Page 87 of Statler

But her dreams, sweetly, had also been filled with happy possibilities.

Statler often starred in her nebulous future.

Statler… If only…

Real life had proven to be difficult over the past few weeks.

She’d had to see Statler every day on the jobsite, or at least get glimpses of him.

The rest of his crew was always there, of course, but Statler was the larger-than-life person who took up all her attention, even when he stayed away and she only witnessed him in the periphery of her vision.

For her own sanity, Eliza didn’t manufacture excuses to talk to him or force her way close. Instead, she focused on the blossoming friendship she was enjoying with Blue.

“I’ve got eggplant parm subs for lunch today,” Eliza yelled to her, walking underneath Blue who was perched on a steal beam, twenty feet in the air.

Eliza shaded her eyes against the noonday sun, and grinned, looking up.

“Yes!” Blue exclaimed. “Are they still hot?” She shimmied down a ladder like she’d been born to it.

Eliza knew why Blue was asking. The weather had made a turn toward winter, and the temperatures had dropped significantly in the past few days.

“I have them in an insulated bag, so yes,” Eliza told her. “Granny promised me they were right out from under the broiler a few minutes before I arrived.”

She opened the bag, and sure enough, steam escaped.

Delicious smelling steam.

The odor must have travelled, because almost before she could blink, she was surrounded by large bodies.

“What do we have?” Tonka questioned.

“Eggplant parm subs, and let us get ours before you get all grabby.” Blue smacked him on his arm.

He ignored Blue, and addressed Eliza directly. “How many are mine?”

Of course he was asking that.

Eliza had Tonka’s number by now. Big and gruff, he was a bottomless pit when it came to food, but a gentle giant when you really began getting to know him.

Eliza liked the man a lot.

Why couldn’t she have fallen for him? It seemed that he was a far less complicated creature than Statler.

Eliza chuckled. “You get three today,” she told the hulking man. “And there are two extras after that, which if nobody claims them, can also be yours.”

“Yes.” He pumped his fist and grabbed his three while giving the hairy eyeball to his workmates. “None of you will need more than one today,” he stated almost as an incantation.

It was a good thing he couldn’t actually turn anyone into a newt, or they’d all be scurrying their warty little tails away.

Eliza grinned and passed out more sandwiches.

“What’s in the other bag?” Dizzy asked, taking a big bite of his sub and moaning.

“It was kind of an afterthought,” she told him. “But Gran threw in some homemade minestrone.”

“Awesome,” Hazard applauded.

As they began on their subs, Eliza laid out the hot, second part of the meal—as well as beverages, chips, and napkins—onto the makeshift table the crew had previously set up with sawhorses and boards shortly after Eliza’s first visit.