Days and Nights on Old Haven Road-3

Patchworks….

Ryan thought it was a good a name as any for the place Becky had bought. After they had gotten together things just sort of gelled for them in their relationship. And since he had all the things they both needed or likely ever would need at his house Becky had moved in with him.

It had turned out to be a great not perfect but it was great…they had their moments despite starting the way that she did Becky was all girl and sometimes she’d have her moments.

Sometimes he’d just be a guy and be a bit messy and she’d complain. Sometimes she’d get emotional and he couldn’t get why. And they were still learning about each other. Just getting to communicate was new to both of them. The trip to Canada hade helped but Becky was more than used to holding things in and keeping stuff to herself and Ryan was the same hurt and hardened by some of the things that he had seen.

But they did love each other…

For Ryan…Becky was this whole other side he thought…well actually he never though about, he honestly never thought that he had this kind of a side to him.

She had taken over his porch. It was one of those old country houses style ones he had made to go with the gable roof with the wrap around glassed in porch it was going to be where he’d take off his working clothes before going inside and when Becky had started painting in there he had to fix a lot of it and he’d made it quite nice. But it made her happy and Becky loved the light it had and it became her porch studio for when she painted and she had a nice sitting area on one side too where she usually jammed with her guitars.

He loved that she could play because he loved music but he couldn’t play a lick.

He’d always say that if you strapped a guitar to any girl she was incredibly sexy. Becky of course said he was nuts whenever he told her how smart and how sexy and how beautiful she was…there was so much hiding there in her and even out and even post op she was just still trying to get out of that deep hurt where she’d lived for so long.

He saw it in her art a lot. She sold a good number of pieces that she did for sale online. A lot of people are of a lot of different minds about an artist selling their art but there was art she wanted to share with people like some of her nature pieces and there was some stuff that you’d only see online or if you came to the house.

He loved that about her.

He loved so much about her.

She’d been worried over what was to be done with her place and Will and Dani had moved into it after awhile there was still stuff that she wanted to do. She had so wanted to make a difference.

So it started out with him and Will clearing some of the property out and Sebastian Winslow had died and his camp had been left for a long time and they contacted to family and they asked a price on it.

Okay it was that good Ryan bought the property whole since the family lived in Alabama and had no intention of coming up here.

So once the land was cleared off and they had divvied up the firewood and the lumber they poured a foundation and with a home made sled and a big BBQ and the neighbours helping they moved the cottage/camp from the lake onto the property.

It was a real dump actually and ended up being parts for this place.

Patchworks…like a quilt Becky had said. Because everyone had a little of something to donate to the place and they had collected over the winter all these things even scouring a few of the nearby towns for cast off and tossed out construction materials and when they thought they had enough they built the house.

It was actually designed around the stuff they had and it still looked…it looked like a two story house that hippies had built and really it kind of was but not counting the free labour and the hours they built a two story four bedroom home for just around forty six hundred dollars.

And that was a lot of paintings and a lot of butter and a lot of milk and stuff. Will had gone above and beyond really making most of the furniture and the cabinets and dressers and stuff when they didn’t have donations for some of it.

Why?

Because of Becky.

There were people like her that she sort of new, some were out a lot of them weren’t and there’s just sometimes where being out there with the way that things were going in the real world that…that some people couldn’t deal any more and.

Patchworks…

If you feel that you’ve been thrashed to the point of life having kicked your ass so hard all you can do is find a corner to crawl away and hide in…there’s room here. No work no pressure…be who you can be when you can be…when you can’t.

Well we’ve all been there.

He looked at the finished product and smiled. It might help and it might not but he’d survived, Becky had survived and maybe just maybe they could give back just a little bit.

*** Becky smiled and sighed looking at the house. It was sort of a long shot really you sort of had to be desperate and you had to just be a certain kind of person to even live out here on Old Haven Road.

You left the main road and went for five miles towards the state park on a chip seal road called Cat-tail Ridge Road. Then you came to Old Haven Road and it’s a dirt road and its seven miles before you got to the first house and that was Eddie Crandel’s place and he ran this really small garage and store. You know with the gas pumps from the 50’s and where they sell groceries. Actually they sold all of the milk and butter there from her and Ryan’s place and the ice cream too.

Yeah it was illegal she was pretty sure just like the fact that Eddie sold other stuff from canned goods in jars to meats that some people had put down but it never really bothered Eddie too much. They all were so far out of the way and his place had a large old barn place his guy ran that took all sorts of merchandise that fell off the back of transport trucks.

Uh-huh Eddie’s guy; Dave…

They were gay and the best thing about Old Haven Road was you didn’t meet people way back here that really cared about stuff like transgendered people, or that two hairy bear bikers covered in their fifties with beards and tattoos ran a garage and were life long committed partners.

If you weren’t comfortable around hippies and those that were really different or having a neighbour trade a dream catcher for a pound of butter then this place wasn’t for you.

But it’d been five years since she and Ryan had started a life here together and the entire time this place had been a balm to her soul. She was just who she was here.

But she still…

She was a Christian girl despite how sometimes people that said they were acted she was still pretty connected to that side of herself. She had been raised for the first part of her younger years by her grandparents who were just really kind and decent people and she just had grown up with that whole thing of when you’re blessed…

You pay it forward.

So Patchworks was born out of that and drinking good whisky out of a mason jar mug up at the lake one night camping and fishing with friends. And everyone there had thought it was a good idea…because most everyone out here was here for that exact reason and sometimes a place to stay and a place to get on your feet was so needed.

Becky had even knitted and quilted for the place over the winter getting to reconnect with things that she had learned from her grandmother…a really sweet lady…a real lady too despite being country and a woman who either knew who she was all along or just didn’t care and loved spending time with her anyway.

It was nice looking at those knit patterns and getting to reconnect. It actually inspired her to paint and draw a lot of them and those days as she could by memory. One of her favorites was this picture of her grandmother on her back step just sitting in the sun shucking peas.

Every time she passed it in the back porch she’d smile and talk to her. Even if it was just a “Morning Nan.”

Like a lot of her life with Ryan she’d somehow got something back.

*** The house had been done almost two months and while she had a few mentions of it being there online in a few of the places that she was on and trusted there was a lot of people too scared, or the place just being in the middle of nowhere that it freaked a lot of people out,

She supposed it might make a good retreat maybe if she just offered it to be used as breathing space.

She set out some of her paintings and some of the tole-painting things that she had done that they liked here to put up for sale. She had just gotten paid and went into the Cinni-bun place to get a coffee and she saw a woman there with old clothes on in layers and on an old laptop nursing a coffee with a young pair of kids there sleeping on the bench seating near her.

The kids were wearing layers too.

Becky got her coffee and took a few sips and mulled over the scene and was going to head outside when she heard the little girl....

“Da…uhm…Momma…I’m hungry…”

She saw this pained expression on the woman’s face. She passed okay, the clothes sort of hid whether she’d pass or not. It wasn’t the pain of her daughter slipping on what to call her but it was the look she had while checking her pockets and then her purse.

Becky saw her counting a few crumpled bills and change, lots of pennies.

She just couldn’t.

Really right and she looked outside with it getting dark outside and there was snow starting to fall.

Becky went over and politely coughed. “Hi.”

The woman looked startled and quietly said. “Hello?”

“I’m Rebecca; you three are new around here?”

“Uhm…we’re just passing through…sorry we should be going anyways…”

Becky reached out and put her hand on the woman’s and just looked her in the eyes. “How about a coffee before you head out, my treat.”

The woman looked at her searching more than a little afraid and leery. “I couldn’t impose…”

“You wouldn’t be.” Becky did something she usually never did anymore and used her old voice or as close to it as she could now. The woman’s eyes widened. “You’re…?”

Becky nodded. “Yeah…so how about that coffee?”

The woman looked her over in that way that women like her had to meeting someone new and more so the way that a mother would trying to protect her children.

She must have seen something there that passed inspection and she nodded. “Okay…”

Becky smiled at her. “How do you like it?”

“Uhm…anyway…I’m not fussy.” But her tone was saying that she couldn’t afford to be.

“And them?”

“Oh I…that’d be imposing.”

“No, that’d be me just…treating children it is Christmas time right?’

“Yes…okay then they’re not fussy either.” She looked a little more than sad, maybe even ashamed.

Becky went and ordered two hot chocolates and a large double-double coffee and while that was getting done she slipped over to the garage part and bought three of those sandwiches in the cooler and came back with all of it.

The woman’s eyes went a bit wider and she looked near tears when she sat down with the coffee the hot chocolate and the food. “You didn’t have too…”

She passed her a coffee and a sandwich. “It’s okay; I’ve seen my own rough times….I still don’t know your name?”

“Oh…I’m…Mary.”

“Hi Mary.” She said warmly.

Becky took a sip of her coffee and Mary took small bites of the Dagwood she’d been given and she had that look of it having been awhile. There were tears running down her face when the kids started eating and made the sounds that little kids made when something was really yummy.

She loved the smiles on their faces. She passed Mary a tissue and the little girl looked at Becky and so did the little boy. “I’m Hanna and he’s Joey. Thank you this is really yummy.” Joey nodded his mouth really full and gave her two big thumbs up.

“You’re welcome you two.” She smiled at them and looked at Mary. “Can I ask?”

“My wi…my partner passed away two years ago in a car accident…she made me promise…I mean she knew…Joanna knew about me…she made me promise to try and be me…uhm Mary.”

Becky nodded and smiled. “She must have loved you very much to be that accepting.”

“She wasn’t just my wife but she was my best friend…”

Becky teared up a little as the kids stopped eating and took a side each for their mom and hugged her tight. A tear did fall when Joey hugged her really as tight as his little body could and he sniffled to her. “She wuz right you’re an awesome mom.”

Mary cried a bit harder this was really hard on her still. Hanna said muffled into her mom’s side. “You’re a good mum…we don’t wanna live somewhere else.”

“Mary?”

“I…I was fired…that whole right to work…and times are hard…I’ve been looking but…and they took the house because of Joanna’s medical bills and her parents…they want my kids…if I can’t have a job or a place…they’re going to send CPS after me.”

Rebecca nodded and wiped at her eyes. “I think your Joanna’s still looking out for you.”

Mary looked at her with tears streaming down her face. “Wh..What?”

Rebecca smiled at her. “My husband and my friends sort of set up a place, it’s kind of a pay it forward thing but we’re quite far out of the way so no one’s taken us up on it yet…if you need a place to stay it’s all yours.”

“Wh..What…why?”

“Like I said it’s a sort of pay it forward thing.”

“But I can’t pay anything.”

“I didn’t ask did I?”

“I…..”

Becky leaned over the table and held her hand and looked her in the eyes. “Mary…listen to Joanna okay…it’s Christmas time and I have a manger okay…”

It was sudden and it was unexpected but Becky soon found herself being hugged hard over the table by Mary and the two kids gripping her waist tight.

“Mom…?” Joey asked muffled in their sides the looked up at both women. “Did is mum really looking after us?”

Mary looked at Rebecca and Becky smiled and nodded. Mary looked down to her two kids who were both looking just so…

(Sniffle-sob.) “Yes honey, your mom will always be looking over us and loving us.”

Becky cried pretty hard and so did Mary and the kids until both of the children had fallen asleep and they carried them both out to Mary’s car. It was a next to rusted out old eighties Cutlass supreme station-wagon…they’d been living in it. They got the kids in the car and Mary looked at Becky again

“Are you sure? Three extra people around…extra mouths…it’s just.”

“I’m sure…besides if I could and didn’t my sister would kick my ass.”

“She sounds like a character….”

“She was…she was awesome….”

“So you really believe…”

“Yeah…I really do.”

They hugged and it took awhile and Mary’s car had a lot of issues getting that far and they’d just pulled into their driveway when something went in the car with a black puff of smoke and the car died.

They got out of both cars and popped the hood but there was too much smoke to see what had broken or burst. Billy got Mary and the kids into her car and took them down the driveway to Patchwork.

She got them inside and made a fire on and turned on the circuit box and then called Ryan and asked if he could help out.

She put the kettle on and was showing Mary the house while everything was warming up and telling her where that got what or who made what for the house when Dani showed with a few boxes of groceries gathered from both houses strapped into place with bungee cords.

Mary’s eyes went huge when she got a look at Dani…

“This…this is for real…? We’re okay here? Just okay to be….”

Dani hugged her like she’d known her for awhile. “It’s Old Haven Road…as long as you’re more about love than you’re about the hate…then...Welcome home guys.”

Becky started some old fashioned coco and Ryan and Will came a few minutes later the doors of the car open and then pushing it all the way into the yard in neutral.

The smell of coco and a wood fire kissed the air and made the difference between the snowy night out there so much the different.

The kids squealed. “TV!, TV!” and turned on the television and there was a movie playing or something but as the girls were letting the guys in and passing them coco a sweet song started playing and they just stopped to listen.

“God…Joanna loved this song…” Mary breathed.

Becky nodded wiping at her eyes. “Sis does too…”

O holy night! The stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Saviour's birth.
Long lay the world in sin and error pining.
Till He appeared and the Spirit felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.
Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine, the night when Christ was born;
O night, O holy night, O night divine!
O night, O holy night, O night divine!

Led by the light of faith serenely beaming,
With glowing hearts by His cradle we stand.
O'er the world a star is sweetly gleaming,
Now come the wisemen from out of the Orient land.
The King of kings lay thus lowly manger;
In all our trials born to be our friends.
He knows our need, our weakness is no stranger,
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!
Behold your King! Before him lowly bend!

Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all our hearts we praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we,
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
His power and glory ever more proclaim!

*Merry Christmas HUGS*