Redemption

The navy blue truck had been covered in graffiti. On one side, the word ‘leave’ was written in white spray paint in large letters, so that it covered almost the entire side of the truck. Across the hood were the words ‘get out’. There was another word written on the tailgate. It started with the letters m, u, and r, but it looked like someone had interrupted the culprit, because the rest of the word was just a long scribbly line that trailed off.

On top of the graffiti, the truck had been pummeled with eggs. There were splatterings of yolks all over it, and even some eggshells on the pavement and in the truck bed. The truck looked nothing like it did just an hour ago when they went inside the store.

Burley stood there, staring at the destruction, with a frown on his face. He knew it was a bad idea, agreeing to help Dove into town. There was a reason he rarely left his house. There was a reason he didn’t want to find a new job. The people of Heart’s Peak hated him. It wasn’t without reason, and honestly, a part of him didn’t blame them. He had made a big mistake, and now he had to pay for it.

“I didn’t think stuff like this happened here!” Dove exclaimed. Shock and worry covered her face. She didn’t move to approach the truck.

“It doesn’t. To most people,” Burley said.

“What do you mean?” she asked, confused.

“Nothin’. Don’t worry about it.” He pushed the cart closer to the damaged truck and walked around it, seeing the unfinished word on the tailgate. For a moment, he closed his eyes and he shook his head, an attempt to shake away a painful memory.

“Don’t worry about it? Are you serious? Your truck is completely trashed! We need to call the police! Wait, are you okay?” Dove sounded concerned. She cautiously followed after him, watching where she stepped, so as not to step on the broken eggshells all over the pavement.

“I’m fine. We’re not callin’ the police. They won’t care,” he said. He reached to drop down the tailgate, hiding the three letters from his sight, and from Dove’s. He didn’t need her putting the pieces together. He didn’t want to talk about this anymore than he had to.

“Of course they’ll care. Someone vandalized your truck!” she exclaimed, gesturing towards the truck. She spoke as if he was being ridiculous. He realized, to her it probably did sound stupid. But he knew Heart’s Peak, and he knew the police force personally. They wouldn’t do anything about this.

They would think he deserved it.

“Just let it go, Dove. You’re new here. You don’t know this town like I do.”

“What? What does that even mean? Why are you being so weird about this? This is serious. Someone needs to be arrested for this.”

“I said, let it go. It’s my truck, ain’t it?”

Dove held a look of exasperation on her face. “I can’t believe you’re going to ignore this.”

There was defeat in her tone of voice. She was giving in. She didn’t agree with it, she didn’t understand it, but she was going to let it go.

“It’s still driveable. That’s all that matters.”

Burley began to load the car up with her supplies. When the men showed up with the doors she had purchased, no one said a word about his truck. No one even so much as looked at him. The whole thing likely seemed really strange to Dove, but Burley wasn’t surprised in the least.

The ride home was silent except for the quiet country music playing over his radio. Burley kept expecting Dove to say something more about the truck, but she didn’t say a word.

When he pulled his truck into Old Bennett’s driveway, she finally spoke up. “Either the people in this town are some kind of alien pod people or they really don’t like you.”

Burley couldn’t stop the laughter that escaped him.

“Alien pod people?” he replied.

“Yeah. No one said a word about your truck. It was totally weird!”

He shut off his truck and opened the door. “Well you ain’t wrong about them not liking me.”

“Okay… What does that mean? Why don’t they like you?” She followed his actions, by removing her seatbelt and opening her own door.

“I did somethin’ a year ago. Somethin’ bad. When you live in a small town, people don’t forget things easily.”

“What did you do?”

“I don’t wanna talk about it,” he said quickly. With those words, he moved to shut the door. He walked around to the back of the truck. He probably told her more than he should have, but honestly, she was going to find out sooner or later. It was inevitable the longer she stayed in Heart’s Peak. When she did find out, she’d hate him, just like everyone else.

He helped her unload his truck, and by helped, that meant he pretty much did all the work, and she only lifted a hand to help when he needed her to. He didn’t know how she expected to fix up Old Bennett’s house on her own. She didn’t look like she had ever done a hard day’s work in her life.

“Thank you for helping me out today. I never could have fit all this stuff in my car,” she said with a smile, standing on the porch of Old Bennett’s house. Her long, wavy blonde hair draped over her shoulders, and her blue eyes shone brightly in the evening fall light. Burley noticed for the first time, her elegant features. She was a real beauty. Like that of an angel. Too bad that angel would never be interested in a man with a demon weighing heavily on his shoulder.

“Don’t mention it. I still wish you’d reconsider sellin’ the place but it ain’t my right to tell you what to do.”

“I’m sorry. I really do have to go back to New York. But I appreciate everything you’re doing with the horses. And this today. You’ve been a big help.”

“It’s the least I can do for Bennett’s granddaughter. He was a good man.”

Dove seemed a little surprised, as if his comment caught her off guard. Then something that almost looked like guilt came over her face.

“He was a good man,” she agreed. “I wish I had come home to visit him more.”

There it was. The reason for the guilt. He knew that feeling well. Guilt had sunk into him a year ago and had been eating at him ever since.

“We all make mistakes, huh? I’ll be seeing you, Miss Donoghue.”