by Tonya Kappes
“It was just too good to keep to myself.” Trudy really thought it was okay to spill her guts. “I mean, it was already all over town and the diner about the scuffle with that photographer. It wasn’t like I got on the telephone and went through the directory calling up everyone.”
She had called up enough people for sure.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Abby scurry into the library office with Betts and Queenie following behind.
“Excuse me.” Fifi and I pushed out of the crowd and into the office. “What on earth is going on?” I set Fifi on the ground.
“Nadine White hates me,” Abby cried out. “I didn’t get that social media post off the internet fast enough and it went viral.”
“I told her not to worry about it. Everything has a plan.” Betts tried to use all her wisdom about plans and creation on her, but Abby wasn’t buying it.
“I told her to set up her Tupperware stuff and sell it. That way she could tell Nadine White that she was having one of them holiday bazaar sales.” Queenie nodded. “And she can make a little spending cash. Everyone out there bought something.” She held up the sheet with all the orders on it.
“That explains the Tupperware table,” I said. “I did notice that. Have you told Nadine about this?”
“Told her. She is in there right now talking to her agent.” Abby pointed to the door in the office. “It’s the closet.”
I let out a long sigh and walked over to the closet, flinging open the door.
Nadine was sitting on a box of copy paper with her agent next to her. . . in the dark.
“You!” Nadine gasped. “You did this, didn’t you?”
“No, Nadine. I did not.” I opened the door wide. “Please come out of there. We can talk about this.”
“You don’t understand. She has a real fear talking in front of people.” The agent had a very stiff upper lip.
“I’m Mae West.” I put my hand out. “We’ve not been properly introduced.”
“Valerie Young, Nadine’s agent.” The tall, lanky woman with greasy, dishwater brown hair shook my hand. Her face softened when she realized I wasn’t the enemy. “What do you suggest we do?”
“First, let me say that I’m sorry this has happened. It’s not every day or even every month that such a well-known celebrity visits Normal.” Even though I had never heard of Nadine before this book Abby had us read, I did hear Mary Elizabeth’s saying in my head: “Mae, dear, live like a peacock; don’t ruffle your feathers unless you’re prepared to fight.”
Fighting with Nadine was the very last thing I needed on my plate this winter.
“Can you read just one or two pages of your book? I will address the crowd and talk about how we all need to respect your privacy while visiting our town.” I continued as she began to process my words and walk out of the closet. “After you read a few pages, they will leave and then it’ll just be our book club like we initially intended.”
“That sounds do-able.” Valerie nodded to Nadine. “She’s right. This is a small town and, honey, word gets around fast.”
“Don’t you write about small towns? You should know this.” Abby made a great point.
“No. I write the love scenes. I have a ghost writer.” Nadine might as well have slapped Abby across the face as hard as she could because it looked like Abby had just been beaten up. Her body had gone limp, her eyes dulled, and her jaw dropped. “My heart is in doing a cookbook for lovers.”
It was as sad as the day a sweet child found out the real truth about Santa Claus.
“Okay.” I gulped and gave Betts a look to get Abby out of there as soon as possible. “Let’s get this done.”
There wasn’t much time. The crowd’s murmurs had gotten a lot louder, louder than the library was supposed to be, and it was well past two o’clock.
I gestured for Nadine and Valerie to follow me, leaving Fifi in the office. Abby wasn’t having any part of Betts cuddling her. When we all emerged from the office and walked up front, a blanket of silence once again fell upon the library.
“Wow. Bring an author to town and the crowd will come,” I tried to make a joke. “Seriously, I’d like to thank Nadine White on behalf of Normal for picking our small town that maybe she can use in her novel she’s writing here.”
“Liar,” Abby whispered behind me. “Cookbook for lovers,” she muttered. “Ridiculous.”
“I’d like to think that we as a community can let Ms. White to have her privacy and enjoy the amazing winter season Mother Nature has gifted our part of the world. I’m sure if you see Ms. White out and about, she’ll be amazing as she always is, but please keep in mind that during those times, she’s creating in her mind.”
“Unlikely.” Abby’s voice was getting louder as her disgust was getting deeper.
“With that, Ms. White is going to read a couple of pages out of her novel Cozy Romance in Christmas.”
Nadine was right. She wasn’t the best public speaker. Her voice cracked and trembled with each word. While she tried to keep it together, I pulled Abby back into the office to try to get her to keep it together.
“I can’t believe it.” Abby thrust a fist into the air.
“I know. She’s a hot mess.” I wanted Abby to know that I understood where she was coming from.
“Hot mess? She’s not even that, she’s a lukewarm mess.” Abby curled her lips in. They quivered. “I thought she was a real person. Come to find out, she didn’t even write the parts I love. I love the scenery, the small town. I felt as if she were in my mind and heart.”
I watched Abby go from mad to sad. She was going through the stages of grief, as if she’d just lost a best friend.
“Librarians get lost in the books. We take them personally. She comes in here to a book club and tells us that she has a ghost writer who adds all the cozy to her scenes. I skip over the romance part.” Abby went right back into the angry stage. “She’s a scam. A disgrace to the writing community.” She pulled her phone out of her pocket. “Hashtag Nadine White is a hashtag scam.”
“Okay.” I grabbed her phone. “You’re not going to do that. You’re mad and this vindictive person you’re pretending to be is not you.”
I clicked the back button on her phone to erase the social media message.
“We don’t need any bad publicity.” I handed her phone back to her. “So, she’s not what you thought she was. Who is? Look at me. When I came to Normal, everyone judged me by what my ex-husband had done. People just couldn’t believe we lived under the same roof and I had no idea what he was doing right in front of my face.”
“That’s true.” She snapped her fingers.” Nadine is no different than your husband. She is scamming everyone who is buying her books and funding her lifestyle.”
“I think several authors have ghost writers, it’s just that the public has no idea.” I ran my hand down her arm. “Are you going to be okay?”
“I’m fine. Let’s just get the crowd out of here and get this book club thing over with.” Abby headed out the door with a little more foot stomping than normal, but it was to be expected. Abby’s image of her idol had really been shattered.
I’d heard about this before, how social media paints authors as super nice and kind, but when you meet them in person, they aren’t what they appeared to be. Hiding behind a screen on social media didn’t appear to be any different from hiding behind a computer to write their books. In any case, all I cared about was Abby.
One thing Mary Elizabeth had always been good at was dispersing a crowd. When she was finished at an event she’d hosted, she got them out right quick and right now it was nice to have her and her skills.
“Who on earth has ever heard of selling Tupperware at a book club event?” Nadine snickered under her breath to Valerie.
“Excuse me!” Abby’s hands formed fists. “I’m sorry that I ever thought you were a decent and sincere person. I honestly thought you understood small town life. Your heroine sells Tupperware in your series! Maybe t
hat’s why I decided to sell it myself!” Abby shook a finger at Nadine. “You. . .” she caught her breath. “You. . . you are disgrace to this library! Get out!”
Nadine’s jaw dropped for a few seconds. Her face reddened, and she closed her mouth. Her eyes narrowed, and her jaw tensed.
“I’ve had enough of this for one day.” She turned to Valerie. “I want to go back to the camper and get my things. Get me on the first flight out of here tonight.”
“I’m not sure if the airport is even open since a blizzard is coming through.” Valerie gestured out the window.
Without us even realizing it, the snow had fallen a lot faster and everything looked like it was covered by a fluffy blanket of white.
“Get me out of here!” Nadine yelled at the top of her lungs.
Abby ran off in a fit of sobs. Mary Elizabeth stood there with Betts, Queenie, and Dottie.
“I can take you back to the campground.” The young woman who’d I’d talked to at the diner earlier said, shrugging her shoulders. “I’ve got a truck that’ll drive through just about anything.”
“Great.” Nadine headed towards the door and then turned around. “Valerie, are you coming?”
“Yes. One second.” She lifted her finger. “I’m sorry about this,” Valerie apologized to me. “I thought everyone knew that because Nadine is so popular now that she simply can’t do all of the writing with her appearance schedule. We have several different writers who write various parts of the story, but the romance is really her thing.”
Why was she telling me this? I didn’t care.
“I guess what I’m saying is that Nadine is really a great woman and I think all of this has caught her off guard. She didn’t bring any clothes to be seen in and the paparazzi showing up didn’t help matters. She wants to get back to writing the entire book without having to rely on a ghost writer, so, please, give her some grace.” She shrugged and looked at each of us. “It’s all we ask while we are here.”
“We’re sorry it didn’t go as planned. When Abby settles down, I’m sure she’ll understand.” I really didn’t know where Abby’s head was at the moment, but I knew she was very disappointed.
After Valerie left the bookstore and hopped into the woman’s truck next to Nadine, there were a few moments of silence before Queenie started to laugh and bounce on her toes.
“We need a little oxygen in our muscles after that,” Queenie huffed and transitioned her little dance into a Jazzercise grapevine. “By the looks of things, I’m going to be a little late for teaching my class.”
“Yeah. It looks like a lot of things might be late or cancelled.” I knew I wasn’t being a good friend to Abby when all I could think about was my supper date with Hank and where it stood with this snow.
Queenie and I found Abby in the romance section, right in front of Nadine White’s shelf that Abby had dolled up for the big occasion. She had made sure Nadine’s books were displayed to perfection. The top of the bookcase had Nadine’s framed photo alongside her framed bio. Abby had even gone as far as to list all of Nadine’s achievements.
“All of those are lies.” Abby pointed to the list of book awards. “She didn’t deserve them. Whoever her ghost writer is deserves them.” The anger in her voice was so strong and deep, I wasn’t sure she was ever going to recover.
“Abby, why don’t you come with me to release some of that steam?” Queenie jabbed the air as a growl expelled from deep within her gut as she twisted her core with each hit, jutting towards Nadine’s framed photo.
Seven
Luckily, Betts had brought her big cleaning van. We all piled on top of the sweepers, spray bottles, and mops, making the most of our trip. The radio weather update confirmed that the Bluegrass Airport had shut down due to low visibility and ice on the runway. That part of the state must’ve been getting more wet snow, unlike the fluffy stuff we were getting.
Betts dropped Abby and Queenie off first, making the campground the last stop since it was further out of town. Queenie had continued to badger Abby about going to Jazzercise. She was too mad to do anything, but Queenie was right. It would probably do Abby some good to let out some of that anger and steam before she popped like a pressure cooker.
Reluctantly, Abby got out of the car with Queenie after we talked her into getting out some of that aggression. This gave Dottie, Betts, and I some time to talk about Abby and how we were going to try to help her digest this huge blow.
“What are we going to do about Abby? She’s heartbroken.” Betts gripped the wheel and drove the van very slowly along the curvy road leading back to Happy Trails.
“I hate how her idol shattered her.” Dottie sighed.
“I know. I tried talking to her, but she wasn’t very receptive. She wants to burn all of Nadine’s books. I’ve never seen her so angry.” I shook my head. “I would hate for Nadine to have this awful experience and then tell the world about it, undoing all the work Abby has done along with the rest of the town to get the economy back on track.”
“True. It only takes one false claim and one stray tweet to put a whole world against you.” Betts made an excellent point. “Even before you can prove the accusations aren’t true.”
“Mmmhhh.” Dottie looked back at Mary Elizabeth. “What do you have to say? What if Abby was your daughter?”
“I would ask Abby what is it that she gets from books. Is it an escape? Because we know the books Nadine writes with all that happy ju-ju aren’t reality. Abby needs to take stock in why she loves being a librarian and realize everything she sees with her own eyes isn’t reality.” She slid her eyes towards me.
My intuition told me she was not only trying to give that advice to Abby, but to me as well.
“That’s an excellent point.” Betts looked at me through her rear-view mirror. “I think I’ll call her when I get home. I know Lester will want to take food to some of the older congregation members since the weather won’t allow them to get out. Maybe I’ll swing by her house and check on her.”
“Remember, she’s the youngest of us. She’s not lived long enough to get too many disappointments, and this was a doozy.” Dottie held on to the door handle when the tail end of the van fishtailed as Betts turned into the campground.
Valerie Young was standing by the door of the office, shivering, when we pulled up.
“Let me off at the office,” I told Betts. “I can walk to my camper.”
Betts stopped and before I got out, I unzipped my coat, putting Fifi inside and zipping it back up so just her head was sticking out. The things I did for her even shocked me. Who on earth was I turning into? I wondered and thanked Betts for the ride.
“Let me know how Abby is doing.” I waved goodbye to them. “Hi, Valerie. Let’s go inside and get out of the cold.”
With my free hand, I dug into my purse to find the flamingo keychain that had the office and camper keys on it.
Henry was in the gator cart with the snow plow shoveling the road around the campground and clearing the concrete pads of the campers. We didn’t need anyone suing us. He was really good at his job.
“Can I make a pot of coffee?” I asked her and pulled my phone out of my bag. There weren’t any missed calls or text messages.
Fifi had run over to her bed and curled up in a tight ball. I had enough time to brew some coffee, have a quick cup with Valerie, and get back to my place before I had to get ready for my visit with Hank, since he’d yet to cancel. There was no way I was canceling.
“I want to apologize again for Nadine’s behavior today.” Valerie stood next to me and watched me scoop the coffee grounds.
“You don’t need to apologize for her. I think she’s a big girl.” I flipped on the coffeepot switch to brew.
“That’s where you’re wrong. She used to be very sincere and kind. She had this amazing vision of how she wanted to treat her readers and fans. She was so young when I took her on for representation.” Valerie smiled at the memory. “In fact,” she laughed, “I turned her
down several times. She wasn’t ready. She’d not experienced love and her love scenes were rather. . .” She flip-flopped her hand in the air, “rather. . .umm. . .G-rated.”
“Well, she’s caught up.” I grabbed a couple of mugs and poured just enough before the entire pot brewed. “Creamer? Sugar?” I asked.
“Both.” Valerie sat down in the chair and crossed her legs, swinging the top one. “I told her she needed to make herself a little softer while we are here.”
“I thought you were going to get the first flight out of here.” I took her the cup and the items to doctor it up.
“She was being. . .Nadine.” She poured in more sugar than coffee, slowly stirring the cream in. “She has a tendency to go off at the hip and it’s my job to clean up the aftermath.”
“You’re staying then?” I asked, to be sure I didn’t need to send in Henry to clean the camper.
“As of now, we are staying. She needs the time to explore Normal and how everyday people live. She’s forgotten that after all of her success. But she truly wants to get back to writing all the books herself.” Valerie took a couple of sips of the coffee. “Did you know that Laura has written a book?”
“Laura?” I asked and sat down at my desk to face her.
“The young woman in your book club.” Valerie gave me a strange look. It took me a second to realize she was talking about the young woman who drove them home.
“She’s not in our club. I just met her at the diner this morning. It was very nice of her to bring y’all out here from the library.” Laura, I repeated in my head, so I could make it a point to thank her when I saw her next.
“It was nice and those are the people Nadine needs to rub elbows with. In fact, I suggested Nadine take a look at Laura’s manuscript. You know, give her a few pointers.” Valerie wrinkled her nose. “We can get a write up in the paper how Nadine is living here for a few months, helping a local aspiring writer bring her dreams to life.”
“Wow. That’s nice of Nadine.” I didn’t see that coming.