The mind is a frustrating instrument. If not for the necessity of it, I’d have banished it long ago. But then I would have become the witless wonder Thomas has declared me to be for two decades. See, the mind never stops. It harasses you. Take the simple task of getting up and trying to brush your teeth: it forces you to stare at the toothpaste splatters on the mirror and quizzes you over when you’re going to clean them.
Or the simple task of driving to work: Which of the three routes there will you choose? And once you choose, it questions whether you’ve chosen well. It teases you with the possibility that another option would have had less traffic or fewer red lights. And when you pass the window of Katherine’s Corner Bookstore, the mind sends you down a memory lane of your own vanished opportunities for literary fame and store-window showcases.
The mind never leaves you alone . When you’re trying to read, it barges in with to-do lists . When you’re trying to listen, it barges in with your next question. And when you’re trying to let go of love, it barges in with every reason to keep fighting.
But when I need a Coke—well, in large part my mind and I are usually in agreement. Until lately. Lately it has been making an issue of Coke. Coke! As if it were an addiction. As if it mattered. As if I would care. As if everybody didn’t deserve one. I mean, compared to the addictions I could have chosen, my mind shouldn’t be harassing me . Trust me. I would be a witless wonder before I would be a former Coke consumer.
“Where is our dishwasher?!” I heard Louise asking rather clearly and with an extra dose of volume . The man staring back at her just tried to smile, looking as if he couldn’t determine exactly what the problem was . When she flung her hand out of the soapy dishwater and splattered suds across the front of his shirt, she didn’t apologize, and I think he determined the problem.
Jake rounded the corner from his office. “Louise, I’ll handle it from here.” And Louise let out a rather loud humph and returned to her dishes. I thought about staying hidden, but I didn’t want to miss anything. So I proceeded to stand by the Coke machine.
“Mr. Phillips, the dishwasher will be here this afternoon, I assure you.” He gave my dad a slap on the arm. “Doesn’t hurt a woman to wash a few dishes.”
I leaned back against the counter and took a long swig of my Coke and flung my eyes toward Louise. She and Mervine both turned around on that one, and the little man seemed to shift closer to my father.
“Ron, you have told me that every day for a week.” Dad calmly wiped his hands on the towel draped over the tie of his apron. He was smooth.
“I know, sir. But I promise it will be today!”
“Well, you know what? That’s not good enough.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean exactly what I said, Ron . That’s not good enough.”
“Well, I don’t know what else to do.”
“I’ll tell you what you can do: you can write me a check for the deposit I paid you and consider our business finished.”
“Well, that isn’t possible. I’ve already paid for the deposit on your dishwasher.”
“Then you should get your money back from them, after they’ve given you the runaround.” Jake paused. “Unless, of course, they never told you they could have it here the next day. If that’s the case, then this is apparently your problem and your problem alone.”
“Well, I think you’re being hasty.” The little man began to twitch nervously.
“I don’t think I’m being hasty, Ron.” Dad sure liked to say his name. “I’m just making you keep your word.”
“I’m getting you your dishwasher, Mr. Phillips! That was my word!” the man said rather rudely.
“No, your word was you would get me my dishwasher by last Saturday . Today is Thursday. On Saturday you said it would be here Monday. On Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday you simply decided not to return our calls. And you are only in here today because I dragged you in here after I saw you in the market. In fact, I haven’t seen hide nor hair of you since I wrote you a check. A substantial check.” By this time Jake was leaning against the counter himself.
Mervine and Louise and I were just enjoying the whole scene. The little fella was becoming progressively smaller and increasingly more fidgety.“Well, I think you just have unrealistic expectations.”
“Well, if expecting someone to do what they say they’re going to do is unrealistic, then yes sir, Ron, I guess I do.” Poor soul would know his name by the time Jake was through with him.“But if you had told me it would have taken a week, then we wouldn’t even be having this discussion today . You should have just been honest with me from the beginning.”
I was about to feel sorry for the meager man when his lower lip began to twitch.“I just haven’t been able to help it,Mr. Phillips. See, my wife and my kids—”
“Stop it right there. Don’t you try to exploit your family . Your wife and kids are fine. I have seen them out at the square almost every day. But haven’t caught a glimpse of you, come to think of it. So this is where this conversation needs to end. I want my check, and I want it now.”
Dad never raised his voice. Never really even changed his tone.
But you would have thought he had stood over that man and berated him like a schoolboy, the way ol’ Ron shook when he reached for his checkbook. As he ripped out the check and laid it on the counter, he turned to leave. But before he did he tapped my Coke machine and said, “If you ever need a new one of these, I know where to get you a good one at cost.”
“Ahh!” I said, pulling my Coke from my mouth and slapping his hand. He jerked away quickly . Wise move. “Don’t you even think about it.” I glared at him.
He walked to the door. But Dad wasn’t quite through.
“One more thought, Ron . You might want to remove the fish emblem from your invoices. There’s something downright distasteful about using a symbol of integrity to manipulate people into thinking it represents your character as well. I would think about that, sir. Because I’ve learned something in the business world.”Well, I guess Dad had two more thoughts. “All your giftings might get you to the front of the line, but if your character’s not in order when you get there, it can destroy you.”
The little man morphed into a wee little man as he left with his tail between his legs.
“Louise, Mervine, I’m sorry. I’ll have a dishwasher in here by tomorrow morning,” my dad said . Then he kissed me and headed back to the front of the store.
His heart was heavy, I could tell. Jake didn’t like hurting anyone. He was a tender spirit. But he was the real thing too, a man.
So to receive any less from someone else wasn’t acceptable to him.
“Are your hands shriveled prunes?” I asked as I gave them both a sideways hug.
“No,we’ve just been mumbling . Truth be told, your father and Richard have washed as many of these dishes as we have . We’re just spoiled,” Louise said with a chuckle.
“Me too,” I mused. “Me too. But had that man touched my machine again, I would have kicked his heinie.”
“Savannah Phillips! Watch your mouth,” Louise snapped.
“What? I said I would have had Duke lick him shiny!”
Mervine tried to stifle her grin. I didn’t.“Child, don’t you have a job?” Louise laughed.
I headed to the door to go check on my dad.“So they tell me. So they tell me.”
As I opened the door, I noticed Dad and Duke sitting together at the front table. Dad was in a chair; Duke was at his feet. Although no one would have been surprised had Duke been sitting in the chair opposite him. He really was an immensely talented dog . These two had an unusual bond . You could tell just by observing them. Dad sat there rubbing Duke’s head while they both stared out the window . Who knows what they were thinking. But by their identical expressions, it was probably about the same thing: spending another night on concrete.
I’m sure their perspectives of it were very different. But Duke would do anything for my father. And my father would do anything for Duke. He had been purchased for Thomas, but he had been treasured by my father. They go everywhere together. And when Duke must make way for Vicky, he ain’t at all happy about it. And when Vicky has to deal with red dog hair, she ain’t too happy about that one either.
But there Jake is. Loving the dog. Loving the woman. And adored by both while the two drive each other ferociously insane.
As I rounded the corner to head to the office, I noticed a slight commotion in front of Walgreen’s. A short, fair-haired maiden was letting loose on one Sergeant Millings. Poor thing shouldn’t have stood a chance with that man. But from the looks of it, the poor man didn’t stand a chance with Paige. I drove by with a beep and a smile.
“I heard they stole her purse. Poor kid probably needed it . That girl has enough of her own. She should have just given it to him,” Jessica said into her cell phone as she made her way in front of me through the front door.
“Don’t feel bad, Savannah,” Marla said as she saw me come through the door behind Jessica.“She never speaks to me either.”
I made my way to my cubicle to work on my story. All newspaper systems were go. Feet were scurrying. Fingers were pecking on keyboards. The sounds of a soda can being opened and a tug-of-war with a bag of chips was coming from the cubicle in front of me. I sat down at my computer to lend my talents to this pressured world. After my talk with Granny Daniels, the issues were coming into focus. I would dive in and see what I came up with.
By the time I came up for air, she was my human-interest story, and her knowledge of history, happenings, and life would surely be as interesting to the readers as they had been to me. I printed it out around eleven and set it on my desk. But I wasn’t going to deliver it until I got back from lunch. I had only been here for two hours, but it felt like a full day. I made a motion for an early lunch . There were no objections.
“My, my, child. I thought you just left here,” Richard said as I entered the back door of Jake’s.
“It’s been a long morning already, and I needed a Coke.
Thought I’d take an early lunch.” I was distracted by a growling noise staring at the doorway into the shop.“Is she back, Duke?” I asked, walking to pat his ornery head.
Much to my surprise, Jake’s was empty, except for Dad’s persistent admirer. I guess everyone had paused to check out whatever was going on across the street, and few people partook of lunch at eleven. So, that left Jake and his new friend alone. She looked rather striking today, her brown hair coiffed in an updo, her microphone still attached to her flowing blouse, waiting for the noon report, I figured. She was sitting at the bar and was rubbing the side of her cup, in what was a rather flirtatious, dare I say provocative, move. Dad stood behind the counter refilling the coffeepots for the lunchtime crowd. His business had grown along with the group outside.
“So, how long have you been married, Jake?”
“Twenty-five years, Susan. Can you believe that?”
“Oh, they’ve gone to first names,” I told Duke, patting his head. He was stiff as a board.
“Are you happy?” She rubbed the side of her coffee cup again and tilted her head.
“She’s downright shameless!” I said. Duke looked up at me with a “Where in the world have you been?” kind of look. By this time an old African American and two ancient twins were peering over our shoulders.
“As happy as one can be in this life. I have more than I could ask for.”
“Haven’t you been lonely this past week, with your wife out there strapped to a pillar of concrete?” She batted her false eyelashes, over what I was now certain were eyes of equally false green.
“Actually, I’ve been out there with Victoria every night. Almost feels like camping.”
She gave a vain attempt at laughter. “You are a remarkable man, Jake Phillips, a remarkable man.” She stood up and patted his hand softly where he had laid it on the counter. I’m almost certain I was growling at that point.
“Well, have a great afternoon,” Dad offered as he removed his hand and headed around the counter to wipe off a table by the far wall . The next action happened so quickly that about all five of us fell out of the doorway. As Dad made his way to the table, she cut him off at the edge of the counter, grabbed him by the edge of his apron, and laid one on him as if she were Angelina Jolie . Well, poor Duke had absorbed all a canine could take. That gentle golden retriever took off before any of us could stop him. In the meantime Dad had grabbed a hold of Susan’s arms and pushed her away . Duke finished her off. He pounced between them and had that Mary Kay reject flat on her back in two seconds flat. He hovered over her like a scene from Scooby Doo.
“Way to go, boy!” I screamed, dancing a jig to meet them. “Tripping?! What is that?! My boy can lay a woman flat on her back!”Then I stopped, the shock of it all setting in. My father had just kissed another woman . Well, maybe not technically. After all, she did grab him, by the apron no less . We were throwing that thing in the trash before day’s end.
“Duke, get off of her!” Dad shouted.
Duke didn’t pay him a lick of attention. He stood atop her, growling from ear to ear. Every time she tried to squirm, he would flinch in that direction. That poor woman whimpered like a trapped puppy.
“Duke! I said get down, now!” Dad demanded. This time Duke obeyed, but he still hovered right beside my father, snarling and growling all the way. Richard, Louise, and Mervine had indeed fallen through the swinging doors at my departure and were standing exposed by the counter, staring at the raucous affair. I’m sure we all looked like a Girls Behaving Badly episode . We stood, mouths agape, and eyes wider than a hoot owl’s.
Dad graciously lifted up the wanton woman.“I’m sorry, Susan,” Dad said, trying to stifle a laugh. She wasn’t laughing.
“You need to get that dog under control.” She wiped off her skirt as best her trembling hands could manage.
“I think you need to get yourself under control,” Dad said to her.
“Well, it’s about time!” I offered rather loudly. Dad looked at me as well.
“Savannah, stay out of this.”
She gave us both a glare that would have made mouths drop open and eyes bug out, had that not been a preexisting condition. She snatched up her purse and headed for the door. Dad gently took hold of her arm and made her turn around.“Susan, you are a beautiful woman. But when someone has given not just a pledge but a commitment to someone else, you need to respect that.”
“You need to come into the real world, Jake Phillips. My Lord, man, you don’t even sell iced coffee, Frappuccino, or cappuccino. Do you know it is the twenty-first century?”
“Yes, I do. I also know that just because years pass and trends come and go, some things aren’t up for modification. There are some absolutes. Coffee being one of them.” My word, don’t insult the man’s coffee! “Whether you like it or not, they still exist. And the covenant I made to that ‘concrete hugger’ across the street is one of them.”
“Well, then you deserve her.”
“No, I don’t deserve her, Susan. But I am thankful she’s mine.” She didn’t stick around for any more of his discourse. Duke followed her to the door.
“Okay, show’s over,” Dad said as he passed the four of us and went into his office . The man had had a rough day. Duke stared at Susan from the window. She looked back only once. Duke snarled. She winced. Dog, one. Naughty newscaster, zero.