Season of the Dragonflies
Page 17
CHAPTER 22
Acceleration
THREE THINGS,” Dr. Kent said with Mya’s chart in his hands. “Have a kit when you’re that far out. And don’t ever, and I mean ever, cut a snakebite and suck out the venom. Promise me?”
Mya nodded. Dr. Kent looked at Luke and waited for him to nod as well.
“And lastly, make sure you get here immediately. Cutting into those bites damaged your tissue, and beyond having a scar, it’s likely you’ll lose feeling in that area. We’ll know in the next few weeks. So make an appointment up front to come see me for a follow-up.” Dr. Kent handed Mya her discharge papers. “How does a woodsy woman like you get bit like this?”
Mya gave him a strained smile. “I’m not sure.” She had been asking herself the same question. She’d seen copperheads and rattlesnakes before; she’d encountered them many times, but she’d managed to spot them, to sidestep them. This time she didn’t even notice, just like she hadn’t noticed Spots when she was driving up to the house.
“Just be careful,” Dr. Kent said.
“I’ll try,” Mya said. Dr. Kent’s family practice had been a fixture in Mya’s memory since she was a little girl. He was the one who first introduced her to Fig Newtons. Though his hair had turned white and the top of his head had begun to bald, he still kept a tray of cookies in the white cabinet above the sink where he stored gauze, tape, and cotton swabs. He patted Mya on her knee like he always had and handed her a cookie.
Dr. Kent checked her wrapped, swollen leg where the nurse had administered the antivenin and tetanus shot. “Looks good,” he said, and then he closed the door.
Luke rested his back against a faded red poster of the circulatory system. “I’m sorry,” he said.
His face had fallen, and she limped over to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “You did what I thought was right.”
“Still.” He refused to look at her.
She took his chin in her hand and directed it toward her. She said, “If you hadn’t been there, it would’ve been hell getting back to the cabin.”
“Your leg’s real messed up,” he said. “I cut too deep.”
Mya shrugged her shoulders. “Don’t become a surgeon,” she said, but he didn’t laugh like she expected him to. “What is it? Worried you won’t find me attractive anymore?”
“God, no.” He squeezed her.
“Then no big deal,” she said. “And thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Luke pulled her into his chest and rested his chin on top of her head. Whenever he did this she felt like the younger one. A nurse knocked on the door and entered, then quickly left, saying, “Sorry.”
Luke said, “I love you, Mya.”
Without thinking, she tried to pull away, but he wouldn’t let her. He said it again: “I love you and you don’t have to say anything, I just need you to know that.”
No one had confessed love to her in a doctor’s office before. She didn’t feel well enough to respond. The antivenin had made her exhausted. To respond to Luke now wouldn’t be right. Someone knocked on the door again and Mya said, “Coming out, hang on.”
Luke opened the door for Mya and supported her as she made her way on crutches to the checkout window. The white halls gleamed from bleach, and the smell of rubbery ACE bandages filled the air. Mya stood behind the glass panel of the checkout counter and waited for the receptionist, Shirley, to finish up a call, her circus-animal scrubs a delightful display of personality in an otherwise sterile environment. Shirley hung up and in a deep Appalachian accent said, “That was your mama. Says your boyfriend didn’t call her.”
On impulse Mya almost said “Not my boyfriend,” but she was able to stop herself.
Luke said, “I forgot.”
“You know how she is,” Mya said.
Shirley laughed like she knew a long-kept secret about Willow from their school days together. “You’re over eighteen, so I couldn’t say nothing to her about you visiting here. You call her, will you?”
“First thing,” Mya said.
Shirley readjusted herself in her black rolling chair and banged on the antiquated beige keyboard. “Gotta wake it up, hold on.”
“Dr. Kent said follow up in two weeks,” Mya said.
“Just hang on.” Shirley stared at the monitor like she might smack it.
Luke tapped his boot on the floor and Mya looked in his direction, but the flat-screen TV mounted in the corner of the waiting area caught her attention first. The entertainment-channel news had a split screen of Jennifer and Zoe and a headline running beneath them that screamed: BOTH ACTRESSES IN HIDING. WHO WILL PLAY NAUTICA JONES NOW? Mya leaned closer to the glass panel, and the screen changed to a split of Zoe and her longtime boyfriend, the actor/director Clint Moore, a steamy twenty-first-century version of Paul Newman, a man Mya couldn’t stop staring at even when she tried. The headline scrolled: CHEATING MAN, BROKEN HEART: THE REASON ZOE QUIT HER ROLE? “More to come, just after this,” said a bouncy blonde with too much cleavage and teeth much too white. A commercial for RingTrue birth control began, and a skinny twentysomething vowed that her partner couldn’t feel the insert.
Shirley said, “How’s Thursday, July second, at nine?”
“I’m sorry?” Mya said, unable to concentrate and feeling pulled toward the television. She needed to find out if Zoe had already used the formula she sent last night. Mya had never expected that kind of efficacy. She must’ve used the perfume the moment she received it and applied too much of it in a desperate effort to renew her failing relationship. And her man’s cheating revealed today? Could the large dose of perfume cause such a swift rejection? Mya suspected it had this power, but she never expected Zoe to douse herself.
“Does that work?” Shirley asked again.
“I guess so.” Mya accepted her appointment card and offered Shirley cash.
“Not that much, child,” Shirley said, and handed her back two hundred dollars. “Just a twenty for your copay.” Mya didn’t keep up with things like health insurance; she rarely went to the doctor.
Luke led Mya away from the desk. He said, “You sure you’re fine?”
Mya kept staring at the TV, waiting for the news to continue, but an erectile dysfunction commercial came on next. “Let’s go,” Luke said. “Your mom’s worried.”
He pushed open the door. The sunlight flooded the waiting room and Mya covered her eyes. He steadied her on the way to the truck and then opened her door. She said, “Can we stop by the pharmacy? I just need to pick up some ibuprofen.”
“Call your mom.” He handed her his cell phone, and she dialed her mother as he started the car.
Willow picked up after two rings. “Luke?”
“It’s Mya.”
“Are you okay?”
“Fine,” Mya said. “Got some shots and a scar, but otherwise, fine.”
Willow paused, and she heard Lucia say in the background, “Tell her.”
“I saw the news,” Mya said first.
She heard Willow’s steady breathing. “Do you think it’s—”
“I do.” Mya couldn’t help the excitement building in her body. “But I need to make some phone calls.”
“Her manager?” Willow said.
“Probably,” Mya said.
“Lucia can call.”
Luke took a sharp turn off Main Street, the road opening up to rolling green valleys. This was her business, not Lucia’s. Why would Lucia make the call? “I can do it,” Mya insisted. “I’ll be home in less than thirty minutes.”
“I want to know now,” Willow said.
“Mom!” Mya sounded like she was whining but she didn’t know what else to say. Lucia had been home for exactly three days after fifteen years away, and now she was making official business calls.
“And you’re ill,” Willow added.
“This isn’t right,” Mya said. “This is my deal, she’s my client.”
“It’s still my business, for now anyway, and she’s my client,” Willow
said. “Lucia’s making the call and we’ll know something by the time you get here.”
Why was she acting like this? What had Mya done to make her mother so indifferent? And what was next? Willow would retire finally and hand over the business to Mya and Lucia? Or worse, give the president title to Lucia and let Mya hang on, live at the cabin, maybe oversee the factory and make the same formula over and over again like they had for the past century? Willow couldn’t do that to her. Mya had years of experience raising the plants and managing the factory, and Lucia had none.
“Mya, you there?” her mother said.
“Bad reception.” Mya hung up on her mother. She handed the phone back to Luke.
Mya stared out at the blur of trees, and the more she thought about it, the more Mya believed her mother capable of changing the entire trajectory of her future. Willow and Lucia did seem closer. Either Mya was ill and paranoid, or she was close to losing future control over Lenore Incorporated. She had stayed in Quartz Hollow her entire life, had cared for the land and the business and their mother while Lucia was away following her selfish passions. Could her mother honestly make this decision?
Mya had to know as soon as she arrived home. “Please drive faster.” Luke shifted into fifth gear and pressed down hard on the accelerator.
CHAPTER 23
Naming the President
IS SHE OKAY with this?” Lucia said after Willow hung up the receiver.
Willow didn’t want to lie to her daughter, but Lucia had work to do and getting her feelings involved would only hamper her. This, above all else, was the most important business skill to master. “She’s dazed, and you know how antivenin can be.”
“Not really,” Lucia said.
Willow didn’t have firsthand experience with snakebites either, and Lucia had never spent as much time in the woods as Mya. “You know what I meant,” Willow said. “She’ll be fine.”
“Did you tell her?”
“I decided against it.” Willow picked up the phone and handed it to Lucia. “Mya’s got enough going on not to have to worry about that cloud. She needs to rest; after that we’ll talk to her.”
“Do I call now?” Lucia said, and took the phone from Willow.
Willow opened an Excel spreadsheet and scrolled through the names and numbers until she landed on Peter Sable, Zoe’s manager. She highlighted the number. “Here you go,” Willow said, and stepped aside so Lucia could stand at the helm of the desk.
Willow sat on her couch. It felt good to be on the other side for once. On many occasions while Lucia was in New York, a bitterness had brewed inside Willow, as if Lucia had purposely stolen the years away, years that she had longed for when her girls were little. She wanted to be near them as they came of age and developed their interests and careers and relationships. Whenever Willow went to the city for meetings, Lucia always seemed busy or only had time for a quick lunch. Jonah rarely came with her. Her own daughter, a mere acquaintance. Certainly she hadn’t wanted Lucia to go through the heartache of a divorce, but she had longed for some event to bring Lucia back to the mountains, no matter the cost.
Lucia’s long black hair, pale skin as smooth as gardenia petals, big blue eyes, and wide cheekbones mirrored Grandmother Serena’s features so much that the daguerreotype of Willow’s grandmother on the mantel seemed alive with Lucia standing in front of it. Lucia pinned the receiver in the crook of her neck and said, “No answer.”
“Try again,” Willow said, and Lucia gave her the same indignant look she used to when Willow asked her to clean the windows of the cabin. Willow valued a clear view.
“Mr. Sable?” Lucia sounded more confident than she had when she first called Jennifer. Willow couldn’t be sure, but it seemed like Lucia enjoyed doing this, the way she’d always enjoyed helping Willow dry the dishes. Before she turned thirteen, of course.
“Sir, this is Lucia Lenore calling on behalf of my sister, Mya.” Lucia tucked her hair behind one ear, smiled, and said, “Yes. Yes, that’s right. Yes, sir, I am. I know, that’s what everyone says. I exist, I promise. Born April twenty-seventh. Is that right? How funny. How old is your daughter now? Oh, sixteen’s a great time to be a girl. Uh-huh. Right.”
Willow leveled her eyes at Lucia, and Lucia held one hand up like she had no idea what was happening. Peter Sable never chatted on the phone.
“Sir—okay, Peter,” Lucia said. “I’m calling to check in with Zoe. Well, no, not about all that, though we’re very worried and hope she resolves her personal problems without much interference from the press. You too, that goes without saying. But Zoe should’ve received a package from us, last night I believe. Did she mention that? She did? And—is that right? We’re so glad to hear it. That is high praise from Zoe. I’m so glad we followed up then. Didn’t want to bother her, of course, not in these times, but I’m very glad you could spare a few minutes for me and I hope to speak with you again soon. Yes, yes, Peter, I’ll tell her, and thank you for being so gracious.”
Lucia continued to smile even as she hung up the phone.
What a stunner, her daughter. Peter Sable had always been a hard-ass, but he talked to Lucia like he loved her. Willow said, “That was good, right?”
“Peter told me to tell you that I’m fabulous,” Lucia replied, and made a small curtsy.
“You do have something, I’ll give you that,” Willow said. Lucia cast down her eyes and smiled at the compliment. “You’ve always had a magical voice.”
“And Zoe’s using the perfume. ‘Adores it,’ or so says Peter.”
“This’ll cheer Mya up.”
Lucia sat down at Willow’s desk and placed both hands on the top as if she owned it.
“How’s that feel?” Willow asked.
Lucia withdrew her hands like she’d been caught trying to steal. She tied her hair into a pile on top of her head and then paused.
“What?” Willow said.
“Are you sure this is right?” Lucia said.
Willow adjusted herself on the couch. She said, “I really have thought this through, and continuing to provide our product to Zoe after the threats she made is a defeat for our company. I’d rather not work with her, honestly. There’s no good way to quit a client.”
“But why should Zoe be ruined if Mya wasn’t clear in the contract?” Lucia said, and tapped her nails on the desk.
“Zoe knew better. This wasn’t some innocent mistake, Lucia. It was calculated. The sooner you accept that, the better. Mya didn’t put it in writing, but on very select occasions I haven’t either; it depends on the client and the industry. With Zoe, considering how immature she is and the competition in music and film, I would’ve made sure to do it, and it’s my fault for not checking the contract, but Zoe knew. It’s always made clear in the negotiation, verbally anyway. She just didn’t care. What was best for Zoe was all that mattered.”
“I understand all that,” Lucia said. “You don’t want Zoe to get hurt though, right?”
“Of course not.”
“But Mya’s hair—well, it’s her hair. And you let her add it to the formula,” Lucia said.
Willow nodded, but what could she say to this point? She would not admit aloud that she wanted Zoe brought down.
Lucia stood from the chair and walked to the window. Willow watched her. A dragonfly landed on the glass panel. Lucia studied it for a moment and then she said, “If this scandal with her boyfriend is a result, it’s working fast. Almost too fast.”
“That’s hard to say.”
“You’re not concerned? Even a little?”
Willow stared at Lucia. She had a hard time feeling any concern for Zoe Bennett.
“Then I won’t worry,” Lucia concluded.
“I think that’s best.”
Lucia sat down on the couch, placed her chin in her hands, and let out a long sigh. “Jonah left me a message.”
“Did you listen to it?” Willow rubbed her daughter’s back for the first time in years.
“Not yet,” Luc
ia said. “Probably just a thing with the apartment.”
“Then why haven’t you checked it?”
“I don’t know.”
“You feel like telling me what happened between you two?” Willow asked softly.
“Not really.”
Willow didn’t worry about Mya’s heart breaking, but she always worried about Lucia. She attached herself too much to goals, plans, places, what people should be like, and what life should look like. Only disappointment came from such high expectations. “I won’t miss him,” Willow said.
“You hardly knew him,” Lucia said defensively.
How irrational even a broken heart could be. Willow’d had one before too. She said, “He didn’t want me to know him.”
Lucia folded her arms and rested them on her stomach. This was her response, a quiet resignation. Jonah wasn’t family and never would be, and Lucia was on the way to accepting it, Willow hoped. If she did, maybe she’d see a different kind of life awaiting her.
A few moments later Mya tossed open the curtain sectioning off the office and limped into the room on crutches. Willow hadn’t heard the truck pull up. Luke held her waist to steady her, but she didn’t seem to notice him. Her face was red and her blue eyes large.
Lucia stood. “Your leg’s so swollen.”
“Can we talk?” Mya said.
Willow looked from Mya to her lover boy and back to Mya.
Mya said, “I don’t care if he hears.”
Luke looked around the room at everything except a Lenore woman.
Willow said, “Maybe you should ask him; maybe he doesn’t want to be here to listen.”
Mya whipped around. “Luke?”
“Plow needs a new blade.”