Introduction:
This story takes place in a sleepy rural area of upstate New York and involves two people - a most oddly matched pair you might say - who come together for a rather unpleasant reason. While they couldn't be more different from each other in the more obvious ways, they did have something in common besides Marie Comstock.
Marie Comstock had passed away a few months earlier, the victim of a heart attack. She was the grandmother of Judy, the 18 year old student who found herself with the unenviable task of going through Marie's belongings, searching for anything of sentimental value.
Steve Harkin was 18 once. 45 years earlier, to be precise, and was Marie's boyfriend for the previous 4 years until her untimely death. The two widowers had enjoyed each other's company so much that they had chosen to live together for the last 3 years; "shacked up" as Marie would say with a devilish grin to those who asked, in Steve's modest house way out in the boondocks on Neversink Road.
Now Steve's house was just as empty and depressing as it had been in the years between his wife's death and his meeting Marie. The arrival of Judy was a welcome change in the monotony of Steve's life, but he had no idea how much of a change was coming until after she arrived.
...
Chapter One: Dumped.
To say that Judy was not a very attractive girl would be putting it mildly and charitably, Steve thought as he watched the young woman come up the path to the porch of his house. A thin wisp of a girl, Judy couldn't be much more than five foot tall, and while it was tough to guess at her weight because of the drab and loose fitting clothing she wore, suffice it to say that she wasn't overweight by any stretch of the imagination.
Her hair was reddish brown and cut very short, and she had freckles around her nose, which was a little Streisand-ish in size and appearance. Add the glasses perched on the bridge of that proboscis, along with the overbite that accentuated her lack of a substantial chin, and you had a total package that was not exactly supermodel material.
Steve liked her a lot, although that might have been more of a reaction due to his dislike of her parents, a couple of self-centered yuppies who Steve had always been cordial to for Marie's sake. Judy was the youngest of their three children, and it seemed to Steve that they resented Judy's presence in their lives. It was almost as if she was an unplanned and unwanted addition that was in the way more often than not, and maybe that was why Steve was fond of her.
This "dumping" of Judy at Steve's place was an example of the way they seemed to treat the teenager. After the funeral, Judy's parents had come over to take a look at what Marie had in the way of belongings. They had done so almost contemptuously, as if they were offended that Marie had left them so little in the way of valuables.
After a preliminary perusal, the two of them threw up their hands and declared that they didn't have time to go through the boxes of stuff Marie had accumulated over the years, much of which she had never even gotten to unpack when she had moved in. She was a collector of stuff, that was for sure, but since none of it was worth much financially, they determined that they would send up one of their children in a few months to go through the stuff to see if any of it was worth keeping.
Steve figured that the phrase "one of their kids" meant that it would be Judy, and he wasn't surprised when his prediction came true. Judy trudged along behind them as they headed up the steps, probably less than thrilled at the prospect of spending a few days in the sticks with an old man she hardly knew.
"Remember what we said," her mother cautioned Judy before they left to head back home. "We can only fit so much in the car, so whatever you take, make sure it's something worthwhile. The rest of the stuff... I guess you can just dump, right Steve?"
"I'll take care of it," Steve said, nodding at the woman, who had already turned her back on the two of them and was halfway back to the car, eager to get back home to their pool and golf clubs.
"Sorry," Judy said, frowning as she watched her parents depart.
"Sorry about what, honey?" Steve asked.
"You getting stuck with me like this," Judy shrugged.
"I'm not stuck, honey," Steve assured her. "It's not fair that you get to have to do this thankless task all by yourself. I thought maybe they would want to help, seeing as how they know more about the family things than you might."
"They aren't much interested in Grandma's part of the family," Judy said with a grimace. "No money or status here."
"Sorry," Judy said quickly. "I didn't mean anything bad by that. It's just that they seem to be more interested in the other side of the family."
"No offense taken," Steve assured her. "Your Grandma didn't have very much left after paying off the medical bills from your grandfather's last hospital stay. Neither of us had very much financially, but we had each other, for a little while at least."
"That's more than a lot of people have," Judy said morbidly as she watched her parents' car fly down the road at top speed, and Steve smiled at that, for some reason enjoying the fact that he at least had met his match in cryptic comments.
...
Chapter Two: Watching Judy.
For the rest of that first day, Steve helped Judy organize the dozens of boxes that Marie had stored in their basement, so that Judy could begin tackling them one at a time.
Steve was happy that he had managed to keep the basement neat over the years, so that it was a fairy comfortable atmosphere for Judy to navigate around in. The basement area Marie had stored her things had been where Steve had his workbench and tools, from back in the day when he used to tinker around with various projects, but the other end was a cozy little spot where they could escape the heat of the summer.
It was so cool down here no matter what the temperature was outside, that he had brought down a convertible sofa as well as an old TV, and many was the hot August evening that he and Marie had come down there to spend the evening.
"I know it's not much," Steve said apologetically, "but you can bring the boxes over here and sit on the couch while you go through the stuff. The stuff you don't want, you can just leave in the boxes and I'll bring them up through the storm doors."
"Okay," Judy said. "I can bring them up the steps if you want."
"Maybe we'll do it as a team," Steve thought aloud, looking at the number of boxes involved and multiplying that by the six steps up and down. "Seems like just yesterday I brought all this stuff down here."
"I know," Judy said, and to Steve's surprise she put her arm around him and gave me a little hug. "Too bad you guys didn't have more time together."
While he was surprised at the comment and the emotion it was delivered with from the usually quiet and meek Judy, Steve nodded and enjoyed the affection.
"If I knew what you were looking for, I could help," Steve suggested.
