Chance made stuffed zucchini on Tuesday morning, with ground pork, chopped spinach, and just a hint of hot sauce to give it that extra something special. Not enough hot sauce to cause anyone discomfort. They wouldn't even know it, and, they'd spend the next two hours after they ate it wondering why his stuffed zucchini didn't taste like theirs. The only time he ever cooked this as his special of the day was when he was extremely depressed, and that's because he disliked zucchini himself. But the customers thought it tasted just as wonderful as his other dishes, and no one would ever have known the missing ingredient that morning was love.
Brody left for Europe that morning. Chance moved slower than usual. He didn't even bother to go into the barn to check the squirrel cages. Now that the old man was starting to take a fond, sincere interest in the squirrels, all the fun was gone.
When Sarah came in at nine, she had a huge grin on her face. She'd let Mike have his wish. She'd decided that if he wanted anal sex with her, then she'd take a chance and go for it. "So last night I leaned over the front seat of his truck," she said, "and let him do it."
"You did?" Chance asked. For a moment, he pictured her bending over the front seat and spreading her long, white legs apart. Then he shook his head quickly and snapped back to reality.
"At first it hurt so much I almost pulled the steering wheel off the column. Mike's very thick in the penis department, you know."
"But once he got it all the way in and I started to relax a little, it wasn't half bad."
"Well, there you are," Chance said. He was pretending to be interested. But he could have lived without this story.
"And Mike
loved
it," she said, "He nailed me so hard I had to soak in a hot tub when I got home last night. I still can't walk right. I had no idea he'd
love
doing it that much." She turned to her side and stretched her left leg up and down a few times. She wore tight jeans that day, and black high heels, and the stretching didn't look easy.
Most men love it, he wanted to say. There's something extremely erotic and sexual about it that makes them beg for more. All he had to do was sit on Brody's lap and Brody would be ready to turn him over and spread his legs as wide as they would go.
Instead, he said, "It's one of those things that gets better the more you do it."
"Mike wants me to wear a football jersey next time he pokes me in the ass," Sarah said.
Chance almost laughed in her face. But he didn't. Evidently, she wasn't joking.
The old man had left enough cash in the register, so after Chance checked the drawer he put the open sign out front and then walked behind the deli counter. Mrs. Dolan came in early for a pound of cheese—she was having a few ladies for lunch—but when she saw the stuffed zucchini, she decided to serve that instead of grilled cheese-and-tomato sandwiches. When Betty Shack came in for her daily banana, she pressed her hand to her throat with joy and bought four stuffed zucchini for her freezer. Chance waited on them with a pleasant smile, and he thanked them all for being so kind. But his movements were disconnected, and each smile was so forced it almost hurt his face.
The rare heat wave had spread across town and seeped into the market.. It was painfully hot and humid for a morning in August in the Lakeland area. There should have been a cool breeze, with a hint of fall in the air. But each time he moved too fast or lifted something slightly heavy, Chance felt beads of sweat form below his hairline. He should have taken out the bucket and sponge to wash the floors but instead he pretended to be busy wiping already clean counters behind the deli case. After that, he turned all the salads over for the second time, just to feel the cool air in the deli case against his face. There were two air conditioners at either end of the market, but Dan refused to use them unless it was absolutely necessary, which meant it had to be so hot inside the market that the chocolate bars next to the cash register began to melt. Chance wouldn't have been surprised if they were melting now.
When he finally looked at the clock over the deli counter, it was after ten. The old man would be down soon, so he removed his apron and crossed the market to collect the bucket and sponge from the utility closet.
While he filled the bucket, Dan came down the back stairs with his big shoes crashing against the old wood. He walked past Sarah at the cash register and said nothing. His hands were on his hips and he wasn't smiling. When he reached the utility closet, he shouted, "Hey,
you!
You should have been scrubbing these floors a half-hour ago."
"We had a few customers come in early," Chance said. "I'm just about to start the floors now." He lifted the heavy bucket of water with both hands. Some of it splashed against his white T-shirt and left wet marks across his stomach. "I'll start in the back of the market and work my way forward."
Sarah stared at them with a confused expression on her face. She'd never seen Chance wash floors during regular business hours. The old man turned to her and said, "We're gonna have the cleanest floors on the lake around here from now on."
Chance looked at her and shrugged his shoulders, then went to the back of the store and got down on his hands and knees next to the dairy case. The cold, soapy water felt good against his right arm. He scrubbed in slow, circular motions as drops of sweat fell from his forehead. The old wooden planks were so worn they didn't have a clear finish anymore, and although the bucket of water soon turned dark gray, there were so many chips and stains and marks it didn't even look like Chance had touched them.
By the time he reached the middle of the market, he was dripping with perspiration and he had a splinter in the palm of his left hand. His right hand got tired at one point, and when he switched to his left, he went against the grain too fast. Then he backed into something near the cash register, and when he turned to see what it was, the slushy, wet sponge landed on a pair of black vinyl loafers attached to thick, white ankles.
"Hey
you
," Dan shouted, "
You
just got water all over Sister's shoes!" He was so mad his teeth almost slipped out of his mouth, and he had to press two fingers to his upper lip.
Chance squinted up.. Sure enough, he'd backed right into the nun. She stood there in her navy cardigan and black wool skirt, clutching her rosary with one hand and a box of prunes with the other. "Ah, well, Sister," he said, "I'm so sorry. I'll get you a clean towel right away." He lifted his hand to wipe sweat from his brow and got soap in his eyes.
"Oh dear, young man," the nun said. "It's only a little water. I think I'll live." She giggled.
"Get up and get the towel now," Dan shouted. Then he turned to the nun and said, "I'm-a so sorry, Sister. If he's ruined your shoes, I'll make him buy you a new pair."
But the nun didn't have a chance to respond to Dan, because the moment she opened her mouth to speak, a loud, deep voice said, "Here's fifty dollars for the shoes, Sister."
"Oh, I couldn't take your money, young man. There's no harm done, after all. It was only water." She lifted the prunes and waved them at the handful of money.
Chance was still squinting and wiping the burning soap from his eyes so he could see who had offered the nun the money, but the more he wiped the more it burned. He heard Sarah gasp and drop something next to the cash register. Then he heard Dan ask, "What are
you
doing here?" A strong voice replied, "I'm here for Chance."
Chance froze.
"He's working for me.
You
don't come back here again. Get out," Dan shouted.
Brody? But Brody was on a plane headed for Europe. How could this be happening? Chance whirled and the entire bucket of dirty water spilled all over the floor he'd just scrubbed. The nun jumped back so fast it looked as if she might take flight, and Sarah hopped up on the counter, letting her black high heels dangle over the sides.
Dan pressed his hands to his head and shouted, "Now look at what
you
did. Go get towels and clean up that mess before I fire you for good. No-good loser." He shook his head and mumbled in Italian, and then he apologized to the nun again, who tsk-tsked when Dan turned away.
Chance blinked a few times, and when he opened his eyes, it was true: Brody, wearing his full dress officer's uniform. Chance had to blink again to be sure he wasn't imagining this. For a moment it looked more like a flash of pure white light. When he was certain that it was indeed Brody standing there, he opened his mouth to speak—but nothing came out.
The nun stepped back a few more paces with her hand pressed against her mouth, but if you looked closely, beyond her light mustache, you could see a smile.
Dan shouted to Brody, "Get out of my market now, or I'm calling the police."
Brody ignored him. "You're going to live in Europe for a while," he said to Chance. "Maybe even go to cooking school there, so that one day we can come back and turn that big old house into a real bed and breakfast, like my father intended it to be." His eyes sparked and he tilted his head to one side. His shoulders looked even wider in the clean white jacket. Chance knew he'd worn this dress uniform to make a statement. Brody was proud of being an officer, and the uniform only made Dan seem more shabby and irrelevant than he already was.
"Oh, yeah, right," Dan said, then he shook his head and laughed. "He's not going to any Europe. He's going to clean up this mess and get back to work if he knows what's good for him." He slammed his fist on the counter so hard Sarah jumped back and gasped.
Chance looked down at his wet T-shirt and spread his arms out wide. "But I'm a mess."
"You look beautiful to me," Brody said. Then he shoved the old man out of his way with the back of his hand, crossed over to where Chance was standing and leaned forward. He wrapped his arm around Chance's waist, and with one effortless lift, Chance was over his right shoulder.
When Brody turned to leave, the nun dropped her prunes and grabbed her rosary with both hands. Her eyebrows were raised, but she wasn't frowning. Dan just stood there with his mouth hanging open, pointing his crooked, bent finger at them. By then, Sarah was kneeling on top of the counter, clapping her hands and wiping tears from her eyes.
And while Chance was smiling and waving goodbye to Sarah, Brody placed his palm on the middle of Chance's ass and he grabbed and squeezed it as hard as he could all the way out the door.
THE END