Page 46 of Sublimate
“That was what I wanted to do with my garden,” Cadence said wistfully. “I wanted to be the neighborhood veggie lady and share the bounty with everyone. The bounty turned out to be one little tomato that never got red and when I cut it open, there was a worm inside.”
“Maybe next summer,” I suggested. “As they say in French, ‘J'espère.’ I think they say that.” Nolan was teaching me lots of good stuff.
“I can’t believe how fast you’re picking that up,” she admired. “Language class was hell for me. Or as they say in Spanish, ‘La cuenta, por favor.’” We both jumped when her phone sounded off like a siren. “No, that wasn’t my mother. It’s just a reminder for me to put out the garbage,” she said after she checked.
“I’ll help you.”
“That’s ok, I don’t have to do it until the day after tomorrow. One time I did forget, so Mom is worried that it will happen again. I set a lot of alarms to help me remember but…” She paused and her eyebrows drew down. “You know, that happened six years ago and I haven’t forgotten it again since. She still brings it up, though.”
“Six years? She’s been mad for six years? My mom always forgave my sister right away for everything that she did. She even laughed it off when Patchouli burned down our apartment building.”
“On purpose?”
I shrugged. No one had been able to prove that. “She was old enough to know that she shouldn’t have held a lighter near a pile of greasy rags, but she had always liked to play with fire. Literally.”
Cadence frowned and started to pull on a curl. “I’m pretty old, myself. I’m a lot older than you.”
In terms of years, that was true. In terms of experience, I felt like I was a hundred.
“On my next birthday, I’ll turn twenty-nine,” she continued. “That’s almost thirty. It’s hard to believe, isn’t it? Time goes by so quickly.”
That was true. The months I had spent at Nolan’s house had been like a kind of beautiful dream that sped past. I could have imagined myself staying there forever, although I was aware that I really would have to move on. Now that I was getting all this paperwork settled, I could do it…but I didn’t want to think about leaving.
“Before you realize it, you’re getting old. Did you have plans?” she asked me. “Was there anything that you really wanted to do with your future?”
“For most of my life, I’ve been in survival mode,” I answered. “Like, I just had to get to the next meal, the next tank of gas, stuff like that. I never looked too far into the future because I was so scared of it.”
“Bears and a burial at a crossroads,” she noted, nodding, and I nodded back. “I had plans for myself.”
“You said that you drew your engagement ring,” I remembered.
“I guess it was all silly stuff,” Cadence agreed. “Just pipe dreams, like my idea of going through my neighborhood with a basket of tomatoes to pass out.”
“That sounds like a nice thing,” I told her. “I would have been very pleased to see you on my doorstep with your tomatoes. I really think you can grow them next summer.”
“Maybe.” She looked around the dark room and sighed. “I wish that I could get my baby portrait business off the ground, too.” We were alone in the house, but she dropped her voice to a whisper. “I didn’t tell my mom about that. I keep all my supplies in my room and she can’t go up there because of her weak ankles and problem toenails.”
“Maybe Nolan’s cousin could help you, since he’s so business-smart,” I offered. “If he’s willing to talk to Beau then you could also ask him questions.” I wished that he could have helped me, too, but I was starting to think that there was something supernaturally wrong with my cleaning business, like a hex on it. I had just lost yet another house and two people had told me that they didn’t want me to do their laundry anymore. Now my spreadsheet of clients had gotten so empty that there wasn’t much point in having it.
“I do need help. Let’s go to your house,” she said, nodding. “You can drive us there! Well, actually…”
“That’s ok.” We had decided that it was a bad idea to take my illegal car to the official driving test, so we’d gone in hers. Then I had driven us here to her house but she had almost fainted from fear, even though I was now licensed. “I’d be happier if you were behind the wheel.”
Unfortunately, the only car we saw in Nolan’s driveway was the one that I recognized as Beau Gowan’s, so the smarty cousin wasalready gone. But Cadence was excited to hear about Beau’s new business and so was I. They looked up when we came into the dining room and Nolan smiled.
“Hello, legal driver,” he said to me. “Why didn’t you tell me that you were doing that today?”
I had texted him with the good news after the test but yeah, I had been vague about my plans when I had left the house in the morning. “I wasn’t sure that I could do it,” I said. “I didn’t want you to be disappointed.”
“Me? In you?” he asked. His one eyebrow went way, way up.
“It’s easy to fail those tests,” Beau mentioned. “I had to take mine seven times before I finally passed it.”
“You’re a very good driver now,” Cadence told him. “When you left here after visiting last summer, I was behind you for several miles. I was really impressed by how you came to a complete stop and how well you checked your mirrors.”
“Thank you,” he said solemnly. “Now that I have my son, I don’t take any chances.”
“Do you have new pictures?” she asked eagerly and took the chair next to his. Soon, they were both admiring his cameral roll.
