{"id":2914,"date":"2019-02-11T10:30:42","date_gmt":"2019-02-11T17:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/?p=2914"},"modified":"2019-02-11T10:30:42","modified_gmt":"2019-02-11T17:30:42","slug":"maybes-good-used-stuff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/archives\/2914","title":{"rendered":"Maybe’s Good Used Stuff"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Maybe's<\/a><\/p>\n

Dylan Russell, forty-seven, widely known as Maybe, owns a store called Good Used Stuff on Highway 211, two miles inland from the mouth of the Eel River on the far north coast of California. Quite a few locals call the store Gus<\/i>, and more than a few of those locals think Maybe\u2019s name is Gus.<\/p>\n

Maybe started telling people his name was Maybe when he was three-years-old. He was born in a small town in British Columbia, the middle child of his mother\u2019s five kids. His mother\u2019s name was Sylvia Bresson. She had her first two children with a man named Alvin Stillwater. Then she married a man named Clement Russell, and almost exactly nine months after she married Clement, Maybe was born.<\/p>\n

So one day when Maybe was three and trailing after Clement in the hardware store, the clerk asked, \u201cThat your boy, Clem?\u201d<\/p>\n

And Clement shrugged and said, \u201cMaybe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Titus Troutcatcher, Maybe\u2019s neighbor, calls Maybe Raven<\/i>; and Leona Chan, a bartender at Gypsy\u2019s<\/i>, calls Maybe Turq<\/i> because most of Maybe\u2019s shirts are turquoise and the exterior of Maybe\u2019s house and the wooden floor of Good Used Stuff are both painted a soothing pale turquoise.<\/p>\n

Unbeknownst to the public\u2014and even Maybe sometimes forgets about this until tax time\u2014the official name of Good Used Stuff is Found Treasure. That\u2019s the name that appears on Maybe\u2019s business license and on his business checks, which he rarely uses. And the reason no one knows Found Treasure is the official name of the business is that the first sign Maybe put up on the south side of the building, the side facing Highway 211, on the very first day of business nineteen years ago, was GOOD USED STUFF<\/i>, the words hastily scrawled with a fat black felt pen on an eight-foot-length of butcher paper.<\/p>\n

Two days later, business booming, Maybe put up a second somewhat smaller butcher-paper sign that said Buy Sell Trade<\/i>. The next day, he put up a third sign that said Local Produce & Art<\/i>, his fourth sign said Exquisite Driftwood & Rocks<\/i>, his fifth Chairs & Tables<\/i>, his sixth Potted Plants & Wood Carvings<\/i>, his seventh Tools & Furniture & Whatnot<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Six months after opening shop, when Maybe finally finished carving the letters of the large wooden sign he had intended to affix above the front door of the store\u2014<\/i>a massive plank of white cedar with ornate Gothic letters spelling Found Treasure\u2014<\/i>everybody in the county was calling his store Good Used Stuff; and Maybe had come to prefer that name, though the store carried as much new stuff as used stuff.<\/p>\n

So he placed the finished Found Treasure<\/i> sign on the biggest table in the store along with several other one-of-a-kind signs, and a wealthy couple from New York City bought the Found Treasure<\/i> sign to mark the driveway of their beach house in Amagansett; and they were gleeful to get the sign for a mere three thousand dollars plus exorbitant shipping costs.<\/p>\n

The aforementioned seven butcher-paper signs have since been replicated as handsome wooden signs that are affixed to the outside wall facing Highway 211. The largest of these wooden signs is a fourteen-foot-long, two-foot-tall rendering of GOOD USED STUFF<\/i> securely bolted to the wall above the very wide red front door.<\/p>\n

\u2206<\/p>\n

Good Used Stuff occupies a high-ceilinged room seventy-feet-long and fifty-feet-wide, essentially a barn with lots of windows and no loft. Three large fans hang above the airy space, their swirling rattan blades circulating the heat rising from an enormous black woodstove that dominates the northwest corner of the vast interior.<\/p>\n

One of the many interesting things about Good Used Stuff is that a surprisingly large percentage of tourists who stop here do the following: they get out of their cars, gaze in wonder at the surrounding giant redwoods, climb the four steps to the long front porch, enter the store through the very wide red door, give the contents of the enormous room a cursory glance, and immediately skedaddle because they perceive the store to be nothing more than a repository of useless junk. Maybe calls these people Superficialists and makes no effort to override their first impressions.<\/p>\n

\u2206<\/p>\n

Maybe\u2019s house is not visible from the road or from Good Used Stuff unless one is standing on the roof of the store; and then one can see his house over a little rise a hundred yards to the north, a two-story turquoise building centered on a massive wooden platform suspended twenty feet off the ground in a ring of seven gargantuan redwoods.<\/p>\n

The extra-wide front door of Maybe\u2019s house, painted a fanciful magenta, opens onto a first floor featuring a large living room, kitchen, and bathroom, while the second floor has two small bedrooms, a large study, and a small bathroom. A wide metal stairway rises from the forest floor to the spacious deck surrounding the house, the wideness of the stairs and the extra-wide front door intended to enhance the schlepping of furniture up and down the stairs and in and out of the house\u2014one of Maybe\u2019s passions being the frequent changing of his home decor.<\/p>\n

\u2206<\/p>\n

Maybe is five-foot-ten, fit as a fiddle, with longish brown hair, pale blue eyes, a slender nose, kindly lips, and a broad chin. He shaves every three or four days, and now and then grows a mustache, though he never keeps his mustaches for long. A wearer of khaki trousers and the aforementioned turquoise shirts, Maybe wears brown suede loafers when working in Good Used Stuff, sturdy boots when moving heavy things or operating a chainsaw or using an axe, and otherwise goes barefoot.<\/p>\n

Friendly and thoughtful and a preternatural money maker, Maybe has not had a steady girlfriend since he moved to the Eel River watershed from Canada twenty years ago when he was twenty-seven. His reputation among local gals is that he is relationship averse. However, when the aforementioned Leona Chan, she who calls Maybe Turq<\/i>, spent the night with Maybe for the first time four years ago, she asked him if the rumors of his relationship aversion were true.<\/p>\n

Maybe pondered Leona\u2019s question and replied with his slight western Canadian accent, \u201cNo, I love being in relationships. I just no longer have any preconceived notions about how long they should last or what form they should take. I used to aspire to lifelong monogamy. But after being married for seven disastrous years to a woman I should have spent two happy days with and not a minute more, I find it much more satisfying to let relationships be whatever they really want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

And thereby hangs this tale.<\/p>\n

\u2206<\/p>\n

A few miles inland from Good Used Stuff, at the end of a dirt track that goes unnamed on official maps of the area and is known to locals as Snake Creek Road, there stands an old farmhouse lovingly renovated by the current owners, Sharon Quincy and her sons Tober and Augie, both young men born in that farmhouse.<\/p>\n

Sharon is thirty-nine, a New Jersey transplant, five-foot-three, strong and pretty with short brown hair and dark blue eyes. A former ballerina and grocery store clerk, Sharon is currently a violinist in the Eureka Symphony, a teacher of violin and guitar, a gardener and beekeeper, and plays guitar and violin and sings in the Snake Creek Quartet.<\/p>\n

Tober is sixteen, six-foot-two, broad-shouldered, with long brown hair and his mother\u2019s dark blue eyes. A home-schooled high school graduate, Tober is a gardener, carpenter, collector of stones, plays violin and sings in the Snake Creek Quartet, and recently started working at Good Used Stuff four days a week from eleven in the morning until closing time around five.<\/p>\n

Augie is fifteen, a muscular five-eleven, with short red hair and emerald green eyes. He, too, is a gardener and carpenter, plays guitar and sings in the Snake Creek Quartet, and is attending classes two days a week at College of the Redwoods in Eureka with thoughts of becoming a chiropractor or a psychotherapist or both. Or neither.<\/p>\n

Every Thursday afternoon for the last fifteen years, Sharon has delivered several dozen eggs and several jars of honey to Good Used Stuff, for which Maybe pays considerably less than Sharon sells her eggs and honey to the many people who buy directly from her. Maybe displays the large blue and brown and speckled eggs prominently on the Local Produce<\/i> table, doubles the price he pays Sharon, and never fails to sell all the eggs by Friday afternoon and all the honey by Sunday.<\/p>\n

He would gladly buy more eggs and honey from her every week, but because she can make so much more selling her produce to customers happy to pay twelve dollars for a dozen of her delicious eggs and twenty-two dollars for a big jar of her ambrosial honey, she does not sell Maybe more than she does.<\/p>\n

Why, you may ask, does Sharon sell any<\/i> eggs and honey to Maybe if she can make so much more money selling them otherwise? Because fifteen years ago when she was new to the area, had two babies to take care of, didn\u2019t yet know many people, and was desperate for money, Maybe bought her eggs and honey and gave her cash she desperately needed. And until eleven years ago, when she started working as a checker at Ray\u2019s Food Place in Fortuna, the money Maybe gave her was her only steady income.<\/p>\n

Moreover, several times during her first few years of living on Snake Creek Road, Sharon borrowed money from Maybe to help her get through particularly difficult times, and when she would try to pay him back, he would say, \u201cOh just bring me cookies next time you make a batch for the boys,\u201d or \u201cHow about a bag of veggies when your garden\u2019s going good?\u201d<\/p>\n

Which is why she continues to sell eggs and honey to Maybe at a discount and will do so for as long as her chickens keep laying and her bees keep making honey.<\/p>\n

\u2206<\/p>\n

So\u2026 52 times 15 is 780, which is the number of times Sharon has brought eggs and honey to Maybe, give or take a few times.<\/p>\n

And every single one of those times, Maybe has looked at Sharon and thought, \u201cGod what a lovely woman, what a splendid person.\u201d<\/p>\n

And every single one of those times, Sharon has looked at Maybe and thought, \u201cWhat a charming man, what a generous soul.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which is to say, they have admired each other and liked each other from the moment they met, and the thirty-three times in those fifteen years when Maybe attended parties on Snake Creek Road, fifteen of those parties at Sharon\u2019s house, they always had a fine time talking to each other and singing together and a few times dancing.<\/p>\n

Yet though they have both been single for all but two of the fifteen years they\u2019ve known and admired each other, neither has ever initiated any sort of anything the other might construe as the other wanting to even see<\/i> about the possibility of possibly embarking on some sort of relationship beyond the friendship they\u2019ve had from the outset of knowing each other.<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t that Maybe hasn\u2019t fantasized about making love with Sharon\u2014he has, many times\u2014nor is it that Sharon hasn\u2019t daydreamed about being lovers with Maybe\u2014she has, many times; but something has kept them from tampering with the undeniably sweet and satisfying connection they have with each other.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, neither of them has ever told anyone, even their closest friends, about their imaginings of a relationship with the other, and so their separate secrets are a bond they feel when they are with each other, though neither is conscious of the other\u2019s dreaming of a deeper intimacy between them.<\/p>\n

\u2206<\/p>\n

On a warm day in early September when Tober was six and Augie was five, Sharon took them to a beach near the mouth of the Eel River, and while Sharon and Augie built a sand castle and flew a kite and threw a ball for their two dogs to chase, Tober searched for what he called special stones<\/i>, his favorite thing to do whenever they visited the ocean.<\/p>\n

Augie sometimes searched for stones, too, but he was more interested in flying kites and watching shorebirds and trying to understand why some waves were small and other were large, things like that. He appreciated the stones Tober found, but hunting for them was not his bliss as it was Tober\u2019s.<\/p>\n

And on that warm summer day, after several hours of culling the deposits of small stones exposed by the extremely low tide, Tober found four special stones, one jade stone as big and perfectly round as a golf ball, one radiantly blue stone the exact size and shape of a large chicken egg, one brilliant reddish orange stone the exact size and shape of a silver dollar, and one emerald green stone as big as an almond shaped like a teardrop.<\/p>\n

At Tober\u2019s request, Sharon made him a small black velvet pouch for these stones, and he carried the pouch of stones in his pocket whenever they went anywhere away from home. When Sharon asked him why he always took the stones with him when they\u2019d go away from Snake Creek Road, he said the stones were protection against anything bad befalling them. When she asked him how he knew this, he said he didn\u2019t know how he knew, but he was sure it was true.<\/p>\n

Then six months after Tober found those four special stones, on a cold Thursday afternoon in March, Tober, now seven, and Augie, now six, went with Sharon to deliver eggs and honey to Maybe at Good Used Stuff.<\/p>\n

The boys loved going to the gigantic store and seeing what Maybe had acquired and gotten rid of since their last visit. If Sharon wasn\u2019t in a hurry, they might get to visit the woodshop where Diego Fernandez built tables and bookshelves and chairs, and Thomas Morningstar carved statues of animals and masks. And Diego might let them use the lathe or help them make something out of wood scraps, and Thomas might give them a carving lesson.<\/p>\n

But on that day six months after Tober found those four special stones, after Sharon earned a brand new hundred-dollar bill for her eggs and honey, Maybe said, \u201cHey come see the amazing thing I got in trade for an antique sofa.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sharon and the boys followed Maybe to an area of the store where objects too large or too heavy to display on tables stood on the floor with enough space around them so customers could easily circumnavigate each of the objects; and here was a massive quartz crystal boulder weighing several hundred pounds, half the crystal pink quartz, half white quartz.<\/p>\n

\u201cWow,\u201d said Sharon, dazzled by the crystal boulder. \u201cWouldn\u2019t that go good in my garden? How much are you asking for that Maybe?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHard to say.\u201d He shrugged. \u201cThe worth of things, you know. A mystical conundrum. What is the price of something beyond compare? Two thousand dollars?\u201d<\/p>\n

Augie looked up at Maybe and asked, \u201cMay we touch it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSure,\u201d said Maybe, winking at Augie. \u201cThanks for asking.\u201d<\/p>\n

The boys placed their hands on the crystal, and after a long moment of silence Tober said, \u201cIt\u2019s very beautiful, but it doesn\u2019t have a lot of energy. Maybe it wants to be outside.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you mean by energy?\u201d asked Maybe, frowning curiously at Tober.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean like this one,\u201d said Tober, getting his pouch of stones out of his pocket and handing Maybe the radiant blue stone that looked exactly like a chicken egg if a chicken egg turned to stone.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is one beautiful rock,\u201d said Maybe, feeling nothing from the stone except coolness and smoothness.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan you feel the energy?\u201d asked Tober, watching Maybe expectantly.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, but it feels good,\u201d said Maybe, handing the stone back to Tober. \u201cAnd it\u2019s very beautiful. Where did you find it?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout a half-mile north of the mouth of the Eel,\u201d said Tober, returning the stone to his pouch and wondering why Maybe couldn\u2019t feel the energy coming from the stone.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have others like that?\u201d asked Maybe, smiling hopefully at Tober.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot like that one,\u201d said Tober, shaking his head. \u201cBut they all have energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you know Titus Troutcatcher?\u201d asked Maybe, looking at Sharon. \u201cHe lives about a mile from here with his wife Tina.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve heard of him,\u201d said Sharon, wishing they could stay longer but needing to get home to herd their forty chickens into the coop and milk their two goats before dark. \u201cHe helped Fiona Marsh with her migraines. She hasn\u2019t had one in two years since she went to see him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTitus would be very interested in those stones,\u201d said Maybe, wishing they could stay longer but sensing they needed to go. \u201cHe could tell Tober a lot about them. I\u2019ll invite him to come by next Thursday to meet you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat would be great,\u201d said Sharon, telling her sons with a nod in the direction of the door that it was time to go. \u201cI\u2019ll set aside an extra hour for next Thursday.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the meantime,\u201d said Maybe, escorting them out to their truck, \u201cif you ever want to sell me any stones you find, Tober, please keep me in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI will,\u201d said Tober, knowing his mother was always in need of money.<\/p>\n

Then the following Thursday, Titus Troutcatcher, an elderly Wailaki man, was there to meet them when Tober and Augie and Sharon arrived at Good Used Stuff.<\/p>\n

Big and thick chested, with long gray hair in a ponytail, his nose reminiscent of the beak of an eagle, Titus felt an immediate affinity for Tober and Augie and Sharon, and they felt similarly about him.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have the biggest hands I\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d said Augie, after shaking Titus\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m seventy-three,\u201d said Titus, chuckling. \u201cYou\u2019re six, August. When you\u2019re seventy-three, you\u2019ll have big hands, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow did you know my name is August?\u201d asked Augie, looking at Sharon. \u201cDid you tell him, Mom?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d she said, smiling at Titus. \u201cBut what else would Augie be short for?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy whole name is October,\u201d said Tober, who thought Titus was the most beautiful person he\u2019d ever seen. \u201cI was born in October and so was Augie, but there couldn\u2019t be two of us named October.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell there could have been,\u201d said Titus, nodding, \u201cbut it\u2019s better you have different names. Less confusing.\u201d He nods graciously at Sharon. \u201cThese are fine boys. You\u2019re a good mother to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you,\u201d said Sharon, her eyes filling with tears, for she had never before felt so strongly acknowledged for her devotion to her children.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they want to learn the ways of the animals and the plants and the nature spirits around here, I\u2019d be happy to teach them.\u201d Titus looked down at the boys. \u201cYou like the forest and the creeks and the rivers and the ocean and the tide pools, don\u2019t you? I\u2019ll teach you how to catch trout, too. That\u2019s my name, after all. Troutcatcher.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay,\u201d said Tober, nodding eagerly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen?\u201d asked Augie, nodding eagerly, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll start one of these days,\u201d said Titus, turning to Sharon. \u201cWith your permission.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, fine,\u201d said Sharon, wanting to hug him, but restraining herself. \u201cI\u2019ll give you our phone number.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I\u2019ll give you mine,\u201d said Titus, looking at Tober again. \u201cNow what about these stone people you found?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not people,\u201d said Tober, giggling. \u201cThey\u2019re just ocean rocks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHmm,\u201d said Titus, considering this. \u201cWhen my people talk about trees, we call them standing people, and when we talk about trout and salmon, we call them fish people. My people are the Wailaki. We\u2019ve been around here for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. Since long before Christopher Columbus and anybody from Europe got over here. We call those stones you picked up stone people<\/i> because we think all things are related to us and to each other and are part of our community. But you\u2019re right, October, stones are not human beings. But they aren\u2019t just stones. We think they\u2019re alive, just like you and me and your brother and your mother and Raven are alive. That\u2019s how those stones you found could call to you, because they have power. And they have power because they\u2019re alive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tober nodded humbly and offered Titus his pouch of stones.<\/p>\n

Titus gently placed his enormous hand on Tober\u2019s shoulder. \u201cLet\u2019s bring those stone people to the table over there by the stove and we\u2019ll see what they have to say to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

So they sat down at a low round table near the crackling woodstove, Titus with his back to the stove, Augie to Titus\u2019s right, Tober to Titus\u2019s left, Maybe and Sharon across the table from Titus; and Tober gave Titus his pouch of stones.<\/p>\n

Titus set the pouch on the table in front of him and undid his ponytail. \u201cSo\u2026\u201d he said, scratching his head, \u201cwhat I like to do is invite Great Spirit to be with us, if that\u2019s okay with everybody, because Great Spirit knows everything and we want to know what he knows about these stones.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWho is Great Spirit?\u201d asked Augie, wrinkling his nose. \u201cIs he the same as God?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t use the word God<\/i>,\u201d said Titus, shaking his head. \u201cWe say Great Spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWho is he?\u201d asked Tober, imagining a giant gray cloud in the sky.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou guys ask good questions,\u201d said Titus, grinning at Tober and Augie. \u201cGreat Spirit is all there has ever been, all that is, and all that will ever be.\u201d He shrugs. \u201cMy grandson calls Great Spirit the Great All Everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIs he a man?\u201d asks Tober, doubting that everything there has ever been could be contained in a single person.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d said Titus, chuckling. \u201cWe just say He<\/i> because that\u2019s how we were taught, but you can call him she<\/i> if you want. Great Spirit doesn\u2019t care.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tober nods. \u201cSo how do you call on Great Spirit\u2019s power?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn many ways,\u201d said Titus, holding out his hands palms up. \u201cFor now we\u2019ll just say, \u2018Oh Great Spirit. Come to us. Be with us. Please tell us what you know about these stone people October found near the mouth of the Eel.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Then Titus opened the pouch and poured the four stones onto the table.<\/p>\n

The radiantly blue stone the shape and size of a large chicken egg stopped nearest to Maybe.<\/p>\n

The brilliant reddish orange stone the shape and size of a silver dollar stopped nearest to Sharon.<\/p>\n

The emerald green stone shaped like a teardrop landed near Augie.<\/p>\n

And the jade stone as big and perfectly round as a golf ball rolled over to Tober and bumped his hand.<\/p>\n

Titus took a deep breath, looked at each of the stones, and said, \u201cThese are powerful stones, October. You\u2019ve been given the gift of seeing their power. Tell us how you found them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just walking along, looking down,\u201d said Tober, remembering that sunny day of the very low tide, \u201cand when I saw one I liked the shape of or the color, I picked it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Titus nods. \u201cBut why did you keep these four and not a hundred others?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause these have lots more energy,\u201d said Tober, nodding. \u201cLots.\u201d<\/p>\n

Titus picked up the stone nearest to Maybe and asked Tober, \u201cDo you feel a strong vibration in your hand when you hold the stone?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d said Tober, pleased that Titus understands. \u201cStronger than from just a regular stone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s wonderful, October,\u201d said Titus, closing his fingers around the radiant blue stone. \u201cWhat you\u2019re calling energy, we call power.\u201d He opens his fingers and gazes at the stone. \u201cFor instance, this stone has the power to quell fevers and anger and is good for sleep.\u201d He looked at Maybe. \u201cYou need this stone, Raven.\u201d He handed the stone to Maybe. \u201cYou should trade October something very valuable for this stone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay,\u201d said Maybe, clasping the stone. \u201cI\u2019ll see what I can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Titus picked up the stone nearest Sharon. \u201cThis red stone is a heart healer. Heals old wounds and recent wounds, too. Makes your heart stronger. I don\u2019t just mean the heart muscle, but your heart\u2019s spirit. You might want to borrow this stone from your son, Sharon, and hold it on your heart before you go to sleep and when you wake up in the morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay,\u201d said Sharon, her tears flowing again. \u201cI will.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then Titus took up the emerald green stone. \u201cYou see how this one is the color of your eyes, August? This stone is very powerful and will help you be brave, not that you aren\u2019t already brave, you are, but this will give you even more courage and strength if you carry it with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCan I?\u201d asked Augie, whispering to Tober.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d whispered Tober, nodding emphatically.<\/p>\n

Lastly, Titus picked up the perfectly round jade stone and turned it over and over in his hand. \u201cThis stone is a most powerful healer. Heals everything.\u201d He gazed intently at Tober. \u201cI could use this stone to help people who come to me for guidance and healing. May I keep this stone for three years from this day? I promise to take good care of her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course,\u201d said Tober, smiling brightly at Titus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy of course<\/i>?\u201d asked Titus, touched by Tober\u2019s generosity.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause you\u2019re going to teach us the ways of the animals and plants and nature spirits of this place,\u201d said Tober, his eyes wide with delight.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd how to catch trout,\u201d said Augie, picking up the emerald green stone and kissing it before he puts it in his pocket.<\/p>\n

\u2206<\/p>\n

Nine years have gone by since Augie and Tober and Sharon first met Titus, and now they can\u2019t imagine life without Titus and his wife Tina.<\/p>\n

Titus taught them 10,000 things, at least, and then he initiated them into manhood when Tober was twelve and Augie was eleven. He taught them how to make fires without flint or matches, how to make spears and bows and arrows and snares, how to fish, how to hunt, and which mushrooms and wild plants are safe to eat, which are poisonous. He taught them many songs, told them hundreds of stories about animals and people and nature spirits, taught them how to predict the weather, and then he taught them ten thousand more things, at least.<\/p>\n

In those nine years, Tober found hundreds of powerful stones and gave some of them to Titus, gave some to his friends, and sold many more to Maybe who sold them for great profit at Good Used Stuff.<\/p>\n

Tober has been working for Maybe for six months, ever since he got his driver\u2019s license and he and Augie bought a good used electric pickup truck. So now it is Tober who brings the weekly allotment of eggs and honey to Good Used Stuff, which means\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cHow\u2019s your mother doing these days?\u201d asks Maybe, a few minutes before closing time on a Friday evening in April. \u201cBeen a couple months of Thursdays since I last saw her. She okay?\u201d<\/p>\n

Tober looks up from tallying the cash in the till, one of the many jobs Maybe prefers someone else do. \u201cShe\u2019s well,\u201d he says, his voice a deep baritone now. \u201cAnd quel coincidence, she asked about you this morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe did?\u201d says Maybe, trying not to sound too happy about that. \u201cWell\u2026 say hi for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad you reminded me,\u201d says Tober, putting a rubber band around thirty-seven twenty-dollar bills. \u201cBecause I was supposed to invite you to the potluck tonight. We\u2019ve got a gig in Arcata tomorrow night and we want to rehearse in front of an audience. There\u2019s gonna be tons of food, so you don\u2019t have to bring anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat time?\u201d asks Maybe, hoping to sound nonchalant.<\/p>\n

\u201cSix,\u201d says Tober, putting the cash and coins in a metal box and handing the box to Maybe to put in his safe in the tree house. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to let us know if you\u2019re coming. Just come if you want to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2206<\/p>\n

Maybe locks up the store, locks up the woodshop, and hurries home to feed his cats before he showers and shaves and gets ready to go.<\/p>\n

As he\u2019s shaving, he laughs at himself for being nervous about going to a potluck at Sharon\u2019s house where there will be lots of other people and\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not nervous about going to the potluck,\u201d he says to his reflection. \u201cI\u2019m nervous about seeing Sharon after two months of not seeing her and she\u2019ll know how much I missed her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2206<\/p>\n

He almost doesn\u2019t go to the potluck. He almost stops at Gypsy\u2019s<\/i> and has a few beers and plays darts and asks Leona to sleep with him, though he doesn\u2019t love Leona and she doesn\u2019t love him, but they like each other and they\u2019re both lonely and\u2026<\/p>\n

He speeds past Gypsy\u2019s, and a mile further along makes the turn onto Snake Creek Road.<\/p>\n

\u2206<\/p>\n

Ellen Nakamoto, twenty-eight, a bassist in the Eureka Symphony and the bassist of the Snake Creek Quartet, a statuesque redhead, her father half-Swedish and half-Japanese, her mother entirely Irish, is in the kitchen with Sharon when Maybe arrives bearing two bottles of good red wine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so glad you came,\u201d says Sharon, blushing a little as she takes the bottles of wine from Maybe and sets them on the counter. \u201cI\u2019ve missed you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMe, too,\u201d says Maybe, laughing nervously. \u201cMissed you. Too.\u201d<\/p>\n

They both move to hug each other, both stop themselves, shake hands instead, and when their handshaking would usually end, Sharon changes her grip so she\u2019s holding hands with Maybe and leads him into the dining room where a mob of people are serving themselves from a great many dishes of food on the big rectangular table.<\/p>\n

Sharon gives Maybe\u2019s hand a squeeze and says, \u201cHelp yourself. Shall I bring you a glass of that red you brought?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah,\u201d he says, nodding eagerly. \u201cThat would be great.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2206<\/p>\n

After supper and before dessert, the quartet assembles at one end of the living room\u2014Augie and Sharon with their guitars, Tober with his violin, and Ellen with her big reddish brown string bass.<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks so much for coming,\u201d says Tober, gazing at the thirty or so people crammed into the living room. \u201cThis is an excellent simulation of the electric atmosphere of a gig. As you know, we\u2019re opening for Eliot Williams and the Skydivers at the Arcata Playhouse tomorrow night, the show is sold out, and we\u2019re all very nervous except for Ellen who never gets nervous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot true,\u201d says Ellen, shaking her head and laughing. \u201cI just hide it better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyway,\u201d says Tober, continuing, \u201cthey want us to play for forty-five minutes, and our plan is to open with a tune you\u2019ll want to dance to, and finish with a quartet Sharon composed called After the Rain<\/i>. So\u2026 with no further ado, here we go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Augie begins by strumming a series of catchy chords with a fast samba rhythm, his playing excellent, and Sharon plays jazzy accompanying chords on the second iteration, her playing superb. Now Ellen adds a groovacious bass line for the third iteration, and lastly Tober plays a lovely violin solo atop the rollicking rhythm as preface to Sharon and Augie singing a tight harmony on the first verse, their conjoined voices a rare delight.<\/p>\n

\u2206<\/p>\n

Pie and ice cream follow the rehearsal, everyone high from the fabulous music, and Maybe finds himself sitting at the kitchen counter with Titus and Tina.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeems like just the other day they were little boys just starting to play their instruments,\u201d says Tina, her long white hair in a braid plaited with little yellow flowers, \u201cand now they\u2019re big men playing and singing like angels.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRemember the day, Raven, when I came to meet Sharon and October and August for the first time?\u201d says Titus, sipping his coffee. \u201cYou wanted October to show me those four stones, and he gave me that round jade stone I used for seven years until I gave it back to him, and then he returned it to the ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re gonna steal the show tomorrow night,\u201d says Tina, enjoying her pie. \u201cI know they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHard act to follow,\u201d says Maybe, no longer nervous about being around Sharon, their former comfort with each other restored. \u201cWish I\u2019d bought a ticket.\u201d<\/p>\n

At which moment, Sharon comes in from outside, having escorted Ellen to her car; and though neither she nor Maybe has ever done anything like this before, he holds out his arms to her and she walks into his embrace and they hold each other for a long sweet moment, and Maybe says, \u201cI was just saying I wish I had a ticket for tomorrow night.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll put you on the guest list,\u201d says Sharon, kissing his cheek. \u201cWe had one seat left.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now she gently pulls away and saunters into the dining room.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was nice to see,\u201d says Tina, bouncing her eyebrows at Maybe. \u201cAre you two\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, no, no,\u201d says Maybe, ardently shaking his head. \u201cWe\u2019re just good friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA good friend makes the best wife,\u201d says Titus, gazing fondly at Maybe. \u201cBe brave, Raven. Trust your heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0fin<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dylan Russell, forty-seven, widely known as Maybe, owns a store called Good Used Stuff on Highway 211, two miles inland from the mouth of the Eel River on the far north coast of California. Quite a few locals call the store Gus, and more than a few of those locals think Maybe\u2019s name is Gus. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5221,5358,5371,5361,5353,5356,2109,1182,5355,5370,4282,1512,837,5354,5352,5367,5372,992,5366,5368,5359,51,5360,5175,5365,5369,5362,5337,5357,9,5363,5364,33,5254,5338],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2914"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2914"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2917,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2914\/revisions\/2917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/underthetablebooks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}