Chapter 8

Helen was at the park at eight AM on Saturdays. That meant what when Cindy and I left the trailer, she was looking at us from the office window. And she waved.

"Caught!" I said to myself.

Cindy also saw her friend Mizz Helen and waved happily back. "Let's go see Mizz Helen," she chirped.

"Yeah, Hop in the truck. We'll stop an' see if she wants some donuts when we get back from breakfast." I thought I'd understood Helen's implications in our previous conversations, but one can never be completely sure, and I was a bit nervous about such an obvious situation.

We stopped by the office. Cindy was out of the truck and headed inside in a hurry. I was a bit slower. I watched this cute teen's jeans-clad butt and t-shirt, that outrageous head of hair bouncing ahead of me as I followed her inside.

"Hey, Helen," I said. "How's things goin'?"

And Helen smiled. Big smile. She was on one side of the counter directly opposite the love of my life, and they both were smiling. "Hey, Dan ... Stuff's fine. Just fine. You taking good care of our girl?" She smiled at Cindy.

"I'm trying," I said. "We got the makin's of a scholar there. They selected her for special testing ... The good kind."

"Yes ma'am," chirped Cindy. "An' I'm doin' all A's in school. Mr. Dan's a big help."

"I told you he was, didn't I," Helen said.

"Mmm-hmm," said Cindy. "I jus' love 'im!"

Now the way Cindy said that, you could have taken it several ways. Helen looked at me and winked. "You're lucky he came along," she said.

"Yeah, I am," answered Cindy. "I really am."

"So, Helen, we're goin' out for breakfast. Want us to bring you back some donuts?"

"Oh, yeah, Dan. An' I'll try not to eat 'em all myself."

"They're for your customers," I smiled.

Cindy bounced out to the truck and got in. I joined her and we drove off.

She spoke first. "D'ya think Mizz Helen thinks we're, like, sleepin' together?"

"I don't know for sure, but as long as we LOOK innocent on the outside, I don't think Mizz Helen is goin' to say anything one way or the other. Mizz Helen thinks the world of you, and she worries about you a whole lot."

"Yeah," said Cindy. "She knows all about Mom. You know we been livin' in this park since I was nine?"

"I didn't know it was that long."

"Yeah. Mom lost her job when I was nine an' she couldn't find another one, so Paw-paw gave us his travel trailer. Paw-paw is Mizz Helen's brother in law, an' she said we could stay here for free."

"Oh," I said. "An' now Mom works at the bar sometimes an' she has money, but Mizz Helen lets us stay here anyway. I don't think Mom could afford to get us another place."

I didn't want to consider that Donna might be eligible for all manner of government housing and might decide to move my Cindy into some housing project. I was thankful that they elected to stay here. I hadn't known what was missing in my life until I met Cindy. Now I was obsessing about how I could keep her in it.

"I'm glad your mom lives here, baby," I said.

"Me too," she giggled. "All kinds of nice things here." She smiled at me. "Ya know, Mizz Helen an' me used ta talk about you, before I started really talkin' with you at the pool."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, she tol' me about her husband an' how he was older than her when they met. I thought it was nice a' her to tell me that. All I did was tell her I thought you were cute for an older guy. She tol' me that she thought you were a good guy."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah." Cindy continued. "There was some other construction guys come an' go in the park, an' Mizz Helen tol' me to stay away from them. They was, uh, WERE loud an' they sat outside and drank beer an' stayed out late an' came back with women an' stuff. Me an' Mizz Helen, we watched an' you didn't do any of that stuff."

"I don't. I may drink a beer once in a while, but I don't just drink and I don't do bars and I've told you about how I feel about women."

"An, you know," she said, "I almost think Mizz Helen WANTS us to be together. I mean, like TOGETHER together..."

"I think Mizz Helen wants a good life for you, no matter what it takes. An' I'm sorry, baby, but I don't think your mom's situation is going to do that for you. If ONE of her boyfriends has tried something, as you get older, that's gonna get worse. An' you're too bright a star to end up trapped in that welfare, uneducated single mom business."

"I know, Dan."

I did a quick look at her and saw her eyes coolly observing me. "I want you to shine ... It's gonna be work, but we can do it together. And if you are my Cindy forever, I will stand by you until the day I die."

"I love you, Dan," she said. She twisted. "Damn seat belts."

"Little girls shouldn't say 'damn"," I said.

Giggle. "You know what I mean."

"Yeah, I know exactly what you mean, an' all we need is to have some helpful citizen report seein' a...

"Hey! Happy Birthday, Cindy!"

That got me a big grin...

I continued, "seein' a FOURTEEN year old girl kissin' some old guy..."

"You're MY guy, an' you're not that old..."

We ate breakfast at the diner. I noticed that her table manners had improved in the last few weeks since we'd began frequenting commercial eateries, and the waitress at this one recognized us on arrival, and treated us well. Of course, the fact that I was a generous tipper probably helped. But Cindy was a well-mannered, polite young client in a day where many kids in public were ill-mannered little hellions.

Full, we drove back to the park, chatting happily. The rest of the morning we spent between my trailer and the park laundromat. Yeah, I had the little compact RV washer and dryer, but I also had a bag of quarters and it was faster to do a couple of big loads in the park's machines.

Lunchtime came and we returned to the front office. And Helen had held up HER end of a bargain she and I'd made earlier in the week. There was a birthday cake. And presents. And candles. Fourteen of them. Cindy was tearful...

"You guys ... This is the best birthday I've ever had in my whole life."

The sad part was that she was telling the truth. I gave her an iPod and Helen, knowing her clothing sizes, gave her shoes and new clothes, including, I noted, another dark green outfit. Had I told Helen how Cindy looked in dark green?

"Save that green outfit for supper tonight," I grinned.

Helen smiled broadly, first at Cindy, then at me. "Got us a happy young lady there, don't we?"

I nodded.

"Now," she said, "let me see if we can fix it so she stays that way..."

That rather cryptic comment left me wondering.

The afternoon, well, Cindy and I visited a library. This was a first for Cindy, and even though small-town Alabama libraries might be low on the ladder compared with big cities and universities, Cindy had no reference. She told me this was her first ever visit to any library outside of school. I was able to use Helen's good name as a reference to get a library card and I checked out books for Cindy. You'd have thought I gave her diamonds.