Maple Mayhem (A Sugar Grove Mystery)

by Jessie Crockett

  “It’s the only sort I seem to drum up and I guess I’ll have to take it.”

  “I think there might be more out there in life for you to take if you just pay attention. Graham is a nice boy and he really seems to like you. I think even your father would approve. I know Lowell does.”

  “I thought you had your heart set on me settling down with Knowlton?”

  “I have my heart set on you having a good life. I’ve always wanted all you children to be as happy as your grandfather and I have been. As happy as your parents were.”

  “I know. I want that, too. Which is why I don’t want to be pushed into anything or to settle for less than perfect.”

  “Perfect doesn’t exist, Dani. But good does. Kind does. Putting others first sometimes does. I think Graham may have all of those qualities. You could do a lot worse.”

  “Let’s just see how the camping trip goes.”

  “Camping does tend to show a lot about a person. You should come home with more knowledge than you left with concerning Graham’s core character.”

  “And whether or not he snores.”

  “And whether or not he likes children as much as he says he does. Kids can be pretty hard to like at two in the morning when they just won’t go to sleep.”

  “Or if one of them vomits.”

  “A man who can handle childhood illness is someone to seriously consider. It makes up for a lot of other less wonderful qualities. Many’s the time I wanted to hit your grandfather over the head with a teakettle full of boiling water, especially when he is driving.” Grampa drives sedately and prefers backroads and scenic vistas. Grandma is a lead-footed speed demon and she finds him a trial behind the wheel. “But instead of assaulting him, I think back to your grandfather rocking a child with an earache, humming away good-naturedly for hours at a time, and I’ll forgive him just about anything.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind, Grandma, if a crisis pops up with one of the squirrels.”

  Nine

  “I appreciate you being so nice about all this,” I said to Graham as he navigated his truck down the rutted road to the Collins’s place. I snuck a peek at him out of the corner of my eye. Truth to be told, I liked what I saw. His hands, gripping the steering wheel lightly but firmly, looked well groomed but not soft, like he worked with them a bit but washed them when he was done and knew how to use a bottle of lotion once in a while.

  “I love kids and I love camping. There’s nothing to be nice about.” He looked over at me and winked one of his bottle blue eyes. “I meant what I said. This sounds like fun and I’m happy to help out.” Graham reached across the bench seat and squeezed my kneecap. It tickled and it made me feel even more foolish.

  “I just don’t want you to think I put Celadon up to this or encouraged her in any way.”

  “You wouldn’t be the first woman to use children to get close to a guy she liked.” He smiled over at me and I felt less sure that he believed I’d had no part in us hurtling along the road to help out with the Squirrel Squad camping trip. If Celadon didn’t manage to get me married off soon, she was going to make sure I died of embarrassment.

  “I haven’t used anything to get you to go with me. For all I know you called up Celadon and arranged this with her yourself. Maybe I ought to be suspecting you of planning all this.” Like they always say, a good offense is the best defense.

  “Celadon doesn’t seem like the type to let much influence her besides her own thoughts and opinions. I wouldn’t think you or I could persuade her to do any such thing.”

  “You’ve got that right.” I felt a little better thinking he could see how Celadon had gotten us roped into an impromptu sleepover with no help whatsoever from me.

  “It doesn’t matter one bit how it all came about. I can’t think of a nicer way to spend the evening than in the great outdoors with even greater company.” Graham smiled over at me and I felt my stomach go all squishy and I knew no matter what Celadon had done I was not going to be able to hold it against her. At least not for long. Unless it started raining. Then all bets were off. Rain at this time of year was bound to be the freezing kind and I didn’t have enough padding to sit comfortably in a wooden chair, let alone to survive the night covered in sleet. “Besides, there is absolutely no saying no to your sister.”

  “I’ve noticed.”

  “Is that why her husband makes himself pretty scarce?”

  “He travels on business. A lot.”

  “Isn’t that hard on the family?”

  “I never really thought about it too much. There isn’t any animosity. Celadon and Clarke just get along better when their marriage is filled with space. The kids have more attention than most by living all together with the extended family.”

  “Don’t they miss their father?”

  “They do. But with technology being what it is, they can video chat with him every day when he’s away and that helps.”

  “Don’t get me wrong, I think your family’s great, but that’s not my idea of an ideal marriage.” There was an opening if ever I heard one. Was I going to step through it? My curiosity always leads me into awkward places.

  “It isn’t? A lot of men would love to roam around the globe staying in hotels and having adventures while someone else ensures daily life is in good shape back home. Whenever he talks about it, Clarke says he has the best of both worlds.”

  “That wouldn’t suit me at all. I want to come home from a day at work, not a week away. I want to eat dinner with my family while they chatter about their day. I want to read stories to my kids and to tuck them in at night. And I want to sleep pressed up against my own wife every night.” I noticed Graham’s hands gripping the wheel a little tighter as he spoke. From the tension I was seeing there, I was sorry I had followed my curiosity. I tried joking a bit to lighten things up.

  “What about business trips?”

  “We don’t have a lot of business trips with the Fish and Game Department but if it came to that, I’d take them with me. If you’re going to see the world, why wouldn’t you want the ones you love the most to see it with you?” And there it was, staring right at me. The real reason Celadon’s meddling in my love life had always rankled so badly.

  It wasn’t that I didn’t want to marry and have a family. It wasn’t that I didn’t want a man in my life. It was that I didn’t want the kind of marriage she had. Taking advice about romance from her felt like I might end up with a relationship like hers. I wasn’t resisting love, I was resisting Celadon’s version of what it was. But Graham’s version sounded like a perfect fit. My stomach got all gooshy and I suddenly felt shy and tongue-tied. This camping trip might turn out to be more important than I would have thought.

  “I don’t really know why.” But if I thought about it, I guess maybe I did. I think maybe Clarke loved Celadon and the kids better from a distance or maybe not as much as they deserved to be loved. Maybe that was why Celadon was so tight and bossy and proper most of the time. Maybe she was covering a heart full of hurt and I hadn’t bothered to notice.

  “I feel sorry for your sister. She’s too smart not to recognize what is going on in her life and I’m sure it hurts her.” For a man who worked more with nature than with other humans Graham sure was good at understanding how people ticked. I bet he was going to be great on the camping trip with all those little squirrels.

  “I wouldn’t tell her you feel sorry for her though. Celadon prides herself on being tough and correct. If you mention a vulnerability she’s likely to resent it.” I knew this from vast experience. Celadon was the one who was fine in a crisis or if she was injured until someone was nice to her. And then she fell completely apart. As in huge, heaving sobs and undignified nose dripping and red eyes. And then she got angry with the person who helped her to lose control. A happy Celadon was a steady breeze of energy. An angry one was a gale-force wind.

  “I�
��ll keep that in mind. Is this the place?” Graham pointed at a mailbox with a squirrel painted on it.

  “That’s it. Are you sure you’re ready for this?” I asked as Graham pulled along the side of the driveway to let a throng of running children continue on their course.

  “Everyone looks like they’re having a great time already. Besides, what could go wrong?” Now he’d done it. For such a sensible man Graham didn’t seem to have any idea about how things worked out when you tempted fate by opening your mouth too wide.

  * * *

  “Thanks so much for agreeing to help out,” Mindy said as her eyes darted around the woods from one screaming Squirrel Squad member to another. “Russ has been having a lot of trouble with his back and he just couldn’t give me a hand.”

  “I bet he couldn’t,” I said, noticing one kid lifting a stick as thick as his arm above another child’s head. Graham grabbed my hand and squeezed it.

  “We’re delighted to help. What can we do?” he asked.

  “I need to get all these kids fed and then entertained for the evening before I run out of steam.” Mindy’s hair stood out from her head in angular clumps and she only wore one sock. I never thought of her as the best-dressed woman in Sugar Grove but it was easy to see that she had been through an ordeal.

  “What were you planning for dinner?” I asked. I hadn’t really eaten since breakfast and there was no way I wanted to risk starving to death out in the woods.

  “I had decided on those aluminum foil packets that you tuck into the coals to cook, but now I’m thinking we ought to just give them cereal straight out of the box.” Mindy pointed at the group of kids scrambling up trees and pelting rocks down on each other’s heads. I could see how giving them any more fuel might be a mistake. Then again, hungry kids are even harder to manage.

  “How about a safe campfire starting demonstration?” Graham suggested. “Kids love anything to do with fire. And the hunt for kindling and firewood will burn off some of that extra energy and work up an appetite.”

  “Are you sure you want them to know how to create something as dangerous as fire?” I asked.

  “Trust me.” Graham stuck two fingers in his mouth and let loose with a whistle that rattled the few dried beech leaves still left clinging to the trees. All other noise stopped and the kids turned to see where the sound had come from. “Okay, kids, who wants to learn how to make a fire even when it’s pouring and you have no matches?” Kids shot down out of trees and dropped sticks to the ground with a clatter. They flocked around him like birds to a feeder just before a winter storm is due. Mindy’s shoulders crept down from around her ears and settled back below her neck where they belonged. I had never had a lot of use for her husband, Russ, and after seeing what he left her to deal with alone I was even less inclined to like him now.

  “He sure looks like a keeper,” Mindy nodded at Graham.

  “He’s certainly got a way with kids.” Little people were hopping and crowding into each other to stand closer to Graham and the magic he was demonstrating with a bit of fluff and some flinty sparks. Just watching him there with my nephew, and thinking about the conversation we had on the way over, made me feel a few sparks of my own. He looked over at me and smiled an I-told-you-so smile, and I had to give him a thumbs-up.

  “That’s never a bad thing. A man who helps out with the family would be a real blessing.” Mindy looked through the trees in the general direction of her house, where I expected Russ was sprawled on the couch clicking through the channels in search of the latest in reality TV programming. I felt sorry for her even if he was her choice. A distraction seemed in order.

  “It looks like we might be able to manage a cooked dinner after all. What did you have in mind to put in the packets?”

  “I have a bunch of pork chops, potatoes, and onions. And a whole lot of aluminum foil. I saw something on the Internet about making these but I’ve never done it before.”

  “Have you got any maple syrup?”

  “I brought some for breakfast tomorrow morning. I planned to make pancakes. Why?”

  “We make a similar type of foil packet meal sometimes at Greener Pastures. Let’s do the potatoes separately. Then we’ll combine the pork and onions and drizzle them with some of the syrup and some pepper before wrapping them up tightly. You just pop them in the coals to cook and everyone loves them.” Mindy pointed the way to a cooler stocked with foodstuffs and we got started peeling, slicing, and wrapping while Graham charmed the kids and kept them busy.

  Within a couple of hours dusk had fallen, Graham had pitched our tents, dinner had been eaten, and the kids were getting restless again. With the sun gone the temperature had plummeted and all I wanted to do was head for home. Or at least stay pressed as close to the fire as possible.

  “How about hide-and-seek?” Hunter suggested to the other kids. Hunter loves hide-and-seek almost as much as I do. I play it with him, his sister Spring, Loden, and even my mother if she’s not busy, on rainy days or in the depths of the winter when it is too cold to go outside. The family home is so large and full of nooks and crannies it seems like the place was purposely built for a good game of hide-and-seek.

  The woods on Mindy’s property seemed like an ideal place for it, too. The kids all hopped up and scattered and Hunter pressed himself against the nearest tree and began counting. I grabbed Graham’s hand and ran into the woods.

  “Don’t pass the pink flags,” Mindy called out. “Remember, Frank Lemieux doesn’t like strangers on his property.” I thought fleetingly of Frank’s dog, Beau, and then the fun of the game drove all other thoughts from my head, even ones of losing toes to dog bites or frostbite.

  The dark descended even more as we headed farther from the campfire. Stars sparkled in the cold night sky but they provided little illumination on the ground. Even the moon was just a sliver. Perfect for hiding.

  “Do you want to split up or hide together?” I asked Graham.

  “I think we should split up in order to keep a better watch on the kids. It’s pretty dark out here and I don’t want to end up on a search-and-rescue mission if someone wanders too far afield.”

  “Especially since this property borders Frank’s.”

  “Who is this Frank guy? He seems to have made quite an impression on Mindy.” I gave Graham the abbreviated version of the Mindy-Frank property line disagreement and longstanding animosity. I also mentioned how much Frank prefers his privacy and his low tolerance for intruders or the government. By the time I got to the part about Frank setting Beau on me Graham was scowling.

  “Did you report the dog attack?”

  “I went right to the animal control officer but he didn’t want to do anything about it. He and Frank are friends and he seemed to feel like it wasn’t that big a deal.”

  “Well, it will be if that dog bites a kid. Or a kid-sized adult.” Graham squeezed my hand again before letting go. “Be careful and have fun.” I waved at him and ran off through the trees to find a hiding space. The sounds of the others grew fainter until I could no longer hear Hunter counting or the campfire crackling. The smell of wood smoke still drifted toward me so I knew, while I was a good distance away, I hadn’t entirely left the vicinity.

  The snow wasn’t really deep but it did add to the challenge of the game. Wading through it, even though it only came to mid-calf, made walking more difficult. It also left a trail of footprints for seekers to follow. On the plus side it made it easy to see if anyone else had passed your way. The pristine snow stretched out in front of me like icing on a wedding cake.

  I walked and walked and finally crested a slight rise. Just as I reached the top, I heard growling. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and my stomach hit my ankles. Then I felt a shove from behind. The snow at the top of the rise was crusty and slippery. My feet shot out from under me. I tried to grab at branches as I slid past but Beau was on top of me
before I could think.

  Bits of brush stuck up from the snow and whacked me in the face as I rolled over and over down the hill. The dog slipped and slid and rolled along with me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Beau’s dark coat flash past as he tumbled over and over, too. I landed at the bottom of the hill with a bang as I thumped against the side of a tree with low-hanging branches. Before Beau could double back and get his teeth into me I bolted for the tree and scrambled up into the crotch about ten feet off the ground.

  My eyes had adjusted enough to the darkness that I could see a bit of movement on the ground below me. I covered my mouth with a mittened hand, hoping Beau wouldn’t have any idea where I went if I was quiet enough. Logically, I knew dogs don’t tend to climb trees but the instinctual parts of my brain weren’t inclined to take chances. I held my breath and strained my ears, praying I wouldn’t hear a thing.

  There was a crashing, rustling in the woods coming from the direction of Frank’s property. The sounds came closer and then I could make out Mindy’s son Luke’s tasseled hat just below me. He plodded determinedly ahead, moving past my tree and farther on into the woods.

  “Gotcha.” A voice cut through the still night air. It was rough and angry and too old to be one of the kids playing. And it wasn’t Graham either. When I squinted I could see Frank standing in the pale light, waving a shotgun at Luke. The boy started flailing and fell back on his hind end in the snow. Frank took another step closer and pointed the gun at his leg. “How many times do I have to tell you people to stay off of my land?” Luke, silent until now, began to sob.

  “You’re not going to shoot me are you, Mr. Lemieux?” It was hard to tell what he was saying between the sobs but both Frank and I seemed to have understood him.

  “I’m thinking about it pretty seriously. Nobody listens when I ask politely. Maybe taking a little action will get my point across better.” Frank raised his voice to a holler.