Laurel Cove

by Sarah Turtle

  “It might take a couple of tries,” Megan mentioned after seeing the confused look on her face. “Put a little more power into it this time.”

  After a few more attempts and a short break in between to tie her hair back from her face, the engine finally roared to life. Her eyes widened when she felt the power of the machine vibrating in her hands.

  Megan waved her arms in the air, but Willa was unable to hear her over the spinning of the blades, so Megan pointed to the expanse of the lawn. Willa followed her cue to start moving and made a straight line along the edge of the driveway with the mower. She stopped when she reached the wooden fence at the end and let go of the lever to shut it down. When she glanced back at the neatly trimmed path that she had created, Willa raised her arms up in triumph and rushed over to embrace Megan and let out an excited squeal. “It works!” She shook Megan’s shoulders and a delighted grin spread across her face. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”

  “Well, I’m glad that I could help you out with your little predicament, but now how about you tell me the real reason why you called me over?”

  Willa bowed her head down and slowly removed the gloves from her hands. She sucked the corner of her bottom lip into her mouth and let it fall back out. “The grass was getting out of control…” Willa looked down at it as if it were a major problem.

  “Oh please, every man, woman, and child on this island could have helped show you how to run a damn lawnmower. I can tell that hidden under this homemaker outfit, you are secretly freaking out about something, which is why you contacted me. It’s my duty as your friend to know when you need to talk.”

  Willa withered to the ground like a deflated balloon and sat with her legs outstretched along the strip of freshly cut grass. “Ugh, you’re right, everything’s a mess.”

  Megan dropped down across from Willa and flashed her a sympathetic look. “Everything sounds like a bit of an exaggeration. Let’s start with the biggest issue you have and see if I can help you work through that one first.”

  “My deceased father expects me to spread his ashes in the middle of the ocean, but only when I am prepared to do it in the company of both Brynn and Griffin.”

  Megan stared back at her with raised eyebrows, wide eyes, and mouth dropped down open so far that her jaw looked like it was detached.

  “That was exactly my reaction,” Willa said after a lack of a verbal response from Megan, “but maybe with a little more anger and sadness thrown in.”

  “Sorry, I just wasn’t expecting that at all.”

  “Neither was I. It was sort of sprung on me right before I called you. Everything I had planned on accomplishing during my time here will have to be put on hold until I can figure this out.”

  “Are you going to try to do something about this before you leave Laurel Cove?”

  “I have to. The only way that the three of us will be able to do this together is if I can somehow get Griff to communicate with me, and I can’t get through to him over the phone with two other states between us, when it’s already intimidating to get him to speak to me in person.”

  Megan placed her hand up in midair. “Back up a second. You only mentioned Griffin. Does that mean things went well with Brynn today?”

  Willa tried her best to conceal the whimsical grin that turned up at the corners of her lips, along with the pink coloring that was rising up in her cheeks. “Talking to Brynn again is like being back in my old house; it’s comforting and scary all at the same time.”

  “Why scary?”

  She ran her fingers across the top of a patch of uncut grass and plucked a blade from it. “I can’t help but wonder if she’s only being civil to me because she knows how badly I’m hurting right now.”

  “Don’t allow yourself to think that way. If she still held a grudge against you, she wouldn’t be able to fake it no matter what the circumstance.”

  “I hope you’re right; she holds as many memories of my father as I do, if not more. If I lost her, it would be like losing the last piece of him that I have left.”

  “It seems like Griffin might also share some of that history.”

  Willa scrunched up her nose and rubbed at her forehead as if it was physically painful to accept the truth that Megan was facing her with. “He does.”

  “Regardless of what your father is requesting to be done, don’t you want to fix things between you and Griffin?”

  “Other than Brynn, he was the very best friend that I’ve ever had. If there is any possibility of us reconciling our differences at all, I’ll do what I must, because I miss him dearly.”

  “Then you need to try, not just for your father’s sake, but for your own.”

  “Any suggestions on how I can get him to stop being so angry at me for a few minutes so that I can talk to him?”

  “In a case like that, let him be angry because it’s probably the only way he knows how to show that he’s hurt. If he sees that you aren’t willing to give up on him, then eventually, he might back down and listen.”

  Willa rose up slowly, favoring the tenderness of her injured leg, and held out a hand to help Megan to her feet. Before she could step away, Willa pulled her into an embrace. “Thank you for coming to my rescue today, for both the mower and the advice.”

  Megan gave her a tight squeeze and then held her at arm’s length so that she could look her in the eyes. “Promise me that you’ll back off if Griffin’s anger becomes a danger to you, okay?”

  “I promise.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  By the time Willa had completed the yard work that she started and cleaned up the copious amounts of grass clippings and dirt that had found a place to stick to her body, the sun had already set. She made a few phone calls to distant acquaintances whom Willa knew would want to attend the funeral service. As far as the rest of the tiny island, the news would spread like rapid fire from person to person until everyone was aware of the ceremony tomorrow.

  Willa paced the length of the living room while contemplating what to do about getting the message out to Brynn and Griffin. She was more than certain that they would know by now, especially with patrons of their gym passing through, but she felt as though they were both owed the decency of being told in person. Her aunt had paid her the respect enough to tell her face to face and she intended to do the same for them, once she worked up the nerve enough to do it. The pacing continued while she ran scenarios of what might be said repeatedly in her head as if she were writing out the dialog of conversations in one of her stories. The problem was that, unlike the fiction she wrote, she could control what she said, but not what Griffin would.

  The ride to the gym took less time than she had hoped for, even going way under the speed limit that was already low due to the narrow, winding roads. This was one of those times when she wouldn’t have minded one of the hectic city traffic jams that she usually cursed at on her daily commute.

  Even after all of the mental preparations she had set herself up with, she silently hoped that Brynn would still be alone at the gym and that she could pass the information on to Griffin without having to talk to him. Willa tugged at the metal handle of the gym’s door a couple of times and it still didn’t budge. Confused, she went to the closest window where she could see that the lights were all on and a few people were scattered about, using various exercise equipment throughout the spacious room. She returned to the door and tried once again, but it still wouldn’t open. When she raised her fist up to knock on it, in hopes of possibly getting the attention of someone without earphones in, she noticed the engraved sign above the handle that read: after hours use the keypad for entry.

  “Ugh,” Willa grunted in frustration as she made her way back to the car in the parking lot. There was only one place where she could find both of the twins, but going to their house without an invitation from Griffin was like begging for a nasty confrontation.

  The Reed’s house was hardly a few seconds drive down the road from the gym and that was if Will
a coasted without accelerating. Before she knew it, she was turning into their driveway without having really given herself enough time to decide if that was what she actually wanted to do. Once the car was in park, she figured that she was fully committed to executing this visit, so she glanced in the rearview mirror out of habit, to check her makeup. There wouldn’t be any unexpected camera flashes as she exited her vehicle, but it would always be ingrained in her to maintain a certain image status for the occasions when it did matter.

  The last time that Willa had been at this house, there was a line of flat stones that created a quaint path surrounded by flowers, which led up to the porch. All of that had been removed to make room for the ramp that now consumed most of that space. She slowly made her way towards the front of the house, but the second that her foot touched the ramp, a motion detector triggered a light system, illuminating the entire front yard in a bright hue. Willa let out an annoyed moan at the thought that her arrival would not go unnoticed at this point, and she wouldn’t have a few precious moments to collect her thoughts before ringing the bell. In fact, her hand didn’t even have time to reach out for the button, when the door opened.

  To Willa’s relief, it was Brynn at the door, and she couldn’t help but feel breathless when a giant smile spread across Brynn’s face. When she saw what was laying across her lap, Willa’s eyes widened and she retreated a couple of steps.

  “Oh, geez.” Brynn gasped when she noticed what Willa was so scared of. She lifted the gun off her legs and made a show of setting it carefully down on a side table before she rolled out onto the porch and silently shut the door behind her. “It’s just a pellet gun that shoots off rubber ammo. The groundhogs have been relentlessly eating everything in the vegetable garden this summer and I thought it was one of them that set off the lights out here.”

  “I shouldn’t have come over unannounced.” Willa twisted her set of car keys up in a ball along with the key chain, intertwining them with her fingers. She unconsciously began backing up further as if she were going to leave.

  Brynn eyed Willa’s reservations, quickly pulled a plastic chair away from a patio table, and patted the seat on it. “Sit with me for a while and tell me why you stopped by.”

  Willa reluctantly hovered over the chair for a few seconds and surveyed the view of the interior of the house from the window. The lights were on, but there was no sign of Griffin moving around inside. “I came by to tell you about the funeral,” she said while easing herself down uncomfortably on the edge of the seat, prepared to get up when needed, at a moment’s notice.

  “Griff has no idea that you’re here. He’s down in the basement lifting weights,” Brynn said with a reassuring smile.

  “Some things never change, huh?” Willa settled further back into the chair, but left her leg firmly in place where it was slightly brushing up against Brynn’s leg. Willa understood that Brynn wouldn’t feel the protection that she did in their connection, unless she visibly caught a glimpse of their touch. “It’s uh, it’s tomorrow evening at the chapel.”

  “We know already. Griff heard about it when he closed up Mussels for the night, from someone that had been down at the docks earlier today.”

  “Good, good, I wanted you both to know because he would want you there.” The words came out of her mouth, but her gaze was lost up towards the night sky, along with her thoughts.

  Brynn took a hold of Willa’s hand, pulling her back to their conversation. “How are you holding up through all of this?”

  Willa exhaled slowly, letting her cheeks puff out in the process. “It’s like everything is moving so fast around me. Mostly, I’m scared that I’m not prepared to say goodbye so soon, but I can’t anyway because he’s already gone.”

  Brynn leaned in closer and took Willa’s hand into her own lap, then began gently rubbing the top of it with her thumb. “If there’s anything I can do to help ease your pain, know that I’m here for you.” The offer that Brynn made caused Willa’s heart to swell with empathy for Brynn, whom she knew was grieving as much as she was. With a lack of words between them, they found contentment in the stillness of the night and solace in the contact of each other’s hands.

  Their tranquil connection was severed hastily, though, when the front door flung open and Griffin stepped out into their quiet sanctuary. They silently watched as he scanned the front yard with difficulty as his eyes adjusted to the dimly lit porch.

  “Hey, sis, are you out here?” he called out, but his own question was answered when he peered away from the lawn and back to the porch.

  Willa stood, the force knocking the flimsy plastic chair over on its back. She hadn’t meant to pull herself away from Brynn’s grasp so harshly, but the hulking figure of Griffin taking up more space than the frame of the doorway provided caused her to back away more abruptly than she intended.

  “What are you doing at my house?” His chest protruded out and his shoulders raised up above his neckline.

  “It’s our house and she’s my guest.” Brynn rolled up in the narrow space that the porch provided, putting herself between Griffin and Willa.

  Willa averted her eyes to the ground and held her hand out in front of her, not wanting to cause a conflict between the siblings. “I only came to make sure that you were aware of the service tomorrow.”

  Griffin tilted his head down at an angle faced away from them and ever so minutely softened the tone of his voice. “We already know.”

  Willa reached out past Brynn and let her fingertips lightly brush against his shirt. “Griff…” The words she wanted to say got stuck somewhere in her throat.

  He swatted her hand away. “You’re not welcome here.”

  “Don’t be an ass,” Brynn snapped at him.

  Willa stopped Brynn by placing the palm of her hand against her chest. “It’s okay, he’s right, I shouldn’t have come here.”

  Willa heard Brynn call out her name, but she had already reached her car door and slammed it shut before Brynn and Griffin had a chance to argue over whether she should stay or go. She knew them well enough to know that when they disagreed on something, it was best to leave them alone to work out their problem, which in this case was her. She hoped that by removing herself from the equation that things would settle down between them. She was in such a hurry to escape from the crossfires of the twins, though, that she took the wrong turn out at the end of their driveway and ended up continuing until she reached the end of the cove.

  A small dirt lot that served as a parking area was the last stop before the road ended and the sea began. Willa planned on turning around here instead of in someone’s yard, but when she found that it was empty, she parked her car. The only people who ever used this space were tourists and teenagers from the surrounding mainland towns looking for a romantic location to bring a date. The locals all had their own private spots and they tended to stay away from this beach, which was why Willa decided that tonight, this was exactly where she belonged. Her out of state license plate, and car that cost more than most homes on this island, fit in perfectly in the lot meant for tourists, but mostly her heart felt out of place.

  A steep, narrow path wound down to the sandy beach below. The tide was full, which left very little space between the water and the rocky cliff surrounding the beach. Willa swept a clump of dried seaweed off a driftwood log and settled down on it. Even in the darkness of the night, the moon and stars reflected off the ocean and everything seemed to sparkle with light. Willa convinced herself that the only dark place in the world that night was deep within her own heart.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The little chapel was packed full to capacity with people, well before the service was due to begin. With the exception of a few elderly parishioners who attended the church regularly, no one was quite sure what religion was practiced within the holy walls of the building. It was just a fact that every wedding and funeral on Laurel Cove took place there no matter what their religious beliefs were.

  Willa sat on a woo
den bench behind a curtain, in a small room specifically reserved as a place for direct family members to have private time alone when they needed it. She couldn’t help but think about how brides also used this space, where they waited with their father until it was time to walk down the aisle. She added that event to the list of things she would never share with her own father. People’s most joyful and sorrowful moments mixed with the energy of the room. Just the thought of that made Willa dizzy.

  She wondered if her dad had held her in his arms when she was a toddler, in this very room, as her mother’s funeral was taking place. She had a few select memories of her mother, but being in the chapel for her service was not one of them. It was most likely the beginning of one of the many times in her life when her father had shielded her from the sadness of the day by covering it up with his infectious smiles and love.

  She peeled aside a portion of the red velvet curtain to peer across the hall where people were filing in the rows of pews. A constant murmur vibrated amongst the crowd. Conversations were spoken in whispers too low for her to pick up on what was being said, but by the solemn expressions on their faces, they genuinely seemed to be as upset about her father being gone as she was. Until seeing for herself how many lives he had interwoven his own with in their tiny community, she had never given much thought as to how missed he would be.

  When a silence fell throughout the building, the minister, who to Willa seemed to be as old as time itself, came to get her. He held a frail hand out to help her from the bench. When she took it, his skin looked so white and thin that it almost appeared to be translucent. He led her past the curtain to a small group of people, all of which were dressed in robes and carried religious objects to be part of the ceremony. A silver urn was placed in Willa’s hands and for the first time, she realized that she was expected to carry her father’s remains down to the front of the church. She shook her head to deny the responsibility, and held the urn out for someone else to take it, but it was too late; the line had already begun its procession towards the altar.