CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
A Test of Some
Sort
The next day I drove
directly from Lenox to the store, not wanting to leave Iris a
second earlier than I had to. She made me a thermos of coffee even
though she knew I was going to go to see my “girlfriend” at the
diner in Enfield along the way. As I drove, I listened to the new
Marc Cohn album, a classic James Taylor record, and then a playlist
I’d made of some of my favorite acoustic artists. It was a
singer/songwriter kind of morning.
Jenna had already
arrived for her shift when I got to the store.
“You made it,” she
said when she saw me.
“Was there some
question about that?”
“You sounded like you
weren’t sure you were going to be in today when I spoke to you
yesterday.”
“I did? I think I
said I would unquestionably be in today.”
“Yeah, but you didn’t
sound like it.” She smiled at me. To the best of my knowledge, she
had no idea where I had been the past two days or why, but she
seemed to have concluded that it had something to do with my
personal satisfaction.
“Everything go okay
here?” I asked.
“Yeah, of course.
Monster day yesterday. But we just bore up.”
“I owe you
one.”
“What you owe me is
time and a half. I’m going to have a ton of overtime this week. But
I’ll forget about it if you tell me why you look like you’re in
such a good mood.”
I laughed. “Overtime
is fine.”
“Too bad. Howard
Crest called a few minutes ago. Asked that you call him when you
got in.”
I went to the back
room and called Howard’s office.
“Pat Maple has come
through,” he said when he came to the phone.
“Come through with
another counteroffer?”
“Come through with
your precise asking price. He went for the whole thing. I guess his
daughter liked Amber very much and, while he was a little dubious
about the last month’s sales figures, he was also very
impressed.”
I felt slightly
disoriented by this news. I’d begun to believe over the past few
weeks that Maple would in fact ultimately make an acceptable offer,
but I’d also come to understand that negotiating was a sport to
him, one he played with the avidity of a semipro golfer. I expected
that we’d get to the point where we were arguing hundreds of
dollars before he finally forced me to concede. Of course, the
first thought that crossed my mind was that we’d underpriced the
store, though I knew that wasn’t the case at all. If anything,
Maple was willing to pay slightly above market value.
“What do we do now?”
I asked.
“We make a deal. I
assume this is where you need to turn it over to your father. I’d
like to set up some time to talk to him and your mother this
afternoon. Should I give him a call?”
“No, I’d like to do
it. He’s gonna be thrilled. I think. I mean, I think he’ll probably
be a little sad that this is the beginning of the end, but he’s
going to be happy with the deal we got.”
“It’s a great deal,
Hugh.”
“I know it is.
Thanks.”
“You had a lot to do
with it. Between what you put into the store and how you held out
for the best price. You did a great job for Richard and I’m sure he
appreciates it.”
I guessed that he did
appreciate it, though I had no real way of knowing. We’d hardly
talked about the process of the sale, even when he came into the
store to see the changes I’d made.
“You’ll set something
up for this afternoon, then?” Howard asked.
“Yeah, I’ll set it
up. I’ll call you back. Thanks again, Howard.”
“You’re welcome. I’m
glad I could do it for Richard.”
I hung up the phone
and then started to dial home. I stopped, realizing that this was
news I should deliver in person. I walked to the front of the
store. Jenna was ringing up a sale and I helped the next customer
in line and another after that.
“I have to head out
again,” I said when there was no one left at the
counter.
“Is this a test of
some sort?”
“It is, and you’re
doing fabulously,” I said as I walked away.
The sidewalks of
Russet Avenue were already active even though it was before noon. A
small child weaved around pedestrians while his mother struggled to
keep up. A gaggle of teenagers gathered outside of Bean There, Done
That listening to hip-hop and pretending to be “street,” a gesture
that would have seemed humorously incongruous if I hadn’t known it
to be enacted in some form by every generation of homegrowns to
come before them. A tourist couple in their late forties held hands
and swung arms while moving from shop to shop. I’d been back in
Amber for more than four months and had seen all of these things
before. But for so many reasons I saw them with new eyes today. I
saw the interconnectedness and the continuity and, even though I
once believed that I would never use the term in association with
the town I grew up in, I saw the evolution.
I looked back at the
store. Continuity and evolution. Would Pat Maple continue to call
the place Amber Cards, Gifts, and Stationery or would he change it
to something more clever?
By the time I got to
the car, I’d already made up my mind. In all likelihood, I’d made
it up weeks ago without realizing it.
When I arrived at the
house, my parents were sitting on the back deck with my Aunt Rita.
I’d only seen her a few times since my Memorial Day melt-down and
every instance had been very uncomfortable. Today, though, I walked
directly over to her and kissed her on the cheek before saying to
my parents, “I need you for a minute.” We sat at the dining room
table and my mother asked me if I wanted coffee, which I’d had more
than enough of at that point.
“The buyer has come
up to our number,” I said.
My father took a deep
breath and nodded slowly. My mother said, “That’s great”
wanly.
“I don’t want you to
take it.” Both of them turned to look at me. I shut my eyes and
gave myself a moment before continuing. “I want it. I’m here now
and, completely without intending to, I’ve kind of gotten attached
to the place. It’s supposed to stay in the family.”
My mother reached out
and took my hand. My father took another deep breath.
“Howard Crest wants
to meet with you this afternoon to finalize the deal. I’d like to
call him and tell him that we’re taking it off the market if that’s
okay with you. There’s enough money in the store for all of
us.”
My father looked at
me carefully. I imagined that he was recalibrating, though it’s
entirely possible he was gauging my sincerity.
“You’re the boss,” he
said. “If you think this is the right decision, tell
him.”
I called Howard, who
seemed relatively unsurprised and only mildly peeved at having lost
the commission, and then, after my parents had gone back out to the
deck with Rita, I called Iris to give her the news.
“You’re doing the
right thing,” she said.
“God, I hope so. Do
you realize what I just committed to doing?”
“You know you’re
doing the right thing. You don’t have to wonder.”
“You’re right. I do
know it. Jeez, a shopkeeper. Can you believe that’s what I’ve
turned out to be?”
“As long as you don’t
develop a paunch and start wearing an apron, I think you’ll be
okay. Hey, come on up tonight. We should celebrate in
person.”
“This commute is
going to kill me.”
She hesitated for a
beat and then said, “Yeah, we’ll have to think about
that.”
I sighed. I cradled
the phone between my head and my shoulders, imagining that I was
nuzzling Iris’ face instead. “I think the last couple of days
officially qualify as a whirlwind.”
“I suppose they
do.”
“I can’t wait to see
you tonight.”
“Come up now. I’ll
make some excuse.”
“I think Jenna would
hunt me down and kill me if I did that to her again.”
“I’ll wait
then.”
“I love you,” I said
quickly, not even understanding how right it felt to say until
after the words came out of my mouth.
“I love you, too,
Hugh,” Iris said without any noticeable hesitation. “I love you,
too.”
That I was able to go
back to the store at all after hearing her say that was the
clearest indication yet that I had found my place.