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“Yacht Rock”
William Auten
Copyright William Auten
Chairs scoot back, laptops close, and the president of the neighborhood association asks Blake and Deshawn if they have a minute. Deshawn agrees, but Blake checks his phone before staggering over while their wives and the rest of the crowd peer at them before leaving for snacks and chitchat.
Tom gathers his folders. “I wanted to talk to you two about the little libraries. Off the record. Where are we with them?”
“We’re eager to get started and knock them out,” Deshawn says.
“You haven’t started?”
“Like I said, we’re eager for this.”
“Do you have the supplies?”
Deshawn glances at Blake scrolling.
A boy and a girl run through the room and scribble crayons on paper they fling across the tile floor.
“Maybe you could ask them to build you something.” Tom grins.
“We talked about a firehouse. And a spaceship.” Deshawn mimes the shapes. “Didn’t we find a piano-shaped one?” he asks Blake. “Or was it a guitar?”
Blake swipes his screen. “Yeah.”
“We provided money for this…” Tom retrieves a receipt. “At the start of Q1. The first weekend of January. It was cold that day. I remember because we ran out of coffee at the meeting. Everyone complained. About that. Now it’s the middle of April.”
“I’ve been swamped at work with tax season,” Blake offers.
“Taxes were due five days ago.”
“We haven’t forgotten.” Deshawn’s teeth gleam. “Before the end of this month, you and everyone here will see them lining the streets.”
“Except at the end of Orchid,” Tom says. “Eleven-oh-two said no. I don’t want another text, email, or call from her.”
A woman cruises past the room, gnawing cheese and giving the stink eye to the men then to the boy and girl zipping past her.
Blake smirks. “She doesn’t have to worry about a thing so far.”
Deshawn steps forward. “We’ll keep that in mind as we move forward.”
“It’s great y’all are doing this. We’re all looking forward to it. But you got to do it.” Tom heads for a bag of chips and shovels out a load of french-onion dip pooling on a table where the woman from eleven-oh-two drifts alongside him and cranes her neck into his space.