Celadon was reaching a broom under the kitchen table in an effort to sweep up the dozens of glittery foil candy wrappers littering the floor. Despite the mess, the smell of freshly baked bread filled the air. Even though most nights Grandma fixed meals like she was running a logging camp this was a bit early in the day for her to get started. I had to wonder if she knew about Jade’s visit even if Jade thought she had kept it a secret.
I sidled over to the pie safe and peeked through the door. Sure enough, a lemon meringue with the mile-high meringue sat on the middle shelf. Lemon meringue—Jade’s favorite. On the top shelf there was a triple chocolate ecstasy cake, Celadon’s preferred dessert.
I squatted down to check the bottom shelf. It was hard to tell what I was seeing through the screen. I pressed my nose closer and inhaled. That clinched it. Gingerbread. My favorite. Grandma definitely knew about Jade. And being the grandmother she was she didn’t want to show favorites with desserts. Sure, she could have made Grampa’s favorite, crème caramel with a maple sauce, but she didn’t. She was trying to sweeten us all up and make us get along. We were in trouble.
“Grandma, are you expecting even more guests for dinner tonight?” I asked, shooting Celadon a loaded look behind our grandmother’s back.
“What gives you that idea, my dear?” she asked. The fact that she had not answered my question had not escaped my notice. Nor had the fact she kept her back turned toward me as she posed one of her own instead. Grandma doesn’t make a habit of lying as far as I have ever noticed but she never seems to feel obligated to tell truths she deems hurtful or none of your business. I wasn’t sure which she felt the news of Jade’s arrival would be but I was sure it was one of the two.
“You only make more than one dessert on special occasions. You only make this combination of desserts on particularly memorable occasions.” I pointed at the pie safe.
“Are you asking me a question?” This time, Grandma turned and gave me a firm stare. The stare that asked if I was sure I wanted to pursue my line of inquiry. It was the last chance she would give me before the gloves came off. Celadon saw it, too, and must have been in a charitable mood because she stepped up and took one for the team.
“What are you two talking about?” she asked.
“Knowlton says Jade is in town and that she’s here to stay,” I said. “She’s the one who bought the general store and she’s opening up a winery.”
“A winery? If she wanted to run a winery, why not stick with the one her parents own in California?” Celadon made a good point. There were some wineries in New Hampshire but grapes aren’t what the state is best known for. Staying where it was warmer should have made the most sense. Except for one thing.
“She’s opening a sap wine winery. You know, wine made from maple sap.” We’d made it at Greener Pastures a few times ourselves on a small scale. It was light flavored and refreshing. As much as I hated to admit it, Jade might be onto something.
“How did you know she was here? And why didn’t you tell us?” Celadon was going to be the grandmother staring her family down one day, that much was clear. I could see a flicker of pride chase a flash of annoyance across Grandma’s face.
“It would behoove you girls to remember very little goes on in this town that I haven’t heard about before most other people. That goes triple for things relating to my own family. Wesley Farnum knows when to keep his lips sealed and when to open them back up again. Jade’s project was a small one. The jobs here at the farm just keep cropping up.”
“And you didn’t give us any warning?” Celadon’s voice took on a plaintive note much like a peevish toddler. If I didn’t know better I would have said we were still shorter than the countertop and being denied the chance to lick a batter bowl.
“Would it have made you happier to dread this day for the past few weeks? I think that I’ve done you both a favor.”
“But where will she stay? We should have had time to prepare a place for her before she just descended on us.” Celadon’s voice tends to screech when she gets upset. My ears were starting to burn with the pitch of it.
“You make your cousin sound like a horde of locusts.”
“She does tend to make a lot of noise and leave a path of devastation in her wake,” I added, not wanting to leave Celadon all alone to take on Grandma. It was foolish of course, but the novel pleasure of siding with my sister was too alluring to resist.
“That’s enough out of the pair of you. You haven’t grown up a bit, either one of you, when it comes to Jade. She’s family and we will treat her as such. As a matter of fact I want you to go into town right now and make her feel welcomed. Let her know I’m making her favorites for dinner.” Grandma turned back to the carrots and left us to sort ourselves out. There was no court of higher appeal. Jade was here to stay and we would just have to lump it.
Six
We drove to town without speaking. I parked the minivan on the side of the road opposite the winery. I started to open the door to get out and get it over with when I felt Celadon clutch my arm.
“Would it be wrong to hide my daughter in the attic for the rest of her life and to tell Jade we sent her to boarding school?”
“It would be better to hide Spring at Piper’s. Or maybe Tansey would let her move in. She needs cheering up.”
“I’m not sure Tansey is a better influence than Jade. I mean, look how Knowlton turned out.” Celadon had a point there. Knowlton still lived at home with Tansey and he spent his days stuffing roadkill and posing them in lifelike ways. His devotion to Celadon and myself verged on stalking. His worship of Jade crossed the line into religious ecstasy.
“Besides we’d miss her too much if she was away and then we’d run into Knowlton all the time when we visited.”
“I’m just going to have to put my foot down and tell her Spring is not a life-size doll.”
“That would be the mature thing to do.” That did it. Reminding Celadon she was the mature one always moved her to action. She pried her fingers off my arm and stepped out onto the sidewalk. I followed her lead and headed for the shop.
I had to hand it to Jade—the girl had guts and big plans. Staring through the window, I realized I was impressed. I didn’t want to be but I was anyway. The whole place just oozed of class and chic. From the gleaming patina on the wooden bar to the glint on the stainless steel barrels you felt like you were drowning in something a bit too good for real life. And there in the middle of it all was Jade, also a bit too good to be real.
Her hair was always just that little bit shinier, her eyes a bit brighter, her teeth naturally more even. She was five foot six in her stocking feet and you can bet there was a perfect pedicure hidden under those socks. She spun around to face the window as if feeling my stare and when she saw us, she waved a slim, tanned hand to beckon us in. My hand hadn’t been darker than buttermilk since October.
I swallowed hard and looked over at Celadon. Her jaw flexed and popped. She threw her shoulders back, reached out without looking for my arm, and dragged me along behind her as she pushed through the door.
“Now how could we throw a proper welcome if we had no idea you were coming?” Celadon said, making a beeline for Jade.
“And spoil the surprise? No way!” Jade leaned in and gave Celadon a peck on the cheek. “What do you think?”
“I think you managed to surprise us, all right.” Celadon swiveled her head to take it all in. I could just hear the calculator tape whirling in her head as she totaled up the cost of the high-end materials and the ingredients for the product.
“Isn’t it just beautiful?” Jade looked like she actually wanted to know what we thought. That was a first. As far as I could remember Jade had charted her own course and told others how they should chart theirs.
One of the most memorable examples of this was one summer when she advised my father to begin waxing his back if he wanted to be al
lowed to take her to the lake any longer. I seemed to remember her spending a lot of time alone at the house while the rest of us splashed and dove next to my furry father. But here she was ten years later setting up shop in a town full of men who would no more consider waxing their backs than they would flossing their teeth with a chainsaw.
I had to wonder what exactly had happened to either drive or tug her in our direction. After all, the closest high-end department store was more than thirty miles away and that was if you considered a place that sold tractors in addition to bras and washing machines high-end.
If you were in need of an establishment that carried socks that retailed for over twenty dollars per pair you were looking at a much longer hike than that. I asked myself if Jade had suffered from a traumatic brain injury. You know, the kind of thing that wiped out memory and even personality.
“It’s got tons of eye appeal. It must have been a lot of work getting this set up. Especially since you did it long-distance,” I said. Jade looked so eager for approval I couldn’t just leave her dangling there. And what I said was true. The shop was beautiful. It looked just like the sort of thing she would design. In fact, even if I hadn’t known she was responsible for it I would have had a queasy feeling in my gut that she was behind it all somehow.
“Thanks. It was a lot of work but it was tremendous fun, too. Now, I am hoping it will be even more fun to run. And I managed to get it up and running in time for the festival next month.”
“I wanted to speak to you about the festival. Specifically the pageant.” Celadon was starting to use the tone she always did with Mom when she wasn’t about to listen to any more nonsense about astral projection or tarot cards.
“I won’t have any time to worry about the pageant this year. I’ll be much too busy running my business.”
“So you are planning to stay and operate it yourself?” Celadon asked. I heard her jaw pop again and the temperature in the room dropped by a few degrees. I could almost see Celadon’s breath in the air as the words left her lips.
“I am. It was time for a change and I knew exactly what I wanted to turn my hand to next. I’ve always had a soft spot for Sugar Grove and with all the free sap from the family trees I’m bound to make a go of it.” Jade turned one of her high-wattage smiles full force on me. I was trying to keep my own smile from slipping off my face but I could feel it moving southward like drips from an ice cream cone on a sunny August afternoon.
“Free sap from the family trees? Have you talked this over with Grampa or Grandma?” I asked.
“What’s there to talk about?” Jade shook her head at me and rolled her eyes.
“Congratulations on all your hard work. Will you be coming by the house for dinner? Our grandmother’s making all your favorites,” Celadon asked as she dug her fingers into my elbow in her preferred way of letting me know I should be quiet.
“Well, of course I will. Hazel’s picking me up at closing time and bringing me and some of my stuff over.”
“What kind of stuff?” I asked, hoping I hadn’t a clue.
“Clothing, makeup, personal possessions.” Jade rolled her eyes again. “You know, the stuff you keep in the place where you live.”
“So you’re intending to live at Greener Pastures?” I asked.
“Where else would I live?”
“And where do you expect to be sleeping?” I asked but I was pretty sure the answer would be the same as it had been for all the years we were growing up.
“Your room, of course.” Jade rolled her eyes again. “Or should I say our room.”
“Since you’re planning to be here awhile you might want to get Doc MacIntyre to take a look at your eyeballs. They seem to be rattling round loose in your head.” With that Celadon dragged me back out of the store and halfway down the block before releasing my elbow.
* * *
“I don’t know about you but I can’t go home yet,” Celadon said. “I know I’ll say something I’ll regret, most likely to Grandma. And it isn’t like this is her fault.”
“You need a distraction.”
“Usually I’d stop in at the opera house and check on the work but with progress being held up by the body in the cellar I am at loose ends.”
“Why don’t I drop you off at the town hall anyway for a couple of hours? You can make a call to Wesley Farnum. The only good news this morning was that since he’s done at Jade’s he might be available to work on the restoration project. When you’re done with that you could head over to the library.”
“Where are you going?”
“I promised Knowlton I would look in on Tansey since he says she isn’t doing too well after her fall. But I need to stop in at the doc’s place first. I want to find out if Tansey’ll be up for some visitors or if I should wait awhile. Did you want to go to Doc’s, too?”
“Certainly not. I couldn’t possibly take Jade and Yahtzee all in one morning.” We drove a couple of blocks to the town hall and Celadon hopped out.
“I’ll pick you up in a couple of hours.” I waved and drove off toward the puzzle shop for a bribe for the doctor.
* * *
Doc MacIntyre’s house sat two streets back from the main road through town. The location was convenient for him and for the patients who had reason to visit his office. The doc made a lot of house calls, too. With no public transportation system in Sugar Grove, or much of the state, truth be told, he often tended to the elderly in their own homes.
I slid the Midget into a spot at the far side of the parking area and checked my purse for the pad of Yahtzee score sheets I knew I’d need to offer to have a chance of loosening the doctor’s lips. Every man has a price. Some will sell their souls for booze and some for the promises of affection from a pretty young woman. For others, their sweet tooth leads them around like a pig with a nose ring.
For the doc it was his unquenchable desire to play Yahtzee. It was never a good idea to show up healthy, or even just a little bit sick at the doctor’s office without urgent business that needed you elsewhere or you’d better be prepared to play a few rounds.
I pushed open the hot pink door of his office and almost tripped over his big tomcat, Brutus. People with a cat allergy usually choose to go to the doctor in the next town over because Brutus is always in the office, sometimes even in the exam room, depending on how much he likes the patient. Brutus isn’t too particular. He likes most people. We’ve always gotten along just fine. For which I am grateful, considering his size.
Brutus is not a cat you’d be wise to offend. He’s twenty-five pounds of fluff-covered muscle. Once he got fleas so bad the doctor had him shaved. With all his fur gone he looked like a competitive bodybuilder on one of the sports channels whenever he walked around the room.
I bent down to give him a pat, then listened for the doctor’s booming voice from inside his exam room. Upon hearing it I took a seat in the tiny waiting room and picked up a ragged copy of Reader’s Digest. Before I had finished increasing my word power Doc yanked open the exam room door and ushered William Foley out through it.
Will scowled at me but I didn’t take it to heart. His face is just one of those permanently set in a scowl and he doesn’t mean anything by it. I’ve seen his wedding photos. He scowled at his bride, Eunice, through all of them. They’ve been married fifty-four years and according to Eunice, he’s never said a cross word to her in all that time.
“You let me know if that ointment doesn’t work, now, you hear?” Doc said, thumping William gently on the shoulder. William scowled at him, dipped his head at me in greeting, then shuffled out the door.
“Dani, what brings you by? You haven’t come down with something just as sugaring season is starting up, have you?” The doctor’s voice was completely oversize for the tiny space. If he didn’t lower his volume I was going to have an earache. Or become spontaneously deaf.
“No, no. Nothing lik
e that. I was actually wondering if you’ve spoken to Tansey.”
“About what?”
“Well, she was so upset about Spooner Duffy’s body being found in the town hall I thought she might have ended up needing to see you.”
“Well, even if she did there is no way I could tell you about it. My patient visits are confidential.”
“I didn’t want to pry into her business. I was just worried about her. It isn’t like Tansey at all to be so upset about anything. She’s always such an even-tempered person.”
“Not much fazes her, I will say that.”
“I didn’t want to go over to her house with a Bundt ring and check on her without having a better idea of her mind-set. I wouldn’t want to upset her even further.” I drew the pad of Yahtzee score sheets out of my purse and fanned through them. “I was sort of hoping you might put my mind at ease over a quick game. But, if that would violate your sense of medical ethics I understand.” I moved the pad back to the opening of my bag.
“Now I didn’t say I couldn’t give you any perspective concerning Spooner. He wasn’t here long enough to ever be a patient of mine but he sure did leave an impression on the town.”
“That surprises me. No one seems to remember much about him.” I followed Doc as he left the office and headed for his small, bright kitchen. The woodstove was fired up red-hot and a pot of coffee sent out a delicious smell into the room.
“People remember all right. They just wish they didn’t. You pour us a couple of cups of coffee and I’ll grab the Yahtzee.” He returned before I’d poured half of the first cup, a warm glow on his face and his battered game box clutched to his chest.
“So why would they want to forget a guy who wasn’t even in town long enough to get sick? And how could he have ended up in the basement?”
“Spooner’s real name was Garland. He hitchhiked into town one late fall day with nothing but a backpack on his back and a pair of spoons in his pocket. He stopped in at the Stack Shack and told Glenda and Willis he was looking to do some odd jobs. He liked the look of Sugar Grove, he said, and wanted to stay a little while and needed to make some money.”
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