“Hi Bob. I guess you *saw*.”
“Yup. Took her long enough to get here.”
“Tell me about it. How’re the pipe repairs going?”
“Slow too. Funds running out in town I guess you’ve heard. Mayor’s going to hold an emergency meeting next week.”
“Yeah I heard.” Of course she’s heard. She’s dating both the mayor’s daughter and mayor’s son at once. She gets gossip in both ears at night. But… she must make a decision soon. Which side of Mother’s ocean she likes to collect the shells from.
“Welp, better get back to it. While we have the money.”
“Right. Just going down to see Charlene. Be back in a moment. You try to do your work a little *quieter* out here, he he he.”
“Ho ho,” says Bob, starting to drill a 2″ bore hole in a sewer line. But she was serious. Please the f- be a little *quieter* out here, she begs internally. And… hurry the f- up with these repairs why don’t you. If funds are running out, shouldn’t you be doing double time out here? But maybe she’s not thinking straight because of the noise. Anyway…
“Byyye.”
—–
“Have you heard, Charlene?”
“About the town meeting? Sure sure. I’ll be there with bells on I suppose.”
“NO. *She* came.”
“She?”
“Yeah, you know. HER.”
“Umm… oh, you mean Blue Moon Kentucky the so called pop idol. Yeah she stopped in the shop here looking for the video store. But she couldn’t help checking out her section over there to see what I’d stocked before she left. Not much — just 1 album from her solo period. That’s the only stuff I can even stand from her. I think she was kind of wearing a bit of a scowl when she left, ha.”
“But, Charlene, the *plan*. She knows that I know and I know that she knows.”
“So you told her?”
“NOooo. It was just a look,” Emily tried to explain.
“A look,” Charlene said rather skeptically.
“Yeah. A look. She knows. I know.”
“Hmm.”
(to be continued)
Sunklands 