The Beginning of Something (a Chick Evens short Minnesota Story)

“In the ‘60s, the Eastside of St. Paul, Minnesota was a very industrious part of the city there were lots of smoke coming from the large and big plants, and factories, foundries, and so forth. Then one day when I returned, after being gone for a long while, everything seemed shut down. The big buildings were all closed up, windows with wood coverings over them, and doors with chains on them, locked tight. Many I heard sold their machinery, and land and moved elsewhere.
“Iron that that once was used in the foundries came from Northern Minnesota, and now they used European Iron I guess, and that put a lot of folks up there out of work, as well as down here, and the foundries closed down also. And I worked for Whirlpool (he pointed his finger to his left side across the bride, as they traveled down Arcade Street), I made vacuums cleaners there, and ice makers. And I worked at Malibu Iron, just north of Whirlpool a few blocks.
“The new available acres of land I see were bought up by large supermarkets. Of course, that was thirty-years ago, you weren’t even born then. The only thing left I see from that period, is a broken down hut that was used for a parking lot attendant near the bridge, Whirlpool owned that too. All the other old foundations have disappeared.” Said, Chick Evens to his sixteen-year old daughter, sitting opposite him, as he drove his car down the street, she had been living with him for a year, by her own choice.
“I can’t remember.” His daughter said, “It seems more like it’s always been the way it is now!”
Chick Evens said nothing, just kept driving down the street, then out of sight of Whirlpool. Then Evens cut a sharp right hand turn onto East 7th Street, alongside the Mississippi River, and to the inner part of the city.
“What’s the matter dad?” asked Zaneta.
“I don’t quite know,” he said, turning on the heater, it was November, 1991, and the cold weather was starting to kick in, in Minnesota.
Zaneta leaned on the back of the seat, heavily, waited for her father to say something more. It was not quite sunset. They could both see the river.
“Are you hungry?” asked her father.
“I don’t feel like eating,” said Zaneta.
“Come on, we’ll stop at McDonald’s, and eat!” he said.
“All right,” she said, trying to please him.
They both ate in silence in the parking lot and watched the cars drive by; across the road was the riverfront.
“Looks like a half moon tonight,” he commented.
“I think so,” replied Zaneta, adding, “you know everything dad.”
“Oh, Zaneta, not really; please eat your hamburgers, don’t waist them.”
“I can’t help it,” said her father.”
“What is it dad?”
“You’re pregnant, and Mike is a lazy one!”
They sat there for a moment without talking.
“You don’t have to marry him you know, I can take care of you!”
“I don’t know,” she said.
“Of course you do,” he said.
“No, I’m not sure.” She replied.
“Well, what do you think is best?”
Chick Evens looked at the moon coming up over the River.
“It isn’t fun anymore is it?” he asked her.
She was afraid to look him in the eyes. He looked at her.
“Not much of it.” She said.
She looked on at him back, said, “I guess he’ll never make much of himself, if you want to take me away, I’m ok with it, perhaps it is better, yes, it is better I think?”
“No,” said her father,” his hands holding his head.
He sat there for a long while thinking. He felt fire approaching his face, he was hot, and it was lightly chilly in the car.
“You don’t need me, but if you do, you can come back and live with me, and your child, once you move out, if you move out. Maybe I should be telling you to try and make it a good marriage, I know you love him, but love doesn’t pay the bills, and he’s just plane lazy.”
“Yes,” said Zaneta, laying the back of her head on the top part of the car seat.
“How do you feel Zaneta?”
“Oh, far away, dad, I want to go far away, with you, I know everything will be all right with you, I want to go away from him, but you’re right, I do love him, yet he will never ever make anything of himself, I’ll always be poor.”
Zaneta pulled out another hamburger from the bag next to her and her father, got out of the car, walked across the street, leaned on the guard railing, and looked down into the river.


3-7-2009 FF •