When August Ends
“Gotta get something from the truck. Be right back.”
When I returned with what I’d purchased, she took one look at it and said, “Oh my God. What did you do?”
“What or whooo,” I joked.
I dug the stick into the ground. Attached to the top was a fake owl that looked quite lifelike.
Heather had told me a story one night about her father planting a cherry tree shortly before he took off. Each year, the birds got to the cherries before anyone could pick them. Heather had always somehow related that to her dad leaving nothing for them. That made me angry, so I wanted to do something. I bought the owl hoping maybe it would save some of the cherries. Maybe Heather could finally have some for what could possibly be her last summer at the lakehouse.
“This guy here is supposed to scare away the birds. Might as well give him a try. Maybe we can salvage some of the cherries that are coming in. You said they’re almost ready to pick around now.”
“I can’t believe you thought to do that.” She flashed a gorgeous smile. “Thank you.”
She kept staring at the owl, seeming deeply moved by my gesture. It didn’t take much to make her happy. That was one of the things I loved about her.
Whoa.
Calm the fuck down.
“I’ll tell you what,” she said. “If this works, I’ll make you the biggest and best cherry pie to celebrate. I don’t have a clue how to do that, Noah, but I’ll learn. I will.”
I started singing the Warrant song, “Cherry Pie.”
“What’s that song?” she asked.
“You’ve never heard that song? I thought you knew all the old songs from the nineties!”
“No. I must be slipping.”
It dawned on me that I was in elementary school when that song came out, which meant Heather hadn’t been born yet. Damn, that made me feel old. I pulled the song up on my phone and cranked the volume.
Heather started shaking her ass around in her short little shorts, and I pretended not to love every second of it.
The music stopped, and we went back to work on the gardening and landscaping.
After a long while, she dropped a bomb. “I have to tell you something. It’s important. Well, two things. I might need you to stop working for a minute.”
Her tone made me uneasy. “Yeah…let me put my hoe down.”
“Don’t talk to her like that,” she joked.
“Very funny,” I said, digging the hoe into the dirt to stand it up. “What’s up?”
Heather licked her lips. “I’m going to talk to a realtor tomorrow, to get the process started, find out what things I need to do to put this place on the market.”
My heart beat faster. I wasn’t sure why. I was the one encouraging her to sell this place, but something about her really going through with it put me on edge. I knew she would miss it here and would probably never be ready to leave it behind. Heck, I would miss it here, and I hadn’t grown up here.
“I think that’s a good idea,” I said, ignoring all my conflicted thoughts.
“The other thing is…I’ve been thinking a lot about some of the stuff we’ve been talking about—how precious these years are. There’s something I haven’t mentioned, but I didn’t think I could make it a reality until recently…”
“Okay…”
“I applied to the University of Vermont. I got into their nursing program, but it would be for the spring semester. I applied knowing I might not be able to go, but I got accepted anyway. I think I’m going to do it.”
Wow.
As much as I’d hoped for this outcome for her, I wasn’t expecting it to happen so soon.
“Heather, that’s awesome. Truly. I’m so happy you’re gonna finally do it.”
Why does my chest hurt so badly, then?
“I just have to figure out the situation with my mother. I don’t want her living alone. I want to talk to my aunt who lives outside of Boston to see if she would be willing to move here, or take Mom in, or at least look out for her. There’s a lot to figure out before I can make this happen.”
“Does Alice know about Vermont?”
“Not yet. I haven’t told her, because I want to be completely sure it’s going to happen first. Part of that is seeing what the realtor has to say about how easily she thinks we can sell the property. Summer is a good time to put it on the market, and I’ll need that money to fund school. So, if she doesn’t think it will sell, then—”
“Don’t let that stop you.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean…I’ll lend you the money to start school.”
Offering Heather help was a no-brainer. I’d always been smart with my funds, even when I was traveling. I’d often stay in hostels instead of fancy hotels. The bottom line was, I could easily afford to lend it to her.
“I can’t let you do that.”
“I have a good amount of savings. It wouldn’t be an issue to lend you whatever you need to get started. You could always pay me back when the sale goes through. It’s not a big deal.”
“What if the house doesn’t sell?”
“It will.”
Her mouth hung open. “Well, I don’t even know what to say. I’m not too proud to accept your generosity if it comes to that, and I’m completely blown away that you would offer. Seriously, thank you.”
“It’s no skin off my back. The money is just sitting in the bank doing nothing.”
“I hope I don’t have to take advantage of it, but I really appreciate it.”
“You’re welcome.”
A mix of emotions ran through me. I was so incredibly proud of her for taking this step. I was envious of all of the people who had yet to meet her, envious of the lucky bastard she would choose to spend her time with there. Most of all, I knew I would miss her. I’d miss her smile. I’d miss talking to her. I’d miss everything about her and this place.
After her news, things were quiet for a while as we returned to work. Then Heather snapped me out of my thoughts.
“Hey, can we take a quick ride?” she asked, checking her phone for the time. “I didn’t realize how late it was, and I need your truck for something.”
“You need to pick something up?”
“Yes. I need you to take me to the pet store. I don’t have room in my car for everything.”
“Everything?”
“I’m sort of rescuing a couple of guinea pigs. They come with a lot of baggage.”
Chuckling, I said, “Guinea pigs have baggage?”
“Well, their cage is really big.”
“You’re seriously bringing them back here?”
“Yes.”
“Do you think that’s a good idea if you’re gonna be leaving for school at some point?”
“We don’t have a choice. The pet store is closing tomorrow for good, and my friend Trish says if no one takes them, they could end up being euthanized. I’ll figure something out. But this will buy them more time.”
“There’s no one else who can take them in?”
“She said she can’t find anyone. Trish already has three of them at home.”
Heather’s life was about to be in limbo. She needed this like a hole in the head, but she had a heart of gold, and I knew there would be no talking her out of this.
Brushing the dirt off my hands, I said, “Okay, let’s go rescue some guinea pigs.”
***
An hour later, I was thinking I needed my head examined for agreeing to this. Those pigs took up way more space than I’d ever imagined.
I’d helped her bring the animals upstairs and set up their massive cage in the corner of her room.
It was my first time inside Heather’s bedroom, and it was just as soft and feminine as I’d imagined it to be. I was as tense being in here as I’d imagined I’d be, too.
My eyes wandered to the top shelf in her closet. There were bags upon bags of stacked candy corn packages.
“I take it you like candy corn?”
“Well, you have to stock up, otherwise you can’t find them all year. I can’t live without them. So I hit the sales at the end of Halloween.”
“And buy out the whole store?”
“Pretty much.” She laughed. “I never told you Halloween was my favorite holiday?”
“No. Although based on your penchant for horror movies, I should’ve known.”
She was clicking away on her laptop, trying to find information about caring for her new pets. Neither one of us knew a thing about guinea pigs.
“There’s so much I have to learn. It’s overwhelming.”
“Like what?”
“Well, for one…I don’t think we have enough hay. This says if they don’t have enough of it, it can lead to malocclusion.”
“Malo-what?”
“It’s a misalignment of their teeth. Without hay, their digestive tract also shuts down. They could die.” She buried her head in her hands. “Holy crap. What did I get myself into?” She seemed to be panicking. “They eat lettuce and kale? I don’t have any of that in the house. I assumed the pellets she gave us were their food. These guys are supposed to be eating good stuff.” She went back to the screen for a moment. “Crap. It says you need a lid for the cage if you have other pets. What if Teddy tries something? What if he accidentally murders them?”