Damsel in the Dust

21

Jake and Maive are, understandably, cautious as Chris and I enter the kitchen. I can only imagine what my new friends are thinking as they take in our red eyes and blotchy faces.

"Jake, Maive, I didn't have a chance to introduce you properly the other day, but this is Christian. My best friend since forever. He's practically my brother - you don't need to be afraid of him, or worried about him, anymore."

Maive arches a brow and folds her arms across her chest. "I don't know, Leah. Your brother seems like an ass-"

"Maive!" Jake scolds before she can finish.

Chris chuckles. "It's okay. She is right, after all. I have been a jerk and I'm sorry that's the side of me that you saw first. I know the word of a stranger doesn't mean much, but I hope that you'll trust Leah when she tells you I'm not the person you think I am."

I look at Jake. "If you still want to hear this long and complicated story, I'm ready to share it. Can you trust me?"

His eyes search mine, roving over my face as if he's looking for a clear sign that everything is okay. I offer a small smile.

"Alright, Leah. If you're ready to tell it, I'm ready to hear it."

"Thank you. But first, how does dinner look, Maive?"

Maive throws a sideways glance at Chris as he takes a seat at the table before turning to me. Her grin tells me everything I need to know.

"Looks like I have some competition in the kitchen! Are you ready to start taking over meals?" I tease her.

She shakes her head as she starts dons two hot mitts and reaches grabs the casserole we'd been making together earlier. "I'm nowhere near as good as you yet."

We serve ourselves in silence. I can tell Jake and Maive are both uncomfortable with Christian's presence and it pains me to see them so skittish around a stranger. Especially when that stranger is someone so dear to me. After a few minutes, I break the silence and start to tell the story. I keep it short, in part because I'm not ready to share everything about Shawn and I don't want Jake or Maive worrying about him, and also because I don't want to involve Maive too deeply in my personal life. She's too young, too innocent still to be worrying about the minefield that is dating after high school. Dating during high school is hard enough, though something tells me she will navigate it with ease. I settle on half-truths for now - I thought Chris was jealous of Shawn and pushed him away, so he became better friends with Shawn to stay close to me.

Chris lets me do most of the talking, chiming in to add occasional details but overall sticking to the story I've decided to tell. When we finish, I look up from where my gaze has been locked on my plate, searching for Jake's face. His expression is pained, filled with that same deep concern I've seen previously. I feel another pang in my heart at how much he seems to care about me without even knowing me.

Maive is, predictably, the first to respond. "So let me get this straight. You basically turned into a double agent to stay close to Leah and try to keep your friendship alive? That's so..."

"Stupid?" Chris says at the same time I say, "Complicated?"

"Insane! It's like something from a movie or a cheesy romance novel or something. I still don't know why you didn't just talk to her though. Leah is so cool. Why did you go through all this trouble?"

Chris runs a hand through his hair, and I beat him to an answer. "It wasn't his fault. He tried to talk to me, but I was so caught up in my own romance I thought he was just jealous."

"You know what they say, Leah. Chicks before d-"

"I think that's enough from you," Jake says, cutting Maive off as Chris bursts into laughter.

"Where the heck did you find these two, Leah?" Chris asks in between raucous peals of laughter.

I glance at Jake, hoping that he understands my silent communication to him. I still don't know their whole story, but it's theirs to tell, not mine. As if he does understand what I'm trying to say without words, Jake nods at me.

"We're from the south. Lost our home during the drought and decided to start walking, looking for a better life, a place to start over. Chance brought us to Leah and for whatever reason, she took us in. I'll never know how to repay her for it, but she's the reason we're here, doing okay and not out there, hoping for the best."

"From the south? You mean like where the fires wiped out half the farms down near McKinney?"

The hard line of Jake's mouth is answer enough. Maive's eyes fill with tears, but she blinks them away so fast I'm almost not certain they were ever there in the first place.

"Yes, out near McKinney. There's nothing left of our home."

I imagine the flames of a fire licking up the sides of a small farmhouse, peeling white clapboard turning black against a field of dried out corn. Acrid brown smoke billowing from a grain silo. Endless acres of smoldering charcoal ruins. Those were the images the news had used to show the devastation the droughts and the fires caused. My heart aches again for these two. I had never imagined they literally had nothing to return to. Knowing that all that's left for them is ash, I want to pull them both into a protective hug and never let go.

"I'm sorry to hear that. A lot of good people lost everything in that fire. Damn shame they never caught the bastards that started it," Chris says.

Maive whimpers at his words. It must be difficult for her, losing everything like that at a time in her life when stability is so important. There's nothing I can do or say to change the past or to help these two heal, but I can turn the conversation away from all this heartbreak.

"Maive, do we have any more ice cream?" I ask, knowing that we do since I literally bought it this morning. But Maive relaxes in visible relief at the opportunity to escape the tense conversation.

"I'll go check!" She volunteers, leaping up from the table.

"I'll help you clear the table," Jake tells me.

Chris looks at Maive. "Guess that leaves me to help you carry in ice cream. That is, if you trust me with this mission. I do have super awesome spy skills."

Maive gives him one of her infamous eye rolls and then shrugs. "Come on Agent Weirdo. Let's go."

Ice cream has a magical ability to fix everything. At least, that's what I think as we sit outside, watching the sun fade behind the mountain. If only it had the ability to solve problems yet to come.