Firestone (13 page)

Sandy had her hand on the door knob to pull
the door closed when she heard a noise. She turned down the hall to
see Charlie.

“
There you are!” Charlie
said. “I’ve been looking all over for you.”

Embarrassed by her own indecision, Sandy let
go of the door knob.

“
The DA’s office called,”
Charlie said. “The testimonies ran long today. They want me to go
in tomorrow.”

Sandy smiled at Charlie.

“
They cancelled Tink too,”
Charlie said. “She was already there. Heather’s dropping her off
here instead.”

“
That sounds fun,” Sandy
said. She grabbed the door knob and pulled the door closed. “What
should we do this afternoon?”

“
I
thought . . .” Charlie started. “Were you going to
go through the room today? We could help. We’ve
done . . .”

“
We? What?” Sandy
asked.

She opened the door and flicked on the
overhead light. Someone had meticulously organized everything in
the room. All the clothing was hung on racks at the end of the
room. Large photo albums took up the floor under the clothing. Like
items were sorted together, and filing cabinets lined one end of
the room. Books sat on new bookshelves along the middle of the
room. Violins and music gear lay in a corner. There was only one
stack of old boxes in the far back corner of the room.

Sandy’s mouth fell open.

“
W . . .what?” Sandy asked.

Charlie grinned.

“
Wait ’til Val finds out I
was here when you saw it first. She’s going
to . . .”

“
Charlie!” Valerie yelled
from the end of the hall. “You promised!”

“
I didn’t do anything!”
Charlie said. “She was already here.”

Valerie sprinted in their direction. Knowing
something good was happening, Keenan and Ivy peeked down the
hall.

“
I wanted
to . . .” Sandy nodded as if they could understand
what she had wanted. “And . . .”

Valerie gave Sandy one of her brilliant
smiles.

“
How . . .?” Sandy asked.

“
I knew you were having a
tough time with this,” Valerie said. “And who wouldn’t? I haven’t
had a lot to do since I’m really just hanging around for the
twins.”

“
We helped!” Charlie said.
“All of us — Sissy, Noelle . . . Tink
too.”

“
I helped!” Ivy trotted
down the hallway toward them.

“
Right! Ivy helped when
she was here,” Charlie said. “Nash and Teddy built the racks in the
back. I mean, Jake told them what to do and how to build the
bookshelves, but we helped. That guy Tim . . . you
know, the one who’s hot for Sissy? He did a lot of the cleaning and
carting stuff to the dumpsters. He said it was
therapeutic.”

“
I just rounded up the
troops,” Valerie said. “Kept them moving.”

“
She was really great,”
Charlie said. “She helped us think about what we would value, and
made us care. It was fun.”

Charlie nodded, and Valerie blushed.

“
We threw out a lot of
stuff,” Delphie said. She had herded Keenan down the hallway and
into the conversation. “Shoes, things we determined weren’t worth
saving.”

“
Is that okay?” Valerie
asked.

“
Absolutely,” Sandy said.
“I would have never been able to make those decisions. Ever. I
just . . .”

“
I
loved
doing it,” Valerie said. “I
love going through other people’s stuff when I have no real
connection to them. They’re like characters I’d play in a movie. I
get to see the inside of their life. It’s fun.”

“
I don’t think I could
have done this myself,” Sandy said.

“
We left a few boxes,”
Valerie said. “I thought you’d want to go through those boxes
yourself.”

“
Why?” Sandy
asked.

“
They’re filled with your
baby stuff,” Charlie said. “A lock of hair, baby
book . . .”

“
Booties,” Ivy
said.

“
If you’d like help, we
can help,” Valerie said. “But I figured you’d want to go through it
on your own.”

Not sure what to say, Sandy smiled and
nodded.

“
Seth’s in town,” Delphie
said. “Why don’t you call him? He can come over and help with the
photos.”

“
But
Ava . . .” Sandy started.

“
Ava won’t care,” Delphie
said. “She’s not that kind of a woman.”

“
He looks so sad when
I . . .” Sandy started.

“
Sadder than you look
now?” Charlie asked.

Sandy shook her head.

“
He is your father,”
Delphie sniffed. “It would be nice if he acted like it every once
and a while. In fact . . .”

Delphie spun in place. They soon heard her
calling Seth from the landline in the living room.

“
Andy,” Keenan said. He
looked at Sandy. “Your mother.”

Sandy nodded.

“
Would you mind if I told
you something?” Keenan asked. “Is that too weird?”

“
Thank you for asking,
Keenan,” Sandy said. “It’s good to be careful. I don’t think you’re
weird, and I don’t mind.”

“
She says the answer to
what happened is in that box,” Keenan said. He pointed to the
bottom box in the corner. Ivy ran over to the box. “She says you
will know it when you see it. Seth?”

Keenan looked confused and then looked at
Sandy.

“
Your father,” Keenan
said. “He needs to see the box.”

Keenan nodded. Sandy’s eyes welled with
tears.

“
I’m sorry if I caused you
distress,” Keenan said. “I know what it’s like not to have a mother
or a father for . . . years, and then to find them
and . . .”

Sandy impulsively hugged him.

“
We share this,” Keenan
said.

“
And the chance to be
loved by those who can love,” Sandy said.

Keenan gave her a soft smile. Sandy glanced
at Charlie.

“
Things we have in
common,” Charlie said. “Hey, I’m done with school. So’s Keenan. Is
it okay if we . . .”

“
Go ahead,” Sandy
said.

“
Basketball?” Keenan’s
face lit up. “Can we, please?”

“
Ask Delphie, but I’m sure
she’ll say yes,” Sandy said.

Keenan ran off to find Delphie.

“
You gonna be okay?”
Charlie asked. His brow furrowed and he looked so much like their
dad, Mitch, that Sandy hugged him.

“
Of course,” Sandy
said.

“
Charlie!” Keenan
yelled.

Charlie ran down the hallway to him. Ivy
shrugged and followed him. Sandy turned back to the room.

“
You
know . . .” Valerie said.

Having forgotten she was there, Sandy gave a
little yelp.

“
Why don’t I stay with
you?” Valerie asked.

“
Oh . . . I
couldn’t . . .” Sandy started.

“
Sure you could,” Valerie
smiled. “Just take the help. You’ve helped me over and over again,
especially with Jackie. You need help, and I can give it. Don’t
fuss.”

Sandy nodded.

“
Let me show you around,”
Valerie said.

Valerie gestured into the room, and Sandy
went inside.

~~~~~~~~

Monday afternoon — 3:35 p.m.

“
That was ridiculous,”
Aden said. He scowled at Jacob and said, “I bet you’re glad you
left Jill and the boys to come down here.”

Jacob opened the door to the Village Inn for
Aden and Tres. He looked up to see Blane and Sam getting out of a
Lipson truck. Sam waved for them to go inside.

“
How many?” the hostess
asked.

“
Five,” Aden
said.

“
Right this way,” the
hostess said.

They sat down in a large booth near the back
of the restaurant. The waitress brought water and was taking their
orders for coffee and pie when Sam and Blane reached the table.
Blane ordered sandwiches for everyone, which they grumbled
over.

“
You need protein,” Blane
said as he sat down. “We skipped lunch
and . . .”

“
You’re a good man,
Blane,” Jacob said.

Blane grinned. Tres got out of the booth so
Blane could sit next to Jacob.

“
I just want pie,” Aden
said. “Do they make a pie sandwich?”

The men laughed. They fell silent until
after the coffee had been delivered and doctored.

“
Well?” Sam
asked.

“
Fucking ridiculous,” Aden
said.

“
Tres?” Sam
asked.

“
Is there another word
that means more than fucking ridiculous?” Tres asked. “I can’t
think of one.”

“
Moronic,” Jacob said.
“But that’s not
more
.”

“
Fucking moronic.” Sam
grinned. “Blane?”

“
I think they’ve said it
all.” Blane shrugged.

The waitress returned with their pie, and
the men fell into their gloomy thoughts.

“
What am I going to say to
people?” Jacob asked. “Thanks for risking life and limb on Friday,
but the state is still pissed at us?”

“
That about covers it,”
Sam said.

“
Should we file for
compensation?” Aden asked.

“
No,” Jacob said. “We can
file, but I doubt we’ll get anything from it.”

“
Good, let’s call that our
cost-benefit analysis.” Aden nodded. “It feels . . .
gross. The whole thing feels gross.”

“
If we’re going to
survive, we have to focus on what’s next,” Jacob said.

“
What’s next?” Aden
asked.

“
We have enough work to
keep us afloat,” Tres said. “Plenty.”

“
The reserves will cover
us for a year,” Sam said.

“
I doubt we’ll need them,”
Tres said.

“
How long before we can do
state work again?” Aden asked.

“
I don’t think we should
count on it,” Sam said.

“
I don’t know why we
would,” Tres said. “We have profitable work right now. We can do
what we want to do and make our own way. Why would we want to get
back under the state’s control? They don’t want us to be
employee-owned. They don’t want us to profit-share. They don’t want
us to do what’s best for our company.”

“
We did walk away from a
large, lucrative contract four days before the site was swallowed
by the earth,” Jacob said.

“
There is that.” Tres
grinned.

“
Kinda makes sense that
they wouldn’t trust us,” Aden said.

The waitress brought their sandwiches. The
men fell silent while they ate.

“
I didn’t realize I was so
hungry,” Tres said.

“
I know.” Blane
smiled.

Tres grinned and ate a french fry.

“
How many offers have we
had on that farmland?” Sam asked.

“
Fifteen,” Jacob
said.

“
You’ve got to admit one
thing,” Tres said. “Buying up all that land around Jake’s farm was
sheer brilliance.”

“
And makes us look worse
to the state,” Aden said. “We may never get another contract from
them.”

“
It sounds like we either
change or die,” Blane said.

Sam, Jacob, Aden, and Tres looked at Blane.
He smiled.

“
We were another kind of
company before we started taking state contracts,” Blane said.
“Right?”

“
We took smaller
contracts, subdivisions,” Sam said. “Federal work.”

“
If we stop taking state
contracts now, we’ll be a different company,” Blane
said.

“
That’s the benefit of
being owner-operated,” Jacob said. “We have the flexibility to do
what works.”

“
Is the change bad?” Blane
asked. “Will it kill us to be different?”

“
No,” Jacob said. “It’s
just change.”

“
Right,” Blane said. “I
think change is good, and good for the company.”

“
It’s just not as secure
as those big contracts,” Jacob said.

“
I guess,” Tres said.
“We’re set to build roads, sewer, and water, everything for a
‘green’ subdivision out on Stapleton. That work will take us
through the spring. It’s through the developer, so we’ll get paid
on time and in full. I don’t see a down-side.”

“
Security,” Jacob
said.

“
There isn’t much security
when the state is willing to cancel work with us over some stupid
lying secretary,” Aden said. “Or pulling all of our contracts when
we expressed concern over the safety of a site.”

“
Well, there is that,”
Blane said.

Tres looked at Blane and then at Aden.

“
I get that you feel bad.
It’s a blow, no doubt,” Tres said to Jacob and Sam. “This has been
your company, and you’ve done things a certain way.”

Sam nodded.

“
It’s our company now,”
Tres said. “We get to do things our way.”

Jacob smiled at Tres, and Sam nodded.

“
Celia would be proud,”
Blane said.