PRESENT TENSE
Chapter One Hundred Twenty-One
July 22, 2009
Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin
"Well, here it is." Jack led Rose
and Lizzy up the rickety steps of the trailer he had rented. "Home sweet
home."
Unlocking the door, he let them in. "It
isn’t furnished at all—we’ll have to take care of that ourselves—but the water
and the electricity are on. It’s not much, but it’s better than trying to live
in a tent when winter comes."
Rose looked around, taking in the small
kitchen and living room, then looking down the hallway to the two bedrooms and
the bathroom. "It’ll do, I think. It’s no worse than the first place we
lived in, except that the yard is very small, and it’s all ours. And you’re
right—I don’t think we could live in a tent in the winter here. It’s cold
enough in southern California in the winter, but here…well, let’s just say that
I never saw a frozen over lake in southern California, not even in the
mountains."
"I was afraid you wouldn’t want to live
here," Jack told her, putting an arm around her waist as they went to look
at the bedrooms.
"Why?"
He shrugged. "A lot of people don’t like
trailer parks, especially the run-down, low-rent variety."
"I have nothing against trailer parks.
It’s a place to live. I would like a bigger yard, but maybe we’ll be able to
get that when we’re both working and have saved some money. There’s no use
putting ourselves in debt at this point if we don’t have to. Now, I’m sure my
mother would be appalled. But unless Nana told her, she doesn’t even know that
we’ve left California, let alone that we’re living in a trailer park. I think
that it’s nice enough, and all these weathered trailers have a certain charm
that all the fancy new housing tracts in the world can’t compete with."
Jack grinned. He knew how Rose felt about the
housing tracts that she had grown up in, and he wasn’t surprised now that she
preferred a trailer park.
Lizzy came running out of one of the
bedrooms. "Mommy! Daddy! That room has Mickey Mouse walls! Can I sleep in
there?"
"Let’s see, Lizzy." Rose followed
her into the room, confirming that the walls were indeed covered with faded
Mickey Mouse wallpaper. "I don’t see why not. What do you think,
Jack?"
"You can have this room, Lizzy, as long
as you don’t color on the walls. Okay?" Lizzy had, on more than one
occasion in the past, scribbled on the walls with crayons, markers, and pens.
She hadn’t done it in a long time, but Jack didn’t relish the idea of
explaining to their landlord why there were childish murals on the wallpaper.
"Okay, Daddy. Do I gotta share it with
anybody?"
"No, Lizzy. Not right now, anyway. Your
mommy and I will sleep in the other bedroom."
"Where are the beds?"
"We have to buy our own,
Busy-Lizzy," Rose told her. "For now, let’s bring our stuff in and
get it put away, and then we can worry about what else we need."
*****
It didn’t take long for the Dawsons to unpack
and put away their belongings—they didn’t have much. They had never had a great
deal of extra belongings, and they had even less now, since they’d sold off
most of their extra stuff in order to have enough money to move to Chippewa
Falls and live until Rose received her first paycheck. They didn’t have much
money now—Rose had worked only a few days in June—and they had had to get an
advance on her second paycheck to pay the rent on the trailer. But at least
they had a roof over their heads now, and there was still enough money for food
until the end of the month if they were careful.
They ate dinner on the trailer steps—they
didn’t have a table or chairs yet—and watched television sitting on the floor
of the living room. The television wasn’t in the greatest shape anymore—it was
the same one that Rose had had since she was a teenager, with a converter box
added so the old analog television would work—but Jack and Rose considered it
to be a luxury that they wouldn’t replace until their financial situation was
more sound.
That night, after they had tucked Lizzy into
her makeshift bed in her new room, Jack and Rose retreated to the privacy of
their own room. They had spread their blankets out on the floor, making a
serviceable if not entirely comfortable bed.
"This is nice," Jack commented,
leaning against the wall and pulling his shoes off.
"What is?" Rose looked up from
where she was rummaging through her suitcase for a nightgown.
"This." Jack gestured to the small
room. "Having a room of our own and some privacy again."
"Oh…yes. Yes, it is nice. There’s not
much privacy in a tent—especially not with a rambunctious four-year-old."
"I’ve missed being alone with you."
"Yeah. Me, too." Rose looked him
with a mischievous gleam in her eye. "You’ve missed more than just the
alone part. You miss what we can do when we’re alone."
"Oh, and you haven’t?" he teased
her, tossing his shirt aside and coming towards her.
Rose laughed softly. "Maybe." She
giggled as Jack put his arms around her and kissed her neck. "Yes."
She looked at her suitcase, then closed it and
pushed it aside. "Forget the nightgown. You can keep me warm."
Jack chuckled softly. "I thought we’d
never be alone."
"Well," Rose whispered, wrapping
her arms around him and kissing him back, "now that we are, let’s take
advantage of it. If you’ll just turn off that light bulb up there…"
Jack reached up and pulled the chain to turn
off the light bulb, his lips never leaving Rose’s as they sank down to the soft
pile of blankets.