The Cracked Spine

by Paige Shelton

  “I’m so sorry, everyone,” I said. “I can tell you’re all very close and this is a painful day. Would you like for me to leave the room so you can further discuss things in private?”

  They all looked at me with genuine surprise, which in turn surprised me.

  “Delaney, you are now a part of The Cracked Spine. You might not have the history we all have, but I picked you because I knew you would be a perfect fit. You’re here and we’re happy you’re here. I’m sorry tae have such a tragedy be a part of your first few days, but we will get through this, and we will somehow come out stronger in the end.”

  Hector, being smarter than your average dog, stood from Rosie’s lap and hopped to mine. He relaxed into a flat, brown, well-brushed mop.

  “See, even Hector kens,” Rosie said with a sniff.

  I nodded and spent a moment hoping the adventure I had, indeed, found hadn’t just become more dangerous than bold.

  NINE

  “There ye be,” Elias said as he opened the cab back-passenger door and nodded toward the bookshop. “How’s awthing … e-very-thing going?”

  “Little rough at the shop. I’m not working today,” I said.

  “Lass, have ye been sacked awready?” Elias asked.

  “No, we’re closing for the day. There was a tragedy in the owner’s family.”

  “I’m sae sairy,” Elias said as he glanced at the store’s darkened window that was still cluttered with books.

  “Me too.” I looked at the window too. I was the last one out. Edwin left right after he shared the news. Hamlet, Rosie, and Hector (it was again difficult to give him back to Rosie) left shortly after Edwin. With the blue key, I locked the warehouse door, and with a normal key that Rosie gave me I locked the front door. For a long few moments, I stood outside the shop wondering what to do. I’d wanted to stay there by myself and work, but Edwin had insisted that none of us work today. Finally, I found the card Elias had given me. He answered after the first ring and said he would be there to get me quickly. I thought that’s what he said. I didn’t quite catch the word he used for quickly.

  “Hap in then,” Elias said.

  When I was in the familiar backseat, he leaned over and peered in the open window.

  “What do ye say, denner with the Mrs.? I told her all about the fair and fiery lass from Kansas in America and she would sae love tae meet ye. She’ll have denner-pieces ready by the time we get home.”

  I’d originally called him for a cab ride around town and maybe some direction on finding a flat, but it was close to noon and I was hungry. And, I was pretty sure that denner was the same thing I called lunch. Denner-pieces couldn’t be too bad, could they?

  “I hope she hasn’t gone to too much trouble, but I would love to meet your wife.”

  “Braw!” Elias said. He said it with a smile, so I thought it was probably a happy exclamation. He hurried back to the other side and into the driver’s seat.

  “We dinnae live too far away, but it wouldnae be a short walk,” Elias said as he started the cab.

  We traveled west and then south a bit, through the building-packed downtown part of Edinburgh. I thought we’d passed some of the same buildings on the way to the shop two days earlier, but there were so many and there was so much traffic that I couldn’t be sure. The modern still mixed with the old, in pleasant, interesting ways. I was still bothered and, frankly, confused by the vehicles on the left side of the road. My mind and the g-forces still fought against the reasoning of “that’s just how it’s done.” At moments, I felt a queasy sickness because of it. I decided I shouldn’t try to drive right away.

  “There’s the King’s Theatre,” Elias said as he slowed a few minutes later and pointed to our left. “Plays, pantomime. Aggie, that’s me wife, she loves the theater. I’m nae much for it masel, but ’twas built in the early nineteen hundreds and I like the architecture.”

  The brown building stood out from the smaller shops around it. It wasn’t a theater-in-the-round but looked like the perfect place to catch a little Shakespeare. Perhaps that was because the bard had been on my mind since yesterday.

  Elias turned right at the theater, and the neighborhood transformed into a long row of small businesses followed by fairly narrow side-by-side houses.

  “Most of these are guesthooses. Aggie and I have two and we rent them oot to veesitors. Some are permanent homes and they all have their awn wee gairdens. Aggie loves to putter in the gairden.”

  “Aggie’s busy.”

  Elias laughed. “Aye, she’s busier than anyone else I ken.”

  Elias pulled the cab into an open space next to the curb. I was surprised that there was only a little less traffic on this street than on the busier city streets we’d taken to get here.

  “We’re here then,” he said. “Aggie and I hae the two end hooses and we have a wee cottage we live in behind them.”

  “It’s perfect,” I said.

  Like the sign on the cab, there was a wooden hanging sign in the front garden space between the two connected houses that said: “McKenna Guesthouses.”

  “Follae me,” Elias said.

  I followed behind him as we made our way down a space that was bigger than a close, but not really an alley, that led to the back. You’d never know it from the street, but there were more houses back here. They were smaller and more cottage-like.

  Elias opened the front screen door of the first cottage we came to. “Aggie, love, I’m home and I’ve brought the lass from Kansas in America.”

  “Good news, Elias. Bring her on back to the keetchen,” a pleasant voice called from the back of the house.

  “This way, Delaney,” Elias said.

  It was small—cozy, though not cramped, with plenty of windows to give the space a lit, warm feeling. We stepped directly into the living room, which was furnished with a small, well-used floral-print couch and chair, and a wall of filled bookshelves.

  I gave the books a stern look. Not now. Not when I needed to make sure I was as polite as I could be.

  A door was shut on the back wall of the room and a hallway led to the right. As we stepped toward the hallway a woman leaned out from about halfway down and smiled.

  “Hullo, Delaney,” Aggie, I presumed, said as we stepped toward her and into the kitchen. “It is a pleasure tae meet ye. Welcome tae Edinburgh.” She held up a mug as if to both greet and salute me.

  Aggie was short and slightly plump; round but not heavy. Her gray hair was styled just like I remembered my grandmother’s had been styled. I had a flashback to when I was a child and I would go with my grandmother to the beauty parlor. Her “beautician” Clara always gave me a sucker and let me paint my own fingernails while Grandma stuck her head under the big-headed, loud dryer. Aggie wore a full apron that said, “Kiss the cook only if you plan on doing the dishes efterhaund.”

  “Nice to meet you too, Aggie,” I said.

  “Come, come sit and we’ll have some denner. We’re not going tae either kidnap or poison ye, I promise. When Elias told me about his enthusiastic invitation, I thought ye might be right tae call the police.” Aggie smiled warmly at her husband and then at me. “We’re both happy tae welcome ye tae Scotland and tae our home.”

  The kitchen was long and narrow, but decked out in beautiful stainless steel appliances, white cabinets, and gray countertops. At the far end was a cubbyhole with a stacked washer and dryer, but at the end we were closest to, there were a round table and chairs that reminded me of my mom’s country kitchen back in Kansas.

  “You’re very kind,” I said as Aggie directed me to a chair.

  “Not at all,” Aggie said as she put a plate with a roll and what reminded me of pulled pork on the table in front of me. A denner-piece must be a sandwich. “Ye are an adventurous young woman. I cannae imagine picking up and moving my life tae a completely different country. Did ye ken anyone here?”

  “No one. Do you know much about Kansas?” I said.

  “Not really,” Aggie said as
she took a seat to my right. “Just what I learnt from the movie with Dorothy and Toto. Farms and twisters.”

  Elias sat on my left. He removed his hat and put it on the window seat behind him. A tattoo extended down from his short sleeve. I thought it was some sort of Celtic symbol, but I wasn’t sure.

  “About right. Kansas is a pretty place—lots of wide-open spaces. And the people there are wonderful. You’ll never find better people no matter where or how far you search, but it’s not the most exciting place. I admit, before now I haven’t been all that adventurous but I was looking for an adventure. And I can’t imagine a better place to find one than Scotland.”

  “Ye may be right,” Aggie said.

  I thought I saw the edge of a tattoo on her arm too, but it was well covered by her sleeve and I didn’t want to stare.

  Using a fork, I took a bite of the meat. “This is delicious.”

  “It’s an easy denner and one of Elias’s favorites. Actually, his true favorite is our very own haggis, but I didn’t want tae spring that on ye just yet.”

  “I’d like to try it. Someday.” I smiled.

  She continued an easy pause later. “How do ye like the bookshop? Will ye enjoy your coworkers?”

  “I love the shop and I think I’ll feel the same about the coworkers. So far, they’ve been wonderful and welcoming.”

  “Aggie, love, Delaney was telling me that they had a tragedy,” Elias chimed in.

  “At the shop?”

  “The owner’s sister was killed. Brutally,” I said.

  Elias and Aggie had put together their own denner-pieces and they both held them halfway in the air, as they blinked at what I’d said.

  Aggie put hers back down first. “Murdered?”

  “Yes.”

  “That is a terrible tragedy,” she said. She glanced at Elias as they shared a look of concern.

  “My boss’s name is Edwin MacAlister. His sister’s name was Jenny. I believe she had some issues with drug addiction.”

  “I think I heard about that this mornin’ on the television,” Aggie said. “I’m good with names. I think I mynd the name Jennifer MacAlister. Aye, they said they were investigating. I read that her building was located in a rougher neighborhood.”

  “I wish I knew what happened,” I said, briefly letting my mind wonder as to why someone with so much money lived in a rougher neighborhood. But then I realized that Jenny might not have had the same sort of money that Edwin had. If that were true, the inequality might explain some of their difficulties.

  “I suppose we’ll hear more as time goes on,” Aggie said.

  “If she lived a less than desirable part o’ toun…,” Elias said. “Ye mentioned drug problems?”

  “Yes.”

  Elias and Aggie nodded knowingly.

  “I’m sairy for yer boss,” Aggie said.

  Before I could stop myself, I said, “Elias, is there any chance your cab is available for hire this afternoon? I’d like to see some more of Edinburgh, including the place where Jenny lived. I’m curious. And, I need to find an apart … a flat of my own too.”

  Elias and Aggie exchanged looks again, but I couldn’t quite read them.

  “My cab and I are baith available, and if ye’re going tae explore that particular area, I’d like tae be the one tae show it tae ye,” Elias said. He looked at Aggie once again. She nodded. “My love and I have something else we’d like tae talk tae ye about.”

  “Okay.”

  “We have a locus … a place”—he nodded back toward the other side of the house—“next door that we’d like for ye tae consider.”

  “I don’t understand,” I said.

  “Delaney,” Aggie said as she put her hand over mine, “we have an identical cottage behind our guesthoose next door. Ye couldnae see it, but ye get tae it by walking around this one. We dinnae buy these guesthooses. My family did and now they are mine and Elias’s. We are fortunate tae have them and the cottages behind them. We dinnae live in a fancy hoose, and ye wouldnae either, but our home is plenty for us. We thought ye might enjoy a wee one of yer own.”

  “I, uh…” I had no idea what to say.

  “Just have a leuk at it first,” Aggie said. “It’s simple, we leuk for the right person tae live in the cottage. It became available a couple of months ago. We have never ignored our instincts on this and we’ve never been wrong. We’d be honored if ye would consider looking at the hoose.”

  “I, uh,” I said again. I was struck at least incoherent if not speechless.

  Elias and Aggie looked at me, their smiles hesitant but warm. They didn’t strike me as lonely people, so I didn’t think they were just looking for someone to talk to. Maybe it was exactly as Aggie had said. Maybe they listened to their guts about who they wanted to live in the space next to them. Their gut instincts weren’t off. I was tidy and fairly quiet, bookishly nerdy, and I minded my own business, or spent my time talking to the bookish voices in my head. They weren’t noisy conversations.

  “I’d love to take a look,” I said.

  “Oh, good,” Elias said as Aggie’s smile turned less hesitant and much more confident. If she wanted to cook me in the oven, it looked like I was hers for the basting.

  We commenced gobbling up the rest of the sandwiches. It was an unexpected and shared moment of excitement, a moment I would look back on many times and realize that it was then, as we sat around the table and hurried to eat the sandwiches, that we lost the wary politeness that was reserved for strangers. After you gobble lunch together, something very important is bound to change.

  After the dishes were done, Aggie led us out and around their cottage. And, true to her word, there was another one on the other side of it and directly behind the other guesthouse. It was almost identical to the one I’d just had lunch in, though maybe even a little better taken care of on the outside. The furniture in the living room wasn’t as used, though it still had a country flair. The door on the back wall of the living room was open wide in this one; it led to the bedroom, which turned out to be surprisingly larger than I would have expected, furnished with a wrought iron–framed queen-sized bed, a dresser, an armoire, and a reading corner with a tall lamp and a cushioned, old leather chair and ottoman.

  The kitchen was in the same spot but it wasn’t as new as the other one, and that was fine.

  “This cooker is an auld one, but I think it makes cakes better than mine does,” Aggie said as she pointed at the old white appliance that I would have called a range.

  “It’s great,” I said. “Really great.”

  Aggie and Elias smiled at each other.

  “This way then,” Aggie said.

  Farther down the hall from the kitchen we found the bathroom. It was bland but also bigger than I would have guessed.

  “And this”—Aggie pointed up and above the doorway that was just past the bathroom and led to a small shared courtyard between the two houses—“is your electricity. Ye have to put clinkers, money, in it.”

  I looked at the strange wired contraption that reminded me of something from an old black-and-white movie about Thomas Edison, blinked, and again said, “I don’t understand.”

  “Aye, ye have to feed it coins and it will power the hoose. It’s an efficient system and should only cost ye about ten pounds a month.”

  “Really?”

  “Aye. Ye do need tae pay attention tae it though. Ye dinnae want tae be in the middle o’ something and be caught without power.”

  “I see.” I’d never heard of anything like it, but I thought I’d be able to handle it okay.

  “Come out tae the courtyard,” Elias said. He stepped around Aggie and me and pushed open the back door that faced the other cottage’s back door.

  There was a wooden deck and a matching fence, both looking as if they’d only recently been restained. The deck was only big enough to hold a small table and four wicker chairs with well-used pillow seats. There were also about twenty large flowerpots along the border, making th
e entire deck one large container garden.

  “I…,” I began. “It’s really perfect. I love it.”

  Elias’s and Aggie’s faces lit with their warmest smiles yet.

  “Byous! Wonderful,” Aggie said.

  “How much?” I asked.

  They looked at each other again and then back at me. I was afraid they would say “nothing.” Unfortunately, that would have forced me to walk away from this perfect opportunity.

  Elias quoted a rent amount that was almost too good to be true, but just almost, and enough to keep me on the line.

  “I’ll take it!”

  “Braw!” Elias said.

  I looked around at my new home and neighbors and another sense of rightness washed over me.

  So far, not too bad on tackling the adventure. If only my people back in Kansas could see me now.

  TEN

  I hadn’t unpacked much at the hotel so it was easy to repack my bags and take them down to Elias’s cab out front. The small hotel lobby was full of visitors from Sweden who were checking in. It was long past checkout time and I didn’t want Edwin to pay for that night, so I quickly gave the clerk my credit card and then scooted out of the way.

  Elias reloaded my bags into his cab, and directed me to the front passenger seat, and then we set off on a guided tour of Edinburgh. There was so much to see that it was difficult to digest much of anything, but the castle on the hill made a good reference point. I didn’t think I could get too lost if I could spot the castle and make my way from there.

  He drove up the curved hill on the other side of the hotel, past a bagel shop, a cigar shop, a place with a sign that said, “The Cadies and Witchery Tours,” a whisky shop, and even a pizza restaurant that was sit-down and dine-in, not just take-away. At the top of the hill he turned left. A short moment later we were conveniently stopped at a traffic light.

  “This is the Royal Mile,” he said as he nodded to the cross street in front of us. “Up tae yer left, ye could get tae the castle. Go right and ye’ll get tae Holyrood Palace and the gantin—I mean ugly parliament biggin, uh, building. ’Tis an eyesore, let me tell ye.”