To Know Him

part four

Gloria and her friends were sheltered under the shade of the clock tower as the sunset. Their bikes were lined up, all leaned against a leaky fire hydrant. They were all giggling over their melting ice cream and how ridiculous they looked trying to eat it before it turned to soup in its cone. Gloria craned her neck all the way back to check the time on the clock above her.

"Babysitting tonight?" Rita asked her wiping the dribble of melted chocolate ice cream off her chin.

"In 15 minutes," Gloria said as she chewed a piece of her waffle cone.

"What's up with the bike thing?" Marty pointed out. "Is Bear gonna finish it?"

"Yeah, just hard to find pink car paint is all," she shrugged.

"Is he nice to you?" Marty raised a brow.

"Quite a gentleman actually," she smiled.

"Good. Boy's can be really dumb so watch yourself," she warned.

"You think everyone's dumb Marty," Rita laughed.

"Nuh huh! I'm just sayin' talking to boys is like talking to a brick wall. Why do you think I avoid them all the time? Girls are just much more interesting to talk to if I'm being honest. We're a lot smarter for one."

"I agree we are smarter. Well I guess I should go before I'm late," Gloria said tossing the last bit of her empty waffle cone into a bin right by.

They all made plans to meet again soon before Gloria pedaled off to Mrs. Robins. She cut through downtown and spotted her fathers Plymouth Suburban parked outside the general store but couldn't see even the shape of him through the storefront windows. Though Harvey was waving for her to come by so she made a small U-turn and posted her bike by the door before stepping in.

"Hey, Miss Castillo!" He happily greeted her from behind the soda bar.

"Hello! Don't mean to be rude but I can't stay long..."

"Oh, no worries! I saw you riding passed and I was given this to give to you," he said bending down below the counter and sat Bill's small radio on the counter. "A Saint boy was very insistent I give this to you the moment I saw you."

"Really?" She said in disbelief. She grabbed it and hugged it to her chest.

"Yup, well I ought to not hold you any longer."

"Thanks, Harvey. If you see him before I do will you tell him tha-" she stopped remembering Bill told her to hold off on her incessant 'thank you's'. "Tell him, uh cool."

"'Cool', gotcha," he nodded slightly amused. "Oh, and could you let your father know about his tab again?"

Her brows furrowed, that was strange? He was parked outside but he must have been next door at the Barbershop then?
...

That night, at Mrs. Robins, felt like an eternity to get the Katie and Greta to bed. They had their spaghetti dinner which they had made such a big mess out of. There was no way they were going to bed without a proper bath. And even after that, Gloria still had to get them dressed and read them a bedtime story until they fell asleep. She slowly crept out of their bedroom once they were fast asleep and gave out a loud sigh of relief which cut off into an annoyed groan when she saw she still had the dining table and dishes to clean.

Finally, she brought Bill's radio to the living room, turning the volume dial as low as it could go and scanned the stations. She stopped when she found a soft doo-wop tune. While laying on the couch she made sure to take note of the song names and artists as the disk jockey introduced them. Every song was her favorite but it was only because she was never able to listen to any of them before.