This is Bethy Rose again. Here it is the last of August already. I thought I'd jump in here because Mz. Barbara and all the characters in "Aunt Lutie's Blue Moon Cafe" seem to have been hiding from the heat or somethin'. Maybe they are either all stressed out or out of sorts with the world. Anyway, you sure haven't heard from them lately, have you? Pretty soon folks with have forgotten all about Harts Corner, think we just fell off the side of the earth, or gave up this place to become a ghost town. Far from it, let me tell you.
We're still here and just about now I'm wishin' I wasn't. School starts the first Tuesday in September, the day after Labor Day, and I'm not ready. Yes, I love school and, no, there wasn't that much excitement goin' on around here this summer that I regret for it to end. You see, I'm just goin' to be so embarrassed when I go back, and it's all Jacob Harley's fault. With some help of Sam. Yes, the same Sam that owns the Shamrock station, the tow truck, and the ambulance. That man doesn't know when to keep his lip zipped!
I don't think you know Jason. The Harley family bought a couple of acres at the edge of town, pulled in a beautiful triple wide mobile home that looks like a real house, and started a nursery. No, silly, not for kids. It's a nursery for live, green plants, bushes, trees, flowers. I don't know how they make a living but folks say they have some contracts to supply plants for big stores, garden shops, and landscapers. Don't know how many of them we have around here but MM says they do all the selling by word-of-mouth and deliver where necessary. They also set up booths at our street fair. That's where I met Jason.
I saw him selling some pretty flowers, said hello, introduced myself, and asked him if he was going to school here in the fall. He said he was and he'd be in the fifth grade. MM teased me a bit about the older man in my life, but she wouldn't have ever embarrassed me in front of others. Not like Sam did. Anyway, I told him about the Blue Moon having the best rootbeer floats around and on his break he came over. I made it myself and said it was "on the house" as he was a new customer. That started him coming in each time he was in town. He paid for those.
I showed him all the businesses in town, introduced him to the owners, and gave him some insider points about most of them. We liked to go down to the creek and skim rocks across the surface of the water. One day he helped Harold with his bottle collectin'. I enjoyed his company and certainly entertained no other thoughts than the one telling me he'd make a good friend.
But one day we were laughin' and shovin' each other on the sidewalk on Main Street when Sam walked over from his gas station. He opened his big mouth and said, "Hey, Bethy Rose, have you finally found a boyfriend?"
I could feel my face get hot. I saw a matching shade of red creep up Jason's neck and into his face. I told Sam he had rocks in his head. But it was too late. Jason hurried up the street to the flower shop where his mom had started to work partime. Not even a see-you-later or goodbye touched his lips. And he hasn't come into the Blue Moon since, or spoken to me either.
I'm so embarrassed that I'll run into him in the school hallway. I'm afraid he won't speak to me, or he might and I won't like what he has to say. I don't want to go to school. It's too scary.
Why couldn't that Sam have kept his mouth shut.
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