Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe

by Heather Webber

  I left room at the top of his mug for him to add cream, just the way he liked it. “Another night of no messages?”

  His lips pressed together stubbornly. Finally, he said, “I did have one dream, but it made no sense.”

  “Was it from Rosemarie?” I asked.

  “It was.”

  “What did she say?”

  “She called me a blind old fool.” He made a sour face. “That pie’s gone bad. Rosemarie has never called me a name in her life.”

  As Faylene sat down next to him, she chuckled. “Not to your face, anyways.”

  “I don’t know what to tell you,” I said.

  Mr. Lazenby scowled. “Where’s Pebbles?”

  Her chair remained empty.

  “I’m not sure,” I said.

  “Me either,” Faylene added, “but I did hear her mention yesterday that she planned to go to the moonlight movie tonight. You should call her, Otis, see if she needs an escort, since her knee’s been giving her some problems lately. Arthritis,” she said in an aside to Mr. Boyd. “You’ve always been so helpful to her in the past, Otis.” In another aside, she said, “He drives Pebbles around to her appointments, takes her grocery shopping.”

  “Don’t go making me sound like a white knight,” Mr. Lazenby grumped. “I only did those things because Rosemarie nagged me to.” He glowered and mumbled something about movies, old fools, and broken pies.

  Faylene lifted her eyebrows. “I thought you said she didn’t nag.”

  “Hmmph,” he said, turning his back to her.

  It was interesting to me that Rosemarie had asked Mr. Lazenby to look after Pebbles. And suddenly I wondered if Rosemarie’s marked change in message-giving was her way of weaning her husband from the pie.

  Faylene laughed and patted his shoulder. “You put Otis’s breakfast on my bill, will you, Anna Kate? Seems to me he needs a pick-me-up. Poor old fool that he is.”

  “Don’t forget blind,” Mr. Boyd piped in.

  “Oh, that’s right. Poor blind old fool that he is. Nothing he likes better than a free breakfast.”

  “That’s true. Thank you,” Mr. Lazenby grumbled over his shoulder. Then his hand snaked out to pick up his mug and he slowly turned back to the table, but he didn’t join in the conversation. He kept staring at the empty seat across from him.

  As I collected orders, my gaze kept going back to Pebbles’s chair too, and I thought that maybe, just maybe, Rosemarie had been playing matchmaker all along.

  Natalie

  I had slept fitfully the night before and was dead tired by the end of my shift. I’d planned to work on my sewing projects after work, but a long nap might be a better use of my time.

  “You sure you’re okay, sugar?” Jena asked me for approximately the hundredth time that afternoon.

  “Yeah, Jena. Thanks. I’m mostly just tired and have a bit of a headache.” I grabbed the pitcher of blackberry tea to top off glasses.

  “I can do that,” Anna Kate said, pointing to the pitcher. “And I can make you some willow bark tea for your headache—or you could take a short break at least.”

  “No, no,” I forced a smile, “that’s okay. It’s good to keep busy.”

  Staying busy helped keep my thoughts at bay.

  Anna Kate threw me a worried nod, then took two plates to a corner table. The café was due to close up in ten minutes, so I prayed those guests were fast eaters.

  I hadn’t lied to Jena—I was tired and had a headache—but I was also worried.

  About Ollie and her swimming lesson this morning. Oh, how I hated those swimming lessons.

  And about my father, too. I’d gone over to the big house to check on him last night, and he’d already been in bed, asleep, and it hadn’t even been eight at night. Usually at that time he and Mama were on the patio sharing a cocktail.

  On top of that, there were all the thoughts of Matt’s death … and our life together. Therapy was causing me to pick the relationship apart, piece by piece. I turned over conversations in my head, regretting the times we’d argued, and wishing I’d been able to change what had happened. Some way. Somehow. All the while, Cam’s talk about forgiveness rang in my ears, like an echo that just wouldn’t quit.

  Maybe it was true that I needed to forgive Matt.

  But I didn’t know how to do that.

  The therapist told me to be patient, but I was losing patience fast. I wanted to be … normal, even if I didn’t know what that was anymore.

  My thoughts were muddled, and all I wanted was a good, long sleep so I’d stop thinking for a while. I longed for silence. Peaceful, blissful silence.

  I went into the pantry for more sugar packets. Bow and Jena stood just inside the doorway, their backs to me, their heads together. Before they noticed me, I overheard them say something about running out of time and desperate times calling for drastic measures.

  “Oh!” Jena squeaked. She reached behind her and grabbed a bag of coffee beans. “Didn’t see you there, Natalie.” With a smile plastered on her face, she squeezed past me.

  Bow busied himself by straightening cans on a shelf. “Need something, Nat?”

  I wasn’t sure what, exactly, they had been discussing, but by their guilty flushes, I deemed it better if I didn’t know. “Sugar packets.”

  He reached for a box and two boxes tumbled off the shelf. He snagged both in midair.

  “Impressive,” I said, taking one of the boxes from his hand.

  “Catlike reflexes come in handy once in a while.”

  As I went back into the kitchen, the front door swung open and Aubin Pavegeau walked in, a cane in one hand and a backpack slung over one shoulder. He was dressed in a pair of jeans and a gray Roll Tide T-shirt, and had what looked like a twig hanging out of his mouth.

  Jena whistled as she spotted him. “Look what the cat done dragged in.”

  “I don’t like cats much,” Aubin said, tucking the stick into his back pocket, before giving Jena a quick hug.

  Jena laughed and said, “No accountin’ for taste. I see you’re still chewing sweetgum sticks, Aubin. Some things never change.”

  He gave a sad smile. “And some things do.”

  “True enough.” She pointed at me. “You know Natalie Walker? She’s AJ’s little sister.”

  Aubin’s face paled as he looked my way, and for a minute there I thought he was going to turn himself around and march right out of the café. It wasn’t a secret what he thought of the Linden family, but how we had managed to rarely cross paths in this small town was some sort of wonder. I’d only ever seen him from afar.

  Finally, he stuck out a hand. “It’s been a long time, Natalie. You and AJ have the same eyes. Same shape, that is. Different color.”

  I shook. “Daddy’s eyes. No mistaking them.” The thought of my father made my stomach start churning again.

  Jena said, “It’s good to see you out and about, Aubin. Isn’t it, Bow?”

  “Sure is. Real good,” Bow said with a nod. “Take any table you want.”

  “Thank you kindly, but I’m not staying,” Aubin said. “Just wanted to run something past Anna Kate. If she’s got the time.”

  “Where is Anna Kate?” Jena asked, looking around. “She’s disappeared.”

  Bow said, “She went out the back door a minute ago. Probably picking more zucchini. Here she comes now.”

  Sure enough, Anna Kate set two zucchinis and a bunch of parsley on the counter and smiled wide when she saw Aubin. “This is a nice surprise. Good to see you here, Mr. Pavegeau.”

  “I told you to start calling me Aubin.”

  “Old habits…” Anna Kate wiped her hands on her apron as she approached. “What brings you by?”

  Aubin slid the backpack from his shoulder. “One of the items I pulled out of the cabin last week was a screenprinting setup my meemaw used way back in the day.”

  Bow said, “A little birdie told me your granny was one of the original artisans that put Wicklow on the map.”

 
“That’s right,” Aubin said. “Her specialty was printmaking. Found some of her old print blocks as well, but what really caught my eye was her screen press. I cleaned it up, did some research, and…” He reached into the backpack and pulled out a folded tee. He flapped it open and held it up.

  On the front of a white T-shirt was a blackbird sitting on a mulberry branch. The words “Blackbird Café, Wicklow, AL” formed a circle around the bird.

  Anna Kate gasped and pressed her hands to her cheeks. “Oh my gosh, Aubin! This is wonderful. Absolutely perfect.”

  I said, “Did you do the artwork? It’s lovely.”

  “Yes, ma’am. My skills are a bit rusty, but with a bit of practice, we can be sellin’ these in no time.”

  “It’s perfect the way it is,” Anna Kate said, running a finger over the design.

  “Let me see.” Jena elbowed her way in. “Aubin Pavegeau, you’re a talented man!”

  Bow caught my eye and motioned to two plates sitting on the counter. I scooped them up to deliver and refilled water glasses while I was at it.

  Glancing up at the clock, I saw it was closing time. Thank the good Lord above. As I went to lock the front door, however, I spotted my mother and Ollie walking toward the café.

  “Mama!” Ollie came running as soon as she saw me.

  I caught her and swung her up to nuzzle her neck. Ollie squealed with happiness, giving me a moment of blissful peace … until I smelled the chlorine in her hair.

  “How were swimming lessons?” I forced myself to ask.

  Mama smiled. “Olivia Leigh will be a mermaid before we know it.”

  My stomach rolled. “Did you two come for lunch? We’re just closing, but I can whip something up.”

  Mama gestured to her tote bag. “No, thank you. I brought some family photo albums to share with Anna Kate, then Ollie and I are going to get some ice cream from Adaline’s. It’s good to see Wicklow coming alive again.”

  As we went inside, I noticed straight off that Aubin Pavegeau was gone. The screen door slammed shut, and I looked toward the deck in time to see his head go past the window. I didn’t blame him—I’d have avoided my mother if I were him too.

  “Annkay!” Ollie said. “Hihi!”

  I set Ollie down and she ran around tables until she reached Anna Kate, who bent down, her arms open wide.

  “Hello, Ollie! Are you having fun with Grandma today?”

  “Swim!”

  “You went swimming?” Anna Kate made a fish face and tickled Ollie’s belly. “Are you a little fishy?”

  Ollie laughed and tried to make the same face. “Fishy!”

  “Do you want some juice?”

  Ollie nodded and Anna Kate went to the fridge.

  “I’ll get you some sweet tea, Mama,” I said. “Have a seat.”

  The café quickly cleared out, and I busied myself with end-of-shift chores while Anna Kate and Mama looked at photo albums. Ollie was happy as a clam, charmed by a dustpan and hand broom.

  So much for ice cream. Mama seemed to have forgotten she was going to drop off the albums and move along. By the looks of her and the photo albums stacked on the table, she planned to stay a good, long while.

  “And this one,” Mama said, “was when AJ was four and decided to make me a mud pie for Mother’s Day. A bigger mess you never did see.” Mama and Anna Kate had their heads together as they looked at the photograph. “He was so proud of himself, giving me that pie, smiling ear to ear.”

  There were albums upon albums at home featuring AJ. His short life had been well documented. There were only two albums of me. And I couldn’t remember a time when Mama had ever shown me such love and attention as she was paying Anna Kate right now. I could only recall our heads that close together when Mama was giving me what for in that quiet, cold way of hers.

  Jena hip-bumped me. “You still doing okay?”

  “I’m all right,” I said as Mama prattled on, detailing another one of AJ’s triumphs.

  “I’m not sure I believe you.”

  I said, “You know I don’t lie.”

  “I got eyes. I see you’re hurtin’. You know you can’t hide it from me. Never could.”

  I had become friends with Jena and Bow one early spring night nearly fourteen years ago. I’d had a huge fight with my mother over something petty. In anger, I’d snuck out in the dead of night and had gone farther into the woods beyond Willow Creek than ever before. It was only when I decided to head home that I realized I was hopelessly lost. If not for some small cat prints that I followed by flashlight, I might still be in those woods. The prints had led straight to Jena and Bow’s small cottage, and they seemed to be waiting for me when I stumbled out of the woods.

  They’d taken me in, given me hot chocolate, and listened to me cry about the injustices of life.

  After that day, I’d spent a lot of time with them, helping them farm their homestead, listening to their tales of travel, loving them because they loved me for who I was.

  “It hurts,” I admitted. “But I’m all right. I know it’s important for Anna Kate to see the pictures and hear the stories. They’re her history.”

  “Seems to me the hurt isn’t coming from the pictures or the stories, but you go right on telling yourself it is, if it makes you feel better,” Jena said, patting my cheek before turning toward the dishes.

  Wishing the day was over already, I sang the ABCs in my head to block my thoughts as I stacked chairs with painstaking efficiency. When there was a knock at the front door, my stomach bottomed out when I saw Josh Kolbaugh standing there in full uniform. Then he smiled and I remembered to breathe again. He wasn’t bringing bad news about Cam. Thank goodness.

  Anna Kate was already at the door to let him in. “Josh, hi.”

  “Got a sec?” he asked her, motioning outside.

  “Sure.” She followed him out.

  Mama said, “What do you think is going on?”

  “Don’t know,” I said as I turned another chair upside down and slid it onto a table. My gaze went to Ollie, to make sure she was keeping out of trouble. She was still playing with the broom and dustpan, and for a moment I wondered why I even bothered buying toys.

  Whatever it was Josh had to say hadn’t taken long. Anna Kate came back inside, her forehead furrowed.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  Anna Kate sat down and sighed. “I’d asked Josh for his help in finding a copy of the police report from the car crash. But he just told me the police don’t have the records anymore—they were destroyed in a flood years ago.”

  Mama picked at the plastic on the photo page. “It’s important to you, the police report?”

  “I want to know what happened—just the facts. A police report would be the most impartial account.”

  Mama kept picking. “I have a copy of the report somewhere, filed away for safekeeping.”

  “You’re serious?” Anna Kate asked, eyes wide.

  Nodding, Mama said, “I’ll try to find it in time for Sunday supper. That is, if you’re going to be there this week. If not, I can drop it by here. No pressure.”

  “Thank you, Seelie,” Anna Kate said. “I’ll look at it on Sunday, at supper.”

  Mama beamed and turned a page in the photo book. “And this is when…”

  I tuned her out, and tried to tamp down a growing bitterness. Because not only did I have to hear all about AJ’s life these days, but now on Sunday I was going to have to hear about his death, too.

  And suddenly, I couldn’t take it anymore. Not one more minute.

  I picked up Ollie, went into the kitchen, hung up my apron, waved to Jena and Bow, and went out the back door.

  As the screen door snapped shut behind us, I glanced back inside.

  Neither Anna Kate nor Mama had even noticed we’d left.

  21

  “Beautiful property you have out here,” the reporter said.

  Aubin Pavegeau limped toward the small cabin that was going to be the reporter’s home for th
e night. A beautiful chocolate-colored dog raced ahead of them, and two goats bleated from a pen behind the main house. “Thank you. My wife and I built it shortly after we were married.”

  “I haven’t had a chance to meet her.” He dodged a chicken in his path. “Has she had any contact with the blackbirds?”

  “If you ask my daughter Summer, she has. But you won’t be meeting my Francie. She died some six years back.”

  “I’m sorry. Was it an accident?” He winced as soon as the words were out of his mouth. “You don’t have to answer that—it was rude of me to ask.”

  “It’s okay,” Aubin said. “It was a car wreck that killed her. But most days, it feels like karma.”

  Natalie

  It was a bit after seven o’clock when someone knocked on the door. I quickly crossed the room before whoever knocked did it again. Despite my best efforts to keep her awake to go to the movies tonight with Mama and Daddy, Ollie had fallen asleep early. Rather than subject them to her temper when she was sleepy, I’d put her to bed. There would be plenty more movies.

  In the quiet, I’d been researching how to start an online shop, and had been pleasantly surprised to see that it was doable.

  Very doable.

  With a growing bubble of excitement, I thought I might just give it a go. A boutique of my own.

  It was a goal I never even knew I wanted, until Faylene had planted the seed that day in Hodgepodge.

  And then … I found I wanted it more than anything. Creating and sewing and running my own business sounded like a dream come true.

  My bubble popped when I saw through the window next to the door that it was my mother on the porch. A tote bag dangled from her arm, and a big box that had a wrapped plate on top of it was in her hands. How she’d managed to even knock was beyond me.

  Looking toward the heavens, I said, “Really? Now?”

  Then I realized what I was doing—adopting Mama’s method of coping—and I immediately vowed never to do it again.

  Reluctantly, I pulled the door open. “Mama, it’s late, I’m not feeling well, and I was going to bed soon…”

  She walked past me into the house, tossing a questionable look at my pajama shorts and tank top. “I won’t stay long. Your father is taking a nap before the movie showing, and I thought it was a good time to stop over.” She glanced around. “Is Olivia Leigh already sleeping?”