Page 4 of Fish Out of Water

“The house is fine, Aunt Isabel,” Jake told her. He grabbed a sandwich and took a bite out of it. “Thanks for lunch.”

“I hope you still like peanut better and jelly.”

Jake took another bite. “Love it,” he said, his voice muffled by the food.

“When you’re done eating, I need you to run to the store for me. I have a list of groceries I need, and since the car hasn’t been working, I have to walk there whenever I want something.”

“Just use my car,” Jake suggested, leaning back against the counter. “I don’t care.”

“That’s sweet, but you need to get the lay of the land.”

“That’snot gonna take very long.”

“And you need to get out and meet the community,” Isabel pressed on gently. “There are some wonderful people here.”

“Not wonderful enough to help you, apparently.”.

“My neighbors have helped me plenty. Beverly and Frank have their own health issues to deal with, and anyone else who’s not older than I am is busy working and raising families. But people did help. I wouldn’t have been able to take care of your Uncle Mark for as long as I did without help.”

“Why did they stop helping when he died?”

“They didn’t, but I’m not going to ask them to help me fix up my house, and I’m certainly not going to ask them to get my groceries when I have my perfectly capable nephew standing right in front of me.”

“Fine, I’ll go get your groceries in a minute. Text me the list.”

“Oh, I already have it written down for you.” She walked over to a little notepad on the dining table and ripped off the first page. “Here you go.”

Jake gave it a cursory glance. “Thanks,” he said reluctantly. “I guess I’ll get ready.”

“Are you sure you’ve eaten enough?” Both Isabel and Jake glanced at the plate, still full of sandwiches.

“I’ll have more later, don’t worry.” He pushed himself away from the counter. “Hey, which store do I go to? The Eaton one or that other one?”

“Sandway,” Isabel said quickly. “Only go to Sandway. The prices are better and they have a bigger selection.”

“Isn’t the other one, like, a local business or something?”

“It is,” Isabel said, drawing out the words. Jake could tell she didn’t want to have to explain everything now. “I just prefer taking my business to Sandway. It’s employee owned anyway, so it’s not that bad even if it’s not a small business.”

“Sandway, got it.” Jake washed his hands and shook them dry over the sink. “I’ll be back in a couple hours. Text me if you remember anything else you want me to do while I’m out.”

Isabel smiled. “Thank you, Jakey; I will. You’re a gem.”

“Alex would have been better,” he called back as he reached the door.

With another heavy sigh, Jake slid back into his car, his tired muscles protesting. He checked the time on his phone before dropping it into one of the cup holders. He had all the time in the world to get Isabel’s groceries, so he forced himself to take a deep breath and settle in before he started rushing around everywhere to get everything done as fast as humanly possible.

It killed him to admit it, but he probably was, in fact, the best person for this particular job. He just had to grit his teeth and bear it.

2

SANDWAY

Jake got out of his car in the Sandway parking lot, scanning the storefront as he grabbed the reusable bags Isabel had given him out of the backseat. The building was smaller from the outside than he expected, given the way Isabel had talked about it, but it was larger than the Eaton grocery store a little farther east, and there was a steady stream of people entering and exiting through the automatic doors.

Jake looked down at the list in his hand. All Isabel wanted were some staples that were probably difficult to carry back on foot, like rice and flour and milk. He got a cart and walked into the store, where he was instantly greeted by a colorful display of saltwater taffy.

Locally Made, read the large wooden sign above the display. All the bins were full even though it was the perfect season for taffy, and Jake wondered just how often anyone around here wanted a treat that was such a stark reminder of their life by the sea.