Chapter 18

He gave her quick instructions on how to operate both appliances while Adam peered at every single knick-knack in the kitchen—and there sure were a lot of them. She hoped that he wasn‘t touching anything. Some of the figurines looked old and fragile.

"There‘s no microwave in the cottage. Feel free to use this one if you like. There are a few pots and pans—mostly cast iron. If you know how to use them they are the best for cooking. I know that when I first started cooking on them I burnt up everything."

Stella smiled enjoying the way he talked and the sound of his country accent. "You do a lot of cooking?"

He nodded. "Not much else to eat around these parts if you don‘t cook it. There are a few restaurants but they‘re mostly down the hill. But there is a decent grocery store if you don‘t need anything fancy."

"You live alone here?" She asked.

"Yep. Since my granny had to be moved to an elder care facility."

"Oh. That‘s sad."

"Yes," he agreed and then closed the door to the laundry room—and it seemed to that topic.

"I‘ll get you a receipt for your payment." He led them to the living room where he sat at an old-fashioned secretary. He opened it to reveal a desk area and Adam peered into it intrigued that it had opened like a transformer figurine.

Stella dug into her pocket for the check that she had already made out. He took it, briefly examined it and then retrieved an old receipt book. When he opened it, the pages appeared to have aged but the fact that he had one let her know that renting the cottage was probably something that he did regularly.

"Here you go." He handed her the receipt and closed the secretary. "If you need anything just let me know. The door to the house is left pretty much unlocked. Like I said, feel free to use the kitchen and laundry."

"Oh," Stella said. "What about the Wi-Fi password?"

Riley hadn‘t thought about sharing his Wi-Fi with renters, but he jotted it down on a sheet from a notepad. Internet wasn‘t the greatest out here but with his satellite dish he made do. He‘d consider whether or not he‘d invite them to use the television in the main house. But he didn‘t really want to walk downstairs and see his boarders chilling in his living room.

After Stella and Adam left the house he stood there for a bit feeling indecisive. Maybe he should suggest some things for them to do…

Naw. He wasn‘t planning to act as their tour guide.

~*~

It was Saturday and Riley had a schedule. He generally spent Saturdays catching up on his chores and doing his laundry—only he‘d already done all that during the week. Saturday is also when he‘d watch some television, catch up on a book or go fishing. Then at lunch he‘d head down to Michael‘s Buffet for the fried chicken, or over to the Whistle Stop and afterwards perhaps get ice cream at the Twin. He‘d come home and nap and then head over to Stubby‘s to hang out with his cousins and their friends.

He decided that since he had a nice fat check, he‘d head over to the bank to deposit it before it closed. Riley grabbed his keys and headed for his truck, not worrying about the SUV parked behind it. The driveway wasn‘t anything but a bunch of gravel and he easily went around.

It was a nice SUV, a late model Lexus. Still, they went for a pretty penny. He wondered what Stella did for a living. Well she probably had some rich ball player in her life, or maybe some high paid corporate type. She seemed the type to date a guy that never got his hands dirty.

He frowned as he thought about his college football dreams. He never allowed his mind to drift to such thoughts. They still hurt. The loss of a dream never completely faded from memory no matter how hard you tried to convince yourself otherwise.

~*~

Stella heard Riley drive off while she was exploring the little ginger bread house. Her first impressions of him hadn‘t been as bad as she had expected. He was polite, even friendly. But he kept his distance and that was something that she completely understood.

She put the food into the Frigidaire and went around admiring all of the nice touches. Adam showed her the little door in the loft and she frowned.

"I don‘t want you playing in there." The last thing she wanted was for Riley Pranger to get mad because Adam broke something.

Adam just held up his hands innocently. "I am not going into that scary place." He turned his attention to setting up his PlayStation to the miniature television set that she‘d allowed him to bring. Luckily so since the television in the living room looked like the last thing that had appeared on its screen was Lawrence Welk or Hee Haw.

I am in the whitest place in America. She glanced at Adam then and felt slightly ashamed. She had learned to temper her strong opinions about whites and America in general. Stella had a few white friends, some of them were even good friends. But whites never really understood what it was to be black.

For the most part, that didn‘t matter. What did she know about being Asian or Muslim? Nothing. But sometimes the ignorance of white people got in the way. Sometimes she wanted to say, your opinion on something that has never hurt you means nothing.

There were times when she almost wrote on her social media accounts ‘If you say all lives matter one more fucking time, I will delete and block your ignorant ass!‘

She didn‘t allow herself to go there, because she did have a son who was half white. And if she said all that she truly felt in her heart, then she would end up teaching him to dislike that side of himself.