March Flash Tale #1 - "Losing'

Blowing Rock, North Carolina

Jacob knocks on his neighbor’s door. He’s had a disturbed night, thinking about what he can say, what he can do. But his mind – prickly as it is from lack of sleep - is made up. Jacob is a man on a mission.

A woman his own age answers the door. Brown-haired, green-eyed Samantha.

“Hey, Jacob,” she says. Smiles. Reaches with fingers to fuss with her hair, she looks a little as though she might have had a long night of her own. “What’s up?”

Something neighborly, Jacob had decided. He wasn’t about to deliver the bombshell right there on her front porch. Get in the door first, sit down at the kitchen table. And then he will explain to the new girl, just how things work in Blowing Rock.

He grins sheepishly. “Ran out of coffee.”

Samantha laughs, waves him inside. She’s too trusting for this town. Something else for Jacob to explain.

They sit in the living room, morning sunlight flooding the space.

Jacob tries the caffe ristretto that Samantha produced with her Nespresso. The drink is little more than a sip. They could be a pair of twenty-somethings who managed the impossible; finding each other without the use of a smart phone app. He imagines them belonging in the Smithsonian. And really, if this were anywhere else but Blowing Rock, he could enjoy the moment. Because Samantha is beyond cute, and because in the month since she moved to town, she has been sending him all kinds of positive signals.

But young woman don’t get to be like Samantha in Blowing Rock. They don’t get to be flirty and unattached; they don’t get to be getting along just fine on their own.

It’s clear that Samantha didn’t read the brochure before she moved here. Because there is no brochure. Understanding this North Carolina town is like reading the air. Either you grew up here and understand how things work, or you get here by accident and get caught in the web.

Before Jacob tells Samantha that she has made the biggest mistake of her life, that she is in the worst kind of danger, they talk about the weather. They share thoughts on kayaks (ever since Jacob can remember, something Samantha should probably try for the first time).

“Come with me to Price Lake?” Samantha asks. “Make sure I don’t drown?” She is making a joke, and she is making an overture. Save me. Be my shining knight.

Jacob will be happy to. But where does he begin, how does he explain Blowing Rock?

And so, they chat about nothing, and they drink their coffee. And somehow, Jacob feels even more tired than he did before. It feels warm in the sunshine, he feels bathed in it.

He rubs his eyes, looks around Samantha’s living room. It looks staged, like she hasn’t really moved in yet. The only item that looks unique, that might break the ice, is an antique-looking bell sitting on an end table. It reminds Jacob of something he would see on Downton Abbey. Any minute now, Samantha will reach for the bell, summon one of the staff to bring cookies on a silver platter. Except it would be biscuits, right? For the British show, at least.

Samantha laughs. She’s staring at Jacob with her green eyes. “What a look on your face! What on earth are you thinking about?”

Jacob feels his face redden. “Silly,” he admits. Which is weird because he has always been so serious-minded.

He should ask for another coffee. Jump-start his brain for the challenging conversation ahead of them. He takes a breath, waits for the blush to leave his cheeks. And he opens his mouth to tell Samantha everything. All the news he’s grown up with but that his neighbor hasn’t worked out yet. He will tell her that in Blowing Rock, women are either happy mothers or giggling toddlers, those are the choices. And if a woman isn’t willing to make the stark choice, the town will make it for them.

He will tell her that he can’t bear for this to happen to Samantha; that they should leave town today. Right now. Another coffee, to perk up his meandering brain, and they will hit the road.

600 miles, a good ten hours, but they can take the Blue Ridge Parkway. Jacob nods to himself. The road is slow but it’s beautiful.

Beautiful, just like Samantha. Just like her sparkling green eyes.

Jacob blinks. “Sorry,” he says.

“What for?” asks Samantha.

Good question. But didn’t Jacob just nod off? Didn’t he just fall into a daydream? He imagines them in the car, taking turns to ride shotgun and choose the music. He’s wondering what’s on Samantha’s Spotify playlist (she looks like a Taylor Swift kinda girl, she looks like a Dua Lipa banger) when he sees his neighbor reach for the antique bell. It must be brass, and as she holds it up, Jacob is dazzled by the shiny metal.

“Sure,” he says, he grins. Because Samantha must be about to ring for the servant. Someone is going to bring them more coffee, but more importantly, someone is going to bring a silver tray with cookies.

Jacob blinks.

Samantha rings the bell.

No wonder, Jacob thinks, as the sound echoes through his mind, that he didn’t get much sleep last night. Or the nights before that. Because that bell has been ringing for days, hasn’t it? Ringing in his ears!

He blinks and smiles, the empty espresso cup falling into his lap unnoticed, as Samantha gets up and walks over to him, crouches, and smiles. “There,” she says softly, simply. “Good girl.”

Jacob wrinkles his nose in thought, before he burst into helpless giggles. His mind is going away, all he has is Samantha’s green eyes and brown hair. He reaches for the hair as his bladder relaxes, the warmth spreading from the crotch of his jeans. Such soft hair, such shiny hair. Shiny like a brass bell. Up close like this, finally, Samantha smells of vanilla. The sweets of girls smells like ice-cream.

“Sma-tha,” Jacob mumbles, grasping and losing his attempt at saying the pretty girl’s name.

“You’re not wearing your diaper, Jackie,” says Samantha. She doesn’t sound upset, just matter of fact. “Better get you changed, better get you all dressed up.” She strokes his face, eliciting the blandest, glassy-eyed expression from her brand new, baby sister. She grins. “Good thing you’re so pretty, Jackie!”

Jacob giggles as his mind settles on a new truth. That there was no way to win this. That Blowing Rock had won long ago.

Jackie giggles as she forgets about rescuing. She melts into Samantha’s embrace. And she’s pretty sure that if she’s a good girl, she will get a cookie.

THE END

When a young man tries to warn the single woman next door what’s about to happen to her he might just end up her little sister - Dean