It's Friday and the last of the month and winter is coming faster than I was expecting, the air was so cold I bought myself a truck. It was nice, it had every option from heated seats and fast defrosting to and heated steering wheel. The engine was the best one they had for that model and the crew cab style was big enough to hold six people comfortably. The paint was a two-tone blue and white with blacked-out rims and a set of four offroad tread tires.
I headed to the Cafe to meet up with James as he had something for the Cafe he picked up. I've made enough money for the Cafe to buy my new truck but I also made enough to invest in the Cafe as well. I came into the Cafe after a wonderful first drive with my new truck and I saw James had picked up a couple dozen chairs and four medium-sized tables for the outside area. They matched how the Cafe looked outside and he asked where he should put them for the winter?
We talked for a while then I remembered that there was a place in town that sold sheds for homes and some was even big enough to store more than just tools. I got on my phone and I called the company and I ordered one big shed to put behind the Cafe. I told them I wanted it to be leafy green or white to match the Cafe. "No problem sir we will have that done Tuesday at the earliest have a good day." The man said I gave him the address of the Cafe, I looked at James and told him to put the tables in the back for now.
"It's not going to rain for a week so they should be fine outside till the new shed gets here. Oh did you get a chance to call that contractor for our plans to build up the front of the Cafe yet?" I asked James and he said they would come by on Monday to inspect the area in question. I left and I went back to the ranch where I saw my brother sitting on the porch. He looked sad when I walked up to him, "Amy's Grandpa passed away this morning and no one can find her since she found out.
My heart sunk in my chest and I asked, "How did he die brother I thought he was healthy for his age?" My brother told me he died from cancer he was hiding from Amy, he found out he had it when you came home. "I'm guessing he was trying to hide it for her sake, I need to find her, she's going to need a friend by her side." I jumped back into my truck and I went searching for her till I stop to remember where she might have gone.
Back when she would get scolded by her Grandpa or sad about her parents she would run to one place. I drove to her family's farm, there I looked up at the barns hay door to see a small light beaming through the cracks. There I saw a figure move around the sound of a bottle hitting the floor, I went into the Barn as quietly as I could. She was crying and looking at old pictures of her parents and Grandpa. All 22 years of her life weren't always filled with happiness but she had her moments when her family filled the empty parts, since they are all gone she felt like she was not meant to be happy.
"Why does this world take away everyone I care for, why did he not tell me that he was sick?" She asked the ground before I came up from behind her, I sat on a box and I listen to her for a moment longer. "I wish I could tell him about how I really about him but I don't how to feel something like that when I feel this pain." I waited for her to turn to leave but she went to jump from the window, I ran over to her and caught her. I brought her back through the window, She looked at me in shock then I held her in tight.
She realized it was me and she hugged me as if she never wanted me to go away, She began to cry again and I just cradled her till finally said something. "I have been your friend ever since we were seven, eight years old, I thought I knew everything there was to know about you. After hearing how you felt after all these years of losing what you lost. I see I never really knew you were in all this pain Amy, If you need me I'll be here holding you just like this." That sounded kind of weird but that didn't matter, Amy stayed in my arms till I felt her stop shaking.
She let go then she sat up on the box and looked at me with her eyes still filled with tears and her eye makeup running down her face. "I've loved you ever since I was a teenager but I knew you'd never stay here in little ole Easton. After Grandpa Hank passed today I didn't feel there was a place I could stay that didn't make me feel at home." She said with a scratchy voice, I smiled a bit and she looked mad about that. "I never knew until later in my life that you had feelings for me, I was going to ask you out tomorrow but it would seem it's inappropriate. Though when things calm down Amy I would love it if you'd accompany me to something special?"
She looked somewhat happy but her grandfather had passed away I knew it wasn't the best of times. I though went up to her and offered my hand to her, "Amy I will always be your best friend, but my discovered feeling for you won't let me be just that. I want to be just yours and yours alone, when darkness falls over you I will be your light. When the rain comes I will be your umbrella, when you need a shoulder to dry on I want to be that Shoulder." She took my hand and then jumped off the box, "I would love to see how our relationship will go, but I want to continue this after the Funeral."
A couple of days later at the funeral, I was sitting with Amy in the front, Everyone who either had business with Hank or Amy was there. The Pastor spoke about how Hank was a kind but stern man, that he never took anyone's crap and always treated people right. Then he had a couple of people speak about the moments of Hank's life. Then It was my turn but I only said the moment when I first met him and the last time I spoke with him.
"It was the summer I met someone who I later see as of my best friends Amy Smithfield, Hank was walking with her to school. It was our first day of school in first grade, He knew of me from my family so he asked me to keep an eye out for him. To let him know if anyone gives her crap about her tomboyish clothes or for the way she talked. He was scary and rough, well as rough could get, but when he spoke to me he wasn't harsh about it. We became friends and I helped him from time to time when I wasn't helping my own Grandparents at the Cafe. I paused for a moment then I continued my little story.
"Fast forward to a few weeks ago, He visited me after the long harvest with dirt in his hair and mud under his fingertips came to tell me something I'll never forget." I then stopped to talk like he did for the message I got from old Mr. Bare. "Son, there will come a time where the winter gets colder and the summers get hotter, I never found that person to warm my winter or cool my summers. Son make sure you find that one that makes it seem that life isn't that heartbreaking." I stopped talking like Hank then I began to talk in my regular voice.
"I didn't know what he meant by that until a couple of days ago, those are the first and last memories I had with Mr. Bare. It's nothing too crazy but their memories will stick with me for the rest of my life." The Pastor took over after that and then we all went to see Hank off to his final resting place. All anyone saw was my putting my arms around Amy's shoulder holding her tight as she began to cry again.
In this life of ours, we have to remember the good and bad times but always leave something people can learn from. Whether that be lessons from your own misdeeds or from a healing hand that is desperately needed.