Little Wonders

The importance of Neil Young

It was September the first and Dr Zoe Hart just woke up with a hangover. Memories of last night crept back into her consciousness as she tried to sit up. "Stupid Wade" she mumbled, "stupid wine". She was now sitting in her bed trying to figure out why she spend last night on her porch in a wicker chair drinking white wine and waiting for Wade to come home from his shift at the Rammer Jammer.

Maybe it was because she was pathetic. She caused some rumors about the preacher and his wife and Wade was the only one who didn't care. Well, but that was probably because he's Wade and Wades don't care. Hell, he even backed, no run over poor old crazy Earl and couldn't care less. Sometimes she envied him because of that. He didn't care, which means he didn't get hurt, didn't feel guilty for breaking up the Preacher and his Wife, although that clearly was the preachers fault. HE did have an affair after all.

So maybe she waited for Wade so he could teach her how to not care, she thought while climbing out of her bed, her headache slightly stronger than when she first woke up. Well, but of course she didn't get a chance to ask Wade to teach her carefreeness, because of the redhead he brought home last night.

Maybe mindless sex was the answer, maybe that would make all her thoughts and sorrows go away. She was a doctor and as such she knew that a healthy sex life was a good thing for mind and body. She put on some leggings, an old tank top and boots and started her way over to Lavon's for breakfast, well at least coffee, lots and lots of coffee.

While she was walking she saw Wade waving goodbye to his redheaded lady friend. Zoe had to admit that the girl looked happy and relaxed as she drove away. And Wade just smirked self-contend, well knowing that if he would call her and asked her to come over again she would do it in an instant.

Zoe kept walking and thinking, maybe Wade was carefree because of mindless sex and didn't have mindless sex because he was carefree. Maybe she should have mindless sex, too.

She arrived in Lavon's kitchen. Coffee was already served so she took a cup, but Lavon was nowhere to be found.

She sat a the counter sipping at her coffee wondering about who she could have mindless sex with. She could drive to Mobile go to a nightclub and just pick up some random guy or there was always Wade, he had nice abs and was used to do unattached sex. He could probably teach her how to have no strings attached sex.

A well-known "Morning, doc" interrupted her thoughts. There he was handsome as ever in plain jeans and a white shirt, reaching for a bowl and some cereals.

"Have sex with me tonight".

He stopped pouring cereals into his bowl and set the package back on the counter. That smug grin appeared an his face as he walked over to her. She swallowed hard, did she just do that, did she just asked Wade Kinsella to have sex with her.

He came closer. He stood right behind her now. She could feel his breath on her neck. She resisted the urge to turn around and look him directly in the eyes. Instead she stared at her cup of coffee.

"So you and me, doc." He said in a seductive voice, "You and me".

She could almost feel his lips touching her neck as he spoke, but then he backed away. Walked towards the fridge,opened it and took the milk out. Her eyes now followed his every move as he walked back to his bowl of cereals and poured some milk over them.

"Sorry, doc, But this", he pointed at her and then at him, "casual sex thing between us had reached its expiration date"

"What?" she said maybe a bit to loud.

"Oh, you understood, doc. You ain't stupid." He looked her straight in the eyes,"I'm not gonna have sex with you."

He took a spoon full of cereal and started chewing.

"What?" this time a little less loud. "What? I do not have an expiration date!"

She hopped of the chair, stomping angrily towards a chewing Wade.

"I didn't say that" he took another spoon and continued after he swallowed, Zoe glaring angrily at him. "I said the possibility of you and me having casual sex has reached its expiration date"

He shrugged his shoulders in an apologetic way, "sorry, doc. But you ain't gonna get a piece", he pointed down his body, "of this anytime soon".

Zoe couldn't believe it, she just got rejected by Wade,Wade who has no standards, Wade who sleeps with a different bimbo every night. Her sex proposal got rejected by Wade. Wade to whom she wanted to say a million not so nice things right now, but nothing came out of her mouth as he was sitting there, chewing his cereal grinning like the smug bastard he was.

So she did the next best thing, storming out of Lavon's kitchen. Unfortunately every plan has its weak point and so she turned around as she reached the door and stammered "You. You're. You are... impossible".

Which not only increased her humiliation level but also caused Wade to start laughing as if this whole kitchen scene was the funniest thing he had ever seen.

Five minutes later he was still laughing a little as he thought back to what had just happened in this very kitchen.

"What are you laughing about?" Lavon asked as he entered his kitchen.

"Zoe asked me to sleep with her." Wade answered still laughing, "and I told her I ain't gonna do it and she stormed out."

"No,no, no. Wade. Be nice to that girl. She's having a hard time" Lavon sat down on the chair next to Wade.

"So you want me to sleep with Zoe? Tonight? Of all the nights?" Wade raised an eyebrow at Lavon. "Well. I didn't say that" He reached for a banana and started to peel it.

"Tonight, uh? She asked you to sleep with her tonight?"He took a bite from the banana.

"Yup"

"Well that girl sure has some timing"

"That she has" Wade answered sighing before he hopped of his chair and grabbed an apple. "You're still free this afternoon? Cause I can go alone, if you"

"No way. I'm coming with you."

"Okay"

"Carly is coming too?" Wade bit into his apple and gave Lavon a pointed look. "because I could prepare one of my spare bedrooms" Lavon trailed off.

"What's wrong with my bed" Wade grinned just as Zoe reentered the kitchen.

"First: It's got you inside", she remarked dryly.

"That didn't bother you just a couple of minutes ago" Wade leaned down to her and took a bite out of his apple just next to hear ear.

"Aww! Wade. You're"

"Impossible", he ended the sentence for her whilst chewing his apple.

" I know that already", he walked towards the door and turned around before he left.

"Two o'clock Lavon. And we're taking the navigator", he said looking at Lavon and then added with a grin that could compete with the Cheshire cat, "and no dirty thoughts about MY Carly till then!"

Wade disappeared through the door leaving a slightly embarrassed Lavon and a profoundly confused Zoe behind.

"Who is Carly? And why is she Wade's? And what are you two up to this afternoon? And most importantly why is he living here again?"Zoe asked while walking towards the more than half full cup of coffee she left behind not fifteen minutes ago. She took a seat again and started sipping her coffee trying to look Lavon in the eyes so she would get answers to her questions.

He shifted uncomfortable on his chair and then, out of nowhere,he started smiling knowingly, "you know, we've all been there."

"Where?"

"Wanting to sleep with Wade" she slammed her head on the counter and sighed. Suddenly she sat back straight.

"You wanted to sleep with Wade?", she asked disbelieving.

"He was really, REALLY, hot in his early twenties" Lavon shrugged smiling and patting Zoe shoulder.

"Thanks Lavon".

Zoe had spent the last half hour drinking coffee and listening to Lavon going on like a schoolgirl, well like Rose about Fredric Dean really, about how hot Wade has been in his early twenties. Somehow she was glad that Lavon could distract her from the most embarrassing kitchen encounter of her entire life just by talking about the cause of embarrassment.

There were even moments when she wondered if Lavon had actually had a crush on Wade back then or maybe still. That would explain why he would let Wade live on his plantation and why a handsome and cute man like him had so much trouble in the dating department, but then she remembered how embarrassed he looked when Wade told him not to have dirty thoughts about Carly. And who was Carly anyway. Lavon never answered her question, not one of them actually. And then it hit her. He was distracting her by talking about Wade's hotness and that was just plain mean. She looked up at him trying to figure out why he was distracting her. He must have sensed her scrutinizing looks, because suddenly he stopped blabbering about Wade and his face turned serious as he said,

"It's just bad timing, Zoe. Wade would have slept with you. It's just, today is September the first", he said the last part as if it was the ultimate explanation.

Strangely though, Zoe felt a bit better, a little less rejected by Wade. Even though, she didn't understand the explanation. Why would it matter that today is September the first, that was just a date, not an explanation. But right now that didn't matter or at least it didn't matter as much as something else.

"Lavon" she looked him directly in the eyes, "who is Carly?"

He looked down at the table, thinking hard to figure out the right thing to say. When he finally looked up again he answered "One of the few people who deserve to have Wade in their life"

Zoe laughed, "what did that poor girl do to deserve Wade?"

Lavon looked at her with that expression he always got, when she was being snobbish about Wade, "there is more to Wade than you know, maybe more than you ever will know."

"I highly doubt that."

"Doubt what, doc?" Wade asked hugging a pile of dirty laundry as he was entering the kitchen again. He headed towards the back of the house towards the laundry room, not even bothering to wait for Zoe's answer.

"Speaking of the devil" Zoe whispered as she poured herself another cup of coffee. She even grabbed a bagel and started nibbling it as her mind wandered of again. Why was Lavon so cryptic about that Carly person. Zoe started to try to collect the facts she had about that mysterious woman. She must be between her age and Lavon's age and close to Wade. And that was about all she could piece together.

Lavon's voice interrupted her thinking process anyway as he spoke to a now empty-handed Wade returning to from the laundry room "You need me tonight to"

"No", Wade interrupted, "Carly is gonna be here"

"Yeah, but I thought maybe you'd like her to be there when you si"

"She prefers Neil Young", Wade interrupted again, "as you may remember."

Wade was leaving again and Lavon seemed to be lost in memories. So Zoe's mind added the new, but confusing information to the file labeled Carly Who-ever-the-hell-that-is.

After the confusing events off breakfast, Zoe decided to go to work. Well, to the beauty parlor to be exact, but Addie had advised her the other day, that she need to mingle with the townspeople and made an appointment at the local beauty parlor. Zoe wasn't even shocked to find the beauty parlor to be like a time machine back to the early nineties. As it turned out Addie was right and the gossip at the beauty parlor came quite useful. She found out with whom the unfaithful preacher had his affair. The shampoo girl, who could have been his daughter. Preacher gone wild apparently means preacher gone really wild. She wasn't that much surprised about that. However, her day went by trying to fix the preachers mess, well the medical part. She was on her way to the Rammer Jammer fantasizing about a nice, cold glass of white wine, when Earl called her from the top of the hard ware store threatening to kill himself. That was just what she needed right now. Between the syphilis crisis and her minds inability to put neither the thoughts about Wade's rejection nor those about that mysterious Carly person to rest, Crazy Earl trying to kill himself was exactly what she needed right now. Before Zoe could even fully process what was happening and what she should do best, the whole town started to gather and everyone was looking at Earl with an emotion she couldn't quite decipher, but nobody made an attempt to do something,anything. That was when she decided to do it. Climb up the roof, safe Crazy Earl and be the town's hero.

But of course Wade had to mess with her ingenious plan and climb up the roof. She still wasn't sure what the following minutes were about. Crazy earl demanding something and then Wade reluctantly singing Moon River and then the whole town joining in. It was all very confusing and Wade calling Crazy Earl Dad didn't help to settle her confused mind.

Lavon joined her with that I told you there is more to him smile o his face d said,"every month Earl cashes his government check and the head straight for the liquor store. He gets drunk and climbs up on that roof. Every month his son comes and sings him down."

"Wow", she was shaking her head disbelieving, "I had no idea."

"You know what? Yeah, maybe 99 of a 100 people will disappoint you, but I don't know, I think you find the magic in the world in the margin of error."

Zoe smiled lightly and Lavon continued, "that" , he nodded towards the now empty roof, " is also one of the reasons why he didn't want to sleep with you tonight."

Zoe decided to walk back to the plantation after that eventful day and the revealing sing along. She wasn't sure what to think about Bluebell or Wade anymore. She thought she had it all figured out, but then Preacher gone wild turned out to be Preacher's wife got pierced and what was even more confusing was Wade. Annoying, womanizing, carefree Wade, who sings his drunken father down from a rooftop once a month. If she hadn't seen it with her own eyes, she wouldn't have believed it. But she had seen it, and now there was this unbelievable strong urge growing inside her to tell him that he was kind of heroic.

So when she arrived at the plantation she headed straight to Wade's place. Before she reached his porch, she saw the door opening. In a slightly panicked state of mind she jumped into the woods to hide behind some bushes. Not really sure why she did what she just did, Zoe rearranged herself, so that she could see Wade's porch. A woman, probably that mysterious Carly person, Zoe thought to herself, stepped onto the porch. She was carrying Wade's guitar and placed it on the picnic table. She then sat down next to the guitar on the table. Zoe could hear Wade's car approaching and ducked down behind the bushes. After his car passed, she stood up gain to observe the scene plying out on the Christmas light illuminated porch. Wade got out of his car and walked towards the woman. She just pressed the guitar into his hands and forced him to sit next to her. Luckily the night was silent and Zoe could listen to their conversation. The woman nudged Wade and said, "just because you don't do it when I'm not here, doesn't mean you get away without doing it, when I'm here."

"You don't now whether I do it or not if you're not here"

"Yes I do. Now do it"

"I don't want to"

"I know, but you're still gonna do it."

She nudged him again and then rested her head on his shoulders, "come on Wade. Just once. You don't even have to sing it, just play the chords." Wade didn't move so she continued talking, "or I could always change my request from Heart of Gold to Alabama". She grinned, as he mumbled a half heatedly, "I hate you", and then started to play Neil Young's Heart of Gold.

Zoe listened to Wade's playing. There was something strangely calming and reassuring about that song. After he finished playing, the woman hugged him tightly and whispered something into his ear that Zoe couldn't hear.

"I still don't understand why I have to play that song every time."

The woman jumped off the table, "to remind you that you have a have a heart of gold", she grabbed Wade's hand and pulled him of the table, "and that your Dad has lost his."