“Yay! We get to shop!” Mia claps.
“Can you afford that?” Savannah Mae whispers.
She truly has no idea how much I’m worth — we’re worth. “I think I can. Where did you get the Leslie Cope prints?”
“Those are a loaner from Peaches. She wants those back.”
“Savannah Mae, I think you should sell some of your framed sketches here.”
“I don’t know. I don’t think they’re good enough.”
“Put a few out, and if they sell, then you’ll know if they’re good enough.”
“Maybe I will. Sure would be nice to make some money from doin’ what I love.”
“I think I saw an auction in the paper for local pottery and Leslie Cope prints. You guys wanna go to an auction next week?”
“Sure do. I used to love goin’ to those. I haven’t been out to Rogers Auction Barn in years.”
Mia smiles brightly, “Me, either. You did ask me to go, didn’t you, Abel?”
“Wouldn’t think of going without you.”
Once the door is unlocked and the “Open” sign is turned around in the window, people start to come in. Pops, Levi, and Savannah Mae’s dad are the first ones in. We stand back and observe the steady flow of shoppers. Just as I suspected, people are wanting and trying to purchase not just the furniture, but the accent pieces, too. I’m happy to see several big-ticket items being sold. Some people in Rose Farm and the surrounding area have money. As the items get bought and are moved out of the store, some areas start to look bare. Business is steady and Mia and Savannah Mae are doing a great job keeping up. When one works the floor, the other works the register. I notice that a few guys from Zanesville who own furniture businesses are here scoping out the competition. It’s expected; I did the same thing, but we don’t really compete with them, since our furniture is handmade and handcrafted. Rick and Johnny also have several items that sell throughout the day.
Levi and I run the store while Mia and Savannah Mae take a break. When things start to slow down, Kevin and Ethan bring more items in to sell. Kevin and Ethan had a large storage unit full of their furniture that they brought over. Kevin’s dream was to open his own business, so maybe this will fulfill a part of his dream. He’s still his own boss, making what he wants and making what’s on demand. He’s also making a large percent of the profit. I hope he feels it’s a win-win for him and for his son.
A man comes in with an unusual request. “Hi, I’m George Beatty. My company received your catalog in the mail and I flew all the way from Arizona.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Abel Kennedy and this is my wife, Savannah Mae, and our sister-in-law, Mia.”
He explains he wants a piece of furniture designed specifically for his dearest granddaughter. He says she’s paralyzed from the waist down. He wants something stunning and beautiful made just for her.
“Let’s go outside so you can talk to the men who will be designing it for her, shall we?”
“Thank you.”
Pops watches the store while we walk with him outside to talk to Kevin and Ethan.
We learn that his dearest granddaughter was paralyzed in a car accident and the doctors have hope and believe this could be temporary.
He tells us, “There’s a surgery they plan to do and it gives us hope that she’ll walk again.”
Kevin asks, “Do you know what piece of furniture you’re looking for?”
“No, not really. My wife wants something special for her bedroom in case the surgery fails. Something that’s hers and just for her.”
“When do you want this by?” Ethan asks.
“There’s no deadline, but the sooner the better. Money is no object. It has to be as special as she is, and we’ll pay whatever price you ask.”
I watch the interaction between Mr. Beatty, Ethan, and his dad.
Savannah Mae says, “I’ve noticed you’re referrin’ to her as your dearest granddaughter.”
He laughs. “She is my dearest granddaughter. Right now, she’s my only granddaughter. If I’m ever lucky enough to have another one, they’ll both be my dearest granddaughters.”
Kevin and Ethan speak privately among each other before Ethan says, “Mr. Beatty, I think we can come up with something unique and amazing for her. What is your granddaughter’s name?”
He smiles with fondness. “Her name’s Emily Hope. She’s only five years old.” His smile fades. “Her mother, my only daughter, and her father were killed in the accident last summer that paralyzed her.”
“We’re so sorry for your loss,” Savannah Mae whispers.
“Thank you. A car was driving on the wrong side of the street. My daughter, son-in-law, and Emily were returning home from church.”
He digs into his back pocket for his wallet, and pulls out a wallet-size picture. “This was taken just days before the accident.”
I’m speechless. I have no idea what to say. My throat tightens up and I can barely look at the photo. I can’t imagine their pain. We pass the photo around for everyone to see.
Savannah Mae lightly touches his arm. “It looks like they were very happy.”
“They were, thank you.”
Kevin asks, “What is your granddaughter’s favorite color?”
“Purple.”
Kevin tries to hand him back the photo and Mr. Beatty says, “My wife wants you to keep it. She thinks it might inspire you in your creation.” He pauses and says, “I’m not sure I should mention this.”
“Mention what?” Savannah Mae asks.
“For Halloween last year, I paid a man to make her the best Halloween costume ever. You know how kids love Halloween. It was her first Halloween since the accident and I didn’t want her to miss it.”
“Was he able to come up with something to your liking?” I ask.
He chuckles, “He was. My dearest granddaughter went trick or treating as Cinderella. He turned her wheelchair into a beautiful carriage, complete with lights. Not one person knew that that carriage was made from her wheelchair that she had to have.” That’s very impressive. But now the pressure’s really on for our guys. I can see the concern in Kevin’s face. Mr. Beatty beams with happiness. If I didn’t know how much he loved his granddaughter, I do now. I’m not sure Kevin or Ethan are up to such a challenge. This seems like a tough order and if they fail at meeting Mr. Beatty’s demands, this could be disastrous for the business.
“That’s wonderful,” Savannah Mae says honestly and sincerely. “I read a story once about a man who turned his daughter’s wheelchair into a horse and she went to a Renaissance festival as a knight.” She smiles and adds, “He did it out of love for his daughter, and he gained tons of attention for it from everyone in attendance.”
I think I remember reading something like that.
“It’s the same man.”
Savannah Mae laughs. “Really?”
He smiles. “My wife and I read the same article and I knew he was the man I needed to pull off something amazing for my dearest granddaughter. He really made her feel like a princess, even if it was just one night.”
Savannah Mae watches Ethan and Kevin before she looks back at Mr. Beatty. “We’ll call you in few weeks and let you know what we’ve come up with. Does that sound all right?”
I have doubts running through my head about this, but I don’t dare voice them in front of our client.
Mr. Beatty smiles. “Yes, take as long as you need.” He pulls out a business card and hands it to Savannah Mae. “I knew I came to the right place.”
I sure hope so. “Thank you.”
He shakes everyone’s hands before he leaves and goes to an awaiting black Mercedes.
Savannah Mae looks at the picture and says, “Do you guys have any ideas?”
“No, not a clue,” Kevin says honestly.
Ethan adds, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. “Me, either. We have a few weeks to come up with something.”
Great, this is just what I was afraid of. “Something will c
ome to you,” I say, not believing my own words.
“I’ll pray that something great will come to mind,” Kevin whispers.
By the end of the night, Savannah Mae and I are exhausted. Her parents took Sawyer Jackson home so we could stay at the grand opening until everyone left. When I planned for it, I didn’t plan on such a huge crowd or the long hours. When we heard the possibility of a food shortage, I called and arranged for a large pizza delivery. When the kids heard about the pizza and showed their excitement, I still worried there wouldn’t be enough. I forget how much kids and adults like pizza. It was a huge success with long hours. Thankfully, people were very respectful of the free food and didn’t waste needlessly. This is a part of Appalachia, where you never turn down free food and you don’t waste food. Here, food is an important and appreciated gift. They also didn’t trash the property with litter. Well, not excessively. When you have a large crowd, you just never know what to expect from people.
Everything gets cleaned up, the vendors leave, and the Porta Potties are hauled away. Porta Potties. Funny name. But there are funnier names. Back when John Paul II was Pope, he attended an event at which there were portable toilets. His people warned workers not to refer to the portable toilets as Porta-Johns, so they called them Vati-Cans.
By the way, Pope John XXIII once looked over an architect’s plans for a building and then wrote on the plans, “Non sumus angeli,” which is Latin for “We are not angels.” The architect looked at his plans and realized that he had forgotten to add bathrooms.
I have learned a few things from my Catholic friends. Because of the Pope anecdotes, I remembered to order Porta Potties for the grand opening.
Savannah Mae and I close up the store, and then head home.
Savannah Mae
The grand opening was busy and fun. I’ve worked hard as a waitress and as a single mom, but I don’t recall ever workin’ this hard. I was thankful that we had so many family members there to help watch Sawyer Jackson and to help out. I’m not sure Abel Lee knew what to expect, either.
He did remember to schedule the Porta Potties and I’m grateful. I had no idea what we would need, I’ve never done this before.
I think the highlight of the day was the fun the children had. The snow cone maker and the cotton candy machine were a huge hit for the kids. The barbeque ribs and the brats were a big hit for the adults. I wonder, though, whether we are providin’ additional future work for dentists and cardiologists. The most noncontroversial statement in nutrition is that fruits and veggies are good for you. We had some of those, but we had lots of food that perhaps nutritionists would prefer that we not serve.
I started thinkin’ about this because I saw Ol’ Dante fillin’ up on carrots and celery and apples instead of BBQ and brats and hamburgers and hot dogs like almost everybody else.
I congratulated him on eatin’ healthy, and he said, “I eat this way because I’m the boss of me. I went to the doctor a while back and found out I had high blood pressure, almost bad enough to be put on medication. That didn’t suit me at all. My body needs to do what I tell it to do, or else there’ll be trouble — and I’ll be the one causin’ it. Started eatin’ fruits and veggies, and none of this five-a-day stuff — fifteen a day, or more. A single bite of meat or fish became one servin’ for me. Take vitamin B-12 and eat flaxseed and walnuts. Seldom add salt. And started walkin’ in all kinds of weather and ridin’ my bicycle in good weather. Went back to the doctor, and my blood pressure is normal.
“Started losin’ weight, too. Was countin’ calories, doin’ lots of estimatin’ when necessary — and estimatin’ is necessary when you go to a salad bar and eat a salad with twenty or more different kinds of fruits and veggies and no salad dressin’. When I eat at a salad bar, I tend to get a little of every veggie. Eventually stopped losin’ weight and so decreased the number of calories I ate. Lost more weight, and eventually had to increase my calorie count. Now my weight is normal, too. If I had known how easy it is to lose weight, I would have done it years ago. Didn’t know back then that I was the boss of me.”
“What will you do if you get cancer?”
“Had prostate cancer once. Went to the doctor and zapped it with X-rays millions of times stronger than what you get when you get dental X-rays. It’s gone, and I’m eatin’ fruits, veggies, ground flaxseeds, and onions and garlic to help convince cancer to leave this body alone.
“Cancer ain’t the boss of me ‘cause I’m the boss of me.
“I’ll kick cancer’s butt two, three, four times if I have to, but with luck I’ll never again get cancer. Either way, I’m my own boss.
Killed an evil, evil man once — he deserved it, but I won’t tell you why he deserved it. Most people, if they knew what he did — and there is no doubt he did it — would think he deserved what I did to him. I got away with it, too. Did it all nice and legal. Police couldn’t do a thing.
“What I did was send this evil, evil guy a free case of snacks each week. He liked the snacks and thought I was doin’ him a good deed. I wasn’t. Each snack had a bunch of calories — don’t know how they got that many calories in such a small snack. This evil, evil guy ate six or seven of them a day ‘cause they were free and ‘cause they were always around him. He gained a pound every week, got obese, got diabetes and heart disease, got amputations, and got dead.
“The world is a better place now that he is dead. I got no regrets.”
“Of course, if I hadn’t killed him, Charles Darwin would have. He would have rose from the grave, found this guy, and told him, ‘You ain’t messin’ up my theory. Survival of the fittest. You ain’t fit, so you die.’“
A police officer overheard Ol’ Dante and asked for his name.
Ol’ Dante said, “I’ll spell it for ya. First name: W-O-R-L-D-S. Middle name: B-I-G-G-E-S-T. Last name: L-I-A-R.”
Ol’ Dante, a born storyteller, made the killin’ up. It never happened. But Ol’ Dante sure looked healthy.
I think another highlight of the day was when George Beatty traveled from Arizona lookin’ for the perfect piece of furniture for his dearest granddaughter, Emily Hope. It may have been premature of me to say we could come up with something unique for her. But, if anyone can do it, I know Kevin and Ethan can. At least, I hope they can.
Abel Lee runs a bubble bath for me, and I soak longer than I need to. It feels too good to get out. It’s times like this I wish we had two bathrooms. Abel Lee showers as I dress for bed. We have church tomorrow and it’s also potluck day.
I fall asleep waitin’ on Abel Lee to get done with his shower. We have so much to talk about and to share about the day with each other. I’m disappointed when we don’t get time to talk.
When I wake up, Abel Lee is already dressed for church and is havin’ his coffee at the table while workin’ on his laptop. As soon as he sees me, he closes his computer and smiles at me.
“Sleep well?” he asks.
“I didn’t mean to fall asleep waitin’ on you last night.”
“That’s all right. We had a busy day. I went right to bed after my shower.”
I look behind Abel Lee and see a wet spot on the floor beneath where my backpack is lying. “What in the world?” I say as I stand and lift the pack from the floor. The bottom of it is soaked, along with the floor. As I carry it to the kitchen, Abel Lee follows me. “What do you have in there that leaked out?” he asks.
“Nothing.” I empty the contents and set everything on a dish towel to wipe off and dry it.
He picks up a bottle of water. “Well, here’s the culprit.”
“It shouldn’t be. I never opened it.”
Carryin’ it over to the sink, he says, “You must have, it’s leaking.”
Still settin’ the contents of my backpack on the kitchen towel I frown at the mess before me. “I didn’t. I got sick yesterday, and a nice man helped me.”
He looks back at me from the kitchen sink. “I didn’t know you got sick and how did he help you?”
&
nbsp; “I got sick behind a tree because I couldn’t make it to the restroom, and he must have seen me. He handed me a handkerchief and a bottle of water.” I look back at Abel Lee. “I thanked him and he left.”
“You didn’t open the water?”
“No, I still had some juice from earlier. I drank it.” I start to dry off the other wet items with a clean dry dish towel.
Abel Lee tips the bottle of water upside down over the sink and squeezes it. Water starts coming out from the lid. I watch as he inspects the bottle and then the lid. I’m confused and he lines his brow. His eyes turn a deeper shade of brown, and that happens only when he’s upset. How can the bottle of water leak, if I never opened it? I watch in confusion as he screws the lid back on and squeezes the bottle again. He applies more force and a single stream of water comes out of the top of the lid. I lean into the counter. I know why’s he’s upset. I also know why he’s concerned. “You said he gave you a handkerchief, too?”
I search the wet contents on the counter for the wet white handkerchief, folded into a perfect square. “Here it is.” Handin’ the clean but wet hankie to Abel Lee, I frown.
He carefully unfolds it, revealin’ an embroidered cursive J in the center. I gasp. Josh! Maria’s brother. Can it be possible? We caught the guys involved in the stalkin’ and the murders, didn’t we? Is it possible that Josh is still involved? Maria said he went to Vegas and got married, didn’t she? Can he be a master manipulator? Is it possible that he’s been involved in all of this? The bottle of water was punctured. Drugs? Did someone add drugs to the water? Is that why they punctured it? I start to slide down the counter to sit on the floor when Abel Lee catches me. I want to sit down. I need to sit down before I fall down. He wraps his arm securely around me and leads me back to bed. Finally, I say the things I’m thinkin’. “He tried to drug me.” My mind races with the what ifs. What if I drank the tainted water? What if I had been drugged or poisoned? What would have happened to our baby? “Abel Lee? The baby? If I had drank that water…”
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