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“I’m feeling all sorts of stupid actually. There was no way you could have known her.” My mother had been raised in the church and never left unsupervised. There was no way she could have ever been here on her own before.
The truth was that she probably skimmed off the weekly grocery allowance for years and bought the cheapest land she could find using our neighbor’s computer. Mrs. Jacobson wasn’t a member of the church, just a kind middle-aged woman who always looked upon us with our long skirts and makeup-less faces with sorrow in her long fake eyelash framed eyes.
“Now that it’s clear we don’t have the same acquaintance,” Critter smiled. “What can I do for you, Miss…”
“Dixon. Sawyer Dixon,” I extended my hand. “You must be Mr. Critter. Josh told me about you.”
“Just Critter. Mr. Critter was my father,” he corrected, giving my hand a sturdy shake.
“Really?”
“No, not really,” Just Critter teased. He was just as warm and comfortable as his bar.
“I’m looking for a job,” I said hopefully. “I don’t suppose you might be hiring?”
“What kind of work are you looking for?”
“Anything. I’m a fast learner,” I reassured him.
“Well, what kind of experience you got?” Critter leaned a hip against the bar and started polishing some glasses, hanging them from a sliding rack on the ceiling when he was done with each one.
“Ummmmmm,” I scanned my brain for an answer that wouldn’t have him shooing me back out the door. I didn’t want to lie, but I also really needed the job.
“So…no experience then?” He finished for me, throwing me a knowing look that I couldn’t argue with.
I tried. Even going so far as to open my mouth to lie, but the honest truth pushed the lie to the side and tumbled out instead. “I’ve never had a job before, but I really need one.” My stomach growled as if to punctuate my point. I hadn’t eaten at all yet that day. I’d meant to shove some crackers in my bag but with my new neighbor muddying up my thoughts, I’d forgotten.
“Wait right here,” Critter ordered, heading back into the kitchen. After a few minutes of clinking around, he came back out and set a plate with a sandwich in front of me.
“What’s this?” I asked, looking from the plate to Critter.
“This is food. It’s for your stomach. It’s growling so loud it’s gonna make the stray cats come ‘round so it’s on the house, you know, for the good of the bar,” he said. “Plus, it’s distracting.”
I was about to push back the plate, but Critter narrowed his eyes. “Eat,” he demanded, and my stomach growled again like it was answering for me.
“Thank you.” I sat down on a stool and on instinct, I folded my hands and bowed my head to pray. The second I closed my eyes I realized what I’d done and changed my mind, diving into my sandwich instead.
I didn’t know if I was ever going to pray again, but if and when I did, it was going to be on my terms.
“I may be old, kid, but the only one who thinks I’m going senile round here is Edie,” he hooked his thumb over his shoulder, gesturing to the kitchen doors which were short and western style. Steam rose over the top along with the sound of pots and pans clattering around in the kitchen. “So give it to me straight. What it is you need exactly and why and I’ll tell you if I think we can help each other out or not.”
I swallowed hard and emptied half the glass of water he’d set in front of me. I took a deep breath. “This is my first time out on my own. I’ve got a place to stay, but I’m short on funds. And you’re right, I’ve got no experience. None. I don’t even have a real high school diploma. I’ve never been in a bar before today. I’ve never had a job either unless you count volunteering at church and even I don’t count that. But I really am a very fast learner, a very hard worker, and my mother used to say that I’m reliable, almost to my own detriment. I’ve been that way for a long time because she said that to me when I was very young and I remember having to look up what ‘detriment’ meant. However, I know that in this case, my reliability will be a really good thing if you give me a chance. You won’t regret it. I swear.”
“You always talk that fast?” Critter asked after a long pause.
“Not always,” I said with a mouthful of food.
“Good,” Critter nodded sharply. “’Cause the folks ‘round here aren’t slow of mind, but they are slow in talk so you might have to dial down the rapid-fire when you take their orders.”
“Of course, I’ll…” I hadn’t realized I was looking down at my hands until Critter’s words caused me to look up into his big smile. “Wait, what?”
“Sloooowww with the orders,” he said, stretching out his words in slow motion.
“Really?” I asked in complete disbelief. “I have a job?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Critter gestured with the glass in his hand to the walls around the bar. “You seem desperate, and if you haven’t already guessed it…desperation is kind of our thing around here.”
“Thank you.” I felt relief wash over me.
“You can start tomorrow night. Where ‘bouts are you staying at?”
And just like that, my mind was brought back to the other problem at hand.
Finn.
“Off Orange Grove.”
“A bit swampy over there,” Critter said, reaching for another glass.
“A bit. You know where it is?”
“Is there a run-down cabin out there on the edge of the water right?”
I nodded.
“I’m surprised that thing is still standing, but yeah, everyone knows it around these parts. Well, everyone knows everyone. The town ain’t big enough to miss new people coming in or old people going out. Although, we don’t got much by either way these days.”
I finished the last bite of my sandwich. “Yeah, well, I’m hoping I can make the mud land I inherited a little more stable for my camper.”
“Inherited?” Critter questioned.
“From my mother,” I explained.
A shrill female voice cried out from the kitchen. “Critter, that dang burner is on the fritz again and I need to make the gravy for the tater-tot surprise!”
Critter backed away from the counter with a quizzical look on his face. “You running from something, Sawyer Dixon?”
I paused for a moment. “I think of it more like I’m running toward something.”
“And what exactly would that be?”
The air conditioner kicked on and the tings above our heads danced in the new breeze courtesy of the vents.
I glanced up to them then back to Critter.
“Freedom.”
Chapter Eleven
