A Second Chance

By Dawn Natelle

Just a short chapter that sets things up for the two big chapters to come (20 and 21). Dawn.

THURSDAY, May 12, 2016

It was a morning of chaos in the Cartright household. It was Movie Day for Rachael, and the fact that Maria was going to do her first day at the bakery, instead of the café, meant that she would be able to look after Bobby in the evening now. The women offered to let the lad stay, but he was almost as excited about the event as Rachael, and promised to be good and quiet during the movie. Rachael decided to let him come.

Maria was in that bit of a panic that comes with the first day on a new job. She had worn her work uniform to the interview, and Geoff had said they would be fine for working in the bakery. That was good, as she had four of them in good condition, as well as some older ones. She tended to buy a new one every year, with her name stitched on her ample bosom. Geoff said the bakery supplied aprons for the messy parts of the job. Apparently she would be trained to ice many of the donuts and pastries, as well as several other prep jobs.

The one job she looked at with most trepidation was running the bread slicer. It had rows of razor-sharp blades, one for each slice, and looked like it could do serious damage to a hand or arm if it was not treated correctly. There were other machines in the back that were also big and scary, but Geoff said she wouldn’t have to run them.

Finally, there was the issue of where to live. Maria planned to buy a copy of the local paper, and look at ads in there, while Rachael intended to use part of her lunch period to look for ads online. Maria would mention the situation to Geoff, as he or his mother might know of someone with a cheap apartment to rent. There was no hope of the family getting another house.

Maria was first to leave for a change. She was expected in at 8 a.m. to prepare things for the bakery opening at 9. She left, confident that Rachael would get her brother to the bus on time, and then herself.

On the bus to school Rachael told Mikki the bad news about the house. “It means that we might move somewhere else. I won’t be so close to you and Larissa, and possibly we might even have to go to new schools in September,” Rachael said.

“No, we are in Grade 8 now. There is only the one high school for the entire town, so we will be together for that. But Marc will be upset if Bobby goes to another school, and Danni will be heartbroken if he isn’t able to come and play on her computer games. She talks about him all the time.”

At school it was an A day, so there was French and double Phys. Ed. in the morning. Rachael’s basketball team was triumphant again. The once inept girls had learned to play as a team, and towering Larissa had been training with Mark at lunch, and now was a more important scorer for the team then Rachael. As captain, Rachael made sure that either she or Larissa was on the floor at any time, and occasionally they would play together, which normally resulted in them running up points. All the girls got time in the game, and this was a large reason why they were so improved. Some of the other teams played their best players through most of the game, leaving them tired at the end, with subs who had little interest in the game, having spent most of it on the bench.

Rachael finally got a lunch with Robert, who was still bummed out that he couldn’t come to Movie Night. Instead he was planning for a full day at the farm on Saturday with Rachael. One of his brothers would pick her up at 8 a.m., and then they would have the entire day together until after the family supper, with Rachael getting a ride home after 7 p.m.

Tony reported that all the snacks were well in hand. He had pop and water in the coolers, and was bringing three big bags of popcorn. He had also bought a package of popcorn container drums from the supply place, and would take a couple dozen of them. He reported that he had spent eight dollars more than the $40 Rachael had given him. That deficit was reduced by $4 over the course of the lunch period as a final two more couples asked to come. With fewer supplies to buy next week, the four dollars outstanding would be easily covered. If the whole thing was a flop, Rachael promised to cover the deficit.

That suggestion was quickly vetoed by the others at the table, who all said that they would put in another dollar to make up the difference. So many volunteered that probably only a quarter from each person would be enough.

In the afternoon, something finally happened in History class to interest Rachael. The teacher, Mr. Churchill, announced that he had completed the required coursework for the term, and the class had two options for the balance of the term. There was an optional unit of coursework that he could teach, or he could allow the students to do a special project.

The project would be done as teamwork, in groups of four. Each group was to make a video program of some historical item in the city, or personal recollections of people over the age of 50, talking about how the city had changed since they were young. In the class of 28, there would be seven projects, and in the other class a similar number. Of the 14 projects, he said that as many as 10 could be aired on the cable TV community access channel, where Mr. Churchill was a volunteer.

The students would work on their videos for the next month, and then show them in class on the last week of classes. Each video was to be 22 minutes long, and Mr. Churchill would approve the topics once the groups had them.

The class voted on the options, and almost everyone in the class voted for videos. “Excellent. I will have to ask the other class tomorrow about their wishes, but even if only four or five want videos, then we will go that route,” Mr. Churchill said.

“You will be on my team, right Rachael?” Mikki said.

“Yes,” Rachael replied. “And we need Larissa too, for what I’m thinking of.”

“What? You have a topic already?”

“Yes. Grandpa. We can film him talking about the war. Larissa can tell about how the French honor the graves. She can be the hostess for the show. She is pretty enough.”

“We need a third person?” Mikki said. “Carly?”

“Won’t she want to work with Layla and Becca?”

“Haven’t you heard? Layla no longer hangs out with them. That’s why Larissa gets a seat at the back of the bus in the mornings. I don’t know what Becca will do though.”

In the end Becca joined up with Lucy and Janice, and one other girl, and Carly joined in with Mikki and Rachael. Mikki was going to be the cameraperson, using one of her expensive cameras. Rachael would be the scriptwriter, and Larissa would be the hostess on camera, and Carly would go on camera to do an introduction and conclusion for the story. She would also help Mikki as an editor in putting the finished story together, since both of them had Mac computers.

The girls walked straight home after school to change and have a quick meal. Rachael had told Grandpa the day before that they wouldn’t be able to stop in, but he waved at them as they marched past. Maria was still working at the bakery, and got home at 6:30, just as Rachael and Bobby were ready to walk back to the library. The show was to start at 8, but Rachael wanted to be there early to set up. Maria kissed the kids, and saw that they had left her a plate of Kraft Dinner with tuna in the oven warmer.

They were at the library at 6:50, and started setting up. Larissa played with the lights, and was happy to find that they dimmed sufficiently, although Rachael spoiled that by mentioning that there would also be quite a lot of light coming from the video projector. The tall girl winced, and looked around for the darkest, quietest corner to claim the space for her and Mark.

They set the chairs up in pairs, with a little room around each pair. They were only stacking chairs very similar to the school cafeteria, not plush theater seats, but what do you want for a buck?

At about a quarter to eight most of the kids started coming in, getting dropped off by parents. Some had gone the whole way with the date thing, with one parent dropping off a couple together, while a few others came as a group, and many came singly and paired up when they got in.

Everyone was allowed one drink from the cooler that Tony had brought over from the store in, and Bobby was in charge of handing out the little boxes of popcorn that Tony and Mikki were filling. As a surprise she had asked Lucy go onto the Internet earlier in the day to get ‘coming attractions’ from YouTube. There was one for Sound of Music, and the other was The Longest Day. The idea was that the group would vote on which movie they wanted to see next week. And there were also two old cartoons: Dudley Do-right, and Felix the Cat that were played before starting the main attraction. Finally, Rachael started Casablanca.

For the next hour and a half the room was silent. Heather, the librarian on duty that night, popped her head in several times, but was happy to see that the kids were all attentively watching the movie. Of course she couldn’t see into the corner with Larissa and Mark, who were definitely not watching the movie. With that exception, the couples were well behaved. Most of them were holding hands, and in a few cases the boy had an arm around his date’s shoulder.

Bobby was not interested in the movie at all, but Rachael had him walking amongst the couples, giving new popcorn to those who had run out.

Finally, the video played “Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship” and then the credits started to roll. Students started to stand up, and Rachael had Bobby turn up the houselights. Rachael went to the front.

“All right everyone,” she said loudly, “I really enjoyed that, and I think a lot of the rest of you did too. If we want to be able to do it again, then we have to leave this place spotless. There is a vacuum in the closet: Tony, could you get it? The rest of you boys, move all the chairs to the side of the room. We will vacuum one side at a time. There is a lot of popcorn on the floor.”

She looked into the corner. “Mikki, can you get a bucket of water? I think we need to cool down that pair in the corner.” Everyone laughed, as Larissa and Mark were still kissing. Rachael started singing, and soon all the girls were joining in.

“A kiss is still a kiss / A sigh is just a sigh / The fundamental things apply / As time goes by. / And when two lovers woo, / They still say, "I love you" / On that you can rely / No matter what the future brings.”

The chorus finally got Larissa’s attention, and she looked up with a huge grin on her face. “Oh? Is it over?”

“Come on, time to help with the cleanup.”

With many willing hands, the room was tidied up and restored to its original position in about 15 minutes, and when Heather came up to warn them that the library was closing in 10 minutes, she was impressed at how spotless the room was. “You can definitely come back next week,” she told Rachael. “Agnes was sure that the place would be a mess, and asked the custodian to come in tomorrow. I guess we’ll have to find something else for him to do.”

Parents were already lined up at the curb to pick up their kids, and Mrs. Hafleur was there for Larissa, Mikki, Rachael and Bobby, who were the last to leave, with Heather locking the library door as they got into the car.

“So, how did your date go?” Mrs. Hafleur asked as they drove home.

“Pretty good,” Larissa replied without going into detail. “I think I like Canada now.”

“You have a boyfriend?”

“Yes, I have a boyfriend.”

“I will want to meet him. Have him over to dinner,” the woman said.

“Moooother,” Larissa complained. “It was only a first date. It isn’t like he proposed or anything.”

“I certainly hope not? He is only 13 too? In France she was always getting asked out by boys that were far too old for her,” Mrs. Hafleur said.

Bobby and Rachael didn’t hear more of the conversation, as they were home, and left Larrisa and her mother to bicker on through the ride home.

“It is way past your bedtime, Bobby,” Rachael said as they entered the house. “No time for reading tonight. I want you in bed in two minutes, or you won’t be able to come next week.”

“You are quite the little mother,” Maria said as she got up from the sofa, where she had been napping. “Did it go well?”

“Yes, I think so. Most of the kids were well behaved. We cleaned up nicely at the end, and the library said we can come back next week. I guess we could have four or five more of these before the summer vacations start.”

“How did your day go?”

“It was wonderful,” Maria said. “Mrs. Baron is a doll, so helpful in showing me what to do and where everything is kept. There is so much to know though. What everything costs, and questions like does this or that have gluten in it. But Geoff is always there if I have a question I can’t handle, at least until 4 p.m. Did you know he works almost around the clock?”

“He told me he puts in long hours.”

“He leaves at four for his little rooms upstairs, and he comes back down at 11. Apparently he has a nap while the bread is rising, but still, other than Sundays he gets no time off.”

“Well,” Rachael said, “that means you have a mission. You need to be so helpful that he can get off earlier. At least 1 or 2 o’clock. Everyone needs some down time. Oh, I need to make lunches. Come into the kitchen and we will chat as I do them.

For the next 10 minutes Maria happily recounted her day, and then went into the negative part of the day. She had found that all the apartments in the paper were out of her price range. They still didn’t have a place to live.

“What about the Art Gallery?” Rachael asked. “I thought of that when you mentioned Geoff’s apartment. They must have an apartment above their place too. I know Tony lives upstairs at their place. Maybe John and Paul would rent us their place? Would it be in our budget? I know they live out in the country some place, so they wouldn’t want it for anything but storage.”

“That might work,” Maria said. “We will see them after church on Sunday. Let’s ask them then.”

“Or I could ask them on the way home tomorrow, if they are in?”

“No honey,” Maria decided. “I should be the one who does this. Please leave it for Sunday. And why are you making four lunches?”

“Four?” Rachael asked. “Bobby, you, me, and … I don’t know who this is for. I guess it was just the last two slices in the loaf. And now there is only one bologna slice left.” She put it on the last sandwich.

“You could put the extra one in the fridge,” Maria suggested.

“No, it will be all yucky by Monday,” Rachael noted. “I’ll take two tomorrow. Maybe someone will need a lunch or something. It is so strange that I made an extra without thinking about it.”

“Well I am glad to have you helping so much,” Maria said. “I’ve never given you an allowance before … we just couldn’t afford it. I think once I start getting money from the bakery you should get a few dollars. On top of the money you get for looking after your brother. A teen girl needs a little money.”

“Mom, first we need to find a place to live. After we know what that is going to cost we can start spending your money.”

That night, Rachael knelt down

Dear Lord

Please let John and Paul rent us the apartment. I’m pretty sure it is only a two bedroom place, so Bobby and I will have to share, but that is okay. But we like each other, so that should work. I will make it work. And please bless all the usual suspects, she said giggling at using the term from Casablanca.

Amen