Kristina O'Grady - All For You

“Come on,” Charmaine said. “Fresh air will do you good.”

The cool breeze blowing down the street took Lily’s breath away. “I can’t believe I just did that.”

“It’s okay hun, it could happen to anyone.” Charmaine patted her awkwardly on the arm.

“I’m so embarrassed. Poor Beth. What she must think of me.” Lily leaned against the truck and buried her head in her hands.

“You’re not alone in getting morning sickness you know.” Charmaine put her arm around her shoulder. “You remember what I was like, don’t you? I puked everywhere. Remember the fit Bradley had when I made a mess in his truck? I thought for sure he was going to leave me there and then,” Charmaine said with a chuckle. “It’ll pass. Trust me.”

“It’s not even morning anymore though! And how am I supposed to find a job if all I do is throw up all the time?” She leaned into her friend. “God, my life is such a mess. What am I going to do?” she murmured into Charmaine’s shoulder.

“Well, for one, we will go get groceries and we’ll ask around about any other jobs. Ones that don’t involve coffee. Okay? Come on, hop in.”

Charmaine dragged her into the minivan then headed back into the café to grab her kids. She was such a horrible friend, she’d forgotten about Charmaine’s kids. What if she left her own baby somewhere? Would she forget she had one and walk away and leave it behind in a shop? God, she started to feel sick again.

Charmaine piled the kids into their seats, completely unaware of the turmoil Lily was going through. “Okay,” she said once she buckled in and was reversing out of the parking space. “Is there anything you want from the store?”

“Olives and a Hershey’s bar.”

Charmaine looked at her sideways and grinned, “Okaaay,” she said slowly, “We can get those.”

The grocery store wasn’t far. It was only down the other end of the street but Charmaine said she needed to get quite a few things and didn’t want to carry them all back to the minivan when she could park just outside the door.

“Can I have some candy Mom? Please?” Charmaine’s youngest, Cody, asked with his heart in his eyes.

“It’s only just after lunch honey and you just had something to eat at Beth’s. I tell you what, if you are all good,” Charmaine eyed each of her children with a gleam in her eyes, “I’ll let you watch a movie when you get home and I’ll get you some popcorn.”

“The one in the bag, Mommy?”

“Yes honey, the one in the bag.” Charmaine sighed heavily.

“Yay!” All three kids shouted in joy and dashed towards the shop.

“Remember you have to be good!” Charmaine shouted after them but they were already through the door. “I don’t know why I bother,” Charmaine said to Lily and followed the little monsters inside.

Lily laughed for the first time in what felt like years and tagged along. She hoped they had lots of olives. Her mouth salivating just thinking about them.

Charmaine asked the lady at the checkout if she knew of anywhere looking to hire.

The beauty smiled sympathetically at Lily but shook her head. “No sorry, not that I know of. You could have a look at the post office though, they sometimes post notices up on the bulletin board outside.

“Damn,” Lily muttered under her breath before following Charmaine and her troop of little clowns back outside. “Who was that at the checkout? She kept looking at me as if I should know her.” Lily asked once the door closed behind her.

“Tricia.”

“Tricia? Do I know her?”

“You remember Tricia, don’t you? She was a Hamilton, but she married Greg Torr.”

Lily thought about the raven haired lady that served her and tried to place her face in her memory. “I guess I’ve been away too long.” she mused out loud, “I remember the name, but I didn’t recognize her.”

“Well, she used to be blonde and a hundred pounds heavier.” Charmaine grinned, “You should have heard the commotion when she lost all that weight and then snared the third hottest guy in town.”

“Your Bradley being the hottest of course, right Charmaine?”

“Oh I don’t know, I can think of someone hotter!” Charmaine grinned with a wink.

Lily grinned back, she hadn’t had this type of easy friendship since forever. Even with all the worries she had in her life at the moment she’d found herself laughing all afternoon. It was good to be home, even if circumstances weren’t the best.

Lily stopped and looked down the main street towards the hotel. After spending so many years in the hustle and bustle of Toronto, Bassville was positively quiet. There was a small main street and although it was very pretty with tended flower gardens lining the sidewalks, there was barely anybody around. There was a crowd of vehicles parked outside Beth’s café and the few shops next to her, and there were a couple of trucks parked at the hotel, but she suspected they belonged to the regulars that were drinking at the bar. Every once in a while someone drove down the street, but Charmaine’s vehicle was the only one parked outside the grocery store.

She didn’t know what to do. It didn’t seem as though there was much work around. Charmaine said last year, when the movie was being filmed, here the town was buzzing – but since then things had died back down to normal. She hadn’t checked of course, but there didn’t seem to be anything available except at the Cat Whiskers and Lily knew she couldn’t work there, at least not until her morning sickness subsided. And because of the morning sickness, asking about a job at the bar didn’t seem like a good idea either – she didn’t want to be throwing up on customers. But from the look of things, the other shops just weren’t hiring.

She stood in the middle of the sidewalk in contemplation. She sighed. Maybe coming to Bassville hadn’t been the best idea. Maybe she’d have better luck in Calgary.

The wind had died down and the sun was shining. At least it was a nice day. She turned her face up towards the sun and let it soak into her skin. It seemed like ages since she’d been able to enjoy the luxury of just standing still and savouring the moment.

“You coming?” Charmaine called out the window of the minivan.

Lily laughed. This obviously wasn’t that moment either. She jumped in and Charmaine drove down to the post office.

“I have to pick up the mail anyway,” she said.

Lily just nodded and looked out the window. The kids were talking excitedly about what movie they were going to watch. All three of them had a different one they wanted to see. Lily didn’t know how they would ever agree on the same one.

“I’ll just be a moment kids,” Charmaine hopped out of the minivan and made a dash to the post office, obviously needing time away from the escalating chaos in the back seat. She stopped before she got to door of the post office and called to Lily, “Come look.”

Lily unbuckled her seatbelt and climbed out of the minivan. She could hear the kids scramble out behind her.

“Here it is,” Charmaine pointed at the large public notice board in front of the post office when Lily joined her. It wasn’t very full.

“There’s not many notices,” Lily said, stating the obvious. She remembered a time when papers overlapped each other so much it was a struggle to read what they said. Now she could count what was there on one hand. There was a notice about a lost cat, kittens for sale, an advert for Tupperware (she noticed Tricia was selling that too); a flyer about the rodeo that was two weeks ago; and a house for rent. “At least I can call about the house.”

“Look Mommy, a kitten,” Charmaine’s youngest daughter, Sarah, pointed at the picture of kittens for sale.