Point of Attraction

by Margaret Van Der Wolf

  After several blocks, she steered her car up the winding road into the foothills. It was a few minutes before the beams of her headlights hit her mailbox and wide mouth of her driveway. As always, she by-passed her mail box. Morning and daylight was soon enough to get her junk mail. Her important deliveries were dropped off at the shop. As soon as she was well into the driveway, the motion detectors turned on the small lights along the gentle sloping doublewide gravel path where it made a small circle in front of her house.

  The porch light was out.

  The motion detectors should have turned it on. The lamp in the living room window shone brightly, turned on by the auto-timer. The tall slender window in the dining section of her kitchen also offered a soft light. Strange. She was certain the porch light had gone out on other occasions, yet... tonight, the house looked so dark without that light. She placed the garage door opener on the seat beside her and stopped the Subaru. While giving the place a wide scan, she reached behind the passenger seat and grabbed the baseball bat she kept there and waited.

  Georgie’s body jerked with a gasp when she saw headlights sweep across the front of the house.

  Chapter Four

  As quickly as her body tensed, it relaxed when she remembered Mason was behind her. His headlights sent a multitude of shadows dancing up, down and across the front of her house. Then she saw what she was waiting for. It was Daisy, her five year old silver gray and white Schnauzer coming to sit at the gate.

  Normally, Georgie would have driven into the garage, closed the door behind her and entered the house from there into the kitchen. Since she failed to enter, Daisy had to go from the kitchen, through the laundry room, and out the doggie door into the back yard and around the house.

  When Georgie heard Mason open and shut his car door she let the baseball bat slip from her hand back into its place behind the seat, and got out of her car. Daisy barked.

  “It’s okay, girl,” she said with an added shush.

  “You really should leave the porch light on,” Mason said, holding the door for her.

  She forced back the urge to ask him if he really thought her so foolish, but stopped herself with a scold. That’s what three years of living alone will do for you, she thought; you get snippy. “Actually, the motion detector should have turned it on. It must be out." She eased the car door from him, but didn’t shut it.

  “Do you have an extra bulb? I can replace it.”

  “Nah. I’ll do it in the morning.”

  This time Georgie saw a mixture of annoyance and satirical humor in his smile. He rubbed the back of his neck before slipping off his hat and putting it back on.

  “Would it kill you, Miss Independence, to let someone help you?”

  Daisy whimpered and took off to the backyard, before Georgie could answer. Daisy’s barking echoed back from the small slope behind the house and through the trees. It was fenced, so Daisy couldn’t go anywhere, but a skunk might still be able to get in and do her dog some damage.

  “Daisy! Come.” When there was no response, Georgie stood on her tiptoes to look over the roof of her car knowing full well her height would let her see nothing. She was stalling. “Daisy! Come!” She sniffed. No skunk odor.

  A soft, but cool, breeze swirled around the awkward quiet settling between her and Mason, and Georgie shoved her hands in her pockets. The large oak at the side of the garage let loose some leaves and they sailed across Mason’s headlight beams. It never occurred to her till this moment the distance between her and her neighbors, though she could see a patch of light on both sides and way up the hill. It was a deceiving comfort. Most of her neighbors tended to fly away for the winter. Georgie heard Daisy’s panting before the Schnauzer appeared and sat once more at the gate.

  “Don’t need you stinky and needing a tomato juice bath,” Georgie told Daisy, then turned to get back in her car.

  “Now what are you doing?” Mason asked.

  “I’m going to put my car in the garage, Mr. Macho Handyman, then get you that spare light bulb.”

  They both turned at the muted hissing of car tires on the pavement seconds before headlights flickered through the shrubbery bordering the property from the road. The car made its way down the road with Daisy’s bark mingling with the rustling of the breeze through the trees.

  “Hush, Daisy,” Georgie ordered, then took a deep thoughtful breath. “Turn off your car and follow me into the garage,” she told Mason, and turned the key in the ignition. “The fence gate is locked.”

  With an overdone swing of his arm, cap in hand, he motioned her to move the car into its home. Georgie closed the door and flicked the remote. The moment the garage door began its slide up into the rafters, the interior light came on and Daisy took off around the house.

  ~~0~~

  “Have a seat,” Georgie told Mason as she tossed the empty light bulb carton into the re-cycle container then patted Daisy on the head.

  After a moment she heard Mason politely clear his throat, and turned. He was standing at the kitchen table, looking down at one of the cushioned seats.

  “Oh,” she said, a small laugh rumbling inside her as she indicated the curled up gray and off-white tabby cat looking up at him with yellow eyes. “That’s Max. My suggestion? Take the other chair. He is very possessive of his territory and doesn’t share.”

  “At least you have an attack cat,” Mason said, placing his cap on the table and taking the other chair. “Your Daisy here is too friendly with strangers.”

  As he spoke, Daisy nuzzled his hand, and Georgie said nothing. She knew Daisy better than anyone... well except for Sam. “Remember Daisy from the Great Gatsby?” she asked as she pulled off her hat, fluffed out her hair, and reached for her espresso/coffee maker from its corner.

  “Sure,” he said, but he held up a hand. “Oh, no coffee, thanks. A glass of water will be just fine.”

  “Okay.” Georgie pushed the caffeine factory back into its corner and took out a glass while explaining. “Daisy was cute, fragile, the epitome of what men wanted... until they got her. And she was also Gatsby’s downfall. My feeling on the character is that Daisy was a graceful moving shark. Sharks will nuzzle you with the gentle swish of the finest silk, tasting you, before...”

  Mason smiled and withdrew his hand from Daisy. “Maybe the fault lay in Gatsby.”

  “Maybe.” Georgie smiled as she handed him the glass of water and took the chair across from him. “Thank you for putting in that light bulb.”

  Daisy quickly sat beside her, and Georgie reached down to run a hand over the dog’s dark gray head and short white Schnauzer mustache. “And thank you for coming all the way out here to see me home.”

  “For a fellow writer? Any time. Thank you for the water,” he smiled, taking a drink, “but I have to get going. Work tomorrow.” He slipped on his cap. “You going to be okay?”

  Daisy got to her feet, alert, standing guard between them, and Georgie patted the furry head. Max too dropped to the floor and sat beside Daisy, both making a wall in front of Georgie.

  “I think I’ll be fine.”

  Mason’s eyebrows rose and lowered as he adjusted his cap at which Daisy’s ears twitched to attention. “Yup, I think you’ll be just fine.”

  Georgie laughed. “Here, I’ll let you out the front door.” She reached for the gate key and led him through the kitchen into the living room, turning up the thermostat on the way. The drapes were open on the large wall-size window and Portland lay before them in bright lights framed by tall trees at each side.

  “That is some sight,” Mason said.

  “Yes, it is. It’s why we bought this house. It was the only lot with that natural break in the trees. No upstairs, no downstairs.” The lump was thick in her throat. “Sam and I thought we’d grow old here.” She swallowed and undid the chain and dead bolt to open the door.

  As they walked to the gate a car came up the road, its headlights flashing across them as it went on by. “Heavy traffic tonight,” Georgie said
as she unlocked the gate to the chain link fence to let Mason out. She closed the gate and reset the lock.

  “Make sure you call in that theft.”

  “I will. Promise.”

  He turned to leave then stopped to look over his shoulder at her. “Rain check on that coffee?”

  For just a thought, a refusal played on the tip of her tongue, but she swallowed it. She had done that much too often, and she smiled. “For a fellow writer? Anytime.” It came out so easy and painless it surprised her.

  He touched the bill of his cap then pointed to the house. “Go on in. I want to hear those locks click.”

  “Can’t hear them way out here, but I get your message. Have a good night. By the way, BADGE 747 is moving along just fine.”

  “What?”

  “Well, I told Jeffrey we were going to go over our writing. Now, it’s not a lie.” Georgie turned and started for her door.

  “You’re rationalizing,” Mason called back, the gravel crunching beneath each step.

  “I know. Good night,” she said, entering the house, then made sure she snapped the locks into place as noisily as she could.

  From the window, Georgie waved at Mason. He waved back and got in his car. A small cloud of vapor came out the exhaust pipe and Georgie watched as his black 4Runner made the circle and went out the drive. With a smile she started to close the drapes and paused. A car going down the road hit its brakes as it neared her driveway, but didn’t turn in. Evidently not all her neighbors were gone yet, she thought, wondering which one could still be around this time of year. Living on a hill, small though it was, they tended to get some snow and ice when lower areas around Portland didn’t.

  Just as the drapes sealed off Portland her phone rang. The name and number on the lighted caller ID was Cassie’s cell phone.

  “Yeah, and?”

  Georgie laughed. “Hello to you too.”

  “Did he make sure you got all the way home?”

  “How did your delivery go?”

  “The world has another male to deal with, strong and kicking, mother doing fine. Daddy almost passed out, but he’ll recover. Now, don’t change the subject. M&M made sure you got home?”

  Georgie tucked the phone between her shoulder and her ear while feeding both Max and Daisy. “Yes he followed me home. Even changed a bulb for me too.”

  “What?!”

  Georgie jerked from the shrilly reply and almost dropped the phone.

  “Since when do you need someone to change a light bulb?”

  “Since a doctor friend of mine told me, very clearly I might add, that I needed to get back in the game; that I needed the company of the opposite sex... that I...”

  “Stop, stop, stop.”

  Georgie waited. There was no sound. She finally asked, “Are you there?”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t think you were done tossing my words back at me? God, I hate it when you do that.”

  Georgie laughed as she rinsed out the empty cans before putting them in the recycling bin, then washed the spoon and her hands.

  “Georgie? Can I say something and you not growl at me?”

  Georgie thought a moment while drying the spoon and slipping it back into the drawer, then decided to put out a warning of her own. “Depends on what you say, I suppose.” As she spoke, Georgie made her way down the lighted hallway to her writing room and turned on her computer. One day she would get a lap top, she thought as she looked out the window at the bright Portland skyline before turning on the light. But as the little lights flickered and bleeped on the computer, she smiled. This old clunker was a gift from her family.

  “Then I better not say anything,” Cassie said. “I’ll wait. I have to get going. I need some sleep.” A loud, somewhat overdone, yawn accented the remark.

  “Oh, for God’s sake, just say it already,” Georgie told her, letting the mini-blinds drop into place then rolling the rod between her fingers to close them. “I’m not about to lie awake all night wondering about this.”

  “Like I really believe you would.”

  There was a soft sigh at the other end of the line and Georgie felt the warmth of Cassie’s ever constant, unconditional friendship.

  “I just wanted to say, you sound... happy.”

  “Happy?”

  Chapter five

  Georgie brushed her teeth with a vengeance, then looked into the mirror. “Happy. What was that supposed to mean?” she asked. Unlike the fairy tale, Georgie’s mirror offered no reply. Cassie had hung up with her traditional, “Hugs, Kiddo,” before Georgie could ask for an explanation, not that she’d get one. It was so typically Cassie.

  And how was she supposed to sit at her computer and write after that? An hour passed after doing corrections before she finally gave in. Nothing new was coming out. She could barely focus on the typos. Finally, with a sigh of frustration, she tossed up her hands and turned off everything.

  What about sleep? Oh yeah, she could see that happening, and decided reading and critiquing might work better this evening.

  Daisy whimpered and Georgie smoothed a hand over the Schnauzer’s head. “Are you through for the night, Girl? Can I lock your doggie door?” Daisy wagged her tail and Georgie went to the laundry room. When neither Daisy nor Max made a move to go outside, she latched the hooks on the pet-door.

  “Let’s try and get some sleep, guys,” she said, snapped the laundry door deadbolt and went back to her bedroom. Both Daisy and Max followed.

  At the threshold, she stopped and turned on the ceiling light. Three years, she thought, and the queen-size bed still looked small in the large master bedroom. But their king-size bed was the first thing she sent out of her life. Its large mass was a nightly reminder of her Sam being gone. There was no place in her life for a king-size bed; not without Sam.

  She turned on the lamp on the nightstand, picked up her chapters, and turned off the ceiling light. Tired from the evening’s event, she didn’t even turn on the TV; simply crawled under the covers. She eased a hand over the pillow beside her and pulled it to her in an embrace. “Oh, Sam,” she sighed, and shook her head. Almost three years and she still sought his presence, his essence. Burying her face in the clean linen of the pillow, her thoughts turned to Raggs.

  “Why would they take my Raggs?” she asked into the pillow.

  Her brow puckered, but no answer came, nor could she find Sam’s scent. With a resigning sigh and determination, she stuffed the pillow behind her over her own for support then scooted back snuggly against them and the headboard.

  “Okay, Georgie Girl, let’s see what the people in class submitted this week.” She picked up her red pen and clicked its point into readiness. Five submissions out of a class of twelve, she mused, and calculated in her head who was going to drop out.

  Daisy jerked upright from her corner of the bed, her eyes and nose directed toward the curtained window. Max too looked up.

  “What?” Georgie tried to listen for whatever had set Daisy on alert.

  Daisy’s stare was intense while a little growl rolled in her throat. Max’s ears twitched like radar dishes.

  “Is that a car?” The digital clock displayed eleven forty-five. “Maybe I should have taken that gun April wanted me to have,” Georgie said, turning off the lamp then reached under the bed for her indoor Slugger bat.

  With the Slugger clutched in her hand, she made her way to the living room with Daisy and Max at her side. There was no sound other than a lonely train whistle resonating its way up from Portland’s rail yards. She looked out through the small glass pane in the door.

  Nothing.

  The outside lights weren’t on.

  At the large window, she slipped a finger between the drapes to take a peek through the narrow slit. All she saw were the taillights of a car disappearing down the road. There was no way of telling if they had come from up the road or... out of her own driveway. No. The motion detectors would have activated the porch light and those along her drive.

 
; Daisy’s nose nudged her a second before her tail began its excited wagging.

  “You know, you and Max are going to give me a heart attack. Where would you be then, with no one to feed you?” Georgie said, and made her way back down the hallway. Max and Daisy settled into their favorite corner of the bed, Max quickly tucking his head into his fur.

  After sliding the bat under the bed, Georgie flicked on her electric blanket, and once more took pen in hand. Reading through the pages, her attention kept returning to the window, until she heard the soft snoring coming from Daisy and Max.

  ~~0~~

  Georgie woke with a start to the buzz, buzz, buzz of the clock. Her lamp was still on, pen near her hand, and the chapters on her lap. She hit the clock to stop its noise and stacked the unread work on the empty side of the bed.

  “You guys could’ve at least turned off the light,” she said to Daisy and Max as she tossed aside the blankets and swung her feet over the side. After turning off the electric blanket, she slowly reached for the ceiling; first on her toes, then tilted to the left, to the right, taking the kinks out of her back then her neck. “Not the best way to fall asleep, let me tell you.”

  But Daisy was already down the hallway while Max just stretched and rolled, his mouth opening wide in a yawn showing all his teeth and cavernous throat. A low bark called to Georgie and she made her way to the laundry room where Daisy waited at the locked door.

  “Yeah, I’m get’n there, I’m get’n there.” She turned the lock and opened the door. Her toes curled, trying to get away from the cold linoleum laundry room floor.

  With toenails clicking across the floor, Daisy ran to the locked doggie door. Georgie flipped the little hooks and the Schnauzer darted out. With a yawn of her own, Georgie slipped into her outdoor slippers, tied the sash to her robe, and took out a plastic bag from its box.

  The crisp morning air felt good on her face. It wouldn’t be long before dew would cover the grass and plants, with frost not far beyond that. She would have to dig out her hooded winter robe and waterproof fur slippers.