Woodlands

by Robin Jones Gunn

  “But I do mean it,” Seth said, reaching over and fingering the ends of her wispy, blond hair. “Your hair is like honey. Like fine strands of pure honey spun into gold. And your face is open and honest and clean.”

  Leah found herself laughing nervously at his description. “Clean?” she repeated, as he touched her round, blushing cheek with his work-worn fingers.

  “Yeah, clean. It’s like you look the same up close as you do from a distance. There are no surprises.”

  Seth withdrew his hand and went back to drinking more of his shake, as if he were caught up in serious contemplation. Leah took the moment to calm herself and to banish any more of her relentless tears. She was glad she had driven this route to Edgefield so many times. Because she could drive it in her sleep, she had the freedom to process what was happening with Seth.

  The guy is on drugs, she reminded herself. He doesn’t know what he’s saying.

  “I wanted something to work out between us, but I guess that’s not how you felt.” Seth sounded as if he were talking to himself. He was looking straight ahead. The breeze from the air conditioner ruffled his hair in the front. “Could you turn this down?” he asked. “It’s getting cold in here.”

  Leah adjusted the temperature and went back to his previous statement. “Why did you say that’s not how I felt?”

  “Hmm?” Seth asked, looking at her with the shake straw in his mouth.

  “You said you wanted something to work out between us. What did you mean by that?”

  Seth put down the shake. “I thought it was obvious. I’m attracted to you. I feel connected somehow. I like you. I want to spend time with you. My great-uncle Franklin … oh, yeah, you know him. Franklin. Franklin said you were the key to what I was looking for. But you obviously don’t feel the same way about me, and I can’t do anything to change that, I don’t think.”

  “What do you mean I don’t feel the same way? I do! I was attracted to you from the beginning, too. I just didn’t think you could ever be interested in me.”

  Seth stared at her with his eyebrows pushed together in an expression of disbelief. “How did you ever get that idea?”

  “I don’t know,” Leah said in an effort to drop the subject. This conversation was becoming painful. If she let herself believe what Seth was saying, it would change her whole life. But how could she be sure he would remember any of it? She felt sneaky. It was as if unsuspecting Seth had been injected with truth serum, and she was extracting as much information as she could before the effects wore off. It didn’t seem fair to either of them. He wouldn’t remember what he had said in the morning, and she wouldn’t be able to forget.

  “I’m serious, here!” Seth said, raising his voice. “You are essential to my future happiness.”

  Leah smiled at his flowery words and the depth of his sincerity. Yet something in her cautioned her to pull back. She couldn’t tell if it was the old recordings, reminding her that she wasn’t worthy of such a man. Or if it was the new, gentle persistence of her heavenly Father who had been making it clear that he wanted Leah to delight herself in him, not in the tantalizing possibilities of a romance.

  All she knew was that she couldn’t continue this conversation. “Can we put this topic on hold? If it comes up another time, I think it would be better.” She didn’t want to mention that he was euphoric and vulnerable at the moment and that it had been too easy for her to plunder the feelings of his heart.

  Seth pressed his head against the headrest and closed his eyes. “That’s okay. We can talk another time. I’d like to talk another time. I think it would be good to talk with each other sometime. You and me.” His voice trailed off, and he seemed to drop off to sleep—or at least to shut down his amped-up system—for the last ten minutes of the ride to Edgefield.

  Leah found the apartment using the address she had written down. She parked the car, and as soon as the motor stopped, Seth looked up. “Are we here?”

  “Yes, we’re at your apartment.”

  “Good, because I am really fried.”

  “Your legs might feel wobbly so let me know if I can help you up the stairs.”

  Seth slowly climbed out of the Blazer. The vim and vigor from half an hour ago at the Dairy Queen had dissipated. Leah went to his side and helped him up the stairs.

  “My legs feel so heavy,” was all he said, as Leah propped him up by the front door and went through his plastic bag of personal belongings Shirley had turned over to Leah. She found the keys at the bottom, and as soon as she turned the doorknob, she could hear Bungee yelping with delight.

  “Someone is glad you’re home,” Leah said.

  “That’s Bungee. My Bungee. He’s my dog.”

  “Yes, I know,” Leah said, helping Seth through the front door. She shouldn’t have been surprised by the sparseness of Seth’s apartment, but she was. If he hadn’t gotten the couch from Brad and Alissa, which now filled the wall on the right, the only piece of furniture in the living room would have been a folding beach chair.

  “Do you want to go to the couch or to your bed?” Leah asked.

  “The couch,” Seth said, lowering himself with a grimace.

  Leah guessed the painkillers were wearing off.

  “Why don’t you make yourself comfortable?” Leah suggested. “What can I get you? A blanket? Some water?” She pulled the list of instructions from the bag along with the prescription painkillers. “It says here every four hours on the medicine. Shirley wrote down the time she gave you the first one and,” Leah checked her watch. “Yep, you’re ready for another one.”

  Seth stretched out on the couch and called to Bungee, who was barricaded in the kitchen where Leah noticed he had had an accident on the linoleum floor.

  “I’ll take care of Bungee,” Leah said. “You settle yourself on the couch, okay?”

  With her usual flare for jumping in and organizing things, Leah took care of Bungee and Seth. She found only one blanket in the whole apartment and that was on Seth’s “bed,” which was an inflatable air mattress. He had one brightly colored beach towel in the bathroom and no sheets. Now she understood why Seth had thought her house was pretty special. It made even more sense that he had been overwhelmed with Kyle and Jessica’s mansion. The guy had been living with bare minimum for a long time. No wonder he was enamored with the idea of owning a house and a hammock at the same time.

  “I’m going to go now,” Leah said after she had fixed him a mug of soup from the meager supply of cans she found in the kitchen cupboard. She found more food to choose from in the refrigerator but only brought him juice and water. The phone was on the floor in front of the couch, and she pulled the kitchen trashcan near, just in case he felt sick.

  “Thanks so much for doing all this,” Seth said with a woozy slur to his words.

  Bungee kept barking sharp, staccato yelps. Leah couldn’t imagine how Seth could get any sleep.

  “How about if I take Bungee home with me? He needs some attention, and you need some rest.”

  “Okay,” Seth said, without opening his eyes.

  Leah had to smile. For the first time, she saw a slight resemblance between Seth and Franklin when they had their eyes closed and were about to fall asleep. They both maintained beguiling little grins, even when they were nearly unconscious.

  She couldn’t help it; she had to lean over and kiss Seth good-bye the way she kissed Franklin. Seth didn’t stir.

  “Bye,” she whispered, tiptoeing over to the kitchen where she reached down and picked up the hyper ball of fluff. “Come on, Bungee. You’re coming with me.”

  To show his appreciation, Bungee lunged toward her and slobbered a big kiss on her cheek.

  “Oh, you little Romeo, you. You know the way to a girl’s heart, don’t you?” she murmured.

  Just as Leah was about to close the apartment door behind her, she heard Seth call out, “Good night, Bungee. Good night, George.”

  Chapter Twenty-two

  And then he called me ‘George,’
” Leah told Jessica when they saw each other the next morning before the May Day event began. They were working quickly to arrange all the cut flowers in vases for the tables in Camp Heather Brook’s dining room.

  “How did you react to that?” Jessica asked, snipping the end of the deep purple iris that Leah had cut at Ida’s earlier that morning.

  “I didn’t say anything. I left.” If they had had more time, Leah would have liked to keep the conversation going. But just then Shelly entered the dining room with her mom and sister. Leah and Jessica greeted them, and Leah thought pretty, energetic Meredith didn’t look as if she were pregnant. The three new arrivals had their arms full of food trays, and Shelly and Meredith’s mom was fussing at Meredith about carrying too much.

  “I can help carry stuff in,” Leah said. “Jess and I were almost finished with the flowers.”

  “Good,” Shelly said. “Genevieve needs all kinds of help bringing in the food. She’s running behind because her electricity went out this morning. If you can carry the rest in, I’ll fire up the ovens.”

  Leah hurried out to help Genevieve unload the food, and from that moment on, she ran all morning doing what she did best—helping. Despite Genevieve’s electricity failure, the food was ready right on time, and it was a big hit with the 237 women and girls who showed up for the event.

  As usual, the maypole dance was a favorite with the little girls. Shelly had arranged for Christian praise music to play while each girl took a vinyl ribbon and danced around the maypole in the meadow outside the camp dining room. The clouds that had covered the sky earlier that morning blew away. The gentle breeze, which had cleared the way for the sun to attend this gala event, decided to stick around as well, creating an afternoon of perfect weather.

  Leah and Ida stayed to help clean up. As they were clearing the tables, Leah decided to gather the flowers into several big buckets. She had planned to stop at Franklin’s on her way home with a bouquet of May Day flowers from the grocery store, but a bucket of flowers was better. Two buckets on his doorstep would be grand!

  It was nearly three o’clock when Leah and Ida pulled out of the conference grounds with their flower wagon. “Would you like me to take you home first?” Leah asked.

  “Oh, no! I’d like to see the look on Franklin’s face when he discovers what you’re bringing him this year,” Ida said with a cluck of her tongue. “And just where is that poor man supposed to put all these flowers?”

  “All over!” Leah said. “Aren’t they wonderful? Take a deep breath.”

  Ida rolled down her window halfway. “It’s overwhelming. And overdoing it, if you ask me. Why must you lavish so much attention on Franklin?”

  “I don’t know. I like to. Nobody else seems to.” Leah pulled up in front of Franklin’s house and opened the back of the Blazer. She carried a bucket in each arm up to the front door while Ida waited in the car. Placing them on the doormat, Leah rang the doorbell and dashed around to the side of the house just as she used to when she was a kid. She expected Mavis to come tottering to the door, but she didn’t.

  Leah went back to the door and rang the doorbell again. This time she waited. When Mavis didn’t answer, Leah tried the doorknob, planning to let herself in. But the door was locked.

  This is a first. Leah knocked and called out. Still no answer. She peered in the front window. Franklin’s recliner was in clear view, but no one was in the room.

  Returning to her car, Leah reached inside for her cell phone.

  “No one home?” Ida asked.

  “I’m not sure. No one came to the door, and it’s locked.” Leah dialed Franklin’s phone number and let it ring ten times before she hung up.

  “Where do you suppose he is?” Ida asked.

  Leah paused before answering. She had a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. With a hesitant finger, Leah punched in the number to the hospital emergency desk.

  “Annie? Hi, it’s Leah. By any chance was Franklin Madison admitted today?”

  “He arrived about an hour ago,” Annie told her. “I don’t know the status. Would you like me to check?”

  “No, I’m coming right over.” Leah hung up and jumped in the car, leaving the flowers on the doorstep.

  “The hospital?” Ida asked, as Leah’s car lurched onto the street and sped toward downtown.

  “Yes. About an hour ago. Do you mind going with me, Ida?”

  “Of course not. Watch how you’re driving, Leah!” Ida was clutching the door and seat with her thin hands. “It won’t do to get us in a wreck on the way there!”

  Leah slowed down, but inside her heart was still racing. She was blaming herself for not taking her May Day bouquet to Franklin that morning before picking up Ida and going to Camp Heather Brook. That meant she would have been ringing his doorbell before 7:30 that morning, but at least he would have been there.

  When Leah pulled into the emergency parking lot, Ida had her seatbelt unbuckled and her door open before Leah did. But Leah had to slow her steps so Ida could keep up with her. The two approached the emergency desk with flushed faces.

  “How is he?” Leah asked Annie.

  Annie glanced at Ida and then back at Leah as if she weren’t sure what to say. “You can go on back, Leah. Dr. Schlipperd is on duty. Ida, perhaps you should wait here.”

  “I have a right to see Franklin,” Ida spouted.

  Patting wiry Ida on the shoulder, Leah said calmly, “I’ll come right back after I’ve checked on him. Then we’ll see about letting you visit him as well, okay?”

  Ida looked worried. “You come right back, now.”

  “I will,” Leah said, leading Ida to a chair in the nearly vacant emergency waiting room. “You wait right here for me.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” Ida said.

  Leah headed for the back emergency area, and Annie rose to follow her. When they were out of Ida’s view and hearing, Annie reached over and laid her hand on Leah’s arm.

  Leah froze and forced herself to look at Annie and to read the message in Annie’s expression.

  “I’m sorry,” Annie said. “He was dead on arrival, but I didn’t know that when you called. I wasn’t sure what to tell you with Ida standing there. You can talk with Dr. Schlipperd if you want, but the cause of death was cardiac arrest.”

  “Do you know anything else?” Leah asked, trying to remain calm as she always had in the past when bad news came her way. She refused to let herself feel anything.

  “Mavis left only a few minutes ago. She called the ambulance. She said he didn’t respond when she brought him his lunch. He wasn’t in any pain. She said he was sitting in his recliner and appeared to be napping.”

  “And he slipped into heaven on a dream cloud,” Leah said, quoting a line from an old poem her mother used to say.

  “He was an old man,” Annie said in a comforting voice. “His heart simply stopped.”

  Leah drew in a deep breath. “He was a very special old man.” To her surprise, no tears came. “Has anyone notified his relatives?”

  “Mavis probably will. I don’t know. She was going back to his house.”

  “Okay,” Leah said, her mind beginning to line up all the details. “I’ll tell Ida and take her home. She can make some calls around town. I’ll check on Mavis, and then I’ll call Seth.” As soon as she said his name, Leah slapped her forehead, remembering that Seth didn’t have his car with him. It was still in the hospital parking lot since she had driven him home last night.

  “Thanks, Annie,” she said, giving the attendant a quick hug.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Sure.”

  Leah sat down next to Ida and spoke to her the way she had spoken with dozens of people in the hospital waiting room. She calmly explained the situation and immediately gave a direction so the stunned recipient of the news would have something to do while the news sunk in.

  “I’ll take you home first,” Leah told Ida. “And then would you mind making a few calls? Let Pastor Mike kno
w and Kyle and Jessica.”

  “All right. Yes, I can do that.” Ida rose and started toward the parking lot. “It shouldn’t be a surprise, you know. He was an elderly man.”

  “Yes,” Leah agreed, offering Ida her arm as they stepped down from the emergency room entrance curb into the parking lot. “He was a very special elderly man.”

  They were quiet on the drive to Ida’s. Right before Leah pulled up in front of the house, Ida said, “You know, when I go, I think that’s the way I’d like to go. In my sleep.”

  Leah nodded. As soon as Ida was safely in her front door, Leah called Mavis on her cell phone and heard the details Annie had told her repeated. Right before Leah hung up, Mavis said, “He would have liked all the flowers. This morning he asked if you had come yet.”

  Leah felt her throat tighten. “I should have come before the event out at Camp Heather Brook.”

  “No, no,” Mavis said gently. “I told him you were coming after the May Day party, and he said he would wait in his recliner. He knew you were coming. But bless his soul, he just couldn’t wait.”

  Leah drove the few blocks to her house. She was eager to burst through the front door and let her tears have a private place to fall before she went out to Seth’s apartment and drove him back to pick up his car. That is, if he was well enough to drive.

  Unlocking her front door and stepping in, with the tears clinging to the edge of her eyelids, Leah stopped short at the sight that greeted her. One frolicking ball of vanilla fluff with an eager yelp came bounding up to her. Somehow Bungee had managed to knock down the barricade she had put up to keep him in the mudroom with Hula. Bungee had shredded a stack of magazines and dragged the pieces all through the living room. He had knocked the trash can over, and garbage trailed across the kitchen floor. Half a bag of flour that she had thrown in the trash last night when she spotted little bugs in it was now torn open. A white trail of buggy flour dust streaked across the floor in loops, as if Bungee had sunk his teeth into the bag and turned around in half a dozen prancing circles, trying to make as big a mess as possible.