Three Sisters One: Algeria

The next day, out fitted in a pair of low slung jeans and skimpy halter top, Al leashed Charlie, stuck the rest of her bagel in her mouth and prepared to take Charlie out. What she didn’t expect was Samuel to be standing right outside her door. She only saw his surprised face for a second before Charlie launched himself out the door. He tackled Samuel and caused Al to go flying into Samuel, face first into his crotch. It took her a dazed second to realize exactly where she was, and another to force herself to move away. She stood up quickly, made sure that nothing flew out during her trip and grabbed Charlie’s leash.
“Down Charlie, you giant. Get off of Uncle Samuel,” she grunted, pulling with all her might. Finally deciding that he was done, Charlie got off and wagged his tail franticly; coming to stand next to Al. Samuel groaned and lifted himself from the ground, looking much like Al imagined she did after getting hit by the Mack truck that was Charlie.
“I see Charlie still remembers me,” his voice was doing that gravely thing that she loved, “Hey Algeria, how are you this morning?”
She wanted to say much, much better now that he was here, but of course, her mouth said the exact opposite. “Well, things were looking up until you showed. Let me guess, you want to know about your car. I haven’t gone to the shop yet so I don’t have your estimate.”
Al moved to close the door and her shirt rode up slightly, and she didn’t notice Samuel’s eyes dip briefly to look. She pushed past him and said, “I have to take Charlie for his walk and get some hot chocolate, I should be back in forty five minutes if you want to wait…” She trailed off, and although she didn’t sound it, hopefully. He looked to be thinking it over and said, “No, I don’t want to wait here. But if you don’t mind, I mean, could I go with you? It’s been a while since I’ve just walked, and I think the fresh air would do me some good.”
Inside, Al was jumping up and down, squealing loudly and jumping all over Samuel just like Charlie did. On the outside, however, she simply shrugged and replied, “Just don’t slow us down dork boy.”
She brushed past him, thrilled by his heat and his scent, and descended down the steps. She heard him following her down and managed, purely by luck, not to fall down the last rickety step. She walked quickly, so that Charlie didn’t completely drag her. She could feel Samuel keeping up with her, but she still had yet to look at him. They walked to the park in a comfortable silence, content to let Charlie go to all his favorite spots and mark his territory. After cleaning up the mess Charlie left, they headed to the coffee shop. Mattie’s was a small coffee and pastries shop that had been around for fifty years. The inside was warm and comfy, with faded yellow print wallpaper and plush light brown booth seats. Al securely tied Charlie outside and walked in with Samuel right behind her. The famous Mattie, a sprightly seventy five year old, with dyed dark red hair, came to the counter.
“Al, the usual of course. Tall hot chocolate and chocolate chip muffin,” she said, smiling. She placed the items on the light yellow counter and Al did a full body shiver. Mattie had the best hot chocolate and muffins in the entire world. She picked up her items and when she looked at Samuel, his eyes were glazed over and his mouth was slightly open. Al didn’t think there was anything wrong with that, she got the same way when she got chocolate. Samuel ordered the same thing and they sat down together. They chatted about nothing, knowing from experience that anything else was likely to set off another argument. Finally finishing, they paid Mattie, grabbed Charlie and walked in companionable silence back to Al’s apartment.
“Wait here,” she told Samuel, struggling to keep Charlie from bounding up the stairs, “Let me change and then we can take care of business.”
Samuel nodded and Al ran up the stairs, unleashed Charlie and quickly changed into her grease stained overalls. She put more water in Charlie’s bowl and grabbed her keys for the garage. She ran down the steps, severely tempting fate, and walked over to the garage doors. She got the garage three years ago when the original owner decided to retire to Florida. It wasn’t anything special, she could only hold about six cars inside, and it would, on occasion, leak when it rained really hard. It had flaking gray industrial paint and hadn’t been cleaned in about fifty years with parts all over the place. It also had a small cramped two room office with papers and old posters all over the walls. Right now there were only three cars in the garage because Al’s one and only assistant had a broken leg from driving Al’s Harley into a tree. Which, of course, was now totaled. And hadn’t that been a fun conversation. Al walked over and turned on all the lights, the large fans that kept the place hot as opposed to broiling hot, and called out for Samuel, who was standing right outside the doors.
“Um, just give me a sec. I have your paper somewhere,” she mumbled, digging through a stack of papers and knocking many over in the process.
“Ah, here it is,” she said, holding up the paper over her head. She handed it to him, pointed out small changes he could make to avoid anymore problems, and waited while he wrote her a check. She went to the other room did some math stuff and came out with Samuel’s receipt, not quite sure how she did it, as she was using a system her younger sister created for her. She handed it to him and then turned away to make a pot of coffee. When she turned back, she noticed that Samuel hadn’t moved an inch and he had a determined look on his face.
“I just wanted to say,” he paused, took a deep breath and looked up at her with those startling eyes, “I really enjoyed all three of your albums.”
With that he quickly walked out. Al stood there, opened mouthed. Suddenly a tickly feeling tingled all through her body. She started jumping up and down and singing a very loud and off key version of ‘Happy days are here again’ by Barbra Streisand. When she heard Charlie howling, she figured it was time to stop.
Hours later, tired and dirty, Al closed the shop, cut off all the lights and locked up. She walked to her apartment, was slobbered all over, and went to the bathroom to take a long hot shower. She dried off, slipped on her large Garfield t-shirt and matching pajama bottoms and went into the kitchen. She made one of those instant lunch noodle things, had a large glass of water and walked into her bed room. She stood in front of her closet and debated if she should take out her violin. Samuel’s comment earlier reminded her that the last time she played the thing was three years ago at the end of her last tour. Actually the last violin she played was her Stradivarius, the one she had hidden in her closet was a high quality copy. She pulled off the top shelf and wiped some of the dust off the case. She opened it up and saw the shining brown of her violin. It had a smell of wax and dust and touching it felt good. She picked up the bow and ran it across the strings. They were slightly out of tune. Tuning it was automatic, something she didn’t even have to think about. She placed it on her shoulders and played ‘None but the lonely heart’ by Tchaikovsky. It reminded her of why she loved playing so much. After the last note sang in the air she played ‘The nearness of you’. It was one of her favorite songs and it made her think of Samuel. When she was done, she put the violin back up and climbed into bed. Charlie jumped up and snuggled up next to her. She fell asleep with the ringing notes of ‘The nearness’ of you in her mind.
The next day Al did her routine, she walked Charlie, got breakfast at Mattie’s, and opened the shop. She was working under a car when she noticed impossibly high dark red stilettos. She slid out and stood up and saw her middle sister. She smiled, and asked, “Hey Legs, what brings you here?”
Allegra was wearing a crisp business suit the same color as her heels and her dark honey blond hair was up in a tight bun. Her cat like eyes that were normally amber, looked yellow in the harsh lights of the garage. She looked out of sorts holding a slightly grubby sleeping three year old and a diaper bag with light pink and blue elephants.
She smirked, and said, “Listen Algae, I need you to watch Little A for me, I’ve got this thing that popped up suddenly and mom is at her garden club.”
Al walked over to the large sink in the garage and washed her arms and hands thoroughly. She walked back and took Little A and his bag into her arms.
“I don’t mind Legs,” Al said, juggling the drooling boy and the bag, “but what’s so urgent that you have to leave this little munchkin with me?”
If possible, Allegra’s smile grew wider, “I have a date,” she purred, “with Samuel.”