Gilbert's New Girl

It would be nice if I could tell you that after the night I looked into Gilbert’s eyes, it was plain sailing for all of us, but it wasn’t as easy as that. Oh sure, I was a lot more forgiving of Gilbert’s actions; there were worse things he could have done than fall in love with a young girl. Still, it didn’t make it any easier for me to deal with the disapproval of the residents of Endora. And it was me who was bearing the brunt of it! Gilbert and Tally still went to the store every day, but as the townsfolk stayed away, they were kind of sheltered from the worst of the anger their love had given rise to. I was working in the Town Hall cafeteria, and every day I had to put up with snide comments about my brothers’ cradle snatching. One day one of the janitors called me over and handed me a coloring book and a box of crayons. When he saw the look of confusion on my face he said, ‘Thought maybe your brother’s girlfriend might make good use of them.’ Of course, I never told Gilbert about any of these incidents; it would just upset him and despite of all of the troubles surrounding us, he was still floating up there on cloud nine, still unbelievably happy to have love find him just when he least expected it to happen.

Other things were more expected. It was only a matter of time before Dale McAvoy, being unable to find someone to take over the store, told Gilbert he had no option but to close it. It was costing more to keep it open than it was bringing in, and there was always a chance if the store went up for sale, then enough money would be raised to go on providing an income for Mr Lamson. I think Gilbert felt bad for his old boss, but all he ever said about it was that it was the townsfolk who caused the store to close; not him and not Tally. So now both of them were out of work, and in a town like Endora, jobs are always at a premium. But even if jobs had been ten a penny, no one was really ready to risk losing business by hiring my brother or his barely legal girlfriend. Gilbert had some savings, but it wasn’t much, maybe enough to get by for a couple of months, three at most. And after that, what were we going to do then? My wages wouldn’t be enough to cover the mortgage and all the bills, and with Gilbert out of work, there were no more supplies of damaged or almost out of date food; we were going to have to pay for our groceries on top of everything else! The money situation really scared me, but every time I tried to talk to Gilbert about it, he would give me a smile and tell me calmly that everything would be fine. Oh, he could still make me so mad at times!

Naturally, I would quiz Tucker about any conversations he had with Gilbert. It was how I normally found out what was going on inside my brother’s head, but I knew that Tucker only told me what he thought I needed to know. He told me that Gilbert had asked him to pick up a couple of job application forms from Food Land. ‘It’s coming up to Christmas, and they usually take on temporary staff at this time of year so it looks like him and Tally will be working there for a little while.’ Food Land! ‘Can’t you get them some work at Burger Barn?’ I whispered. We were in the living room and Gilbert and Tally were in the kitchen. Tucker shook his head. ‘I could maybe get some work for Tally, but there’s nothing for Gilbert unless I decide to take early retirement.’ He was right. Gilbert would stick out like a sore thumb working at Burger Barn, the average age of their employees was probably eighteen, with the exception of Tucker himself, but he was the manager. ‘Why doesn’t he tell me any of this, why is it all such a big secret?’ I asked, still whispering. Tucker shrugged his shoulders and whispered back, ‘Maybe he’s trying to save himself the hassle of having you hovering over him, fretting and fussing about his interview skills. I gotta be honest here, Amy. I would do the same if I were in his shoes.’ So Gilbert’s clandestine job applications were all down to me! ‘Is that how he sees me? Am I just a bossy big sister to him?’ Tucker turned away to try and hide the smile that crept over his face. ‘Yeah, Amy, I guess that pretty much sums it up.’ Oh, sometimes Tucker makes me so mad with him too!

I refused to feign surprise when Gilbert eventually told me that he and Tally were starting work at Food Land. Gilbert had managed to get the stockroom supervisor’s position and Tally was going to be working in the staff canteen. The shifts were long and the wages were low, but neither of them seemed to mind too much. They had asked for and got the same shift pattern after Gilbert explained that Tally couldn’t drive and was relying on him to get her to and from work. They had to get up at five in the morning to start their shift at 6.15 am. Gilbert was a good riser, but Tally was heavy headed in the mornings. I swear to God, he practically had to dress her and shovel some cereal into her, and on the car journey, Tally just put her head on Gilbert’s shoulder and slept through the forty minute drive. The thing that really tickled Tally was that she would have to phone through to the stockroom to ask for supplies for the canteen. ‘And because Gilbert’s a supervisor, I have to call him Mr Grape, and it just makes me laugh every time. I know he gets mad at me for laughing---I mean, he doesn’t want the staff to hear me laughing at his name, even though they all know I’m his girlfriend.’ I thought it was strange that Gilbert was more concerned about people thinking his name was funny, than having them know he was involved with a seventeen year old girl.

When I told this story to Tucker, he laughed and said, ‘Gilbert doesn’t look his age, and the people at Food Land probably don’t even give it a thought. It’s only here in Endora that the age difference is such a big deal. And I wouldn’t worry too much about Tally laughing at his name. She’ll stop laughing once it’s her name too.’ Well, that stopped me dead in my tracks! ‘Are you saying Gilbert’s asked her to marry him?’ Tucker shook his head. ‘I never said that Amy, I was just speculating, you know? I was just working on the basis that sooner or later, they’re gonna get hitched.’ I wanted to know how he had come up with that conclusion. ‘I just figured that if two people love each other as much as they do, then the chances are that they’re gonna end up married. And besides, I think Gilbert’s still hoping that if he and Tally get married, the townsfolk will finally accept them being together.’ So Gilbert had discussed the possibility of marriage to Tally with Tucker after all! But there was no way Tucker was going to admit to that conversation, and once again I was reminded that his loyalty always seemed to be stronger to Gilbert than it would ever be to me. I had no doubt where Gilbert’s loyalty lay; he was utterly devoted to Tally, but the nice thing was that she knew it, and she appreciated it.

As Christmas drew closer, Tally came into her own, organising everything and cajoling Gilbert into acting like a kid again. Normally, I was left to ‘do’ Christmas on my own, with Gilbert’s only contribution consisting of bringing the Christmas tree from the garage to the house and setting the thing up in the living room. I was left to decorate it, write the cards, buy and wrap the presents and cook the dinner, although to be fair to him, Gilbert usually did the washing up. Gilbert had stopped ‘doing’ Christmas after Arnie died, and to him, December 25th was just another day. The only thing that made it memorable for Gilbert was its proximity to the anniversary of Arnie’s death. And although we never spoke about it, Gilbert went into mourning for his little brother sometime around Christmas Eve and stayed in that sad and distracted mood till January 4th or 5th. Before Arnie died, I used to think that perhaps men just didn’t have feelings the way women did, but watching Gilbert trying to deal with his grief for Arnie made me realise that I was wrong. Guys felt things just the same as women, they just were hopeless at expressing it. I talked to Tally about this, foolishly thinking I was preparing her for Gilbert’s annual descent into grief and depression. Tally smiled and said, ‘He’ll be fine, Amy. He just needed to cry and he’s done that now. He knows that if he’s ever missing Arnie real bad, then we can take a walk over to the cemetery and he doesn’t have to worry about getting emotional anymore, because I’ve seen him cry and he knows it doesn’t bother me.’ Dear God! Where did this girl come from? I’ve watched and waited for twelve years, hoping Gilbert would let go of his grief for Arnie. This girl shows up seven months ago and she’s more than half way to healing him already.