…
Summer was slipping away.
The pool had been drained, deflated, and stored away until next summer. Greg had paved over the dirt space with concrete and the kids were now using it as a place for sidewalk chalk drawings.
Theresa had filed paperwork with the state as did Beth and George was now an official preschooler with the Theresa Leesman home school. Beth would continue to pay her one hundred dollars a month – "If you need more, tell me and I'll get it," Beth promised, already running numbers in her head of how she would – and cover all of George's needed supplies and George would continue his lessons with the other Leesman children. Rosita was already talking with Theresa about teaching Coco as well when she was old enough to enter preschool in a few more years.
"I read about this cul-de-sac in North Carolina. Just this year. All of the families filed paperwork with the state and they were able to set up their own school, one of the parents teaching them all," Beth said. "So Dixon Trailer Park School can be set up, too."
Theresa was humbled and a little stunned that there were those who actually would trust her to teach their children, from her trailer, and instead of thinking of something to say, she gave Beth a small list of things George would need for his lessons.
Ms. Mackey had gone to the clinic to see Siddiq and he had diagnosed her with osteoporosis.
"But I drink milk," she had frowned at the doctor.
"And ice cream is its own food group with you, I know," Siddiq smiled. "But sometimes, this just happens anyway. I'm giving you a calcium supplement and try to keep yourself moving, too."
Three times a day, Ms. Mackey hooked the leash on Frankie and she would make several loops around the trailer park – it being more tolerable to do now that it wasn't so hot and humid out. And if Kristy had time between hair appointments and Ms. Mackey was walking, Kristy would go outside and join her.
After being officially laid off from the carpet factory, Gary tried to figure out what the Hell he wanted to do. His secret goal was to get a good enough job where Bridget didn't have to strip anymore. He knew that she didn't hate her job and Gary had never had an issue with it, but Bridget was in her thirties now; edging closer to that age where stripping wasn't exactly lucrative.
If he was being honest, he wanted Bridget to be able to stay at home and bake pies all day because that's what she really loved doing. He wanted to earn enough where he could easily take care of both of them.
He considered the police academy. Deputy Walsh had mentioned it to him and Gary had entertained the idea – for about half a day before he shook that idea right out of his head. There was no way on God's green earth could he be a police officer. That just wasn't in him.
Greg came over one morning before he left for work, just as Bridget got home from the club.
"Hey, want come with me today?" Greg asked him, casual as could be. He took a sip of coffee from his thermos. "Got you an interview if you want it. The county's hiring more guys for the road crews."
Gary didn't even really have time to process what Greg had just said to him before Bridget was pushing him towards the bedroom so he could get dressed.
A month later, Gary had a job; a good job with a good paycheck. He knew to some people, it wouldn't be a lot of money at all, but Gary had never made as much money as he was making now and Bridget didn't have to dance every night. She still went three times a week – the money really was that good – but it wasn't seven times a week anymore. Now, Gary had a job and he was able to pay Daryl rent for the next three months – just to be safe.
In the trailer park, if someone with a car was going into town or running errands, they would go around to everyone, asking if they needed anything or if they wanted to come. Daryl went to each trailer when he was planning a trip to Wal-Mart. Theresa needed two 3-packs of toothpaste. Mr. King didn't need anything until Daryl was making an Aldi run. Rosita – well, Coco – needed one of those packs of pacifiers. Kristy desperately needed more hairspray and she wrote down the exact kind for Daryl to get. Ms. Mackey was going to come with him – "I need too many things and walking around that store will be good for me" – and when he knocked on Beth's door last and told her where he was going, she asked if she and George could come.
"Course you can," Daryl said and then gave her a look for even asking.
Beth laughed at that and then held up a piece of paper. "Back-to-school shopping." And she seemed to be so happy to be saying those particular words, she was brighter than the sun in that moment, Daryl figured.
George came hopping up next, beaming up at Daryl. "I get a book-bag, Daryl!" He exclaimed with so much happiness and excitement, Daryl felt it coming from them and wrapping around him.
At Wal-Mart, Daryl made sure they got everything everyone else in the park needed and wanted and before going to get Ms. Mackey her groceries, they first took George to where all of the school supplies was stocked – everything on sale.
Beth got him a fresh box of crayons, glue sticks, scissors, yellow pencils and a pack of construction paper. The three adults then watched as George searched the selection for the most perfect book-bag he could find.
"This one, mama!" George proudly held up a blue bag with robots printed all over it.
"Oh, it's perfect, Georgie. Let's try it on." Beth helped George with his arms through the straps and she looked at the way it was on his back.
George started hopping around the aisle, liking the way the bag slapped against him. "Daryl! Ms. Mackey! Do you like it?" He then spun around, almost falling over, so they could see his back.
"It's the best book-bag, I'm convinced," Ms. Mackey gave a smile, almost laughing at his enthusiasm.
"Wish I had one like that when I went to school," Daryl added.
"I want this one, mama!" George exclaimed.
"Sounds good to me," Beth smiled, standing up again, and taking the book-bag from him to place in the shopping cart, she discreetly checked the price tag.
...
Siddiq came to knock on Daryl's door just as August was ending.
"Everythin' alrigh'?" He asked, stepping out on the porch to stand with the doctor.
"Are outside structures allowed here?" Siddiq asked him.
"You wan' a shed or somethin'?"
"Actually, Rosita and I want to buy Coco a playhouse for Christmas and I wanted to run it by you first."
"Fuck, Siddiq. 's August."
Siddiq broke into a grin. "Nothing wrong with preparing ahead."
Daryl sighed though he had no problem with it. "Jus' nothin' too pink. Got an aesthetic to keep."
Siddiq's grin widened and he clapped a hand on Daryl's shoulder.
...
The Saturday before Labor Day, Beth's eyes snapped open when she heard George crying.
"Mama!"
Beth sprang from bed, wide awake, and raced from her bedroom into George's. He was sitting up in bed and it looked like he couldn't open one of his eyes.
"Mama!" He wailed again.
"I'm here, George. I'm here." Her heart was pounding from having been woken in such a way but now that she was with him, she knew exactly what it was. "Oh, Georgie, you're alright, I promise. I'm here." One of his eyes was crusted closed and she wiped his wet, hot cheeks. "I think you have pink eye. It's alright," she then quickly added.
She herded the boy into the bathroom and gently, she began wiping his eye with a damp washcloth. Finally, with the crust gone, George was able to slowly open his other eye. Yes, definitely pink eye.
She might not have been in His House for years but Beth still thanked God every day for her job at Aldi. It wasn't like other cashier jobs. It paid her a little bit more and she had insurance; actual health insurance. So when she called the clinic to see if Siddiq could see George that morning, Beth felt an odd sense of excitement from the insurance card in her wallet she would be able to use.
She obviously wished she didn't have to use it on George but she was finally able to afford to take her son to the doctor when he needed one.
Beth got them both together and then, locking up their trailer, she held onto George's hand and they walked next door to knock on Daryl's door.
To no surprise, Daryl immediately dropped working on his balance book that kept track of everyone's rent that they paid him on the first of the month and drove them straight to the clinic, Beth making sure George didn't touch his eye and then touch everything else.
In the clinic, a nurse showed them into an exam room and Daryl was the one to heft George up and set him down on the examination table. The rooms in the clinic were painted plain white but in this particular one, the door of the medical cabinet had a Corduroy Bear decal on it.
"Now, I know what Dr. Siddiq is going to do," Beth said, leaning on the table next to George. "He's going to examine you and he's probably going to give you some eye drops. You've never had eye drops before but they won't hurt. They just take some getting used to and they will help your eye feel better."
George nodded, wanting to touch his eye again, but Beth gently kept his hands away. He began looking around the room with curiosity and Beth looked to Daryl, who was sitting in one of the plastic chairs against the wall. She hadn't asked him to stay – she hadn't expected him to stay – but she was so glad that he had. She should have known that he would.
Daryl looked at her and with their eyes together, they both smiled.
"Hell of a way to finish up the summer," he commented and it made Beth laugh.
...
On Labor Day, the trailer park had a barbecue – the last of the season. This time, Daryl got a deer and everyone made sides. Kristy made this amazing Cool-Whip pretzel Jell-O salad and Bridget baked pies. They ate the massive amount of food and the kids then ran around, playing tag and games of t-ball and generally running around like the unhinged maniacs they all were. As always, Rosita took pictures.
As the sun became lower in the sky, Beth helped herself to another piece of strawberry and rhubarb pie with a helping of vanilla ice cream and went to Daryl, who was sitting on the steps of his front porch. George was with him, throwing a tennis ball for Dog, the German Shepherd racing after it each time.
He wasn't acting like a kid who had pink eye. In the exam room, Siddiq had examined his eye and sure enough, it was pink eye and there were eye drops that had to be given. George had tried to hide against Beth, not wanting anything dropped into his eye.
But then Daryl had said, "Be brave, George. You can do it."
And apparently, to her four-year-old son, that was all George needed to hear because after a moment and a sniffle, he kept himself against Beth, but he tilted his chin up, letting Siddiq administer the eye drops.
Daryl smiled as Beth sat down next to him and Beth smiled, too, around the fork in her mouth.
"How many slices is that for you?" He asked.
Beth pulled the fork out and pointed it at him. "You will not pie shame me, Daryl Dixon. How much of Kristy's salad did you have?"
Daryl just smirked and Beth smiled, taking another forkful of pie for herself. They were quiet, watching George and Dog play and past that, the rest of the trailer park still keeping the barbecue going. Beth found herself leaning into Daryl's side and he moved his arm, circling it low around her back.
"You've been here five months now," Daryl broke their silence.
Beth looked at him, somewhat amazed that he would remember such a thing, and yet, Daryl remembering that was exactly something he would do.
"Best five months of my life," she said quietly; honestly.
Daryl stared at her and his arm tightened around her. "Mine, too."
...
For George's official first day of preschool, Annette arrived bright and early and Beth was glad she came. The past few weeks, Annette came at least three times a week – Beth had no idea what she told Hershel and she didn't ask – and they were able to spend time together; Annette and her daughter and Annette and her grandson. George had warmed up to Annette immensely and now always greeted her with a hug and smile. He was young enough to forgive people for things he didn't even understand. Beth wished she was like that but she still needed time and she knew that, some day, she would get there as well. She and Annette were working on it, slow and steady, and it meant so much to Beth that Annette was putting forth such an effort (and wasn't pressuring Beth to speed up and forgive her already).
When they had been at Wal-Mart, Ms. Mackey had asked – as well as begged and pleaded – with Beth and Beth finally allowed it. Ms. Mackey had bought George some new clothes. Completely new clothes that had never been worn and owned by anyone else. George had never had brand new clothes before.
Today, George wore a pair of black cotton shorts and a grey tee-shirt with a ninja on it. Big Tiny had just given him a haircut the day before – buzzed on the sides and curls on top, which had become George's cut – and Beth fixed him a lunch of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, grapes, and two cookies. Theresa, once again, told Beth that she did not have to pack lunch for George but, of course, Beth did.
George was so excited, he was hopping around the kitchen as Beth put things together.
"School! School! School!" He was chanting and Beth had to laugh.
Yes, it was school right across the field – in a trailer – but it was an official school and Beth had already seen what George had learned from Theresa watching him while she was at work. She knew his alphabet, colors and could count. Beth had high hopes for what he would continue to learn.
Out on the front porch, with his book-bag on his back and the brown paper bag holding his lunch, he stayed on the top step so Annette could take his picture with her phone. Across the field, the Leesman children were lined up, their parents taking pictures, too.
"Come here, Beth. You two," Annette smiled, pointing to George, and Beth smiled, too.
She knelt down next to George, her arms around him, and George looped an arm around her neck. Together, the two smiled brightly for Annette to snap another picture.
And then, with his hand tucked into hers, Beth walked her son to preschool.
…
On Friday, the knock on the door came at eight minutes until six.
"Hello?" Beth called out, sticking her head from the bathroom.
"It's me, Beth!" Cassie answered through the screen.
"Georgie, please go let Cassie in," she told the boy as he was playing with his birthday bowling set in the hallway right outside the bathroom, deciding that that was the best place in the trailer to set up the plastic bowling pins.
Taking his bowling ball with him, George went to do that. "Hi, Cassie!" Beth heard him exclaim happily.
"Hi, George. Are we bowling tonight?" The teenager asked.
"Yep! I'm good at it!"
Cassie laughed and Beth poked her head from the bathroom again as Cassie and George came from the front door. Beth smiled at her.
"Thank you so much for this, Cassie," Beth said, sounding breathless though she didn't know why. "Ms. Mackey was feeling tired and I didn't want her to babysit tonight."
"I don't mind, Beth. It's an away football game tonight and I didn't really have anything going on," Cassie said, finishing with a shrug.
"Still, you're almost seventeen. Babysitting on a Friday night, I know, isn't your idea of a good time."
Cassie shrugged again and didn't say anything to that. After pressing charges against her boyfriend at the beginning of the summer, he hadn't been around any longer and it wasn't her business – she knew she could easily ask Kristy about it – but Beth hoped that Cassie had broken up with him for good.
She finished the braid she was styling her hair in and fastening it up around her head. She looked in the mirror and then to Cassie and George. "Good?" She asked them both.
"You're beautiful, mama!" George exclaimed.
"You look great, Beth," Cassie smiled.
"Thank you," Beth said to them both. "Nothing special. Just the bar but thank you. Now," she ushered both of them back to the living room. "I can't pay you that much at all, but I promise to pay you something at the end of the night. I also have a coupon for Dominos here if you and George would like pizza. That or you can make anything from the kitchen that you want."
Another knock on the screen door and all three turned their heads to see that it was Daryl.
"Daryl!" George exclaimed and went to push open the screen door for him.
"Hey, George," Daryl smiled at him, a hand ruffling George's head. He looked to Beth. "You ready?"
"Yes," she hurried to get her purse from the kitchen table, turning around just in time to see him handing Cassie a twenty dollar bill from his wallet. Beth would ask him about that later. She went to George and kissed his head a few times. "Be good for Cassie. Promise me," she said, putting her hands on his head and gently tilting it upwards so he looked up at her.
"I promise, mama."
Beth kissed his head again and then turned to Cassie, handing her an extra ten dollar bill that she had put aside from her last paycheck. "Dinner and delivery tip," she said.
"Thanks, Beth. What time does George go to bed?"
"Never!" George exclaimed.
"Eight," Beth answered. "But we might be back by then so don't worry yourself about it."
She and Daryl were finally able to get out there and headed to Daryl's truck.
"Ready for a fun night out on the town?" Daryl smiled a little.
Beth laughed at that. "Of course. The Jinx Tap and $2 burger baskets. What was that you gave Cassie?" She then asked.
Daryl pulled out of the park onto the main road and began driving into Orson.
"Jus' somethin' for babysittin'. She's sixteen."
"Well, thank you for doing that, but you-"
"Didn' have to. Yeah, I know." He broke into a grin when Beth reached over and hit him in the arm.
He pulled into the parking lot of the Jinx Tap and since it was a Friday night, Beth saw that there were more than a few cars, trucks and bikes already there. Merle had gone off with some of his friends – which hadn't made Daryl that happy just because of who some of Merle's friends – and Beth wondered if Merle was here at the Jinx Tap tonight.
Daryl turned the truck's engine off and before he could open his door, Beth had slid across the bench seat and softly touched her lips to his. Daryl pressed his back to hers but it was for just a moment before Beth pulled her head back again.
"What was that for?" Daryl asked.
"I need a reason?"
"Nah, girl. You kiss me any damn time you wan'," he replied to that and Beth smiled.
Beth slowly circled her arms around his shoulders and as Daryl turned a bit more towards her, she kissed him again; lightly and gently. "I love you," she whispered.
Daryl's eyes opened and he looked her. She tried to read his expression, his thoughts, but Daryl could be so good at hiding his mind; or maybe he wasn't thinking anything right then. She then wondered if anyone had ever said those words to him.
And thinking that, it made just want Beth to say it again. "I love you, Daryl," she whispered again, staring into his eyes so he had no reason to wonder if she meant it.
(She couldn't even remember the last time she said those words to Patrick and she was grateful she couldn't remember because nothing about that mattered anymore.)
Daryl visibly swallowed and he lowered his eyes for half a second. She felt his hand on her back and when he looked at her again, Beth felt her heart freeze and squeeze in her chest. She watched and she could almost physically see him gathering the words – coming from the back of his throat, moving across his tongue and parting his mouth open. He didn't look anywhere else – even as two of the motorcycles in the parking lot started up with great roars of their engines.
"I love you, too, Beth," he was able to say and his voice sounded a little hoarse.
Hearing those words, Beth nearly began to cry; not able to help it.
She was loved. Someone loved her. Daryl loved her. She had George, yes, and she knew that her Georgie loved her so, so much – no one loved her like George – but that wasn't the same as love from a man.
This man loved her.
Without even going into the bar, she felt buzzed as if she had already had a Heineken beer to drink.
…
THANK YOU!
- Shawn will be in the next chapter.
- A few have asked and we will NOT see Patrick again. To put it as Beth had, he's still meth'd out of his mind in Birmingham and honestly, I couldn't imagine someone with a habit like that really caring that Beth and George were gone.
- This will sound a little strange but this story really won't have a climax like most stories are supposed to have. This really was just a story of Beth and starting her life again.