A Hero's Reward (8 page)

When the movie was over he was ready
for bed. He hadn't been kidding when he said it was a strange week
for him. His back was feeling awkward and stiff, even if it wasn't
causing him pain currently. He thought that a good ten hours of sleep
or so might be just what the doctor ordered.

“I'm for bed Margaret. Feel free
to stay up and watch television if you like. If you'd prefer to read,
the closed cabinet on that side of the room has my current stash of
books. I read pretty much a little of everything so it's a toss-up as
to whether you'd find something you liked. You can also hop on the
internet on my computer if you want. I don't know if you use the
web-based email services at all but if you do you can log into them
from here. It should boot straight up; I don't have the system
password protected.”

Greg stood and started to head for the
stairs.

“I'll join you” Margaret
said, “Wait, that didn't come out right. I'll go to bed also.
It's been a long day with a very rough start.”

Margaret walked along behind him as
they climbed the stairs. He stopped to see her into her bedroom.

“Thank you again Greg, for
everything you've done for me. If I'm a bother let me know and I'll
find somewhere else to go.”

Margaret leaned up and gave him a
somewhat firmer kiss than she had earlier in the day, still chaste,
but definitely more than a peck.

Greg found a smile creasing his face:

“So far, you've been far more of
a delight to have around than a bother. I really don't see that
changing at all but I'll tell you if it does. Good night, Margaret.”

“Good night, Greg.”

Greg laid in bed awake for at least a
half an hour, until he could no longer smell her scent in his
nostrils and exhaustion overpowered his memory of the gentle feel of
her soft lips pressed against his own. His last conscious thought
before falling asleep was to hope that she was resting well.

Greg woke up later than normal the next morning. When he tried to
get out of bed, he let out a groan and fell back on his stomach. His
back was abominably stiff this morning and it hurt to move. He
glanced at the clock:

Shit, it's been almost eleven hours since my last painkillers,
no wonder I can't move. I need to remember to bring those up with me
tonight.

He forced himself up out of bed and
gingerly got dressed. The wall of the staircase was a great help to
him as he made his way slowly down the stairs. The hand rail took
care of him for the last few feet once the wall was no longer
available. He made his way into the kitchen and went directly for the
painkillers. It said something that he didn't even notice Margaret,
dressed in her newly cleaned clothes, sitting at the table.

“You look horrible”
Margaret said, “like you're in a lot of pain. Is there anything
I can do to help?”

“Yeah, I forgot to take my
painkillers up with me last night and I'm long overdue for my next
dose. Give these a few minutes to take effect and I'll be much better
company.”

Greg slumped into a chair after
swallowing his pills.

“I don't normally sleep this
late” he said, “But I guess my body decided that I needed
the rest.”

“I've only been up for fifteen or
twenty minutes myself, so I understand. I'm normally up between five
and six in the morning.”

Greg decided that she must be a morning
person if she regularly got up that early. That was okay with him
since he was one himself most of the time. Evidently just not when he
was in major pain, as he had just discovered. It was half-past eight
already though, and he felt as though he had missed a major portion
of his day. He resolved to try to get up closer to his normal six
o'clock the next day. He hadn't even set his alarm last night so if
he did so tonight, he'd probably be able to get up on time.

“Could I convince you to make
some coffee Margaret? I'll talk you through the process for the whole
beans. I cleaned the machine last night so it should be all ready to
get set up.”

“Certainly, while it brews I can
make us some breakfast if you'd like.”

“I think I would, assuming it
isn't ready for at least another ten minutes. I'm ravenous but I
don't think I could eat just yet, not until the edge is off of my
back pain.”

He talked her through the simple setup
for making his gourmet coffee. He showed her where he kept the good
beans in the refrigerator and where he kept the distilled water he
used when brewing the good coffee. He listened as the blades began to
grind the beans and began to feel a little more back on track. As the
scent of the brewing coffee filled the air simultaneously with his
pills beginning to kick in, he felt nearly human.

“Would eggs, bacon and toast be
okay for you?” asked Margaret, rummaging through his
refrigerator.

“That would be wonderful, two
eggs over easy please with two bacon and two slices of toast.”

Margaret proceeded to whip up breakfast
for the two of them. The coffee was done before breakfast and by that
point Greg felt well enough to stand and pour a cup for each of them.
He sat back down at the table and sipped his coffee as Margaret
cooked.

When she set the plates in front of
them both and sat down to eat herself, Greg had to resist wolfing
down his food. As the pain faded, his appetite had increased. He
settled himself in to eat slowly. His frequent glances at Margaret
showed him that the dress she was wearing was entirely unflattering
to her. He hadn't taken the time to notice when he had seen it on
her, briefly, the other night. He wondered if that were intentional
or not. He didn't think that asking her would be a good idea though.
Since he planned on buying her some new clothes, if he could find any
way to convince her to accept them, he'd try to have some say in what
she got.

Once he was finished breakfast, he
leaned back.

“Thank you, that was wonderful,
just what I needed.”

“You're welcome.”

“Okay, so we need to go to the
DMV today, then on the way back we'll stop at a grocery store as
well. One other thing, what bank do you use? Maybe we can stop at a
branch and see about replacing your debit card also.”

“Oh, I use First State. I know
where the two nearest branches are but not what might be near the
DMV.”

“We can always stop at one of the
close branches after our other errands if we don't see another one
while we're out. Is there any reason we shouldn't just start our
errands now?”

“Do you have a grocery list? It's
always better to shop with a list, you end up spending less money.”

“Ummm, no. As you noticed, I
mostly stock stuff I can make quickly. We can make one if you like.
If you'll be doing the cooking, you need to make up the list though.”

“I can do that, it won't take me
more than half an hour. I might have to ask you where you keep a few
things though so I know if you have them or not.”

“Well, let me get a pencil and
some paper and you can get to work on that. I'm going to check my
email, I'm expecting one from my boss since he mentioned he had news
for me when I was talking to him yesterday.”

Pencil and paper delivered, Greg sat
down at his computer. When he opened his email and read the message
from his boss, he gave out a low whistle. Margaret overheard and
asked:

“Is something wrong?”

“No, entirely the opposite. My
boss is telling me that the plug for the company I gave during
interviews has netted us a bunch more jobs. Around fifteen at first,
mostly minor repairs. But then after the ice storm the other night we
picked up another twenty jobs, some of them not so minor. He tells me
he's going to temp hire a few guys from another company to make sure
he can get them all done on time but not too worry about it, my two
weeks isn't up yet.”

“Well, that's wonderful news.”

“That's not even the best, what I
whistled about was his comment at the end. He's been talking on and
off for a couple of years now about making me a partner in the
company and letting me buy him out when he's ready to retire in
another five or ten years. He says if the business levels stay picked
up that he'll make that official in another month or so after I get
back. The levels just might stay up since a lot of our jobs come from
word of mouth advertising by people we've worked for. I hope the temp
guys he hires work to our quality standards. That's why we're still
in business even with the economy kind of lousy now. We do quality
work at a fair price.”

“That's great, what size business
are you talking about?”

“Well, I know he doesn't take
down a million a year after taxes but I think he normally pulls down
low to middle six digits before taxes. Heck, I'm foreman for the main
crew, responsible for about eight to ten guys normally, and I pull
down a fair bit myself. Not six digits but it was more than enough to
keep four of us comfortable when I was still married to my ex and the
kids were here.”

“It's none of my business but are
you going to take him up on his offer and buy him out?”

“Probably, if he actually goes
through with making me a partner. I'd still be doing the same work
mostly but I'd have to put in some extra hours and learn how he does
his end of the business. It would mean a decent raise when I became a
partner and we'd probably have to hire on another crew so the
business profits didn't suffer too much, especially if the customer
base expands. But the company has a good name and an established
customer base already so it's probably worth it. I don't know how
much he'll ask for, we were talking about it before and he said maybe
one million, payable over ten years. It sounds like a lot but if I'm
making what he is now, taking a hundred thousand a year out of that
would still leave me with double what I'd make as a partner even.”

“You've given this some thought,
haven't you?”

“Yes, I've been thinking about it
on and off since he first asked me if I'd be interested.”

“Well, I'm sure you'll make the
right choice. I've got the list all set if you're ready to go.”

They took Greg's car for the trip. It
was a 2001 model Saturn SL and it got nearly forty miles per gallon.
He liked to buy good quality American made items when he could and
the late nineties, early two thousands Saturn vehicles qualified. If
you kept up your maintenance they ran like a charm. Add in an MPG
rating that beat most of the new compacts that they were putting out
and he found that his choice was easy. He also had a heavy duty
pickup truck, but that was mainly used for work. Most other time he
had to drive, he took his Saturn.

Their visit to the department of motor
vehicles was, amazingly enough, painless. There were only a few
people in line during mid-morning in the middle of the week and when
they got to the counter he explained the situation. The lady asked
him for his own ID and when he handed it to her she said:

“Oh, I read about you in the
newspaper. Is this the lady you saved from the burning building?”

“Yes” Greg replied, “Her
ID was in her purse and it got destroyed in the fire.”

“Don't worry, we'll get you taken
care of right away.”

They were in and out of the DMV in
under an hour. He'd never gotten out that fast before, even when he
was trying to renew his own license. Maybe a touch of fame wasn't
such a bad thing at all, but he was still looking forward to his
fifteen minutes of fame being over and being a mostly anonymous face
in the crowd once more.

Margaret insisted on thanking him once
again. He told her that she was welcome and they headed to a Target
superstore for groceries. His plan was that once they were in the
store, he'd casually mention that they should get her some clothes
also so that she had more than the one outfit. He wanted to do this
before they got to her bank so they could be a gift from him. He
didn't know how well she'd take it but his ex-wife had honed his
stubbornness to high levels and he thought that he could convince
Margaret to go along with his idea.

As they were walking into the store
Greg turned to Margaret:

“You know how you were talking
about wearing those same clothes a few days in a row? We should get
you a couple more outfits while we're here.”

“You know I can't Greg, I don't
have any money until we get to the bank and even then I won't have
much to spend. I'll probably go shopping at the Goodwill for some
more clothes.”

“Please, it would make me happy
to get you a few new outfits. We can pick up some stuff for your son
while we're here if you remember his sizes. He'll need some other
clothes also, won't he?”

Margaret looked indecisive. Hit with
the one-two punch of doing something to make Greg happy and getting
something for her son at the same time had her on the fence. Greg
tried to clinch the deal.

“I'll tell you what, if you're
worried about it I can take care of it for now and when you get the
insurance check on your house you can pay me back if you still feel
this way.”

“I'll need that money to rebuild
my house.”

“Then I can wait until you have
some money to spare. I'm not worried about it, I'd get them for you
as a gift if you'd be willing to accept it.”

“I told you Greg, I already owe
you more than could ever repay.”

“I think I've mentioned that you
don't need to repay me, didn't I? Honestly, I'm not floating in cash
but I live pretty frugally and have some tucked away for a rainy day.
Let me use some of it for you and your son.”

“Greg, you're a horrible man.
Trying to use my son to sway me to your proposal is just not fair.”

“Life isn't exactly fair either.
I'm willing to help. I want to help. I just don't want to push so
hard about it that you feel I'm insisting or trying to take your
choices away from you.”