by Tonya Kappes
“What else?” Poppy was curious to see what this Judy Pickens had done to set Elizabeth off in a frenzy.
“A damn cabinet with canned jars on every shelf.” Elizabeth shook the glass, letting the ice cubes clink against the sides. “You got something stronger than tea?”
“Wait.” Poppy shook her head. She wanted answers before she looked for something to put in Elizabeth’s tea so she would answer her with a sound mind. “Why did you come here? Shouldn’t you be telling Troy all this?”
“I just didn’t know where to go. I certainly couldn’t tell Troy. He’d keel over.” Elizabeth’s nose curled. “I’m not gonna lie; I knew you and your husband had a fight and you went nuts, blowing the house up and all.”
“Wait, I didn’t blow my house up.” Any idea about what Poppy had done being a secret had just blown up in her face.
“You know small-town gossip.” She waved and rubbed the tears from her cheeks. “After you left the Hair Depot this mornin’, everyone was talking about how they’d heard something about it on a show.”
“And how did we get on the subject of me?” Poppy asked.
The conversation had turned, making Poppy uncomfortable. She got up and walked over to the stray and her kittens. They were asleep in a tight, furry ball so she decided not to bother them.
“It makes me feel better talking about your issues.” Elizabeth always had a hand in everyone’s business but her own. “Because if you can do it, I can do it.”
“I am the last role model you need.” Now Poppy needed that stiff drink.
Another knock at the door startled Poppy.
“Lily Jane!” Elizabeth jumped up and ran to the door, not a bit shocked someone was there.
“What on earth are you doing at the Coach’s farm?” The familiar voice of Poppy’s high school best friend made Poppy stop in her tracks. When Elizabeth returned to the family room with Lily Jane, the two old friends stared at each other.
Lily Jane had a cold, hard-pinched expression on her face, clearly not as happy to see Poppy as Elizabeth was in the aisle of Walmart earlier today.
“Poppy.” Lily Jane cleared her throat. “I didn’t know you were in town.”
“Enough about her!” Elizabeth shoved past Lily Jane. “I called you for me. Me.” Elizabeth jabbed her own fingernail into her chest.
Lily Jane looked at Poppy, who shrugged.
“I’ll put some coffee on.” Poppy didn’t want to offer up any cocktails. She knew them too well, even after not seeing them for ten years, knew they’d stay up all night drinking.
“Can you put a little extra something in mine?” Lily Jane called after Poppy when she left the room, leaving the two friends alone.
“What the hell are you doing here? With her?” Lily Jane spat.
Poppy silently waited in the hall, listening in.
“I don’t know. I saw her in Walmart this morning and her hair. Oh my Gawd, Lily Jane, it was awful. She looked flat worn-out tired and that bleached blond hair was a hog’s mess.” Elizabeth sniffed. “I heard she threw a big hissy fit and burned down her house. I tried that Siri radio.”
“Sirius radio?” Lily Jane was always one to correct someone, and that was one thing Poppy had hated about her.
“You know what I mean.” Elizabeth’s voice was flat. “Anyway, I heard she was sent off to some mental institution with like a padded room and stuff.”
“So you see little Miss Too Good For Hudson Hollow and think you want that life now too?” Lily Jane asked. “Clearly she’s here for a reason. Where is her big-shot, family horse husband? Have you asked her that?”
Lily Jane’s words stung Poppy. She’d known they felt this way about her, but they’d never said it to her face.
“No. I reckon she’ll tell us what happened in her own time,” Elizabeth said.
“Well, whatever happened to her, she’ll pout a few days and then go back to her rich life. You won’t see her for another ten years.” Lily Jane whispered, “Enough time wasted talking about her. We need to get your head on straight.”
“My head is on straight. I saw that cute cabinet used for jarring.” Elizabeth spat out the words.
“That is what a cabinet is for.” Lily wasn’t giving her an inch. “Now Troy Simpson is a catch, and if you don’t keep him, some girl in this holler will. Do you hear me?” Lily Jane’s words were demanding. “Then you’ll be left all alone for the rest of your life. There are slim pickin’s in Hudson Hollow. You know it and I know it.”
Poppy had had enough. She tiptoed to the kitchen and absentmindedly made a pot of coffee, adding an extra scoop. She was exhausted from no sleep in the past twenty-four hours, working on the farm, and mentally processing everything going on in her life.
“Did you go harvest them coffee beans?” Lily Jane walked into the kitchen with Elizabeth behind her. “Or were you too busy listening to us?”
“You know what?” Poppy planted her hands on the counter. “I’m sorry I left you in college all alone. I’m sorry a communications degree was not an option at school, but I knew what I wanted to do in life and I had to do it.”
Poppy and Lily Jane were thick as thieves in high school. They had even decided to go away to college together and be roommates. They were going to become teachers while their boyfriends became coaches. Brett and Scooter were best friends and obviously still were.
“You up and left in the middle of the night right before we were supposed to go to college. No note, no nothing. And Brett.” Lily Jane’s eyes grew wide open. “I can’t even describe what you put him through.”
“I don’t need this.” Poppy put her hand up. She wasn’t about to get into something that was so long ago. She went down the cabinets, opening all the doors and slamming them shut. “To hell with coffee. Where is it?” She opened cabinet doors, one after the other, looking for something more than coffee to take the sting of the day away.
“Oh, we will get into this right here, right now.” Lily Jane stood between Poppy and the last stretch of the cabinets. She stuck her finger in the middle of Poppy’s chest and dug her fingernail into her skin. “Who the hell do you think you are? You grew up in Hudson Hollow just like us and you go off. . .”
“You’re just jealous that you didn’t get out of here,” Poppy spat, shoving Lily Jane out of the way and popping one of the cabinets open. “Where the hell is it?”
“Jealous? Jealous of what?” Lily Jane chuckled with a dry and cynical sound. “That lying, cheating husband of yours who stuck you right in the crazy house?”
“I saw your face at my wedding!” The images of Lily Jane and Elizabeth were ingrained in her brain.
“Really, guys.” Elizabeth stepped in. “I brought us all here because I need you. This is about me.”
“Shut up!” Poppy and Lily Jane yelled at Elizabeth in unison.
“Your wedding? What a joke!” Lily Jane threw her hands in the air. “You tried to have class and be all socialite when the closest thing to social you ever did was go to the Pony Keg with a fake ID when we were in high school.” Lily Jane twirled around and curtsied before rolling up on her toes with her nose in the air. “You really thought you were something, trying to make everyone jealous by putting on that fancy wedding, but we didn’t care or think it was pretty.” She gestured between herself and Elizabeth.
“Well, I kinda thought it was pretty.” Elizabeth shrugged.
“Stop being a wuss, Elizabeth, just because you think Poppy—or should I say Harper Ellington?—is a star. A fallen star.” An evil laugh exploded from Lily’s wide-open mouth. “Honey, let me tell you.” Lily Jane pointed to Poppy. “That star is burned out. This,” she twirled her finger around Poppy, “is no better than me or you. And we’ve never burned a house down. So that’s saying something.”
“I want to burn Troy’s house,” Elizabeth whispered. “Nasty thing. I’ll never, ever be able to get the piss smell out of the grout next to the shitter.”
“Get out!” Poppy screamed.
She crouched down and opened one of the bottom cabinets. “Violà!” She stuck her hand in the cabinet and curled her hand around a Mason jar, pulling it out. “This will drown you out!” Poppy unscrewed the tin lid of the Mason jar and took a big swig of the moonshine.
“Give me that.” Lily Jane grabbed the aged moonshine out of Poppy’s hand to take her own big gulp. “If anyone needs this it’s me.”
“What the hell is wrong with you two?” Elizabeth glared at them. Her face was blotted red and her nose was a bit swollen. “I’m supposed to walk down the aisle in a couple of weeks when I don’t want to and you two are getting drunk when it should be me.”
Poppy and Lily Jane continued to pass the glass jar between them. Poppy didn’t know how old the moonshine was. All she knew was that it was old and strong, and she recalled how she was hiding under her weeping willow tree and the Coach had found her to go retrieve the shine.
“Come on.” The Coach had parted the thick, dangling branches. “We’ve got to go to the school. Them boys are going to be the death of me,” he had told her.
When they got to the high school, the Coach led the way into the boys’ locker room, where he searched all the lockers. He had gotten word that some of the boys on his baseball team had been drinking and hid their stash in the locker room lockers, where no one ever went but them and the Coach. The team was in the state tournament and if any of them had gotten caught drinking or even having the stuff on school property, they would’ve been suspended and there would’ve been no state title.
His informant had been right: There were two bottles of moonshine and a few packs of cigs. Poppy didn’t know why he didn’t dump them. She watched him take them home and put them in the kitchen, though she couldn’t remember which cabinet. She could only imagine the boys’ faces when they came back to get their stash and found it had been taken.
“Tree,” Poppy gasped and grabbed the jar from Lily Jane, screwing the lid on, bringing herself out of her memories.
“Where in Sam Hill are you going?” Elizabeth screamed at Poppy after she grabbed the flashlight off the windowsill and opened the back door. “If you think I’m going to go out there in that lightning storm and stand under some damned old tree, you are crazier than I thought.”
“Well, I did burn down a million-dollar mansion, so you be the judge.” The palm of Poppy’s hand hit the wood frame of the kitchen’s screen door and disappeared into the angry night.
Lily Jane followed her into the damp midnight air.
“I might catch cold!” Elizabeth stood at the door with her hands on her hips, screaming at them. “What about me? I’m the one who needs to be comforted!” She squinted, trying to see through the dark.
“Don’t you worry about Troy!” Poppy called, lifting the glass up in the air. “You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig,” she said. “And you don’t need him! You have us!”
“Don’t listen to her! She’ll be gone in an eye wink. And you won’t see it coming!” Lily Jane screamed and continued to follow Poppy.
Poppy stormed off in the direction of the tree. It was in the field behind the house and she hadn’t been there since she’d driven into town, and Lily Jane following her wasn’t how she wanted to visit her old friend.
“Leave!” Poppy yelled through the beating raindrops. Her hair was flat against her head and clinging to her face. “I don’t need you here.”
“I’m not leaving until I’ve said my piece!” Lily Jane yelled, stomping closely behind her.
“I bet you must be worn out carrying that grudge around after all these years,” Poppy spat. She dragged the heel of her foot with each step to make sure the mud splashed up behind her and right onto Lily.
The rain pelted down, distant lighting strikes lit up the sky, and angry thunder ripped. Poppy didn’t care. She marched right through the weeds and rain, relieved to see that the weeping willow was still there.
“You aren’t a teenager anymore. You can’t run under that damn tree and hide from the world like you used to.” Lily Jane reached out and grabbed Poppy, flipping her around. “You are going to face me once and for all.”
For a brief moment, Poppy and Lily Jane glared at each other, something both of them had wanted for so many years. The years of memories and friendship flowed between them. Both remembering all the good times. Both remembering all the bad times. Both remembering all the heartaches.
“You better pull that nose down or you’re going to drown in this rain,” Lily Jane insulted Poppy.
“Have you lost your marbles? I don’t even know you after all these years.” Poppy didn’t like being called stuck-up.
When she looked at Lily Jane, she didn’t see the woman actually before her. She saw the young, high-pitch voiced teenage best friend who had lay on Poppy’s bed with her hair in pigtails, legs up in the air doing leg lifts, telling her about losing her virginity to Scooter. Of all people. Scooter.
Lily Jane was the first of the three best friends to lose her virginity. It wasn’t long after that when Poppy and Brett had sex in the foyer of the old farmhouse.
Poppy gulped back the memory, waiting for Lily Jane to respond. With the rain beating down even harder, Poppy slowly turned, parted the branches, and walked under the umbrella of dryness and plopped down, resting her back against the trunk.
The smell of the wet branches, the dry needles, and the farm-fresh air flew up her nose as the bitter taste of moonshine slide down her throat. If she could drink away the last twenty-four hours—hell, the last few days—she would give it a good college try.
Lily Jane parted the branches and walked in, plopping down next to Poppy. She took the glass jar from her and scooted back on her butt, planting her back against the trunk next to her. “Give me that. I never thought I’d ever be under here again. Especially not this morning when I woke up.”
“Trust me when I say me either.” Poppy’s shoulders jumped when she laughed. “I mean me. Not you. Well, you too, but I never thought I’d be here in Hudson Hollow. My, oh my, how things change on a dime.”
“Why did you come back?” Lily Jane took a drink and handed it to Poppy. “I mean after all this time?”
“Honestly?” Poppy didn’t want to tell Lily Jane. But even after the fight they had had years ago and the distance between them all these years, Poppy still felt a safety with Lily Jane.
“Yes.” Lily Jane took another drink.
“I don’t know. One minute I was sitting on the bed of the mental facility staring out at the stars and praying, and then the next thing I knew the Coach was breaking me out.” Poppy smiled, thinking about what had been happening just twenty-four hours earlier.
“He broke you out?” Lily Jane’s jaw dropped. A contagious smile crossed her lips. “So that’s where he went.”
That was the thing about Lily Jane. She always knew how to make Poppy smile by just smiling at her. Lily Jane was better than any comfort food for Poppy.
“From what Scooter said, you showed up at the bus station and called the nursing home for Coach.” Lily Jane shoved the Mason jar toward Poppy.
Poppy waved it away. She was already feeling the effects of the potent hooch.
“Because that is what I told Scooter after I put two and two together about the Coach. Can you believe my parents didn’t tell me about him? I don’t even know the full prognosis, but I’m bringing him home tomorrow.” Poppy was still determined to bring him home.
“So you are staying?” Lily Jane asked. “For good?”
“I don’t know.” Poppy shook her head and rested the back of her head on the trunk of the tree.
“If you aren’t staying, don’t take him. He already is confused about where he is and why he is there. Hell.” Lily Jane took another drink. “He’s broken out of there six times. I keep changing his meds.”
“You keep changing his meds?” Poppy looked over at Lily Jane.
“You don’t know.” Lily Jane gasped. “I’m your papaw’s doctor, as well as every
one else’s in Hudson Hollow”
“No shit?” Poppy was floored. “I don’t think I ever heard you even mention you wanted to be a doctor. Last I heard, you wanted to be Scooter’s wife.” Poppy nudged Lily Jane.
“Oh, God.” Lily Jane laughed and put the Mason jar between her legs. “If only we had the stress of those days again.”
“No, thank you.” Poppy recalled, “How many times did I drive to the drugstore to get you a pregnancy test?”
“A million, but you loved it. It was a sick way to get back at your mom and you know it.” Lily Jane crossed her arms.
“Give me.” Poppy waved her hand toward the shine.’ “You are tee-totally right.” She pointed at Lily with her pointer finger, the jar grasped by the others.
She took a swig and let her mind float back to all the times she’d gone to get a pregnancy test for Lily Jane, and before she even got home the cashier had already called Poppy’s mom and tattled on her. Then it would spread like wildfire that Poppy was pregnant. She’d enjoyed toying with her mother, who she caught on a fairly regular basis on her cell phone. There was only one time the pregnancy test was actually for her. Thank God it was negative or her life would have been completely different.
“So.” Lily Jane’s mouth formed an O. “Are we calling a truce for Elizabeth’s sake?”
“Truce.” Poppy didn’t see any other way out Of it. If she weren’t in this situation, she wouldn’t be here. So she’d better make the best of what she’d got. All she had was this farm. “Now tell me about my papaw’s condition.”
Chapter Fifteen
It would’ve been the best night’s sleep Poppy had had in a couple of weeks if it weren’t for waking up from the banging on the door matching the banging in her head.
“I’m coming.” Poppy stumbled off the couch, stepping over a snoring Lily Jane. The house was filled with the smell of bacon.
She rubbed the hair out of her eyes and suddenly remembered the night before, but not the part about how she and Lily Jane had made it back to the house. There were bit and pieces missing, and the empty Mason jar on the foyer table was the cause of the amnesia.