Chapter 70

“They’re leaving a guy,” Jennalee said, now fully awake.

“Hot spots,” said Harley as the fire engine drove away.

The fireman who now manned one of Wesley’s garden hoses made the rounds of the four rooms. “He looks beat,” Harley said.

“Be right back,” Jennalee replied as she jumped up. She ran around to the Coke machine, bought one, and when the fireman had finished checking the rooms, she took it to him. “Can you take a break?” she asked as she handed him the Coke.

“You bet. Thanks.”

He wouldn’t join them so they joined him instead at Building Eight. “Do you have to stay all night?” Jennalee asked.

“I do. It’s part of the job. You don’t want a flare-up.”

“So are you from around here?” Jennalee asked him.

“No. I grew up in Visalia, became a firefighter in Fresno, and when a job opened up here, I jumped on it. It’s great country. My wife and kids love it. My daughter wants a pony and we’ve got room for one.”

He didn’t look even thirty to Jennalee. So much already lived. She wished she was his age because then she’d be somewhere. “I hate being a kid,” she said. “Everybody says eighteen is this great time in your life. What a crock.”

The fireman smiled. “When you’re forty, you’ll probably be saying the same thing.”

“Forty? Don’t even go there.”

The fireman finished his Coke and said he had to get back to work. He then disappeared behind the building, so Harley and Jennalee went back to their lawn chairs. “Forty,” Jennalee said as she flopped into hers. “That’s mean.”

“It’s not like you won’t get there,” Harley said.

“I know, but jeez, it’s a lifetime away.”

“You crack me up,” said Harley.

Once her Coke was finished, Jennalee began to drowse. It felt wonderful to slip toward sleep here with Harley, but she didn’t want that yet, however good it felt, so she straightened up and asked him a question.

“How come you’re not all sad about the breakup with Carroll? Or mad. I’d be a wreck if my heart was broken.”

“Mom told me once that life is learning the hard way. I think that’s what I’m doing. Hurts like hell, but the lesson sure sticks.”

“What lesson?”

He shrugged. “People can be shitty. Don’t give your heart too easily. Approach love with caution. Take your pick.”

This was a lot to take in and Jennalee took time to digest it all. After a bit, Harley spoke again. “The irony of the situation is Carroll and I shared music along with everything else. At first I thought I’d never play again, but I missed it. Music rescued me. It means even more now and there’s another lesson: rewards don’t have to come from people. You can make them all by yourself.”

“I used to live in my music,” Jennalee said, recalling her San Francisco days and Mr. Mendel. “I used to play for my boyfriend sometimes. His name was Howard Li. He’s Chinese-American, really cute, and I totally loved him. He was my first, you know? He was so sweet and caring. We had such a good thing going until my dad found out. I think he was on the fence about moving out here and that pushed him over.”

“Are you still in touch with Howard?” asked Harley.

“I was for the first few months, calls, texts, you name it. We were both wrecks, but gradually that all got less and less and then nothing. My friends, too. It all fell away because I wasn’t there to keep it alive. It’s been hell.”

“I wouldn’t call this place hell.”

“Okay, it’s plush, I know that, but you know what I mean. Emotional hell.”

“Oh, yeah, that.”

This comment did as intended, made her woes seem small. “I sound dumb, don’t I?”

“You sound like a kid. Another thing Mom says to do is look past yourself. Best advice I ever got.”

“I did that,” replied Jennalee. “And I saw you.”

The fireman was back around front now, working his way through the rooms again. They watched him in silence until Jennalee said she felt like hitting the sack. “Not necessarily to sleep. Laying down is what sounds good.”

“Okay, let’s head for camp.”

Once stretched out atop their sleeping bags because it was too warm to get inside them, never mind the fact that the parents had, Jennalee fought the sleep that nudged her. “I don’t want to go to sleep,” she whispered to Harley, “because I don’t want the day to end.”

“We’ll have all morning,” he said. “We never leave until afternoon. And I’m beat so let’s quit fighting it. Night.”

“Night.”

* * * *

Morning for Jennalee came with Bach and it took her a second to decide she was awake and another to realize it was Harley up on the bluff. She sat up to find Lizann sitting on her sleeping bag, listening as she sipped coffee. Earl wasn’t in sight.