Ready To Go (15 page)

“We just want what’s best for you,” his mother said, but he ended the call before replying to her.

Nicole had been standing by the counter with the food for a few minutes, just watching Daniel. When he set his cell phone down beside him and hung his head in his hands, she walked over and set the tray on the table. “Are you okay?”

“They cut me off,” he said. He couldn’t believe it. He had never really felt so shocked. “They said that money is for school only. I can’t afford to keep driving you.”

“Don’t you have any money of your own?” she asked.

“Not enough to pay for the car and the hotel tonight,” he replied, not looking up. “I burned through that the first few days, and now I’ve probably lost my job, so that’s it for my cash. We’re stuck here.”

“I still have some money,” she said. “I’ve got just enough to pay for the car. I think. We can ask around the town, do some odd jobs for people, earn some cash for gas.”

“It won’t be enough,” he said. She was being too hopeful. There was no way they could raise enough money to get out of this shit town.

“We’re close,” she said. “Borrow money from your friend in LA so you can get back to your school. Then you’ll have your bank account again and be able to pay him back. Come on, we’re
so
close. A little more cash will get us there.”

He looked up just enough to meet her eyes. “I’m so sorry. I tried to get you there.”

“You will,” she said. “You’ve done so much for me already. I can’t let you give up now. I’m pretty sure you need this as much as I do.” She picked her breakfast sandwich off the tray and pushed the other towards him.

“I’m not hungry,” he mumbled. His stomach begged to differ, but the effort of eating was just too much when his world was crashing down.

“Eat it,” she said. “You can’t afford to waste food now. And it’ll make you feel better.”

He pushed the food away, and she pushed it back towards him. The greasy sandwich slid back and forth between them until finally Daniel picked it up and hurled it across the restaurant, letting out a wordless, angry cry as he did so. “I’m
not
hungry,” he repeated.

Nicole looked a little scared of him. He’d let his temper get to his head. He was upset, but he did know that he shouldn’t have taken it out on her. It was kind of her fault, but he never had to take her on this trip in the first place.

Abruptly, he stood up. He walked across the restaurant, grabbed the fallen sandwich, and tossed it into the nearest garbage can. He returned to the table and sat down, sighing again. “Sorry. I just. I don’t know. This isn’t happening.”

“Just because of the money?” she asked. She tried to keep her voice from shaking. She hadn’t seen him so angry before, and he just looked like a
stranger
. She was scared, but she forced herself to act like she wasn’t. Maybe he’d calm down. “Your parents aren’t forcing you to go back. You can make enough money to keep going. Or, you can go back and leave me here. I’ll pay for your car, it’s the least I can do. And I’ll just hitchhike my way to meet your friend. What’s his name again?”

“You’re not doing that,” he said. “I’m coming with you still. I don’t want to leave you alone.”

She shook her head. “Why do you do this?”

“Do what?”

“Act like I’m so important,” she replied. “We’re still basically strangers. I haven’t done anything great enough to deserve all this from you, and you won’t let me pay you back.”

“Simple,” he said. “I want to do you.” He cracked a smile, even though it was hard, and she laughed. In Nicole’s world, everything shifted back to normal—or, as normal as the past week had been.

“Good. You’re smiling. You think we can find somewhere to stay tonight?”

He nodded. “There’s gotta be a homeless shelter somewhere around here.”

“If that’s what it comes to,” she agreed. “I was thinking we could offer to do chores for people in exchange for a bed. Even if it means we stay at different places.”

He frowned. “I’m not so sure about that.”

“We should try.” She offered a weak smile. “I don’t want to admit that I’m actually kind of homeless now. The night in the library was bad enough, but I like pretending that was the only time I won’t have a real bed.”

“You’re not homeless,” he said. “You have somewhere to go back to, if you have to. It’s not like you’ll die alone.”

“I can’t go back,” she said firmly. “So if I die, will you at least come to my funeral?”

“Yeah,” he promised. “Even though you’ll die fifty years from now and we won’t speak anymore, I’ll go to your funeral. As long as someone lets me know about it.”

“I hope we’re still speaking in fifty years,” she said. “I mean, yeah, I did just say that we’re strangers. But we’re friends. Strange friends.” She paused. “Actually, that describes us pretty well.”

He laughed. “It really does.”

The two had some trouble deciding where to go to find money. Nicole’s idea of doing small jobs for cash was a good one, but how to start? They didn’t have time to run an ad in the paper. As it was, they had a choice between eating for the rest of the day, or staying in the hotel that night. They didn’t want to have to choose.

They walked until they found a neighborhood, and started knocking on doors. Most of the people they met said no, they didn’t have anything. No jobs, no money to give. Check the next house.

Finally, there was one man who invited them in. He had his arm in a sling, a heavy cast on it. “Yeah, I could use some help,” he said. “Broke my arm a week ago falling off a ladder, and things are going bad around here. I’ll give you two ten bucks to rake the leaves in my backyard and clear out the gutters.”

The two eagerly accepted the job. Ten dollars wasn’t a lot, but it would buy them dinner. The man showed them where he kept a rake and a ladder, and they set to work, with him watching. The yard wasn’t large, but there were a lot of trees around it. It wasn’t fall, and the trees didn’t look like the type to lose many leaves anyway, but there were still a number of dried dead ones on the grass and many more in the gutters around the roof.

“I’ll take the rake,” Nicole said.

“Oh sure, take the easy job,” Daniel teased. “Leave me to go up on the ladder that broke that guy’s arm.”

“You don’t know it’s
that
ladder,” she replied weakly. She didn’t seem to get that he was teasing. “Please? I’m kind of afraid of heights.”

“Yeah, it’s no problem,” he said. “I was joking. Besides, I’m almost a doctor. I can probably set a broken bone. Haven’t learned that yet, but it can’t be too hard.” He took the ladder from the shed and set it up against the side of the house, then climbed up.

Nicole headed to one edge of the yard and started raking, collecting the leaves into a pile. “You know, I don’t know if ten bucks is worth this.” She caught sight of the house’s owner still on the porch, though checking his phone instead of paying attention, and added quickly, “Not that I’m not grateful for it. Money is great.”

“It’s dinner,” Daniel called back to her. “At least for one of us. Both, if we’re lucky. We can do another job like this for someone, make another ten dollars, and we can both eat.”

“Then we don’t have gas for the car, we won’t make it to LA,” she said. She stopped raking for a moment to sigh and rest her head down. “We might be stuck here.”

Daniel was silent for a few minutes, focusing on the slimy leaves in front of him. When he had to get off the ladder to move it, he climbed down and first walked to Nicole. “We won’t be stuck here,” he murmured, pulling her into a hug. “I promise to get you to LA. Ethan’s apartment is waiting for you.”

“And then what?” she asked. “What am I going to do there? I’m not finding my true talent in leaf-raking.”

“And I’m not finding it in clearing the gutters,” he replied. “Speaking of, I need to get back up there. Please calm down and just focus on this. Everything is going to be okay.”

She shook her head. “Nothing’s going to be ‘okay’. But you’re right. I’m not going without food or a place to stay. Maybe, I guess this isn’t too bad. Just not what I’m used to, you know.”

“You think I’m used to this?” he asked. “It’s a crazy situation, but we’re not alone in it. Now, I really am going back up. You can just call if you want to keep talking, I don’t mind shouting to hold a conversation.”

An hour passed as the two shouted back and forth to each other about the leaves and their plans for the ten dollars. The owner of the house had gone inside, bored of watching them, but soon returned. “You two done yet?” he asked.

“Close,” Daniel called back. “Maybe ten, twenty minutes? And I think Nicole’s almost done.”

“Just gotta bag up the piles,” Nicole agreed.

“Come inside when you’re done,” the man said. “I’ve got another job I need done.”

“He better pay us for that other job,” Nicole said. She was talking to herself, but she was standing close to the ladder. Daniel heard.

“Yeah, of course he will,” he said. “And if he doesn’t, we just get the ten bucks for this and then leave.”

She nodded. “Well, we better get this done. I think the guy said there were garbage bags in the shed?”

“Sounds right,” he replied. “Watch out, leaves coming down.”

When the pair finished the work and headed into the house, they were met by two young girls running towards them. The girls didn’t speak, only watched them curiously. The owner of the house followed them. “These two are my daughters. My ex just dropped them off, and I can’t handle them with one hand. Either of you good with kids?”

“He worked at a children’s museum,” Nicole volunteered, pointing to Daniel.

“Good,” the guy said. “Their mom’s going to pick them up in the morning, so can you stay the night to help? I’ll give you a hundred.”

“Yes!” Nicole said eagerly. “We really need a place to stay.”

“Hold on,” Daniel interrupted. “You want us to watch your kids? You don’t know our names. I mean, you can trust us, but it’s a little all of a sudden.”

“I know,” the guy said. “My name’s Aaron, these two are Hannah and Emily. You’re right, it’s a little insane, but I’m desperate.” He glanced down at his kids, and then said in a low voice. “I f-o-r-g-o-t they were coming. And you two did a good job outside, and I’ll be around. I just need the help.”

“Well, I’m Daniel, this is Nicole,” he replied. “And sure. What do you want us to do?”

“Entertain them,” Aaron said. “Feed them dinner, make sure they, uh, brush their teeth before bed, the usual stuff. I’ll be in my office. It’s over that way, if you need any help. But I’ll be pretty busy.” He gently pushed the little girls to the pair, and then headed out of the room.

Nicole raised an eyebrow at Daniel, and he shared the feeling. Something wasn’t quite right with this guy. But then Nicole knelt down to the girls’ height. “Hi there. How old are you two?”

The girls looked at each other, and then each held up two fingers.

“Wow, two whole years,” she said in that fake excited voice everyone uses when talking to a child. She was really unsure how to deal with the kids. The situation was weird, but she needed money.

One of the girls, Daniel thought it might have been Hannah but the girls looked so alike, grabbed Daniel’s hand and pulled him into the next room. She pointed to the couch and said, “Sit down!”

Daniel sat. “Okay, what do you want?”

Hannah didn’t reply, but toddled back into the other room to find her sister again. She reentered the room with Nicole and Emily in tow. The two little girls headed right for a toy box sitting near the couch, and pulled out a box of stuffed animals. One of them started piling the animals onto Daniel’s lap, and the other followed her lead.

“Thank you, Emily,” he said as he took a toy from one of the girls.

The girl pointed at her sister and said, “Emily!”

“Oh, she’s Emily?” he asked. “I’m sorry, Hannah.”

“How are we supposed to tell them apart?” Nicole wondered, sitting beside Daniel.

“Emily’s wearing purple socks and Hannah has pink,” he observed. “Now if they take off the socks, I’m lost.”

She shook her head. “I have no idea what I’m doing here. We don’t know the guy, and I can’t even tell the girls apart.”

He picked up one of the stuffed animals and waved it in Hannah’s face, making the small girl giggle. “It’s easy,” he said. “Just make them laugh and don’t let them destroy anything. And if you get tired, pop in a DVD. I’m sure there’s some VeggieTales or something around here.”

“Okay.” She picked up one of the stuffed animals, lifted up its little arm, and said in a high-pitched voice, “Hi girls!” The girls laughed, and Nicole looked to Daniel. “How do you know so much about kids? Do you have one somewhere?”

He laughed. “No. Children’s museum guide, remember? And I’ve got some friends with kids. I like kids.” He picked up Emily and set her on his lap. “Especially cuties like this one.”

Emily laughed, and Hannah climbed up onto the couch and sat herself in Nicole’s lap. The older girl began to tickle the younger, making her squirm and squeal with laughter. Nicole glanced to Daniel and curiously asked, “So do you want kids?”

“Nah,” he said, picking Emily up and holding her upside down, so that the room was filled with the screaming laughter of two girls. “I like kids, but the best part about them is you can give them back.”

Nicole rolled her eyes. “I’m sure it would be different if you had your own.”

“I’m not eager to find out,” he replied. “No time for kids now even if I did want one.”

“Oh, I’m not saying you should have one
now
,” she said. “And I’m certainly not volunteering myself as the mother if that’s where your mind was going.”

“It wasn’t.”

Nicole handed Hannah a plush dog she’d been reaching for and continued, “I just think it’s not something you should already make up your mind about. What if you’re dating a girl who gets pregnant? Will you just abandon her?”

“No,” he said. “I’m not like that. Luckily right now there’s no chance of
you
getting pregnant. From me, anyway—unless you change your mind?” Nicole shook her head emphatically. “And you’re the only girl around right now, mostly because the only other girls in this town I know are these two.”