Pinetop

The female clerk barely registered in my preoccupied brain when I stepped up to the counter to pay.

'Tom Cleary?' she asked.

Startled, I looked up at the clerk and saw a somewhat familiar face although I couldn't quite place it.

'You don't remember me.' It was statement, not a question. She was tall and slender, almost as tall as me. The blouse and striped frock fit loosely but didn't disguise a rather nicely formed chest. I couldn't see below the counter but what I could see was very appealing. The name tag said 'Sam'. Chocolate brown eyes looked at me from a pretty face framed by wavy, dark brown hair that fell well past her shoulders. She wore a friendly smile.

'You look familiar, but I'm sorry, I can't come up with a name, except that it says 'Sam' on your name tag.'

'That's OK. It has been a long time. I'm Samantha Taggart, Eric's little sister,' she told me.

Recognition bit me in the ass, hard. Eric was my local buddy when my mother, brother and I came to the cabin for the summer to escape the Tucson heat back when I was in high school. His parents owned the cabin closest to ours and several small businesses in Pinetop. Samantha was about six years younger than Eric so really wasn't around us much.

'Of course,' I said. 'How is Eric? I can't remember the last time I talked to him.'

'He's well. He lives in Chandler. He's a software engineer. Married with two girls, three and five years old. In fact, he's here for the week. I'll be sure to tell him I saw you.' She leaned forward slightly, 'Between you and me, he needs some buddy time. All he does is work and spend time with his family. Sheila keeps telling him to join a softball league or something but, you know Eric. He hardly listens to anyone. He always listened to you though. He wasn't going to go to college until you told him he'd be stupid not to.'

I laughed. 'Yeah, right. Eric didn't listen to me much, either. Remember when he borrowed the sheriff's cruiser and decorated it for the Fourth of July parade? I told him not to do it because the sheriff wouldn't appreciate it.'

Sam laughed. 'Yeah, that was pretty dumb. Sheriff Collins was livid. I thought he was going to bust a vein on his forehead. He went to the store and yanked Eric out of work in handcuffs. Put him in the back of the cruiser and drove him home. Reamed his ass all the way to the house. Eric's lucky he didn't get arrested. It's a good thing Sheriff Collins and my dad were good friends. Eric got off with washing the poster paint off the car and two hundred hours of community service tutoring at the reservation school.'

'What are you up to? Working for your folks?' I asked.

'I'm only home for a couple weeks and helping out a few afternoons so my Mom and Dad can have some extra time with their granddaughters. All they do is work, although that seems to be what they live for. That and Eric's girls,' she told me.

'OK, that explains why you're working at the store. So what are you doing when you're not at Pinetop?' I asked.

'I just finished my residency at University Medical Center. I'm moving to Boston. I'm joining the anesthesiology staff at Boston Children's,' she told me.

'Really? I'm on staff at Mass General and do three or four days a month at a walk-in clinic near Boston Children's.'

'You're a doctor?' she asked. 'I didn't know that.'

'Trauma surgeon.' I told her. 'Do you have a place to live yet?'

'I've got a small apartment on Chestnut Street in Cambridge. It's not much, but it's a good neighborhood and the landlady is nice. The rent is frightful. Good thing I don't have any loans to pay off.'

'That's funny,' I told her. 'I live on Brookline about two blocks from Chestnut. We'll be neighbors.'

'I get off work at six. How about I call Mom, tell her you're in town, and I invited you over for supper?' she offered. 'Are your folks coming up? How long are you staying?'

'No, my folks are having a tough time these days. They don't stray far from home. I spent last week with them. They're doing OK but they are getting older now. I'm thinking it might be time for me to buy the cabin from them, or convince them to sell it. I'm here for a week while I decide whether I want to commit to owning a vacation property two thousand miles from where I live.' I told her. 'I've got to get settled in the cabin and put away my groceries. I'll come by, but only if your Mom is OK with it.'

'Are you kidding? Mom will be happy to know you're here. She misses your mother. Eric will be glad to see you, too. The other day, I saw him looking at that photo of you guys in the canoe on Show Low Lake. And if Mom didn't want you to come, Eric would probably take the girls and drop by your cabin to show them off. They're gorgeous and too damn smart for Eric's good. Mom will have a fit if those girls aren't within her reach for even a minute before they have to go back to Chandler.'

'OK, then. I'll come at seven.' I took out one of my cards, wrote my cell number on it, and handed it to her. 'Call me if there's a change or a problem.'

'Cell phone? That won't work here, Tom. We still have the cabin phone number. I'll call that.'

I took out my cell. Sure enough, no service. 'Well keep the number anyway. Please call me when you move to Cambridge.'

'I'll do that. Count on it,' she was still smiling.

'Alright then, Doctor Taggart. I'll see you at seven.' I said.

'Wait a minute, Tom. The water and granola bar are $3.37,' she laughed. 'I can't believe you doctors, always looking for freebies.'

I grinned at her. 'Can't fool you small town girls. I figured if I distracted you long enough, I could get my drink and snack for free.'

I gave her a five and collected my change before leaving a smiling Sam. I didn't know what might come of having Sam around, but life in Boston would now have a touch of home for me.