Early Thursday Afternoon, February 12th
Morelville, Ohio
As we drove south, away from the bar, Barb was silent. She sat, half turned in the passenger seat, looking back until The Boar’s Head slipped from view. Finally, she spun back around but she stared straight ahead, not really seeing, just lost inside her own thoughts.
“Mel will do everything in her power to get it back Barb; get it back today.”
She didn’t look at me as she responded, “If they leave anything for me to have back.”
We drove the rest of the way to Morelville in silence. When I reached the edge of the village, I asked, “Can you tell me where we’re going please?”
Barb pointed ahead. “Turn right at the next block.”
I did as she said.
“It’s the colonial half a mile down on the right.”
Just outside of the village limits, there were no more homes until we came to Barb’s colonial mini-mansion set a few acres back off the road. I tried to keep my surprise in check as I drove along the gravel track back to the house.
“You’re thinking it’s too big for just one person, aren’t you?”
“No,” I said. “I’m thinking it’s beautiful.”
“I shouldn’t have bought it. It’s too much to keep up for just me. Mom and dad are getting up there in years. I thought maybe they’d want to come here but they like the little condo they have in Zanesville.”
“Do you love it?”
Barb looked the house over. “I do,” she answered. “I do.”
“That’s all that matters then.”
Not knowing what to expect inside, I was surprised by the comfort that was evident even though the place was decorated simply with a mix of antiques and newer pieces designed for a modern country home.
“This is amazing Barb.”
“You like it?”
“Absolutely. I guess I expected a lot of antiques and you do have some but, I don’t know how to say it...I didn’t expect the soft leather couch and chairs and all the wood. It looks so warm and comfortable.”
“Dana’s mother did most of it. She’s quite talented.”
“Chloe did this?” I spun around looking at everything again.
Barb nodded. “She did Mel and Dana’s place and figured out she had a knack for it. I asked her to do mine.”
“Where are my manners,” she asked herself more than me. Can I get you something to drink?”
“No thank you. I’m fine.”
Barb moved toward a sofa facing the fireplace in the great room and sat down heavily. I took a seat in a soft leather armchair a few feet from her and waited for whatever was coming next.
“Can I ask you a question?” I said to her, when the silence became unsettling.
She tilted her head to look at me and nodded her consent.
“Were your parents what brought you back here?” I was certainly curious but, more than that, I wanted to get her mind off what was going on at her business.
She half smiled. “I grew up in Zanesville...couldn’t wait to get out of town. A couple years after high school, I left. I went to live with an aunt out on the west coast. It was a whole different world, a whole different way of life. I loved it out there and...that’s when I figured a few things out.”
I just nodded and let her talk.
There were probably twenty different jobs and almost as many women along the way when I met Lisa and settled down. I’d finally finished college taking classes here and there at night. I had a business degree but no idea what to do with it.
Lisa had a background in hospitality and restaurant management. She got a little bit of money from an inheritance when we’d been together about seven or eight months. We used it to buy our first bar; a ramshackle old gay bar in a gay ghetto that was being ‘gentrified’. We hung in there and sold it for what we thought then was a small fortune. We spent a little of it but reinvested most of the rest into another place.”
“Over the years, we just kept moving from place to place rehabbing bars. We sold most of them but kept a few others for income. Everything was good until Lisa got sick...”
Barb grew quiet. Her eyes became unfocused as she seemed lost in her thoughts. I felt bad about leading her down that track but I didn’t know how to pull back now that she was on it.
A sob escaped from her throat and her arm shook as she raised her hand to her face and covered her eyes.
I stood and moved to the sofa where I took a seat beside her. Gently, I placed an arm around her shoulders and pulled her to lean against me as she sobbed.
“I’m so sorry,” she choked out several long minutes later. “I think I’ve finally gotten a grip on it all and then it just comes back in a wave.”
“It’s okay Barb, really.”
“I came back here because I realized I’d already lost everything but my parents that meant anything to me. I just can’t bear to lose any more, you know? Them, this house and that bar are all I have left.” She looked at me intently.
My thoughts were a jumble as I nodded silently and then sucked in a deep breath. I knew I should get back to the scene and try and lend whatever help I could but I certainly didn’t want to leave Barb alone in her current state.
I took my arm from around her and started to put a little distance between us on the sofa but she put a hand on my leg and stopped me cold.
“Thank you,” she said simply, her eyes still rimmed with tears. “It’s hard for me to open up about all of that.”
“You’re welcome,” I responded back. It was all I could think of to say.
Barb held my gaze for several seconds and then leaned toward me, closing the distance between us. She brushed my lips with hers in a soft kiss that was completely unexpected. I froze. I didn’t know how to take it or if I should respond. Taking advantage of a woman in a weak moment wasn’t my style.
Barb’s cell buzzing on the side table where she’d dropped it when we came in saved me.
She twisted around to grab it and said, “It’s Dana,” before she answered it.
I stood and stepped away to a window to look out and to give her a little privacy so I only got one side of the conversation but I heard her tell Dana that I was with her and that, yes, it was the bar.
She hung up after a minute or so and beckoned me back toward her. I moved back toward the center of the room but remained standing and kept a little distance between us.
“Dana said the local radio stations are all reporting about the bar. She called to see if I was all right. Morelville’s on lockdown and they’re all sitting around at Kris’s house, Mel’s sisters.”
“Lockdown? Mel just wanted the roads blocked so nobody made it up to the intersection near the bar and got hurt. That’s got to have people all freaked out.”
Barb looked at me strangely.
“What?” I asked, when I finally noticed her watching me.
“You’re antsy all of a sudden. Did I make you uncomfortable?”
I hadn’t realized that I was bouncing from foot to foot. Self-consciously, I stopped. “No; it’s not you. I’m just really thinking I should be up there helping them do whatever they’re going to do to save your place but there’s no way I’m leaving you by yourself.”
“I appreciate that,” she said, “but you need to do what you need to do. I’m a big girl.”
“Nope; I’m not leaving you. I have my orders.”
Barb nodded and appeared thoughtful. After a pause, she said to me, “How about you run me over to Kris’s place? I know all of them. I’ll just hang there and do whatever they’re doing. You can take my truck back up to the bar.”
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