A Safe Place to Land by Dee Ernst

Author:Dee Ernst [Ernst, Dee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780998506869
Publisher: 235 Alexander Street
Published: 2018-05-01T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

To get to Sam’s apartment, you had to go through the bar, past the restrooms, through the door that said “No Admittance”, past the storeroom and walk-in cooler, and up a flight of stairs so narrow he’d had to bring in his mattress through the second-floor windows using pulleys and ropes and three semi-drunken patrons who volunteered for the job in exchange for free tequila.

The door at the top of the stairs was open when I got there.

Walking in caught me off guard. The flood of memories engulfed me, and all I could do was stand in the middle of the dark, narrow room, trying not to cry.

“Jenna? In front.”

The back room had two small windows overlooking the alley. Sam had a table and a refrigerator there, as well as a tall dresser packed with his stuff. Sam liked stuff.

The front room was much different, three floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Main Street, a battered leather couch, a large flat-screen TV, and his bed in one corner. There were a couple of upholstered chairs with frayed arms and rump-sprung seats. And more bookshelves reaching up and full of things that had mattered to him: framed pictures and articles about the bar, souvenirs of his travels, gifts from friends, shells and pieces of driftwood.

Craig was standing by one of the windows, holding a book, carefully turning the pages. Standing in this space, Sam’s space, he was so much like his father my heart almost stopped.

“This is a first edition The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Did he know how valuable this is?”

I had to clear my throat. “He’d had it a long time. I remember when he got it, he was very proud of himself. Claims he stole it from a little old lady who didn’t know what she had. He may have been joking, but I wouldn’t have put it past him. He probably made it sound like he was doing her a big favor by taking it off her hands.”

He looked up at me. “Hey, you okay?”

I nodded. “Sure. I, well, I wasn’t expecting…I mean there are lots of memories here.”

He closed the book. “So the two of you stayed close?”

I had to keep myself from looking at the bed in the corner. “Yes. We became good friends.” I gestured to the TV. “We liked to watch old movies together. He loved the musicals. Fred and Ginger, Gene Kelly, Judy Garland. We’d drink beer and sing along.”

“That sounds nice.”

“It was. It was great. I always had a good time with your father. Except when he first came back, and I still hated his guts for leaving in the first place. But I got over it.” I shrugged. “What do you want to do?”

“Well, for now, strip the bed, clean up a bit, just look around. I don’t suppose there’s a whole lot that can get the girls in any kind of trouble.”

I went over to the table beside the bed and opened it. “Well, you might want to take Sam’s stash. And his rolling papers, and water pipe.

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