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Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Chapter 2 Part 1 - Revised



    Skye saw the big heavy glass double doors in front of her and stopped before them. She thought of how funny it was that doors could be intimidating. Anxious about what was on the other side of them she felt her heart start to pound again and she wondered briefly if she was ever going to get it together. ‘What if they say no?’ rose up in her mind. She never thought it would ever come to this, not in a million years. Deacon had died without having any life insurance thus leaving her to drain their savings account to put him at rest.

     She does not talk to his family much anymore, not that there were many of them to reach out to and with everyone living so far apart, it seemed normal not to be in touch that often. His parents only came out and see the kids a few times a year and she would like to keep it that way. They always seemed withdrawn and distant to her but with the kids they were always awestruck by them and catered to whatever whim their grandchildren presented to them. Deacon has an uncle that lives nearby. Dominic Dune he owns a pawnshop on the south side of town and is the only person out of Deacons family that she does talk to and still that isn’t often.

     He is the black sheep of the family. Deacons’ father and Dominic don’t speak to or of each other. Skye had asked in passing many times why that was and Deacon would just smile that ‘it was not a priority’ and in his typical way to divert attention from something he didn’t want to talk about, he would lay her down and distract her attention in the most fantastic ways.

    Shaking herself of the painful memory Skye took a deep breath, she gathered herself and step towards the big glass doors. With her hand on the door handle, she prepared herself to go inside the building despite every fiber of herself burning to run.  Instead she pulled herself together yet again and pulled the door open. As she opened it she could hear the sounds of clicking keys on keyboards and soft voices filling her head and she stood there doe eyed and concerned.

    Just then a stout blonde woman over in a blocked off area to the right of the main floor glanced over at her. Above her head was a sign the read Loans Department. Her look was smug as she returned her gaze to the computer screen in front of her and goes back to typing. In no way did that make Skye feel better. The woman is explaining to an older man with a bowler hat in front of her that he cannot get an appointment for another 2 days.

   “This is bullshit!” the man growls “I’ve been here waiting for nearly an hour to hear you tell me that I have to come back in 2 more days?” The woman continues to look at her screen and says with more than a hint of sarcasm, “Sir as I have already told you, the loan officers are booked solid for appointments until then.” She pauses and adds loud enough for everyone to hear, “and if you don’t calm down then I will have security come and escort you out of the building.” He reddens in his cheeks even though you can tell that he is not the type to back down from a confrontation but exhales and the tension eases. Through lips that barely moved he asked, “What times do you have available?”

    She looks pleased with herself and hands him a slip of paper with a smirk on her face, just as he takes the slip of paper from her under his breath he mutters, “If you don’t like your job then don’t do it.” then turns with surprising grace and heads out the doors grumbling along the way about how no one really helps when it’s needed. Before he walks out of the building he turns and gives the woman the finger, then walks out.

    Skye scanned the room for the end of the long line and took a place behind a young girl that looked to be about 18-20 years old with a visible baby bump and remembered herself at that age. The line moved easily and smoothly as people who had seen the conflict with the receptionist had no desire to have the same confrontation ahead of them that the man with the bowler hat had. They accepted what she told them with no trouble, booking appointments if they had to and leaving or sitting quietly until their time came.

    Just then she thought about bolting… again. “What is wrong with me?” she said out loud and the young girl turned to her with a look of curiosity on her face. All she had to do was turn around and walk out but, she couldn’t do it. She had to stay and do this and she absolutely hated asking anyone for anything. Before she could stop it anger trickled up her spine and hitting home in her brain as she thought about how Deacon could leave them like this. Like it was his fault they were in trouble…but it wasn’t his fault at all, it was just a case of ‘wrong place, wrong time’. This was her last resort in the hopes of keeping a roof over their heads. Without the bank giving me an extension we would lose the store, the house, the car and everything they had left.

There was no way she could do that to them.

    ‘Thank god I had an appointment’ her thoughts relieved or else she would have lost it herself if I was told to come back days later.  At this moment it was now or never and she chose now, no backing out, no running away. Skye didn’t like banks in general or the people in banks. Once they decided that they were going to run a business themselves Deacon had set up everything and made sure they made it work, not that she couldn’t do it but she was always better at running the day to day things while he took care of the paperwork and meetings that made her head spin.

   

    Her thoughts began to spiral out of control the longer she waited to get to the desk. Thought that centered on last thing the kids needed is to change anything else in their lives. Cyrus had the hardest time with it being the oldest at 15 and losing his father he withdrew into himself for a while, he was constantly angry and vocal about it. He was just starting to come out again. Kyra being 13 with what seems like all of the responsibility piled on her tiny shoulders and tried her best to take charge and mother Savannah, helping Skye when she would let her help and that wasn’t often. A child so young should not have to be the parent and the whole time she didn’t speak but Kyra was tough and it forced Skye out of the dark place she was in.

    Skye must have drifted while in her thoughts because the line was moving forward but she wasn’t and hadn’t even noticed that there was a large space between herself and the pregnant girl. As she tried to make it look like she hadn’t completely tuned out of the moment, Skye moved forward and again stood about a foot and a half away from the young mother to be. The woman behind her did not look amused but then again; no one in the area looked amused.  Finally the young girl walked up to the counter, spoke the receptionist or whatever she was and was given a clipboard with a form to fill out and she walked away.

    Skye stayed where she was until the receptionist was ready for her and motioned her over. When she lifted her bobble head with her blonde bob haircut that framed her round face and nodded in her direction, Skye stepped up to the counter. Gathering her resolve and not wanting her dread of this moment to show she straightened her spine and stood tall.

    “Hi, I have an appointment with Mr. Moody.” The bobble head bobbled as checked her computer, “Your name please?” For a second she blanked out and then recovered “Skylar Dune” she replied. After checking her computer again the blonde bobble head asked her to take a seat.

    She picked a chair next to the pregnant girl with the clipboard feeling like they had some mutual understanding of surviving the woman at the counter and she started to feel a bit better about the situation. She couldn’t pinpoint why but a thought rolled through her head. ‘I can do this’ it repeated like it was on a teleprompter.


She hated waiting, hated it so much she became more irritated with each second that ticked by.

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