Saturday Is Ours

On Friday night Nora was in the kitchen chopping onions for the pasta salad they were taking with them tomorrow when Alex knocked on the back door. He came in without taking his jacket off, and that was the first sign. The second was that he didn't reach for the salad. Alex always reached for whatever was on the cutting board.

“I have to tell you something,” he said. “My boss called. One of the other guys is home sick with the flu, and it's bike-light season, everybody wants new lights and brakes before winter. He asked if I could do all day tomorrow. Nine to six.” He looked at the knife in her hand and then back at her. “I said yes.”

Nora put the knife down. Very neatly, parallel to the cutting board. “You already said yes.” “On the phone. He was basically standing right there.” “We're going to the lake tomorrow, Alex. We've been planning it for three weeks. I planned the salad and the route and the spot where you still get sun in the afternoon.” She could hear her voice speeding up, the way it always did when something hurt. “And I told the bakery I couldn't work this Saturday. Me. Do you know how many times I've said that? Once. For tomorrow.”

He hadn't known. She could tell by the way he went quiet. She hadn't told him because she was embarrassed by how long she'd hemmed and hawed in front of her manager before the sentence finally came out. Saying no is an answer too. She had practiced for this Saturday. And he had given it away with one quick yes, exactly the way she usually did.

“It's about money,” Alex said after a while. He sat down on the bench at the kitchen table, hands between his knees. “My car insurance is due in January. I pay for gas myself, too. If I can't cover it, the car just sits there, and then the whole thing was for nothing.” He rubbed his thumb over his watch. “And he's been calling me for two years whenever they're short. If I say no once, next time he calls somebody else.”

“And me you just don't call,” Nora said. “Because I'll be there anyway.” It was mean, and it was true, and she didn't take it back. Alex looked at the onions. For a long time. Outside, a tractor from the next field rumbled past, and in the living room David was laughing at something on TV. “Yeah,” Alex finally said. “I guess that's how it went.”

She'd been ready for anything, an explanation, “It's just one Saturday.” Not for him to simply agree with her. He got up and went out into the yard without a word, and for a second Nora thought he was going home. Through the window she saw him by the farm gate, phone to his ear, his other hand in his jacket pocket. He said very little and listened for a long time.

When he came back, he stayed in the doorway. “I called him again,” he said. “I told him I'll come in tomorrow until one, like always, and no later. In exchange I'll work Monday and Tuesday after school until closing. He wasn't thrilled. But he said okay.” He took a breath. “I couldn't cancel completely. I'd promised him. I didn't want either of you to be the one I left hanging.”

“Until one,” Nora said. “At ten after one I'll be at your gate with the car,” Alex said. “We'll be at the lake by two. You said the sunny spot is in the afternoon anyway. And in two weeks it's your next Saturday off. I told him not to call me that day at all. Not even for an hour.”

Nora picked the knife back up and kept chopping, because otherwise she would have said something too fast. Part of her wanted to say “It's fine,” the easy, friendly “It's fine” she gave everybody. She didn't. “I wanted the whole day,” she said instead. “I know,” Alex said. “It's not okay,” Nora said. “But I get it.” He nodded. Then he finally took a piece of cucumber off the cutting board, and she didn't swat his hand.

On Saturday she had the salad packed in the bag by noon anyway. At five after one she looked out the kitchen window, just because. The old car was already parked by the farm gate. Alex was leaning against it, hands in his jacket pockets, looking at his watch. Five minutes early. On time is five minutes early, his grandfather always said. Nora stood at the window a little longer and watched him wait.