Chapter 6

[ Oribe! Oribe! ]

Fresh apple cider. Seafood so fresh it was almost wiggling. Flowers of many varieties. Kettle korn. Veggie burgers. Artisan cheeses. Soaps and eggs and breads and arts and crafts.

And produce. Multiple booths of produce, all of it organic and locally grown.

The local farmers market is usually crowded, specially in the summer months, and always has an interesting and eclectic mix of vendors. Strolling through the market with two beautiful women is a choice way to spend a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon.

“Darrien, I think Emmy has a crush on you.”

I stopped looking at the smoked salmon selection and stared at Heather.

“The way she talks about you and looks at you, well, it seems obvious to me. You may have noticed, although a lot of guys aren’t very observant when it comes to women.”

I tried not to give anything away in my expression. I had no idea what Emmy had told her mom, or what Heather may have guessed about our summer activities, the erotic kind, or how she would feel about them.

It was a week after the Seaside tournament. Earlier in the day, around 10 AM, my phone had rang.

“Darrien, this is Heather, Emmy’s mom. Do you want to join me and Emmy for a walk to the farmers market? She doesn’t want to go with just me, you know, teenagers being seen with their parents and all that. But she’ll go if you do. I thought she would invite Lin, but I sense maybe a little tenseness between them. They’re talking and Lin’s been over this week, though, so whatever it is it’s not super serious.”

I love long walks on sunny days, specially when combined with fresh food. And I wanted to get to know Heather better. This wasn’t a hard decision.

When we arrived at the market Emmy strolled ahead, looking for friends and interesting booths. A few seconds later Heather surprised me with her comment about Emmy and me. I lost all interest in the smoked salmon.

“I don’t want Emmy to get hurt,” continued Heather. “I’ll fuck anyone over, and I don’t mean the good kind of fuck, that misuses or misleads her or treats her wrong.”

She started walking again and I strolled along with her, still not saying anything.

“It’s been eight years since I divorced her shitty father, and it seems like we’re just now starting to be ok. I don’t mean that I just got over him emotionally, that happened a long time ago. I mean the upheaval, visitation and child support, the grief for what we had and could have had but didn’t have. And I’m not talking about money, but what we missed out on as a family.”

Heather paused for a couple of seconds.

“Emmy was only six when he moved out. Six! What a time to feel abandoned by your dad, even if he didn’t truly abandon her, just moved out. It’s old enough to know that your dad doesn’t want to be around any more yet not old enough to know the subtleties and complications of life. As if any of that excused him or what he did, but at least she’s now starting to understand something of what adults have to deal with, and how hard relationships can be.”

“My parents had a good relationship and didn’t fight very often,” I said, “so when I first realized that it wasn’t always easy for them, I think that was one of my first steps towards being an adult. It was kind of a shock when my mother said there were a couple of times that her and my dad almost divorced.”

Both of us were quiet for almost a minute.

“My ex’s name is Kurt, by the way,” said Heather. “And Darrien, don’t ever say anything bad about him to Emmy. I don’t think you would, but I’ve been very careful to keep my negative opinions of him away from her. And I do have a lot of negative opinions of him.”

Heather sighed while I sorted through some apples.

“But I also have good memories of him. I was only sixteen when I met Kurt, and wow, was he hot and fun to be around. He was a couple of years older than me, and he seemed even more mature than others guys his age let alone boys my age.”

We stopped and looked through a handmade clothing booth.

“I was eighteen when I had Emmy, and it didn’t take long for things to start unraveling. Maybe having a baby wouldn’t have made a difference and we would have split up anyway, but it sure added stress to two young people.”

I mentally calculated Heather’s age. Thirty two. She kept herself in good shape, and I never would have guessed she was old enough to have a teenage daughter if I didn’t know otherwise. She seemed more like an older sister, separated by ten years or so.

“Darrien, she may have some kind of daddy thing going on with you, since she hasn’t had a father at home all this time. Don’t take advantage of that.”

I gathered my thoughts, letting the silence stretch on for some seconds.

“Heather, the last thing I will do is take advantage of Emmy. I realize what it means to be this different in age, if there is a crush there. I will not hurt or mislead Emmy.”

We sampled some fresh berries at the next stand.

“You know that Emmy and Lin have been over to my house quite a few times. At first it was only to check on it when I was gone on business, but they’ve become good friends to me. They’ve helped me come out of a shell, a shell I didn’t know I was in. And Emmy, she’s really special. Well, you know that, of course, but maybe it’s hard to see outside of the mother view.”

The Rainier cherries were excellent and I bagged and bought some for later consumption.

“I don’t know where everything that’s been happening this summer will end up, but I will not lead Emmy on, or treat her bad. You have my word.”

Heather steered us towards one of the produce stands at the end of one aisle. The sign above proclaimed it as Oribe Organic Produce.

“This is one of our favorite food booths,” said Heather. “Emmy thinks the guy that’s usually running it is really hot and cute. I tend to agree with her, but I mainly buy there because it does have good produce.”

A guy that looked to be in his early twenties was manning the booth, appearing to be of hispanic ancestry, which was consistent with the name on the sign. Looking closer, I realized he seemed vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t place where I knew him from.

“Hi,” said Heather. “Alvaro, is that correct?”

“Yes, I’m surprised you remembered,” said Alvaro, with no accent that I could detect. “Heather, right?”

“Yup! And this is Darrien,” said Heather.

Alvaro shook my hand and said “I know.”

“Really? How do we know each other?” I asked.

“I used to take care of your lawn and do garden work for you and your wife. It was some years ago.”

“Oh, yeah, I remember now! Jenn and I traveled a lot and it was damn convenient having you there to take care of the yard and everything.”

Alvaro had not worked at our house in the years since Jenn had disappeared. I had either done the lawn and garden work myself or hired a different service.

Emmy reappeared and quietly joined us.

“We enjoy this booth, a lot, we love to come by and talk with Alvaro and buy fresh vegetables and sometimes fruit,” said Heather. “It’s one of the best around.”

“One of the best?” said Alvaro.

“Ok, it’s not one of the best, it is the best,” said Heather.

“Is this your family business? Are you the manager or learning so you can take over someday?” I asked.

“No. Well it is my family business, but I’m not planning to take over some day,” said Alvaro.

“Why not?” I asked.

He scowled slightly.

“Do you assume that I’ll be in agriculture the rest of my life? Or that I’m from Mexico, fresh over the border?”

Alvaro was obviously offended, although quietly and guarded versus being loud and indignant. Both Heather and Emmy looked surprised, and I felt more puzzled than anything else.

“I’m sorry, I wasn’t assuming, just curious. It’s not easy running any business, specially farming,” I said. “I was wondering what you’ve been doing in the years since I last saw you.”

Alvaro put up his hands and quickly smiled. “Sorry, I’m somewhat sensitive, probably too sensitive. I’ve lived here in Oregon my whole life, but many people automatically think I’m here illegally or that I only work in the fields or something. And my family is originally from Argentina, although they moved here many decades ago.”

“I help out during the summer,” he continued, “specially with the farmers market, which I like a lot. I get to meet a lot of interesting people, including Heather and Emmy.” Alvaro smiled at Emmy, who smiled back in return.

“I’ll be a first year grad student at OSU this fall. I’m the first of many generations of Oribe’s to graduate from a four year university, let alone go to grad school, and I’m damn proud of it.”

OSU is short for Oregon State University, a research public university in Corvallis. Their mascot is the beaver. Ya gotta love any school with a mascot that is so obviously sexual. The University of Oregon’s mascot is the duck. Not exactly fearsome, either, but it doesn’t have the same sexual connotation. Unless you consider “fuck a duck” to be sexual, but I usually heard that phrase by University of Washington alumni, and they didn’t mean it in a sexual context.

“What are you studying?” I asked.

“Coastal and Ocean Engineering. I plan on doing research in tsunamis, among other areas. They have the largest tsunami simulator in the world at OSU.”

“How did you get interested in doing tsunami research?” asked Heather.

“Partly the huge tsunamis we’ve had in the last decade, the one in Japan last year, and the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004. They affected me deeply, the immense power and scope of the devastation and the suffering they caused. I’m interested in how tsunamis work and how they can be detected for warning people. And I’m also interested by the civil engineering involved to help structures survive or designing vertical escape routes for people that can’t quickly get to higher ground.”

“You would think everyone on the coast in Oregon would care a lot about it, and other coasts too, like Washington and Canada and California,” said Emmy.

I could tell he was passionate about what he was studying and would have continued talking if other customers hadn’t needed attention.

Both Heather and I bought some produce, chatting idly with Alvaro when he wasn’t busy.

Walking away from the booth, I noticed Alvaro watching me steadily and carefully. Heather said “Told you he was hot,” eyes lit up and smiling and looking at Emmy. Emmy smiled back at her mom, then looked at me and winked.

On the walk back to my house, I said “I’m going to grill up some chicken breasts along with these bell peppers and asparagus I just bought. Would you and Emmy join me?”

“Yes, we’d love to,” replied Heather.

I enjoy grilling on the deck, specially in good weather, even if I’m the only person eating, which is almost always the case. Refrigerating the leftovers makes good snacks for later in the week. But grilling for three is preferable. Very preferable.

The sky had changed from full sun to light wispy clouds and the temperature had cooled off, a pleasant change from earlier in the day. We enjoyed light conversation on the deck along with the light dinner. I don’t always eat as healthy, but I could tell my metabolism was slowing and keeping the weight off was going to be harder and harder each year.

I was in the kitchen refreshing the ice in our lemonades and teas when Emmy emerged from a bathroom break. Glancing out at the deck to make sure her mother wasn’t watching, Emmy walked over and kissed me.

“Mmmm, nice. I wish it could be longer,” I said quietly, reaching around to knead Emmy’s butt.

“Yeah, me too,” said Emmy, reaching down and rubbing my crotch and giggling.

“Hey, I could take that the wrong way,” I said, also laughing.

“Mmm, you can take me the wrong way or the right way or anyway you want,” said Emmy.