Tim Wynne-Jones - The Uninvited

“Bummer,” he said. “And was your place like all locked up and that?”

“Yeah, but locks don’t seem to work on this… Well, let’s just say we’ve had more than one break-in.”

Now Cramer’s brow creased with concern. “Is it some old boyfriend, maybe, who’s still got a key?”

Mimi hugged her computer case. Was this computer knight with the disquieting pecs going to offer his services as a bodyguard? She grinned to herself and then sobered up and shook her head. “Uh, that’s unlikely,” she said.

He looked apprehensive, almost hurt. Then she noticed, with relief, that the receipt was finished, and she busied herself taking out her wallet.

“I really don’t know how to thank you, Cramer,” she said as he swiped her card. He looked at her and bobbed his head, and she wondered if he was going to say “Aw, shucks” or something like that. Then she noticed a little stand that held a stack of business cards. “I should take a card,” she said. “In case of emergency.”

“Uh, that’s my boss’s card,” said Cramer.

“Hank Pretty,” she read out loud. “Oh, I get it, ‘PDQ-Pretty Damn Quick.’ That’s cute.”

Cramer bobbed his head again. “Here,” he said, and he took the card from her, picked up a pen, and printed his name and number on the back of it.

“This is my home number, eh?” he said, handing her the card. “I usually only work here a couple days a week.”

She grinned as she took it from him. “Cramer”; no last name. She shoved it in her pocket. “I usually have to work a lot harder to get a guy’s phone number,” she said, and enjoyed watching him blush again. Enjoyed it a bit more than was entirely healthy. Time to get out of here, she thought. And so, with a little neutral kind of wave, she turned toward the door. She was almost at the door before he spoke.

“I hope I see you again,” he said.

She turned and smiled. “Me, too,” she said. “Thanks so much.”

Then she left, and when she glanced back through the door to wave one last time, he was still staring at her, his hands in his pockets. His mouth was open, and she had the odd, exhilarating feeling that he was trying hard to catch his breath.

They had met. They had shaken hands. He had held her hand, so cool and smooth. His plan had worked. He wasn’t used to that. He wasn’t used to wanting something and it actually coming true. He had never believed in luck because then he would have had to face the fact that he didn’t have any. But maybe-just maybe-things were changing.

And he hadn’t blown it. He didn’t think he had sounded too stupid. He didn’t always get what she was saying, but he’d made her laugh-well, once anyway. It hadn’t been so hard. It would be easier next time. He wasn’t exactly sure how this amazing thing called “next time” was going to come around. He’d have to think about that.

He walked through the rest of his workday in a kind of a daze. All he could think of was Mimi. Face-to-face, she was more beautiful than ever. Her eyes-the way she had looked at him! She seemed to like him, but it was more than that, and for one terrible moment he had thought she recognized him. But there was no way she could have seen him. No way. And now they’d met. And they would meet again. Somehow, though he couldn’t quite see how. What else could he break and then fix? He laughed out loud, alone in the store. But he was only kidding. He would never break anything of hers again.

For that one week Cramer was holding down two full-time jobs. He had to be at PDQ by 10:00 AM to open up and stay there right through until closing time. Because he was working the night shift at the plant, it didn’t make much sense to go home-took too much time and too much wear and tear on the car. But when he suggested that to Mavis, she had a shit fit.

“You’re going to strand me out here?”

“Well, what am I supposed to do?”

“It is my car, for Christ’s sake!”

He wanted to tell her that it wasn’t really her car anymore. It wasn’t just that he paid the insurance and the license and kept it topped up with gas. In the six years he’d been driving the Taurus, he’d replaced just about every damn part in the thing.

“So you’ll drive me into town in the morning?” he said. She didn’t answer. She wandered away, rubbing her hands together, and stared out the window.

“I could get to the plant if I’m in town. One of the guys on my crew could give me a lift, I guess.”

Still she didn’t answer. He had no idea what he would do about getting home from the plant at four in the morning if she took him up on his offer. Hell, maybe he’d just sleep in the back room at PDQ.

“Mom?”

She turned and gave him a sour look. “Do whatever you like,” she said, and went outside. Somehow he was the bad guy. But, then, what else was new?

They ended up coming to a compromise. If she needed the car, she’d drive him in and pick him up at five. Then he’d take her home and go to work. It was a lot of driving and a lot of wasted time, but she had things to do, she said. Things to do.

She had pretty well abandoned her art. And she had abandoned asking about the money. He was doing what he could, but he wasn’t going to keep saying to her every goddamned day how he would get her the money. She had to believe in him, the way he believed in her. And until the money was in his hands, he wasn’t going to make any promises he couldn’t keep. He owed her that much. Sometimes it seemed to Cramer that his mother’s life was a promise she couldn’t keep. Somebody had to do it for her.

He allowed himself to think that she was looking for work. Maybe that’s why she needed the car. He fantasized about coming home one day and her surprising him with the news. He fantasized about quitting one of his jobs. He fantasized about having a life! He’d never questioned his life, really. This was it-the one you got. You did the work. You looked after things. You picked up where you left off yesterday. End of story. But now- now! — he wanted something. He wanted something big-time. He wanted a new life. And he had done a bad thing to get that new life started. He hated himself for it. Hated the foolish games he had been playing lately and what it had brought him to. But then again those foolish games had brought him to Mimi.

When Mimi told him about the break-in, the look on her face was like a hard fist plowing into his stomach. He was dead afraid he was going to confess, right there, right then. He imagined the words spilling out of him, and it felt as if it took every muscle in his body not to break down and tell her. He couldn’t bear the thought of making her unhappy. But what he couldn’t bear even more was the thought of her being angry with him. He’d heard her talk to that guy on the phone. Seen her temper flare up, and he didn’t want that temper aimed his way. He would never give her a reason to turn on him like that. Never. So there would have to be this secret between them, and that was too bad, but it couldn’t be helped. He would just have to live with it. One more burden.

It was Wednesday morning that he got the call he’d been waiting for. It also just happened to be the first day of August and he noticed that-noticed that Day One of his new life was starting on the first day of the month.

He had to go right away. He locked up the store and put the little sign up on the door. BACK IN A FLASH, the sign read. And Cramer had to laugh. Back in a flash with the cash.

He called Mavis and told her to be home for dinner. He said he’d bring something. What did she want, KFC or a pizza? Chinese-whatever!

“What are you talking about?”

“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “Just choose.”