…
George eventually did eat breakfast – a piece of toast with hazelnut chocolate spread (but not too much because he didn't need a damn hyper kid all day) and a glass of milk – and he then let Daryl take him back to Beth's trailer to get dressed and brush his teeth. Merle wanted to go to Wal-Mart and Daryl went to Ms. Mackey's trailer to see if she wanted to come with them.
"Thank you so much for asking," the woman gave a small smile as she stood in her door. "But I'm actually feeling a bit tired today. Not sure why."
"You feelin' alrigh'?" Daryl frowned a little. He lifted a foot up to the bottom step. He was going to check on her AC for her, but he heard it kick on in the trailer behind her and it seemed to be running fine.
"I'm alright," Ms. Mackey nodded. "Just feeling worn down and I'm not too sure why."
"Might have been in the sun too long yesterday," Daryl suggested. "You need me to pick up anythin'?"
"Would you mind?"
"I wouldn' ask if I didn' mean it."
Ms. Mackey smiled and stepped back inside, holding the door open and Daryl took the silent invitation, following her into the trailer. Frankie was immediately there, sniffing his feet and ankles, his stubby little tail wagging, and Daryl crouched down to give the dog some love and affection. Ms. Mackey was at her counter, writing a few things down on a slip of paper. She then went to the jar in the cabinet behind her soup cans where Daryl knew she kept her money.
"Here we are," she said, turning to Daryl and holding out the piece of paper and a twenty dollar bill.
Daryl looked to the list. Milkbone dog biscuits, Neapolitan ice cream, bananas, bread, milk. "This it?"
"Thank you so much for doing this, Daryl."
"I'll be back in a bit," Daryl promised her and then when Ms. Mackey turned to put the jar back in its hiding spot, Daryl slipped the twenty she had given him onto the bookshelf next to the door.
Back outside, Merle with George was waiting for him at the pickup truck.
"We gotta have a booster seat or somethin' for this kid?" Merle asked him.
Daryl knew he would have to get one of those for George sooner than later, but for now, they had to make do. "We do, but we ain't got one. I'll get one eventually."
He expected Merle to say something to that, but Merle just gave a nod and slid into the truck behind the steering wheel. Guess that meant he was driving. He glanced up to his trailer and saw the front door closed. Daryl went and opened the truck's passenger door.
"You lock the front door?"
Merle had already lit a cigarette and blew the smoke out his window. "You think you need to lock it?"
Daryl thought on that for a second and then turned to George. "Le's go, George." He hefted the boy up into the truck and then slid in after him. "Alrigh'. I can't let you sit in the middle. Only seat belt goes across your middle and that won't help anythin'."
George nodded and didn't say anything to that. He climbed up onto the seat and then crawled into Daryl's lap without argument. Daryl took the seatbelt and brought it over them both to click it in place.
"We good?" Merle asked and Daryl gave a nod.
Merle drove from the trailer park onto the road, turning in the direction of the Wal-Mart.
"You lookin' for anything in particular?" Daryl asked his brother.
Merle shook his head, blowing more smoke out the window. "Got an idea. Hopefully, they got it."
He didn't offer anything more than that and Daryl knew better than to keep asking him about it.
"What's this?" George suddenly spoke up.
"What's what?" Daryl asked and George pointed to the radio. "The Midnight Rider" was playing on the classic rock station Daryl always had playing in his truck. "The Allman Brothers. You like it?" He smiled a little when George nodded his head.
"Hell, yeah, you do, boy," Merle gave him a grin. "Everyone likes the Allman Brothers."
George grinned at that, too, as if he had done something right and was pleased with himself.
"Your mama and you listen to any music?" Daryl asked.
"Mama would sing to me."
"Well, get her to sing the Allman Brothers to you," Merle said and George nodded as if he was going to do just that.
Daryl found himself smiling a little. He wondered if Beth knew any Allman Brothers music. He'd like to hear her sing anything. He bet she had the best voice he had ever had. Beth just seemed like she would.
He wouldn't tell Merle this, but Daryl was grateful to him that he was being nice to George; not that Merle had been unkind to any kid in trailer park, but it was important to Daryl that Merle was nice to George of any of them. He hadn't told Merle a lot about Beth and George, but he had told him enough – especially when he told Merle that he and Beth were something. The bruises and showing up after a rainstorm, looking for a place with stolen money from her meth head boyfriend and his friends.
"He beat the boy, too?" Merle had asked.
"Slapped him. And as soon as he did, Beth knocked him out with a dresser drawer and got herself and George out of there."
Merle was quiet, thinking that over. He then gave a nod. "Brave thing for her to do. Most women in her situation don't even know there's a door to walk out of."
And neither said it, but they knew both were thinking of their mom and how she sure as Hell never even thought about going through any door and leaving even if she did see the door.
The Wal-Mart parking lot was pretty full as it always was. Daryl swore that he could drive past this place at three o'clock in the morning and the lot would be pretty full. As they began walking towards the doors, George lifted his hand and slipped it into Daryl's, making him smile a little. Beth obviously taught him that and Daryl liked that this boy trusted him enough to sit on his lap in the truck and take hold of his hand in the parking lot without even seemingly thinking about it.
It was more than just liking it, but Daryl couldn't think of the word. He didn't know the word.
Inside the first set of sliding doors, Daryl lifted George up and set him down in the cart's seat and then steered it to follow after Merle into the store. He immediately grimaced. An obese woman was there as soon as he walked in, wearing skin tight leggings and a sports bra, looking through a bin of towels on sale. People of Wal-Mart.
Daryl quickly steered the cart away and followed after Merle, who seemed to have an idea of where he was going for not even knowing if the sore would have it.
"What are you lookin' for?" Daryl tried again to get an answer out of Merle.
They were going by the toy section and Daryl saw the way that George's eyes looked up every aisle and at every end display; even the one that was showing a new make up or something for some doll.
Daryl wondered what Beth was going to get him for his birthday. He knew she tried to put a little away with each paycheck and he knew that George wasn't the kind of kid who cared about how big or expensive a toy was. He didn't know how to be a kid like that. But Beth would want not get him the best thing she could because that was the kind of mom she was and always wanted to be.
Daryl wanted to get George something, too, for his birthday. Would Beth be alright with that if he did?
Merle took them down an aisle of fans and air conditioner units and he was looking over the shelves for something in particular. "Ah. Last one." He was grinning now as he pulled down a box. "She got a USB port in her trailer? It charges with a USB port."
"Yeah. There's one in the livin' room." Daryl stepped around the cart and took the box from Merle to take a look at it. It was a cube, not too big. Water was poured into the cannister on the side and the mini-portable AC unit could cool a room down in just a minute and last all night.
"Figured if they sleep with this next to 'em, they'll need some blankets."
Daryl looked at every side of the box, looking over every bit of information printed on it, and then looked at his brother, just a little bit confused.
"Hell, even the ol' man had us an air unit," Merle reminded him. "A hard-workin' mama and her boy shouldn' be sufferin' in the heat like this."
"How much is it?" Daryl asked. He already knew Beth wouldn't accept it. She was a damn proud woman – it was one of his favorite things about her – and she wanted to work for everything she and George had. But maybe, if it wasn't too much, he could convince Beth that she could accept this as a gift.
"'bout $75," Merle answered, glancing to the price on the shelf before back to Daryl. His eyes darted to George in the cart, the boy being quiet as he leaned over and turned the knobs on one of the air conditioner units closest to him. "She and the boy need this," Merle then said, looking back to Daryl.
Daryl looked to the box again. "Not arguin' with that." He turned and set it down in the shopping cart. Beth could fight it all she wanted. Daryl was buying this for her and George and that would be that. Apparently, the thing was energy efficient, too, so her bill shouldn't be much higher than it was now.
"Good," Merle clapped a hard hand on Daryl's shoulder. "Now, le's go get Ms. Mackey her stuff and we gotta get new toilet paper. I can't stand this one-ply shit paper you have."
Daryl went to the cart's bar again, rolling his eyes. George saw and giggled that and Daryl looked down at him, giving him a smile. "You need anythin', George?" He asked as he started to push the cart again.
"Nope!" George exclaimed with a shake of his head.
"You don't need nothin'?" Merle made sure. "I bet there's somethin' you want."
"Mama said want and need aren't the same thing," George recited and Daryl swore he heard Beth's voice.
"Christ, you're how old?" Merle looked at him and George held up three fingers.
"Yeah, but he's got a birthday comin' up," Daryl said as they began their trek to the other side of the store, passing some furniture along the way. "Merle." He said his brother's name as he stopped the cart and Merle turned to see what he was looking at.
A bed was something Daryl knew that Beth wanted for herself more than anything; a bed for herself and one for George. It was too expensive though. Even if she found a bed frame cheap, a mattress wasn't. Daryl knew that with her job, Beth could be saving up for a few years.
It was a full-size frame; simple. A simple white wood headboard and no footboard. It'd be good for Beth. Daryl could imagine that she would love the white. Daryl looked to the price tag. $155. He knew that to Beth, it might as well have been a thousand. This was just a frame. The mattress was separate.
"Nah," Merle broke into his thoughts. "We're not buyin' anything like this here."
"'m jus' lookin'. Beth and George are sleepin' on a pull-out couch and I know she's workin' towards beds for both of 'em."
"Yeah, but not these," Merle shook his head. "I know a guy. I can get somethin' better." Daryl just looked at him. "Don't look at me like that. I know someone."
"Who the Hell do you know in the furniture business?" Daryl asked. He began pushing the cart again.
"When are you gonna get it through skull, baby brother?" Merle asked with a growing grin. "I know everyone everywhere and most of them owe me a favor or two."
Daryl snorted at that. "Yeah, well, jus' make sure the mattresses are clean. You ain't given' Beth a mattress stained with piss or other fluids."
Merle let out a bark of laughter at that and George laughed at the sound of it. Merle grinned and reached a hand over, rubbing it over George's head as if he was a dog and George just laughed harder.
…
Albert drove Beth back home and as she got out of the car, she saw a note taped to her screen door. She had gotten paid the day before and after her shift today, she had done her grocery shopping. She had several bags and she carried a few and Albert carried the rest for her.
Gone to Wal-Mart. Be back soon.
The note said in Daryl's handwriting and she smiled. She hoped that meant that George wasn't being too much of a toddler nightmare anymore.
"You are the best," Beth said to Albert as he deposited the bags he carried for her onto the kitchen table. She went to him and hugged him and Albert grinned, hugging her back.
"Let me know about bowling this weekend," he reminded her, heading back to the front door.
"I will. Thank you, Albert, and tell Amy I said hi."
The screen door slapped shut behind him and Beth began unpacking all of the bags as she heard Albert's car drive away. It was a quiet afternoon in the trailer park, it seemed. Not even the Leesman kids seemed to be outside, screaming bloody murder.
Beth hummed to herself, moving around the kitchen, putting everything away. One of the Aldi finds that week were coloring books and she had bought a couple along with a new box of crayons for George and she went to the closet in one of the bedrooms to hide them on the top shelf until his birthday.
Back in the kitchen, she looked over everything she had bought and she thought of what she could make her and George for dinner that night. Maybe Daryl and Merle would want to join them. She had bought a few pizzas. Maybe it should be as something as simple as that. Or maybe after the cookout the night before, she should make something light and a bit more healthy than wild pig. How healthy was wild pig?
She began humming to herself again as she went back into the bedroom, gathering the comforter. She would wash this and then the towels and bed sheets and she would wash hers and George's clothes tomorrow morning before her afternoon/evening shift. Ms. Mackey would be watching George for her then. After tomorrow, she was off the following day and Beth was grateful for that.
It was a double-edge sword.
The more shifts, the longer of shifts, that only meant she earned more money and that was never a bad thing. But the more she worked, the more she was away from George and had to rely on more people to watch him. Not working would never not be an option for her, but she hated being away from George all of the time. She absolutely hated it.
Just as she tossed in the Tide pods and a capful of fabric softner, closing the lid and starting the cycle of the washing machine, she heard a knock on the screen door.
"Coming!" She called out, thinking it was Daryl and George.
She left the hall closet and rounded the corner, stopping as soon as she did; stopping as if she had just run smack into a wall that had magically been built in her path.
Through the screen, Beth saw her. Her brain understood and recognized what her eyes were seeing and yet, her eyes couldn't believe it. There was no way they were seeing correctly. It was a mirage. A dream. A hallucination. All of those things and nothing more.
She shouldn't be here. How was she even here? Beth had disappeared and she wanted to keep it that way. For both her and George's sake – and safety – living this life of quiet anonymity that so many others did was exactly the way Beth wanted her life to be; just a woman going to work every day and raising her son and not bringing any attention to herself like millions of other people.
How had she found Beth? Why had she even wanted to find her? Hershel had been the one to kick her out and banish her, but this woman had said absolutely nothing to argue or calm her husband down, leading Beth to believe that she hadn't wanted to think of Beth anymore either.
Her heart began speeding and her breath began growing short in her lungs.
"Mom."
…
A little shorter, but for obvious reasons. Onto the next one! THANK YOU so, so much for reading and please comment!