Mike and Abe were working in the store and were catching up on each other’s life events over the past week. Outside, Kristy was at her place at the corner of the driveway, her bell keeping rhythm with her tune of the moment…’What child is this who laid to rest on Mary’s lap is sleeping? Who…”
“Boy, she does have a beautiful voice,” Abe interrupted his own story of the family dinner discussion the night before. “Hey, Mike, have you heard from your Mom?”
Mike smiled before he responded and looked up from the countertop he was wiping with a paper towel. Abe, Abraham Miller, worked for his parents from the time he had come into town. He had brought his wife, Amber, and baby Rosie to town on a whim and a prayer, and simply walked into the store and talked to Dad. He started the next day. Mike came home from school to a crying baby as they shared their home for three months before the Millers found a small apartment in the next town about 5 miles up the road.
“She called me last night,” Mike began to share with Abe. “And told me she was going to be back next weekend. She was mysterious in a way. She said she had been thinking and had made some decision.”
“Well, good,” Abe stood up from the floor where he had been stocking shelves. “I miss seeing her.”
“Me, too,” Mike said as he straightened the box labeled “Barber’s Bakery” that he kept right next to the cash register. It contained doughnuts and of the dozen it had started with, there were now only two. Lou established a price of $.50 a doughnut and left a jar beside it to collect the fees. This morning, Kristy had one, he had one, and the others were sold to those who had stepped inside when they were getting gas or picking up a cup of coffee on their way to work. In the jar, he had exchanged the $5 in coins with a five-dollar bill.
His store was beginning to get more visitors since the blond-haired woman began singing in front of it. She had become a curiosity as cars would slow and roll down their car windows to listen for a few minutes. The teenage group came by every day and the same guy would yell out at her. They did not stop but would yell and drive on. The few patrons to the shops across the street would pause before entering the doors to those establishments. Some would shake their heads before they would go inside their destination, others would turn and listen to her sing. Parents shepherded their children in front of the bakery, careful to keep them from crossing the street to see her. She always sang joyously and loud. Boy, she could get loud. Her voice, though pleasant, had the ability to pierce through glass, wood, and concrete. It sometimes sounded like she was singing inside the store. He would look up expecting to see her and he would see her standing on the driveway corner.
In the week since she appeared in his store, there has been a cast of people who seemed to regularly visit him, well, her. He thought about that a moment. He was definitely seeing more of Lou. Besides deciding to offer doughnuts for sale, they were starting to flirt with each other more and he was beginning to consider asking her to go to dinner with him. Early every morning, Lou would cross the street, stop where Kristy stood and open the doughnut box. He would watch them through the windows as puffs of smoke would escape their mouths as they talked and occasionally laugh. Sometimes they would look his way and laugh when they saw he was watching them. They would wave and he would wave back at them. Lou would break off and continue into the store.
The strangest visitor is Robert Fuller. He had not been seen out of his house for a long time. Since the previous Thursday, Mike has seen him twice. The first time was on Saturday and he was walking across the street from the direction of his factory. He was wearing a blue stocking cap and as he walked, his head was focused on Kristy singing in her selected space. He paused at the bakery storefront, in front of the window display, directly across the street from the caroler. He stood watching her when the teenage filled car drove by, stop, and yell at her. Kristy sang on and as the car drove off, she noticed him. Mike could only see the back of her, but he knew she was continuing to sing, and she waved at the man in the parka. In return, Robert Fuller turned in the direction from which he had come and walked away from her.
The next time Mike saw Robert Fuller was yesterday and this time he was walking from the opposite direction toward his factory. Again, he paused in the same spot as he had on Saturday and watched Kristy sing. Again, Mike watched Kristy wave and just like Saturday, Robert Fuller walked away.
Farmer Dell stopped by more often, too. Not only when he would fill his truck with gas but other times, he would walk to Kristy. Mike could see that they would simply be talking for a few minutes and then the farmer would walk back to his truck, get in and drive away.
Father Dooley’s pale green Chevy Impala turned into the driveway and pulled up beside the store. He came inside, bought a cup of coffee and as he paid for it, he asked, “Well, what do you think of her, Michael?”
“Well, Father, she can sing,” Mike offered as an answer.
The priest turned and leaned against the counter to look in Kristy’s direction. She was singing “O, Little Town of Bethlehem”. He looked over his shoulder at Mike before asking his follow-up question. “Yes, she can sing but have you wondered why she is singing here?”
Before he could reply, Pastor Paul’s light blue car turned into the driveway and it paused next to Kristy. She stopped singing and walked to the passenger side window. She leaned in and they heard her muffled laugh and then step back as the car rolled slowly to the fuel pumps.
The priest sipped from his Styrofoam coffee cup and repeated his question, “Why is she singing here?”
Paul came into view from the back of his car and was heading toward the front door. He wore a winter hat of the kind with ear covers that could be strapped and fastened beneath his chin. They were not now with the ear covers folded up with the strap snapped on top of his head. As he pulled the door open, the bell jingled above him. When he saw Father Dooley and Mike watching him, he smiled.
“Good morning, Paul,” the priest spoke first.
“James! Hello. I didn’t expect to see you,” Paul came forward and embraced the priest. “Good morning, Mike. I am going to grab some coffee. Whoa, doughnuts. I am going to get me one of those, too.”
Mike smiled at him and watched him walk to the coffee pot. He looked back at Father Dooley who returned to leaning on the counter and he was watching his friend with a small smile fixed on his face. When the minister returned to join them, the priest turned to face him.
“What?” Paul asked and looked from James to Mike. “What’s going on with you two?”
“Me?” Mike exclaimed. “I got nothing. Abe and I are restocking shelves.”
Abe had silently returned to the aisle he was working and was listening in. Paul turned and noticed Abe for the first time.
“Hi Abe,” he simply said. “How are you?”
“I am fine, Pastor. You?” Abe replied as he carefully opened a box.
“I was until now,” Paul answered and returned his attention squarely on his friend the Father.
“We saw you talk to the girl,” Father Dooley smiled. “What gives?”
Paul laughed and reached into his back pocket to retrieve his wallet. “Nothing, it’s nothing. She attended church Sunday and she thanked me for the nice worship service. I thanked her. That’s all.”
“Really?” the priest smiled at him. “That was all?”
Mike remained silent and watched the scene unfold before him. He watched as the pastor first look at his wallet and open it slightly. He looked up at the priest. At first, he remained silent and then he smiled. He looked at Mike and there was a twinkle in his eye. He winked at Mike and turned toward his friend.
“Well,” he started to reply. “there was more but I don’t know if I could trust you. Both of you. All of you,” He said as he looked at Abe.
“C’mon,” the priest started to beg. “I’m a priest. You can trust me.”
Abe had risen from his knees and had joined them at the counter, too.
The pastor noticed him and stepped back to include Abe into the circle.
“I have to have your word not to tell a soul,” Paul looked from one person to another and when all of them had nodded in agreement, he revealed his secret. “I asked her out.”
“What?” the priest questioned. Abe patted him on his back and Mike smiled knowing that he was the most aware of the secret.
“When?” the priest asked another question.
Before responding, Paul restarted reaching into his wallet and looked up at Mike.
“How much do I owe you?” he asked avoiding the priest’s questions.
Mike looked at his pump display, he answered him, “Gas and coffee $10.50.”
“And with a doughnut?” he asked.
“That goes in the jar, 50 cents,” Mike explained.
“Paul!” the priest was begging to know more.
After he paid for the gas and placed 50 cents into the jar, he removed the last doughnut, and turned to answer his friend. “We are going out next Friday, and you will have to ask her where we are going.”
The four of them, the Pastor, the Priest, Abe, and Mike, all turned to look through the window in Kristy’s direction. What they saw was another surprise. Robert Fuller was standing next to her and the two of them were talking.
To be continued…
My First Stories 