Part 14: A Welcoming Banquet

Hello again, readers. I have returned. I was unwell last week and could not write. Marvin took it upon himself to take over.

I was a bit worried about what Marvin had written and, well, while it wasn't a part of the story as such, I thought he did a fine job and I'm glad he got to use the new keyboard.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled chapter.

Yours truly,

Phil

----------

When last we left our heroes, Fred was sitting on the sofa, Jill was preparing coffee for everyone, and Phil had Marvin hanging from his nose in a warm embrace.

Marvin returned to the hat, the hat returned to Fred’s head, and the two of them moved out to the back porch and sat down at the table for breakfast. Phil retired to the bedroom long enough to put on some acceptable attire – not that there was anything unacceptable about his underwear – and returned fully dressed for yard work. He puttered around the back yard while Marvin and Fred sat at the wooden table. Jill disappeared to the kitchen and reappeared with food, then left for the kitchen and returned a few minutes later with more. By the time she finally sat down, she had a full buffet on the table, with toast, jam, scrambled eggs, a plate with eight strips of bacon, a small pitcher of juice, another with milk, a stick of butter on a plate, a full pot of coffee, and a bowl of fruit.

Phil was busy digging up some troublesome weeds that persisted in one corner of the fence. He stopped what he was doing when he caught the scent of coffee drifting across the yard. He stood, stretched, and strolled over to where the others were seated. Fred and Jill sat facing the yard and the morning sun.

“Is there any tea?” he asked, settling himself in the chair opposite them. Marvin sat on the tabletop, on the side where Phil now sat. He crawled to one side, giving Phil some room for his breakfast and avoiding the possibility of being accidentally crushed.

“Sorry. I didn’t heat water, but I can.”

“No, leave it. I just thought that since I’d already had a coffee…. Never mind. I’ll just have some juice.” Phil grabbed the pitcher and poured himself a glass.

Marvin watched them both, fascinated. Then he looked over at Fred, who had already filled his plate and was digging into his eggs and bacon. Fred seemed completely oblivious to what was happening at the rest of the table. Not that much was happening. It was simply that Marvin had met Phil only two days before, under circumstances that seemed to Marvin quite different than what he now witnessed. In the brief time he had spent in Phil’s house – a week, ten days – he had never seen anyone else there. Marvin hadn’t considered that Phil might actually know or have relationships with other people.

Not that Marvin was stupid. He knew that some people lived in family groups in houses; some had conversations together in pairs or in groups, even when they didn’t live in the same house; and sometimes they even went to the movies or played games together. In many ways they were a lot like spiders. It occurred to him now, however, that he hadn’t imagined Phil as a particularly social human being. He had thought of Phil as a loner, which wasn’t entirely fair, considering that they’d only been sharing the house for a short time. How could Marvin know?

Ten days was longer than Phil would have ever imagined Marvin being there, true. To be fair, Phil wouldn’t have known Marvin was there at all if he hadn’t decided to do the housecleaning. Still, Marvin hadn’t been around long enough to come to any conclusions regarding Phil’s character. Marvin certainly wouldn’t have wanted Phil to jump to any conclusions regarding his character.

He looked over the edge of the table, down to the spot on the porch from which he had first spoken to Phil.

Maybe they had both come to some unfair conclusions about one another.

“Fred, I really must thank you for bringing Marvin home.”

The earnestness in his voice made Fred look away, embarrassed. “It was nothing. He asked me for a favor, and I wasn’t going to say no. I thought that a little guy would want a little favor. I was happy to help.”

“And you walked all the way here?”

“I’m a fast walker.”

“I know. I’ve seen you.”

Many people in town had seen him. Fred had a certain reputation in the area. He could often be seen walking along the side of the road on his way to or from somewhere, if walking was the appropriate word. It was more like a long, deliberate stride, accentuated by his long, thin limbs. And he was fast. Something about the way he moved made it seem as if he was in a hurry to get somewhere. He never ran, however. He just walked with that gangly, long stride.

“Well I like to walk and visit with people, and your friend needed a lift. I would’ve brought him back sooner, but he was sticky.”

“And purple,” added Marvin.

“Excuse me, Marvin, but I’m new to all this. Would you mind explaining?”

Marvin told his story, and Fred nodded his head in agreement, or smiled, or made a face, though he rarely looked down or away, nor grimaced. Sometimes, when Marvin mentioned something relating to the supermarket, Fred commented on his own responsibilities and recited his job description. Phil laughed from time to time, enjoying Marvin’s story and interjecting his own “Meanwhile, back at the house…” statements. Jill rolled her eyes and laughed in confirmation.

As he spoke, Marvin observed the way Phil looked at Jill, and the way Jill looked back. Sometimes, when Phil wasn’t looking right at her, her features changed somehow. He could see the compassion in her face at those moments, some side she didn’t show when she knew she was being observed. When she spoke directly to Phil, or he to her, her features hardened ever so slightly, as if she were trying to hide any apparent weakness.

When breakfast was finished and Jill stood to clear the table, both Fred and Phil helped her to take everything back to the kitchen. As Marvin could do very little to help, he went along for the ride, jumping onto a plate that Phil carried to the kitchen, jumping from the plate to his shoulder when he headed back to the porch, hopping onto a passing glass as Fred brought it into the house, and leaping from the glass to a strand of Jill’s hair as she turned from the sink and went back to the porch. After a few trips, Marvin jumped onto the kitchen counter and watched the three of them vying for space in the kitchen as they washed, rinsed and dried the breakfast plates.

Soon after that, it was time for everyone to be getting on their way. Jill offered to take Fred home in her car, but Fred said that he preferred to walk. This didn’t surprise anyone. Even so, the two of them left together. Fred was halfway down the driveway by the time Jill had given Phil a peck on the cheek and said her goodbyes to Marvin. Two minutes later, she was in her car and backing out of the driveway herself. Phil stood at the door watching her pull out, with Marvin on his shoulder. They both waved, though Marvin doubted that Jill could see him waving.

Marvin looked up at Phil. “They’re really nice people.”

“Fred’s all right. He used to stop by and visit when I lived on the north side, just down the road from the supermarket. Always walking. All the kids used to look at him funny. He always was a bit strange.”

“I didn’t think he was necessarily strange. A little uncomfortable, maybe.”

“Well, he had a hard time when he was a kid.”

“Do you know what happened?”

“Yeah.” Phil watched as the car drove up the street to the corner. Then it turned on to the main road and was out of sight.