DaySleeper

“No fair! Cheaters!” Greg roars, waving his cigarette wildly. I laugh as he throws his cards down, losing yet another hand. A car passes by slowly, stopping at the intersection. The passengers stare at us as we play our card game on the front porch.

“We don’t cheat, Greg,” Matt says, taking a sip of his drink, “You just blow.”

“You wish, Matt,” he retorts. Matt goes red.

“Yeah right. You got it twisted, mister,” he replies, despite his red face.

“Boys. I know there’s a lot of sexual tension, but I don’t think we need to get into you two’s sex-capades.” Jade scolds.

“I don’t!” Greg snaps.

“You wish you did though,” Matt mumbles. I stare at them. Avid stares at me. I try to ignore that.

“Boys!” Jade scolds.

“Whatever,” Matt mumbles.

“I am straight!” Greg cries. I pat his arm.

“It’s okay. We all experiment.” I say. He throws his hands up and stands up, knocking over his chair before he storms inside.

Jade is laughing very hard.

“I don’t like him like that,” Matt says. Jade laughs harder.

The front door swings open, and Greg comes storming out.

“Momma Ethel says it’s time to paint a fucking building,” he says to us before jogging across the street and in through the front door. The cinder-block wall will be finished today. We’re painting that once they start working on the drywall inside, but for now, we’re fixing up the other wings.

I cross the street, talking to Jade. She holds the door for me. We’re the last ones in.

“It’s weird being in here without anyone living here,” I tell her. She looks at me.

“You were here before?” she asks me. I look at her.

“I figured Avid would tell you guys,” I say. She shrugs.

“I lived here. I was here when the fire destroyed it.”

She stares at me.

“As a volunteer?”

I look at her.

“No. I lived here.”

She doesn’t say anything for a long moment. We’re entering the room we’re painting today when she does speak.

“Bummer.”

~~
We finish the room by the end of the day. The construction workers are long gone by the time we leave. My hands are completely covered in light gray paint. We wonder why the rooms aren’t white, but Maggie insists that this is how it’s supposed to be.

We cross the street to the volunteer house. I stop halfway up the steps and turn as a car slows and stops, parking. Maggie climbs out.

“I have finally quit my job!” she cries.

I stare at her.

“Why the hell would you do that?” I demand, turning towards her fully. She smiles up at me.

“I am working at the shelter full time until its back on its feet.”

I sigh.

“All that work to become a nurse, for nothing.”

“Yeah, like there will not be a nursing position open when I have time again,” she scoffs. I roll my eyes, because she’s right. She eyes me from the porch.

“You look thin,” she says. I know that saying that to anyone else would be a compliment. To me, it’s a warning.

“I don’t feel thin,” I say. She eyes me, moving towards the house. On the second step, she speaks again.

“Are you still on medication?”

“No.”

“Are you being smart about this, Cade?”

“Maggie,” I say seriously, holding her shoulders and staring her in the face, “I’ve lived my whole life letting everything around me control me. Let me try, okay?”

She bites her lip, but nods anyways.

I smile, let her go, and we head inside.

“We’re playing poker!” Jade yells out.

“We’re going out,” Maggie whispers in my ear before I pull away to join in the game. I smile widely at her and watch her head to the kitchen to speak with Ethel. I sit down next to Jade and she deals.

“Alright, we’re going out to dinner with the sponsors.” Maggie says, as she and Ethel head to the front door.

“And we will not be painting tomorrow. They’re will be too many people working inside.” Ethel says. I nod.

We all say goodbye and then return to our card game, until the car doors slam and Greg stand up.

“Let’s get wasted.”

So we do.