A Roof Over Their Heads

Alexi turned to Matt, his face pale as he tracked the progress of the white Ford down the street. “You okay?”

Matt wiped his forehead, leaving behind a streak of dirt. “Yeah, I’m okay.”

His voice was sad and shaky. When Alexi leaned to kiss him, he tilted his head away and quickly said, “Hey, I was thinking that we could set up the tent in the backyard. Be just as comfortable as sleeping inside and it wouldn’t stink, either.”

Alexi let him have his evasion. The whole point of coming here was to start over. Time to get on with it.

“Why not? We deserve a little fun.”

* * *

UNBELIEVABLE. THERE WERE no baseball bats. Seth had reserved the diamond, answered obvious questions, posted all week to the Facebook group with reminders about the switch in dates from their regular Thursday meetup to today, Friday, and to bring bats and balls because he had neither. The result was thirty-three people, sixteen balls and no bats. And to think he had one in his hand not two hours earlier. Homemade, but enough to get the game underway.

Everybody arranged themselves on lawn chairs or bleachers, or leaned on trucks, content to have him deal with the consequences of their forgetfulness. Fair enough. He was responsible for—how did the legal wording go?—“generating, overseeing, implementing and attending all events associated with the recreational club, Lakers-on-the-Go.”

He was about to haul his own butt off a bleacher and shoot over to Canadian Tire for a couple of bats, when Ben texted to say he’d bring over his two.

Seth wondered if one of them was a girl’s bat.

Back when he and Ben were thirteen, they’d hiked across town to this same ball diamond with a bat and ball. Mel, when he wasn’t roofing with their dad, came along, but Connie, four years younger, had been too much of a pain. She’d pestered him to come, and so he told her that there was only one bat, it was his, and he didn’t want to share it with her. The next time they’d played, Ben had showed up with a pink-and-purple bat he said he’d share.

Seth learned then that Ben was a loyal friend unless Connie was involved.

That summer it had turned into the four of them. They’d start off taking turns pitching, hitting and fielding, but soon enough it would fall into the pattern of Connie pitching, him hitting and Mel fielding, with Ben rotating among the positions. When it had been Ben’s turn to hit, Seth always moved to the field with Mel. No need for a back catcher because Ben could hit whatever Connie threw at him.

Heavy footsteps sent quivers through the stretch of metal bleacher under Seth’s butt. He glanced up to see Mel plunk himself down beside him, deadening the vibrations. He carried the same box of Timbit donuts he’d had up on a roof this afternoon.

Seth jutted his jaw at the yellow box. “Aren’t those hard and dry by now?”

Mel looked offended. “These are good a week later.”

Mel opened the box for Seth. Seth took a plain bite-size donut ball. “How would you know? They don’t last the day around you.”

Mel took two sugared ones. “Sometimes they get away on me, and I don’t find them till later.”

Seth opened his mouth, then shut it. The less he knew, the better.

“Forty percent chance of severe thunderstorms tonight,” Mel reported. “Good thing Ben and me finished off the roof.”

“Yep.”

Like with little kids, Mel didn’t always need a lot of feedback to hold a conversation.

“Hot enough for it, humid enough, too. And it’s July. Anything can happen in July.”

“You bet.”

“You called Connie yet?” Mel said.

“Why should I?” Seth opened his phone to check his weather app. Maybe there was something nasty coming. Hot and humid, yeah, but electrical, too. Made people lazy and twitchy at the same time.

“Maybe she didn’t get the widow’s message. Maybe she doesn’t realize how much of a not-good situation she’s in, legal-wise.”

Seth’s thumb paused over the phone screen. He’d told Mel about the renovation disaster over at the house but he’d never considered that the mom might call a lawyer. She struck him as more of a problem-solver than a troublemaker. Then again, hauling his sister’s butt into court was one way of solving the problem.

He hit Connie’s number. He didn’t get through and he didn’t leave a message. Seth called again. And again and again.

Mel tipped the box toward Seth, and Seth shook his head. It was part of their ritual. Seth would take one, maybe two, of whatever Mel had on hand and no more, even though Mel would continue to offer.

Connie had her own ritual around not answering her phone. She seemed to think he really had to mean it. Or, as he suspected, she liked to have him riled right from the get-go.

After what seemed like the ninety-seventh try, she answered with, “What? What!”

“Your tenants moved in today.”

“They did? Today?”

“Yes. She said she left you a message.”

Connie’s tone switched from surprise to accusatory. “You talked to her.”

“Not by choice. I don’t even know her name.” He meant that last bit to prove how little he knew this woman, but to his ears it came out peeved, as if he’d missed out. Not that he was going to ask Connie because she would love to know he wanted something from her. Lord it over him, angle for something in exchange. He didn’t want her to know it mattered when it was already absurd that it did.

“For your information,” Connie said, “I called her, like, days and days, weeks ago to tell her not to come, but her line was disconnected.”

“It was working today.”

“I called her landline and I don’t have her cell number.”

“She called yours, so you do now.” Seth heard her draw breath, no doubt for another excuse, so he got to the point. “You better do something before you’ve got a tenant sic’ing lawyers on you. You’re in the wrong here, Connie.”

“Oh, when am I not?” she snarked. “Leave it to me, will you?”

Resentment rushed through Seth but he bit it back. “I want to leave it to you. That’s why I didn’t tell your tenant that you were my sister, because then she would start leaning on me to fix your problems. And I think both of us can agree that I’m through doing that.”

“And I think both of us can agree you have no business interfering. In case you’ve forgotten, it’s my house now.”

As if he ever could. “Then start acting like it is.”

Mel nudged Seth. “Tell her we’re having a pickup ball game. Tell her to come.”

“Tell her yourself,” Seth said and switched to speakerphone.

But Connie had overheard. “Tell him I’m busy tonight.”

Mel jabbed a finger at the phone. “No, you’re not. Ben ate at Smooth Sailing earlier and told me you weren’t working tonight.”

There was a hiss and splutter from Connie’s end. “What? Did he say— Never mind. I’m busy doing something else. Thanks for the invite, Mel.”