Drifter’s Code

Chapter 11: The West Shed Adventure

Short story by Tim Oleson

Lucky and Beau woke up the next morning feeling great. He had cleaned up the facilities in the barn and was able to get a much wanted shower before climbing into the van to sleep with his best friend, Lucky.

Beau was tired but he still laid awake for a long time just reliving the night he had just had with Lily over and over. It was like he was trying to memorize the memory.

Of all the roads he had been on and the people he had met along the way, no one compared to her. The one night he spent with that unselfish, witty, passionate, beautiful person that people called Lily was undeniably the best night of his past year. He went to sleep wondering why he felt a tinge of guilt about feeling this good.

He remembered her saying that God can intervene in our lives through people we interact with. For the first time in a year, he humbly prayed out loud, “Thank you God for Lily.” Lucky, hearing her master talk, let out a little rumble as if saying, “Can’t wait to meet her. Now lets go to sleep.”

Early the next morning, Lucky barked at the sound of Lily knocking on the door of the van.

“Wake up, sleepy heads, It’s a new day and the sun is shining. Breakfast is almost ready. Bring Lucky in with you. I have a bowl and water for him, too. Oh, and Alfred is out here, don’t let him intimidate Lucky. He is not as grumpy as he looks.” As suddenly as she arrived, Lily retreated to the house to finish cooking breakfast.

Stretching his limbs, Beau’s still tired body arose and opened the door for his pal and reminded him to “Stay close!”

Lucky jumped out of the van wondering where they were today. He immediately set his eyes on “Alfred”, the bleating old goat in his stable attached to the barn. Seeing him as harmless Lucky’s tail again wagged and his attention turned to the rest of their surroundings.

A couple of minutes later, Lucky and Beau walked onto the porch and as they did they heard Lily shout, “The door is open.”

She intentionally yelled the word ‘open’ louder to see if she could get Beau to smile and remember the conversation they had last night about locked or open doors. It worked. Beau smiled.

Good morning, Beau said as they both entered the back door into the kitchen. Beau abruptly took a step back as Lily rushed to the door. He felt silly when he realized she wasn’t rushing to him but to Lucky.

She got down on her knee and offered to shake Lucky’s hand.

“Hello my new little friend, You are so gorgeous! I am so happy to see you, Lucky.” Lily’s voice was so calm and inviting that Lucky immediately started wagging his tail and raised up his paw to shake hands with her. Lucky then looked up at Beau to confirm that it was okay to fall in love with Lily. Beau nodded his approval.

Lily continued her conversation with Lucky, “I’ve got a bowl of steak trimmings and a bone for you, sir.” She showed Lucky to his new favorite spot, his food bowl at Lily’s.

As Lucky’s interest waned on her and he was distracted by the scrumptious fixings in the bowl, Lily rose to give her attention to Beau. “Good morning, Mr. Adams, are you in the mood for breakfast,” She asked as she put her hand on his shoulder and directed him to a seat at the table. “Would you like coffee, orange juice or a whiskey? Actually, I have all three. I’m just not sure what drifters drink in the morning.”

Beau replied, “Water is typically the morning ritual but a coffee and orange juice would be delightful.”

As he sat at the table fiddling with his cloth napkin. he asked, “Are you always this chipper in the morning? I mean if the power company could harness your energy, there would be an over abundance of supply in three states.”

She playfully scowled at him and then he said, “Okay, maybe only two states.”

They both smiled as she went back to the stove to dish up the eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast. The plate she put before him was in direct competition with the best restaurants he had ever eaten in. After his first bite, he thought, Lily wins!

“I am so excited to see what we find in our treasure hunt today.” she said as she ate. “Remember, it is not about the monetary value that I lust for, it is the memories we can share with my folks.”

“You will have to show me a few pictures of them so I can fully visualize them.” Beau said.

“There are plenty of pictures of them in the living room.” Lily replied. “Some of me too, but I don’t take kindly to smart ass remarks about my high school hair-do.”

“Oooh. I’m especially eager to see those.” Beau said.

Another scowl was seen on Lily’s face, but Lucky didn’t see it. He was busy with the best food this side of … well, anywhere.

They finished breakfast and as Beau started to do dishes, Lily told him to go in the living room and meet her parents. “These dishes can wait,” she said, “We have more interesting things to do today.”

She looked at Lucky, who was sitting by his food bowl, that was now empty and just watching the interaction of Beau and Lily.

“You and me, Lucky, We are going to have the best day. Am I right?” Lucky barked once in acknowledgment. Beau was astounded by his best friends eagerness to let Lily be his friend. Actually, he could see why. It was Lily being Lily.

After the tour of the living room, the West Shed Adventure began. Beau dusted and uncovered item after item and placed them just outside the shed so they could go through them one by one.

Lily said, “You will have to excuse me for a moment,” Five minutes later she came back and said, “Your laundry is in the washer, remind me to put it all in the dryer in 30 minutes.”

“You went into my van?” Beau said. “How did you know where my dirty clothes were?”

“They were all in that thing called a laundry basket, It wasn’t terribly difficult.” Lily said as she scraped another layer of dust off another shelf. Beau shrugged his shoulders acknowledging her firm grasp on dirty laundry etiquette.

“Hey Lily, look at this,” Beau said after finding some boxes in the rafters of the shed. “Did you know your father had a cigar box full of medals and mementos of his service career? Look, this pictures shows his squad at the Berlin wall. These are fascinating. Here’s a purple heart and this says its a Meritorious Medal. Your dad was quite the soldier it seems.” Beau was intrigued.

Lily was besides herself with excitement. “My mom told me about these but we were never able to find them. Dad wasn’t the kind of guy to boast about his war days. I’m going to build a shadow box and put them on display in the living room. Oh, I miss you, mom and dad.” she exclaimed throwing her arms up toward the sky.

“What? You’re going to build a shadowbox? You do woodworking projects? What don’t you do, woman? Beau said lightly, as his amazement continued to grow over this petite beautiful workhorse.

“Well,” Lily put her hand up to support her chin as if she was in deep thought. “I don’t do drugs, scuba dive, jump out of airplanes. and there is one more thing I don’t do but I will have to get back to you on that last one, I keep forgetting.” Lily sounded so serious that Beau broke down and laughed at her acting prowess.

As the day wore on, they had found multiple objects they had no clue as to what they were. They had cleaned and shined up things they did know about their use and separated boxes of bolts, nuts, screws and even two boxes of what Lily called big do-hickeys and little do-hickeys.

It was getting near six when Lily said, “Okay, that is enough for today. You, Beau, need to clean up, relax a little and get ready to play tonight. Hopefully, there will be a bigger crowd for you. Nobody knew you were going to be there last night. Tonight, the whole town knows and there should be nice crowd. I’ll clean myself up and make dinner.” Lily walked into the house.

Lucky stared up at Beau as if he was asking, ‘Are you going to let her boss you around like that?’ Beau looked back at Lucky and said, “Yes I am, but just for today.” Lucky barked twice. You don’t want to know what he said.

Beau was wishing he had just left his equipment in the bar overnight as he re-hauled everything back into the bar. Jerry, the bar owner, was happy to see him and the bar was already half full with people that were anticipating a night of music. It was almost 9 o’clock when Lily finally arrived. She had told Beau to go ahead and she would bring Lucky with her when she came.

Beau was already on stage and about to start when Lily walked in with Lucky on her heal. He was proudly showing off his fresh coat of fur. Lily had given him a bath.

Lily sat down at her favorite place at the bar and Lucky sat calmly beside her after he saw her look at him and say, “Stay.”

He watched everyone that passed close to Lily, making sure that none of them were a threat. When he wasn’t guarding Lily, he was watching Beau on stage.

Jerry noticed Lucky coming into the bar and started to say something to Lily but Lily beat him to it. She looked sternly at Jerry and said, “Lucky is with me! Any questions?”

Jerry laid her drink on the bar top, picked up a bar rag, shook his head and moved down the bar not wanting to respond. He knew better.

Beau played differently tonight than he normally did. Most of the time he would just play his songs as best as he could and that was that. Tonight, with Lily at the bar and Lucky enjoying her company, he felt grateful and excited to play for them and the crowd. The crowd sensed it and they acknowledged the fact that Beau was able to keep their interest with all the songs he played. It was an awesome night.

During breaks, Lily encouraged Beau to talk to some of the people in the crowd. She knew that if he interacted with them, his tip jar would reflect that. Beau was reluctant but at her insistence he talked to some of the patrons. Of course, Beau felt the need to spend time with Lucky and Lily also and wished his breaks were a little bit longer but the music is what everyone came for and he was compliant to that fact.

Beau played a little longer than his normal last set because the crowd, although it had dwindled slightly near midnight, had been enthusiastic and generous with their tips. It had been a long time since Beau had enjoyed playing this much.

His last song was dedicated to Lily and Lucky. Everyone clapped and understood. Most of them, if not all, knew Lily for the wonderful person she was. Lucky was cute enough to get applause on his own.

After midnight Beau thanked the crowd for their attention and their tips and shut things down. It didn’t take him too long to tear down his equipment and Lily helped him carry some out to the van.

“Don’t put anything in the van,” Beau told Lily as he was loading up, “It has to go in a specific order or it won’t fit.”

“Yes, sir, master, sir.” She stood at attention as she watched him load the van in the exact way that it fit in there. He looked at her after loading a piece and said, “At ease, soldierette.” Lily went back to petting and paying attention to Lucky. Lucky cherished her attention.

He finished loading all the gear, set his guitar on top of it all and closed the door to the van, Lily asked. “Can Lucky ride home with me?”

“No,” Beau said as her looked her in the eyes. “We aren’t driving back to your place. We are headed in the other direction.”

Beau knew this conversation was totally catching her by surprise and began to offer an explanation that was totally irrelevant. “I usually find it hard to go to sleep after playing and the best thing for me is to get a few hours of driving in before we sleep.”

“What?” Her demeanor changed from light hearted to disbelief. She waved her arms out in front of her in a pleading fashion. “You’re joking right?” Her face reflected a dis believing question mark.

“I’m sorry, Lily, We have to hit the road.” He paused, having a hard time knowing what and how to say it. “I can’t tell you how much I… I mean ‘we’ have enjoyed your company.”

Beau knew this was a shock for her. It was so unexpected. He also knew that his feelings for her was far more than he ever expected. He had to get away from her. His like could easily turn to something more and he wasn’t ready for that yet. He didn’t know how to express that in words, so he didn’t even try.

“Wow, of course!” she stood up straight, clapped her hands together and struggled to find something to say. “It’s your Drifter’s Code thing. I get it.” she said mockingly. “No warning, Just goodbye!”

Her chin was quivering as she fought to keep a tear from dropping down her cheek. “I totally understand,” she lied. “You’re just not up to taking that SAT test. You probably wouldn’t fit in the desk anyway.”

The parking lot seemed to grow oddly colder and darker as they both stood looking at each other. After a moment Lily said, “Oh, I just remembered that other thing I don’t do well. Goodbyes!”

Beau smiled slightly then sadly opened his arms to give her a hug. She ignored that and instead, she stood up straight and tall again before holding out her hand for a handshake.

Beau, looked at her standing there, her beauty and passion for life overwhelmed him. Her wit never seized to amaze him. They stiffly shook hands and then Beau pulled her in for a hug. It was the biggest hug that he had given anyone in a year. He whispered in her ear, “I’ll never forget you, Lily.”

“Load up Lucky.” he said as he opened the drivers door. Lucky hesitated, looking back and forth at both Lily and Beau, as if he was wondering if he would ever see Lily again, then obediently jumped into his spot in the van’s passenger seat. Lily meekly put up her hand in a goodbye as Beau got into his van.

He felt like crap as he pulled out of Jerry’s parking lot. Seeing her standing there in the rear view mirror made him question himself and his choices. He wiped a tear from his eye but he knew he was taking a part of Lily with him. He now added Lily, along with his family to his list of sorrowful regrets.”

The highway looked exceptionally dark in the headlights.