9
Travis
At some point, mornings aren’t going to feel like they come too soon. Lately, every morning comes after a terrible night of sleep. There’s always one dream or another making my nights miserable. Last night it wasn’t the dreams so much, though those moments certainly came up as well. Fitful images of my Dad, his house and trying to make my way through that mess were certainly part of it. I also had plenty of visions of Sophie, both good and bad. Sleeping on the old full-sized bed in my bedroom at my mother’s certainly didn’t help things. I wondered how I was able to sleep in this all those years ago. Granted I was bigger now than I was then, thanks to years of working out, training, and working at the firehouse. Still, this bed had plenty of dips and lumps so I could feel practically every spring poking me in the back all night long.
The sun peeked through the thin white curtain on the window much earlier than I had anticipated it and tried as I did to roll over and block it out, it just wasn’t happening. I rolled back over and looked at my watch that I had placed on the rickety nightstand and saw it was barely 7 AM. I didn’t have to get to Mr. Rogers office until 9 AM or so, so I had some time to shower, wake myself up some more and get ready for whatever this meeting was going to present to me.
I wandered down to the bathroom with my toiletries in tow and went in so I could shower. The bathroom, much like my bedroom, looked like it hadn’t aged much since my teenage years. Everything was clean and in place, and Mom had even put in a new showerhead in the shower so that the flow was better than I ever remember it being when I was younger. The hot water felt good on my skin and even helped to take some of the aches out of muscles and my leg. I took a quick look down at my leg as I showered. It still amazed me that the scar was that big and that the wood nails of that porch had torn so easily through my fire suit to cause that much damage. I can remember being at the hospital as they were frantically trying to stop the bleeding, grateful it hadn’t gotten to my femoral artery to where things would be really dire. The physical therapy I had done did help some to get me moving again, but after a while, I decided I didn’t want to do it anymore and just did work on my own to get better.
I got out of the shower and wrapped myself in one of the large towels Mom had in the linen closet in the bathroom. Even if she didn’t know we were coming, everything about the house seemed like it was ready for guests at any moment. I looked in the mirror and could see a few days of stubble on my chin, but I decided I couldn’t be bothered with shaving it off today and just left it the way it was. I didn’t really care if some lawyer didn’t like that I wasn’t clean shaven for my appointment.
After brushing my teeth, I opened the bathroom door to go back to my room to dress. As soon as I opened the door, the steam came rushing out into the hallway. I also saw Abby and mother both standing there, waiting to get into the bathroom. Mom seemed a little more congenial than Abby, who was scowling at me.
“It’s about time!” she shouted as she pushed past me and went into the bathroom, closing the door loudly.
“Gotta love girls that age,” I said to Mom as I rolled my eyes. My mother was looking at me when I realized I just had a towel around me, making me feel a bit embarrassed.
“When did you get the tattoos?” she remarked to me as she saw the tattoo on my upper right arm and the one on my left shoulder.
“Oh those,” I said casually. “The one here,” as I pointed to my arm, “was when Abby was about year old or so.” It was a jagged piece of rock with Abby’s name in the center with her birthdate.
“The one on my shoulder is more recent, just a few years ago I guess. It was something all the guys in the firehouse had done. It was our firehouse shield with the 32 on it to recognize the team, something we were all proud to get and own.”
“I see,” Mom said, trying not to judge, but clearly judging.
“It’s not a big deal Mom, really.” I suddenly felt like I was a teenager again, trying to explain why I was out so late.
“You’re a grown man Travis,” she said to me. “You can do as you like, you know that. I just never saw the sense in tattoos. Your father had his from his time in the Army, and I never liked it.”
I could remember Dad showing off the tattoo on his arm. It was something that he was always proud of, even if he rarely talked about his military time. He was in the military at a time when there wasn’t much activity going on, so he never saw any action, which I think disappointed him in a way, and maybe led to why he drank so much.
“I’m going to get dressed now,” I said to my mother, feeling more uncomfortable by the moment standing there in my towel. The bathroom door opened and Abby brushed past me again.
“Abby, you need to get dressed and come with me this morning,” I said to her as she went towards her bedroom.
“Why? I thought I could go with Grandma this morning to the restaurant,” she said, pouting.
I glanced over at my mother, hoping she would give me a look that showed some support for my side for a change. Mom finally got the hint and replied to Abby.
“I’m pretty busy there in the morning Abs,” Mom told her. “ I wouldn’t really be able to spend much time with you down there. You’re better off going with your Dad.”
“I can help you out,” she said hoping to sway her Grandmother with her green eyes and smile.
“I’ll tell you what,” Mom said to her as she put her arm around her and led her towards Abby’s room. “You can come with me tomorrow and spend the whole day at the restaurant. Saturdays are the day when I can use the most help anyway. Sound good to you?” Mom looked over at me, and I nodded.
“Okay,” Abby said reluctantly going along with the plan. She walked into her bedroom and shut the door to get dressed.
“Thanks, Mom,” I said as I walked down the hall to my bedroom so I could get moving.
I put on a simple blue dress shirt and a pair of jeans to wear to the lawyer’s office. How good did you have to look just to sign some papers? I pulled my boots on and headed down the hall and made sure to knock on Abby’s door.
“Are you ready?” I shouted through the door.
“Give me just one minute Dad!” she yelled back, sounding frustrated that I would even ask.
I went downstairs to pour myself a cup of coffee before we left. Mom apparently could get ready in the blink of an eye and was already dressed to head out to the restaurant, pouring coffee into a travel mug for herself. She then handed me another travel mug she had already filled for me.
“How did you get ready so fast?” I said to her as I took a sip of coffee.
“When you do it so often it comes naturally, Travis.” She said as she put the coffee pot down. “Besides, you were always painfully slow in the mornings. I had to rush you out every day, so you didn’t miss the school bus.”
‘Well apparently my daughter takes after me now,” I replied.
“She’s a young girl, Travis,” Mom said to me, lowering her voice a little. “You have to start making some allowances for her. She’s growing up, changing, is more worried about how she looks, all that stuff.”
“I don’t even want to think about all that stuff yet Mom. I am far from ready to have boys crawling around looking at her.”
“It’s probably already happening Travis,” she said as she sipped her coffee. “You just haven’t seen it.”
That was just one more log to add to the fire with everything else going on. Obviously, I knew Abby was growing up, I just hated to believe it was happening so fast. She was only a few months from turning thirteen, and then it was just a short while before she started high school. The thought of sending her to high school where we lived right now might be enough to get me to reconsider coming to Canon, though I knew boys that age acted crazy everywhere.
Abby appeared behind me, wearing a pair of denim shorts and a simple gray t-shirt. She had her earbuds hanging around her neck already and had her backpack with her.
“What are you bringing?” I asked her quizzically.
“It’s my laptop,” she said to me, clutching her bag. “I don’t know how long you are going to be with this guy; I need something to pass the time.”
I just shrugged and leaned down and gave my Mom a kiss on the cheek.
“I’ll call you and let you know how things go,” I said to her.
“Why don’t you two plan to come to the restaurant for dinner tonight?” Mom said to me. “Otherwise I won’t see you until tomorrow morning. By the time I get home, you two will be long asleep.”
I groaned at the thought of going to the restaurant, but I knew she was going to want me there so we could eat together.
“I guess so,” I conceded and saw Abby’s face light up at the decision.
“Great,” Mom said to me. “I will see you two tonight. I need to run; I have to stop at the dry cleaners to pick up a few things before work.” She kissed Abby on her forehead as she went past her and out the door.
“Let’s go get this over with,” Abby said to me, tugging me to get moving out the door.
I couldn’t argue with her; I wanted to get this over with too. We followed my Mom out the door and went to my car to head over to Rogers’ office.