A Place To Stay

Claire was walking back to her farmhouse from the barn when she saw him. He was just a figure in the distance at first, but as he got closer she realized it was Cliff. Trudging through the snow with a backpack, he was about the most miserable thing she’d ever seen. His face was determined but deeply sad. He seemed like he was going to walk right past the farmhouse when pity overwhelmed her. She ran over to him.

“Cliff, where are you going on a day like this?” she asked.

He gave her a halfhearted little smile. “Heh…I’m not really sure.” His face changed suddenly. “Claire, it’s been really nice knowing you. Good luck with the farm.”

“Whoa, whoa!” she said. “What’s with the gloomy talk? Are you all right?”

He squirmed a little, uncomfortable. “I…ah…I have to leave town. I can’t stay at the inn any more. My money ran out a week ago. Doug pretty much made it clear that I wasn’t welcome any more. I’ve been trying to find work for months. But, there just isn’t any work to be found in this town for a guy like me.”

“But where will you go?” she asked.

Claire had unintentionally hit a sore spot. His eyes welled up with tears and he slumped a little. “I don’t really know, but somewhere.”

She couldn’t just let it go like that. Snow fell down around them, soft, cold flakes landing on their faces. “Look, Cliff, come inside for a little while.”

He straightened himself up. “I don’t want any more pity. I have to be a man.”

“Well, at least come inside and warm up a little before you go on. You look half frozen,” Claire pleaded with him.

He hesitated, but then agreed.

They went inside. He shrugged off his heavy pack near the doorway and sat down in the kitchen. Claire slid into the seat across from him and gave him a little smile. He looked down in his lap.

“Listen,” she said. “You say there aren’t any jobs to be had in this town, but there is one, at least.”

He perked up. “What’s that?”

“Here. I need help on the farm. Sure, there’s no crops in winter, but this is the season that I really breed my chickens and concentrate on livestock, and there’s firewood to be chopped, fences to be fixed, and lots of other stuff. Honestly, I’m breaking my back trying to do it all, but I didn’t go around town shouting that from the rooftops, since everyone thinks I’m the city girl who’s going to fail miserably at farm life anyway. If I had known you needed work that badly, I would have told you a long time ago.”

He looked at her, a little bit of doubt on his face. “Really? You’re not just saying that because you feel sorry for me?”

“No way!” she laughed. “You’re hired.”

She looked around the small cottage. “I’m sorry it’s so small.” she said as she cleared a few old magazines out of the end table by the couch. “I don’t have a guest bedroom, so you’ll have to sleep here on the couch. These end tables have drawers that you can keep your stuff in, plus there’s the hall closet you can hang things in. Gotz has been nagging me to expand the place, but I really didn’t have a reason or the money to do it. But with you helping out around here, my production can increase, and I can afford to do stuff like that. There’s only so much a girl can do by herself!” she laughed nervously.

He hadn’t said much since he came in, and Claire shot a side glance at him. She was shocked to see that he was absolutely pale. He looked exhausted. She wondered to herself when the last time he ate was. “I’m sorry, I’m just running my mouth. Do you want to get a shower before supper?”

He perked up at the word supper. “Yeah, that sounds really good, actually.” He looked at her, blushed, and looked away. “I’ll just unpack some of my stuff,” he said.

“Great,” she replied. “The bathroom is right there, and there are towels and everything in the cabinet in there. Just make yourself at home,” she smiled at him. “Well…ah…I’m going to get started on dinner.”

Claire hustled into the kitchen and rummaged around in the vegetable bins. She selected a few eggplant, carrots, and bell peppers that had lasted from the tail end of her fall crop. As she washed them off in the sink, she heard the shower come on. Her mind started buzzing. She had always found Cliff really attractive. She hadn’t really gotten to know him because she had been overwhelmed with my new farm.

“If I had only known that he was willing to work here! I really do need help,” she thought to herself. There were so many things she wanted to do with the farm, new crops that she wanted to try, but she just couldn’t manage the workload by herself. And now, he was actually going to be living here. Sleeping under the same roof! Claire chopped the vegetables roughly. Steady now, she told herself. “I don’t even know if he’s attracted to me, and if I try to come onto him, I could totally scare him off and not only would I be devastated, I’d lose the farmhand I so desperately need!” She heard the shower go off just as she was sautéing the vegetables in a soup pot. She added water and stirred the stew. Before long it was bubbling thickly, and Cliff came out of the bathroom wearing a long sleeved black shirt and flannel pants.

He looked nervous. “Ah…is it OK if I wear my pajamas around the house? I really don’t have a lot of clothes, and…”

Claire laughed nervously. “Well, you’re not going to get a lot of privacy sleeping in the living room, and I don’t expect you to wear outside clothing when you sleep! It’s fine, you’re decent.”

She smiled and motioned for him to sit at the dinner table. He smiled back as he sat down. “Well, I hope this is all right,” she said as she ladled the stew into a bowl in front of him. “I know Doug’s cooking at the inn is way better than mine, but I haven’t poisoned myself yet, so it should be okay.”

Claire was startled when she heard a choking noise come from Cliff, and she looked up quickly. He had his face in his hands. He breathed in deeply, and then looked up at her, tears glistening in his eyes. “I’m…I’m sorry,” he stammered. “I’m just really grateful that you are doing all this for me. Are you sure it’s not just out of pity?”

“Of course not!” she reassured him, moving over and stroking his back. “I really need you here.”

Standing so close to him, she could feel his warmth through his shirt, and smell his freshly washed skin. She wished they could just stay like that longer, but she didn’t want to make him feel awkward. She moved away and dished herself some soup. She sat down across from him and they ate. “It’s good,” he said.

“I can tell!” Claire laughed. “You’re really wolfing it down!”

He smiled sheepishly. “Yeah, I’m really hungry.”

“Well, eat all you want,” she said as she spooned more into his bowl.