| |
Luke spent all evening thinking of what Gabriel had said.
He was probably lying.
Gabriel would never call anyone ugly. Never in a million years. Gabriel was the one person who could look at Quasimodo and find the attractive features and figure out how to enhance them.
It didn’t matter what she looked like anyway. Luke talked to her a bit via text, and she was super nice.
No matter what, he would never think her ugly. Whatever Gabriel thought... It was more likely he was up to something.
It was still dark when Luke woke up in his own bed. There was movement across the room and for a minute, Luke was sure someone was in there with him.
In the corner. Hunched over. Scuffling about quietly.
The dog. They’d brought her here.
North. He was hiding and watching him.
More scenarios ran through his mind, but the outline didn’t fit.
It lightly scratched against the wall, and for a short moment, he was terrified. It was like something out of a horror movie.
Scratch. Scratch. Pause. Scraaatch.
Shuffling.
Scratch.
Demons.
A ghost.
And then he remembered the balloon.
The gold star balloon.
He breathed in sharply. Did that wake him up?
There was another sound in the hallway, heavy boots against wood. In a moment, a darker shadow materialized near the door.
“Come on,” North hissed at him, his way of whispering. “Didn’t you hear me?”
That must have been what woke him. Luke shifted to sit up.
The scratching noise came again, and North moved so quickly, so mind bogglingly jagged, that it was like he contorted. He scanned the darkness.
“What the hell is that?” North asked.
“It’s a balloon,” Luke said, and then yawned and scratched his chest.
There was a deep murmuring from North, a lot of curses. He turned and walked out, down the stairs, out the front door again before Luke could find some clothes.
He chuckled to himself. North getting scared of a little balloon... totally worth keeping it.
They took North’s motorcycle this time. Luke would have preferred the Jeep, but it was a cool morning and he’d likely stay with someone at the motel tonight...or somewhere with the other guys. So the one ride over to Kota’s street wasn’t too bad. North didn’t get to ride the motorcycle as much as he liked.
By the time they got to Sunnyvale Court in Summerville, it was light out. They followed the road around a bend, parking for the moment at Nathan’s house.
As a precaution, North sent a text to Nathan, checking to see where he was and if his dad was home.
Nathan sent word back: he was on his way back, no, his dad wasn’t home.
North used his keys so they could get access.
Luke yawned and went to the kitchen, opening the fridge to see what there was to work with. “Maybe we should have stopped somewhere for food.”
“I want to be here when the real estate guy gets here with a key to check the place out. If this isn’t ideal, we need to tell Uncle and let him know so he can start looking at other places.” North found the coffee and set up the maker.
Luke fished out some frozen egg and sausage biscuits and set them up on a paper plate to heat in the microwave.
He’d prefer bacon and eggs. Something... fresher. Pancakes...
Don’t think about it.
Hard not to think about it. He was hungry.
In the middle of the microwave making a turn, North got a message. He read it out loud. “The church door has a real estate padlock and here’s the code. You can go check it out. The real estate agent will be busy but will show up in the afternoon...” He mumbled the rest. He sighed. “So, we can go check it out on our own. Good. We can take our time without pressure and a sales pitch...and explaining why two teenagers needed to go look at an old church.” He found a to go cup and dumped his coffee into it. “I’m going over.”
“You go,” Luke said, waving him off as he opened the microwave. “I’ll eat first and then head over.”
North headed out. Luke sat himself at Nathan’s kitchen table with the two sandwiches and a glass of milk. He ate, checked his phone...and hovered a bit over the conversation he’d had with Sang the night before.
He’d meet her today. A girl. A girl with a number to all the other guys. Someone...likely in trouble. He still didn’t have a clear picture. Maybe he should ask Kota before meeting her, but he kind of didn’t want to.
He wanted to discover Sang on his own. Get his own impression. Maybe because Gabriel said she was ugly. Maybe because it was the first interesting thing...a different person...added to the group in general in a while.
He shook off the thought, trying to clear his wandering mind from figuring out what she might be like.
First, the diner. Then, Sang. Maybe if he had time, he’d head to the motel later and help out Victor.
After the diner...maybe some pancakes. He really wanted some.
Luke took the back way out of Nathan’s yard, through the rear gate and through the woods. He knew the way to the old church. The day was starting off cool, but summer heat lurked, promising to warm quickly. It was a good idea to check out the church—which likely didn’t have any AC on—in the morning.
Beyond the wooded path, the church came into view. For a church, it was barely distinguishable as a church building. Tall, wide, like a utility building with its narrow windows and painted corrugated metal walls. From any other side but the very front, it looked like a warehouse or business building. Only the front made it look like a church and most of that was the large cross that hung at the front over the door.
Big building. Big gravel parking lot. It faced the main road that ran into downtown Summerville. Plenty of cars traveled the route during the day, so it was a good spot. As a bonus, it had a worked in neighborhood with a few more surrounding neighborhoods.
And no other actual competition. Not for a couple of miles. There was a rundown gas station that was the closest thing, the gas station didn’t pump any gas at all but the little shop was still running. That was it, and that was a little further down the road.
He went to the front, stopping shortly at the front door to check it. There was a key sitting on the ground with a clip. Just to not lose it, Luke added it to his own keyring. Instead of going in, he took a loop around, checking the outside from all angles. Now that he was here, and it was going to be a diner, he wanted to get a good picture, envision what it could be like.
From the back part of the church, he followed the yard to where it met with a property line for the neighbors in the rear. He didn’t know them personally, but he followed their fence line. Out of habit, he was mapping the land with his brain, considering making more paths through the woods with Nathan just to make easy access back and forth to his house. That side of the neighborhood might just use the paths to walk back and forth from the diner. He found another good route to try to create closer to the rear neighbors.
He was wondering where North was when suddenly from the woods, from a different spot than where he’d come out, someone emerged.
A girl. Wearing a green skirt and a yellow top. She was short...er than himself, from what he could tell. Her hair was twisted up in a clip on the back of her head. She gazed at the church. He was still standing near the woods, mostly out of sight at the moment. He waited, curious, wondering...
She studied the church with some intensity for a minute. Then, she made her way to a blue jungle gym and swing area leftover from when the church still operated. She picked her way through the grass, and sat on a level area of the jungle gym, swinging her feet, looking dreamily toward the building.
The only one who was told about the church...who might be interested...was Sang. He didn’t recognize her, and she’d walked here...it was either Sang or her sibling. In either case...one way to find out.
He inched closer, sticking to the woods, walking quietly, mostly out of habit, until he was behind her. She remained distracted, still gazing at the church.
He hoped North didn’t come out there and scare her off before he had a chance...
He took out his phone and sent a message to Sang. If it was her, she’d look.
Luke: What’s your favorite breakfast?
He waited.
After just a minute, she shifted, reached for a phone...from where he wasn’t sure, he couldn’t see from behind her, and she looked at it.
Gotta be her.
She wasn’t ugly. Gabriel was lying! But why? He still hadn’t gotten a closer look at her face, coming around the way he’d done.
She typed and a message came back. He checked his phone.
Sang: Chocolate chip pancakes.
He smiled at his phone. It was the best answer. He liked her. He didn’t care if she’d a fat wart on her face or whatever else. She was nice. She listened to him ramble. She already knew all the other guys. Best of all, her breakfast choice was correct. They were going to be best friends.
“With syrup?” he asked with a surging hope she was as nice in real life as she seemed to be.
She gasped shortly and twisted to look at him, and in doing so, she nearly fell from her seated position, correcting herself by holding on to a pole.
Whoops. Didn’t mean to scare her. He just got excited. He gazed up at her.
Green eyes. Funny colored hair. Pink cheeks from blushing. She was shockingly pretty. Maybe because Gabriel had said what he did the night before. Maybe because he tried to empty out his expectations from her and...whatever else.
She looked at him with the same studying eyes he was using to check him out.
He considered what he looked like, was wearing...The dark jeans, the flip flops, the white shirt. Casual yet comfortable, ready for anything. Except the flops. But he liked those.
Her mouth was open at first, from what he thought was startling surprise at finding him behind her. “Luke?” she said in a quiet voice.
He wanted to laugh but instead, with a flourish, he put his hand on his waist and made a very slight bow to her, smiling. “In the flesh,” he said. He shifted over, reaching up to grab some high monkey bars near her, hanging from it until his shirt rolled up and his lower body hung down long. She came out to look at the church after what he’d said yesterday. She was interested, clearly. “What do you think? Can you see it as a diner?”
She turned her head, giving Luke a chance to look at her profile directly. Her nose was small. Cute as a button. “I think it depends on what the inside looks like.”
“Not judging the book by the cover, huh?” Open minded. That was good. He kept his smile and did a swing on the bars, following the rungs to get closer to her. When he was near, he contoured himself to get on the platform and stand next to her.
“We have to get rid of the playground, though,” he said. “Insurance would kill us if we kept it.”
“That’s a shame,” she said. “Would have been a good way to bring in parents with kids.”
That’s what he’d been thinking! “I know,” he said. “It’s going on fall now but I thought about setting up a patio up front. Improving the size of the garden a little, maybe?”
She gazed out at it again, at the rundown and brown garden bushes that framed the lower part of the building along one side, and patches of garden areas that were all overgrown now on either side.
Instead of answering his question, she asked, “What made you guys want to start a diner?”
“It’s what my uncle wants to do,” he said. He leaned back against a pole, gazing at her, curious about what she was thinking. He really wanted an opinion. North was always so silent. His uncle talked to him some, but would stop after a minute or two to be more quiet, too. It was no fun to bounce ideas off of someone who didn’t answer back. “He was working with a partner and the partner is kicking him out. So he’s starting his own place.” Long story short of it. Public side anyway. At his old job, Uncle was often gone for Academy reasons and didn’t really like his partner. It’s what made him think of his own Academy-run diner.
“That’s too bad,” she said, sympathetically.
He tilted his head, unsure of her meaning. Too bad he’d get to run his own diner?
She continued, “I mean it’s too bad that his partner wanted to split up. Were they friends?”
Oh. “I think when they started,” he said. Not important. In the past. It was time to check the place out. He shifted to lean closer to her. “So you want to see it?”
She seemed surprised and one eyebrow lifted. “The inside?” she asked. For a second, she considered and then smiled and slightly nodded. “Yes.”
He leaped off the platform to the grass below them. The platform was a little tall, so it stung the bottom of his feet on the landing. He turned back, wanting to help her down, but she was pretty high up. He could only comfortably reach her outer thighs.
“Let’s go,” he said.
Without hesitation, she reached out, and he came closer so she could use his shoulders to hang on to him. He wrapped his arms around her to support her until she could edge away from the platform. He stayed with her to make sure she didn’t hurt her feet on the landing.
He remained so close to her for a minute.
It felt relaxing and made him happy. Like a hug. He’d been close to girls before, but he’d always felt so self-conscious, trying to figure out what they were thinking, probably overthinking.
This felt pure and comfortable. He was comfortable with her. He hadn’t really felt that way with many people, let alone someone his own age and a girl and...nice...and pretty...and curious...and liked pancakes.
When she was clearly stable and he’d probably been hanging on a little too long, he released her, turning away, a little confused about his own feelings.
She followed him to the front of the church. He got his keys back out, finding the new one that went to the church, and used it on the front door. Did North lock himself inside? Probably for general safety? But then he left they key so...who knows. North did weird stuff.
He held open the door to let Sang in, and followed in behind her. The hallway in the front was in shadow. There was a heavy feeling, like this place hadn’t seen a human in a while. Musty. Thick air.
Luke closed the door again and moved into the darkness, debating if they needed a flashlight or not. The spookiness was kind of cool. Was she scared? She didn’t seem to be. She kept up with him.
Until she held out a hand, as if reaching for something to hang on to.
He quietly reached for her hand.
She jumped shortly. Did he scare her?
“Here,” Luke said, and reached for her hand. Maybe it was too dark. Should he turn on his phone light? His eyes had adjusted a bit, so he assumed she just needed a moment. Shining a light would make it harder to see some details if they’d just get used to the brightness level. “Stay behind me. I’m sorry, I don’t know where the light switch is. It didn’t seem that dark down here when we started.”
Give her a minute, he thought. If it’s too much, he’d pull the phone out. But she had a phone so she could do that any time she wanted, too. She didn’t, so she must be adjusting.
He held on to her hand, small in his. To make it more secure, he interlocked his fingers with hers.
Warm little hand.
Why was she so comfortable to be with?
At the end of the hallway, there was another window, and while dusty, there was more light. It made it easier to see the wide double doorway. It was likely the main church room...what was that called? Pulpit? Chapel? He’d never been, so he wasn’t totally sure.
He had to let her go to open the door. The wooden door creaked as it opened...
To a pitch-black room.
Too dark. Were there no windows?
“Hold the door open,” Luke said. “I’ll find the switch.” He didn’t want to ask her to go by herself. Who knew what was in here?
He went in, still not reaching for his phone and the light, and yet within moments, his eyes adjusted again, getting used to the light level from where Sang was standing with the door open and allowing it in.
It only took a moment to find a switch and he tried every one until they worked.
The two sets of chandeliers overhead flickered to life, a few bulbs were burned out but most were still okay. Any pews had been removed. Books stacked along one wall. The space was enormous. The platform at the far end of the room was interesting, with a podium like they had at college classes. It looked kind of like a college lecture room, except for the cross on the podium.
The carpet was worn, The walls a little darkened by dust. Otherwise, it seemed perfectly sound.
How do you change lightbulbs in chandeliers so high?
Should they have a band play? There was a stage after all...
He went to it, checking it out, standing on it. He stood on the platform, studying the size.
Sang stood by the door, her eyes gazing at everything in the room, but she remained silent. Eyes adjusting to the sudden light? Taking it all in?
He walked to the edge of the platform and put his hands in his pockets. “Well? What do you think?” He found it amusing to be asking her opinion. It’s not like either of them had a vote. North... and mostly Uncle would decide.
She gazed around the room. “There’s a lot of space for tables,” she said. Although her voice was soft, in the empty room, it carried to him easily.
“And this stage could be used for bands on some nights,” he said. He stomped on the surface with his foot. The sound echoed but the surface was sturdy. “It feels solid.”
She tiptoed through the room, barely a sound. He studied her as she crossed her arms over her body. Was she cold? The AC was still running. Did North turn that on?
She seemed to consider the options. She turned a little, looking at every surface, giving it every consideration. The hem of her skirt waved a bit as she shifted.
Luke lowered himself quietly to the main floor and crossed to stand near her. He smiled, and leaned in behind her, whispering, “Do you see it?”
He had a feeling she did. She was doing what he was doing. Picturing.
She was still, except for a nod. “It just needs the right tables.”
“And the door over there could be the official entrance,” he said. He motioned, moving to stand next to her. He wanted to be clearer about what he was thinking. “And the other, the entryway to the kitchen. We’ll have to get rid of the podium.” What would the podium be for? Boring lectures? No one was coming to a diner to listen to someone talk about...who knows what.
“You should keep it,” she said to his surprise. “You could paint it and attach it to something so you could roll it in when you want to. You could rent the place out for meetings.”
His eyes widened and he smiled at the idea. “I hadn’t even thought about that.” She was good at pointing out how to make use of it.
“And I like the garden and outside dining idea,” she said.
He thought that was brilliant, too. There were too many good weather days to want to sit inside to eat. They had plenty of land here to make into some outdoor benches. “There could be a bar over there.” He motioned with his hand to the far side wall. “A big one.”
“And a case for pies and baked things you’d sell on the side,” she added quickly.
Girl after his own heart. She got to the point. “And a jukebox,” he said.
“With vases of flowers on the tables,” she followed up.
She was perfect. It was like she was reading his mind, and they’d only been together for minutes.
His breath caught and the excitement of it all was overwhelming. He liked her. He loved the diner idea. She was fresh air and sunshine and daydreams. “What’s your favorite flower?”
She smiled. “I like roses. Chrysler Imperial.”
He grinned, unable to help thinking of Mr. Blackbourne and his roses and how he’d know whatever the Chrysler Imperial ones were. Did he have any? “We’ll have a rose garden out front. We’ll be able to put roses out on the tables for most of the year.”
She laughed, a most lovely, light laugh. She waved her hand in the air, as if putting the daydreaming to a temporary pause to consider the options. “What about when the roses die off in the winter?”
His mouth twisted and he turned partially away from her, considering, shifting his weight from foot to foot to think of what they could do when the roses died off. “We’ll light candles. Rose scented ones.” If she liked the flower, she’d like the scent too, right? Even if they couldn’t see the roses any more, they’d be able to smell them and it’d be a temporary fix until they were in bloom again.
And just like that, it was easy to see the church as a diner. Tables. A counter. People.
Sang. As a customer.
Bringing to her table a rose picked just for her from the garden. She’d want a stack of chocolate chip pancakes. He’d make a special batch just for her. They’d sit together at a table, a candle flickering. They’d talk for hours about customers and desserts.
Excitement filled every bit of him. He loved the diner idea.
He gazed at her, and it was clear, with the way her eyes moved over the empty space, she was thinking similar things, picturing people, maybe wondering about the food.
He went to her, touching her hand gently, and she shifted, a little surprised, likely coming back from her daydreaming.
He knew the feeling.
“You see it, don’t you?” Luke asked.
She nodded, and in her soft voice, she said, “It’s beautiful.”
Luke’s smile could have broken his face, it was so big.
She did see it. She knew.