Shawn blinked against the hot Arizona sun and brushed back a few stray hairs that fell into his face. "What a place to be stuck." Being twenty-one and still relatively new to the whole responsibility thing, he hadn't thought to check his transmission fluid on the Norton and now he was stuck till he had enough money to give the garage so he could be on his way. There were a few upsides to being in this desert town; his tan never looked better, it was easy finding a job, and the girls tans were without any lines.

"Mr. Spencer, break time is over."

Shawn rolled his eyes and got up. "Whatever you say, Mr. Mackey." He tried to hurry past the man with a Napoleon complex and coke bottle glasses before he had time to process his joke.

"It's Mr. Mack-ay, Mr. Spencer. Mack-ay. Mmmmmm….kay?"

Shawn was glad his back was turned toward the man because he could hide his uncontrollable laugh with a cough. The other stock and bag boys either bit their lips or suddenly found a ton of work that needed to be done. This man was just too easy to joke on, he took his job way too seriously and it didn't help that he looked and talked like a certain character from South Park. "Yes, Mr. Mackay."

"Mmmmmmm….kay. I have you working with Kate for the rest of the day." Shawn couldn't stop the wide grin that hit, Kate was perhaps his most favorite cashier and it definitely was not because of her quick ring up time.

"Mmmmmmm…..kay. Mr. Makey."

Shawn all but ran out of the stock room toward the front barely hearing his boss. "Mack-ay, . It's Mack-ay." He grinned widely as he bee lined it toward the front of the store and saw his intended target's crystal blue eyes. "Kate!" He spread his arms wide. "I'm all yours, do with me what you will!" The girl covered her mouth with a hand and giggled as Shawn jogged up to her register.

"Well Shawn, how about you help Mrs. O'Daly here?" Shawn went to grab the box and the few bags that were all packed only to have his knuckles rapped by the handle of a cane.

"Boy, don't be all grabbing and no words. You introduce yourself first and then offer your help." Shawn's jaw dropped as he shook his hurt hand and the woman gave him the stare down with her hawk-like green eyes. "I'm Maureen O'Daly and you are?" She thrust out her hand that wasn't holding the cane and looked at him expectantly.

Shawn darted his eyes back and forth between Kate, Maureen, her outstretched hand, and the cane. When Maureen cleared her throat and tightened her grip on her cane, he decided to speak up. "I'm Shawn." He went to shake her outstretched hand to only have it rapped again.

"You got a last name boy?"

Shawn shook his hand some more. "Spencer. My name is Shawn Spencer." The hand he was currently inspecting for broken bones was grabbed roughly and shook by the old woman.

"Nice to meet you Shawn Spencer." She motioned at the box and bags. "Help me, will you?" Shawn nodded dumbfounded, grabbed the items, and followed the woman out of the store. They came up to a very well kept up 1970 Cadillac. Maureen pointed with her cane at the blue car and preceded to get into the driver's seat. "Don't break my eggs or squish my bread, boy, or I will smack you good!" Shawn smirked and put the groceries, carefully, into the backseat of the car. "When you're done, boy, come up here." He froze for a second worried what this woman had planned for him but feeling Maureen's eyes on him he quickly went back to work.

After he made sure the groceries were secure he gently shut the back door and walked over to the driver's seat. For some reason he couldn't seem to meet the woman's eyes so he found his feet exceptionally interesting. "Yes, ma'am?" Also he had no idea where his sudden bout of manners came from but fear of the cane seemed to be a good motivator.

"Look at me when you talk, boy." Shawn raised his head and brushed back his hair with his hand. He cleared his throat. "Yes, ma'am?"

The woman gave him a reproving nod and thrust a five at him. "For your good work, boy." Her stern appearance melted into something more grandmotherly. "See you next time, boy." She slammed her door shut and pulled away before Shawn could even nod at her.

"Crazy old lady." He shook his head and thanked his lucky stars that he would probably never see that crazy old woman again. Oh how he was wrong.

The next two weeks the old woman came by four times buying just enough groceries to last a couple days and rapping Shawn's knuckles with that cane of hers and sometime during these two weeks Shawn somehow began looking forward to her regular visits. For being seventy-two and stooped over this woman had a feistiness in her that Shawn hoped he had when he got to be old. On one of her regular days she didn't show, nor the day after, or the day after that. Shawn thought the worst till his boss answered the phone and pointed at him to stay put.

"Mr. Spencer, that was Maureen O'Daly, she needs her groceries delivered and while we normally don't do that, for her we will." He gave Shawn a list. "She lives four blocks away so you can walk it. Mmmmmmm…..kay?"

Shawn felt relief wash over him and then dread he was going to have to walk four blocks in the Arizona summer sun but desperation of needing this job outweighed the fact he was going to be sweating like a whore in church in about ten minutes. "Yes, Mr. Mackay."

Ten minutes worth of shopping, twenty of walking, and four blocks later he was standing outside a very old, very nice home with a very nice blue Cadillac parked outside. Shawn double checked the number to be sure and knocked on the front door.

"It's open, boy!" Shawn smiled at that simple sentence and opened the door to only have his breath taken away but the sheer amount of items in this woman's house. "Don't stand there with your jaw open boy a damn bee will fly into your mouth!" He closed his jaw with a click and turned toward to the source of her voice, it was hard to keep his eyes off the walls as he walked toward what he assumed would be the living room, thousands of pictures covered the walls, all of them had Maureen in them from all different walks of her life.

"Is that?" Shawn leaned forward and squinted at a particular picture so he knew he was seeing this right. It looked like Maureen with FDR.

"Boy, quit gawking!" Shawn nearly stumbled over a loose bored as he entered the living room but he was able to catch himself. "Be careful boy! You don't want to end up like me." Shawn looked up and saw that Maureen was in a wheelchair, cast completely covering her left leg from foot to thigh. "Tripped on that damn thing three days ago." Shawn's eyes kept flitting around the room taking in all the photos and knick knacks.

"Is that?" He pointed at a photo that suspiciously looked like Albert Einstein and Maureen.

"Yes it is. You got my groceries, boy?" Shawn nodded dumbly and Maureen smiled as he gawked. "I did some traveling in my day met a lot of interesting people."

"I can see that." He was currently engrossed in a photo of her with a young Nat King Cole. "Wow."

Maureen wheeled closer to Shawn and looked at the photo he was staring at. "That was before he started singing, I knew he was going to do great things." She grunted a bit as she tried to wheel back, Shawn nearly jumped behind her and helped. "Thank you boy." Shawn nodded. "Now go put those groceries up before my milk sweats all over the place." Shawn was never one to hop to it but that was exactly what he did and in record time the woman's food was in their right spots. He nearly fell again when he entered the living room to tell Maureen that he was done, the woman dropped her knitting. "Be careful! That thing needs fixed." She rolled her eyes and shook her head. "I bet your hair doesn't help, boy."

Shawn reached toward his head. "My hair?"

Maureen scoffed. "It's all long and stringy." She motioned about the room. "Out of all these photos do you see any man with long, stringy, blocking their eyes, hair?" Shawn knew that there was no one with hair like that, even Einey's was out of his face, weird, but out of his face. He kept looking around the room with awe till he felt Maureen bump his hand. "Thank you, boy." Shawn looked down and saw that she was trying to hand him a twenty.

"Oh I couldn't." There they were again, spontaneous manners, it only happened around her though.

"Sure you can, boy, you earned it."

Shawn shook his head. "Not yet I haven't. You got any carpenter nails and a level, I'm going to fixed that warped board for you."

Maureen smiled widely. "In the kitchen."

"For the next six weeks when I wasn't working at the store I was doing odds and ends at her house." Shawn smiled. "She told me stories of all the people she met, you would've liked her."

"Sounds like it." Henry shut his eyes and sighed.

"She died in 2002, she didn't have any kids, so she left me her house." Shawn leaned his head against the truck, only to have stars explode in his vision, he leaned his head forward and took a few deep breaths. "What I didn't keep in storage, I auctioned off and donated the money."

Henry's eyes snapped open because that definitely didn't sound like something his son would do. "I'm sorry, what?"

Shawn chuckled softly. "I donated it. It was just something I felt like I had to do."

Henry nodded. "Would this something have to do with one of your jobs?"

Shawn scrubbed a hand over his face he knew that one day that was going to come out, he just didn't know it was going to be today. "I will only tell you this once so you better listen." Henry's ears perked at the sudden seriousness of his son's tone. "It was a warm summer day…."