Connections 6

Connections

*Author's Note: This story takes place during the pandemic when the chip shortage made getting anything electronic difficult if not impossible. PS5s were on back order for up to a year. Home Depot needed 4-8 weeks for any appliance. I know, because we bought a new washer and dryer.

*****

"That's great, Mom! How long is it supposed to take? Like a week?"

"A week? Try two months!"

"For a washing machine? Are you serious?"

"Yes! They told me the chip shortage is the problem."

"I thought that was a car thing?"

Her mother sighed then said that was also true.

"It is. But it's pretty much everything from smart phones to jet aircraft to appliances to you name it are impacted by the shortage. I had no idea how many things are dependent on microchips. Do you know how many are in one cell phone?"

Her daughter had no idea and told her mom she couldn't even guess but did anyway.

"I don't know. Like a hundred or so?"

"Just one chip. But that one itty, bitty chip can have over 15 billion transistors in it! I also just learned it takes three months and millions of gallons of water to turn a silicon wafer into a a few dozen chips!"

"I...I'm lost, Mom. I'm just glad you'll eventually get a new machine."

"Me, too. But that means I'll be at...."

Her daughter couldn't see her mom cringing, but she could she face in her mind.

"The laundromat. You know, where your great-grandparents washed their clothes every week for years."

"Mom. That isn't safe," her 18-year old college freshman said.

"I don't have a lot of choices, Megan," her mom said with some resignation in her voice.

"Just don't go after dark, okay? Promise?"

"No. I wouldn't do that, and yes, I do promise."

"Mom?"

Her mother knew what was coming just by the sound of her daughter's voice but didn't let on and promised herself she wouldn't get upset.

"Have you met anyone?"

"No. Not really."

"And 'not really' really means 'no', huh?"

"Megan. Your dad and I just got divorced, so it's only been a little over a year. You can't expect me to just date every man I see."

"No, but I could expect my beautiful mom who, as you'll recall, was mistaken for my older sister when you brought me to school to meet someone."

That had happened, and it was very flattering, but Kate Bennett told her daughter the man who said it was just trying to make her feel good. Until someone else said it just a few minutes later.

"I have a lot going on, too, you know," Kate said a little defensively.

"I know you work, but Dad's paying for college. I just can't believe you don't have any time to devout to a social life."

She did work, but she worked 40 hours a week like most people, and it wasn't a difficult job, so she had plenty of time for a social life. She was still just too heartbroken to trust anyone, and until that changed, Kate had no desire to get involved with anyone.

When her mom didn't respond Megan asked her if she'd signed up for the dating site they talked about the last time she called.

"I've been thinking about it," her mom said somewhat evasively.

"Mom? I've got a class, so I need to go, but you promised you'd try, and while I don't want to be mean, I don't think you've made any effort at all."

"All I can say is it isn't easy, honey. Now go to class and get smart and make millions so you can care for your mother in her old age!"

Megan laughed and told her mom she loved her, and Kate did the same.

As she ended the call, Kate knew Megan was right. She did need to make an effort. But the whole thing was just so...daunting. Meeting someone alone made her feel ill. Then the first date and a first kiss and separating the frogs from the princes and worrying about trust and infidelity. It sounded easy until you were her age and all alone.

Kate Bennett had just turned 41, her husband of 17 years had walked out on her some 14 months earlier, and now, of all things, she not only hadn't been on a single date, she had no washing machine. Hers was on the fritz, and getting it repaired required microchips which repairmen didn't have. So she'd ordered a new one, but there was a long wait there, too.

She had pangs of guilt for feeling snobbish, but she'd spent countless hours in laundromats with her grandparents as a young girl in the 80s and later as a teen, and even then she never felt safe even though her grandfather was there most of the time. No, there'd never been an incident, but that was in a small town. She now lived in a much larger city, and there had been a sharp increase in crime over the last several months, and while she hated to admit it, she was always looking over her shoulder every time she left the house.

Now, with her daughter in school and her husband hanging out with a girl their daughter's age and living in a new town, Kate had no one to turn to for help. She couldn't just walk over to a neighbor's house with a basket of laundry and ask to use theirs. And even if they'd let her, she'd been raised to be independent and never ask anyone for anything she could do for herself.

The laundromat wasn't ideal, but because it was available, it meant she had a way to do it herself, and that was that. Still, she shuddered when she thought about it, and having to wear a mask in a hot, stuffy place only added to her frustration.

"I better get a few rolls of quarters," she thought before trying to move on to something less unpleasant. Thinking about her daughter on a large campus didn't help, and she needed to relieve the stress.

"Back on the bike trainer, I guess," she said with a sigh as she checked her watch.

The good news was her favorite show was on TV, and she could watch it while grinding out another hour on the only thing of value from her marriage, a Peloton bike she'd loved from Day One, and since the start of the pandemic, had been wedded to.

When she showered and changed Kate realized she couldn't hold off any longer. She was going to have to go to a laundromat in the morning, so she got online to see where one was located. To her surprise, there were three within a ten-mile radius, and two of them had websites.

As she clicked on a link she wondered what there was to show about washing machines and dryers. What she saw surprised her.

"This is insane!" she thought as she looked at the photos.

Everything was brightly lit, the room was extremely clean, and there were machines mounted on the wall that took cash or credit cards that bought tokens to be used on either washers or dryers.

"That's amazing," she also thought as she continued looking. "This is nothing like I remember. How could something so...awful...become so...nice?"

Feeling relieved but still concerned she looked at the other site and saw a very similar depiction of a modern-day laundromat. She tried to be optimistic and told herself this might not be so bad after all.

After breakfast she loaded the two baskets heaped with clothes into her minivan, a vestige from the days when Megan was playing soccer and Kate had to drive a bunch of girls around town several times a week. It was still in good shape, but there was a part of her that longed for something different. Something...sporty and fun. But that was a long way off as she was barely getting by on her own. She was far from destitute, but just paying for a new washing machine put a big dent in her finances.

Bellingham, Washington, was located in the northwest corner of the northwestern most state in the continental US and about 50 miles southeast of Vancouver, BC. Like most of western Washington, Bellingham was cold, cloudy, and gray much of the year. It hadn't been her idea to move there from Portland, Oregon, where she was born and raised, but her ex-husband got a big promotion and she reluctantly agreed to the move.

That had been almost ten years ago, and she now considered the city of some 92,000 her home. She had a modest home in a quiet suburb and a job she didn't mind. Her daughter was in college, and although she hated to admit it the only thing missing from her life was someone to share it with. She had girlfriends, but since her husband left, most of them began avoiding her because she was the 'attractive, single woman' they saw as a potential threat.

Megan was right. Her mom did look young for her age, and she hoped she'd inherited those genes. But Kate played a significant role in that as she'd always taken care of herself and spent very little time in the sun. Now, at 41, she really did look closer to 31, and best of all she still felt like she was 21.

As she pulled into the parking lot of the Econo-Wash, she took another look at herself in mirror and laughed. Her makeup still looked perfect as did her hair, and that she was checking herself out before going into a laundromat made her chuckle.

"Megan is messing with my mind!" she joked to herself.

Had she not looked at the website she'd have been blown away at the difference between a laundromat in 1987 and 2020. Nothing was dingy or dirty. There weren't a bunch of machines with handwritten "Out of Order" signs taped to them. It really was bright and clean, and since there were only two other people inside she felt almost happy to be there.

What did surprise her were two things. The first was a sign that said, "Mask wearing is optional" and the second was the cost. Nearly everywhere she went required a mask. Being a Libertarian she bristled at being forced to wear one, but she wasn't a doctor, and doctors were everywhere saying they provided protection from COVID. As to the cost, the smallest washing machine was $4. For one load! Dryers were equally expensive, and she was already concerned about over-drying things and ruining them.

She found a large table and set her clothes baskets on them then walked over to the area that accepted cash or credit cards in exchange for tokens. Knowing she'd be returning several more times, she put in a $20 bill and got a handful of them. She guessed she'd have about $5 worth left over, and that proved to be very close by the time she left.

Tokens in hand she walked over to the washing machines and started looking at how to turn them on. It wasn't complicated, but having never seen them before, it took her a moment to figure things out. As a little girl her grandpa would put quarters in slots then push a slide that would deposit the coins and run the machine.

Kate grabbed the first basket which had only whites in it and dumped them into the washer. She then took out her tokens and fed them in. A light blinked telling her to select the kind of cycle she wanted and the water temperature.

"Okay. White stuff only so...warm water... and..."

She pressed them both then hit 'start' and the washer began filling with water.

"Ha! I did it!" she said out loud.

"Nice work," she heard a voice nearby say.

It was a male voice and startled her.

As she turned around she saw who said it, and he was about four feet away and smiling.

"I don't think I've seen you here before," the younger man said.

He was wearing a shirt with the laundromat's name on it, so Kate felt comfortable enough to at least speak to him.

"No. My washing machine broke, and this is the first time I've been in a laundromat since...."

She started doing the math and quit.

"Since the early 90s."

The 'attendant' was younger than her, and distractingly good looking. He had a warm, pleasant smile and a very handsome face, nice hair, and an athletic build.

"Oh, wow. Yeah, I was born in '93, so...."

Kate laughed when he did. Knowing she was friendly, he moved a little closer and introduced himself.

"I'm Cameron Kennedy but go by Cam. I co-own the laundromat, and it's a pleasure to be able to serve you."

"Oh. Oh, my. I...I thought you were...the uh...the attendant," she admitted a little sheepishly.

He laughed again and told her, "Well, I'm that, too. My fellow co-owners and I just bought it six months ago, and we can't afford a full-time employee to keep an eye on things, so my partners and I trade off."

"I won't ask, but I'd love to know how you got into the laundromat business."

"You can ask. It's not a big secret. Four of my friends who knew each other from the military got involved after someone we worked for came up with the idea. Together, we scraped together the money for the down payment and...here we are!"

He looked around, smiled then corrected his statement.

"Or at least...here I am."

She'd heard numerous reports about service members getting SNAP benefits and barely getting by and wondered how he--even with four or five other people--could afford to do that. Then again she had no idea how much that might be and didn't feel comfortable asking.

"So is there anything I can help you with?" Cam asked.

His smile was positively gorgeous, and so were the dimples Kate noticed.

"No. Not yet, anyway. But thank you."

"Okay, and...I didn't catch your name."

"Sorry!" Kate 'hit' her forehead with an open palm and said, "Duh!" then told him her name.

"Okay, Kate. If you do, just give me a holler."

She told him she would, but as he walked away she called his name. He stopped and spun around and smiled.

"Did you think of something?"

"Yes. The dryers. I have a lot of 'delicates' and I don't want to ruin them."

"Gotcha. Lemme show you rather than try and explain it."

She followed him to the dryer area, and Cam talked her through how to start the dryer then select her temperature and how dry she wanted the cycle to be from 'air dry only' to 'very dry'.

"Okay. So it's pretty much like a dryer for a home then."

"Pretty much. It's a little different, of course, because you're not feeding tokens into your own machine, but otherwise it's essentially the same thing. We also have folding areas around the facility, and there are permanent hangers you can use if you want to let something hang while you fold other stuff."

"Thank you, Cam. That was very helpful. I have to say I had this image in mind--from the 80s--about a dingy, rundown laundromat where the machines were broken or dryers didn't heat, but this is...not that. At all!"

"My parents were born in the late 60s, and when I told them about buying a laundromat, my dad gave me an earful. He said pretty much exactly what you did..."

He leaned closer then said quietly, "Only with a lot of cursing."

Kate knew she was laughing much too hard for what he'd said, and it wasn't until later that she realized why when she caught herself staring at him when he wasn't looking. After the washing cycle ended, she moved her clothes to the dryer then sat back down and pretended to be looking at her phone but was staring again at the handsome, young owner. Or...co-owner.

"He's gorgeous, isn't he?" a female voice said that startled her even more than Cam had.

A young woman about his age, who was also wearing a similar shirt was standing near her and smiling.

"Hi. I'm Liv. Cam and I are co-owners."

She stuck out a hand and Kate shook it. She was also a very attractive person, and for the briefest of moments, Kate felt a pang of jealousy. Until she saw the huge diamond ring on her hand. She'd noticed that Cam's ring finger was bare, but some married men didn't wear a ring.

"We served together in the Marine Corps," Liv told her.

"Oh, okay. Cam mentioned the military. Are the other co-owners...?

"Yes, ma'am. All former Marine Corps officers. One is retired, and he got us interested in investing with him. The others did 4-5 years and left active duty. Cam was an aviation supply officer, I was an admin officer, Joe Lufkin, another co-owner was a maintenance officer, and our retiree was a fighter pilot. Together we have a pretty good skill set to run a business. I just never thought that would be a laundromat!"

Liv laughed, and Kate decided that she liked her.

"So is it rewarding? Or...difficult?"

"It has its challenges," Liv admitted. "This is actually my third facility. My husband and I bought one two years ago and it did so well we bought a second a year later. When Cam touched base with me, I jumped at the opportunity to get in with him on this one. He's a really good guy, and trust is so important in the business world. And in the Marine Corps."

She, too, had a beautiful smile, and Kate wanted to get to know her but felt guilty about monopolizing her time.

"I would think trust would be extremely important in both worlds."

"Definitely," she said before apologizing for taking up so much of her time.

"No! Not at all. This has been very interesting. Eye opening, really."

Liv said she was glad to be of help then kind of hesitated. Kate was still sitting and looked up at her waiting to see what she wanted to say.

"I probably shouldn't say this, but Cam said you were one of the most beautiful women he's ever seen. I'm...assuming...."

She put the word in air quotes. "assuming that you're single, so...I thought I'd let you know, because if I was single...."

She smiled in that, 'you know what I mean?' way, but Kate lost track of the conversation after hearing he considered her that attractive.

"Oh, gosh. No. I...that doesn't make any sense. At all," Kate sort of blurted out.

"No. He's definitely right," Live insisted. "I wish I had your looks."

"I am single, but he's a little on the young side..

Liv sized her up then said, "Maybe. But he's 27, and you're...what? Thirty? Thirty-two maybe? It's not that big a difference. Not really."

"I...I'm flattered. Since. Thank you. But I have an 18-year old daughter who's at WSU."

WSU was Washington State University and located in eastern Washington near the Idaho border. Its counterpart was the University of Washington in Seattle.

"Get outta here! No way!" Liv said in genuine disbelief.

"Oh, yes. Way," Kate replied with a laugh.

Liv leaned down and said, "I want whatever you're using!"

Kate laughed again just as Cam walked back over.

"Hey! Why are my ears burning?" he asked, that amazing smile on his face.

"Not everything is about you, hotshot," Liv said with a flip of her head and a smile aimed at Kate. "It was nice meeting you, Kate!"

"You too, Liv!"

"She's incredible," Cam said as his co-owner walked away.

"I have to say that I'm very impressed with both of you. And with the Econo-Wash."

"You're too kind, Kate. That's really nice to hear."

He clapped his hands together then asked if there was anything she needed.

"No. So far, so good," she told him with a smile that as big as her previous laugh.

"Okay. I just wanted to touch base before I leave. Liv is taking over for me, and I wanted to say what a pleasure it was to meet you."

"Yes. You, too, Cam. And best of luck with the business."

"Thanks. Things are going quite well, so...."

He crossed the fingers of both hands signifying good luck then excused himself and wished her a wonderful day.

"Same to you, Cam!" she told him, and as he walked away she found herself staring at something she hadn't stared at since...since she was his age--his butt. Which was, well...yummy.

"Stop!" she told herself when he disappeared from view and just as the washer signaled it had ended its cycle.

She could have taken the wet clothes home to use her own dryer, but she didn't want to deal with it. Now she was glad she'd decided to stay. She spent another 45 minutes there, but to her chagrin, Cam never said another word to her, and she felt more than a little foolish.

Kate made sure to say 'goodbye' to Liv on her way out, and she asked Kate if she'd be back.

"Well, you know how hard it is to get an appliance right now, and they tell me it'll be 6-8 weeks, so I'm sure we'll see each other again."

"Kate? In case you ever are interested, Cam is here every morning Monday through Friday from 7:30 to 4pm and he's in and out on the weekend."