1
Danny’s flight didn’t come in. A big blow up over the Great Lakes shut down Chicago
“You understand my son is ten?” she asked the customer service agent.
“Yes ma’am. I understand the situation. There is very little I can do here, except to call the agents in Chicago
“Then call the agents!” Sam threw her hands out above her head.
“Ma’am, I am doing it. I need you to calm down.” Linda tried to reassure.
“Listen, LINDA. My ten year old could be wandering around a huge fucking airport. I’d appreciate if you could find him!” Sam screamed, making the man behind her shift uncomfortably in the growing queue.
“Ma’am. I understand the situation. But if you don’t calm down I’m going to have to ask the police to escort you outside.” she glanced at an officer standing near the entranceway who had already taken a keen interest in the hubbub.
Stepping away from the counter, Sam shut her eyes and took a deep breath. She tried to slow her heartbeat and gain some control over the rising tide of anger sitting in her chest. Linda picked up the phone and promptly called asked the operator to be connected to a Chicago
Sam knew that Linda was an innocent bystander in this situation. Zach. Zach always changed the game. She pulled out her cell phone and dialed his number. It rang. Once. Twice. Third time’s the charm. One more for good measure before his egomaniacal greeting broke her anger egg open to reveal its molten core.
Hi. You’ve reached Zachary Aschloch. I’m currently unavailable, but if you leave…
She hung up before the prerecording could finish. Even though Zach rarely turned his phone off, Sam surmised he enjoyed taking every measure he could to torture her. He knew she’d be stewing, especially after keeping Daniel two days over the limit of their custody agreement. That’s Zach for you, she thought always pushing boundaries.
“Hi this is Linda Burdon in Burlington Chicago
Sam expected Linda to forget Daniel’s name and opened her mouth to remind. Linda continued with the information without missing a beat. She relayed every concern, nodded her head, and looked up at Sam as she waited.
“Just a minute,” Linda raised her finger before Sam could open her mouth again.
“Thank you so much. I actually do appreciate your help,” Her effort to sound sincere didn’t take and Linda rolled her eyes.
Linda nodded, raised her eyebrows, and tapped her finger on the computer screen at her desk as she waited.
“He’s there. Oh good. Yes, his mother is here and I think she’d like to talk to him…” Linda handed the phone to Sam who snatched it out of the woman’s hand.
“Danny! Baby! You okay?”
“Hi mom!” Daniel yelled into the phone with the happiness only a child stranded in an airport could understand.
“Danny, you need to be careful sweatheart. Is somebody there with you?”
“Yeah. Hey mom, guess what. He’s got a tattoo just like daddy! Isn’t that cool? A little bunny his arm,” she could imagine his beaming smile and felt a little better.
“I want you to stay with the nice man, okay? Do not leave his sight,” she commanded.
“Fine,” he answered. Sam pictured his eyes rolling at her request. It reminded her of Zach.
“Did you have a good time?” her voice shook as the color red slowly clouded her judgment.
“It was soooo much fun mom! Daddy took me to the wild animal park. I got to see a giraffe, like, right up close. He also got me an iPhone. Now I can talk to him whenever I want,” Danny gloated. Sam couldn’t help but see Zach’s guiding hand behind every word. She refused Danny’s earlier pleas for a phone, mostly because she didn’t see the need in a ten year old having a cell phone. All Zach needed was for Danny to say mommy didn’t want it, and he would oblige.
“Baby. Just stay with the guy in the airport. Give mommy a call when they put you on another plane. Okay?”
“Yeah mom. Love you, bye!” Danny yelled as an announcement in Chicago
“No! Wait!” Sam tried, but Danny already hung up the phone. She looked at the receiver for a moment before she handed it back to Linda.
“Thanks,” she said, feeling the weight of waiting already sinking in.
“No problem. Let me guess, ex-husband?” Linda raised an eyebrow.
“Yep,” Sam nodded, managing a meager and ugly smile.
“Bastards. Don’t you worry, honey. He’ll get what’s coming,” Linda spoke as much to herself as she did to Sam.
“Not soon enough,” Sam resigned. She gave Linda a polite and thankful smile before grabbing her handbag and leaving. A bitter Vermont storm greeted her outside the terminal of Burlington Lake Champlain , and the two fought a fierce battle for control of the skies.
Sam raised the hood on her winter jacket, moved loose hair behind hits shield, and sighed. The covered crosswalk to the parking garage across the street did nothing to abate the sideways weather. She darted in front of a taxi speeding up to the loading and unloading zone. The taxi driver honked, smiled and waved.
Fucking polite Vermonters, she nearly grumbled out loud. Two years she had been living in Vermont San Francisco
The courtship out here goes sooner than you might think, Doug’s voice echoed in her head. Doug considered himself a Vermonter after fifteen years. Sam prayed her own acceptance would not take as long.
“He’s gonna love this one,” Sam referenced her friend out loud as the rain continued to pelt the side of her jacket. It poured even harder when she drove out of the garage, turned onto Route 2, and headed into the heart of Burlington
2
Doug Jeffries sat at his square kitchen table and set a hot cup of tea next to his lottery ticket. He stared at the glossy piece of paper and shook his head. After years envisioning a nice home in the Oregon Vermont
The last restoration of the house took place in 1988, seven years before he moved in. He’d painted the interior once. Doug covered the walls in a brick house red with a honey mustard trim. For his floors, he chose a darker stain and hadn’t the ambition to change it again. His kitchen, though, looked exactly as it did the day they finished the restoration. Everything covered in white with two windows; one facing west and the other looking south gave him perfect light year round and practically making the kitchen glow. On rainy days in the winter, however, the room gave a pale glow that made Doug sick.
He continued to stare at the ticket and wondered why he spent the ten dollars in the first place. Luck did not factor in for he had very little. I’m bored, he answered himself. Boredom crept into his life everyday from the moment he opened his eyes. Hobbies were few and far between at this time in his life. A long time ago, going on 40 years, he drew pictures like a mad artist. From the age of five to twenty, Doug drew pictures that tantalized the eye and the imagination. Sometimes, they were lifelike and heartbreaking. Other times they were abstract and hilarious. But college closed that door in his life. College taught him a different art: the art of sacrifice.
Maybe that’s why Carol and I didn’t make it.
He hated remembering his ex-wife. They only lasted five years, but managed two children in that time. The lottery ticket stared back at him with five sets of numbers, each set ending with the letters EP. His ambition notwithstanding, Doug liked the computer’s odds better than his own. He leaned forward and peeked into the darkening living room where his accolades hung like martyrs. A Bachelor of Science in Anthropology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, a Masters and Doctorate in the same field from the University of Oregon, and a number of public and private awards for work contributing to the archaeology and anthropology of the Southern Oregon and Northern California Native American Nations and other unrecognized tribes. He’d put them up when he first moved back East, but now they gave him little, if any comfort.
Another framed document caught his eye. He took a sip from his tea and walked to it. With so little light, he couldn’t read the paper underneath the dusty glass. However, the headline of the news print stood out black against the grey shadows creeping into the room. One Injured, Two Dead in Drunk Driving Massacre. Doug pulled the frame off the wall and sat back at the kitchen table. His eyes scanned the article, even though he knew the words by heart.
He glanced back at the spot where he took it down and laughed. Every other framed piece he hung in that room protected the red wall’s original shade creating a dark patchwork of rectangles. The spot where this particular frame hung matched the rest of the wall. Doug read the article one more time, focusing on the words that meant the most to him. Charles Waters…ejected from the vehicle…not wearing a seat belt…Doug Jeffries...seriously injured…sober…Devon Maker…blood alcohol of .19…Merlin, Oregon
The clock chimed as the sixth hour of the evening slowly slipped into the seventh. Light continued to fade from the dark gray sky, but Doug could still read the numbers on his ticket without turning on a light. He looked to the eastern wall of his kitchen but heard little noise from the apartment on the other side.
Sam should have been back with Danny by now
He got up and shoved his chair hard under the table. Putting his ear against the wall, he again heard only the sound of his own heartbeat and the ticking grandfather clock in his living room. Doug knocked his hand against the wall. No reply came. Sam would be upset when she returned. She would be upset not only because that dick of an ex-husband had kept Danny two days later, but because Danny’s flight had either been delayed or cancelled. Undoubtedly, he could expect a knock on his door and find her a mess. His tea would be ready for her and they would talk, even if Danny was with her.
The thought of Sam returning made him smile. His attraction to her struck him oddly at times. He did not see her in the way most men his age would probably see a younger single mother. She perked his interest, kept him awake, and intrigued his sense of compassion. With her, Doug remembered the person he desperately wanted to be, not the depressed retiree wasting his money and his luck on lottery tickets that never won.
Snatching up the lottery ticket, he jammed the piece of paper into his pocket and shuffled into the living room. His hip locked for a moment and he stood still. Pain rocketed up his back and he held his breath to try and steady his mind. As the nerves slowly relaxed, Doug shook his head and shuffled through the living room into his small hallway. He turned left into his bathroom and grabbed four Aleve from the medicine cabinet.
Doug swallowed the blue pills dry. He tried to think of the first time he bought a Powerball ticket but couldn’t recollect. The softly falling rain echoed in the bathroom, nearly lulling him to sleep. His hip finally relaxed and he moved back into the living room. While he sat, his hand fished in his pocket for the ticket. Just rubbing the numbers felt better than sitting and thinking. A gust of wind rose up and shimmied the side of the house. The wind fell, and the world grew quieter as the storm continued east through the Champlain Valley
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