Lucky You, Lucky Me

Dear Reader,

This is a short story I wrote for a Writer's Block Challenge. The style and subject matter were not my forte and the timeframe and word count was tight, but I love being able to step outside my comfort zone in writing. It is the only way to grow and I am happy to share it with you.

Sincerely

Author

Lucky You, Lucky Me

Laetitia walked beside the Social Worker, Sarah, up the gravel path of the RV park toward Celia Jennings’s trailer. She was sweating already from the heat but mostly from nerves, she believed as Sarah seemed unbothered by the desert climate. Sarah stopped in front of the trailer and turns to her.

“Well, here we are. You will be helping Mrs. Celia Jennings three days a week and the other two days you will be with me in the Senior’s centre office. I must warn you. She has been very independent up to this point despite being 94, but her surgery has changed that. Be patient, be respectful, and come to me if you need any kind of support. Anything you can think of will help assist Mrs. Jennings. Any questions?”

Laetitia shakes her head no. “I think I’ll be ok”.

“Great! Let’s get you introduced then”, Sarah says as she places a hand on the small of Laetitia’s back and gently pushes her up the steps of the trailer. Laetitia hopes she can’t feel the sweat pooling there and wishes she had brought a hair elastic to put her long curly hair up.

Sarah gently rasps on the door, and they can hear shuffling from the other side. They wait patiently for Celia to open the door where she greets them with a scowl.

Very independent my ass! Thought Laetitia. It had been a few weeks since she had met Celia and she was working her to the bone. Her days were spent moving and packing heavy boxes, running to get groceries not only for Celia but for her friends.

“This is what I normally do for my friends”, Celia would say sweetly. She seemed to be getting around just fine to her.

One morning, Laetitia trudged up the gravel path up to the trailer. She was sore, tired, and frustrated. She had been rejected for another room, which meant she was stuck at the shelter for another while. She had also missed the deadline for college applications because she was so busy with work. There was no one to help her, or at least no one she wanted to help her. She felt completely alone and invisible, the very feelings she was running away from.

She got to the trailer only to see Celia sitting on the bench in her garden, shoulders slumped and soft muffled sobs escaping her lips. She walked quietly towards her.

“Mrs. Jennings are you alright?” she asked softly.

“Oh gosh it’s you”, Celia was startled and began to wipe away the evidence of her tears. “Haven’t you quit already”.

Laetitia was surprised. “No”, was all she could think to say.

“Well, you should. I haven’t been very nice. You should know some of those boxes were filled with rocks”, she spat out.

Laetitia stifled a laugh. I knew it!

“Why would you want me to quit? Did I do something wrong?”

“I don’t need your help. I have been on my own for this long, no reason I can’t continue to do that. I don’t want you in my things!”

Laetitia considered for a moment before she said, “I’m alone too”. She didn’t know why she offered that piece of information, but she was so tired. She naively believed that by running away from home, she would escape the exhaustion she felt from managing every household chore thrown at her, only to find more of the same here. Now she was stuck in another place she wasn’t wanted.

“You are too young to be alone. Where are your parents?” Celia sniffled.

“I ran away the day I turned 18”, Laetitia sat down on the bench.” I interviewed for this job the day I got here, right before I moved into the shelter. I almost have enough saved to rent a room now, but no one wants me”.

“You need to go home, is what you need to do”, Celia scolded. “Your poor parents must be worried sick!”

“My parents have my brothers. I left them a letter too. I wanted to go to school to be a therapist. They wouldn’t let me go. I needed to stay home and take care of the house”.

Celia sat in silence, silently assessing the young woman who sat beside her. She did the same the day she first met her. She assessed her up and down in judgment. This time, it was different. Laetitia wanted the earth to swallow her whole that day. She didn’t care now. Laetitia closed her eyes as they sat in silence for what felt like an eternity. Celia broke the silence first.

“When I was younger than you, I ran away too”.

“You did?” Laetitia opened her eyes wide and looked at her companion. She was so small and frail, she couldn’t imagine what she looked like when she was younger.

“I was just about to turn 16 and my beau, who later became my husband, was enlisted and would be on the front line in the War. This was 1940 mind you and things were glum”, Celia closed her eyes. “I wasn’t going to let him go alone, so I forged my paperwork and went over there as a nurse in training.”

“Weren’t you scared?”

“Of course, I was. We were all scared. But I was with Daniel, and with an amazing group of women, who have all since passed. We were together”, Celia sighed. “And now, that I will pass soon, my son will be alone in this world too”. She covered her mouth to hide her cries.

“Where is your son?” Laetitia asked after Celia had quieted some.

“He lives at the Adult Living Centre about fifteen minutes from here. I used to see him every day but I thought it would be best to just start calling him after my surgery so he could get used to me not being around. It’s been just me and him for twenty years now”.

Laetitia jumped up and held out her hand to Celia. “I don’t know if I’m allowed to do this, but do you want to see him now? I have my car in the parking lot”. Celia looked up at Laetitia and then at her hand. She grasped it.

The following weeks went by so quickly. The RV Park became a dust bowl outside of Fontana, but the weather was finally changing again. Laetitia began to take Celia to see her son every week. Seeing their happiness made her realize how much she wanted this opportunity. She wanted this chance to live differently.

“Sometimes you just have to do things scared, otherwise it will never happen”, Celia had said to her when she found the college applications poking out of her bag. She had found a program that would let her in but didn’t know if they would consider her at this point. Celia just patted her hand.

Laetitia was also making friends everywhere she went. Celia’s neighbours offered her refreshments when she was cleaning the yard, and another woman at the office also offered her a room to rent. Laetitia was moving out of the shelter at the end of the week.

Then it happened.

“Hello?” Laetitia answered her phone from the parking lot of the RV Park.

“Laetitia! Is that you?”

“Mom? H...h…how did you get this number?” Laetitia stammered.

“Where are you? You have no idea what you put us through. It has been months and we barely managed to get this number. The house is falling apart! How could you do this to us?”

Laetitia couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe. Her chest became tight as her mother’s voice became muffled. She put a hand to her head and started looking around as if her father would appear just around the corner to drag her away.

“You need to tell us where you are right now!”

They didn’t know, she realized. She was struggling to catch her breath.

“No,” Laetitia managed to say.

“What? What do you mean no, this isn’t a game…Lae…”.

“Laetitia”, came her father’s voice, and she stilled. She had stopped breathing altogether.

“You are done whoring around. You are done shaming your family. Either you tell me where you are, or one way or another we will find you and we will get you here by force”, he said calmly.

“No”, Laetitia whispered. She could hear her mother yelling in the background and her brother telling her to calm down. When her father did not respond she nearly screamed.

“I am working. I have a roommate. I am going to school. I am going to be a therapist. I am not coming home”, she raced through. If she didn’t say it then, she was afraid she would never be able to. She could her father’s heavy breathing on the other end.

“Laetitia!” he almost growled.

Laetitia hung up quickly, and turned off her phone, slamming it into the ground. She collapsed and began sobbing. She didn’t know how long she sat there when she felt a shadow hovering over her and the sound of soft shoes crunching against the gravel. She looked up to see Celia, with her hand extended to her. She stared up at her hand and after a moment, grasped it.

When they got to Celia’s trailer, she called Sarah and her next-door neighbour Alexis, who was home from work with a cold. She was close to Laetitia’s age and lived with her mother. Celia warmed a tea, Sarah worked on assuring Laetitia of her rights and Alexis called the phone company and managed to get her a new number. Laetitia looked around at the group of women sitting with her as she laboured to catch her breath. Celia looked towards her and smiled as if she recognized that face. Celia recognized it from her own expression when Laetitia had extended her hand to her.

Laetitia moved into the apartment with no further incident, but she had to apologize to Celia as she had to miss a Friday visit to do so. Monday morning, Laetitia stopped at a flower shop to pick up some lilies for Celia’s living room, as a thank you. As she pulled into the driveway of the RV park, she saw the flashing lights of an ambulance and police car. The tightness in her chest returned when she spotted Sarah’s red hair as she stood talking to one of the officers.

Laetitia understood even before she parked the car, so she sat and stared ahead long after the ambulance pulled out of the driveway.

The emptiness she felt that day didn’t rescind even days later at the funeral. All of Celia’s neighbours, social workers, and dear friends were around her. The Living Centre even allowed her son to be there, although Laetitia was not sure how much he understood. She sat in the back quietly, her body still too much in shock to cry.

After the service, Laetitia lingered in her seat watching others leave when Sarah approached her.

“I’ve been looking for you. May I sit?” She gestured at the seat next to her.

She moved over, and they sat in silence for a moment.

“We miss you in the office. You are a great assistant, Laetitia. Everyone thinks so. You went above and beyond for Celia and in the office. She was lucky to have you.”

“I was the lucky one”, Laetitia said softly.

Sarah nodded, “I don’t know if this is the right time, but Celia left something for you. She had left it with her lawyers and our lawyers have already verified and approved it”.

Laetitia looked surprised as she took the scroll of paper from Sarah’s hand and unrolled it. It was a letter for her from Celia.

For my dear friend, companion, and help. You will never be alone”. The letter ended. Celia had left her enough money to pay for school.

Laetitia closed the scroll and cried. She felt a hand on hers. She looked up at Sarah who also had tears in her eyes.

“We were the lucky ones”.

The End.