“Already done.”
“Thank you. I think I’m going to head home if you don’t mind.”
“No, of course not. Go ahead. I’ll take care of things here.”
Yvonne bent down to kiss her cheek and Thomas’s head before she left the room. She wanted to curse her father’s lack of pride, but how could she when she was living in her grandmother’s inn, no savings to her name? Savings she could have used to help out her father instead of passing on that responsibility to her grandmother. Yet again.
Chapter Nine
Ana came back to the inn around eight that night. She’d gone to Rimouski to have dinner and had stopped by the church for another walk by the sea—a solitary walk this time. It had not been as beneficial as she’d hoped. In fact, the Saint-Laurent in the dark was anything but comforting. The boisterous waves became almost threatening when she couldn’t see exactly where they crashed or how far up the beach they crept. The beach was covered with obstacles, and she’d stumbled upon several large pieces of driftwood before she finally gave up. She would keep enjoying the sea in the daylight, at least for now. She entered the small hotel as quietly as she could and walked slowly toward the staircase, not wanting to wake anyone. She’d noticed a new car in the parking lot so she knew she wasn’t the only guest anymore.
“Could I talk to you for a minute?”
The question startled her and she gasped before she turned around to see Melodie, sitting in the same rocking chair in the back corner of the lobby where she’d seen her with Thomas earlier. She was feeding him another bottle. “Oh hell, you scared me half to death,” she whispered so she wouldn’t disturb the child.
“Sorry. There’s no rocking chair in our room, so I always feed him here. Besides, I was hoping I’d see you come in.” Melodie was not whispering but spoke softly.
“Do you stay here every night?” she asked as she approached Melodie and her son.
“Yes, this is our home. For now anyway.”
“What about Yvonne and Miller?”
“My grandmother has her own place in the village.”
“I see. Okay, well, I’m here. What did you want to talk to me about?”
“I’d like you to stop putting ideas in my grandmother’s head about relocating away from the beach.”
The volume of her voice had not increased and her tone was still soft and calm, yet she still managed to sound stern and antagonistic. Ana wondered how that was possible as she focused on not betraying her own defensive instincts when she replied. “Pardon me?”
“She told me about your conversation and your studies. I don’t care what you’re here to study, but don’t go putting any ideas in her mind.” This time she had not even looked at her. She’d kept a tender gaze on her son as she accused her of…of what exactly? Influencing an older woman?
“I’m not putting any ideas in your grandmother’s mind, Melodie. She bought that land up the hill years ago, after all. I had nothing to do with that.”
“What land?” Melodie jerked her head toward her and anger flashed through her narrowed blue eyes. They were even lighter than usual, like ice cubes in a glass of water.
“You didn’t know about the land?” Ana was tempted to tell her all about Yvonne’s plans to move the inn up the hill, but what would that achieve? She’d hurt her, but she’d betray Yvonne’s trust in the same breath. And why was she tempted to hurt Melodie anyway? It wasn’t worth it. “I think I’ll let your grandmother tell you about it. But rest assured I have no evil plans to brainwash her in any way.”
“Good,” she said with a smile. “Because we’re not going to run away from the sea. It’s part of us. We’re part of it. That’s the way it’s always been.”
“Great. May I go to bed now?”
“Sure.”
“Good night, Melodie.”
“Good night, Anais.” Ana cringed at the use of her first name but turned without saying a word. It was clear she insisted on calling her Anais to provoke her, but she wouldn’t give Melodie the satisfaction to show it affected her. She’d almost made it to the staircase before Melodie spoke again. “This whole rising sea and climate change stuff, it’s just a theory, after all, isn’t it? Scientists don’t even agree about it.”
Ana closed her eyes and bit her lower lip as she shook her head. She sighed. No, she had not really said that, had she? As unnerving as she was, she seemed intelligent enough to know better. She couldn’t really believe what she’d just said. She’s baiting you, Ana. Walk away. I can’t.
Instead, she rushed back to the rocking chair, and although she was still whispering, her tone and the rapid flow of her words betrayed her indignation. “You’re right. Only ninety-seven percent of us scientists agree climate change is real, so I guess that’s not enough.” She watched Melodie feed Thomas with a satisfied smile, and she thought of the perfect argument. “Tell me something. If ninety-seven doctors out of a hundred told you formula was bad for your baby, would you keep feeding it to him? Would you think, oh well, the doctors don’t all agree it’s bad for him so it must not be that bad after all? What would you do, huh? Tell me.”
Melodie took the empty bottle out of Thomas’s mouth and stood, holding her son and looking at him lovingly. She walked by Ana and only then did she avert her eyes from her son to acknowledge her. She wiggled the bottle she was holding between her thumb and her index finger in front of her face. “For your information, this was breast milk. I don’t feed my son formula.” She then walked away and Ana watched until she disappeared in the dark hall. Ana promised herself she would never waste her time arguing with that woman again. It was too infuriating.
Melodie put Thomas in his crib and sat on the bed with a heavy sigh. “What’s wrong with me?” she asked a sleeping Thomas. What was it about that woman that made her act this way? She’d never been one of those idiots who thought global warming and climate change were not really happening. She’d been environmentally conscious all of her life. She took pride in living in a community where each home had three garbage cans: one for trash, one for recycling, and one for composting. She always made sure everything they discarded went to the proper bin, driving her grandmother and her dad crazy at times. She used LED light bulbs, didn’t drive her car unless she absolutely had to, and watched her usage of water and electricity as closely as possible. Yet she’d felt compelled to question the validity of Ana’s studies. Why? Because she was threatening their way of living, that’s why. She would do a lot for the sake of the environment, but she couldn’t face the possibility that it might not be enough. That it might be too late. Ana had to be wrong about that.
She grabbed her tablet from the nightstand and opened the Internet. She typed in “solutions against rising sea levels” and started reading the results. She couldn’t believe Ana was right about relocation being the best option, but she had to come up with better arguments than simply denying what she knew was really happening. She’d looked like an ignorant idiot, and that was not the impression she wanted to give Ana.
She also needed to find out about that land up the hill her grandmother had purchased. Why hadn’t she heard about this before? More importantly, why was she learning of it from Ana Bloom?
Chapter Ten
Melodie walked into the lobby and tried to close the door behind her, but Kevin pushed it open with his hand and followed her inside. She took off her winter jacket and undressed Thomas. “Don’t you dare wake him up. He always sleeps through breakfast and I want to keep it that way.” She glanced at the dining room and saw that Ana was already seated at the same table she’d picked the day before, sipping on coffee. The Tremblays hadn’t shown up yet, but it was barely past seven.
“Let me take him to my parents’ this weekend and I won’t wake him up.”
He wouldn’t let it go. He’d waited for her in the parking lot of the church and had followed her all the way back to the inn, badgering her about letting him take Thomas for the weekend. His brother and sisters were coming down f
rom Montreal for a family gathering and he wanted to introduce them to Thomas. She clicked her tongue and sighed with resignation. “Fine. But you better not cancel on me this time.”
“I won’t. I promise,” he replied with a cocky grin.
Yvonne met them in the lobby with a panicked expression on her face. “Where have you been?” she whispered. “I know you love these walks of yours but you can’t be late every day. Breakfast starts at seven, not a quarter after.”
“It’s his fault. He keeps bothering me when all I want to do is walk in peace.” She put Thomas in the bassinet while Yvonne turned her attention to Kevin.
“Good morning, Kevin. I trust you’re doing well? And your parents?”
“We’re all good, thanks Mrs. Beaulieu. And just so you know, I’m only bothering Melodie because she won’t let me see my son.”
“Is that so?” Yvonne said with a scowl toward Melodie.
“Oh shut up, Kev. I said you could have him this weekend, didn’t I? Now let me through so I can get to the kitchen.”
“Great, I’ll call you at the end of the week.”
“Sure, now get out of here.” She pushed him out and closed the door behind him before she rushed to the kitchen, followed by her grandmother.
As soon as they were alone behind the closed kitchen door, Yvonne started nagging, following her around as she took out the ingredients she would need to make breakfast and lined them up on the counter top. “Why are you giving him such a hard time? Don’t you want Thomas to know his father?”
“Of course I want him to know his father. But I also wanted to make sure he doesn’t cancel on me again. He has to take this seriously.”
“As seriously as you take our guests? Ana has been waiting for fifteen minutes.”
Melodie took a deep breath and turned to her grandmother. She placed her hands on the shorter woman’s shoulders and looked her in the eye when she said in a firm but reassuring tone, “Mammie, I’m here now. Everything will be okay. Do you know what she wants yet?”
“No, but I’ll go find out.”
“Perfect.”
She took out her favorite pan and she was ready to go when Yvonne came back. “She wants the yogurt today. The Tremblays just came down so I’ll come back with their order in a minute.” Yvonne went back to the dining room and Melodie grabbed a tulip shaped glass dish in which she put Greek yogurt and a generous layer of fresh berries before she sprinkled her homemade granola mix on top. She handed the dish to her grandmother when she came back, asking for eggs Benedict and a croissant with homemade jams for the Tremblays.
She prepared their orders and followed Yvonne through the kitchen door when she took the plates full of food to their table. Satisfied to see that Ana was still seated and slowly eating her breakfast, she hurried to her room to get the article she’d printed the night before. She stopped at Ana’s table on her way back to the kitchen. “No eggs Benedict today?” she asked politely.
“No. They’re delicious, but their richness is something I indulge in only once a week.”
“Wow, it must be exhausting to be in control like that all the time.” She closed her eyes. Why did she have to say that? Why was it that everything this woman did got on her nerves? Why should she care if she ate yogurt every morning for the rest of her life?
“Not really. It merely takes discipline.”
“Discipline, right.” She successfully swallowed every snippy remark she was dying to let out in that moment and focused on the reason why she’d stopped at her table in the first place. “Anyway, I wanted to give you this article I found last night. I’d like to know what you think about it.” She put the article she’d printed on both sides of two pieces of letter-size paper on the table.
“Okay. I’ll take a look after breakfast.”
“Great, thanks.” She managed to smile at Ana before she went to clean up the kitchen. When their guests were done with their plates, Yvonne joined her. They got into their routine without talking. Yvonne did dishes and Melodie prepped food for the following morning. “Are you going for a walk with her today?”
“Yes.”
“You can go and get ready if you want. I can finish on my own.”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course. Sorry I was late. It won’t happen again.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” Yvonne said with a wink as she removed her apron and hung it on a wooden hook on the wall. Melodie was relieved to see she’d calmed down and her sense of humor was back.
Yvonne was about to open the kitchen door when Melodie dared asking the question that had been burning her tongue all morning, “Is it true you bought a piece of land up the hill?”
“Yes,” her grandmother answered tentatively without turning around.
“Why? Did you want to move the inn up there?”
Yvonne sighed and finally turned to her. “Yes. I bought it after our house was ruined. I thought the government would help us relocate. I wanted to save the history in this place, Melodie. Our family history. This inn means more to me than the land it’s on. You understand?”
Melodie nodded. She did understand, but she couldn’t imagine the White Sheep Inn anywhere else. “But what is this place without the sea, Mammie? People don’t come here for squeaky beds, you know.”
It was her grandmother’s turn to nod. “You might be right. It’s too late for me to make this happen anyway. The land up the hill will eventually be yours too, though. So it will be up to you to decide. Maybe we could go see it together and I can explain what I had in mind?”
“I guess that wouldn’t hurt,” she agreed with a smile. Yvonne squeezed her hand and left the kitchen. She owed it to her to at least listen to what she’d envisioned for the future of the White Sheep Inn, especially now that she was reassured she’d made those plans long before Ana Bloom came into their lives.
Ana took the article to her room and read all of it as she lay in bed. She had time before she had to meet Yvonne for their walk with Miller and the article wasn’t long. It discussed several scientists’ ideas to protect the community against storm surges. It talked about building a protective wall in a mix of steel, stone, and concrete. The material would be strong enough to resist storm surges, yet flexible enough to allow more creative shapes that could be inspired by nature. An engineer even mentioned the possibility of adding turbines to the structures, giving them another purpose by producing green energy. These were not bad ideas, but they were not new to Ana. They wouldn’t change her mind and her preference for the retreat strategy.
The reason why she’d read the entire article was not for its informative nature, but because Melodie had given it to her. She didn’t go as far as taking it as a peace offering. On the contrary, Melodie was clearly trying to convince her that there were better solutions than to move away from the beach. The gesture was argumentative, but it gave her hope, nonetheless. It was a way to open an intelligent dialogue. And more importantly, it proved that Melodie had an environmental conscience and knew climate change was real. She’d gone through the trouble of doing her own research and coming up with valid arguments, which earned her Ana’s respect. “So there’s a brain behind those piercing blue eyes after all,” she concluded as she rolled the article in her hands and an unexpected warm current traveled through her veins.
Chapter Eleven
“What kind of dog is he? His markings are very unique,” Ana asked as she threw the ball for Miller again. She propelled it farther than Yvonne did, but not quite as far as she could. The dog was getting used to her distance and found the ball easily.
“He’s a Cardigan Welsh Corgi. And that coloring is called blue merle. I fell in love with him the minute I saw him.”
“Have you always had a dog?” Ana remembered wanting a dog as a child, but her mother travelled too much to be bothered with an animal. A dog would force them to stay put, she’d always tell young Ana. Perhaps that was the real reason she wanted one so badly. Staying put was her ch
ildhood dream, but her mother’s career as a struggling theatre actress didn’t allow it.
“No, Miller is my first pet. I never thought I’d want a dog, but Melodie showed me a picture of these puppies a friend of hers had. She knew I needed company after my Raymond died, and falling in love with another man was out of the question. I couldn’t see myself sharing my life with another human being. Training Miller was much easier.” Yvonne laughed and she joined, enjoying her light humor.
After Miller brought the ball back a few times he panted and Ana took a bottle of water out of her backpack. It was a special kind of bottle she’d purchased at a pet shop in Rimouksi the day before. It had a foldable dispenser the clerk had promised would make it easy for a dog to drink. She bent down and Miller lapped water out of the dispenser, proving the clerk had been right. Yvonne laughed again. “Oh wow, isn’t that convenient? Where did you get that? Do you have a dog at home?”
“No, I got it for Miller. If we’re going to help him lose that extra weight we need to keep him hydrated, don’t we? You can have it when I leave.”
Ana straightened up and Yvonne squeezed her arm. “That’s so thoughtful of you. Thank you.” Her eyes were the same color as Melodie’s, but there was so much more warmth in her gaze. She seemed genuinely grateful, and Ana felt warmth in her cheeks despite the cold sea air.
“It’s nothing, really.” She wasn’t used to gratitude. She’d taken care of her mother in one way or another for as long as she could remember, but Constance had never shown the same appreciation Yvonne so easily communicated through her words, her eyes, and her smile. She shook her head. She’d barely thought about her mother since the funeral, yet this short walk with Yvonne had surfaced memories of her twice already. What was that about? She didn’t want to think about Constance. She focused on the sea, which was slightly calmer today. The frigid wet air hit her face, and she heard the sound of her boots on the thin layer of snow that had fallen overnight.
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