Unexpected Sparks

by Gina Dartt

  Reaching for the remote, she began yet another solitary evening of television and an early bedtime, wondering when she would ever start living her life rather than merely existing within it.

  Chapter Three

  Turning the lock on the door to her shop, Kate peered out the window at Prince Street before lowering the shade. She had remained open a little late, losing track of time as she read her book behind the counter, and hadn’t looked up until 5:25. Outside, darkness had descended and snow was falling heavily, swirling in the wind that rattled the large pane glass of her display windows. It had been a hard winter. Several storms had hit the area since the middle of November, in distinct contrast to the predominantly mild and rainy winters of the past five or six years, much like the ones in England.

  This was a harsh reminder to the inhabitants that they were still in Canada and why it proudly claimed the title of Great White North. The buildup of snow, along with the effort and aggravation required for its removal, had fueled a steady stream of conversation in the nearby diner, though if anything was more futile than complaining about the weather, Kate had yet to encounter it.

  Feeling vaguely depressed, she glanced up and down the empty street where the rest of the businesses had already closed, their interior lights dimmed, their display windows already dusted by the storm. Truro tended to roll up its sidewalks early through the week and on Saturdays. Only on Thursday and Friday nights did the downtown stay open later.

  Kate lifted her head, watching as the snowflakes danced in the yellow streetlights, feeling a little of her dark mood evaporate. It was pretty, particularly if one didn’t have to walk anywhere or navigate a vehicle on the streets rapidly being covered with a thick layer of slush. A car drove past, slowed, and stopped in front of Madison Insurance, a block down the street from Novel Companions. Kate watched as a figure got out of the Lexus and entered the building. The bulky winter clothing and obscuring snow made identification impossible, but she was left with the distinct impression that it was female.

  Undoubtedly Sam’s latest flame, Kate thought with wry amusement. The man saw more action than the lottery machines at the taverns, but his wife either didn’t mind or didn’t know about it. Such obliviousness was a trait that Kate never would have ascribed to Margaret, but ultimately it was none of her business, and she lowered the blind before checking the locks a final time.

  Walking back through the store, Kate transferred the money from the register to the safe and then took a moment to straighten the cardboard display for a new release. She was reluctant to leave the store, to go upstairs to her apartment, though she was unsure why. A small part of her wondered if her unusual lethargy wasn’t due to the earlier encounter with Nikki Harris.

  Idly, Kate traced her fingers over the raised embossing on the bestseller, trailing over the blond head of a generic female character, though the fantasy figure lacked the exact shade of Nikki’s hair or the amazing depth of her eyes. She wondered why Nikki had been so distant lately. Over the past few weeks Kate had wanted to reach out to her beyond their spirited discussions, to ask her out for coffee after work, or perhaps even to dinner.

  How many times had she gathered up her courage between each visit, only to promptly lose it when she actually looked into that brilliant blue gaze? Had that secret desire somehow showed in her words or actions? Had such attraction scared or disturbed Nikki? Nikki’s visits had steadily decreased the past month until she was only coming by once a week, and then she stayed only a few minutes, resisting any invitation to talk.

  It was an entirely new experience for Kate to want someone this strongly. Even during her marriage, her emotions had been based on accepting what was expected of her rather than anything she truly desired. She had known at the time that she wasn’t really physically attracted to her husband, but the marriage had seemed the correct thing to do, not only for herself and David, but for her family and friends as well.

  Once she had extricated herself from the union, she had enough self-respect to vow not to make the same mistake twice. Celibacy held its own form of peace, and it wasn’t as if Kate found women all that attractive, either, so it hadn’t been necessary for her to seriously consider that she might be gay. She merely contented herself with the theory that she was asexual by nature, lacking any sort of physical desire. She had wanted to believe that she did not require anyone to share her life with, even during her more lonely moments over the years. Until Nikki Harris had walked into her store.

  It was like being struck by a bolt of lightning, and Kate cherished the memory of that first meeting as she would a beloved family heirloom. Her heart had pounded so oddly as she waited on the young woman who placed the lesbian mystery novel defiantly on the counter, probably the first customer who had openly dared to buy one since the store started carrying them.

  Kate inhaled slowly, hearing the wind batter the windows with small pellets of snow. She wondered occasionally if Nikki ever felt the same...if she could ever feel the same, particularly for an older woman. God only knew how much older. Kate winced. She wasn’t sure she had the right to even think about it, considering Nikki’s youth and how little they had in common beyond a mutual love of books.

  Shaking her head in an effort to clear her thoughts, Kate walked to the rear of the store where a stairwell led to the upper floors. On the second-floor landing, she entered her apartment and crossed the dining room to the kitchen where she immediately switched on the coffee machine. Through the window over the sink, which was angled toward the east part of Prince Street, she could see a light shining from the second floor of the insurance office where Sam Madison maintained an apartment. It had to be for his own use, because as far as Kate knew, no one had ever rented it. Remembering the late arrival to Sam’s office, she shook her head. How could she condemn others for being unduly inquisitive when she managed to keep tabs on nearly everything that happened in the downtown area without even trying?

  Kate made herself a small salad, losing herself in the rhythm of slicing vegetables and mushrooms, and then filled a mug with coffee before carrying her meal out to the dining table. The heavy wooden table was really too large for the room, but remained a possession that she had not wanted to give up after the unexpected and devastating deaths of her parents. She consumed her solitary supper to the soft sounds of the radio tuned to the classical station, keenly conscious of how alone she felt.

  The treble of the phone after she dumped her dishes in the sink came as a welcome relief, and she picked it up, pleased to discover that it was Susan Carlson. She and her oldest friend in the world weren’t as constantly close as they had been before Susan moved to Halifax when her husband had been transferred, but they did keep in contact regularly.

  “So what are you doing next Saturday night?” Susan asked after they had made it through the initial greetings, her breezy tone apparent over the phone line.

  “Why?”

  “I want you to come down to the city. You can spend the evening, we’ll go out for dinner...”

  Immediately wary, Kate hesitated. After her divorce, she had managed to divert the majority of honest, if misplaced, attempts by her friends to hook her up with someone new, first by insisting that it was too soon, then later with a host of other excuses, until finally most had simply given up with the conviction that she was hopeless. Only Susan persisted in coming up with possible suitors on a regular basis.

  “Just you, me, and Ted?” she asked suspiciously.

  “Well, Ted’s invited along a friend from work—”

  “I’ll probably be busy.” Kate closed her eyes and shook her head.

  There was a wounded silence on the other end of the line. “Katie, don’t be like that,” Susan scolded finally. “You can’t live your life alone.”

  “I’m doing fine so far.”

  “What about love, Katie?”

  “If I require love that badly, I can buy a dog.”

  “Then the hell with love. What about sex?”

&nbs
p; Despite herself, Kate chuckled. “Believe it or not, I don’t miss that either.”

  A somewhat exasperated sigh sounded in her ear. “I swear, Katie, I’m about ready to give up on you.”

  “I do live in constant hope of that occurring.” Kate smiled wryly.

  “So you’re not coming down?”

  Stringing out the long cord, Kate carried the phone over to her plush sofa and settled onto it. “Seriously, Susan, while I’d love to see you, Ted, and the girls, I really have no interest in any kind of setup. I’m content with my life the way it is.” A lie, of course, but not one she was about to elaborate on with an admission that the only relationship she might be interested in had to do with a young woman.

  “Maybe I should come up and visit you,” Susan said. “Heaven knows, I could use a bit of a break from hubby and the kids. It’s been awhile since we’ve had some quality time together.”

  “Are you serious? That would be wonderful.”

  “Let me see what’s going on for the next few weekends, and I’ll get back to you. I’ve missed you, Katie.”

  “I’ve missed you, too.”

  They exchanged a few more pleasantries, with Susan once more urging her to get out and experience life more before she finally said farewell. Kate hung up and returned the phone to the kitchen counter, determined not to think about things like relationships or the possibilities inherent in them, despite Susan’s encouragement.

  Instead, she sat at the desk in the living room and dug into the stack of paperwork that had been languishing there since the end of the year. She wanted to have the taxes for the business done and out of the way early, instead of waiting until the last minute as she always did. It was her New Year’s resolution, and a few hours later she felt a real sense of accomplishment and triumph as she finished.

  Then she realized how truly empty her life had become when she considered that sort of thing cause for this degree of celebration.

  Sighing, she headed into the bedroom where she prepared for bed, finally slipping between the sheets. Picking up a book from the nightstand, she read for another hour before weariness made her pillow more attractive than the adventures of the main character, who was apparently incapable of figuring out what Kate had known not long after the first chapter. Turning out the light, she settled back against the pillows and wondered when she would ever have the chance to experience some of the things that she had only read about, such as desire and passion and possibly even the type of love that could provide her with the happiness she had yet to experience, but still believed in.

  She wasn’t sure what woke her up hours later. It had been something unusual, she knew, blinking in the dim illumination of refracted streetlights through the window blind. Disconcerted, she finally realized exactly where she was as her eyes managed to pick out the familiar shapes and shadows of her bedroom. A glance at the clock radio on the nightstand showed it was early morning, the glowing green LED digits reading 1:13.

  Has someone broken in? Kate listened intently. Moments passed as she tried to determine what had interrupted her sleep. Finally, she decided that it had been nothing more than a sound that, while unfamiliar enough to disturb her, hadn’t really meant anything. Perhaps merely the storm, her subconscious reacting to a particularly sharp gust of wind from the Nor’easter rattling her windowpane.

  Kate eased back onto the mattress, relaxing into the cozy comfort of her bed, trying to go back to sleep. From the street, she heard the soft sounds of a muffled car engine starting, idling for a moment before driving off, eventually fading away to leave nothing but the soft patter of snowflakes against her window and the wind whistling about the eaves. Soothed by the quiet, she started to drift off, only peripherally aware when another faint sound insinuated itself into her consciousness, something crackling beneath the thin howl of the storm. She didn’t immediately recognize it, and while she floated in that sea of twilight between wakefulness and sleep, it danced along her senses until her mind finally pinpointed what it could be.

  Jolted, she felt her eyes fly open, and she stared at the reddish glow scattering odd shadows along her bedroom wall. The next moment, she was flipping back the covers and rolling out of bed, scrambling over to the window. The glow was brighter, and over the roof of the building across the street, she could see smoke rising thick and dark in the driving snowstorm.

  Pulling on her robe hastily, she left the bedroom and ran out to the kitchen. The flickering illumination was more intense and apparent, and lifting the blinds on the window over the sink, she peered through the swirling snow toward the buildings down the block.

  The smoke was billowing from the windows above the insurance office, accompanied by flames licking up the front, whipped by the wind. Her mouth went dry as she realized the apartment on the upper floor was already engulfed, and she lunged for her phone. Fingers shaking, she quickly punched in 911, breathless as she stared at the inferno, and informed the dispatcher of the emergency. Trying to keep her voice calm, Kate couldn’t help but notice the snow filling in the ruts on the street, leaving only minor depressions at this point. There had been a car, she decided, undoubtedly the one she noticed parking there earlier in the evening. The tracks began right in front of the insurance office and proceeded east, down the street where the trail disappeared beneath a blanket of white.

  Had the driver been aware that the building had been on fire before he or she left? If so, why hadn’t they called for help?

  Chapter Four

  The high wail of sirens woke Nikki. Sitting up abruptly in confusion, she looked around with blurred vision. After fumbling for her glasses on the nightstand, she jammed them on, frowning as she saw Powder up on the bedroom windowsill, the tip of his tail flicking spastically as he stared intently through the frosted glass.

  She could discern more sirens as she jumped out of bed. Truro had its share of sirens in the night, but never this many. Heart pounding, Nikki stumbled across to join Powder at the window, peering through the white fog created by the blizzard outside. She finally saw the reflection of lights in the distance and the darker shadow of smoke over the rooftops. It didn’t take her long to realize that the fire was only a few blocks away in the general vicinity of Prince Street. Possibly even at the intersection of Outram where Kate’s bookstore was located.

  Horrified, she scrambled for her clothes, not really understanding the reasoning behind her actions, only knowing that if something had happened to the store…had happened to Kate’s business…she needed to be there.

  Nikki flew down the stairs of her apartment building and was immediately brought up short by the heavy drift filling the sidewalk. Floundering in the snow, she decided to go back inside where she dressed properly for the weather. While she cursed a constant streak, she pulled on some waterproof pants over her sweats, a pair of heavy boots, a thick wool hat, some mittens, and her oversized jacket before forging a trail into the storm.

  She wasn’t the only one drawn outside by the commotion, Nikki noticed, as she plowed determinedly through the storm. Other people in the neighborhood, seeming curious and excited at the unexpected drama, also headed in the direction of the flames and smoke. She was still a block away when she realized it wasn’t Novel Companions going up in smoke, but one of the buildings farther down on the opposite side of the street, the relief sharp and strong in her chest.

  Heart easing its pounding, she surveyed the garish scene of flashing lights and roaring flames. From the number of trucks, Nikki realized that other departments had been called in from the surrounding areas, indicating that the situation was serious. Still concerned about the bookstore, she cut across the side streets to approach the scene from Outram. The fire department also had this street blocked, but only where it opened onto Prince, so she was able to find a spot alongside the building housing the bookstore. Other people had also chosen this as the best place to view the proceedings, and a crowd milled behind the barricades as if they were anticipating some sort of parade or celeb
ration put on for their entertainment.

  Nikki looked up worriedly, trying to determine if the flames might spread up the block. Fortunately, the wind was howling in the other direction, but because of it, the firefighters had their hands full trying to prevent the fire from jumping to a nearby restaurant, separated from the fire by only a small parking lot. Luckily there weren’t any apartments in the buildings directly nearby, but many of the area residents had left their homes just the same, perhaps afraid it might spread toward them. They stood huddled in coats and jackets pulled hastily over pajamas, some holding young children, the eerie splash of emergency lights washing over their drawn faces.

  It was difficult to hear above the roaring of the flames, the shouts of the firefighters, and the confused conversation of the onlookers as the firefighters worked frantically to bring things under control. The water was freezing as it rose into the air from the hoses, and ice was forming everywhere, in addition to the blizzard dumping more snow with every passing minute. Nikki thought the precipitation would help dampen the flames, but the high winds apparently offset any potential benefit.

  “Nikki.”

  The call originated from above her, faint, almost carried away by the wind. Startled, she looked up, astounded when she saw Kate Shannon’s head poking through the second-story window directly above her.

  “Go to the door at the back,” Kate instructed, gesturing toward the rear of the building.

  Nikki frowned and then glanced around at the crowd, none of whom seemed to have noticed her being summoned by the woman in the window. After all, why would anyone care that the most gorgeous woman in town wanted to invite the local lesbian upstairs? Shrugging off her worries of being scrutinized, she obediently moved back to the sidewalk and along the side of the building. At the rear, she discovered a door, a mailbox with the street number, and a small brass plaque just below the doorbell with the name “K. Shannon” inscribed across it. A sizable, nondescript vehicle covered with snow was parked next to a large dumpster.