by Ann McMan
“I have, too. You can call me anytime.”
Syd smiled into the phone. “Count on it, then. I’ll tell Maddie you called. She’ll be so pleased.”
“I hope so. Thank you, Syd. Take care.”
“You, too, Celine.”
They hung up, and Syd sat there holding the phone in her hand, feeling slightly dazed from their conversation. Then she exhaled and dialed a familiar number. When the phone was picked up on the second ring, she took a deep breath. “Hello, Mom?”
FORTUNATELY FOR SYD, most of the damage the library sustained occurred in the form of smoke, although there was some significant damage to carpet, interior walls—and the books that lined them—from rivulets of soot and water that seeped through cracks in the stairway wall. The upholstery shop was another matter—most of the ground floor of that building was destroyed.
Syd’s apartment fared little better. The open stairway that separated the two buildings had acted like a massive chimney—its smooth walls fed a seamless updraft that channeled smoke and soot upstairs, seeking a natural outlet through the open windows on the second floor. Most of the shabby interior furnishings were damaged beyond repair. The walls and the carpet were badly stained with soot.
Most of Syd’s clothing and other personal items would be salvageable after extensive odor neutralization and professional cleaning. Some of her books were destroyed—but others would be boxed up and sent to remediation facilities along with affected volumes from the library below. The local dry cleaner in Jefferson had a sizeable ozone chamber, and they graciously offered the use of it to Syd, to expedite the recovery of her non-textile items. In the meantime, a judicious sweep through the Wytheville Wal-Mart would have to tide her over until the rest of her clothing was cleaned and restored.
The library collection was still in its infancy, so the number of volumes affected during the fire was fairly modest. Disaster relief workers from Roanoke were able to quickly box them up and store them on refrigerated trucks. The now frozen books would be transported to a facility where a sublimation process would freeze-dry the volumes to remove all traces of smoke and dampness. The state library of Virginia insured the contents of the facility, but not the physical structure, so these more sophisticated recovery measures were undertaken immediately.
Syd’s housing was another matter. It would be days, perhaps a full week, before local insurance adjusters would offer their assessments to the library board, and then the county would be faced with the prospect of determining whether the upstairs apartment could be made habitable again without a significant commitment of funds. In the meantime, Syd was homeless.
Word of the fire, and sketchier accounts of events that preceded it, spread quickly throughout the county, and Syd was besieged with phone calls. With the absence of a local paper, she decided that it made sense to release accurate information selectively using reliable word-of-mouth channels. So, after briefing all members of the Tri-County library board, she stopped by the mini-mart to share details with Curtis and Edna Freemantle. Freemantle’s market functioned like a neighborhood wire service, and sooner or later, most residents of the area could be relied upon to stop in and add to or glean from the escalating summaries of what all had transpired the night before. Curtis later reported that they had run completely out of hot dogs and iced tea well before eleven on Tuesday morning—the first time that had happened since the day of the 9/11 attacks.
Across town, Maddie’s clinic functioned in much the same way, and Peggy Hawkes happily took up the mantle of official fact-checker and primary information conduit. No, Syd was not at home when the fire started. Yes, the sheriff is sure that Beau Pitzer started it. Yes, Beau did try to rob Lizzy’s bungalow. No, he did not rape her. Yes, Lizzy was taking a few days off to recover from her ordeal. Yes, she was staying with her sister in Jefferson. Yes, it’s true that Syd was the one who saved Lizzy by chasing Beau off. Yes, Maddie was the doctor who responded when Gladys shot her son. No, he did not die from gunshot wounds. Yes, they think it was a drug overdose. Yes, she had heard that Phoebe Jenkins lost an entire parlor set when Halsey’s shop caught fire. Yes, the library was now closed. No, she did not know when or if it would reopen. No, Syd would not be allowed to stay there. No, she did not know where Syd would stay in the meantime, or if she would stay on in Jericho if the county couldn’t afford to fix the library. Yes, she was certain that Dr. Stevenson was losing patience with all the phone calls. Yes, she promised to call back later after work.
MADDIE AND SYD rode home after their meeting with the fire marshal and their preliminary walk through the library and Syd’s upstairs apartment. The Roanoke disaster recovery team was already on-site, thanks to an industrious Elizabeth Metcalf in Richmond—who understood that time was the enemy if there was any hope of salvaging books damaged by water. Other affected items would be disposed of, or aired out and cleaned on site. Once they were allowed upstairs, Syd and Maddie made short work out of stuffing Syd’s smoke-infused clothing into large plastic bags and carrying them downstairs to a waiting ServPro truck that was on hand to pick them up and transport them off to Wytheville for cleaning.
After arriving back at the farm, they showered and changed clothes before venturing back downstairs to make dinner. Maddie lent Syd a clean pair of hospital scrubs and her favorite oversized, black v-neck sweater to wear while their clothes were in the wash. In the kitchen, Syd had her first real opportunity to fill Maddie in on the details of her conversation with Celine, and her later phone call to her parents—who now were planning to visit the following weekend.
“I called Michael, and he’s going to put them up at the Inn. Secretly, I think Dad was thrilled to have another crack at that infamous bass that nearly drowned him the day after Thanksgiving.”
Maddie stopped opening a bottle of wine and looked up at Syd with a disappointed expression. “Why couldn’t they just stay here with us? We have plenty of extra room.”
Syd smiled at her sweetness, and her apparent lack of introspection. “Honey, it might be true that you have lots of extra room. But as far as my parents are concerned, I’m already a guest here, and they wouldn’t want to impose on you, too.”
“Impose?”
“Uh huh.”
“You aren’t imposing on me.”
“That might be true. But I’m not exactly living here with you, either.”
Maddie looked like she was trying very hard not to pout. “You aren’t?”
“No, I’m not. Not yet, anyway.”
“Well, I guess that’s something.” Maddie resumed twisting the cork out of the bottle.
Syd stood regarding her for a moment, then she walked across the kitchen and kissed her gently on the cheek. “Fire or no fire, you know there’s no place I’d rather be than here with you . . . right?”
Maddie met her eyes sheepishly. “I know.”
Syd tugged at the sleeve of her shirt. “Then why the long face?” She leaned forward and whispered against her ear, “You know you’re going to get your way in the end.”
Maddie gave her a small smile. “I am?”
“Of course you are. Don’t you always?” She laughed. “Even your mother told me it was pointless to resist.” She kissed her again—on the lips this time. “Just be patient for a little while.”
“I guess I can do that.”
“I know you can. Besides,” Syd walked back to the sink and resumed washing a pile of torn lettuce leaves. “I’m not ready to have my mother and father be right down the hall while I’m sleeping with you.”
Maddie looked at her. “Not to belabor the point, or anything, but we—I—do have three guest rooms.”
Syd raised an eyebrow. “Are you suggesting that I could stay here and not sleep with you?”
Maddie thought about that. “So, Michael’s putting them up again? What a great idea. Why don’t we have them over here for dinner on Saturday night?”
Syd laughed. “I love you.”
Maddie smirked as she poured them
each a glass of wine. “I know.” She crossed the room and handed a glass to Syd. She turned around and leaned her back against the countertop so she could watch Syd while she worked. “So, tell me more about your conversation with my mother.”
“It was amazing, really. I found myself just yammering on and on, like I’d been talking to her that way for years.” Syd looked up and met Maddie’s blue eyes. “She’s so much like you in so many ways. I guess that’s part of what made it so easy for me to talk with her. I was impressed by her determination to reach out to you—to us both, really. That part was especially humbling to me.”
“Why? She knows how much I love you. She knows that you’re a huge part of my life now.”
Syd smiled. “I think that’s precisely why it was so humbling. It made all of this real for me in a whole new way.”
“What do you mean?”
“Hearing your mother talk so matter-of-factly about our relationship—like it was ordinary or unremarkable. And I mean that in the literal sense—not in a judgmental way.”
Maddie nodded and crossed her arms. “She likes you. She has right from the outset. Before we even knew where we were headed.”
“I know. I came close to telling her the truth about Richmond, but I knew that I couldn’t do that without discussing it with you first. I don’t like deceiving her—especially now.”
“Me either. I guess we do need to come clean about all of that.”
“Are you going to call her back?”
“Yeah. I thought I’d do that this evening.”
“Why don’t you go and call her now, while I’m fixing us some dinner? It’s going to be a good forty-five minutes before everything’s ready.”
“Are you sure you don’t need my help with anything?”
Syd smiled at her. “I need your help with everything. But in this case, I think I can manage by myself.”
Maddie kissed her on the temple. “Okay, then, I’ll go and call her.” She picked up her wine glass and headed toward the study. “Be back soon.”
“Tell her I said hello.”
“I will.” Maddie disappeared down the hallway, and Syd turned her attention back to the meal preparation.
Maddie reappeared about thirty minutes later, just as Syd was transferring sautéed chicken breasts to a baking sheet. Maddie looked happy and relaxed. Clearly, the conversation with her mother had gone well.
“Mom said to tell you that she was glad the damages to the library were far less serious than they could have been.” She paused. “She’s happy that you’ll be staying on here with me for a while.”
Syd shot her a sidelong glance. “Are you two in cahoots now?”
Maddie smiled slyly. “I wouldn’t say cahoots, exactly. But we are of the same mind about one or two things.”
“Color me so surprised.”
Maddie affected a high-pitched wail and fluttered the fingers of both hands. “Surrender Dorothy!”
“Very funny.”
“Hey, just be glad it’s me and not David. He’d have hauled out the costume and the makeup.”
“Now there’s a horrifying thought. What else did you two talk about?”
“Well, she floated the idea of coming for a visit this summer.”
“Really? That’s wonderful.”
Maddie looked smug. “I thought so, too. You, know,” she continued, more thoughtfully, “that will be quite an event. She hasn’t been back here since the day she left—nearly twenty-five years ago.”
“A lot has changed since then.”
“It sure has. And speaking of things that have changed . . . You do realize that we put on quite a performance for Byron and Lizzy last night, don’t you? I think any questions either of them may have had about my sexual orientation have been laid to rest.”
Syd turned around to her. “Not just yours.”
“No . . .”
Syd shook her head. “The things Beau said to me—about us. God. Obviously, he had pieced it all together. I don’t know how. He must have been stalking us.”
“Probably.” Maddie’s voice was gentle. “It doesn’t matter now.”
Syd closed her eyes. “God, Maddie. I’m so sorry. It’s my fault. I thought I could manage it. I really did. And then when I saw you walk through that door. I just didn’t care any more. All I could think about was being close to you. I was so scared. The whole time he was there and waving that knife around at us, I thought I’d never see you again. I really thought he would kill us both—especially after I hit him, and he got back up.”
Maddie quickly stepped forward and pulled Syd into her arms. “It’s okay, baby. I’m not worried about it—not at all. It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters except this. We’re together and we’re okay, and I don’t give a damn who knows about it.”
Syd sniffed against her shirt. “I don’t care either. Not anymore.”
They stood there for another minute, holding each other in silence. Then Syd pushed back and looked up into Maddie’s face.
“I guess we need to make a trip to the hardware store tomorrow.”
Maddie wiped a tear off her cheek. “What for?”
Syd smiled at her. “Because it looks like I’m gonna need a house key.”
GEORGE AND JANET arrived in Jericho shortly after one on Saturday. Maddie was working a shift at the ER that day, and would be out of pocket until after three, so Syd drove alone to meet her parents at the Inn.
After lunch, they went into town to see the library, and to review the progress being made by the ServPro team from Wytheville. The worst of Syd’s black eye had faded by they time they arrived, but traces of the large purple and yellow bruise were still visible enough to make Janet gasp when she saw her for the first time.
“My god. What did he do to you?” Janet took Syd’s face between her hands and turned her toward the light.
“It’s fine now, Mom. Honest. It looks a lot worse than it was.”
George ran a soothing hand up and down her back. “I can’t believe he hit you. I would’ve killed him.”
“I nearly did—and if I had, that would have been even worse.” Syd put her arms around both of her parents. “Thank you for coming. I mean that. I didn’t realize how much I needed to see you both.”
George hugged her warmly. “We would have been here sooner if we hadn’t known you were here with Maddie. She told us you were doing just fine.”
Syd drew back and met her father’s eyes. “You talked with Maddie?”
“Of course I did.” He smiled at her. “I called her as soon as you were off the phone with your mother. I wanted to make sure you were as okay as you said you were.”
Janet rolled her eyes. “I couldn’t stop him. I think he has her on speed dial.”
Syd laughed.
“But in all fairness,” Janet continued, “If he hadn’t, I would have called her myself.”
Syd smiled at them. “It’s okay. I understand.”
“We’re happy that you’re staying there with her. We didn’t want you to be alone right now.”
Syd looked at her mother. “Believe me when I tell you that I’ve never felt less alone.”
They regarded each other in silence.
“I believe you,” her mother said, finally. “And I’m happy about that—for both of you.”
Syd couldn’t hide her smile. “Thanks.” She looked at her father, who stood watching them with a smug expression. “What?”
He sobered and raised his palms. “Don’t look at me like that. I told you from the get-go that I didn’t care who got her as long as she ended up in the family.”
Syd poked him in the ribs. “Why are you suddenly talking like Tony Soprano?”
“Hey? Family is important. You only get one, you know. And speaking of that—your brother is coming down tomorrow.”
Syd was shocked. “He is?”
“Yes, he is. Just for the day. We thought that maybe the five of us could spend some time together. We’ve already asked Michael if he wou
ld cook for us all here.” He gave her a small smile. “I think we have a lot to celebrate—don’t you?”
She nodded. “I suppose we do.”
“It’s settled, then. And I’m going to ask Maddie if there’s anyone besides David and Michael she wants to invite.”
“Dad, is this a family reunion or a block party?”
“Do I have to choose?” His green eyes twinkled. “Besides, I don’t think one precludes the other.” He looked up at the sky. “Winter is finally over. It’s about time we all spent a day in the sun.”
Chapter 24
Maddie finished her shift and climbed into her Jeep in the hospital parking lot. Her cell phone rang. She fished it out of her bag and looked at the readout, but did not recognize the phone number.
“This is Stevenson.”
“Dr. Stevenson?” It was a woman’s voice.
“Speaking.”
“My name is Elise Manning. I’m a friend of Ada Lawrence’s . . . in Kannapolis.”
Ada Lawrence. Henry’s grandmother. “Of course. Mrs. Manning. Hello.”
The woman sounded nervous. “I’m sorry to have to bother you.”
“No, please. It’s not a bother.” She paused. “Is Henry all right?”
“Henry is fine. It’s Ada. She’s in the hospital.”
Maddie was alarmed. “What happened?”
“They aren’t really sure. She collapsed at work last night. They think it might have been a stroke.”
“Is she conscious?”
“Yes. But she’s in intensive care at the hospital in Concord. I’ve been keeping Henry.”
“How is he?”
“Well, that’s really why I’m calling.” She paused. “He’s very upset. Scared. He keeps asking for you. He gave me your card. I think he’s been sleeping with it. I asked Ada about it today. She said it was okay to call you.”
“Of course it’s okay to call me. Is he there? Can I talk with him?”