The next morning Dad calls to let me
know he just ran into Mandy at the store. She’s spending the weekend packing up
Micky’s house. She told him that her and Nathan are turning the room above
their garage into a bedroom for her. It’s a pretty amazing thing to do, but her
and Nathan are pretty amazing people, so it does’t surprise me. Not even the
slightest. Dad also mentioned that Mandy’s having a hard time finding a rental
truck that’s not stick. Apparently she can’t drive stick. I can. I don’t even
think twice about helping out.
I call Dylan to see if he wants to
trade cars for the day. His truck will be more useful than mine. I don’t know
how much stuff Mandy plans on bringing over but his truck alone might be
enough.
“Hey, man,” he greets, when the call
connects.
“Hey. So I kind of have a favor to
ask.”
“Shoot. What is it?”
“I need to borrow your truck. You
feel like trading for the day?”
“What for? I mean, it’s no problem.
Just curious why.”
“I’m going to help Mandy move some
of Micky’s stuff from her house over to Jake’s.”
It’s quiet for a beat. I guess he’s
taking in what I just said.
“Hang on,” he says. Then I think he
covers the phone with his hand because I can hear the muffled sound of people
talking. “You there?”
“Yeah.”
“Dude, we’ll all help out.”
“All?”
“Yeah, Cam, Lucy, Heidi and me.” The
line’s silent for a moment, while I think about what he’s saying. It’s cool
that they’re willing to give up their time to help out. I mean, it’s not a big
deal for me. I have nothing better to do. “Logan,” Cam starts. “Uh, it’s
not—we’re just having breakfast together. I mean, it’s Heidi and Lucy’s thing.
We’d invite you, but I didn’t think you’d—”
“Dude, it’s fine.” He must have
mistaken my silence for something else.
“It’s just that, they like to have
these double dates and—”
“Seriously, I don’t care.” I
really don’t. “So meet me over at the field. I’ll call Mandy now and get the
address. How long do you need?”
“We’re done here. We’ll be there in
15.”
We hang up and I call Mandy. She
yelps excitedly when I tell her that we’re coming to help. Something about
taking on way too much on her own. Whatever. I’m just glad we can help Micky
somehow.
***
Micky’s house is a good half hour
drive away. She lives further out of town than anyone I know. You can see the
damage the fire has made from the outside. The garage is completely gone and
the part of the house that’s attached to it is half missing. We pull up in 3
different cars. When we get in, Mandy practically pounces on all of us. She
starts to give out orders and we comply. She came here last night and took
picture’s of Micky’s room. She wants to replicate it over at her house. She’s
already gone through the house and packed anything valuable or personal. She
was leaving Micky’s room to last. The girls go there and start packing the
smaller stuff. They empty her dresser and closet and move to the bathroom to do
the same. Cam and Dylan are looking at the bed, seeing how to pull it apart to
fit on Dylan’s truck. I stand over her dresser and look at her things. She has
picture frames with her best friend and James all over the place. Pictures of
her and her family, too. A few with just her and her sister. Emily, I think her
name is. She has girly stuff all over the place, perfumes, dried flowers, a
bunch of those note cards with writing on them. I don’t read them.
She has a necklace hanging around
one of the frames, a picture of her and James in it. They’re facing each other.
He has his arm around her waist, she’s leaning back slightly, looking up at
him. Huge smiles on both their faces. In the background you can make out a
banner hanging up; “Happy 18th Kayla”. Under the banner you can just
make out her best friend. Megan, I think. She’s looking right at them with a
scowl on her face. Huh.
I finger the necklace and it falls
off the frame. I pick it up and look at it. It’s got a heart pendant with a
huge diamond in the middle.
We’re only there for a couple hours before
everything is packed. Heidi and Dylan go with Mandy to the hardware store to
pick up paint supplies and rope to tie down the furniture on the back of the
truck. Cam and Lucy hang back with me to do a final check of the house.
I open the door opposite Micky’s
room, and it must be Emily’s, because it screams prepubescent girl. Everything
is purple. It’s basically a shrine to Justin Bieber. It make me chuckle a
little.
I take a few steps in and spin in a
slow circle, taking a look around. When I’m half way around, I swear, I almost
shit myself. I hold my hand to my heart, to settle it down. A frickin full size
Justin Bieber cardboard cut out is staring right at me. I move a little to the left, but his eyes
follow. I move to the right, same thing. It’s freaking me the fuck out.
I calm myself down, then keep
looking around the room. She has one of those cork boards with pictures all
over it. I walk to stand in front of it and check it out. They’re pictures of
her and her family. All of them laughing, and smiling with her. She has some of
when she was a baby, then some older, up to now. She’s smiling in every one. I
pull of what I think might be the latest one of her and hold it in my hands.
Then I lean against the wall and slide down it, sitting with my back against
it.
I’m staring at the picture when Lucy
walks in, “Logan?” She sees my sitting on the floor, then takes in the room.
“Jesus Christ,” she breaths out. “It’s like Barney vomited in here.”
I chuckle. “Think she liked Justin
Bieber?”
She laughs and takes a seat next to
me. She nudges me with her elbow. “What you got there?” She nods towards the
picture in my hand. I hand it to her. She stares at it for a long moment,
before handing it back. Then she looks at me, straight at me. We sit there looking at each other for
who know how long. Then slowly, her eyes fill with tears, and a single one
drops. My hand automatically comes to wipe it away. “Luce?”
“It’s just so sad, you know? I mean,
it doesn’t matter who this happens to. We barely know Micky and we feel this. Can you imagine . . . I mean,
I hate to say this, or even think it, but could you imagine if it happened to
one of us. It could have. It could have happened to any of us.” She
takes a deep breath, and tries to continue through the lump in her throat.
“What if something happens to my dad, Logan. Then it would just be me and all
six of my fricken brothers. What would—” She breaks down in a sob and I put my
arm around her. I kiss the top of her head.
“Lucy, nothing is going to happen,
and if it does, you have all of us. We would all be there for you.” She begins
to cry even harder, causing her breath to catch every few seconds. “Hey,” I
coo. I bring her into me and hold on to her tighter. “Nothing is going to
happen, I pro—”
I get interrupted by Cam clearing
his throat. I look up at him, standing in the doorway, arms crossed over his
chest. He glares at me, eyes narrowed. “Plus,” I look back to Lucy, “You have
one thing that Micky doesn’t.”
She looks back at me, blinking away
her tears. I pull myself away from her and stand up. She watches me. “You have
Cam.”
I start to leave the room and Cam
nods his head in understanding, before brushing past me and taking a seat next
to Lucy on the floor.
“Hey, baby. . . .” I hear him say,
before I make my way down the stairs and out to my car.
***
We spend all of saturday and most of
sunday morning at Jake’s house. The girls have painted and decorated and it
looks exactly the same as her room back at her house. Mandy is an amazing
woman. If I had a mom, I’d want it to be her. Plus, she’s kind of hot . . . for
a mom. Just saying.
***
Jake: Thank you! You have no idea
how happy Kayla is right now.
Logan: All good.
