AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Ben hustled for Doug’s wheelchair, which he propped up beside Doug’s bed. He then helped Doug out of the damp bed, ripped off the sheets, raised the mattress from the bed frame, and wheeled Doug to the bathroom to change and clean himself up. Although Doug usually preferred to walk around by himself, something about the morning made him especially stiff. Now in his forties, Ben had begun to understand that.
“Why didn’t you ring the bell when you woke up?” Ben demanded of Doug. “I would have immediately come to help.”
“I was in the war,” Doug shot back. “I can handle a bit of rain.”
Ben grumbled. In the kitchen, he made Doug a bowl of porridge with fresh fruits and peanut butter and brewed a pot of coffee. Out the window, a blue-sky morning played in contrast to the sorry state of the old house.
After Ben set Doug up on the front porch with breakfast and the daily newspaper, Ben called the repairman Andy, whose family business had been in charge of Nantucket residences for fifty-five years. Unfortunately, Andy had had to change his prices with the economy, and Ben and Doug were not always able to keep up. This had brewed resentment and ill will between Ben and Andy, who’d previously been friendly.
“I hope you have good news for me, Ben,” Andy said.
Ben grimaced. When did he ever have good news? “Doug’s bedroom ceiling has a hole. He woke up with a soaking-wet mattress.”
Andy coughed into the phone. “That’s not what I wanted to hear.”
“Do you have time to look at it?”
“The better question is will you ever pay me back for the past six months of repairs?”
Ben grimaced. It was true the old house had needed a multitude of expensive repairs over the winter. Their heater had cut out, a few pipes had burst, and a tree had blasted through the back window.
“And last I checked, that house is on its way to condemn town,” Andy continued. “That ceiling is probably the tip of the iceberg.”
Silence fell. In the background, some of Andy’s family members barked orders at each other in the repair shop.
“I can try to fix it myself,” Ben said.
Andy’s tone softened. “Listen, man. I’m sorry. But things are tight for everyone right now. I can’t just repair everything in that old house without going bankrupt.”
“Yeah, man. Thanks.” Ben hung up without waiting for a reply. Out on the front porch, Doug whistled sweetly to himself and flipped the newspaper. Ben’s love for the old man was familiar. He felt like Andy and his repairman family had gone out of their way to attack him.
Rage toward Andy and exhaustion fought for first place on Ben’s emotional roster. He stomped to Doug’s bedroom and peered at the hole, which seemed larger now than ten minutes ago. He decided to set the bed frame up in the living room. As soon as the mattress dried out, he would return it to its frame.
He and Doug would make do, just as they always had before. Doug was right. They’d gone to war, so they could handle anything.
Ben stepped out onto the porch. The sun glittered across the Nantucket Sound and demanded attention. They couldn’t possibly spend the day shifting and creaking through the old, nearly condemned house. They had to get out there and pretend they would live forever.
A few hours later, Ben parked Doug’s truck near the pier. Despite Doug’s pride, his exhaustion from lack of sleep had made him agree to be in a wheelchair so Ben could walk a longer distance. “I know it helps your image with the ladies if they see you wheeling an old man around,” Doug suggested as Ben helped him into the chair.
“If you think for a second any ladies have their eye on me, you’re delusional,” Ben said. “They’re all after you.”
“They’re after me for my money,” Doug joked as he adjusted himself in the wheelchair. “Bunch of gold diggers.”
“I’m sure they’ll love the skylight you put in your bedroom,” Ben said.
Doug gasped with laughter and wagged his eyebrows.
After locking the truck, Ben wheeled Doug along the boardwalk and paused at the little ice cream stand. It was a deliriously beautiful day, unseasonably warm, and he and Doug sat with their soft serves and watched the tourists as they showed off their pretty outfits and boat shoes, eyeing one another.
“It’s like watching Animal Planet,” Doug joked.
“Don’t make fun of them too much. Most of them have so much money that they rule the world,” Ben said.
“All the more reason to make fun of them,” Doug pointed out. “They’re so sure that money will keep them happy forever. I wish them good luck with that.”
After their ice cream, Ben wheeled Doug toward the lighthouse, where they stood wordlessly against the railing and watched the water propel itself against the jagged rocks. Ben thought about his years in Afghanistan, and how he’d ached to see a body of water and to feel rain upon his face. By contrast, Doug had served in Europe, where water and wind had been prime players in the war that had changed the world forever. Once, Ben had asked Doug if he felt he was a part of history. Doug had said, “That’s a creative way of calling me old, isn’t it?”
A part of Ben wanted to ask Doug what he thought they should do about the house. But another didn’t want to ruin the beauty of this moment. There they stood—two men, aged forty-six and ninety-eight, enjoying a time of peace. The drama would come for them when it needed to.
