Free Scaredy Cat by Robin Alexander

deadly. You should stay way back, maybe in the other room, and don’t carry anything sharp. You could—”
    “Dr. Quinn, shut up and get down here,” Jacob yelled.
    Mrs. Sutter was gone when Quinn lowered herself into the hole. Quinn knew she’d probably scared the old woman half to death, but she didn’t want to see her wielding a blade when it was time to come back up. She focused on the light slowly inching across the dirt floor and crawled after Jacob.
    “This is what Blake feels,” she muttered softly. “She feels this terror all the time. How does she function? How does she—”
    “Are you talking to yourself?”
    “Yes.”
    “Oh, thank God,” Jacob said with obvious relief. “I thought I was hearing voices. I was about to make that hole in the brick you wanted. Mrs. Sutter ain’t gonna stab you, she can barely hold anything with those tremors she has. Coupling, I was right. Get over here with the bag and that light so we can get this done.”
    “I do this for you, you know,” Quinn said with a grunt as she dragged herself and the gear. “I wanted to be a PE teacher. I could be teaching girls to play softball right now, but I’m belly hugging mud for you.”
    “You don’t have the patience to be a teacher. The first kid that smarted off at you would get an earful, probably all profane, then you’d be fired and be right back in the mud with me. Hand over the saw, will you?”
    “They probably wouldn’t hire me because I’m gay anyway. I’d have to leave Cypress if I had any hopes of employment. Glenda Percy, I’m sure, would launch an all-out campaign to keep me from corrupting the youth. Maybe I should be more like Dawn, kiss a little ass and try to fit in,” Quinn said as she handed him the saw. “If I bowed to Glenda Percy, she’d convince people to pretend that they liked me.”
    Quinn closed her eyes when Jacob shined his light her way. “Don’t even joke,” he said seriously and turned the flashlight back toward the pipe. I love Dawn with all my heart, but she gets on my nerves with the hobnobbing. We’re good people, we shouldn’t have to try to fit in anywhere. If the people of this town don’t like us, then screw them. Your ‘kiss my ass’ attitude is one of the things I respect and admire about you. You had that long before anyone found out you were gay. When I was shunned for being a sissy, I just emulated you when what I wanted to do was cry like a girl.”
    He put the saw to the pipe, then stopped. “You know, there’s too much trying to be like everyone else going on in this town. Look at Dawn. She has to work because she had to have that Escalade because Debbie Martin got one to shuttle her kids around. Dawn only has two children. She didn’t need that gas hog. Someone builds a house and soon five or six more spring up around it because everybody else thinks they have to do it, too. Now half of them have been repossessed by the bank. Growing up here was hard, living here as an adult hasn’t been easy. Even still, I love this town. It holds all the memories of Dad and Grandma. I just wish people would stop worrying about what everyone else does. It’d be a much happier place.”
    “You’re not a sissy. There aren’t many men that would crawl beneath this house. I love you just the way you are. I won’t change if you don’t.”
    “Deal. Did you go see Mom yesterday?”
    “No,” Quinn said as she shined her light on where Jacob was working. “I was busy with Blake. I’ll have Dawn take her laundry when she goes tomorrow.”
    “You know that ain’t gonna happen. I’ll do it.” Jacob stopped sawing and stared at the pipe for a moment. “I’m mad at her for the way she treats you, but I know she won’t be here long, and it makes me feel guilty. I try to talk to her about it, but she just shuts me down.”
    “I appreciate that, but don’t go to the trouble. Enjoy your time with her.”
    “That’s hard to do.” He began sawing again. “I don’t