Page 4 of August
“Honey, we got you the fridge already, and you have a TV. I’m not getting you another one or returning that fridge. You have a roommate. What’s he bringing?”
“What will I watch in my room when I come home?” he asked. “I mean, when I come here.”
Elisa tried her best to hide the disappointment in him calling this new househereinstead of their home, but he was right: it wasn’t much of a home just yet. She’d taken months to get the place in order, and once the kids had been out of school, she had driven them here, and they spent the weekends with their father. Neither of the twins had been particularly happy about that, but they hadn’t turned eighteen until July, so they had been stuck with her as part of the custody agreement.
“Mom, I won’t have a TV in my room here,” he added when she didn’t say anything.
“Ask your roommate to bring the TV so you can keepyours here,” she suggested. “I’m not buying you another TV, Arch. Don’t you watch stuff on your phone anyway?”
“AJ, just get a job and buy one yourself. They’re not that expensive. Like, one paycheck, and you’d have a bright and shiny new TV for your dorm,” Adele suggested.
“I leave soon,” he said.
“Did you miss the part where I said work for, like, one paycheck or something? That’s plenty of money for a TV and a new fridge if that’s all you care about,” Adele replied and walked out of the kitchen. “You’re so annoying. How are we even related?”
Elisa had to laugh at that. Adele had been born seven minutes before her brother, but in maturity, it felt like they were seven years apart. Adele understood that her mother couldn’t afford to buy her all the things she wanted for her dorm, and she had been working since she was sixteen and legally could. Archie Junior had played sports and had earned himself a scholarship to play at a Division-II school. It wasn’t a top Division-I school, and he would likely never go pro, but the school he would be going to was a good one, so she hoped he’d excel academically and figure out what he wanted to do with his life when soccer was over. Adele had gotten an academic scholarship to a great school, and for the first time in their lives, they were about to be separated.
Also for the first time in their lives, their mother wasn’t buying them all the things they were asking for because most of the money from the divorce settlement had gone into the purchase of the house and the furniture. The rest was to keep them afloat until she found a job. Archie Senior was paying her alimony but no child support now that the kids had turned eighteen. Hewas, however, paying for their room and board at school, which wasn’t covered by their scholarships, and for their books and other expenses since the tuitionwascovered by their scholarships. Elisa had opted for that instead of more money for her each month.
It was a good decision in the long term, but it meant that she had to be careful about how she spent her money untilshe found work. So, for now, she spent her days looking for jobs while she painted walls that still needed to be touched up and called contractors to take a look at the damage from a hurricane that had hit the house five years prior. The house had been a steal when she’d gotten it, and she had known about the damage then, but she’d needed to focus on getting the kids everything she could to set up their rooms and to make them feel like this place could be a home before she did any new work. Now, though, as they were about to leave the nest and had what they needed, even if it wasn’t what they wanted, she needed to address the other issues or risk having to spend more money later. So, she had made the call to the contractor Gwen had recommended and sat at the table alone after AJ had gotten up and dropped his dishes from lunch into the sink.
“Um… I think you might be my next-door neighbor,” the woman on the other end of the call said.
“Sorry?” she replied.
“I live right next to you. I’m forty-eight-twenty-one. The white house with the red mailbox.”
“Really?” she asked.
Elisa walked to her front window and pulled back the cheap ivory-colored curtains she’d found online. They didn’t exactly fit the windows and were thin, so they didn’t block much of anything, but they were something, and they made the house feel more lived in. Looking through the window now, she saw the red mailbox the woman was referring to.
“What are the odds?” she said mostly to herself. “You work for the company I happened to call today.”
“Something like that,” the woman said. “So, I can swing by when I get done here to check it out.”
“You don’t have to come by when you’re done with work,” Elisa replied.
“I’m never done with work,” the woman told her and laughed a husky laugh that seemed to go with her relatively deep voice. “But I don’t mind, and I can at least take a look around. I’ll have to wait until at least tomorrow before I canget you an estimate on the work, though. Maybe the day after, at most, because I’m on a job tomorrow, but I should be able to squeeze it in if everything is straightforward. Are you available tonight?”
Elisa walked to her front door and said, “Um… Sure.”
“It can be another time if you want. I don’t–”
“No, that’s fine,” Elisa replied as she walked outside and turned toward the house next to her own. “You have a nice house.”
The woman laughed again and said, “Thank you? Are you just noticing it for the first time?”
“Kind of, yeah,” she replied and laughed in return. “I mean, I’ve seen it, obviously, but I’ve never paid any attention to it. It’s nice.”
“Thanks. I did the front porch myself, if you want to check my work before I stop by tonight.”
“I don’t think I know your name,” Elisa realized.
“Oh, sorry. Myra. Myra Davies.”
“Davies?” Elisa said. “As in the name of the company?”
“It’s mine, yeah.”
