While Craig is dying to get off Iron Mountain and get back home to the girl that he's always loved, that girl wants him just as much and more, because she's finally figured it out.
Not only that, but she's figuring out the best way to do that, too.
She knows Craig because she always has - even right down to what she knows he holds in his heart, and that means not only for her.
There are a pair of interesting characters in this, who are a lot of fun to write, and this chapter shows what they'd do for someone that they love who is in a bad way as well as to show how one of them is somewhat gifted in possessing a pretty solid ability for foresight.
All characters in this are over 18. Not one is even under 21.
0_o
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Cascade, Idaho - 19 September, 1946
She drove up Main Street in the old 1937 Chevrolet that her father had given her, idling along as she looked for a parking space. Main Street was only two lanes and there was an allowance made to angle-park forward so long as you eased in until you felt your front wheels against the concrete curb.
She saw one spot open on the other side and she checked her mirrors and looked around quickly. Main Street was deathly still, since it was a little cold for this time of year and the only reason that there were so many cars out there in the first place was because of the movie theater on her side of the street.
She'd already seen the picture that they were showing. These days, Amelia had lots of time to go to the movies alone.
She'd worked late over at the sawmill in the offices the last three days running to get their month-ends all wrapped up in exchange for a day off before she started her week of vacation and one day after. She didn't mind the hour because it would get her out of there well after the men who hung around for an hour after their shifts ended, trying to pick her up when she left, even though it never worked.
She wasn't about to do that again.
That was how she'd gotten fooled into falling for a really good actor, only to find out that he was a prick once they were married. That was long over with now, but Amelia was only now coming out of the shell that he'd kicked her into.
Getting out at 9PM also got her away from the place long before the next batch of hoons got off at midnight, though she wouldn't have wanted to do it every day.
In her heart, she held on tightly to her reason to want the next day off. For the first time in so long, Amelia felt as though she almost knew what she was doing, and she'd dreamt of it for a long time.
She looked over once more quickly. She could get in there as easy as pie if she pulled a U-turn, but that was illegal here and she'd just gotten her driver's license. Out this far from the big places, all you needed to do to get one was to go to the post office and buy it, since it was almost a hundred miles to the nearest place where there just might be a driving school. And since Marjorie ran the post office ...
One more quick look and she was about to hit the turn signal when she saw the state trooper sitting parked a little farther up the street where there were no buildings. She sighed and drove on, making a flawless three-point turn about half a block past the cop. Then she sidled down Main in the opposite direction and nosed in three spaces up from the café.
As she got out and locked the car, she looked up and saw the trooper roll past, looking at her. She nodded and he nodded back and then he was gone while Amelia stepped onto the sidewalk and up to the door of the café. Cascade was a good long haul out from Boise and there was nothing between here and there but Horseshoe Bend - over forty miles, she guessed. You hardly ever saw the law out this far. She pulled out her key and opened the door.
She was here because the café had always been one of the touchstones of her life - since Marjorie owned it and because she worked there often to help out. Tonight, she'd thought about it and it had come down to flipping a coin.
Her father was away with her uncle Deke on a cattle drive down south. So that meant either going home to a likely empty house or just coming here, since dollars to donuts, her mother was here anyway with Marjorie and if she had the choice, Amelia found that tonight, she wanted a little of their company and wisdom.
If she was really lucky, she thought, Rosa might be there as well, but she hadn't seen Rosa for days due to the hours that she'd been keeping and besides, it was no good trying to call her on the phone, though she'd missed the fun that they always shared.
Once inside and after locking the door again, she turned to look across the empty café by the light of the only bulb left on so that a cop walking by could look in - whenever that happened. Putting the key back into her pocket, she walked slowly, trying to be silent on her way to the kitchen. With any luck, it wouldn't be too hard to heat herself a cup of old leftover coffee, if there was any left.
As she tip-toed around behind the counter and walked back, she saw the bulk of someone there in the dark and her heart was in her throat in an instant.
Just as she about to let out the dumbest thing that anyone could say as she almost asked who was there, she caught the sounds of the sighs and the wet kisses in the darkness.
"Mom," she exhaled, and both women answered yes.
Amelia rolled her eyes, "Honestly, you two scared the heck out of me just now, but ..."
"I thought that you might be coming here," Marjorie smiled, "and Rebecca said that she knew that you would. I still don't know how she does all that 'wise knowing stuff' after all this time, but I wanted to make sure that you'd have hot water for coffee or maybe a tea, or hot chocolate for when you got here."
"And I came down because she took too long," Rebecca smiled.
"I was only gone for a minute," Marjorie said.
Rebecca nodded with a shrug, "Too long."
Amelia smiled. This was one of the family's secrets. The two women had been lovers since before Tad had been born in the snowy sunshine out at Big Southern Butte. They were now married to a pair of brothers who loved them so and they shared the same last name, but they still loved each other to death and whenever they had the chance of it - like now - they made no bones about making a few nights of it since they always had. The only thing which was different these days was that Amelia was a grown woman so they didn't feel the need to hide much of anything anymore.
This - this tie that bound was one of the reasons why all three of the kids had grown up with two mothers and were treated as what they were by the two men - the children of an extended family between them.
