Local Hero

connect it.
    “Really?”
    He had to smile. There were times she sounded just like the kid. “Yeah. How’s the eye?”
    “Oh, it’s better.” Unable to resist, Hester walked over to watch. How odd it seemed to see her son’s small hands working with those of a man.
    “It’s a tight squeeze, but the VCR just about fits under your television stand.” Mitch gave Radley’s shoulder a quick squeeze before he rose. “Colorful.” With a finger under her chin, he turned Hester’s face to the side to examine her eye. “Rad and I thought you looked a little beat, so we figured we’d bring the movie to you.”
    “I was.” She touched her hand to his wrist a moment. “Thanks.”
    “Anytime.” He wondered what her reaction, and Radley’s, would be if he kissed her right now. Hester must have seen the question in his eyes, because she backed up quickly.
    “Well, I guess I’d better get some plates so the food doesn’t get cold.”
    “We’ve got plenty of napkins.” He gestured toward the couch. “Sit down while my assistant and I finish up.”
    “I did it.” Flushed with success, Radley scrambled back on all fours. “It’s all hooked up.”
    Mitch bent to check the connections. “You’re a regular mechanic, Corporal.”
    “We get to watch
Raiders
first, right?”
    “That was the deal.” Mitch handed him the tape. “You’re in charge.”
    “It looks like I have to thank you again,” Hester said when Mitch joined her on the couch.
    “What for? I figured to wangle myself in on your date with Rad tonight.” He pulled a burger out of the bag. “This is cheaper.”
    “Most men wouldn’t choose to spend a Friday night with a small boy.”
    “Why not?” He took a healthy bite, and after swallowing continued, “I figure he won’t eat half his fries, and I’ll get the rest.”
    Radley took a running leap and plopped onto the couch between them. He gave a contented and very adult sigh as he snuggled down. “This is better than going out. Lots better.”
    He was right, Hester thought as she relaxed and let herself become caught up in Indiana Jones’s adventures. There had been a time when she’d believed life could be that thrilling, romantic, heart-stopping. Circumstances had forced her to set those things aside, but she’d never lost her love of the fantasy of films. For a couple of hours it was possible to close off reality and the pressures that went with it and be innocent again.
    Radley was bright-eyed and full of energy as he switched tapes. Hester had no doubt his dreams that night would revolve around lost treasures and heroic deeds. Snuggling against her, he giggled at Donald O’Connor’s mugging and pratfalls, but began to nod off soon after Gene Kelly’s marvelous dance through the rain.
    “Fabulous, isn’t it?” Mitch murmured. Radley had shifted so that his head rested against Mitch’s chest.
    “Absolutely. I never get tired of this movie. When I was a little girl, we’d watch it whenever it came on TV. My father’s a big movie buff. You can name almost any film, and he’ll tell you who was in it. But his first love was always the musical.”
    Mitch fell silent again. It took very little to learn how one person felt about another—a mere inflection in their voice, a softening of their expression. Hester’s family had been close, as he’d always regretted his hadn’t been. His father had never shared Mitch’s love of fantasy or film, as he had never shared his father’s devotion to business. Though he would never have considered himself a lonely child—his imagination had been company enough—he’d always missed the warmth and affection he’d heard so clearly in Hester’s voice when she’d spoken of her father.
    When the credits rolled, he turned to her again. “Your parents live in the city?”
    “Here? Oh, no.” She had to laugh as she tried to picture either of her parents coping with life in New York. “No, I grew up in Rochester, but my parents moved to the Sunbelt almost ten years ago—Fort Worth. Dad’s still in banking, and my mother has a part-time job in a bookstore. We were all amazed when she went to work. I guess all of us thought she didn’t know how to do anything but bake cookies and fold sheets.”
    “How many’s we?”
    Hester sighed a little as the screen went blank. She couldn’t honestly remember when she’d enjoyed an evening more. “I have a brother and a sister. I’m the oldest. Luke’s settled in Rochester with a