Up in Smoke (21 page)

Chapter 3 ~ Jess

Kicking her shoes off on the front patio, Jess noticed a hummingbird feeder hanging from the roof’s corner. A small bird was zipping around the feeder frantically. She smiled as she thought of her friend Troy, back in Seattle. He was a boxer and often referred to himself as the hummingbird.

Entering into the farmhouse, Jess glanced around and saw that nothing had changed since she had been there five years ago. The same two beige couches with the squiggly designs on the fabric sat in the living room, one couch on each side. The same pictures of all the family hung behind the television. And even the picture of her grandmother, Lucille, which sat on the mantle above the fireplace, right between the wooden praying hands and the shelf clock. Everything was the same.

Walking up to the picture of her grandma, she looked at it longingly.
Why can’t mom be like you were, Grandma?

Hearing Henry and the rest just outside on the patio, Jess quickly made her way across the living room, through the dining room and through the door leading up the stairwell to her room she knew she’d be staying in. The wood paneling on both sides of the hallway leading upstairs made her laugh.
He has the money from Grandma’s life insurance, yet he updates nothing.
It was so old and outdated, but then again, everything was in the house.

Lying down on the daybed that was pushed up against the lone window in the room, she turned on her side and peered out the window. Pushing the curtain back, she could see down the hillside and a faint view through the trees of the creek. She couldn’t help but recall playing in it with Henry and all her cousins, years ago.

They would sneak pots and pans from the kitchen when grandma wasn’t looking and journey down the hillside with them to the creek. They were
farming for gold
as they often referred to it. Looking back over her childhood, she couldn’t help but have a longing for the simpler times. Grandma was alive, mom and dad were together and all the cousins lived in the same city. She hated being forced by her mother’s hand to be at the farm this summer, but she loved the childhood memories that came with being there.

Hearing the door open at the base of the stairwell, Jess slid off the bed. She suspected her mother was going to be calling for her.

“Come down and visit with your grandpa,” her mother hollered up the stairs loudly. Jess came out of the room and looked down the stairs at her mom.

“You don’t have to yell...”

“Just come downstairs and visit, please.” Her mother left the door open and walked away.
It was hot up here anyway.
Jess missed a step on her way down the stairs and tumbled to the bottom.

“Ooouuuchhh!” Jess said, grabbing onto the arm that she had braced herself with on the fall. Glancing up, she was greeted by laughter from a rude, but very attractive, brown-haired boy with the bluest eyes she’d ever seen.

Extending a hand to help her up, he said, “I’m sorry, but that was just too funny.”

Jess pushed his hand out of her way. “I’m glad my pain can be of entertainment to you.” Pushing herself up off the steps, she stood up and looked at him. “Who are you?” she asked curiously.

“I’m Levi. I live up the road and help Roy out with the farm. I know you’re Roy’s granddaughter, but I didn’t catch your name…?”

“I’m Jess… I had no idea other people lived out here our age. How do you stand to live without cell phones and cable?”

“What’s a cell phone?” Levi laughed. “I’m only kidding. You just get used to it.” Jess nodded as she proceeded past him.

Entering into the kitchen, she grabbed for a clean glass from the dish rack and poured herself a glass of ice water. Taking a drink, she looked over to the table to see Henry, her mother and grandpa all staring at her.

“What?” she asked.

“Don’t be
rude
with your tone Missy,” her mom said. “But are you okay? We heard you fall down the stairs.”

Jess’s back and arm were hurting a little from falling, but she didn’t want to let her mother get the satisfaction of nurturing her. “I’m fine, Mom.”

“Ok. Well, your Grandfather and Henry are going to fish over on Long Lake tomorrow morning; did you want to join them?”

Jess immediately thought of her dad. In fact, every time she heard the word
fish
since the split, she’d think of him. Even the stupid commercials on television that were just ads for fishing supply businesses triggered it. She and her father would go on fishing trips at least twice a month during the summer, and sometimes even more. Last year, they had entered a fishing competition on Lake Roosevelt and had won first place. They got a trophy and a cash prize. It put them that much closer to their dream of getting a
real
fishing boat, instead of the duct-taped-up aluminum canoe they had gotten as a hand-me-down from Roy. It barely floated.

She was already upset that she had to be at the farm all summer; she wasn’t going to give her grandpa or mother the satisfaction of her going fishing with him. They knew she enjoyed fishing, and that’d be a win for their column. “No.” She turned to her grandpa and narrowed her look at him. “I won’t be fishing at all this summer. I’ll wait for dad to get back to do my fishing.” Taking another drink of her water, she finished it and slammed the cup down in her frustration, and then exited the kitchen, angered she’d been even asked to go fishing.

Jess knew her grandpa most likely had some hand in her mother’s decision to walk out on her father, and it infuriated Jess. He always had a dislike for Jess’s dad. Jess thought it had to do with the day when the three of them had all gone fishing together and her grandpa never got as much as a bite on his hook. Yet her dad, in all his awesomeness, reeled in three that same day.

On her way back to the stairs, she saw into the living room that her luggage had been brought in. Unfortunately, the rude boy was sitting on a couch near her luggage.
Oh great, another encounter with prince charming.
As she grabbed her bags, he lowered his newspaper and looked at her beaming with a smile.

“Why do you insist on smiling constantly?”

“I’m happy.”

“I find that hard to believe. You live in the middle of nowhere and have, like, no life.” Levi kept the smile on his face and brought the paper back up to read. Jess felt like she was a bit harsh with him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that. I’m just… really upset right now. Sorry.”

“You don’t even know me or my life. You’re just a city brat and I’m just a country hick, so let’s just keep our distance from each other.”

“You think I’m a brat?”

“No, I don’t think you are…”

“Good…”

“No, let me finish. I know you are a brat.” He lowered his paper and glanced at her. “The way you carried on in there with your grandpa was horrible. I wouldn’t be caught dead talking to anyone that way, let alone my own grandfather.”

Jess shook her head with her tongue in cheek. “You know what? You’re right. Let’s keep our distance from each other.”

Levi raised his paper back up to read, and she scowled at him. Her grandpa came into the living room and said, “Levi.”

Setting his paper down, he stood up and walked into the kitchen with her grandpa. Her mom noticed the tension between them as she and Henry came in and sat on the opposite couch from Jess.

“What’s that all about?”

“Nothing, Mom. Just a country boy living in a bubble.”

“What happened?”

“Well… he laughed at me for falling, for starters.”

Henry snickered.

“Stop that,” her mom said to Henry.

“And then… he called me a brat.”

Her mom couldn’t help from smiling, but she covered her face in the attempts to hide it. “I’m sorry, dear… You should try to get along with him though; he’s been helping your Grandpa a lot out here.”

Jess sighed, shaking her head.
I should have just taken that offer of Tragan’s. That would have made more sense than being here.
“Sure, Mom,” Jess replied, rolling her eyes. She and Tragan, her friend in Seattle, were going to room together after Jess had learned of the
summer
at grandpa’s
idea of her mom’s. She figured she was eighteen and could do whatever she wanted; her mom couldn’t stop her. But after looking into the cost of splitting rent on a two-bedroom apartment in Seattle, she decided against it. There was no way she would be able to finish her senior year, spend time with her friends and work all at the same time, so she elected to obey her mother. Thinking back on it now, she wondered if she had made the right choice.

Chapter 4 ~ Roy

Standing up from the kitchen table, Roy extended his hand and shook Levi’s firmly. Every week, after writing him a check, they’d shake on it. There was no need for contracts or other paperwork miscellanies out in the back country. The people out there were trusted and relied on by their word and their handshake.

“Be sure to tell your father hello for me.” Roy retrieved a pocket watch from his pants’ pocket and placed it in Levi’s hands. On the face, it had an etching of a train stopping to let people on, and the exterior was entirely made of gold. “I want you to have this. I picked it up from the flea market the other day, and when I saw it, I thought of you.”

“What about it made you think of me?” Levi asked.

“Life is kinda like a train. Sometimes it stops; sometimes it goes, but along the way it’s always on track going somewhere. When my train had stopped, you were there to hop on.”

“I’m sorry, but that sounds quite ridiculous.”

“Ridiculous or not, I want you to have it.”

“I can’t take this,” Levi said, rubbing the surface before trying to hand it back to Roy.

“Please take it. I’ll be offended if you don’t. Now, don’t forget to tell your father hello for me.”

“I will, sir. It’s always a pleasure working with you.” Heading for the side door that led out of the kitchen and into the porch, Levi turned to Roy. “You have your work cut out this summer with that girl.”

Roy smiled. “I know.” Patting him on the back, Roy said, “That’s why I have God to help me.” Levi nodded and proceeded out into the porch, shutting the door behind him.

Walking through the kitchen, Roy could hear his daughter and grandchildren conversing about him in the living room. Stopping, he leaned against the doorway and listened.

Jess laughed. “He belongs in a home. You know it, I know it… we all have known it since Grandma passed. It’s just ridiculous that he’s draining his retirement paying that stupid boy.”

She sure doesn’t like him.

“My dad isn’t going to give up this farm, Jess, that’s just the way it is. This farm is in his blood. Without it, who knows how long he’d hold on. Meadows down the block from our house in Seattle would be perfect for him… but I don’t see it ever happening, and I don’t know if I want it to, either.”

Roy sighed heavily as he leaned against the door frame.
She’s already looked into it?
As if the next minute aged him fifty years, Roy found himself exhausted. Going back into the kitchen, he took a seat at the table and glanced out the large kitchen windows that overlooked the front yard. He watched as Levi walked the sidewalk out to his truck.

“Grandpa?” Henry said, walking into the kitchen.

“Yes?”

“Do you miss your dad?” Henry asked, as he climbed up to a seat at the table. Reaching across the table, he snatched an apple from the bowl of fruit.

“Every day,” Roy replied. Over the years it had gotten easier for Roy, not because he’d missed his fatherless, but because he’d learned to live with a hole in his life.

“I miss my dad… a lot,” Taking a bite of his apple, Henry had a smile crawl on his face. “He should be back in town when we get back to Seattle though, so it’s not
too
far from now.”

Roy rubbed Henry’s head as he ignored the comment about Brandon entirely. “Are you ready to go fishing tomorrow?” Henry nodded as he took another bite of his apple. “How big of fish are you going to catch?”

Henry leaped up from his chair. Stretching one arm up as high as he could reach, he said, “This big!”

“Ha,” Jess said, walking into the kitchen to the fridge. Opening the door to the fridge, she sighed heavily. Roy didn’t keep much food that the kids would enjoy around the house; he had forgotten to fetch some for their visit. That was something that Lucille had always taken care of before the grandchildren would arrive.

“There’s soda on the porch, I know how you kids don’t enjoy lemonade much,” Roy smiled, hoping it would be good enough.

Jess shut the fridge and opened the door leading into the porch. Leaning, she looked out and laughed. “Diet caffeine-free…”

Henry cringed as he heard his sister. “Gross, Grandpa.”

“I’m sorry about that. We can get some food and stuff tomorrow. Henry and I will be sure to swing by the grocery store on the way back from fishing.”

Jess was going to leave the kitchen, but stopped and looked at her grandpa. “There’s really nothing to do out here.”

“You could go for a walk on the hill, read, paint, and draw… Really, anything is possible out here if you put your mind to it.”

“Cell phones and cable aren’t possible, no matter how much you put your mind to it.”

“That’s true, but those things are just distractions. You have to embrace life out here without all that technology.”

“Whatever,” Jess said, rolling her eyes as she walked out to the porch.

“She stresses mom out,” Henry said, looking intently at his grandpa. “We don’t know what to do with her.”

Laughing, Roy said, “Who’s
we
?”

“Mom and I.”

Roy furrowed his eyebrows. “You’re ten years old. You don’t need to worry about Jess. She’s not your concern. That’s your mom’s territory.” Henry nodded and got down from the table. Watching as Henry walked out of the kitchen, sadness overtook Roy. Henry was but a child, and he was attempting to fill a void that only a father could. Roy knew he had a long summer ahead of him, but more importantly, he knew God had a plan in the midst of the chaos and turmoil in those two children’s lives.

Looking out the window at the chicken coop across the yard, Roy watched as Jess ventured over to it. It reminded him of Tiffany’s fascination with the chicken coop when she was but a child. Back years ago when she was six, she’d go out every morning before breakfast and collect all the eggs. While she didn’t have a fondness for the smells that resided in the chicken coop, she loved those chickens and hens dearly.

“How many hens do you have now?” Tiffany asked, coming into the kitchen and leaning her head over Roy’s shoulder.

“We have twelve,” Roy replied with a smile, watching Jess open the door and go in.

Tiffany took a seat at the table and Roy turned to her. “She’s not as lost as you think she is, Winnie.”

“You don’t know how difficult it is…” Tiffany said, putting her hands to her forehead as she rested her elbows on the table. “She doesn’t listen to anything I say, Dad, and she hates everyone and everything except her father and her friends.”

Roy placed a hand on Tiffany’s and brought it away from her face. “She’s just a teenager. You were there once.”

“Nothing like this, Dad.”

“I’m sure it’s different, but it’s still the same. Children go through phases in life and she’s going through one right now. You add in the fact that--”

“I know,” Tiffany interrupted.

Roy stood up from the table and kissed his daughter’s forehead. “I love you, Winnie, and your children are going to be
okay
. Just trust that God is doing a work here.”

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