In Honor of International Women's Day...

In Honor of International Women's Day.... How about a short story?

The following story is in honor of women everywhere who make daily choices to take care of others.

I wrote this story as a writing assignment for a writing group and here were the parameters: write a story of 2500 words or less about a character (either protagonist or antagonist) who finds themselves in possession of unplanned money. Also, write in another socio-economic voice other than your own.

So...here is my story entitled Saving Destiny and I hope you enjoy it.

Beth Krewson Carter

Saving Destiny

2477 words

The first sign of trouble was the twilight sky. Jake was almost never late, especially when he had been working all day.

“C’mon,” I muttered, heading outside to sit on the front steps. “Where are you?”

Lingering light faded on the horizon, so I dug a cigarette out of my pack. Thumbing my lighter, I blew smoke rings into the cool air and listened to the frogs start their Springtime serenade. I was halfway through my Newport before my eyes stopped scanning the gravel road. If Jake didn’t show up soon, I needed to get up and refrigerate the Hamburger Helper. I was just about ready to give up my vigil and head inside the trailer when the headlights of his truck bobbed in the distance.

“I’m going to be staying with a friend,” Jake announced once we were both in the living room.

Confused, I followed him as he headed down the hallway. Without looking at me, he started packing a bag in the bedroom. His movements had a speed I rarely saw, as if he had already thought about every piece of clothing. When he finally turned to look at me, his eyes dropped to the floor.

“You can stay here until the end of the month but then you and Destiny need to be on your way.”

At that moment, I realized that sitting in the dark waiting for my boyfriend had only meant one thing.

“So, you’re leaving?” I asked, hating the way my voice sounded small when I was only surprised.

“Yeah, uh, sorry, Dylan, but you and me, we just don’t click, you know? I get that things have been hard for you, and I feel bad about everything, but...,”

He shrugged his scrawny shoulders and then headed out into the growing darkness. I was several feet behind him, but my body felt numb, so I stopped in the doorway. At the last minute, he finally looked back at me.

“Hey, don’t mess with the furniture, but you can take some small stuff if you want.”

I knew better than to cry, so I simply closed the door. In the stillness of the trailer, I sat on the sofa and listened to the sound of his truck engine fading into the night.

Even though I was upset, Jake’s decision to go really wasn’t a total surprise. In a way I kind of expected it because we weren’t great together. The problem was that while neither of us was ever bad with each other, we weren’t that good either. I guess you could say we were just marking time and even I know you can’t build a future on a lukewarm relationship.

Besides our obvious lack of chemistry, I had also started to sense that I probably wasn’t Jake’s type. Girls like me, big boned and chunky, don’t often hold much appeal for men. Of course, the fact that my hair is often frizzy didn’t add a lot to my allure.

To my credit, whatever I lacked in runway beauty, I made up for in street smarts. Thanks to my youth spent in foster care, I always considered myself a master of reading moods and emotions. I was better than most at picking up on the clues of disenchantment, at least before Jake came into my life.

I guess having a boyfriend just made me comfortable. Up until he left, I would have probably said how much I liked living with Jake in his double wide. Back then, I thought Walnut, Mississippi was a pretty good place. I mean I wasn’t unhappy or anything. Of course, it’s not like everything was always so wonderful, because it wasn’t, but when you you’ve lived in as many homes as I have, staying in one place, one bed, feels pretty good.

Besides the trailer, I also liked my job at the grocery store. My commute over the state line into Tennessee wasn’t too bad and most of my coworkers were good people. The store manager knew I liked art, so he let me do all the signage for the Deli. I even got to purchase baked goods at an employee discount. Perks like bringing home extra cookies really made Destiny excited.

Other than work, I always knew most boyfriends wouldn’t have been as easy going about my little sister. Destiny’s the only family I have left. Jake understood how important she was to me so after I got permanent hours, he helped me petition to be her legal guardian. Naturally, it took a couple of months, but eventually she came to me for good. Since my trailer was so old, Jake suggested we all live at his place. Only after we moved in together did Destiny finally sleep without having nightmares. She still didn’t talk much, but she seemed better, as if we were finally somewhere safe. Jake could have been impatient with Destiny, but he wasn’t. He was always mellow, but I guess smoking weed most days will do that to you.

When I finally got off the sofa that night, I decided I might as well start packing. I went to the kitchen to look through cabinets. As I was pulling out dishes, I saw the lottery tickets on the counter. Just the sight of those games made me groan because they reminded me of Jake. He loved to gamble, so most weeks I’d gift him with a few different games purchased at the end of my shift.

I started to walk the whole stack to the trash can until something made me stop. Maybe I had a twinge of revenge. All I know is that before my fingers could talk to my brain, I grabbed one of the tickets and decided to do my own scratching. Only when I saw a five-figure winning number did my mouth go dry.

For the rest of the night, I didn’t do anything but pace the floor and stare at my winning numbers. Fortunately, Destiny was asleep in the back of the trailer, so I used the time to come up with a plan.

In the morning, I put Destiny on the school bus the same as always, and then I got in my car and went to work. Nobody was expecting to see me since I was off on Wednesdays. Without being noticed, I headed for my manager’s office.

As soon as he saw me, Big Earl, my boss, logged off his computer. I guess he could tell I needed to talk because he motioned for me to sit.

To most people, Big Earl looked scary, like some sort of chocolate colored mountain man. Thankfully, I knew from working with him that his heart was as big as his barrel chest. If anyone could be trusted, I knew he could.

“Well, aren’t you the lucky one?” he said when I showed him my card.

“What do I do? I bought the ticket here, at the store.”

Earl rubbed his beefy neck, lost in thought. “Well, this is a five-figure sum, so you’ll need to go to the state office in Nashville to claim your prize.”

“You won’t say anything, will you? I don’t want any publicity.”

“Not about you, but our store will get credit for selling a winning ticket. That type of information I can’t control, but I don’t have to say who won.”

For a minute, I was quiet, wondering if Big Earl would keep his word. To me, he had always been a good man who tried to do right by folks in town. Looking in his eyes, I decided to be honest.

“This money is going to let me give my sister the home she really needs. If word gets out that I won a lottery game, every foster home I ever lived in will find a way to come after me for a piece of this and I really need it for Destiny. Even if it means getting less money, I must keep this quiet.”

Earl nodded his head and then leaned across his battered desk to catch my eye.

“After you get your money, why don’t you think about leaving Middleton?” he asked in a low voice. “You’re a great employee but I know you always wanted to do art and draw, and I bet you could head to Memphis. You and Destiny could start over with a new school for her and some classes for you, maybe at community college. If you wanted, I could even make calls to some stores in that area so you could work, too.”

His suggestion was so heartfelt that a lump started forming in my throat. Say what you will, but after a lifetime of knowing bad people, the good ones stand out like jewels. With tears in my eyes, I smiled and nodded in appreciation.

Only after I went to Nashville and had the money wired to my savings, did I finally tell Destiny about the idea of moving.

“So, I’m thinking maybe we should consider a new place to live. Somewhere better, just for the two of us. I have some money now.”

As usual, Destiny didn’t say anything, and I wondered what she thought. Did the idea of moving frighten her? She had never even asked me about Jake, and I still didn’t know whether she had figured out that he wasn’t coming back to us.

On my last day at Kroger, I looked up from the end cap display I was creating to see my favorite person in the world. Miss Lilly Mae, my foster mom for two years, was pushing her cart in my direction and waving.

Of all the people I lived with as a teenager, Miss Lilly Mae was probably the best. When I needed a job in high school, she was the one who told Big Earl what a good girl I was. She even allowed me to stay with her and her husband, Harold, past my eighteenth birthday.

“This is your last day?” she asked, folding me into her pillowy body for a long hug. “Where’re you going, child?”

“I’m headed to Memphis. Destiny lives with me now and I’m going to go to community college.”

“Well, I’m real proud of you, Dylan. That news just makes my day. I always knew you were going to do big things.”

She patted my hand and her touch felt so good. I stood there and soaked in her kindness the way a plant drinks in water.

“If you’re going to be in Memphis,” she continued, “I might call you sometime and visit. Harold lost his leg about six months ago and I take him to the VA Hospital there at the beginning of every month.”

I must have looked concerned because Miss Lilly Mae reached out and touched my cheek.

“Harold’s s alright, don’t you worry. The only problem he has right now is getting into our house. Those steps are hard, and he needs a ramp, but other than that he is fine.”

She hugged me one last time before ambling down the next aisle. As I watched her go, my mind was already at work.

The next day, after loading up everything in my car, I was surprised by how few possessions we had.

“We’ll get you a new bed as soon as we sign the lease and pick up the key,” I promised my sister as we left the trailer park.

Destiny merely looked out the window. I tried to read her expression, to see if she was excited, but all I could see was a little girl intent on studying the cotton fields slipping past us.

After a trip to IKEA and a week combing thrift stores, our apartment was furnished. Only then did I pick up the phone and called Miss Lilly Mae.

“Lawd, Dylan, is that you? So, tell me, are you in Memphis now?”

“Yes, I’m with my little sister Destiny.”

“Well, I’m coming up there next week with Harold. He has a doctor’s appointment at the VA. Maybe we could meet up with you and your sister. You know, we always try to eat somewhere after every appointment. Would the two if you be our guests at the Piccadilly Cafeteria before we drive back home?”

“We’d love to,” I said, warmed by the offer. “So, how’s Harold doing?”

“He’s doing fine, especially now that we have a ramp. Oh, did I mention that we got the nicest wooden ramp? Would you believe, someone just sent a carpenter over to our house and had it built? The whole thing was such a surprise, and we don’t even know who to thank.”

The excitement in her voice made me smile. If ever a couple deserved to have manna from heaven, it was Miss Lilly Mae and Harold. That’s when I realized that building a ramp for them was maybe one of the best parts of having money. Surely, there was nothing that had ever felt as rich as being able to give an anonymous gift to them.

I hung up the phone and settled down to look at my new laptop. For a few minutes, I was totally absorbed in the syllabus for my graphic design class until I heard something.

At first, the sound was so low, so I thought a pipe from the kitchen might be making noise. I rose from my seat, straining to hear until I figured out what was happening.

Destiny was singing.

In my whole life, I had rarely heard my sister talk much less sing a song.

I followed the soft melody to her room. Destiny was under her Taylor Swift blanket surrounded by stuffed animals.

“That’s a pretty tune,” I said.

A crooked smile transformed her face, but then she looked me dead in the eye and asked me question I wasn’t expecting.

“Dylan, are we rich now?”

The look on my sister’s face was so innocent that for a moment I was at a loss. All the wise answers, the ones I was supposed to have simply evaporated.

How should I explain the difference between a fortune and being fortunate? In our case, what was a small windfall to some people changed our future and gave us a new life. The money I won gave me opportunities, but most importantly, it probably saved Destiny

“Well, we are blessed to have some money in the bank, but we’re more blessed to have each other and friends like Miss Lilly Mae and Harold who are coming to visit us,” I told her.

I watched my sister as she weighed the ideas behind my answer. When she smiled again, I knew she understood. We kissed goodnight and I headed back to my computer.

For the rest of the night, until she fell asleep, I could hear Destiny singing.