It was clean and cute in a nostalgic way.
I purchased it used, of course. I believed it would get me to Olympus and that was all I needed.
Unfortunately, it petered out four miles west of Martin’s ranch and two blocks from Skip’s Automotive.
It was a blown hose. Skip told me it would be ready the next day then ‘she’d’ be good as new. Referring to my RV as a woman.
I wasn’t thrilled about the cost, but I had that amount remaining on my credit card. In less than a week, money would be useless, I was sure of that.
There was some concern about leaving my packed RV in Skip’s care. Granted everything was locked tight in the back room, but it was everything we needed and our extra contribution to Olympus.
We each grabbed our bags we had ready for our time at Martin’s and waited on the street corner for our ride.
“What is that?” Reese pointed to the broken phone booth.
The glass walls of it were cracked and dirty and there wasn’t any phone.
“It’s a phone booth.”
“A what?” he asked.
“Years ago, before cell phones they were they only way to call someone when you weren’t home,” I replied. “Like if this was before cell phones, I would use that to call Martin.”
Carlie immediately walked to it. “There’s nothing in here.”
“At one time there was a pay phone,” I said.
“Aren’t all phones pay phones?” Carlie asked.
“Yes, but instead of monthly, you’d put a coin in there and you could make a short phone call.”
“That’s actually not a bad idea,” Carlie backed up. “No cell phones, this kind of makes you pay for something you need. Bet they made a fortune”
“Yep.” I nodded. “That was the concept for pay bathrooms and feminine protection dispenser boxes, too.”
She looked at me with a ‘huh’ expression, then Martin pulled up. Thankfully, the pay toilets and feminine protection dispenser questions would be put on hold.
Martin stopped his huge pickup truck, causing a little dust to fly up behind his rear wheels. He stepped out of the truck with wide open arms and waited for the barrage of hugs from his two grandchildren who yelled out, “Pap!” when they saw him, dropping their bags and running his way.
I like Martin a lot. He was a good guy. He wasn’t a daily, ‘hands on’ grandfather, but he did what he could with the distance between him and the kids.
He ran his ranch, and it took up a lot of his time. He had weekly video calls with the kids, never missed a birthday, came to visit us twice a year not including Christmas and he took the kids for two weeks every summer.
Martin had that typical rancher look about him. All in denim except he wore a baseball cap. He was a tall man and fit for his age. I never ventured to guess what his age was. If he was old enough to be my brother-in-law’s father, he was old enough to be mine.
He lost his wife years before I had met him and had already gotten back into dating. In fact, I don’t recall ever seeing him with the same woman twice.
I didn’t see Martin as someone hard to handle and women leaving him. I figured he probably just got bored and dumped them.
He didn’t get bored with his grandkids though. I watched him focus only on them, hugging them both tight and with love.
“You guys get bigger every time I see you,” Martin told them. “I got a new horse yesterday. A wild one. I’ll be breaking him all week. It’ll be fun for you.” He opened up the back truck door. “Get in.”
He walked over grabbing their bags. “Hey there Jana, you’re looking good.” He kissed me on the cheek. “No Lane?”
“No Lane.”
He took my bag and tossed it in the back with the kids’ stuff and I walked to the passenger seat and got inside.
It smelled like cigarettes and old coffee in the truck, but it was tidy.
“Alright,” Martin announced as he slid in and shut the door. “We’re off. Who’s hungry?”
Both kids called out, “I am!”
“Excellent, I already have Rosie on the late breakfast.”
Rosie was his housekeeper and had been forever. She often brought her own grandkids to work with her when mine were there.
Martin pulled out and on to the road. “Other than breaking down, how was the drive?” he asked.
“It was good,” I replied.
“I’m surprised. Usually, you don’t hear about Subaru’s breaking down on a three hundred mile drive.”
“It wasn’t the Subaru.”
Carlie spoke up. “We rode in the RV?”
“RV?” asked Martin in shock. “When did you get an RV?”
“Last week.”
“Don’t be too impressed,” Carlie said. “It’s old.”
“How old?” Martin asked.
“Not that old,” I responded.
“Now, why in the world did you need an RV to drive here?”
Not wanting to get into it right there and then, I shrugged. “I don’t know. I just wanted to.”
“Well, when Lane gets out here make sure he follows you back.”
“Lane’s not coming.”
“Does he have a show?” Martin asked.
Reese answered. “She left him.”
“Left him?” Martin glanced at me. “What does ‘you left him’ mean?’
“I left him and can we not talk about this in front of the kids?”
“If they know you left him, they know something is up. How is Lane doing with all this break up stuff?”
Before I could answer, Carlie did.
“He doesn’t know,” Carlie said.
“What? Your husband doesn’t know you left?”
“Martin could we … could we just wait to talk about this, please? Please?” I shifted my eyes as a way to point to the kids.
“Yes. Yes, we can. And will.”
“Thank you.” I slouched some in my seat and turned my attention out the window.
It could be said it wasn’t really any of Martin’s business, but in a sense it was. What Lane and I did with our lives, affected his grandchildren.
I had a lot more to tell Martin than about the dissolution of my marriage. Much more than could all be said in the short four mile trip
