A Small Town

Chapter Seventeen\Snow Day Part Two

By the time they had finished cleaning up the breakfast dishes the big fat snowflakes had turned into a full-on blizzard. Bax wanted to head back out to Bob Kout's gas station to ask about the fuel delivery but his running shoes and light jacket weren't good enough for the trek.

They headed over to the General store and found Heather Munday sitting on a stool behind the counter shovelling forkfuls of chocolate cake into her mouth and she reluctantly showed them what she had in stock. After listening to her prattle on about someone named Paula Lisgar, who apparently was the silliest woman in all of Primacy, Bax was able to buy a pair of used boots that were one size too big and a huge goose down coat. Of course the word 'buy' was misleading. Bax had only three bucks in change left. The good news was that Heather didn't seem interested in money in the least, what she wanted was a trade. Trading was how she kept the shelves stocked after all.

Bax's Rolex was worth much more than the Coat and boots so Lisa insisted that Heather give him store credit, which it turned out was like gold in Primacy. He took the handwritten slip of paper and stuffed it in his wallet then turned to leave.

"Too bad about Pastor Black isn't it? Heather asked, digging into her third slice of cake.

That stopped Bax in his tracks. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, you haven't heard?" Heather asked, her piggy eyes twinkling with unabashed glee. She clearly relished the opportunity to spread some gossip. "The old man had some kinda heart thingy last night. Doc Hawthorne's out there now but it doesn't look good. I imagine we'll be needing a new bible thumper any day now!"

Suddenly Bax wanted to hurt her. He wanted to smash his fist into her fat, smug face. She had saliva and cake crumbs on her chin. As he tried to control himself she popped the last bite of cake into her mouth and sucked loudly on her fingers as she slowly chewed. It was like watching a cow someone had dressed up in a huge blue dress chew its cud.

She smiled at him with chocolate covered teeth and absently brushed crumbs from the shelf created by her bosom. Bax looked down at the counter, his Rolex was covered in bits of cake. He balled his fists and stepped forwards but Lisa stepped in front of him.

The barn owl gently turned him away and led him to the door. She thanked Heather and then they were back out on the sidewalk.

The cold wind and snow smacked Bax in the face like a bucket of ice water. He shook his head as Lisa helped him put on the down coat. The anger was gone so suddenly that it made his head spin.

My God, was I really going to hit that woman? No... I was going to beat her... maybe even kill her... good lord...

He looked back into the store. Heather Munday was sitting at the counter cutting herself a fourth piece of cake, completely oblivious. Bax shook his head in disbelief.

Lisa was speaking and he dragged his attention back to her.

"... so why don't we get your things from the hotel?"

Bax had missed most of what she had said but figured he had the idea. This was Lisa's way of asking him to stay with her and, to his amazement, he wanted that more than anything.

They walked down to the hotel in silence, thoughts ran through Bax's brain like competitors in a marathon, all bunched up and stepping on each other in their haste. None of those thoughts made it to his mouth though, and that was probably for the best. Lisa said nothing and he wondered if she was having second thoughts, but when they arrived at the White Birch and he held the door for her, she gave him a huge smile that eased his mind considerably.