To Do List (gretson)

Ronit

Hey guys! I got a couple of chapters already written, but I'm having trouble sitting to write because of my back problems (yes, I'm about to turn 28 - or is it 82? Not sure). Anyways, be patient with me. Be back as soon as I can.

Enjoy the chapter!

…

“Can I?” Carson asked. 

Greta gave her the cigarette. Carson took a pull and coughed.

“It tastes better in your mouth,” she said in a raspy voice.

Greta chuckled. “Let’s go inside and get you something to drink.”

“Can I get a beer and a vodka martini, please?” Greta asked the dark-haired bartender behind the counter.

Carson was just behind her, her hand on Greta’s waist.

“Ronit, babe, get me the top-shelf bottle of vodka, will you?” the bartender asked.

“Esti, darling, you gotta ask the guys to set the bottles on the lower shelf for you.” The other woman answered.

Carson’s hand fell from Greta’s back, she froze in place. That voice. She knew that voice. She handn’t heard it in seventeen years, but she’d never forget it. She kept hidden behind Greta, trying to process what was happening, trying to keep her tears at bay, trying not to fall to the floor.

Greta seemed to sense something when Carson let go of her. She turned to check and that was when Carson was face to face to Ronit. That wasn’t a common name in America, not even within the Jew community and Carson was aware of that. There was the name, then there was the voice and now the face. They barely had anything in common, Carson was all her father, but the eyebrows… they were the exact same. And Carson remembered her face so clearly, as if she had just seen her the night before.

The woman stared at her for a while, apparently curious about Carson, who was holding her gaze, frozen in place, completely ignoring her friend who had called her babe once, twice, three times.

“You okay, kid?” Ronit asked.

Carson gasped hearing the woman calling her kid.

“Carson, I’m Carson.” She found the words and spilled them out.

Ronit stepped back and Greta understood what was happening right there. She set her hand on Carson’s lower back, holding her up. “I’m here,” she whispered slowly and Carson leaned against her warm hand.

“Carson,” the woman spoke her name slowly, like a solemn prayer.

“You. Here. I came… earlier. The bar. You weren’t… where did you…” Carson tried to make sense of any of that, she had so many questions, but none she managed to actually get out.

“Carson,” Ronit repeated her name, her voice low and distant.

Carson knew it was her, but she needed to know more, she needed to ask questions.

“Can we go somewhere and talk?” Carson bravely asked.

The woman nodded. “We can go to the back,” she pointed.

Carson looked at Greta, this one let go of her waist and squeezed her hand.

“I’ll be right here when you get back.”

Greta watched as Carson slowly walked behind the woman to the back of the bar. She sat down on a high stool by the counter and noticed the other woman, the dark-haired bartender, staring at her.

“Can I have that martini now?” She asked.

“Of course.”

Greta took a sip from the glass, her hands holding it were shaking a little.