Red Ochre Falls (8 page)

I sat at the desk
opposite Garrett’s before Millie got on her way. This seating arrangement meant
he could keep an eye on me while she left to get her special herbal painkiller.
When she left, I wondered if I should have asked for a mind eraser to go along
with it, so I could forget the madman from earlier, and Bianca, too.

Garrett sat down.
My chair was really low and the light from the desk lamp made me think he was
about to interrogate me. I had no energy to fidget, so I left the lamp alone.

Garrett started
with his explanation for the whole Bianca incident. She came by to drop off his
car, blah, blah, blah, and ended up kissing him just as I walked in. He was,
apparently, not kissing her back, and had to pry her off his face using some
amount of force. Their kiss was the last thing I wanted to think about, but he
felt it needed cleared up. What Garrett told me sounded like the truth, but irked
me anyway. He noticed and changed the subject.

Garrett offered up
a plain white food bag on his desk. After he handed me a club sandwich with
pickles, I took a few bites and practically moaned it was so good, or maybe I
was just extremely hungry. Fear can make a person ravenous, right?

He asked me
point-blank what happened. I took a huge bite and smiled while contemplating
what to say.

“I was threatened
by a lunatic.” I bit off another corner of the sandwich and chewed.
 

A flash of hurt or
anger crossed his face. His jaw tightened and he glared at me. He sat his
sandwich on a wrapper and leaned forward. “I need to know everything.”

“Everything?” I
asked hesitantly.

“Everything.”

I filled him in on
all the details I could remember about the super strong and scary guy. The way
he easily grabbed and lifted me off the ground, and how I couldn’t see him
because of his sneak attack from behind, and my absolute fear and inability to
defend myself.

As Garrett
listened, his jaw clenched and a big vein popped out on his neck. I stopped,
but he signaled me to continue. I explained that I offered the guy my bag, but
he refused, and instead threatened me to stay out of other people’s business,
or else worse things would happen.

Garrett stared
silently and let everything sink in as I finished. He looked angry. Maybe I’d
said too much. Retelling the ordeal hit me hard and I started to cry. He came
over right away and reassured me things would be okay.

“Mattie,” he
softened. “You’ve been through a lot today. You need to eat and drink
something. When Millie gets back we’ll give you whatever pain reliever she
thinks is best and we’ll get you upstairs so you can sleep.” He gave me a
reassuring touch, but my body hurt so much I winced. He pulled his hand away
and pushed my sandwich toward me so I’d eat. It smelled good, like fresh baked
bread and deliciousness. I took a bite, but was so tired it took me longer to
chew the crusty bread. I washed it down with a cold soda, and went for another
bite.

“You know, I’ve
been in some pretty bad situations over the years, and I think I can help you
through this.” Garrett pulled up an office chair and sat next to me. “If you’ll
let me.” He looked hurt or maybe just tired, like me. My eyes drooped. I could
have fallen asleep right there at the desk. When my head snapped back, I sipped
some more soda and tried to look awake.

“I appreciate it.”
I was reluctant to feel anything about him, or his generous offer, because it
would mean feeling pain, and I just didn’t know if I could handle more pain
than I already felt. He probably offered help just to be nice, or because he
felt guilty and wanted to reassure me. Probably nothing more would come of it,
I thought.

What he said next
surprised me. “After you get some sleep, we’re going to hit the gym.”

It didn’t make
sense, maybe he worked out to let off steam. Judging by his massive arms he
looked like he did it a lot. But, I was far from functional, in case he’d
missed it, and not in the most physically capable condition. Going to the gym
seemed like a really bad idea. When I gave him a look to that effect, he shook
his head to indicate we were going to hit the gym even if he had to drag me
there. Fine. Whatever he thought best, but only after I’d slept a very long
time. Only, I didn’t know if I could sleep through phone duty.

Phone duty was part
of the work we did for the Mackenzie Family. As the answering service, we
fielded after-hours business calls. All. Night. Long. And these business calls were
not just, “Hi, thanks for calling. I’ll take a message,” mind you. These were
death calls. Not from actual dead people, but from loved ones, nursing homes,
physicians, caregivers and friends. These were some truly hard calls. I thought
getting yelled at over the phone for late or burnt pizzas was bad, this was
worse.

The people who
called us were in all sorts of moods, mostly sad, shocked, or crying. It’s not
the time to fake a good mood (grinning wildly), “Hi there, how may we help
you?” Here we needed to be serious and alert. You couldn’t give callers what
they truly wanted—the return of their loved ones. It’s tough to deal with
such raw emotion: regret, anger and sadness. Mom told me to listen and be
sympathetic to callers because they probably lost somebody they loved.

A funeral home gets
all kinds of calls: calls about flower deliveries, caskets, obituaries, and
people asking for viewing times and directions. The list goes on, but the most
difficult calls are death calls. Sometimes a caller will get right to the
point, but sometimes they can’t. You listen, let them grieve, and when it’s
really bad, cry along with them. It happened to me once already.

I hated death calls
because it meant the end of a life. I hated that we moved here, and we had to be
alert when most normal people slept. Mostly, I hated death. Spending a prime
part of my life in a place of death sucked. But at least I had him…

I must have looked
ridiculous staring at Garrett, because he laughed. What? Did I drool? He smiled
as I came back from la-la-land. I ended up there a lot more than usual. We ate
quietly for several minutes. Shortly after, Millie opened the door.

“All right, girl. I
got what ya needed to get rid of that fiery pain. Here. Drink this.” She pulled
a small vial out of her purse and handed it to me firmly. The dark blue vial
must have been a little smaller than my finger.

“Before I take
this, I need to know if it’ll make me drowsy.” Millie laughed a big belly laugh
and Garrett nearly fell off his chair. I took it as affirmation that the super
pain killer, potion, or whatever she called it would knock me out. “If so, I’ll
have to pass because it’s my night to man the phones.” I was too chicken to go
through with it, so I milked it. “I promised mom.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve
got the phones tonight.” Garrett pushed the vial up toward my mouth. “Drink ‘da
potion,” he tried do his best impression of Millie.

I twisted off the
black cap, did an air ‘Cheers’ and drank it down. My mouth puckered and I would
have spit it out except Millie and Garrett were staring.

They helped me
upstairs to the apartment, it was the first time either of them had seen it
fully furnished, but only partially decorated. We had more to do. A couple
stacks of unpacked boxes sat in a kitchen corner near the table, but most
everything else was put away. My legs felt heavier as we walked through the
kitchen, past a table in living room and into the bedroom.

The medicine hit me
fast, but I was awake long enough to remember Garrett and Millie tucked me into
bed. My body shivered when it hit the cool sheets then I crashed hard. I didn’t
notice them leave.

CHAPTER 9

Sometime through the night I found myself dreaming of a grassy field.
Along the edges of the green field were some hills, grassy knolls, which didn’t
look like much at first. Once I stepped closer, they grew ten to fifteen feet
around me. I heard a female voice nearby say something, but I couldn’t make out
the words.

I turned to find a
young girl. She was in her late teens, or early twenties, and wore clothes of
another era. She had on a long powder blue dress with a lacey white petticoat
paired with white gloves. The girl searched for something. As I turned to face
the direction she looked, I noticed a young native boy about the same age as
the girl dart behind a tree. The tree was huge, and loaded with branches full
of deep green foliage. As the wind picked up, sunlight glimmered through the
leaves and hit the ground all around us. I looked back to the girl. She must not
have seen the boy, or maybe he wasn’t what she searched for, because she kept
looking. She threw her hands up and walked to the tree and sat down. I tried to
speak, but I couldn’t. My mouth opened wider, but no matter how hard I worked
to make a noise, nothing came out. I tried harder to push out anything, even a
breath, and panicked when my air supply cut off. My voice and breath were lost.
I started to choke. I ran to the girl for help, but the scene went black before
I reached her under the tree.

I woke up choking
and gasped for air. A coughing fit took over my body for a couple minutes until
I realized my breathing was difficult because of an anxiety attack. I didn’t
understand where the anxiety came from, except the weird dream, or the
encounter I’d had with Mr. Crazy. Slowly, and with some concentrated effort, my
breathing regulated.

As I sat up in bed,
a huge sigh escaped. The day had started without me, my clock showed it was
after nine, but I didn’t feel as much pain as I expected considering I got
threatened and nearly crushed yesterday. I ran my hands through my hair and
felt how desperately I needed a shower, but realized it was important to first
find out how the business end of things went last night. I hit the office
button and buzzed downstairs. Ryder answered.

“What’s up?”

“Um.” I didn’t know
what to say. Did he know about what happened, or that Garrett covered the
phones for me while I was passed out on Millie’s super-healing buzz-berry
juice?

“Phones?” was the
most I could manage.

“Garrett said he
came in early,” Ryder told me. “So we’ve already got the phones. You know, you
sound weird. Is everything okay?”

Since Garrett
covered for me, I tried to pull it together and act like everything was normal.

“Yeah, just had a
long day yesterday,” I said, and found a good reason for my call. “Hey, I’m in
the mood for coffee and pastries. Just called to see if you know of any good
places.” Whew, hopefully he bought it. I really was hungry, so it wasn’t far
from the truth.

“Yeah, there’s a place
not too far from here. Come on down when you’re ready and I’ll give you the
address.” We clicked off.

I planned to check
in with mom after breakfast, so I jumped in the shower and did my best to wash
off the leftover fuzziness from heavy sleep. Who-knows what herbs and other
assorted things Millie gave me to induce such rest and healing, but the pain
was a tiny fraction of what it felt like yesterday. After a good cleanup, I got
dressed in khakis and a t-shirt then motored downstairs.

I needed some coffee,
but the black stuff I saw in the pot downstairs looked and smelled like it had
cooked for a few hours. Besides, I’d already asked Ryder if he knew of a good
coffee shop. I walked past the dual burner coffee maker, some old news
clippings hanging on the wall, and met him in the office.

“Hey, I thought
everyone was out enjoying the holiday weekend.”

“Would be nice,
except we got two in last night,” Ryder sounded miffed.

“Oh.” I remembered
nothing about last night except some details from my dream. “Why did you have
to come in today?” It was Saturday of the holiday weekend.

“See this calendar.
We use it to divvy up evening, weekend and holiday coverage. It’s my weekend to
cover family appointments.” Ryder pointed to a calendar pinned to the wall. It
showed a lovely field of summery flowers, and the name Batesville Casket
Company written at the bottom, the kind companies give their clients for the
holidays and New Year. Each of the calendar squares had lines or names written
in red. It was the same calendar Garrett used when he argued about holiday
coverage several weeks ago, and the one mom showed me a few times since we’d
been here, so I’d know who to call with questions and business emergencies.

A typical end of
day transition at the funeral home went like this: mom and I’d get an intercom
call from downstairs, or get asked to come to the office; we’d review the
client list; and get a business update before the office closed and everyone,
but us, went home. We’d then answer incoming calls from a business phone in the
apartment until the office opened up the following morning during weekdays, and
for viewings, services, and special appointments on evenings and weekends. Each
rundown included a quick bit about contacting them through the night or weekend,
but the calendar was there in case anyone forgot. It was also on a server or
the cloud, but not everything had gotten hooked-up, yet.

These guys were on
call, like doctors, and they were generally consistent, although Bert threw an
occasional wrinkle in the calendar plans. I’d caught on to some areas of the
business, but wasn’t totally clued in on why it was so urgent to hold meetings
today. My hesitation must have shown.

“We can’t have
funerals unless clients or families make funeral arrangements. Since we have
some new customers, I’m on the hook to help each family set up the funerals.”

We heard a noise.
“Sledge and Manny just brought in the second customer this morning, and
Garrett’s taking care of the other preparations in the back room.” Ryder meant Garrett
was embalming the bodies. It’s what they did to preserve them before viewings,
funerals and burials. I’d learned Garrett embalmed bodies in addition to his
normal funeral director duties. They hired Bert, a local embalmer they knew
well, to help when business got busy. I wasn’t surprised Garrett was here, he’d
offered to answer the phones, and I took the darn medicine before I asked any
questions. Had he been here all night because of me? I felt bad it. Now,
Garrett was taking care of Bert’s bodies—Bert left Garrett hanging last
holiday, and was supposed to make it up this weekend—I wondered what
happened to Bert.

“Anyway,” Ryder
continued. “We can’t wait to have the family meeting until Tuesday—while
I enjoy my holiday weekend—it would push the funerals further into next
week, and bodies don’t stay fresh for long.”

I winced at the
though of ripened bodies, because it’s what he implied.

“Oops, didn’t mean
to gross you out. It’s not too bad usually, but we are on a timeline out of
respect for the dead and their families.”

Just then Sledge
and Manny came into the office laughing about something. When Ryder asked what
was so funny, Manny spoke up. “I got a joke. Wanna hear it?”

Ryder looked at me
then we both looked at Sledge who shrugged. I thought his response meant
‘proceed with caution’, but before we could say anything, Manny told the joke.

“There are these
two funeral directors standing over a full casket prepping a body for burial.
One funeral director sees the other tying the dead man’s shoes and asks, ‘Why
are you tying his shoelaces together?’ The other director looks at the first
and says, ‘So that when the Zombie Apocalypse comes, I’ve got a better chance
at getting away.’ Hah-hah-hah!” Manny burst out laughing like a hyena and the
rest of us laughed just hearing him.
 

After a pause,
Sledge stepped forward and nodded. He was dressed in heavy overalls and big
black shoes.

“Boss,” he said to
Ryder. “Wanted to make sure we settle up before the holiday, if you know what I
mean.”

Ryder looked around
and found a standard white envelope sitting on Hank’s desk. He picked it up and
handed it to Sledge. “Here you go.”

“Thanks,” Sledge
responded as he peeked inside. “Appreciate the business.” He nodded to Ryder
then spoke to me. “Got any plans for the weekend?”

“Actually, I’ll be
here. I’m answering phones while my mom is visiting grandpa.” I regretted it as
soon as I’d said it.

Manny stepped close
to me. “Need any company?”

Garrett pushed
through the door, maybe he heard us laughing and wondered what was happening.
“Off limits, Manny,” Garrett said firmly.

Sledge grabbed
Manny by the scruff of his shirt, pulled him backward and gave him a scary
look.

“Hey, c’mon, I was
just kidding guys.” Manny looked at me. “Sorry, didn’t mean to disrespect.”

My lips tightened
into a half smile as I accepted his apology. It still made me uncomfortable to
think he knew I was going to be alone here for a couple days.
 

“It’s just you’re
kinda hot, and all,” Manny no sooner go the words out when Sledge slapped him
on the back of the head and shoved Manny toward the door.

“Look, he’s mostly
harmless, just not the sharpest tool in the shed. We’ll get out of your hair
now. Call us if you need anything,” Sledge said trying to recover. Garrett gave
a nod and they left. We heard them bickering on their way out the back.
Hopefully, Sledge was right and Manny was just awkward, not harmful.

“He may have
something with the whole shoe tying thing,” Ryder broke the silence. We
laughed. “Okay, maybe not, but a little humor every now and then never hurt
anybody.”

Garrett seemed to
loosen up a little, but tension remained in his shoulders even after we started
joking about Manny’s Zombie Apocalypse.

We talked briefly
about the weather before Ryder mentioned the coffee shop. Somehow I offered to
pick up coffees for everyone. It was okay though, because Ryder gave me cash to
pay for all our goodies, and I really didn’t mind helping out. The phone rang
and Garrett offered to walk me to my car while Ryder stepped into the back hall
to take a phone call.

“It’s his bookie.”
Garrett smiled for the first time since he walked in on Manny’s inappropriate
comments.

I didn’t mind being
considered kinda hot, but it wasn’t Manny’s attention I wanted. Besides, it was
intimidating since I barely knew the guy, and he and Sledge came here a lot.

Garrett sensed my
uneasiness. “Look, you’re safe, he’s gone. I’ll have a talk with him, and it’ll
be okay.” Muscles tightened in his neck, and I wondered if he really planned to
talk to Manny, or do something worse.

When we got outside
by my car, Garrett’s eyes were trained on me. I didn’t think they could get
more beautiful, but the sunlight made them glow. I blushed and looked toward
the car.

“I mean it. You’re
safe here.” Garrett started to move forward until something stopped him.

“Mattie,” Derek
said. “I hoped to find you here.” He beamed at me then eyed Garrett. There was
a brief stare down before I spoke.

“Hi,” I responded,
eager to break up the testosterone match. “I’m here.”

“Good, are you free
this weekend?” Derek asked.

“I…um…”

“Actually, she’s
booked.” Garrett answered for me and I’m fairly sure he mumbled ‘forever’ under
his breath.

“I didn’t ask you,”
Derek went beet read. He was noticeably ticked off as spoke to Garrett. “I
asked the lady, if she was free this weekend.” He did his best to smile at me.
“Mattie, are you busy?”

“Actually, I have
to work this weekend, so I’m mostly busy.”

“Mostly? Are you
free for lunch today or tomorrow?” Derek was not going away easily.

“Maybe, can I get
back with you on that question?” He seemed nice, and it would be good for me to
meet more people, but I was uncomfortable standing in the middle of whatever
was going on between them.

“Let me give you my
cell number,” he said. I pulled out my phone and added his number. “Call me if
you want to go out. I could show you how to have a good time in this town.
Unlike this guy, with his head stuck in the business, and his—other parts
stuck in, what’s her name? Bianca? Or maybe the chick from the morgue? I guess
it runs in the family, huh Garrett?” Derek crossed a line, and we all knew it.
Garrett got up in Derek’s face. “Leave. Now.” They were obviously worked up,
and I got nervous when I saw Garrett’s fist curl at his side. Derek grinned. He
pulled up my hand and kissed it, then saluted Garrett and left.

I didn’t know what
to make of the scene. One minute Derek seemed polite and warm, the next he
stirred up trouble with Garrett.

When I knew he was
out of earshot, I decided to ask Garrett. “What’s up with that guy?”

“It’s a long
story,” Garrett said as he opened my car door. “One I promise to tell you,
someday, but there’s not enough time to get into it now. I’ve got to work, and
you promised coffees. The least you could do for making me stay here all night
long answering phones.”