Stories at Happy Hour. A.M. Hoot
Alex smiled and said, “Hey, I just wanted to say thanks for letting me crash on your couch. I am sure that was weird having someone sleep on your couch while you are trying to work.” Keira smiled and told Alex not to worry, the couch was not hers, it was just in her office space, so if Alex ever needed it, she was free to use it any time, whether Keira was in the office or not. Alex smiled and told Keira she might regret she ever said that.
The next day, it was getting close to lunchtime and Alex decided to go down to Keira’s office. Alex knocked on the door and there was no answer. She cracked the door open a bit, and the room was empty. She was a little disappointed. She kind of wanted to see Keira’s friendly face. She was cheerful, but not over the top cheerful. Alex turned off the light and positioned herself on the couch.
Twenty minutes later the door opened. The light from the hallway woke Alex up. It was Keira. Keira walked into the room and saw that Alex was there. She kept the office light off and put her desk light on. She started up her computer and began to work. Alex could smell french-fries. It smelt delicious. She loved French fries. She couldn’t remember the last time she had a French fry. She hasn’t eaten much lately, nothing sounded good, nothing tasted good, and some days she would just plain forget to eat. Just then her stomach started making noises. She was a little embarrassed. She sat up. When she sat up, she saw a white styrofoam container sitting at the edge of Keira’s desk. Alex instantly knew where the yummy smells were coming from. Keira looked at her and said, “Oh hi, I hope I didn’t wake you.” Alex looked at her and said “No, not at all, it’s all good. I need to get back to work anyway.” Keira could see Alex looking at the to-go box and she laughed, “Are you hungry, I actually brought that for you. I only eat half my lunch,” Keira looked down at herself, laughed some more, and said she should only eat half her lunch, “So I was thinking you might want the other half? I didn’t touch any of it. I asked the wait staff to split the order in half when I ordered. I went with the classic cheeseburger and fries, you hungry?” Alex smiled and said yeah actually she was. She told Keira she hadn’t had fries in forever, so she was going to dominate Keira’s leftovers. Alex opened up the container and chowed down. She was not shy about it. It tasted sooo good. It smelt soooo good. Keira smiled as she worked. She was happy to see Alex eating. At least she knew she would get one meal in that a day.
Chapter 10
Alex ended up visiting with Keira more and more. They started sharing lunch and took turns paying for the meal. They became close friends. Almost a year had passed, and Alex asked Keira if she wanted to go out for a drink. She was in the mood to get out but didn’t want to hang out with anyone but Keira. Keira thought a drink would be nice. They went to Oscar’s. It was near Keira’s house and it was her favorite place to go.
Keira was at Oscar’s when Alex arrived. Keira was seated at a table. She had a bowl of popcorn on the table and she was sipping on a bloody mary. Alex walked in and looked around. She saw the bartenders, nodded her head as to say hi, and kept searching the crowd until she saw Keira. Keira looked up, smiled, and mouthed “Hi,” as she waved. Alex smiled back and walked quickly to the table. “Hey, sorry if you have been waiting for a long time, the last patient took forever. How are you? What’s up with the sweatshirt, you know you live in Minnesota, right?” She laughed. Keira was sporting her Green Bay Packers sweatshirt. Keira rolled her eyes and laughed. The bartender came by and asked Alex what she wanted. Alex looked at Keira’s bloody and it looked pretty good, it was almost gone. Keira chimed in and said the bloody marys there were very tasty. Alex ordered a bloody mary but she didn’t want it spicy, no salt on the rim and she wanted extra fixins’ with a beer chaser. After she was done with the order, she looked up at the bartender and flashed him a huge grin, and said, “Thank You, Baby!” She was so excited to be out and to be out with Keira.
They stayed out until the bar closed and talked about everything under the sun. Keira had one bloody mary after another, but she ordered them exactly the way Alex liked them. She gave Alex most of the garnishes and all the beer chasers. Alex drank the beer chasers and had multiple captain diets. She was feeling good. Keira shared with Alex about her husband cheating on her with a man. Alex swore never to say anything to anyone about it, she knew even though it happened 20 plus years ago, it was still painful, and people like to talk. Alex opened up about Darius. It felt good getting it all out. She liked talking to someone who didn’t know who he was and didn’t know Alex and Darius as a couple. It gave her the opportunity to share their story.
Alex even shared with Keira that she always had problems falling asleep and staying asleep even as a little kid. She told Keira about this farmhouse she and her family lived in for six months. Her parents were covering a pastoral leave at a church in a small rural town in northern, Minnesota that consisted of maybe 4,000 people. The farmhouse was owned by an elderly couple, Elmer and Betty Bailey, who owned 500 acres. The elderly couple built the farmhouse when they were young, and only had 2 acres of land, over time they acquired more land. They never had any kids of their own. When they were in their 30’s they took in foster kids for about 30 years. Alex heard that the Bailey’s would have the foster kids help them with chores on the land such as; picking corn and manning the fields, but most of the time the kids enjoyed playing on the farm. There was a huge treehouse that Mr. Bailey helped the kids build. Over time, foster kids would come and go, but none of them stuck around. Alex thought it was weird that none of the kids, not even one, stayed to work on the farm. The Bailey’s were so kind to give them a place to stay and care for them, but no one stayed. Alex understood that it was a boring town, but still, didn’t anyone care for this couple, who gave so freely of themselves?
When the couple turned 65 years old, they built their dream house nearby the old farmhouse. Since they weren’t fostering kids anymore, they must have gotten lonely because they turned their dream house into a bed and breakfast, calling it Bailey’s Bed and Breakfast, and started renting out the old farmhouse. The church put Alex’s family up in the farmhouse while her parents were covering the pastoral leave.
Alex was 10 and her brother Braxton was 14 years old when they lived in the farmhouse. When they were kids their family moved around a lot, with every move Brax and Alex would take turns having the first choice of their room. Since Braxton got the first choice at their last house, Alex got the first choice in the farmhouse. It was a two-story farmhouse with five rooms and one bathroom. Two bedrooms on the main floor. And three small bedrooms upstairs. Alex said she wanted a bedroom upstairs. Brax took the room next to the family room on the main floor and their parents had the master bedroom on the main floor. Alex got all three bedrooms upstairs. She made one room her bedroom. Another room her schoolroom for when she needed to do homework and the last room was the nursery for her babies.
When they first moved there Alex and Brax liked living on the farm. It was summer-time and they got to run and play all day long. They were allowed to roam on the property and the Bailey’s even told the kids they could pick corn and eat it fresh off the cobb, as much as they wanted, it was sweet corn and the best corn Alex and Brax ever had. The Bailey’s noticed how much Alex and Brax liked spending time picking and shucking corn, that they ended up paying them to pick and shuck corn for them, and all the sweet corn collected went to the farmer’s market.
When Alex and Brax weren’t picking corn, they played hide and seek in the fields or played in the treehouse that Mr. Bailey made with the foster kids. The treehouse was huge. Brax thought about 10 kids could hang out in the treehouse comfortably. Alex and Brax wished they could take sleeping bags out to the treehouse and stay overnight but their parents would not allow it. It would have been really cold at night, considering even though it was summer, overnight temps could get down to the '40s.
Mr. Bailey told Brax and Alex they could work on the treehouse to make it their own seeing as it had not been used in over a decade. Brax spent a lot of time working on the treehouse switching out bad boards with new boards. Once school started Brax met some boys that would come over and help him out on the treehouse. Alex had a hard time meeting friends at school. She was quiet and kept to herself. She only wanted to play with Braxton and his friends.
Alex thought of herself as a tomboy. She wanted to be one of the boys. When she was at home she would run around the house without a shirt on like her brother and her family would always say that one day she wouldn’t