Waiting with Elmer. Deanna K. Klingel

and all for your new place?”

      “What new place?”

      The man quietly put on his glove and moved out of the sun. “How long you been waiting here?”

      Willy shrugged again.

      “How long you supposed to wait?”

      “’Til he comes. Then I might have to help him to the truck.”

      “Help him? He’s like me?”

      Willy glanced at Elmer’s missing legs. “No. Nothing like you.”

      “You hungry?”

      Willy looked away, up the street. The truck wasn’t coming. He chewed his lip.

      “You want to get something?”

      “Can’t.”

      “I’ll buy.”

      Willy looked over at the man’s ruddy face. It seemed strange to look into a man’s face at his own height. And usually it wasn’t a friendly face, saying friendly things. The face was always above him, telling him to move on. Willy wasn’t sure how to respond to this man.

      “Not supposed to go away with strangers.”

      “Well, I think that’s good advice. However, we aren’t strangers anymore. We’re friends. We’re Elmer and Willy, and we’ve just spent the entire quiet afternoon together. I think that qualifies as not being strangers, don’t you?”

      “I reckon.” Willy smiled suspiciously, avoiding Elmer’s eyes, and Elmer grinned back.

      “Well, come on, then, and let me show you around the town. You like blueberry pie? Edna makes the best blueberry pie you ever tasted over here at Edna’s Bakery and Café.”

      A car passed and honked. Elmer raised his hand, waved, and laughed. Willy looked anxiously up and down the street.

      Where could the truck be? Where is my dad?

      “I’ll introduce you around. We’ll get us something.”

      Willy’s tongue and his stomach were so excited about his cheeseburger, he nearly choked from cramming in the big bites. He washed it down with two glasses of cold milk.

      “Edna, we got to have a couple slices of you-know-what now, and I’ll have a cup of Joe with mine.”

      “Of course, you will. One cream, two sugars. You think I don’t know that?” Edna grinned wide, showing a mouthful of crooked teeth and two large dimples. Her face was outlined by the black hair net drawn tight around her mousy gray hair and knotted on her forehead.

      Willy tucked into his blueberry pie and thought he’d gone to heaven to have supper with his grandma. She used to bake him pies. He’d not had one since…

      The pie suddenly died in his stomach. He couldn’t eat it. The shine left his eyes.

      “Hmm. Well, we’d best get you back to your corner, Willy. Your dad might be waiting for you.”

      “Nah. It doesn’t work that way. I wait for him.” Willy knew for a fact that his dad wouldn’t wait for him. When they left one hotel place, Willy had run back to grab his marbles from the drawer that held the Gideon Bible. When he came back out, the truck was gone. Willy walked from the hotel into the town, sat on the curb, and waited. The next day, his dad pulled up to the curb to get him.

      “Don’t pull that again or I won’t be coming back for you,” he warned Willy. “I didn’t have to come back, you know.” So, Willy always waited.

      Chapter Two

      Willy and Elmer straggled back to the Savings and Loan, as the sun dropped behind the stores. It was such a stifling and still day, even a dragonfly winging past stirred the thick air. Willy tucked himself into the doorway.

      “Just my suggestion, Willy; this corner might be as far north as you want to go. I’d stay on this side of the corner. The Northside is…well, just my suggestion.” Elmer waved to everyone passing by and rolled on down the sidewalk.

      As Willy sat there waiting in the doorway, the last light faded behind him. He studied the quiet little town. Every store had a ramp to the door instead of a step. He looked up and down the sidewalks. Each section of sidewalk and the ramp in front of each store was painted a different color.

      “Crazy lookin’ town,” he mumbled. “I never saw paint on a sidewalk. Never saw stores without a step to go in. Crazy lookin.’” Willy curled himself into a tight knot, as invisible as he could be, and slept another night on the sidewalk.

      When the dawning sun peeked over the stores across the street, Willy stood up and shook his bones. He rubbed his brown arms and stretched. He heard the rumble, felt the vibration on the sidewalk, and looked up the street. Elmer was rolling toward him.

      “Brought you some doughnuts, Willy. You sleep okay?”

      “Yes, sir. Thanks.” Elmer’s mug of Edna’s coffee-to-go splashed and steamed on his platform. He opened the sack of doughnuts, blessed them with prayer, and they had breakfast.

      “You’re going to need to find you a new spot to wait before the Savings and Loan opens at nine on Monday morning. Mr. Kimble won’t like you being in his doorway. Why don’t you come over to the park with me? There’s some nice shade, some picnic tables, and you can still see the street from there.”

      “I s’pose I could wait there. Okay, then.”

      “Good. Gather your gear and I’ll show you the way.”

      “It’s just my marbles. That’s all I got.” He tucked his marble bag into his hip pocket. Elmer turned his platform around, and the two of them headed across the street, down the sidewalk and into the park. The sidewalk wound through a metal archway that read Memorial Park. Inside it was so shady from the huge old trees it was almost dark. Willy dropped his gaze to the ground, helping folks not to see him. He noticed a pair of work boots sticking out from under a bush, one crossed over the other. Keeping his eyes down, he watched a pair of shoes wrapped in adhesive tape walk past. An old woman pulled a rusty little wagon full of tin cans that danced and hopped around like popping corn in a metal pot.

      “Morning, Seraphim,” he heard Elmer say.

      “Hey there, Mr. Elmer. How you doin’?”

      “Fine, just fine,”

      “God bless you real good today, Mr. Elmer.” She rattled on down the sidewalk.

      When they came to a picnic table, Elmer surprised Willy by grabbing hold the bench and leaping off his platform, spinning 360 degrees and landing with a thud on the bench. His pant legs dangled to the ground. Willy slid onto the bench beside him.

      “Okay. I’ll wait here,” Willy said.

      “Good,” Elmer answered, nodding. They sat there watching the street, waiting. After a long while, Willy noticed the sun shone all raggedy through the leaves on one side of the park.

      The lacy shadows danced on the ground, and Willy knew the morning was half gone. Where is he?

      “How long are you going to wait?” Elmer asked, as if he’d read Willy’s mind.

      Willy shrugged one shoulder.

      “What do you think your dad is doing?”

      “Looking for work. Drinking. Playing the piano. Sweeping a floor. Sleeping. I don’t know.” Willy kept his eyes to the sidewalk.

      “You got a mama?”

      “She’s gone.”