Page 17 of The Cadence
“I have something.” Will reached into his bag and got out a pair of headphones. “You can wear these and watch a movie, and you won’t have to listen to the screaming and praying.”
“You don’t mind?” I slipped them over my head and he said something that I couldn’t hear at all. “What?” I held them off my ears and he continued talking, except now I realized that he was only mouthing words with no volume. “That’s very funny,” I said, but I did laugh and I saw him smile.
I messed with the screen at my seat and found a show that looked entertaining, and after a while, I did get a little engrossed. It wasn’t quite enough to make me forget that we were pitching through the sky and that maybe Bernoulli’s principle wasn’t working as well as usual. For the entire trip to Detroit, the plane continued to bounce and jiggle like a popcorn kernel in a pan of hot oil. It was all totally normal, not anything out of the ordinary, and it also scared me to death.
But Will sat next to me and every time there was another bump, even if it was a little one, he would reach over and pat my hand. He didn’t even look up from his own book as he did it, so I knew that he was still unconcerned. That gave me confidence that I didn’t need to be concerned either, even with the screaming, vomiting, and praying.
I was flying in a metal tube held aloft by air and physics, and I was going to a place with a name I’d never heard before two days ago. I was also accompanying a man I hadn’t really seen in seven years—and who I didn’t really know. He kept patting my hand, though, and I kept thinking that it was ok.
Chapter 4
With the way I was raised, I should have been used to it. Previously, I’d gone for long periods by myself with no one around at all—but when I’d moved in with my grandma, that had changed. Suddenly, there was someone with me, pretty constantly. Definitely regularly. She had her schedule of going to work and going to church (every time the doors of that building opened), but she always returned when she said she would. She often expected me to come along with her, like to Mass each Sunday, and she also expected me to go to school, every day. We had breakfast early in the mornings and dinner together each night. All of a sudden, my life had become busy and organized.
And I loved every moment of that structure. I loved her company when she was home and I loved knowing that she would come back when she said she would. I hadn’t understood how much I was missing those things until I had them, and the boring dependability was thrilling.
Everything had been upended when my grandma got very sick. Her illness had been hard, of course, but both of us had also missed the way things had been, our routine and our normalcy. Then, when she’d passed, I had felt like a compass when you held a magnet to it, spinning around and with no idea of which way to go at all.
Now I had come to a new place but that lost feeling hadn’t changed. We had finally arrived in Michigan after circling for almost an hour over the Detroit airport and nearly being diverted to another state due to the bad weather. Our next flight had been delayed by hours, but Will had known what to do. He’d stood there for a moment, typing on his phone, and then told me to come with him, that we were getting my giant suitcase and a rental car. I wasn’t sure if it was his natural efficiency or his football fame that made all that happen so quickly, but the next thing I knew, we were on the road. I had watched through the windows as we left the suburban Detroit area and followed the route as directed by his phone, heading north.
And here we were. It had been two weeks, which wasn’t long enough to get used to a place. I knew that—everyone knew that. The ladies from church sure did, because they were texting, calling, and emailing with messages telling me to relax and not to worry, that it took time and also effort to be comfortable in a new environment. Get out there, they encouraged me. Meet other people, find friends, exercise, go to church.
But if those things didn’t help? Come home, they urged. Come home to Tennessee!
No, I wasn’t going to do that, not quite yet. First, I was making an effort. I had been in the main house to use Will’s gym, and I had been driving his car, too, exploring the area.
“Take this out as much as you want,” he had directed when he’d shown it to me in his garage on the day we’d arrived here.
“Will, this is…this is very nice.” Even I, who knew next to nothing about cars, could tell. It was obviously expensive and was also shiny and new, with so few miles on the odometer that he must not have driven it at all. His own car, the one he’d said he used to get around, was clean but a lot older. “What if I drive that, and you take the new one?” I had suggested, but he said no.
“This is better for you,” he’d told me, and then had taken off for an obligation to the Woodsmen team. There were a lot of those, more than I’d expected even though he’d talked to me about his schedule. They were getting close to a big event they called their “Fan Day” when the stadium was open to the public and players signed autographs and took pictures with everyone, which sounded fun. I was excited to go to an event where there would be people around, and maybe I could make friends that way. Maybe? Because things had been a little hard, to be honest.
But it was just a few weeks in, and there was no reason to be crying out in public so I wiped my eyes. I was browsing in my new local library, which had a lot of books that were unknown to me. I had already amassed a basketful to load into the new car and take to Will’s house. It was lucky that I had found so much to read because there wasn’t a ton for me to do in terms ofwork. I accomplished everything for my job for him in less than an hour each morning and then…what?
“I never heard of sitting around and getting paid for nothing,” I had told him, and he said I must have had the wrong kind of jobs before. “Will! I mean it. This isn’t right.”
“It will pick up when I have more time to devote to it myself,” he’d assured me. But when would that be? If he was this busy now, out of the house almost constantly, then how much time would he have when the football season actually started?
I added one last book and made sure that I was tear-free before approaching the desk at the front. “Thank you,” I said to librarian who scanned them and my card. There was a self-checkout machine, too, but I preferred to talk to someone, even if it was only the two words from me and then she told me to have a nice day. I looked around at the other people in here, but they were mostly older or they were moms with their kids looking for a quiet activity out of the heat.
Not that it was as hot here as in Tennessee, and Will had air conditioning in the whole house and also his cars. I turned that on when I got in and the shifter slid easily into reverse and moved without me having to jiggle the pedals, restart the engine, pray, or get out and push. Yeah, this was all wonderful.
It was the message that I was trying to impress on Miss Mozella and her church crew: I was a truly fortunate woman. I could have been sleeping in my car instead ofa very comfortable bed in a house with an alarm system, one that Will wanted me to use when he wasn’t on the property himself.
That was set to “on” all day until he came home, which was usually late. He didn’t drop by the guest cottage to say hello or good night when he arrived unless he had something specific to tell me (here’s a number to text to set up swim lessons, send me a grocery list, I’m going to Chicago this weekend). I knew when he got there, though, because from my bed, I could see the light in his bedroom in the main house. I usually fell asleep watching it.
For the stuff for my job with his company, he communicated mostly via texts and emails, so we didn’t have to be face-to-face at all—but I was trying to outflank him. I had started to run into him, just casually, when he came home and when he left for the day as well. These encounters happened because I was positioning myself in the driveway or front yard with one excuse or another.
“Where’s the best place to go for gas?” I had asked just this morning, which had led to him giving me a credit card! We’d spent a few extra moments arguing over that before he left, which were a few extra moments of togetherness…and I did realize that I was behaving in a silly, high-school way. I sighed and glanced down at the speedometer. Holy Moses, I was also going way too fast and—
What was that? I slowed and then pulled to the side of the road. Someone had left an old chest of drawers at the end of a long driveway, and it had a cardboard sign with the word “FREE” printed on it. I glanced into the back of this car, which was roomy, and thought that it would fit. Just like in his pictures, there was hardly any furniture at Will’s house. He had a bed anda few chairs scattered around, but maybe one of those big, empty rooms could have used this?
With all the time on my hands, I had been playing on my phone a lot, and the videos about furniture restoration made it look pretty fun. As a point of pride, my grandma had never wanted anything old and used, but I was aware that many people liked vintage stuff. Maybe Will would, and I could help him out by fixing up this chest. I could make a little dent in the pile of debt that I owed him for all the things he was doing for me.
It was a great idea. It was just really hard to get the thing into the cargo area, because it was extremely heavy. I had it about halfway there when a car pulled out of the driveway with an older lady behind the wheel.
“Oh, good!” she called out of her window when she saw me. “I was hoping that someone would be able to use that.”
“I think I can,” I answered, and she smiled.
