Chapter 5

It was a fine day, sunny but not hot, and the sky was blue and clear.

Derek and Annabella walked down Main Street side by side. Derek loved Middletown. He had grown up here. Most of the locals had gotten used to his scarred face. Some of them, like Mary, the waitress of The Jammed, even dared to look at him in the eyes without showing any signs of disgust.

Of course, Derek remembered Bella very well. She had been homecoming queen and was also head cheerleader. And all the boys in school were sniffing around behind her as though her shit didn’t stink. Even some of the male teachers were too.

She had been part of Janice Cooper’s group of bullies. They could just walk past him, and for no reason, say something like, “You’re an absolute waste of space, Lurch.” That was their nickname for him, ‘Lurch,’ a not entirely inappropriate comparison considering how tall he was, even back then. Then they laughed. It was the only time when he wasn’t invisible to them.

Their words and attitude had always hurt him deeply, undermining his self-esteem and making him feel constantly inadequate. Well, nothing they had said had hurt him more than watching his own face in the mirror every day.

A truck pulled out of the alleyway next to the newspaper office and headed north, and took Derek out of his thoughts.

“Oh, The Middletown Gazette still exists?” Annabella asked, pointing at the truck. “I thought it would be closed by now. You know, television and the Internet both bring news faster and in a more visual style.”

“The Gazette has been standing there since 1984. It’s not going anywhere,” Derek explained to her.

“What did people around here do for news before 1984?” Annabella joked.

“Same thing they do now. Picked it up at the back fence like any self-respecting small town. Gossip has always moved much faster than any printing press.”

Derek went on with his explanation, acting like an improvised tourist guide, “The paper is still owned by Mathilda Delaney, but she has no son or daughter, so Janice Cooper offered her a deal to run the paper. She did so well that she began publishing a weekly edition instead of the monthly one. Most folks didn’t think it was necessary. They’d been doing without a weekly paper for decades.”

“Janice Cooper?” Bella asked in surprise.

“Yes, the very same. She runs the paper mostly on her own. The circulation in this neck of the woods isn’t big enough to warrant a publisher or a truck driver.”

“She does it all by herself?” Annabella was surprised, she never thought Janice had it in her. On the other hand, she’d always been a gossip girl and a natural leader.

“Yes, she does. Janice studied journalism in college, and apparently, she knew what she was doing. Took a while, but she won them over. Now, I don’t think there’s a house in town or a farm outside that doesn’t get The Gazette.”

Annabella listened to Derek’s explanation with interest. There were so many things that she ignored about her hometown. She had never cared enough. All she could think about when she was in high school was getting out of town and never coming back.

Her stomach growled, cutting off her thoughts. Derek noticed but said nothing.

Within minutes, they were seated at a table in a corner of The Jammed.

A waitress approached them quickly. She looked straight at Derek’s face and smiled at him, “Ah, Derek, welcome back. Lunch celebration for the new employee?”

Derek curved his lips in a crooked smile, and Annabella sighed. She had forgotten how fast news travelled in Middletown.

“That’s right, Mary,” Derek answered politely, pulling off his hood. His back was turned to the room, so only Bella and Mary could see his face.

“What can I get for you today?” Mary asked, notebook in hand.

“Today is a special day. I think we’ll treat ourselves and have the lasagna,” Derek offered Mary an uneven smile.

“Lasagna for two it is.” Mary scribbled the order and went away.

Annabella thought if it would be too late to tell him she preferred her usual salad instead of a high-calorie meal. She decided that she better not. She didn’t want to start off on the wrong foot with her new boss.

“I come here almost every day. It’s better than eating alone in the gym’s office,” Derek explained to Bella.

They talked about the job conditions till Mary returned, and plopped two heaped helpings of lasagna in front of them. She also placed a basket of garlic bread in the middle of the table.