What We Take for Truth by Deborah Nedelman

Author:Deborah Nedelman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fiction, literature, novel, literary fiction
Publisher: Adelaide Books

SECTION 3: SECRETS

Chapter 11

August 3, 1991

This is how a traitor lives: Wake at five a.m., down to the café to prepare food for Chelsea and her crew, hike two miles up the mountain to deliver the day’s order, back down the trail to the café where Lyle has the coffee going and is, hopefully, fixing a few breakfast orders. Work the front of the house feeding the people I’ve known all my life whose lives depend on Chelsea and her crew failing. Do that till noon and then trade places with Lyle in the kitchen if there are any lunch customers. Close up at four--no one is going to come in for dinner—home, collapse. The hardest part of it all is keeping the secret—and hating myself half the time.

This whole thing is insane, but I am learning a lot: ways to cut corners on the food ordering, how to skimp on serving sizes without anyone noticing, and how to feed a vegan. Plus, instead of a tip, I usually get a lecture from Jason, the guitar player who always looks so hungry.

He says “It’s all about the money, Grace. That’s all that matters to those loggers. They see trees as just a commodity, but without the forest the entire ecosystem is in jeopardy. We’ll lose the salmon. There’ll be no oxygen.”

I want to tell him it’s not so simple. Try raising your family without a job. And try living without lumber. These are good people you’re talking about; they breathe the same air you do, and they love the woods, too. But I can’t afford to argue. The money I’m taking in on this strange catering job is keeping the café’s doors open.

All I can get out is “there’s more than one side to everything.”

***

The morning Grace met Charlie in the woods, she got back to the café as Henry was finishing up his coffee.

“You been doing a lot of early morning hiking there, Parrot. In training for something?”

“Morning, Henry. It’s nice and quiet in the woods in the morning. You ought to try it.”

“I been up there plenty. Usually not so quiet where I’m at, though.”

“Hey, I met a guy this morning. He was going up the trail as I was coming down. Coulda been a government inspector or something.” Grace poured herself a cup and sat down on a stool next to him. “Any reason there’d be someone like that around now?”

“What makes you say that?” Henry was suddenly serious, paying complete attention.

“Oh, I don’t know, just a feeling really. He didn’t have a pack or anything with him. Said his name was Charlie.”

Henry sat back and smiled. “Tall guy, dark hair, mustache?”

“Yeah. Kinda cute.”

“That’s Charlie.” Henry reached over and patted her shoulder. “He’s no inspector. Kinda grew up here, actually.”

“In Prosperity? When? How come I don’t know him?”

Henry downed the last of his coffee and got up, “Oh, it was a while back, you were just a little kid when he left.” He pulled a couple of bucks from his pants pocket and put them on the counter.

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