Merriton

“Why are you wearin’ your ranger’s outfit?” James looked at Kevin. “You gonna haul shit off the mountain just like Roscoe and Moe, now? We need ya here, Kevin!” Kevin fidgeted in his outfit. The warmth of the material, which was such a blessing in the winter was making him itch and sweat in the June air. “You’re right. I should change.”

He ran back into the farmhouse, but James followed him. “What’s the matter?” John was in the kitchen, polishing a pen to shiny perfection. Kevin looked at John and then at James. The heavy weight of his uniform weighed on his shoulders and he sunk into a chair next to John. He looked up at James. “Remember when I told you about Mira?” The scar on James’ lip twitched uncomfortably. Kevin understood. “Well, you were REALLY drunk that night, so I wouldn’t blame you for not remembering.” John gave James a disapproving look and set down his pen parts.

Kevin looked at John and explained. “I used to like a girl named Mira and she’s back in town right now. I was going to see her and I wanted her to be impressed.” He smoothed down his ranger outfit. “Do you think she’d be impressed with this?” John sighed, “You wouldn’t happen to be talking about Mira Townsend, would you?” Kevin’s eyes widened. “Yeah?! Well, she’s Mira Mu now, but before she married that stupid Jacob guy she was Mira Townsend. Do you know her?!” James and John nodded. John replied, “She was in my grade. Yeah. We know her. She dumped you?” The question in John’s voice was clear.

Kevin tried to be casual. “Yeah, she broke up with me and got married really quick after.” Both of the Thunder Brothers shook their heads, but James was the one to speak, “That doesn’t sound like Mira. She wouldn’ta gone out with ya if she didn’t like ya. You musta been a REALLY bad guy if she broke up with ya.” His voice accused Kevin of the worst that Kevin could imagine. He felt like he had to justify himself. “I wasn’t! I swear! If anything, I was TOO nice!” James and John squinted at him with accusation. They both responded in unison, “Well, that outfit ain’t gonna impress her.”

Kevin sat sweating on the doorstep. He was grateful that they had convinced him to change out of his ranger’s uniform, but he didn’t have many good clothes left. Most of his wardrobe had devolved into farmer’s clothes. He was wearing an old outfit from before he had left San Francisco, but it wasn’t fitting right. The shirt and pants were all tight in the wrong places. Had he gained that much weight? Why hadn’t she answered the door?

Mira looked through the window. There he was. One week. It had taken Randy and Sierra one week to rat her out. It was longer than she thought it would be. She expected him on her doorstep the next day. God, he looked hotter than ever. When did he get all those muscles?

“I’m married, Kevin.” She didn’t even say hi to him. She had to be detached. Kevin nodded. “I know. I just heard you were in town and I thought I’d come say hi. Can I come in?” Mira shook her head. “It’s not really appropriate, Kevin. Jacob would be really hurt if he knew that we were alone together.” Kevin ran his hand through his straight, short hair. Mira could see the sweat stain on his shirt and tried not to look at his dark brown forearms.

“I guess I should have brought Sierra with me.” He looked around. “I’m a ranger now. I took old Jeff’s job… well, half of it.” Mira smiled. “Is Roscoe still working the mountain?” Kevin lit up. “Yeah! He’s the one who trained me and got me the job!” Mira smiled and leaned on the door frame. “I’ll never forget how mad Roscoe was at my brother, Ricky. He ’bout shot him that night!” Kevin smiled. “Ricky? Which one is that? The lawyer in Boston?” Mira felt the smile fall from her face. “No… Ricky…” She could tell that Kevin remembered exactly WHICH brother Ricky was.

“What’d he do?” It was obvious to her that Kevin was imagining the worst that a drug addict could do. She tried to lighten it up. “Oh, he just… Well, you know how you have to pay a fee to get into Wildwood Rec Area?” Kevin nodded and replied, “Yeah, in the summer. We close it up in the winter.” Mira smiled and felt a warm wave of comfort flow over her. “Exactly. Well, we were having a really warm spring one year and Ricky cut open the gate and started collectin’ fees from tourists even though it wasn’t supposed to open up for about a month.” Kevin laughed and then suddenly his face became angry.

“Hey, that’s really dangerous! We keep track of the people in those rec areas. If he let some people hike up there before it was officially open, they could get lost and die and the parks office would take the blame.” Mira laughed and shook her head. “That’s EXACTLY why Roscoe was so mad. Luckily, they caught him before anyone got hurt.” She sighed and looked at Kevin. “So, you’re a park ranger.” She shivered in the heat, stepped into the house and shut the door without another word.

Kevin silently thought to himself, “Glad I didn’t wear the uniform.”