11.12.08

nothing to be afraid of

At Least Chris was getting things loaded up in his truck of Bex and Oliver's stuff. It was looking a bit more empty now, but Bex was fussing about the bed and the shelves that Oliver made.

"We are taking it with us!" Bex demanded. Oliver could careless. He'd found Chris the brand new red crock pot that was still in its box. He wanted him to have it.

Max was trying to persuade her that they should leave it for who ever moved in.

"Well, there was nothing here when I moved in, you know." Bex had a point but was being sassy as ever with her brother and even Oliver.

"Lets just take it down," Chris said.

"Finally, somebody on my side," Bex sighed and stood back to watch as Chris began to pry what he could apart.

"I just don't know where we're going to put it in the house," Oliver told her. "There is a lot of crap in that house."

Chris knew this.

"We'll just have to have a garage sale." Bex's answer.

"In December?" Max had to laugh.

"We'll see what we can do once we get there with this," Chris eyed the shelves then. They were nice. Oliver had done such a professional job. Perhaps Oliver didn't even need that job at the library, thought Chris, but he wasn't going to mention it. Then he thought of Mrs. Reinhart and what she'd said to him at the grocery store.

He wanted to say something, but he waited until Oliver took Bex on a McDonald's run for food when he had Max alone.

"Just not sure how I'm supposed to take this," he started as if he'd better get busy with those shelves instead of dallying around about what some old woman might think of them. "But Mrs. Reinhart seems to think I've got a thing for Oliver."

"What?" Max laughed. "How did that happen?"

"Church." Chris shrugged. "I guess I got a little too close to Oliver, but he's really worried about Izzy, you know."

"I know." Max nodded, but Max shook his head about Mrs. Reinhart. "Her of all people. Maybe she's just jealous."

"Jealous?" Chris didn't get it. He was pretty sure he would have bombed any test she might have given out while she was a school teacher. He would have been scared of her, for sure.

"She sees you can relate to people and she can't. Simple as that." Max shrugged as he helped Chris attack the wall.

"No, I think she thinks I'm just no good. That you shouldn't be around the likes of me." Chris told him.

"Well, I guess we'll have to straighten that out for her. How good are you at cleaning out gutters?" Max asked.

"Not so good today. The wind chill is below zero out there." Chris' stared back at Max about this crazy idea.

"Next half of a decent day we get, we'll get it done." Max looked at him point blank.

Chris just nodded. He guessed he could see where he was going with this. There was nothing to be afraid of.

4 comments:

taffy. said...

reinhart makes me angry.

ivy said...

kill her with kindness.

dawn said...

interesting that chris decided to tell max this....hmmmm

Anonymous said...

this is really interesting! i just found your blog; i love it
xoxo,
La C.