“I have a car,” she said.
“Then follow me,” Vernon said with a wave. He was already returning to his car.
“I’m on until six,” Ricky said. “See you when I get back?”
Amber looked between him and Vernon’s car for a moment before she nodded.
“Great. This is great. So glad to see you back in Maine,” Ricky said with a big smile. A cloud passed over his eyes and his smile faded. “Wait—why are you back?”
She thought about it for several seconds. Ricky was about to ask again when she finally opened her mouth to answer.
“I’ve come to help you with your thing, and ask if you’ll help me with mine.”
Ricky narrowed his eyes and nodded slowly. “An exchange, then?”
“A favor for a favor.”
“Okay,” he said. “Okay. I can do that. See you soon.”
He backed towards the door of the building and waved before he turned.
# # #
For the first two hours of work—a training seminar, some paperwork, and a meeting—Ricky had to work to conceal a smile. He kept thinking of his mother taking in Amber and leading her up the stairs to Ricky’s old bedroom. When speaking to Amber, he had referred to it as the “guest room,” but she would be sleeping in the same bed that he had curled up in for the first twenty years of his life.
By lunch, his secret smile was gone. Ricky kept hearing his father’s voice in his head.
“We felt like we owed it to each other to fall in love because we each owed our lives to the other.”
Amber had no feelings for him. She had told him that in both word and deed. Ricky had told himself over and over that he had no feelings for her, but he had to admit that it was a lie. Even his parents knew it.
He was so distracted all day that by the time he walked out of the building, he just stood there, looking over the cars in the parking lot, trying to figure out what had happened to his truck.
“You need a ride, Rick?” a woman asked. It was Bethany. She had worked for the sheriff’s office for almost two years. In the office, she was a newcomer, but compared to him she had worked there forever.
“No, I…” he started to say. “Actually? I kinda do. I forgot that my dad dropped me off and I was about to call the house to see if someone could pick me up.”
“You live near the West Road, right?”
“I do.”
“I can get you there,” Bethany said.
She gestured to a little blue car and Ricky went around to the passenger’s door. He waited there while she organize the papers from the seat, stashed some in the glove compartment and some in the back. Finally, she unlocked the door.
Ricky got in.
“You mind?” she asked.
Bethany was holding up a tin of chewing tobacco. Ricky reached for it, confused as to what she was asking.
She laughed at him. “You’re a million miles away, aren’t you. You on drugs, Dunn?”
“No.”
“Then you should be.” She slapped the tin against her hand a couple of times and then scooped some of the wintergreen tobacco into her cheek. Ricky shrank against his door. He hadn’t seen anyone chew tobacco in years, and he had never had to watch someone spit into a plastic bottle before. He turned his attention to the scenery through the window as she drove with her window halfway down. The air was cold, but it helped with the smell.
“What’s your plan, anyway?” she asked.
“For?”
“I don’t know—for the future, I guess. You looking to make a career or are you killing time until something better comes along.”
“Career,” he said. It was far from the truth, but it was the only answer he was willing to give until he was better established. He had a couple more reviews to go through before he had anything near job security and he didn’t want anyone to doubt his resolve.
“Good,” she said. “We get a lot of turnover. It sucks.”
Ricky nodded. He kept quiet for the next few minutes while Bethany spit into her bottle and fiddled with the radio, trying to find something good to listen to. She paused when the radio said, “You’re listening to the Muh-Muh-Muh-Mountain of Pure Rock.” A song by Nirvana came on and she turned up the volume until Ricky couldn’t even hear the rushing wind anymore. He was cold, but he made no outward sign. People in the sheriff’s office didn’t ever mention when they were cold or hot. To do so was to invite immediate derision. Ricky didn’t know if that rule extended to car trips home after work, but it wouldn’t have surprised him if it did.
The song ended and Bethany turned down the radio. Ricky glanced over and saw that her lip wasn’t bulging out anymore—the tobacco was gone.
“I played that song for my niece’s boyfriend the other day,” Bethany said.
“Oh yeah?”
“He was wearing an old Nirvana shirt. Halfway through the song, he was like, ‘Who is this?’ Can you believe that?”
Ricky shook his head and forced out a laugh.
“No way.”
“Wait, I bet Kurt was dead before you were even born, wasn’t he.”
Ricky nodded. “Yeah.”
“Wow. What’s happening to the world? Either I’m getting old, or the rest of the people are getting way too young.”
Ricky smiled at her. Bethany wasn’t very old, in his opinion.
“You have a girlfriend, Rick?”
He blushed and looked down at his hands. “I… I, uh.”
“Boyfriend?”
“No,” he said, “neither, I guess. I do have a… I guess I have a crush on someone.”
“At work?”
“No,” he said quickly. “No, not at work. She’s someone that I met a few months ago. We’ve been talking. I don’t think that she feels the same way about me is all.”
“That’s always the way. I’m one of the few
