by Dawn Eastman
This conversation was rapidly spiraling out of control. Mac was extremely tolerant of my family’s quirks, but he hated it when Vi tried to pretend she was his unofficial deputy.
“Let’s have dessert!” Mom said. “Vi, why don’t you help me in the kitchen?”
“But . . .” Vi glanced at my mother. “Okay.” She pushed her chair away from the table and followed Mom to the kitchen.
Fortunately, Sophie had a lot of knock-knock jokes at her disposal and she kept us entertained and away from touchy subjects for the rest of the meal.
5
Vi rushed us out of the house at seven thirty. She said she wanted a good seat. In my experience, there wasn’t a lot of competition for seats at one of these things, but maybe a special emergency meeting would be more popular. Plus there was the phone tree, and Vi was very persuasive.
Grace and Paul thought the whole idea of a town meeting “too charming” to pass up and they came along to support Seth. And, I suspected, to smile in a condescending way at the cute townspeople.
I had to pull myself together. So far, Grace had been nothing but pleasant. A less generous person would say she was being too pleasant. And I was trying to be generous. I still hadn’t shaken the feeling that Grace was up to something, but I figured I should just wait and see what happened. Seth seemed happy that they had come and I didn’t want to ruin that with my grumpy reservations.
We pulled up in front of the Reading Room and then had to park four blocks away. Mom had sent her spirit guides ahead to save us a spot, but they must have been on a break. When we arrived, the place was packed. I hadn’t seen it this busy since the wake for a local Wiccan last fall. Usually the town meetings only drew the true political die-hards in town—basically, Lloyd, a couple of his friends, and whoever was there to argue with him.
It appeared the whole town had turned out for Lloyd’s meeting. I introduced Paul to Diana, and Grace exclaimed at how much people would pay for her beautiful curls in the city. Diana smiled weakly, cast a quizzical look at me, and excused herself. Jillian Andrews, Mom’s best friend, and her son Tom, who was a good friend and a new deputy in the Crystal Haven Police Department, approached to greet Grace, Paul, and Sophie. Sophie suffered through a lot of commentary on how big she was getting, as she hadn’t been to Michigan in over a year.
We stood toward the back of the room, and endured the swarm of people acting as if Grace was a visiting celebrity. A man I vaguely recognized approached, and Grace smiled and pulled him into a warm hug. I was still trying to place him when Grace introduced him to Paul.
“This is my old friend Theo Lancaster,” she said.
Paul nodded and shook hands with Theo as he had done with every other one of Grace’s admirers.
I tilted my head and watched Theo. He looked nothing like the guy I remembered. He had been part of Grace’s crowd after she graduated from high school. They would come to pick up Grace, or sit in our backyard and smoke cigarettes in that blatant way of early twenty-somethings who knew they were being ridiculous but dared anyone to stop them. He had been the only one of her friends who’d paid any attention to me at all. But that Theo had been skinny and shy, with long, dark hair that partly covered his eyes, and hardly ever spoke. This Theo seemed taller, confident, and even handsome. I saw him reach up and tug on his ear and it all came flooding back.
“Theo,” I said. “It’s good to see you.”
He turned to me. His eyes widened. “Clyde?”
I nodded.
“It’s great to see you,” he said. “I’d heard you had moved to Ann Arbor.”
“I’ve been back almost a year,” I said. We grinned at each other and began asking the what-have-you-been-doing-with-your-life questions.
We had just begun almost shouting over the growing hubbub when I heard a voice I would never forget. It was smooth and warm, like hot chocolate on a cold day, and I suppressed a schoolgirl swoon.
“Well, if it isn’t Amazing Grace,” drawled the voice. “I never thought I’d see you standing in the Crystal Haven Reading Room ever again.”
I turned to see Derek Vaughn. Grace blushed a slight pink, and Mom gasped. Theo’s face went blank and he stepped back to let Derek take center stage. That was the Theo I remembered.
Time slowed as I watched Derek’s smile spread. His warm brown hair was sprinkled with gray, and there were a few lines around his eyes. Mom stared, and Grace looked like she’d forgotten how to breathe. Derek pulled her into a hug that lasted several seconds longer than it should have. Grace pushed away from him and grabbed Paul’s arm.
“It’s nice to see you again, Derek,” Grace said. “Meet my husband, Paul. And my children Seth and Sophie.”
I caught Vi’s eye and she raised her eyebrows and grinned like someone had just handed her tickets to a show. Derek and Grace had dated for three years before she left for New York. They had met in a business class at the local community college. Neither one of them passed, but, at least back then, Grace had said it was the best class she ever took because she met Derek. They’d only been engaged for a few weeks when Grace broke it off and fled to New York. Twenty-three seems young to get married, but I’m pretty sure Mom and Vi had already hired florists and caterers. He was no less handsome now than he had been then. I was fourteen at the time and thought he was the most elegant and charming man I had ever seen. I heard he’d left the area a year or so after Grace and, as far as I’d known, had not returned.
He turned to me. “Is this little Clyde?” His gaze traveled slowly from my feet to my eyes and I felt my face growing hot. “Of course it is. No one else has eyes like that.” He referred to my mismatched eyes—one dark brown and one light blue. I actually felt a shiver when he took my hand and kissed it. “You Fortune girls sure do age well. It must be the stunning genes from you two ladies.” Just as he let go of my hand, I felt a warning. Not the kind that tells me to stay away, just a gentle nudge that all is not as it seems. It passed as quickly as it came and I wondered if I had imagined it.
Derek aimed his charm at my mother and aunt.
Mac stepped closer and put his arm over my shoulders. I noticed Paul take Grace’s hand. Derek had that effect on people. The women swooned and the men closed ranks to protect the womenfolk.
“Oh, Derek, you’re still such a flirt,” Mom said and smiled at him.
“Where’ve you been all these years?” Vi asked. Vi jutted her chin at him and put her hands on her hips.
“Oh, here and there,” he said. He kept his voice light and then turned to Grace. “We’ll have to catch up while I’m in town.”
Before I knew it, we were surrounded by Vaughns. Grace had pulled them like a magnet. Aaron, Derek’s older brother walked over with his wife, Lila. I began to wonder why Theo, Derek, and the Vaughns were even at this meeting when I saw Aaron’s son, Logan, and realized that, of course, he would be involved in the zombie run. Logan was shorter than Seth, closer to my five foot seven, with dark hair that he wore swooped up on top of his head like a melting soft-serve ice cream cone. This was the friend Seth had mentioned at dinner. Seth said it was nice to have a friend in another school because there was less drama, and the two boys bonded while cleaning out cages, playing with the dogs, and doing small repairs at the shelter.
The lights flickered on and off to signal that everyone should find a seat.
We surged toward the folding chairs that had been set out and Derek melted into the crowd. I saw him join his family at the other side of the room. His father, Richard, owned several high-end jewelry stores in Grand Rapids and along the coast of Michigan. I had heard that Aaron was taking over the business when Richard retired.
As I watched, Derek hooked a thumb over his shoulder in our direction. Richard shot a glance at us and seemed to linger on Mom and Vi. Mom wasn’t paying attention, but Vi crossed her arms and pointedly turned her back to him.
The noise level grew as people jockeyed for seats. It quickly became clear that Harriet and Lloyd had not expected such a turnout and most of the crowd was left standing. Lloyd stood at the podium and pounded a gavel.
“All right! Everyone simmer down,” Lloyd said. He slammed the mallet on the wooden stand and a shushing sound spread among the crowd.
Lloyd’s eyebrows were up near his hairline and he cleared his throat.
“Well, I didn’t expect so many of you today,” he began. He scanned the crowd and I could tell he was tallying up the votes. He pulled on his bow tie. “It seems this is a much more sensitive topic than even I thought.”
“Get on with it, Lloyd,” Vi said.
He narrowed his eyes at Vi and then began. “As you all know, there is a charity run scheduled for Friday evening . . .”
The clapping and cheering swallowed his next words.
Lloyd held his hands up to shush the crowd. “Yes, well.” Lloyd surveyed the gathering and placed the gavel carefully on the podium. “This is also the Founder’s Day weekend.”
There was more clapping, but it was polite and subdued.
Lloyd smiled at this and tugged on his vest. “As you all know, the Founder’s Day celebration takes place on the last weekend in April every year to commemorate the founding of our wonderful little town of Crystal Haven.”
The crowd was restless and whispers began. No one likes a midweek emergency meeting that only rehashes what everyone already knows.
“It is my feeling . . .” Lloyd raised his hands to silence the beginning rumblings from the back row. “It is my feeling as well as that of many others on the Founder’s Day committee that a ‘zombie fun run’ is not the type of activity we want as part of our dignified celebrations of the birth of our town.”
“What’s dignified about standing around in the woods wearing moldy clothes and pretending to build houses?” Tom Andrews asked.
“Now, Tom,” Lloyd said. “Your father was one of our best reenactors in his day.”
“Oh yes, he was very good,” Jillian said. She smiled at Tom. “The charity run won’t interfere with the other events, Lloyd.”
“That’s not the point, Jillian.” Harriet Munson stepped forward to stand next to Lloyd. “It detracts from the solemnity of the occasion.”
“I think the flasks that get passed around the bonfire on Founder’s Day are what detracts from the solemnity of the occasion,” Charla Roberts, our chief of police, said. “I end up giving out more citations for drunk and disorderly on Founder’s Day than on the Fourth of July!”
“You know that’s not the point,” Lloyd said and patted the air in front of him. He tugged on his bow tie again and his eyes darted around the room.
“So, what is your point, Lloyd?” Mac stood and crossed his arms. The crowd quieted. Seth gazed at him with admiration.
“My point is that the fun run should be moved to another, more appropriate weekend.” Lloyd banged his gavel as if that was the end of the debate.
“We can’t move it now,” Seth said. He stood abruptly, scraping his chair. “The whole thing is set up, people are coming from all over just for the run, and the animals are desperate for this money—it will save the shelter!”
“Well, young man, you should have thought of that before you chose this weekend,” Harriet said.
“I chose this weekend because it was the Founder’s Day weekend. I thought it would attract more donations for the shelter and it would jazz things up a bit.”
Harriet puffed out her chest like an angry hen. “I don’t think the celebrations need any ‘jazzing’ up. They are perfectly respectable just as they are.”
“With falling turnout every year for the past ten years,” said Alex. “We used to get people from all over Michigan and even from Chicago. It was the kickoff to the tourist season. Now no one comes until Memorial Day and Founder’s Day costs more than it brings in.”
Murmurs of agreement spread through the group, especially from the people who owned stores in Crystal Haven.
“That’s just a small downturn,” Lloyd said.
“Three percent every year, and ten percent for each of the past five years. If we keep going like this, there won’t even be enough people attending to do the reenactment,” Alex said.
Now the crowd was outright grumbling. Most of them hadn’t been to the recent planning meetings where Alex had voiced these concerns.
“I think we should vote,” Vi said. She was a master at reading a crowd and knew this was the time to strike.
“Vote! Vote!” said the crowd.
Lloyd raised his gavel and then lowered it slowly. He hung his head.
“All right!” Harriet said. She put her hands up. “We will proceed in a civilized fashion.”
“All those in favor of moving the zombie run to another weekend, say aye,” Lloyd said. He and Harriet said aye and then they gave the evil eye to a couple of their usual supporters who mumbled their assent.
“All those in favor of having the fun run this Friday night say aye,” Vi said from her perch in the back row.
The response was loud and enthusiastic.
Lloyd tapped the gavel gently on the podium. “Motion passed,” he mumbled.
Seth grinned and bumped his shoulder into mine.
6
Thursday morning I woke up later than usual with no kid to push out the door for school and no dogs to walk. I felt disoriented in my bright bedroom, listening to the quiet house.
Seth had somehow charmed his teachers into giving him Wednesday through Friday off and giving him extra credit for his community service project. He had decided to stay at my mom’s with Sophie and his parents. He seemed thrilled to see his family again and I wondered for the fiftieth time if letting him move in with me had been the right choice. Tuffy stayed wherever Seth was and Baxter had made it clear he wasn’t going to miss out on any of the fun or treats, so Mac and I had the house to ourselves for the first time since he moved in.
Mac’s side of the bed was empty and cold. So he’d been awake for a while. I was about to get up when the door swung open and a rattling tray preceded Mac into the room. I smelled coffee and toast and eggs. Was there any question why I was crazy about this guy?
“Hey, are you awake?”
“Just. I thought you’d already gone in to work.”
“No. No work for me today,” Mac said. He placed the tray in front of me. “Remember I closed that case? I took the rest of the week off. As long as nothing big comes in, I’m all yours.”
“Well, if you keep making breakfast in bed, I may not ever let you go back to work.” I snagged a piece of toast and was glad that Vi was busy with her zombie team and had “closed” our business through the weekend.
“I have my own devious plans.” He smiled his slow lopsided smile.
“Oh?” I dumped cream and sugar in the coffee and pretended I had no idea what he meant.
He watched me stir my coffee. “You’d better eat. You’re going to need your strength.”
An hour later, we heard my phone ringing from somewhere under the bed. I tossed on a T-shirt and rummaged for the phone.
“Don’t answer it,” Mac said. “It can’t be good news.”
“Your optimism is heartwarming,” I said.
I found the phone and clicked it open to answer.
“Clyde. Hey, I texted you a bunch of times,” Seth said. “Are you coming to help mark the route?”
My shoulders slumped. Of course. I had promised to go through the woods with Seth and Alex and mark out the track for the run. We had already scoped out the best places to have the zombies waiting for the runners and we’d measured the distance, but we needed to place markers and directions to keep things moving on the day of the race. Mac was right—it wasn’t good news, but at least it wasn’t bad.
“Yes,
sorry. I, uh, misplaced my phone so I didn’t get your texts. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
“’Kay.” Seth hung up.
“Told you,” Mac said. “Want some help?”
“You want to tramp through the woods on your day off?” I tugged on my jeans and put my hair up in a ponytail.
“The weather’s nice, and this way I can see where the zombies are going to be hiding. I don’t want to scream like a little girl when they jump out at me.” Mac was already pulling his shoes on.
“I kind of like the off-work Mac,” I said and pushed him back onto the bed.
He pulled me with him and kissed me. Then he stood and held out his hand.
“We’d better get out of here before Seth comes looking for us,” Mac said.
“He’d probably send Vi.”
“All the more reason.”
I took his hand and followed him out of the room.
* * *
Seth, Mac, and I arrived back at Mom’s after two hours of tromping through the woods placing flags and arrow markers through the course. Alex went straight to his restaurant to help cover the lunchtime rush. We stomped our muddy shoes off on the front mat before ringing the bell. The door swung open and I yelped when I saw the creature standing before us.
It had pale gray skin, dark lips and eyes, and lots of blood. Blood was in her hair, dripping from her mouth, and oozing out of cuts on her face. Vi had combined all of the most horrible of her makeup tricks into one disgusting masterpiece.
“Oh, Vi, that is vile,” I said. I looked away and pushed past her into the house.
“Good job, Aunt Vi,” Seth said. He high-fived her and followed me.
A small and equally horrible zombie jumped out at us as we turned the corner into the dining room.
“Brains!” it said. “I need brains!”
It chased Seth around the table and he pretended to be terrified.
“All right, you zombies!” Mom said. She had entered the room with a tray of sandwiches. “It’s time to eat. Sophie, can you go find your mom and dad?”