My One Square Inch of Alaska (9781101602850) by Short Sharon

Author:Short, Sharon [Short, Sharon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781101602850
Publisher: Penguin USA
Published: 2013-01-29T05:00:00+00:00

Later that Saturday night, Grandma stopped me as I came out the swinging doors at Dot’s Corner Café, nearly knocking the blue plate specials—turkey hotshots, green beans, applesauce, roll and butter—from my hands.

“What do you think you’re doing?” she snapped, her face a tight clot of tension.

“Taking Mr. and Mrs. Leis their dinners,” I said. I’d arrived at work just ten minutes before, while Grandma was still in her tiny office in the back.

I looked past Grandma to the dining room. Mr. Leis was again busy with the Dutch boy and girl salt and pepper shakers, while Mrs. Leis smiled and waved at me. She had been happy to see me, said she’d missed me.

“I was reluctant to bring you back,” Grandma said, “but your father begged me to so I can keep an eye on you while the poor man works himself to an early grave for you and Will.”

I wanted to interrupt and say, You mean while he goes to AA meetings with Miss Bettina so he won’t drink himself to an early grave. Even though Grandma knew that Ace Hardware closed promptly at six o’clock, she always referred to Daddy’s evening activities as “working.” She could no more admit that he was going to AA than she had admitted he was drinking before that.

But of course I didn’t say any such thing. I said, “Ma’am, Mr. and Mrs. Leis’s dinners are going to get cold if I don’t take them—”

Grandma snatched the plates from me. “I will take their dinners! Your scandalous behavior is not going to cost me business. Go back to the kitchen.”

She put a big, fake smile on her face, turned, and headed to the Leises’ table.

I stood in the kitchen, trembling, annoyed because if I couldn’t wait on tables, I couldn’t hold back a little tip money. I was planning more than ever my escape from Groverton as soon as I graduated high school. I wasn’t even sure I wanted to wait that long. My long night of crying over Jimmy—and over Mr. Cahill—had also included bouts of anger, when I’d counted and recounted the money I’d saved, nearly seventy dollars. I figured if I could get to about two hundred by the end of my senior year, I’d have more than enough to buy a one-way Greyhound ticket to New York, find a boarding room, cover cheap sandwiches and bus fares while I went looking for seamstress work….

I hadn’t seen Miss Bettina since the previous day’s drama. Maybe she would give me extra work if I wasn’t going to get tips at Grandma’s café. I had to believe some of Daddy’s new, softer attitude came from her.

My eyes started to fill again, as I wondered how disappointed Miss Bettina might be in me. It didn’t matter that nothing had really happened between me and Mr. Cahill; by now, with Hank’s big mouth, the whole town thought it had.

Grandma came back into the kitchen, the smile falling away from her face as soon as the doors closed behind her.

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