Page 64 of Nomad

By the time Garland pulled into the SSMC it was dinner time. She’d already alerted Brant that she was eating there tonight. So he’d told Brenda to plan on two extra. He knew that Brenda went to some extra fuss when she knew Garland was coming. She loved the lavish attention and praise. Garland was masterful at making people feel good about themselves.

While they’d been at Target, Garland guided her to the bedding department and gave her a five hundred dollar allowance for personalizing her room at the clubhouse. When Bud had finally balked at the generosity, Garland insisted.

Consequently there was a lot of stuff in the car including new pillows, comforter, sheets, towels, and a flower vase covered with brightly colored, mirrored mosaic squares.

Garland told Axel to help Bud with the bags.

“Yes, ma’am,” he said dutifully without a trace of sarcasm. Brant was a tyrant about knowing whom to respect along with when and how to give it. It took two trips for him to deliver everything.

Bud had never been on what might be called a shopping ‘spree’ in her life. It had been fun to get a bunch of new things and it had been fun to do it with a woman who helped make decisions. There had been times during the afternoon when she’d gone for as long as ten minutes without thinking about Johns.

She pulled out new jeans that were less chic, more her style, pulled on a plain knit top, and practically groaned from the pleasure of comfort when she put on one of the two pairs of thick-soled sneakers she’d bought.

There were a few more people for dinner than the night before. She took an apron out of the cupboard and was putting it on when she arrived at the sink.

“How can I help?” she asked Brenda.

“Did you get what you need?”

“Yeah. Thanks.”

Brenda nodded toward vegetables set out on the big cutting board. “Finish chopping those up, toss that salad, and get all the different kinds of salad dressing out of that refrigerator over there.”

“Okay.”

Bud sliced tomatoes, boiled eggs, green peppers, red onion, and cucumbers. Threw them into two giant wooden bowls with the hearts of romaine. Tossed. Then pulled about seven different varieties of salad dressing bottles out of the unit that seemed to contain mostly cooking ingredients that required refrigeration.

“Done,” she said to Brenda.

“Okay. Start sending those bowls of salad around.”

Bud took the first bowl to Garland and said, “Salad, madam?”

Garland chortled. “Much better than that thing Brenda calls me.” She took the salad and Bud went back for more.

When everyone was seated and eating, Bud filled a plate with chicken breasts coated in cornflakes, au gratin potatoes, tossed salad, and soft flakey crescent rolls fresh from the oven. She sat at the furthest end of the table, happy to just listen and be out of the hurricane’s eye of attention.

Somebody named Crow told a story about a guy walking by the side of the road smoking a cigarette, wearing nothing but combat boots and tighty whities. Everybody accused him of making it up, but he swore it was true.

After cleanup, Bud accompanied Brenda to the bar where her education continued. “And you don’t have to put up with porn on the big screens if you don’t want to. Just tell the lunkheads to take their pervy little selves to their own rooms. Every one of them has a TV. They can watch other people pretend to get off in their own rooms.”

Bud smiled, but secretly hoped she would never have to ask any of those men to, um, take their hobbies elsewhere.

The next day was nonstop apprenticing, but Bud was a fast learner and she was beginning to feel like she had a handle on things already.

“Now if you get under the weather, don’t worry. Everybody gets sick sometimes and we have ways of dealin’ with it. You let Arnold know first. He’s in number three. He’ll take care of the rest startin’ with breakfast. The man actually knows how to make bacon and eggs.

“If you need to go to the doctor, he’ll take you. If you need cold stuff from the pharmacy, he’ll get it for you. If you just need to stay in bed and slurp hot chicken soup, he’ll manage that, too.”

“That’s good.”

“So neither of us got a nap today, but you learned so much I think you could take over if you needed to.”

Bud paled visibly as she looked at Brenda, shaking her head no. “Uh, no. No. I’m not… not ready.”

“What are you afraid of?”

Bud looked toward the guys sitting at the bar talking and watching TV, then looked back at Brenda. “Them.”

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