Chapter 27
Chapter 27 — Friday
Alex starts his apprenticeship with Gene at Holloway's Hardware on Friday morning. Gene puts him to work organizing inventory and loading materials for a delivery run. Gene reveals that Ruth knows about the apprenticeship and has opinions about it. Back at the commune, Alex finds Maya packing her things in her cabin. She tells him she's leaving in ten days, not two weeks. They have a quiet conversation about what they are to each other and what they aren't. Maya asks Alex to help her build a bookshelf for her new apartment in Portland before she leaves. Alex agrees. That evening, Alex sits with JJ by the hot tub. JJ tells him the commune has started talking about the fall—who's staying, who's going, what needs repair before winter. She asks Alex if he'll be around. He tells her he doesn't know yet. JJ says that's the right answer. Before bed, Alex finds a note from Eleanor slipped under his cabin door. It contains a single line: the creek, tomorrow at noon. He tapes it next to the Gillespie note on his wall.
Friday came the way Fridays do in the country. Slow. Then all at once.
Alex woke at five-forty. The cabin was dark. The pine knot eye watched from the wall. The note on the wall—Gillespie. Gene.—watched too. He dressed in the dark. Jeans. Work boots. The flannel shirt Gene had told him to bring on Sunday but that he'd already been wearing all week because it was the only clean one.
The commune was quiet. No one was up. No one was in the garden. No one was at the hot tub. He walked the path to the kitchen and let himself in. He made coffee. He drank it black. He made a second cup and put it in a travel mug. He wrote a note on a paper towel and left it on the counter.
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