept to herself. She only wanted to play with Braxton and his friends.

Alex thought of herself as a tomboy. She wanted to be one of the boys. When she was at home she would run around the house without a shirt on like her brother and her family would always say that one day she wouldn’t be able to do that anymore. Well, that day came. One night, Brax wanted one of his friends to sleep over and he told Alex that she needed to keep her shirt on. Alex didn’t understand why and Brax told her, “Because you are a girl, and now that you are getting older, you are turning into a big girl, getting big girl parts like mom.” Alex didn’t know what he meant. She didn’t like the tone in his voice. She was hurt. He said, “You are starting to get boobs, and you need to wear a shirt and mom should get you a bra. I don’t want my friends looking at you, looking at your boobs!” Alex cried all night. She was devastated. She thought her brother was mad at her for getting boobs. She didn’t want boobs. She wished she could be like Braxty. She didn’t hang out with Braxton or his friends for a while. She thought Braxton didn’t want her around now because she had boobs. She was a bit embarrassed that they found out about her boobs. While Alex told Keira the story, she laughed. Alex continued to tell Keira that she wandered off and hung out by herself a lot. She discovered that the Bailey’s also had wild-flower fields on their acreage. Alex started spending most of her time in the flower fields with what she called imaginary friends while Brax would be playing at the treehouse with his school friends.

That summer boxelder bugs were really bad. The farmhouse was covered with them. Alex hated them. They were all over her bedroom windows and it creeped her out. She had problems falling asleep in that house because she felt like the bugs were going to get in and crawl all over her. She didn’t want to be alone upstairs. Alex’s parents assured her that the bugs would not get in her bed. Her parents would not allow her to go to bed with them or her brother, she needed to be in her own bed. Braxton could not stand hearing his sister cry up in her room so he would go up to her room and read her stories before bed or play music for her. She would drift off to sleep but as soon as he was gone, she would wake up.

She never felt comfortable upstairs by herself at nighttime. She told Braxton she felt like she was never really alone upstairs. She had a creepy feeling, it was the darkness, and she felt like monsters were in the upstairs with her. After she told Braxton how she felt, every night before bed, Braxton would turn on all the lights in every one of the rooms and walk with his sister in each room, looking in all the closets. He would try to comfort her by showing her nothing was there. Braxton started telling Alex stories about angels and how they were watching over her, protecting her from the darkness, when her brother could not be there, the angels would be there. Brax knew she was scared of those feelings, but he told her she needed to listen to those feelings. Her feelings are there to protect her, and when she feels those dark feelings, he told her to talk to the angels. He played her songs by Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith hoping that would calm her down and help her sleep. But every time he left the room, Alex would wake up.

Braxton begged his parents to let him switch rooms with his sister, but they would not allow it. They said they were not going to play that game. Whenever Alex cried about something Braxton would do anything for her, even move rooms if that’s what she wanted. They were worried that Alex would change her mind after the switch and then beg to have the upstairs back. They were only going to be there for three more months. Alex was going to have to deal with it.

Alex said ten years must have gone by when Braxton revealed in a drunken mess that when they lived in the farmhouse, kids told him rumors about some foster kids that went missing on the Bailey’s property. The kids joked to Braxton that the missing kids were probably buried somewhere on the farm. He didn’t want to tell Alex about it while they were living there because he didn’t want to freak her out any more than she already was, but he did tell his mom and dad. They laughed at Braxton saying it was a small town and kids their age like to make up stories to scare the new kids. They told him not to mention it to his sister.

Alex laughed, a little embarrassed, and shared with Keira that her sleep had been shit ever since the farmhouse. She also couldn’t stand listening to Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith, she thought Type O Negative and Marilyn Manson were more soothing and laughed some more.

Alex told Keira that Darius knew all about her sleeping issues. He would brush her hair every night before bed, and usually, that would help relax her. Unfortunately, there were still times where she would be restless and Darius would tell her they should listen to tunes, eat some popcorn and play darts until she was ready to crash. Many times, in the middle of the night, they would go to their basement, pop some popcorn, listen to some David Gray and play darts and sometimes they would dance until morning. Alex told Keira that marrying Darius was the best thing that ever happened to her. She said it was like having a permanent sleepover with her best friend that made her heart skip a beat every time he walked in the room. When he looked at her, it affected her in such a way. She still couldn’t believe he chose her. She just loved being in his presence. Even though Darius’s death was devastating to Alex, sharing their love story made her realize how lucky she was to have such a story to tell.

When Alex talked about love that’s when Keira swore she would never go down that path again. Keira’s husband was her best friend too and she felt like her world was gone when they got a divorce. Everything she knew was gone. It was like a death to her. It was too painful. Alex understood completely and said, “Yeah thank goodness for the rabbit, am I right?” Keira looked at her confused and said, “What do you mean?” Alex repeated herself and said, “You know the vibrator, or any vibrator, it doesn’t have to be the rabbit, any animal works.” She laughed, “I also like the butterfly, dolphin, and the hummingbird,” she laughed again. Keira looked at Alex and started laughing saying she was too old for that kind of thing. Alex was taken back, “Too old to have an orgasm? You are never too old for that. It’s good for you. It’s healthy. That’s it, it’s settled I’m getting you a rabbit. What’s your favorite color?” Keira just laughed at her. Alex thought to herself, if she doesn’t answer me, I am getting her a Vikings purple-colored rabbit. Keira never responded and was probably hoping Alex would forget about it, but she didn’t.