Sweet Ginger Poison 8

Coreyville Coffee Cakes was open Monday through Saturday, 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Most of the customers came early in the morning or for a coffee break at around 10:00 a.m. or 2:00 p.m. Ginger had learned through trial and error that staying open past 3:30 was not profitable.

This particular Saturday had been filled with all the talk of Navy Newcomb. Every customer had an opinion. Some said he had it coming. Folks debated what had really happened to him. Was it accidental or murder?

The last customer walked out at 3:28, and Cheryl locked the front door and flipped the sign to ‘Closed.’ Lacey began to scrub each table with a hot, soapy dishcloth while Danny swept and mopped the floors. Cheryl went into the office to do her bookwork and prepare the checks and cash for bank deposit.

At about 4:00, Cheryl walked out of the office. Lacey and Danny were sitting in the dining area, several tables apart, ignoring each other.

“Ready to go?” Cheryl always insisted that they wait for her. She wasn’t comfortable going out into the alley by herself carrying a bag full of money—even in a law abiding town like Coreyville.

“Yeah,” said Danny.

Danny and Lacey stood up.

“What’s the matter with you two?” said Cheryl, in her usual rapid-fire style. “You look like you just missed the last bus to Christmas.”

“Nothing,” said Lacey.

“Look,” said Cheryl, “I’m tired of lying to Ginger. What do you care if she knows you’re living together? If you’re so ashamed of it, you shouldn’t be doing it.”

“Ask her,” said Danny.

Cheryl looked at Lacey. “Well?”

“Because she’ll be disappointed in me,” said Lacey with her head hung low.

“Why?” said Danny. “Because I’m not good enough for you?”

“I didn’t say that,” said Lacey.

“Never mind,” said Cheryl. “Let’s go. If I don’t get home soon and get out of these shoes, my feet are gonna kick my butt to sorry-ville.”

The three walked to the back kitchen door. Danny followed Lacey to her car as Cheryl locked up. They waited for Cheryl to drive away first.

On the way to Lacey’s apartment, neither she nor Danny said a word. Once they were inside, Danny let loose.

“I’m sick of this!” He snatched a ceramic coffee cup off the top of a bookshelf and threw it down. It hit the edge of the coffee table and exploded into dozens of pieces that flew all over the living room.

Lacey broke down. She collapsed onto the couch, crying aloud.

Suddenly Danny felt like a creep. He rushed to her side. “I’m sorry, Lacey. Please forgive me.” Why had he done that? He’d never gotten violent around Lacey before. He’d always been able to control his rage in her presence. “I’m sorry I was late this morning.”

“You promised you’d be on time.”

“I know. But I fell back asleep.”

“That’s no excuse.”

“I know. It was stupid. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again—I promise.”

“No. Don’t promise. Don’t promise me anything. Just say what you’re gonna do, and then do it. I need to know I can depend on you.”

“You can, Honeypie. You definitely can depend on me.”

But the truth was that Danny Iper never had much of a reputation for being dependable. A few months earlier, his dad had thought that his son was finally ready to be responsible. So, he pulled some strings to get him a job. Phillip had been so proud that he and his son would be working for the same construction company.

But Danny didn’t like construction. There was too much sweating and too many bosses. One day Danny’s foreman caught him sleeping on the job, so he filled a paper cup with cold water and threw in Danny’s face. The other men thought it was hilarious. Danny jumped to his feet, ready to fight somebody—only to be laughed into embarrassment.

But that afternoon, Danny took his revenge on the foreman. He sneaked up behind him and dumped a keg of ice water onto the foreman’s head—the way football players sometimes do to their coach after winning a big game. It was Danny’s turn to laugh—and get fired.

Phillip did not say anything to his son about getting fired—even when they got into the pickup to go home. But once they were on the freeway, he unleashed a tirade upon the boy about how stupid, foolish, brain-dead, and irresponsible he was—over and over, in every possible combination of degrading adverbs and adjectives.

Danny’s gripped the door handle so tightly that his hand turned blue. His only way out would have been to fling the door open and jump. He pictured his banged-up body, covered in blood—just another dead skunk on the side of the highway. He had come very close to yanking that door handle.

He gently lifted Lacey’s chin and looked straight into her moist blue eyes. “You believe me, don’t you, Lacey? You really can depend on me.”

She stood up, but didn’t answer him.

What did she want from him? How could he make her feel better? “Is there something else bothering you?”

“No. I’m fine.” She walked into the kitchen.

Danny got up from the couch and went after her. “Well, you don’t seem fine.”

She stood at the kitchen sink looking out the window. “Just…drop it. Okay?”

“Wait a second.” He walked up beside her. “This doesn’t have anything to do with him, does it?”

She began to whimper.

“You’re kidding. This is ridiculous. You said you were over him.”

“I thought I was.”

“Hey, we’re all sorry he’s dead. But you shouldn’t be crying over him—unless you were still in love with him!”

Lacey broke down.

Danny stepped back. “I can’t believe this.” He began to walk around in a small circle faster and faster as he talked. “You said you loved me, and we were going to get married and have kids. And now I find out you’re still in love with Navy Newcomb. How do you think that makes me feel?”

She turned around. “I’m sorry, Danny. It’s not really that I still loved him. It’s just that we dated for a long time and—”

“—I know, I know. But you were supposed to be completely over him by now.” Danny continued to walk the circle, continued to gain speed.

“I am. I really am.” She stepped forward and grabbed his arm to stop him. “I love you, Danny.” She moved in close to him. “Only you.”

As soon as their lips touched their bodies began to catch fire. They started taking off each other’s clothes as they moved in an awkward, twirling, out of control motion toward the bedroom. Whatever each of them had been thinking a minute earlier was now irrelevant.

**********

When Danny opened his eyes he was on his side, facing her. She was just a few inches away. He lifted his head off the pillow slightly to check the alarm clock on her nightstand. Less than an hour had passed since they had come home.

He admired her milky-smooth skin, the way her lips curled up slightly at the edges, and her long eye lashes. And her hair. How he loved to bury his head in her long, thick, dark brown hair.

Danny knew how lucky he was to have Lacey. The only problem had been getting her to forget about Navy. When Danny first started dating her, it was always ‘Navy did this and Navy said that.’ And just when he would think she was finally over him, Danny would see him there in her eyes again.

In some ways, Danny had been a little envious of Navy. The guy was one reckless, womanizing, cool son of a millionaire. And if you were his girlfriend, you got everything your little heart desired—until he went broke. But even then, he was somehow still cool.

Danny knew he could never compete with the legend in Lacey’s mind. He needed to somehow remove Navy from her mind. That had proved to be much harder than he expected.

But now it was different. Now that Navy was dead, Lacey could finally begin to forget about him. The tiny ember of hope that she would someday get back together with him had gone cold.

I’m not such a bad guy, thought Danny. I’ll learn to control my temper. And I’ll be a wonderful husband and father.

Danny continued to adore Lacey’s sleeping face.

He smiled. Too bad Navy died. Too bad.