Part Six, Steph and Strawberry Park
A day off, my first since arriving in Steamboat Springs. I had chores I needed to attend to. I needed down time to consider my thoughts from days of Denver to Steamboat Springs and the days till now. A lot had happened and I needed to understand where I stood in this disastrous move I had made. I needed to make some changes to better prepare me for what might be coming my way in the days, weeks and months to come. Moving out on my own was not going anywhere near how I thought it would go at the outset. I needed to make some plans to salvage my sanity and revisit my goals.
I woke up early, no alarm needed. My inner clock was adjusting to the new life in Steamboat. Sandy's panties caressing my dick felt comforting. The panties brought a feeling of peace. I carefully removed them, took a whiff of her scent and placed them back under the pillow. Nothing to do today. No plans. Nothing to do for another couple of hours. So, I lay in bed and relaxed.
Having a day off might let me see where I was living. With a new job, it was hard to learn anything about The Barn or Steamboat Springs. I leave before the sun comes up and get back after the sun goes down. My life was a bedroom, the bath house and the worksite. I was beginning to think I didn't have it so bad while I was at home in Denver. I'm not even sure I had a good excuse for leaving. But I certainly was seeing a different world here in Steamboat. The opening of my eyes was the result of a sound ass kickin'.
Time to get up and face the new day and whatever it held for me.
I put on a pair of board shorts and sandals and a clean t-shirt. I put all my dirty clothes into a duffel bag and headed for the laundry room. All the laundry machines took quarters, of which I had none, so I couldn't buy soap or use a washer or dryer. Shit. I went to the office to get change. The sign on the door said "Closed". Of course it did, because it was early Sunday morning, it was Steamboat, the world hated me and wanted me to suffer. Fuck me. I turned and walked away. After a few seconds I heard the door open. Steph yelled:
"What 'cha need?"
"Laundry soap and quarters."
"Come on in."
I went back to the office and Steph opened the cash drawer.
"Shit. We're out of quarters. Busy weekend already."
My shoulders slumped and I dropped my duffel bag on the floor. Frustration set in and anger was welling up inside.
"Is there a laundromat in town?"
"Yeah, but you don't want to do that. Nasty place. Come with me."
Steph got her keys and we walked over to the laundry room. She used the master key to unlock the machines. She set two washers and two dryers to manual mode. Then she opened the soap box dispenser and got out two boxes of soap.
"Gimme two bucks and we'll call it even." I gave her the money and took the soap.
At least I didn't have to drive to Steamboat and spend the rest of the morning in a smelly laundromat. I loaded the two washing machines and dumped in the soap. I set the washers for full, dirty loads and closed the lids. They started as soon as the lids were closed. Make a note for the shopping list: Soap and Quarters.
I headed back to my room to see if there was any food left in the cooler. Of course, the sandwiches I bought the night before were stale and tasted awful. I threw them in the trash. What a waste of money. I walked around the building to find a place to sit while the laundry ran. Steph was walking around the office building, saw me and waived me over. Might as well see what she wanted because the laundry would run no matter what I was doing.
"Coffee? You had breakfast yet?"
"Yes and no. I haven't had a chance to get to town to get to the store. Work is too busy and time ends up being short. Things don't seem to work out for me right now. This is all kinda of new to me and I'm just trying to figure it out. Kind of a cluster..." I guess I sounded a little frustrated.
"Yeah, life gets like that. When you can plan better, you'll enjoy it more. Just learn something every time you get smacked down, eh?"
"Come help me make breakfast. Coffee is already made." Steph led me into the kitchen and the coffee smelled great. I thanked her again for her kindness earlier in the week.
She handed me a sharp knife and some vegetables. The cutting board was on the counter.
"Dice those up nice and small."
The yellow onion was really potent and I had tears in my eyes. Steph looked over and chuckled. Then I diced up some red and green bell peppers. There was a small piece of ham to dice. Last were a couple of mushrooms. She looked at my work and spoke.
"You're not much of a prep cook are you. You be a mamma's boy?" Steph was very perceptive concerning my skills in the kitchen.
"Yeah, I've only lived at home and mom cooked and washed for me. My dad wasn't too impressed with me and he let me know it. We didn't get along. Got to where I needed to move out and be on my own."
"How's that workin' out for ya?" she asked.
"It's a lot harder than I thought it would be. I can handle learnin' the construction job for now. It's the other side of living that I'm having trouble with. The stuff mom always did. She was an organizer. I guess she had a hard life. Harder than I realize now. Now I gotta pay my dues..."
"Well, that's a start. At least you're moving in the right direction. Grate that cheddar, would you?"
While I was dicing, Steph was frying bacon on the stove. My gas delivery was being put to good use. The bacon smelled great. God, I was hungry.
There was a chunk of cheddar cheese and a grater. Those scalloped cutting edges on the side of the grater were sharp and looked wicked and mean.
"Leave the skin and blood on your knuckles, not in the cheese."
"Thanks for those tips. Good to know. I'll try my best."
So, I picked up the grater in one hand and the cheese in the other. I carefully pushed the cheese over the sharp scallops and grated cheese fell onto the cutting board. It was a little worrisome having those cutting edges so close to my knuckles. I made a pile of shredded cheese and Steph finally said that was enough for what we were doing. There was still cheese left in the block and all my skin was intact. A small win...
"Put half a dozen eggs in that bowl. Add half a cup of milk and whisk it up until it's all mixed. Throw in some salt and pepper. Not too much."
So, I carefully cracked the eggs, trying to keep the broken eggshells out of the egg whites. Then I split the egg shells open and let the whites and yokes drop into the bowl. After all the eggs were in the bowl, I added the milk, salt and pepper. Then I got a whisk and stirred it all up until the mix was one solid color, smooth and a little frothy.
"Very nice. I'll cook the rest. You'd probably screw it up. You can watch and learn."
The bacon was done, pulled out of the pan and put on paper towels to soak up extra bacon fat. Steph got a second pan and put it on another burner to heat up. She dumped half the bacon fat from the bacon pan into the new pan. When both pans were smoking, she took the egg mix and dumped half into each pan.
"Make us some wheat toast with butter..."
She poked at the egg disks with a spatula, while she was cooking, to make sure they didn't stick to the pans. She took the diced ingredients and put half onto each egg disk. She added the cheese and flipped one half of the egg disk over to make omelettes. A few minutes later she flipped the omelettes onto the other side to finish cooking.
The toaster popped up and I began buttering the toast. That smelled good too. Amazingly, everything was finishing up at the same time. How did my mother do this every day and make perfect breakfasts? And be so happy? Why didn't I ever notice that, when I was at home?
Steph turned off the stove. She got out two large plates. She put one omelette on each plate, followed by three slices of bacon. She took the toast, made two stacks and cut each stack diagonally and placed four cut pieces of toast on each plate.
"Get the Cholula, salt, pepper, marmalade, napkins, knives and forks and bring them out to the picnic table. Then bring out the coffee." As I got all that stuff and the coffee and mugs, Steph got cranberry juice and two glasses. We were set up outside for a hearty breakfast. She had put the plates down, folded napkins, placed silverware on the napkins and poured out juice. I poured the coffee.
I sat down with Steph for an unexpected breakfast on the flank of Mt. Werner, sitting under aspen and pine trees on a cool, but sunny, Sunday morning. It couldn't be any better. How did Steph pull that off? How did I get so lucky?
"I hope you enjoy your breakfast. You owe me a dozen eggs, bell peppers, an onion and a loaf of bread. Still waitin' for the coffee..." She was serious. No free rides at The Barn. My grocery shopping list was growing.
"You got it. Can I get a list from you? Don't want to screw up forgettin' somethin'..."
I poured fresh cups of coffee and we enjoyed our morning under the aspen trees on The Hill.
We talked about life on The Hill. It was the only thing we had in common. Her job was much less chaotic than mine but it took almost all her waking time to keep the place together. Turns out, if you wanted clean linens and towels, you had to pay for the linen service. You were welcome to do your own thing, but most everybody paid for the service because they didn't want to mess with it themselves. And if you wanted laundry service you could pay for that too. I could see weekly costs going up if you wanted to pay the price. So, living at The Barn wasn't actually $30 a week. It could be more like $50 or $60 if you wanted a rental mom. Steph had a hostel full of children. She had to bust her ass and not get paid that much to do it. And, here, I thought my life sucked. I was getting a real-life education.
"Gail and Sandy were good kids. I liked them a lot. Pretty brave to hitch to KC and back from SF." She said.
Her subject of conversation caught me off guard. I wasn't sure I was ready to talk about any of that.
"Yeah, they looked like they could use a turn in their luck when I came across them."
