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Rhubarb Crunch
Written 4-27-02
When a drunk man collapses at her feet in front of Wal-Mart and Kelly helps him out she has no clue that this man is a member of a famous band, and that this meeting will change the course of her life.
Kelly paused a minute in front of the meat display eyeing the roasts and then the prices. They would have to stick with hotdogs. Signing she turned away. She shouldn’t even tempt herself. There just wasn’t enough money, no matter how much she stretched it; it didn’t even cover the essentials. There would be no splurging. She waited in front of the dairy display to get her half-gallon of milk. The store was awfully crowded for midnight even thought it was a Friday night. Must be because of the county fair, she decided as she tried to steer her wobbly cart down the cereal isle. Linden was sleeping peacefully inside the buggy curled up on his jacket sucking his thumb. She caressed him with her eyes. Someday she would feed him the finest cut roast and take him on every ride at the fair. Someday. Not today. She paid for her groceries and went outside.
Come on honey.” She whispered as she lifted Linden to his booster seat. “Mommy’s gonna have you home soon.” She hated these nights when she had to keep him out late just to get her shopping done, but she thanked God for 24 hour Wal-mart. As Kelly turned back to her buggy she saw a tall man approaching her. She ignored him and grabbed some bags to put beside Linden on the backseat.
“Kin I kepyou?” He was obviously drunk.
“No!” She said a little loudly so he could hear, thankful she had remembered to park under a light.
“Lemme hep.” He reached for the cart and she quickly snatched her remaining groceries.
“Thanks, I’m done now.” But he wouldn’t leave. “You can take the cart inside.” He reached for it again and as he did so she watched a strange expression of pain cross his face, and then he crumpled to the ground.
“Oh dear God!” She jumped back scared, and then hurried to kneel by him, afraid that he had hurt himself.
“She rolled him over partway. A little blood trickled down his face from a small cut above his eyebrow. He must have grazed his forehead on the cart when he went down. She glanced around the parking lot, full of cars but empty of people. “I guess it’s partly my fault.” She decided struggling to lift him into the car. “Wake up sleeping beauty. We’re gonna take you home and make sure you get some ice on that bruise and a good nights sleep.” He moaned and seemed to wake up enough to get himself into the passengers seat. “Getting drunk never helps anything.” She told him as she pulled out of the driveway. “It always just makes things worse.” She glanced back at Linden, “but sometimes God can turn it around and send a blessing through the curse.”
Kelly patted the cushions on the sofa back into shape. She had tossed and turned all night unable to sleep on the lumps and the thought of the stranger that she had brought into her home. She had brought dangers into her house, danger near her son. What had she been thinking? Well, it did seem like a good idea at the time, the only solution to the problem really. She couldn’t have let him lay there! And, she did feel a strange sort of peace about it all, after a fashion. Still it was probably the stupidest thing she had ever done in her life. No, the second stupidest thing.
The night had passed safely and it was almost noon. Linden was outside and she was waiting for her mysterious guest to wake up. Restlessly she walked a few steps to her kitchen and began preparing lunch. Her apartment was small, just three rooms and a bath over a garage, but she was happy with it. OF course it wasn’t fancy, but it was warm and safe and that meant a lot to her. The first room you walked into was the long living room and kitchen. Her furniture was dilapidated, but clean and she loved the two large windows overlooking the backyard and the neighbor’s sandbox where Linden was playing. The second room had actually been a walk in closet until she decided that Linden needed a room of his own, and the third room was her bedroom and as she glassed at the door she saw the knob turn. She quickly faced the counter, then braced herself and raised her head trying to look like she was in control.
“’morning.” He said running his hand through his curly sandy blonde hair.
“Noon.” She said not moving her eyes from him.
“Oh. Ah? Do you mind telling me where I am?”
“Elise, Kansas.”
“I know that, but,” He gestured around the room. “This is your apartment, maybe I should ask how I got here?”
“You were drunk. You don’t remember anything?”
“No.” He shook his head, then a look of understanding crossed his face and he glanced back at the bedroom. “Did we…?”
“No!” She said, her cheeks growing slightly red. “You ran into me at Wal-Mart and kind of collapsed at my feet.”
“Oh.” He rubbed his head and winced.
“I couldn’t really leave you there.”
“Thanks.” He said. “You went above and beyond the call of duty.”
“You’re welcome.”
“Ah.” He looked her a little nervously. “You can put the knife down now. I am not going to hurt you.”
She looked at her white knuckles and saw that she was clutching a large kitchen knife. “Oh! I’m sorry.” She dropped it into the sink. “I was cutting rhubarb.”
He smiled and tried to laugh, but he face was twisting in pain and he groped for the wall.
“What’s wrong?” She went to him and helped him to a chair.
“My head.” He took in a deep breath. “I’m sorry. It just…”
“It’s okay.” She said. “You got a good sized bruise and mixing that with a hangover...” she paused to get a bag out of the freezer. “I am glad that I am not in your shoes.” She handed them to him.
“Lima beans?” He asked.
“Yes.” She said showing him how to wrap the pack in a dishtowel and holding it to his head. “I used all my ice on you last night.”
“Oh.” He took the beans and looking up at her asked. “What’s your name?”
“Kelly. What’s yours?”
“Jake.”
“Do you like Rhubarb, Jake?”
“Yeah. But you don’t have to feed me. I’ve caused enough trouble already.”
“No. You’re staying for lunch.” She told him, though she couldn’t explain why. “It was my cart that you hit your head on.”
“Oh.”
The door burst open. “Mommy, I’m hungry.”
“Hey honey. Lunch is almost ready. Come here and you can set the table.”
Linden dropped his hat by the door and Kelly stopped him just short of the clean cups on the counter. “Better wash your hands first! You’ve got sand all over!”
“’kay.” He said watching Jake.
“Shoe!” Kelly brushed his hair back. “Wash your hands first and then you can talk.”
“He’s really a cute kid.” Jake said as he watched the little boy with the tousled brown hair disappear into the bathroom.
“Yeah.” Kelly said. “He’s a good kid, too.”
“He’s yours?” Jake asked, though he didn’t doubt the answer.
“Yup.”
“How old?”
“Three and a half.”
“Cute kid.” He smiled at her as she lifted her rhubarb crunch from the oven.
Lunch was finished and Kelly was washing the dished while Jake dried what she gave him at his place at the table. He was still feeling a bit dizzy when he tried to stand. “Did I have anything with me last night?” He asked. “Like my cell phone?”
“No, I didn’t see anything.”
“Oh.” He frowned. “I really should call Randy and let him know where I am.”
“Yeah.” She said. “Will there be people worried about you?”
“Maybe not worried, but ready to kill me when I get back late.” He chuckled quietly.
“Ya know.” Kelly turned to look at Jake. “I should check the car. I left some of my groceries out, had enough to carry getting Linden and you both inside. Maybe you dropped your phone somewhere.”
She came back a few minutes later with a grocery sack in one hand and his Nokia in the other.
“Great! Thanks!” He grinned. “Let me help you put that away.”
“No. No. You make yourself comfortable on the couch and call whoever you have to. I can take care of this.”
She was rummaging in the cupboards but she still heard his conversation. “Yeah, yeah. I know we have to leave by three. Yes! Look! I’m sorry. Can ya come get me? Okay, hang on.” He cupped a hand over his phone. “Kelly what’s the address here?” She told him and went back to her work. “Yeah Randy. Just bring my duffel bag. Thanks.”
“He’ll be here in about twenty minutes and there we’re heading home.” Jake announced to her and she just nodded while he stood nervously against the doorframe to the stairs leading outside.
“Where is home?” She asked. “You aren’t from around here?”
“No. I’m from Oklahoma, but I live in Tennessee now.”
“Oh.”
“Sorry. I really should have explained myself.”
“It’s okay.” She went back to scrubbing the table.
Minutes passed and she head a car pull into the driveway. “Sounds like he’s here.”
“Yeah.” They heard a knock on the downstairs door.
“Come on up.” Kelly called.
“Hey Randy!” Jake greeted the man who appeared at the top of the stairs.
“Hey man. Here’s your bag, get changed and let’s go!”
Jake turned to Kelly. “Do you mind if I use the bedroom?”
“That’s fine. Go right ahead.”
“Thanks.”
And if a few minutes he was gone.
Kelly lay in bed that night flipping through an old magazine when she spotting something out of place on her dresser. She sat up. HE must have forgotten a CD when he was changing. Reaching for it she read the title “Naïveté” and there, on the cover, along with too other men, was Jake.
God did have a sense of humor didn’t he?
