“Whatever,” I told her.
“Good,” she said, smiling. “Besides, it’s bacon, eggs, and French toast day! You won’t want to miss this.”
She turned on her heel quickly and bounded down the hall, no doubt expecting me to follow her. “Can it be bacon, eggs, and aspirin day?” I asked, holding my head and following her.
I had to duck my head under her door to get into the hall and her ceilings weren’t that much higher. A few more inches and I’d have had to crouch everywhere we walked.
“How do you live here? I’d get claustrophobic.”
“I don’t have to drop it like it’s hot or anything to walk around here, Lurch.”
“Okay.”
“Sit,” she ordered, gesturing to a light blue Formica dinette with chrome chairs.
“Is there anything in here not fifty years old?” I asked, examining my surroundings.
Apparently she shopped for furniture at the same place she shopped for clothing.
“You gotta problem with my independence, Moonsong?” she said, placing a cast-iron skillet on her enamel stove.
“No.”
“I’m an independent woman.”
“True,” I said, secretly proud of the girl she’d become. Finley had always been poor from what I could remember, but she knew how to work with it.
“Question!” she began, shifting her rear from side to side, which looked ludicrous in her pajamas. “Tell me what you think about me. I buy my own diamonds and I buy my own rings. Only ring your celly when I’m feelin’ lonely.”
“What?” I asked her, confused.
She turned toward me and rolled her eyes. “Never mind.”
“So, uh,” I began, “did you say something about leaving Kalispell last night?”
She turned from her task and got a thing of butter from her fridge before returning to the pan. “Yeah, I’m leaving in a few weeks.”
“Where are you going?”
“Vietnam.”
I was taken aback. “What?”
She looked at me with a large smile plastered across her face. “Vietnam. It’s an Asian country, full of sweet people, south of China, east of Laos and Cambodia? We went to war there? Ringing any bells?”
“I know Vietnam, Finley. I want to know why Vietnam?”
“I’ll be doing some charity there. I told you.” She went back to flipping the bread on her skillet and the smell of vanilla and nutmeg filled the kitchen. “Get the OJ out, will you?” she asked, gesturing to her fridge.
I stood and did I was told, setting it on the table. I started opening her top cabinets, looking for her juice glasses. “Why?” I asked.
“Because it’s delicious and made from oranges and I have to have it in the morning even though it gives me acid reflux like a mother.”
“No, why leave to do charity work?”
Her face paled a little. “It’s just a place I feel drawn to.”
I studied her but her face gave nothing else away. “Cool. That’s really cool of you,” I told her.
She looked at me and gave me a small smile, letting her armor down a little. “Thanks.”
She placed the last piece of bread on her pile and set the plate in the oven before moving on to the bacon and eggs. The smell started to make me feel ill so I grabbed my glass, filled it with cold tap water, and downed it. The fact that I even felt the slightest bit nauseated was a testament to how much I’d had to drink the night before. I knew if I wanted to function at all that day I’d need to eat.
I sat down when Finley pointed to the chair I’d previously sat in. “So,” she said, placing a plate of food in front of me.
“Thank you,” I told her.
“You’re welcome,” she responded. She took a deep breath. “So talk to me, Ethan.”
I furrowed my brows and swallowed a bite of bacon, staring at my plate. “Nothing to tell.”
She pursed her lips and shook her head. “You’re lying.”
I sighed. “I don’t want to talk, Finley.”
“Fine. Then I will. Yesterday, I woke up, oh, I don’t know, around seven-ish? I ate breakfast, showered, and all that jazz. My hair was doing this wonky thing so I wrapped it in a blue scarf. It looks fabulous today though, right?” She paused for my response, but I didn’t give one. “Anyway, I think it does. Where was I? Oh yes, I got dressed and headed over to Smith’s to answer the phones. No one called, by the way. And do you want to know why?”
“Why?” I asked, delving into the French toast, which tasted unbelievable.
“Because no one in Kalispell has enough money to travel, dude, that’s why.”
“How do they stay in business then?”
“It’s a mystery, man. A flipping mystery.” She took another bite, chewed and swallowed. “Then I collected my check, deposited it, and ran some errands, went grocery shopping, picked up my mail.”
“This is all very fascinating, Finley.”
“Isn’t it?” she asked sarcastically and continued. “I ran into Helen Green on the way to pick up my dry cleaning. Have you spoken to her lately?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“She told me that her dog had to be put down a few days ago for cancer. Poor thing. She was so heartbroken. I couldn’t leave her there in front of the Sip-n-Stop all alone. So I sat next to her as she told me about all the good her dear little Jakie did for her over the years. How he’d fetch her paper and all sorts of things from her room for her. She’d just call out what she wanted and Jake would get it for her. Can you believe that?”