Chapter Sixteen

On Monday morning Riley got a phone call from Mr. Harper at the hardware store. He wanted to know if Riley would be okay taking part-time hours and of course Riley said yes. Anything was better than nothing.

When he told Riley the hourly pay, his heart sank. It was better than minimum wage but not by much.

“When can I start?” He asked, being sure to sound enthusiastic.

“Today if you want.”

“Today is fine.”

“Okay. Be here by about noon and we’ll get your paperwork completed and start training you.”

“Okay Mr. Harper. And thank you.”

“You’re welcome, Riley. You’re a hard worker. Some of these kids around here don’t know the meaning of the word. You fixed my truck that one time and even washed it for me. I always appreciated that.”

Riley remembered that. He didn’t normally wash the vehicles but he remembered that there was road salt on it and it had been pushing summer.

After he hung up with Mr. Harper Riley smiled in relief, then he whooped and hurried up the stairs to shower and prepare for the day.

He arrived a bit before noon so he decided to head over to the grocery store and pick up a few items. Mrs. Lemon was working and she greeted him with a broad smile.

“Hiya Riley. Congratulations on your new job.”

His mouth was opened and prepared to greet her before her revelation left him stunned and mute.

“Uh…yeah. I was just getting ready to head on over there.” He said in surprise. Why was he surprised that his business had spread so fast? She probably knew about the job even before he did.

His suspicions were confirmed when she came over and winked at him. “I know Chase Harper. I put a bug in his ear that you were a good fella and that he should give you a chance. He’s going to be starting you off pretty small but hang in there Riley. He needs a good manager and he can’t trust them teenagers that just want to run willy nilly around town.”

Riley smiled at her and before he could stop himself he gave her a hug. “Thank you Miss Lemon. I appreciate you.”

She blushed and looked very pleased but he quickly released her and with a blush of his own he grabbed a bag of chips and a pint of lemonade. He quickly paid and hurried out of the store eating his purchase and checking his phone for the time. He had about five minutes, time enough to finish up his snack and be at the hardware store promptly at 11:59.

 

 

Stella stood at the entrance of the loft watching Adam playing one of his video games. He was still wearing pajamas even though it was after twelve.

They had both been pretty tired and had slept in late this morning. She had spent the latter part of the morning using her cell phone to take care of some business. She then updated her social media—noted that Evan had commented on some of her posts. She ignored him. She then chatted for a few minutes with her mom. But now she wanted to do something that didn’t entail being inside the cottage.

“What should we do today?”

Adam shrugged, his concentration more on his game than on her.

“We can go fishing.” She suggested.

Now she got his full attention. He paused the game. “Yeah, that would be cool.”

She smiled and turned to leave. “Go and get ready. We need to buy some fishing poles.”

When they left the cottage, Stella noted that Riley’s truck was gone and she wondered briefly how he spent his time since he was unemployed.

She decided to stick to the mountain because frankly going up and down that mountainside three days in a row was too much for her nerves. She remembered the little hardware store across the street from the market that they’d visited the day before, and headed for it.

“What are we going to do if we actually catch some fish?” Adam asked as they parked and entered the store.

“We’ll eat them—and not if but when we catch them.”

Riley was being shown how to work the cash register by his ‘supervisor’ a teen on summer break from high school, when he heard Adam’s voice.

“Mom, it’s Riley. Hi Riley!” He came rushing over to the counter and Riley looked at him in surprise. He found himself smiling at the boy’s enthusiasm at seeing him.

“Hi, Adam.” Suddenly he looked around for Stella who was just rounding the corner carrying two fishing poles. She had an equally surprised look on her face at the sight of him behind the counter wearing a nametag pinned to his shirt with ‘Riley’ written in black magic marker.

“Riley,” she said. “I didn’t know you…” she nearly said ‘had a job’ but even saying ‘work here’ didn’t seem appropriate. She thrust the two fishing poles toward him.

A young teen that was popping sweet smelling bubble gum accepted the poles. “I’ll take those.” He said. “He can’t use the cash register yet.”

Riley’s face warmed, but he looked at the poles. “Gonna do some fishing, huh?”

“Yeah,” Adam replied. “We saw a lake with fish in it.”

“We sell fishing licenses.” The cashier said after blowing a loud bubble.

“Fishing license?” Stella asked.

“Yes ma’am. You need a license to fish in Estill County.”

Riley rolled his eyes and took the poles from the cashier and handed them back to Stella. “Go put these back. I got plenty of poles at the house.” He gave the teen a sideways look. “And I knew plenty of private lakes where you can fish for free.”

The cashier scowled. “Uh…Riley can I speak to you?” He hissed.

“I’ll be back,” he said to Stella and Adam before following his supervisor to the back.

“Riley,” the teen said. “You just lost us a sale. You never dissuade our customers not to purchase our products. Sales are going to be part of your commission. Also, if you happen to have friends that come into the store, please try to maintain a professional manner.”

“Uh…I didn’t realize that I wasn’t interacting professionally.” Riley said.

“Well you were holding a conversation with them.” His supervisor popped his gum as if it was an exclamation point to his final words.

Riley just nodded his head. “Gotcha.”

When they returned to the storefront, Stella and Adam had returned the fishing poles and were waiting at the counter.

Ignoring his supervisor Riley leaned against the counter. “When were you two planning on fishing?”

“Just whenever,” Stella shrugged.

“Will you go fishing with us?” Adam asked.

Stella nodded. “You’re gonna show us where we can fish for free, anyways.”

The teen cleared his throat. Riley ignored him. “The best fishing is done in the mornings. How about tomorrow?” His work schedule looked pretty sparse with him mostly working the weekends and evenings.

Stella looked at the teen who was now tapping on the counter as if he was perturbed. “We can talk about it later. Come on, lets go Adam.”

Adam held up a package of batteries. “Can we get these?”

“Yep,” She slid them across the counter at the kid who punched up the sale in satisfaction.

 

 

Riley found himself whistling as he drove home from work. He’d only worked until six—not a full day’s work but he wasn’t complaining. He pulled his truck behind Stella’s and instead of going to his house he headed over to the cottage.

Adam opened the door for him. “Hi Riley. Come in. Mom’s in the kitchen.”

“Hey Adam.” He stepped inside surprised at the sound of the music playing softly from a blue tooth speaker. It was a mellow R&B crooner and Riley was willing to bet that it was the first time R&B music had ever been played within the walls of this cottage.

Stella stepped out of the kitchen to greet him. “We were just getting read to eat dinner. It’s just spaghetti and sauce that I made with the leftover hamburger from yesterday if you’d care to join us.”

It did smell good and he was hungry. Also, one thing that he had noticed about Stella is that she if she offered an invitation it didn’t just seem to be an obligatory offer. He could tell that she wanted him to accept it.

“Thanks. I did skip lunch.”

Adam also seemed happy that he accepted the offer.

“What do you want to drink?” Stella asked as she peered into the refrigerator. “Bottled water, iced tea or wine? I’m having wine.”

“Iced tea is fine.” He replied. Adam was showing him the characters that he had created on his Gameboy system.

“I played on one of these when I was a kid. I don’t remember it being able to do all this,” he replied in interest as he accepted Adam’s invitation to create an avatar in his likeness. He’d always been interested in video games but obviously with his family’s income it was something they could never afford. Sometimes he went to a school friend’s house and played on their systems, which gave him his limited understanding of such things.

“Alright, boys. It’s time to eat.” Stella said as she placed the salad on the table.

Riley took a seat and suddenly he had a strange sense of nostalgia—only twisted up because instead of the white faces of his grandparents, and the backdrop of the evening news droning in the background, there was the faces of two African American’s and the backdrop of a Kanye West tune playing in the background. The funny thing is that both gave him an equal sense of comfort.