Sunshine Valley

Lunch

    “Lunch!”

    Rebecca had never been so happy to hear that one word. She noticed the bathroom was finished with a new shower stall and tub, light fixture, sink, and commode. It was ready to be used. She was such a poor judge of size, this room had to be bigger than 5’ X 5’ in order to accommodate all the fixtures.

    One bedroom was finished. The honey one. It got a ceiling fan. Much to her surprise the other room, the smaller of the two bedrooms was going to be a closet. The women had painted it a very pale yellow. “Wow!” She sighed, as she continued to walk through the house. She noticed the little hallway had been painted white. The living room was stripped down and ready to be painted. Someone had painted the kitchen. The bottom half was a brick red and the top half was dark beige with a black stripe where the two colors met.

    Lunch was a thick meat lover’s sandwich, fruit, potato chips, and potato salad.

    “Boy,” Mr. Rice called to the roof again.

    About that time Rebecca noticed the sheriff’s SUV sitting behind the house. It was an older model, beige SUV with a gold sheriff seal on the door that looked like a badge. It was really nothing special. Had it been there all day? “We have a sheriff?” She was shocked. “Bradley, you always say you’re the law.” She sat down beside Simon.

    Bradley couldn’t contain his laughter. This made twice today he had laughed at her. “I am.”

    Everyone’s attention was drawn to the roof. The tallest man Rebecca had ever seen came walking down the ladder. Walking forward, like he was casually walking down stairs. He sat down at the table directly across from her. Before he started eating, Bradley took off his baseball hat, laying it in his lap. He nodded in a fashion that Rebecca thought it was to thank Bradley. Why not just say the words? Hold on; wait a minute, blonde hair! Rebecca screamed to herself. When he looked up, her blood ran cold. His eyes were as green as a field of clover but they were cold, seemingly lifeless. If he had a soul, it wasn’t looking out through his eyes. His face was tired. More than just a morning spent on the roof. Had he been up all night?

   “Sheriff Pace,” he held up his hands as he spoke to show her how dirty they were. To imply that he wasn’t going to shake hands because of the dirt. Della handed him a wet towel. He got as much of the mess off as he could. But still didn’t offer her a handshake.

   “I’ve lived here for years. I thought Bradley was the only lawman in town.” Rebecca said playfully.

   “Good,” he boomed, turning his full attention toward his lunch.

    A ringing phone interrupted the chatter at the table. Sheriff Pace leaned to the side retrieving the phone from his pocket.

“What?” He barked. He didn’t even look at the phone to see who it was. Rebecca just knew he wouldn’t talk to his mother that way. What if that was her on the other end? How rude. What a hateful way to answer the phone. What, indeed. “And?” He growled into the tiny phone. At any moment she knew it would melt due to the sound of his voice. “Deal with it.” He snapped the phone shut laying it on the table.

    “You think I’ll ever get that boy trained?” Bradley asked scratching his chin.

   “Got you trained.” Pace glared at him out of the corner of his eye.

    Bradley blushed. He honestly blushed. As if that comment was the greatest thing this beast of a man had ever said to him.

Rebecca blurted out, “who still has a flip phone?”

The sheriff glared at her for a minute. Someone at the table groaned in protest. The longer Rebecca was around Sheriff Pace, the less she liked him.

Sunshine Valley