The contents of the cabinets had been emptied into an overflowing garbage can in the middle of the green linoleum. Boxes of cereal, cans of soup, long since defrosted pizza snacks. There wasn’t a vegetable in sight.
There was a bedroom on each end. The one with the double bed had an ashtray on either side. Instead of curtains, thin bedsheets were tacked directly to the wall to block out the sun. The closet and dresser were mostly empty. Everything had either ended up on the floor or been hauled out the door. On instinct, I peeked under the bed and found two empty bourbon bottles.
Some things never changed.
“She’s coming back, you know,” Waylay said, poking her head inside.
“I know,” I agreed. What the girl didn’t know was that sometimes it was years between visits.
“My room’s on the other end if you wanna see it,” she said.
“I’d like that if you don’t mind.”
I closed the door on Tina’s depressing bedroom and followed my niece through the living room. Exhaustion and overwhelm made my eyeballs feel hot and dry. “Where’s Knox?” I asked.
“Talkin’ to Mr. Gibbons outside. He’s the landlord. Mom owes a shit-ton of back rent,” she said, leading the way to the flimsy fake wood door off the living room. A hand-lettered sign said “KEEP OUT” in glitter and four shades of pink marker.
I decided to save the lecture on swearing for later when I wasn’t mostly asleep on my feet.
Waylay’s room was small but tidy. There was a twin bed under a pretty pink quilt. A sagging bookshelf held a few books but was mostly dedicated to hair accessories organized in colorful bins.
Was it possible Waylay Witt was a girlie girl?
She flopped down on her bed. “So? What are we doing?”
“Well,” I said brightly. “I like your room. As for the rest of the place, I think we can make it work. A little scrubbing, some organization…” A vat of lighter fluid and a box of matches.
Knox prowled into the room like a pissed-off lion at the zoo. He took up too much space and most of the oxygen. “Get your shit, Way.”
“Uh. All of it?” she asked.
His nod was brisk. “All of it. Naomi.”
He turned and marched out of the room. I could feel the trailer shudder under his feet.
“Think that means you’re supposed to follow him,” Waylay said.
“Right. Okay. Just hang tight. I’ll be back in a second.”
I found him outside, hands on hips and staring at the gravel.
“Is there a problem?”
“You two aren’t fucking staying here.”
Suddenly too tired to function, I collapsed against the trailer’s aluminum siding. “Look, Knox. My bones are tired. I’ve been up for a million hours straight. I’m in a strange place in a stranger situation. And there’s a little girl in there who needs someone. Unfortunately for her, that someone is me. You made up for the asshole routine with the chauffeur routine. You can just stop with the macho inconvenienced thing. I didn’t ask you for help. So you’re free to go. I need to start cleaning this mess up.”
Literally and figuratively.
“About done?” he asked.
I was too tired to be infuriated. “Yeah. About.”
“Good. Then get your ass in the truck. You’re not staying here.”
“Are you serious right now?”
“You two aren’t staying in a motel with cardboard doors or a health violation of a trailer that’s been broken into. Besides…” He paused his tirade to rip the eviction notice off the door. “This place ain’t Tina’s anymore. Legally you can’t crash here. Morally I can’t let you try. Got it?”
It was the longest speech he’d made in my presence, and I honestly didn’t have the energy for a reply.
But he wasn’t looking for one.
“So you’re going to get your ass in the truck.”
“And then what, Knox?” I pushed away from the trailer and threw my hands up. “What’s next? Do you know? Because I haven’t got a clue, and that scares the hell out of me.”
“I know a place you can stay. Safer than the motel. Cleaner than this fuckin’ mess.”
“Knox, I’ve got no wallet. No checkbook. No phone or laptop. As of yesterday, I’ve got no job to go back to. How am I supposed to pay for…” I couldn’t even finish the sentence. Exhaustion and despair overwhelmed me.
He swore and shoved a hand through his hair. “You’re asleep on your feet.”