It's Never too Late

She was crying. Because she was suddenly missing him? Doubting the decisions she’d made?

Ella had always come to him first before deciding anything major. Which was fine with him. Even now. The crying...that was new....

“Are you drinking, Ella?”

“No.”

“Not even one or two?”

“No! Of course not! I just...talk to me, Mark. How’s school? Are you working? What do you think of Arizona?”

She didn’t ask how Nonnie was doing.

“School’s fine. I got a job at a plant here. Arizona’s different, but not bad.” The desert was growing on him, but he didn’t think Ella would understand if he told her so. The way the shades of brown took on life was something you had to experience. And he was certain she didn’t want to hear that he liked his new life. “What’s up, Ella? I’ll help if I can, you know that.”

Was she in some kind of trouble?

He glanced at his watch. Almost nine o’clock. Would Addy wait for him? “Is it work?” he asked. “If there’s a problem at the plant I can make a few calls. You in trouble there?” She’d been late a couple of times. Once more meant a write-up.

Ella wasn’t the type to cry over a write-up. Or even over being fired. She took life in stride. Didn’t get real worked up about anything.

Like him leaving. She just found someone else. Even before he was gone. Life always had options.

“Work’s fine. What kind of plant are you at?”

“Cactus jelly. I’m doing the same kind of work I was at home.” Home. An odd term for a place that seemed so far away.

“You’re supervising?”

“Yeah.”

“How’s the weather? Is it really hot?”

“Not too bad, eighties and nineties, but it really is a dry heat like they say. Nineties seem like seventies back home. You wouldn’t believe the difference it makes not having all that humidity weighing you down.” Cars whizzed past on the highway leading into town and a new wave of guilt assailed him at his eagerness to be among them. So he kept talking.

“From what I hear, getting here in September was a good thing. It never dropped below a hundred the entire month of August.” He pictured Addy, sitting in her chair, watching her fountain. Had she noticed that his truck wasn’t in the driveway?

“Maybe I should come out. For a visit. I’ve got vacation time coming...”

Ella, here? “Sure, Ella, if that’s what you want to do.” Ella staying next to Addy? Even more outrageous, Ella and Nonnie in the same house? “I’m busy with classes and work so I wouldn’t have a lot of time to show you the sights, but you could do some exploring on your own.”

He supposed she could walk to town and back, maybe get a bike... A month ago he would’ve been happy enough with the prospect.

Or at least, not as unhappy about it.

“You think Nonnie would give us hell if I slept in your bed with you?”

“I’d take the couch.” For his sake, not his grandmother’s. Nonnie was no prude. Still, she was eighty-one years old. It wasn’t right to flaunt sex in her face.

Sex. He wanted it with Addy. Not Ella.

“Why the sudden change of heart, Ella? I thought you wanted nothing to do with Shelter Valley. Bierly’s your home, you said.” She’d been willing to toss him aside because of it.

She hadn’t even seemed to consider the idea that there might be some benefit to him getting an education. Not that he could blame her. He hadn’t believed it, either.

Who’d have guessed that he, Mark Heber, would ever take to schooling? He was the dropout.

“I’m pregnant, Mark.”