Fireflies

Chapter 2

Chapter Two

  Stratton woke the next morning and started his day with a cup of coffee.  He had to run to a local fast food restaurant to buy it, because his coffee maker was already packed up in one of the countless boxes labeled “Kitchenware”.  Stratton sat down at the kitchen table, one of the only pieces of furniture left unpacked, and opened his laptop.  He looked up flight times to New York, and found a single ticket in for the next week. It was within his price range, and Stratton suddenly hatched an idea.

   He picked up his phone and called his brother.

“Stratton, its 8:00 in the morning man. Can you not be up so early all the time?”  His brother answered the phone.

“Hey Jace, do you think you would be alright watching the store by yourself for a couple of days? I really want to go to New York, and maybe look at some wedding rings for Abigail. You would have the boys at the store to help you and Isabelle Price comes in twice a week to look over the books. Could you help me out?” Stratton pleaded.

“If you wanna go so bad man, I suppose I could for a brother. But you owe me.”

“Fine. Tell the girls I said hi.” Stratton hung up the phone and breathed a sigh of relief. That took care of that.  He ordered his ticket online and began to decide what to take.

 “You’re going to New York? Why didn’t you tell me?” His mom cried the minute Stratton opened the door.

“Well, it was just kind of a spur of the moment thing, Mom,” He replied; rubbing the back of his neck.

 “I would have liked to go, you know or maybe Abigail wants to go,” his mother started.

“I kinda just want to go by myself, Mom. I maybe want to look at some rings, pick up some things for the store.” He quickly replied.

“Well if you say so,” she said tentatively.

  The two of them ate sandwiches for lunch and discussed small things, such as the weather and how that was affecting the business in the store.

   The Grace Feed and Supply store was started by Stratton and Jace’s father, Michael. He put his heart and soul into that store. Stratton could remember going there as a little kid, and being in awe of it. He had never planned on taking over the store after high school, he had always had big dreams of seeing places and doing things; but didn’t every high school dreamer? But when his dad had gotten sick right after he graduated, there wasn’t a lot of money left over for things such as college. He kind of got stuck in the store. When Dad finally lost the fight with leukemia, he didn’t have the heart to tell his mother that he wanted to leave and go to college.  He had taken some business courses online, but that was the extent of Stratton’s higher education.

      Now the store catered to local farmers and craftspeople, it sold everything from feed and supply to overalls and work clothes along with hardware and such. It was not uncommon to see the local men standing on the front porch of the store talking about football or cotton and chewing tobacco.  Stratton at first resented his commitment to the store, but now found himself loving it.  He loved seeing everyone and checking up one everyone’s family and hearing the local gossip and news.  Stratton now owned the store alongside Jace. He decided to call him and let him know about his trip the next week.

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 Stratton had kept wondering about Kathryn in the following week. What would she be like? Had she changed much? Was she still acting? Those questions rolled around in his head constantly, especially one. Would she want to see him or even know who he was?  Stratton had been packing for New York for the past several days, finding himself increasingly more nervous. Stratton had never been nervous about something like this in a long time.

“Get a grip on yourself, Stratton. You are going to New York to find this girl. That’s all. You are going to find a ring for Abigail and propose to her when you get back. So stop worrying about which shirt Kathryn would like better.”

For some reason, that only made himself more nervous.   He heard the doorbell ring.

“Coming!” He yelled and began to make his way around the sea of boxes.

He answered the door, and there stood Abigail.

“Hey.” She said. “I know you’re going to New York tomorrow, and I wanted to get you something to take with you.” She handed him a gift back and smiled. “If you want to come over for dinner tonight you can.”

“Thanks, babe but I’m leaving out at 5:30 so I can get to Atlanta on time. Do you want to come in?” He opened the door and gestured inside.

Abigail laughed a little, and replied “That’s ok sweetheart. I’ll see you when you get back.” She kissed him quickly on the lips. “Don’t miss me too much.”

“I’ll try my hardest.”

Stratton closed the door and sat down on the nearest box. He sighed and buried his head in his hands.

“What am I doing?” he said to the empty house, but he got no reply.

Stratton sat there for a few minutes and then pulled himself up and made his way to his bedroom.