Page 4 of Shy Santa

Bear

My phone chirped in my back pocket as I looked over the clean living room. It didn’t take Ace and me long to clear out the mess. She stuck to picking up leaves, paper, beer and soda cans. Dianna did a great job of raising her.

I slid it out and looked at the screen to see an email from my friend Benson. He still lived in town with his high school girlfriend, Claira. Well, I guess I should think of her as his wife since they’d been married for twelve years.

Hitting the email, the band around my chest eased. He knew a local business in a bit of a bind but didn’t know if I would be up for it; however, they wanted to meet in person for an interview. It was a little weird. Benson only gave me an address and instructions to ask for a guy named Dillon.

This was the first lead on any kind of job. Today and tomorrow were going to be spent dealing with house crap I didn’t plan on, and I still needed to take Ace to the school to get signed up.

“Hey Ace!” I yelled after I sent a reply to Benson, thanking him. “How’s the den coming along?”

“I cleaned the garbage.” She dragged a large black trash bag behind her into the hall. “There were needles and glass on the floor. I didn’t touch any of it.”

Motherfucker!

I was going to ring the neck of whoever had overseen the property. This shit was beyond fucked up. Garbage and broken furniture in every room. The bathrooms were a complete mess and—please god don’t let it be true— needed to be gutted due to mold and mildew.

“Yeah… don’t touch that stuff. I’ll get the broom and dustpan to deal with it.” I rubbed a hand over my face. “Do you want to head upstairs and work on clearing out the bedroom you picked? It didn’t look too bad this morning.”

Without a word, she went upstairs. Her work boots we grabbed from Walmart this morning thudded, sending little puffs of dust into the air with each step.

I checked my watch to see it was almost eleven. We needed to stop and grab some food soon, but first, the den and Ace’s room so she had some place clean to be. I could bed down in the living room till we got the house sorted, but she needed her own space and the stability of that.

* * *

“The diner okay again for lunch?”Buckled in the car, I turned and asked Ace. “We can hit the kitchen after lunch and then get some groceries afterward.” And swing into the appliance store to buy a fridge as well. I wouldn’t risk opening and cleaning the hazardous waste box in the kitchen.

“Yes, sir.” Ace said from the backseat. Her face turned to the window, watching the houses pass by as she fidgeted with her ponytail.

“Do you know what you want to eat? Maybe we can get some shakes?” I pushed, attempting to get her to open up.

“No, sir.”

“Do you like milkshakes? My favorite’s peppermint and I love strawberry in the summer, but the diner makes killer peppermint shakes with candy cane chunks in the winter.” I rambled on, god I didn’t know when the last time I carried so much of a conversation, talking this much exhausted me.

Her only response was a nod of her head, her attention on the passing landscape. I ground my teeth, frustrated with how to draw Ace out of her shell.

I parked in the small lot behind the diner and turned to face her. I didn’t want to have it out here, but I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Hold up, Ace.” She paused with her hand on the door, ready to open it up. “Hop up here. We need to talk.”

Her shoulders curved in at my request.

“Yes, sir.” She said, slowly climbing into the front seat.

When she settled, I took a deep breath.Gran, help me know what to say.

“Alice-Grace, this won’t be the last time we brief, but I need you to be blunt with me. This is an adjustment not just for you, but for me as well.” I lifted her chin to see her eyes, so much like mine. “Tell me what you need and what you’re thinking. Your mama, she did a great job teaching you how to respect adults and how to be the best little girl I’ve ever met.” She perked up at that. “But you have to be a kid at times. I don’t expect you to be perfect. I do expect you to be you. You were a surprise to me; I never planned on kids, and that’s probably part of why Dianna never told me about you. Now that I know about you, and getting to know you, we need to be a team. Being a team means we talk things out. I take care of you, and you help take care of me.”

I paused for a moment to let it sink in.

“Now, being a team means that your opinion is valued and taken into consideration. We won’t always get along and sometimes I’ll be the heavy; that’s what being an adult is. So, I need you to talk to me, tell me what you’re thinking and needing. As much as I would love to be, I’m not a mind reader.”

Ace tried to hide a smile, so I knew I was getting somewhere.

“So, is eating at the diner for lunch okay with you? And would you like a milkshake? If so, what kind?”

She looked at her lap for a moment before turning a small smile on me. “The diner is nice. I like it inside. I like caramel shakes, but any flavor except coffee is good too. Mommy hated the smell of coffee, so do I.”

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