On the Saturday Austin left, he carried his cot and his folding table out to his black pickup himself. He wouldn’t let anybody help.
Then he came back up to the front stoop and shook my hand.
“Thank you, Mr. Brekke. For not calling the sheriff. For letting me stay. For all of it.”
“You’re welcome anytime, Austin,” I said. And I meant it.
Then he shook Brett’s hand.
He held on a second longer than he needed to.
“See you at the Casey’s,” he said.
“See you at the Casey’s,” Brett said.
Brett and Jade stayed with us at the house until the first of May. Brett in his old bedroom. Jade in the guest room. Very proper. Ardis’s idea.
Then they rented a little two-bedroom house over by the Lutheran church. And they pay the rent on it themselves. Every month. On time.
The week after we got home, Brett walked across the street to Vern’s house.
I saw him go up those steps. I saw Vern open the door.
He was in there almost an hour.
I never asked what was said. I never will.
But Vern has waved at him every single morning since.
A few days after we got home, Ardis was cleaning out the refrigerator. When she moved the magnets to wipe down the door, she found an index card stuck under the magnet next to mine.
Mine said, in my handwriting: Faucets on north wall below zero. Furnace filter. Walks.
Under it, there was a second card. In Brett’s handwriting.
Mom’s violets. Sunday. Not too much water. Turn them a quarter turn. Grandma’s cactus goes in the dark closet in October, like Mom does it.
Ardis sat down at the kitchen table holding that little card.
And she cried. For the first time since Vern called. For the first time in fourteen hundred and eighty miles.
I sat down beside her and held her hand.
“He was so afraid of letting us down,” she said, “that he kept every single one of them alive.”
Ethan Blake is a skilled Creative Content Specialist with a talent for crafting engaging and thought-provoking narratives. With a strong background in storytelling and digital content creation, Ethan brings a unique perspective to his role at TheArchivists, where he curates and produces captivating content for a global audience.
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