Cornbread & Crossroads

by Bella Falls

  The second I opened the door, my friends approached me. All the girls swept me up in a big group hug while Ben and Lee waited nearby. I got passed from hug to hug, crying on all of their shoulders until my body hurt from all the weeping.

  “What are y’all doing here?” I asked, wiping snot off with the back of my hand.

  “Granny called in the troops,” Blythe replied, enclosing my shoulders with her arm. “We’re going to come up with a schedule to watch over your grandmother so that she’s never alone.”

  “That way, you and Matt can take breaks whenever you need to,” Alison Kate added.

  Lavender stood next to me with a sour face, staring at the space above my head. Her cousin Lily smacked her arm. “Leave her aura alone. It’s not going to be in the best shape right now no matter what you do.”

  “I can’t help it,” Lavender defended. “I want to do something for Charli.”

  I raised my hand. “Does Charli get a say in that? Tell you what, Lav. Let me go fix everyone some food and maybe after we eat, you and me will go check on Nana and you can work on my aura then.” She didn’t need to know my ulterior motive to have her examine Nana’s aura first.

  Ben waved his arm for me to follow him. “You don’t need to cook anything. Come see.” He led me to the dining room where I found Ada and Mimsy arranging multiple dishes with steaming food in the middle of the table.

  “Y’all didn’t have to make us anything,” I protested, my mouth watering with the aroma of the food hitting my nose.

  Matt grabbed my shoulders from behind and pushed me to find a seat. “They didn’t. People have been dropping off casseroles and all kinds of things. You know that’s our way.” He attempted to seat me at the head of the table, but I refused to sit at Nana’s place. Giving up, he let me take the chair next to it and sat at the head.

  “Yep, if you’re sick, people bring you chicken soup.” Lee passed plates around. “If you get injured, you get a casserole. And you won’t have to eat for weeks if someone in your family passes…” His eyes shot up to mine. “That was callous of me. Sorry.”

  “She’s not dying,” I countered with a little too much vehemence, pushing my empty plate away. If that’s what all the donated food meant, then I didn’t need to eat it.

  Matt patted my hand. “No, she’s not. But she is the head of the town council, so it makes sense that people will want to show their support. And food is the easiest way to do that. Plus, we’ll need to keep our strength up.”

  I glanced at my big brother, begging him with my eyes to reassure me that everything would be okay. When he didn’t, I slumped a little in my seat.

  The rest of my friends busied themselves with filling their plates with the different food. Blythe grabbed mine and scooped a little bit of everything onto it until she placed the heaping mass down in front of me. After unfolding the cloth napkin with an exaggerated shake, she tucked it into my shirt so that it hung down like a bib.

  “I will feed you like a baby if I have to,” she threatened. “But starving yourself isn’t going to make your grandmother get better just like people bringing over food won’t do it either. But we all do what we can and what we need to in order to get through the tough times. So, if I have to make this scoop of mac and cheese fly like an airplane to get you to eat it, I will.”

  I snatched the fork from her and ate the bite all on my own. The cheesy goodness lifted my spirits a tiny fraction. “It’s good,” I admitted, keeping the thought that it wasn’t quite as good as Nana’s to myself.

  Food really did heal the soul, and after a few tense minutes, the conversation flowed much easier. I regaled them with a few details from my trip with Mason but kept the best ones to myself in order to torture them a little.

  “So, were the rumors true?” Lee asked through his bite of chicken and dumplings.

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “Which rumors are you referring to?”

  Blythe tossed a biscuit at him. “I know you’ve been checking out her ring finger, and can already tell they’re not, nosy,” she scolded.

  I held my left hand up in front of me and wiggled my fingers. “Oh, you mean, you want to know if Mason asked me to marry him?”

  “Did he?” Alison Kate exclaimed, ready to burst into squeals.

  “No!” I shouted. “Frosted fairy wings, we haven’t been dating that long, y’all.”

  “I knew I wanted to marry Alison Kate after our first date. It didn’t take me that long to ask her,” Lee declared.

  “Aw, that’s so sweet, Pooks.” My friend leaned close enough to rub her nose against her husband’s.

  Blythe tossed another biscuit, but Lee caught it and stuffed it in his mouth, grinning so she had to look at all the mushed-up crumbs falling out of it.

  Lavender pouted. “I could have sworn he was going to say something important to you.”

  Matt’s knee tapped against mine under the table. I nudged him back, willing to share the big news with my closest friends. “Well, on our last night together, he did surprise me with a fancy dinner all alone with him on a rooftop overlooking the city.”

  The girls oohed and ahhed while the guys nodded in appreciation of the effort.

  I pulled the pendant from underneath my shirt where it had been resting against my skin. “He also gave me this.”

  Lily shot out of her chair and rushed over to inspect the necklace. “That’s really pretty. Moonstone?”

  “And a sapphire. It had been a gift Mason gave to Marian, the woman who was closest to a mother to him, when he graduated from the wardens’ academy,” I explained, rubbing the pendant and wishing Mason were here to give better details.

  “That’s it? He didn’t say anything else?” Lavender pushed with a pout.

  I smirked. “Well, he might have told me he loves me.”

  The girls burst into cheers and congratulations. Lee handed Ben some money.

  “What’s that for?” I asked.

  Ben folded the bill and put it in his pocket. “I bet him Mason wouldn’t propose yet.”

  “Because proposing and getting married are so-o-o scary,” Lily piped up, her brow furrowing for a second. Ben leaned over and whispered something in her ear that got her to stop frowning.

  “Why isn’t your handsome beau back with you?” Mimsy asked, walking around the table to refill drinks and squeezing Lily’s shoulder for comfort.

  I explained the little I’d been told about the Mordecai case and told them about encouraging Mason to stay to see it through. “But it really irks me that he hasn’t called me back yet.”

  “The operation might be serious enough that he can’t,” Matt said. “Although, remember you and I discovered we had trouble communicating with our spell phones, too.”

  “That’s right, when I was traveling back,” I said. “You told me you’d called and my phone says you didn’t. And then I told you I’d texted you, and you never received anything.”

  Lee stopped eating midbite. “Really? Can I see your phones?”

  Matt and I passed our phones down the table to him. While waiting for his analysis, I finished the rest of the food on my plate. Mimsy and Ada cleared the dishes away while we watched our friend swipe our phones, compare, and then use his own to check on things.

  “You’re right. I can see where Matt attempted to call you, but your phone never received it,” Lee said, hunching over the two devices he laid on top of the table. “And the same with the text. Weird. Both have full signal now, so I don’t know what’s happening. Let me call someone to see if we can troubleshoot this.”

  Our friend scooted his chair away from the table and went into the other room with our phones. His voice rose in concern while he talked to someone about the problem.

  Thinking about my brother’s and my missed communications reminded me of my return to Honeysuckle. “Did y’all know that something’s going on with the guards?” After I told them about my encounter with Bagan, I asked the bigger question. “Why would they change their proto
col after so long?”

  Ben straightened in his chair. “More importantly, how did whoever did it exert the authority to do so without Flint’s knowledge?”

  “Bagan said it was the woman in charge. I thought he meant Nana, but it couldn’t have been her.” I looked at my brother in shared sympathy.

  He snorted. “It’s pretty obvious who did it if you think about it. Who would want to divide old residents from the new ones? Who would want a full report given to them to keep tabs on everything?”

  “Aunt Nora,” we both said at the same time.

  Blythe sucked in a gasp. “Ooh, that woman pushes all my buttons. After everything she’s done in the past, why is she all of a sudden asserting her power again?”

  It was a good question, and one I wasn’t sure I wanted to answer. My eyes looked up at the ceiling. “You don’t think…” I trailed off.

  “What, that our aunt did something to Nana?” Matt asked, his face crumbling from defiant denial to suspicion. “She wouldn’t do that, would she? I mean, she’s always been a little awful in her ways, but I don’t think she would stoop so low. She’s family.”

  “To you and me,” I clarified. “And she barely tolerates the notion of me being related to her since it’s not by blood.”

  “But we were there for her with Uncle Philip. Especially Nana,” Matt said, shaking his head. “Aunt Nora may be a lot of things, but I don’t think she would risk everything by trying to hurt our grandmother. Right?” He glanced around at the rest of my friends seated at the table.

  Ben leaned forward and placed both hands on the wooden surface. “If she is involved, then the law will have to get involved. I can’t believe your grandmother never pressed charges against her after her involvement with the Charleston contingency.”

  Matt clicked his tongue. “Nothing would have stuck if we tried to. Although we heard her talk about how Calhoun promised her a rise in power here, there wasn’t any evidence to back it up.”

  Before we could speculate on my aunt’s possible guilt, Lee brought back our phones. “I hate to leave you before we’ve settled on a schedule, but I have to go.”

  “Is there something wrong with our phones?” I asked, holding mine up.

  Lee texted something and frowned while waiting on a response. “It’s the spell phone network around Honeysuckle. I didn’t notice it earlier because I hadn’t tried contacting anyone outside of our town. But I had Dash ride to the border and try calling. It worked before he crossed the barrier but not after. Sorry, but I have to go.”

  He rushed off before I could ask him why Dash was still around. Alison Kate excused herself to go talk to her husband, and the rest of us cleared the table and brought things into the kitchen to help clean up.

  Matt gripped my arm to hold me back so only I could hear him. “I’m serious, I really don’t think Aunt Nora could be behind what’s wrong with Nana. She was Mom’s sister, and that makes her family. And family wouldn’t do anything like that.”

  I loved my brother for wanting to see the best in our kin, but Nora’s ugliness had reared its head far too many times for me to totally dismiss her. But what could I do to prove either of us right? At this point, without Nana at the helm of our town, we needed solid leadership more than ever.

  “You’re right,” I agreed, hoping he wouldn’t be able to detect the lie. “Family is everything.”

  Once my brother got his reassurance, I tried my best to let go of my suspicions about my aunt. However, sometimes when a seed gets planted, it doesn’t take long for it to take root and grow.

  Chapter Nine

  After my friends set up a rotating schedule to help look after Nana, Lavender and I went upstairs to check on my grandmother.

  My sensitive friend did her best to read Nana’s aura. “It’s like I can sense that it’s there, but it’s shrouded behind clouds. I’m sorry, Charli.”

  I gave her a reassuring hug. “It’s okay. Your grandma and Ms. Ada couldn’t get through the fog that surrounds her either.”

  Lavender held onto me tighter. “Whatever’s going on with her, we’ll figure it out. You’re not alone in this.”

  Patting her back, I did my best to keep fresh tears from falling. At this point, if I kept crying, I’d get dehydrated. “Thanks. I truly appreciate all y’all stepping up. I don’t think I could allow many others to do it.”

  She sniffled and released me from her embrace. “We’re family.”

  That word echoed in my mind as she left me to watch over Nana. The one woman who taught me what that word meant and showed me over and over the importance of it. Maybe Matt was right. Our mother’s sister couldn’t be behind whatever was affecting Nana. Family wouldn’t do that to each other no matter what.

  Ada knocked on the doorframe. “Do you mind if I join you?”

  I pushed myself off the side of the bed to greet her. “Of course, you don’t need to ask. You and Ms. Mimsy can come and go as you please. You’ve done so much for her already.”

  Blythe’s grandmother pulled two old wooden chairs and placed them close to the bed. She patted one, inviting me to sit by her. “Vivi’s been our friend for ages. There’s not much the three of us wouldn’t do for each other. I know if the shoe was on my foot, she’d be right there keeping watch over me, too.”

  Her thin fingers wrapped around my hand, and we held onto each other while listening to Nana’s breaths and watching her chest rise and fall.

  After several minutes of worried observation, Ada’s mood changed. “Oh, Blythe told me about your troubles getting in touch with the detective.”

  My fingers sought out the pendant, holding onto it for comfort. “I know he’s busy with his job and everything, but I really wish we could talk.” Maybe he’d have some useful insight into what might be happening that I couldn’t come up with myself because I couldn’t see through my fear.

  “I don’t know if you’ve ever tried it, but back when we were younger and didn’t have fancy contraptions like spell phones, Mimsy, Vivi, and I used mirrors to talk to each other,” Ada said. “It’s a bit old-fashioned, but if you want to try it, I could show you how.”

  Her suggestion sparked hope in me, and I stood with a little too much enthusiasm, tipping the chair over. “Definitely. We could use this one.” I walked over to the large one hanging above an antique dresser.

  Ada chuckled. “Let’s start with something a little smaller.” She picked up a handheld mirror lying on top of a lace runner covering the wooden surface of the dresser. “And we should probably attempt short-range communication first, just to test it out.”

  In the hallway, I shouted down to Matt and convinced him to switch places with me in watching over Nana. Excited by the new challenge, I rushed to my old bedroom and found another handheld mirror from my childhood and held them both up for Ada’s approval. We joined the others downstairs and recruited Lily to work with her grandmother in the dining room while Ada instructed me in the kitchen.

  It took a couple of failed tries before I understood the concept. “So, I have to push more power into the mirror?” I asked.

  “It can be any reflective surface, actually,” Mimsy explained, wrapping her fingers around her granddaughter’s. “Anything where you can see yourself in it. Still water, smooth metal.”

  “Remember that time that Hector was giving you fits and you contacted me using a cutting knife? I thought for sure you were planning on using it for something more sinister,” Ada teased.

  Lily gaped at her grandmother. “You mean, you might have hurt Grandpa?”

  “Not really, but it was fun scaring him a little when he walked in on me. We laughed about it together later,” Mimsy admitted. “Now, Charli, you try contacting Lily through your mirror.”

  Holding the looking glass up with both hands, I called on my magic and concentrated it through my special brand of spellcasting. “Mirror, mirror, in my hand, let’s make a call from where I stand. Search for her both far and near. My dear friend Lily, bring her here.
”

  The reflection of my face shimmered and shifted until my friend’s replaced it. “Oh, I can see you!” Lily shouted.

  “And I can hear you through the mirror, not just because of your yelping in the other room,” I exclaimed. Our excitement interrupted our concentration, and I lost her, finding only my face gazing back.

  Lily ambushed me in the kitchen with her grandmother and Lavender following right behind. “I wasn’t yelping, I was helping. But that’s really cool. I wish we’d known about this when we were in school.”

  “Yeah, I could have used the extra help in chemistry,” I admitted.

  Mimsy joined us in the kitchen. “You aren’t supposed to use this form of communication for nefarious purposes.”

  “Hmph, tell that to Harold Masters, your ex-boyfriend,” Ada challenged, crossing her arms across her chest. “Didn’t you use the mirror spell in order to find out if he was cheating on you?”

  “Grandma!” Lavender exclaimed.

  “I caught him, didn’t I?” Mimsy glared at her old friend. “Saw him kissing that Hetty Wallace clear as day. Boy, did they jump when I cursed a blue streak at them.”

  We devolved into fits of laughter until her story pointed out a problem. “Wait, what if the person you’re trying to contact isn’t expecting it? Let’s say I manage to get the spell right to get ahold of Mason. How do I find him if he’s not expecting it on the other side?”

  Ada glanced at Mimsy for help, and Lavender and Lily’s grandmother brushed my concern off with a wave of her hand. “If you get it right, your summons will locate him wherever he is through whatever reflective surface is closest.”

  “Does that mean she could catch him at a really bad time? Like maybe when he’s in his room stark naked?” Blythe wiggled her eyebrows at me.

  She had a point, but I flipped her the bird anyway. “So, it’s possible I could interrupt something important.”

  “Like Mason flossing his teeth,” Blythe teased, muttering to me under her breath, “in the nude.”