Inevitable, page 3
“Ah yes, St. James Place. Nowhere else but here will you find jack-o-lanters in December, Christmas lights in March, and Easter eggs in August,” she explained.
Chuckling, Nathan reached for the dice again. They spilled from his hand onto the table, bouncing around. One kicked off the board and landed on the other as they came to rest. Nathan and Cammie stared at the dice, speechless.
“That’s completely ridiculous,” Nathan gawked.
Something weird was going on, and they’d never be able to figure out what it was. But that was the fun of it for me, giving them something altogether mysterious and wonderful to distract them from their ails.
“Roll the dice again,” Cammie squeaked, somewhere between terror and disbelief. Hesitantly, Nathan reached out his trembling fingers and plucked the dice from the board. He held one in each hand, finally closing his eyes as he chucked them both. They skittered against the Chance cards, one hopping on top of them only to roll onto the other dice.
“Unbelievable!” Cammie stammered, getting to her feet and holding her hands to her chest.
Nathan opened his eyes and stared in disbelief. He grabbed the dice again, this time snapping his arm as hard as he could and throwing the dice against the wall on the opposite side of the room. One dice went low under a chair and the other sailed high above it.
The one that went high dropped onto the top of the chair, rolled down, and then trickled over the seat just in time to land on the other dice that was bouncing back from underneath.
Flushed and bewildered, Nathan gripped his hair, which got messier by the second. He was laughing, finally falling back in his chair.
“This is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen!” Cammie rushed to the other side of the room and picked up the dice. She turned her hand over, dropping them to the ground. The dice flew in opposite directions, stopping on a two and a four several feet apart.
“I guess you have the magic touch,” she marveled, hopping over and sitting on the opposite end of the couch.
“You don’t think, do you?” Nathan wondered, scrunching up his face.
“Think what?”
“That this is somehow Mom doing this with the dice. It couldn’t be, right?”
But Cammie couldn’t come up with a better explanation. Something incredible and profoundly strange had happened, and they leapt at the first thing they could think of, even though they couldn’t have been more wrong.
Sure, it could’ve been interesting for me to pretend to be the ghost of their mother, but I knew that would only prolong his grief.
No, for all the tragedies that awaited him, I would have to do more than just dazzle him with simple tricks if I was going to reclaim Nathan’s life.
Chapter 3
In the days that followed, Nathan tried to get control of his family’s financial situation, and if it weren’t for Cammie he never would’ve managed.
Miriam had left them what little savings she had, but most of that would have to cover the funeral expenses. Combining the rest with Gladys’s social security payments, they would be able to stave off a relentless stack of monthly bills for a month or two. Mortgage payments, electricity, gas, garbage, groceries, phone, he’d never realized that all of these things they needed cost so much money.
“I could get a paper route,” Cammie suggested, but they both knew that wouldn’t make much of a dent. Only one solution would keep them afloat, finding a full-time job. If Nathan didn’t get one soon, they’d lose everything they had left.
Nathan had as much trouble conducting a job search as he did managing his family’s finances. He was a man who was good with his hands, tough and capable of putting in a hard day’s work without the least complaint. It was easy for him to see how things fit together if he could see them in front of him and touch them, but somehow the numbers and the details of bank statements and interest payments always managed to get lost in his head.
Cammie helped him write a resume and find suitable job postings online and in the papers. There weren’t many, but there were enough to make them feel like they had a good shot at getting something quickly. All they had to do was wait.
But days continued to pass and nothing materialized. The construction and carpentry positions had too much competition, and Nathan got lost within a towering pile of resumes.
He started to lose touch with his friends who were at college. They had parties to go to, girls to flirt with, and even homework on occasion. Nathan still had a couple friends in high school, but it only took going to one of their parties to realize he was horribly out of place.
He was stranded somewhere between high school and college, and it was even taking a toll on his relationship with Sasha. Their colleges hadn’t even been a half hour apart and they had managed fine, but now a two-hour drive might as well have been an ocean. She became distant on the phone, distracted, never able to get a sense of what he needed.
A big break came when Nathan was shopping at the grocery store. It was strange to be buying vegetables and comparing prices when those were things his mother had always done. Now he had to do them, but half the time he wandered around the store pushing a mostly empty shopping cart and trying to avoid making eye contact with the other shoppers.
But then a few magic words snapped him out of his daze.
“We just cannot find anybody to fill that position.”
Jerking his head around, Nathan found the source of those words, a black couple in their thirties or forties inspecting the produce. The man, who had a strong build and a mustache, wore a pair of coveralls. If Nathan had seen a suit he would’ve just walked away, but as it was…
“Excuse me, what did you just say?” Nathan asked.
The couple turned to face him, both a bit surprised, but the man didn’t hesitate to elaborate on his work situation.
“They got me doing double duty over at the cement factory because nobody wants to do the entry-level stuff. I love getting time and a half for overtime, don’t get me wrong, but there’s a big difference between the family I find at home at five-thirty compared to eight-thirty,” he explained, teasing his wife with a feigned fearful expression. She pursed her lips and rolled her eyes, grinning.
“You know, I’m dying to find a job and that sounds perfect for me. I don’t mind doing that kind of stuff at all,” Nathan nodded emphatically. Putting his hand over his mouth and mustache, the man inspected Nathan from head to toe.
“You look strong enough to handle it—”
“Yes, he does,” said his wife, raising an eyebrow.
“Leave the kid alone,” the man prodded. “As I was saying, if you’re up for it, you should swing by with your resume. It’s not heaven, I’ll tell you that, but it’s honest work and it pays the bills.”
“That’s exactly what I’m looking for,” Nathan agreed, kindling some optimism.
“Sounds like it could be your lucky day. I’m Willy,” he said, extending his hand. “What’s your name, kid?”
“I’m due for one. It’s Nathan.” They shook hands and nodded, parting ways. As they passed, Willy’s wife peeked into his cart.
“You’re gonna need a whole lot more than a bag of baby carrots and some ground beef,” she smirked.
Suddenly the world seemed so much brighter, and when he went home to tell Cammie and Gladys the news, they gave him a huge hug. It wasn’t a sure thing, of course, but even this was reason enough to be hopeful.
At eight o’clock Monday morning, Nathan pulled into the cement factory’s parking lot. Other workers, mostly men, were starting for the gravelly stretch of land leading toward a colossal rust-colored enclosure. It looked big enough to house a space shuttle.
Wearing his suit and carrying a thin folder containing his resume, Nathan asked some of the guys in blue coveralls who he should talk to about the job. They pointed him to one of the trailers off to the side.
Opening the door to the modest office building, he approached a secretary who busily clacked on a keyboard.
“Hi, sorry to disturb you. I heard there’s an entry-level position open and I’d like to apply.”
Just then a sharp-looking businesswoman crossed behind them, and the secretary leaned to the side to address her.
“Barb, this one here is looking for a position,” the secretary said.
Twisting his head slightly, he caught sight of Barb out of the corner of his eye. She looked like an older version of Sasha, a very confident sexiness in her carefully maintained hair and appearance. She seemed to let her eyes linger on the suit stretched tight over his chest.
“Yes, let’s talk about a position. Right this way.”
She let him into her small office, a desk and chair cramped between four white walls. The desk didn’t have any pictures on it. Barb settled into her chair, grabbed a pen, and gestured for his resume.
“I primarily deal with production quotas, and Vince does personnel, but he’s in a meeting right now and won’t be available for a little bit. I can tell you we’re interested in filling this vacancy immediately,” she said, her sight bouncing back and forth between him and his resume. “And everything in here seems fine as long as you don’t have any medical issues that would get in the way of shoveling, lifting, or using a forklift. Let me just ask you one question. What size coveralls do you take?”
She leaned closer, elbows on the desk, one leg over the other. If her looks hadn’t been distracting him, he might’ve wondered why they were so desperate to find someone to fill this job. But as it was he could only see what was right in front of him, an interested brunette in a business suit who looked at him with barely-concealed desire.
“Large,” he answered, while she formed a greedy smile and nodded.
He spent an hour in a waiting room until Vince, the personnel director could meet with him. He led Nathan into a small conference room, had a short discussion, and soon handed Nathan an employment contract. There weren’t that many pages to it, but it all seemed so complicated.
“There are just a few places you need to sign. Right next to the green labels,” Vince prodded. He was a gruff man, moderately overweight, who had probably worked his way up from the very position Nathan was taking.
Nathan was trying to calculate how his monthly earnings would compare with his family’s monthly bills when he spotted a section of the contract called “Fatal Accident Insurance Coverage.” Alarmed, Nathan scanned it carefully.
“What’s this about?” he asked.
“You have to choose a beneficiary. It’s just in case anything catastrophic happens, standard part of a contract, sort of like an entry in a big lottery. We haven’t had anything close to an accident in years and years though,” Vince explained, making it seem like no big deal, and for the vast majority of workers, it wouldn’t be. But for Nathan it would make all the difference.
Nathan scratched his cheek and wrote “Cammie Wheeler” in the blank space.
Soon Vince was showing him around the factory. They watched cement trucks fill up and leave the loading docks as they walked around the side of the factory. Climbing a set of stairs, they met Willy on one of the platforms.
“Hey, looks like I got the job. What’s going on?” Nathan asked him, shaking hands again.
“Just trying to make it,” Willy nodded, making Nathan chuckle.
“Just trying to make it, huh?” Nathan smiled.
Together, the three of them followed the platform into the factory, where they beheld the complicated machinery combining, mixing, and storing cement. In the middle of it all, the huge silo towered over everything. Though they were above the factory floor, Nathan still had to crane his neck to view the top of it, which fit snuggly underneath a suspiciously rusty roof.
“Man, that thing is a monster, isn’t it?” he gasped.
*
There was a modest but enthusiastic celebration when Nathan confirmed that he’d gotten the job. They’d have to scrimp and save, but it seemed like they would just make it if everything went according to plan. Nathan even put in a couple hours of overtime during the first few days, enjoying the work and finally letting some of the stress that haunted him slip away.
But the realities of his workplace settled in before long. They were there to do a hard job, whether it was unloading supply trucks, checking the consistency of the cement, or creating specialized moldings.
Attempts to make friends with his coworkers during lunchtime proved fruitless. Often he’d just sit quietly amongst Willy and the rest of them as they told raunchy stories. On the other hand, he wasn’t sure he wanted the attention he was getting from Barb, though mercifully she could only ask him how he was adjusting so many times.
He had found a job, but a place where he still belonged eluded him. He had no choice but to put up with it and grind out the hours though. Still, his heart did a back flip when he found out Sasha was making a surprise visit to see him.
Rushing downstairs past his sister, he grabbed his jacket and headed for the door.
“Where are you going in such a hurry? Did you shave?” Cammie asked him, looking up from her textbook. She got up and went to the end of the room, watching him curiously.
“Just out to dinner. It’s no big deal,” Nathan replied, slipping one arm into the thin brown jacket.
“With whom?” Cammie pried, a scrutinizing look on her face.
“My girlfriend,” Nathan answered, and Cammie leapt and grabbed him by the arm.
“No, you can’t go! You should blow her off!”
Nathan, starting to get upset, brushed her away and shook his head at her. He had to go quickly to make sure he wouldn’t be late and didn’t have time to get into another argument about Sasha’s personal qualities.
“You need to relax, ok?” he said, a note of scolding in his voice. “We’re just going to have dinner.”
“No, you’re not. She came here to break up with you!” Cammie insisted, a serious grimace on her face. “Why else would she just randomly decide to show up?”
“She came here to surprise me. That’s what people in relationships do! I’m sure when you have a boyfriend you’ll start to understand that,” he snapped, slipping through the door and going for his car. In her bare feet, pajama pants, and tank top, Cammie leaned out to call after him.
“I don’t think you’re going to like this surprise, Nathan!” she warned.
Steamed over their argument, Nathan drove to the downtown restaurant where he’d agreed to meet Sasha. Mixed in with thoughts of what Sasha might be wearing and what he could do to make her visit special, he regretted fighting with his sister.
Nathan sat alone at a table for five minutes before Sasha arrived. He’d had plenty of time to glance at the pictures of Italy on the walls and read the entire menu twice, practicing his pronunciation of dishes like “Rigatoni Abruzzi” and “Scallop di Mare.”
His head jerked to the door every time it opened though, and when he finally saw Sasha’s arrestingly beautiful face a broad smile dawned on his. She pursed her lips and closed her eyes for a moment before she jerked down to kiss him.
In another stilted motion, she dropped into the seat across from him, and soon they were settling into the glow of each other’s company.
“We used to come here all the time,” Nathan smiled. “You remember?”
Sasha allowed a smile that didn’t show any of her teeth. She took a sip of water and then a deep breath.
“It wasn’t that often,” she corrected him as Nathan tried to hand her a menu. “But I’m not going to be ordering anything. In fact, I can’t really stay.”
Nathan blinked hard, his face becoming slack and his jaw hanging open just a bit.
“What? Why?” he gasped, suddenly extremely nervous about what was going on. Sasha wilted, bringing her dark eyes to her napkin, which she clutched in her hands. She hadn’t even taken off her sleek black jacket.
“I owe it to you to do this in person,” she whispered, finally mustering the gumption to look at him before she went on. “Things have changed since I went away to college. I’m going through midterms right now, which are just pounding me twenty-four seven—”
“Just get to the point,” Nathan urged, eliciting an icy glare from Sasha.
“Our relationship is over. That’s as straight to the point as I can get.”
The tension between them as hard as cement, Nathan glanced around, swaying as he came to grips with her resolution. The floor had disappeared beneath him, and he was falling into a sickening pool of disgust.
“So after a year of being together you’re just going to throw it all away? I thought I meant something to you. You’re making a big mistake.”
“Am I?” she shot back, becoming heated. “I know you’ve had it tough lately and I’m sorry to do this, but it had to happen. I’m studying to be a lawyer, and you’re a factory worker. Do those two things sound like they go together to you?” she argued.
“I’m not a factory worker. That’s not who I am,” he defended, feeling the sting of her accusation. She was trying to look down on him, and he wouldn’t allow it. All of those things he dreamed of being, they were still inside him. From her words, he concluded that she was just having trouble adjusting to his new life circumstances, and he would have to show her that he still had promise.
“This is just a temporary thing,” he explained. “Once I get everything straightened out here I’ll be able to get back to school. I’m starting to save some money. I’m reading when I can. I’m still going to be a great athletic trainer one day.”
Sighing, Sasha rolled her eyes. She looked tired of this conversation and wanted to find a way out. It was like she hit a deer with her car and was trying to put it out of its misery, but it just wouldn’t die.
“People say that all the time and it never works out. One year at the cement factory turns into two, and then two turns into ten. Face it. You are what you are. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, but it’s not something I can have in my life.”
