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Maisie always leaves it playing the news while she gets ready for work. It’s a break and there’s yet another attack ad from Tom Blizzard, our famous local boy turned mayor, turned senator.
I’ve seen these ads too much recently, his sweaty face not made for 4K, grinning too broadly, talking about how he’s nothing but a poor farmer’s boy who came from nowhere but still has a hankering for messing up the fat cats in Washington. He starts jabbing the knives into his opponents, still smiling while he does it.
“Re-elect me and I’ll stick it to those stuffed shirts and special interests. Make your local interests a national priority with me, Tom Blizzard. A Blizzard is coming this election day. Be a part of it.”
He might fool some people with his advertisements but Maisie’s told me how he’s never tipped at the diner despite his millions, how he yelled at her for forgetting his ranch dressing one time. He’s a spitter when he yells.
That’s not even mentioning the shit he pulled as mayor. The biggest one was the wills changed of three separate elderly farmers so he inherited when they died. Once you’ve heard about all that and the rumor that he treats his dogs like shit, you tend not to fall for the folksy smile on TV.
I switch the channel just as he’s starting to talk about how much he loves us all and how he knows we love him. I could do without throwing up before work.
“Thanks,” Maisie calls through from her room. “Was on my way to turn off his voice. It gets to me like fingers down a chalkboard.”
“No worries. You want a coffee?”
“Why have them here when I can get them for free at work?”
It’s the same line every morning and something about it is comforting. As is seeing Spock happily munching much like he does every morning. Same old, same old.
I go through to the bathroom. Time to get ready for work. I run the shower and climb in, my mind going back to last night.
I can’t believe that asshole tried to steal my purse. Like he thought his ruggedly handsome face would give him a pass to rob me blind.
I’ll go tell the sheriff after work. If that guy’s still hanging around town, he might try it with someone else. I’ve not seen him before. I’m guessing he’s one of those passing through types, on the lookout for whatever he can steal on the way.
He had that look about him. That dangerous, stay away from me look. I’m the type of guy your mother warned you about kind of look.
He was tall, with tanned skin, chin covered in stubble, hair unkempt but his Armani suit was impeccably cut, his shoes real Italian leather.
He smelled of whiskey and cigars and something else, something I couldn’t pinpoint. It reminded me of the smell on our school trip to the county jail, a kind of baked-in badness that hung in the air and made it hard to breathe.
When he grabbed hold of me and stopped me from falling, a strange feeling passed through me. It came and went in an instant but it was a single question that popped back into my head when I saw him trying to steal my purse. A question I didn’t want to ask, let alone answer.
What if he bent you over this table and fucked you right here?
I don’t want to think about that question. I don’t even want to ask it. Came into my head unwarranted and undesired.
It comes back to me as I climb out of the shower. I blow the question away with my hair dryer.
Maisie’s already heading out the door by the time I’m dressed. I tell her I’ll call her during my break. She yells back that I’ll get some cock soon. Don’t need to come on to her all morning.
I walk to work. It doesn’t take long and it’s a nice stroll. I have to wear a uniform but it’s not too bad in weather like this. Blue jeans, a red t-shirt with Zeke’s Garden Center emblazoned across the chest. Never gets seen though as there’s a red apron over the top with my name badge on next to another pin that says, “Ask me about our half-price pots.”
I take a left along Sunset because I like seeing the blossom now it’s coming out on the cherry trees. The morning breeze is sending petals cascading onto the sidewalk. Not for the first time, I’m glad fate brought me here even if it was under the worst possible circumstances.
Some days, like today, I can almost forget why I ended up in Shallow Falls. I can imagine I was born here, not that I was found stumbling out of the woods behind the town by Maisie’s father when he was driving past on route nine.
I have no memory of that time. I was only two when he nearly ran me down. I was sobbing, covered in mud, wearing bunny leggings and a rainbow cardigan that was ripped and torn. I was cold and I was missing the shoe on my left foot.
He brought me back into town and took me to the doctor’s office though I have no memory of that.
My earliest memory is way later. It’s me and Maisie playing in her backyard. I’m on my back, looking up at the clouds blowing by, the drone of bees loud in my ear. I turn my head and Maisie is pointing a water pistol at me. I burst into floods of tears and I don’t even know why. She comforts me and I’m mumbling an apology but I still don’t know why I got so upset, even now, all these years later. That was when the night terrors began.
As I pass underneath the cherry trees, blossom lands in my hair and I imagine myself as a Disney princess. Only for a moment though. The reality is I’m an orphaned twenty-two year old garden center employee who can’t afford a car. I’m not exactly princess material.
I take a right onto Maple and then I’m heading away from the houses and into the open. Zeke’s garden center’s the last building before you reach the baseball pitch.
Zeke’s running the hose along the bedding plants in the parking lot when I get to work. He gives me a wave and I wave back. “Pet supplies first,” he calls out.
