by Cheryl Kerr
Perfect, thought Lea, I can look around. I bet the girl is someone who lives in the area. She wouldn’t even need to call Aunt Meg. Lea had told her she had packed another sandwich in case she got hungry so she wouldn't be expected back for the noon meal. Teri's mother shooed them off with a wave.
"This is nice of you," Lea told Teri as they headed down the street.
Teri smiled. "It won't take long, it’s a little place. There's not much to see."
The main street curved to follow the shoreline. Short streets of houses branched off each side.
"Are there other towns near here?" she asked.
Teri shook her head. "Not really. Some ranches are that way." She waved an arm toward Aunt Meg's cabin. Lea nodded, remembering the cow she had seen.
"Well, here we are." They were in front of an old-fashioned diner, picnic tables scattered in the covered area where cars used to park. Most of the tables were full.
Teri reached past her and pushed open a glass door. Booths lined both walls. Teri led her to one in the back where a group of kids was sitting with a basket of French fries in the middle of the table. Teri introduced her to her friends. In turn, Lea met Nick, Anna, Ben, and Amy.
Amy wore round glasses and her long curly hair was pulled back in a ponytail.
“Did you move here?” She sucked noisily on a straw stuck in a can of coke.
“No.” Lea shook her head. “I’m staying with my aunt for the summer.”
“How about you, are you all from here?” She turned the questions around, not wanting to talk about staying with her aunt, or why.
“Amy and I are cousins,” Anna said. “We’re a year apart, our moms are sisters.”
Ben chimed in, “My dad is here to check on buildings he owns here. We’re actually from Houston. I’m going out for the football team this fall.”
“That’s good,” Lea said. “My little brother will probably want to do that when he gets older.”
The last one to say anything was Nick. He sat with his arms on the table and just watched everyone else. He wasn’t in a hurry, waiting to be noticed.
He smiled and nodded at Lea.
“I am from here,” he said. “I already do play football.”
Teri watched him, smiling the whole time.
“That sounds good.”
The group asked Lea a lot of questions about her home in Virginia and what school was like there.
“It’s a lot like here, but there are more small towns near each other.” Talking about it made her remember the oak trees and hill. And it made her miss Laura. They had been friends so long that they knew most things about each other.
The group broke up then, everyone having things to do. There was a flurry of goodbyes and we’ll see you again as they left. Lea sipped her soda and studied each of the other people coming in and out of the restaurant.
"Ready to go?" Teri asked her after a while. Lea nodded and they walked back toward the town square.
"There’s only one school, so most of us have known each other since we were very little," she explained. Lea watched the faces of people coming the other way.
"Are you looking for someone in particular?" Teri asked her suddenly.
"What makes you ask that?" Lea asked uneasily.
"Because you always seem to be looking past me and at other people, like you expect to see someone. That seems odd since you don't know anybody here. Who could you think you'd see?"
Lea bent to tie her shoe. "I guess I'm just curious about the people who live around here," she said.
Teri watched her for a moment and then said, "Then I know where to take you. Come on."
They walked to the library where they picked up their bikes. Teri led as they pedaled through town. The road curved, following the bay. At last, they pulled up by the docks. The smell of salt and fish hung heavy in the air. Lea put down the kickstand on her bike. A wide beach was at the bottom of concrete steps down from the street.
"My mom says everyone eventually finds a beach," Lea said. "They are great places for people-watching."
Teri dropped down next to her and dug her toes into the sand. "So how'd you get to be here?" she asked Lea. "My mother always says not to ask questions until you know somebody pretty well."
Lea shrugged and said, "Both my parents had someplace they needed to be this summer. There wasn't going to be anyone at home for me to stay with."
"So, what is it like to live with an artist?" Teri asked curiously. "My mother says she hasn't met your aunt yet."
"Okay, I guess. My aunt travels some each year. This is it for this year. I'm just here for the summer." She added the last part in a rush.
"She's supposed to teach a class at the library later this summer and put on an art show. A lot of people buy her stuff. It must be neat to be staying with her," Teri went on.
Lea considered all that. To her, Aunt Meg seemed distant.
"What were you doing way out there by yourself, yesterday, anyway? Getting lost?" Teri's chatter barely left time for Lea to get an answer ready before she asked a new question. But she noticed when Lea didn't answer her.
"Just looking around." Lea waved a hand. "This is a really nice beach."
Teri looked out toward the channel. Far out, a freighter looked like a small blue toy as it steamed toward the horizon.
Lea looked at her toes. Teri was nice. "They are separating," she said all in a rush. "My parents may not ever go home again."
Teri turned and studied her. "Wow. I bet it was hard to come here then."
Lea thought. "Yes, more than anything else it makes me mad inside. I don't understand it."
Teri nodded. "I'm glad you told me." She brightened. "Want to go rowing?"
"Sure," Lea said. Both girls leaped to their feet and ran down the beach.
Creak!
The oars squeaked in the oarlocks as Teri quit rowing. Lea looked at the edge of land and then down, expecting cool blue-green depths like the shelving Atlantic floor at home.
A fish darted sideways when Lea leaned out over the water.
"The bottom's right here," she said in surprise.
"Yes." Teri nodded. "Most of this area is so shallow." She held her hands two feet apart. "Now, today, there are channels cut here so that the ships can reach deep water. But a hundred years ago, if a ship sailed too close, it could get stuck fast in the soft bottom. Sometimes they were blown off course by the storms."
"What's that up there?" Lea pointed across the water to the first fold of low-rising ground. In the tangle of scrub oaks, she could just see the outline of a fallen roof and the broken shape of a white wall between the dark trunks of the trees.
"That? The old mission," Teri said. "It was built here long ago when they were first settling Texas. They moved it inland after a couple of storms washed it out." She looked toward the slow blue swells sloshing onto the beach. “The water is quiet today but when the storms come, this land is very flat and things get damaged.”
Teri looked back out to sea. "My people came here by boat, too, like yours," she said slowly. "But a long, long time before yours did."
"Where from?"
"Spain," Teri smiled, her teeth strong and white against her olive skin. "They came and settled Mexico. They married with the Indians that were here."
"Can we see it, the mission?" Lea asked.
"Sure. It’s actually the town they started until they moved with the new mission. No one lives there now." Teri shrugged. "It's in a cow pasture but the owners are really nice about people coming to see it. Many of the families in town have someone buried in the cemetery behind the church. Just the really old graves, the rest are in town now.”
“We can ride up there if you want to?" she said, seeing Lea's interest.
Lea nodded excitedly.
"We really need horses to get close. And boots and long pants. It's a long walk in. Can you ride a horse?"
"Yes," Lea said. She and Laura had taken Moonlight, Laura's horse, on a lot of runs on the be
ach.
She looked down in dismay at her shorts and flip-flops.
Teri said, “It’s okay, you can borrow some from me, we’re about the same size. I have to let my mom know where we’re going anyway.”
They rowed in and got their bikes from the bike rack at the beach, stopping at Teri’s house for jeans and shoes. They added chips and water bottles in a backpack and were out the door. Riding a bike in jeans and shoes felt heavy and slow as they cycled out the road Lea had come in that morning. They turned on a narrow track leading in from the paved road. They pedaled on, the wide bike tires spitting a fine curtain of sand out behind them.
At last, Teri stopped. Lea braked and looked around her. A two-story house with big arches stood in front of them. Behind it, a huge, weathered barn stood with its doors open to the day. Saddles, bridles, and rope hung in neat rows along a wall inside the door. "This is my uncle and aunt's ranch. I have to ask if we can use the horses." She disappeared into the barn and came back a moment later with two bridles slung over one shoulder.
"Okay." Quickly she caught, brushed, and bridled two horses caught from the paddock next to the barn. Lea kept looking around. The smell of leather, hay, and feed reminded her of home.
Teri handed her a helmet and the reins to a black mare.
“Her name is Beau,” she said. “And this is Juliet, she’s mine.”
She put her own helmet on and they scrambled on bareback from the mounting block.
"One of my favorite things to do is ride along the beach," said Teri. "My favorite time is in the morning, right when the sun comes up. I like to ride where the water is really shallow. We gallop and gallop. Toward the end of the ride, I take her into the waves for a bit."
“How did the mission get to be abandoned?" Lea asked as they guided their horses up the old road.
"When the storms hit, the walls got damaged. They stopped rebuilding and moved the mission further inland so it would be safer. There weren't many people living here anymore, anyway. The last few families moved to town. There were Indians near here, too. It was called Indian Point then." Teri got quiet then, looking for the faint trail to the old wall. Sweat trickled down Lea’s back, the day was heating up.
The trail came out of the scrub oaks and rocks in front of the arched gateway that had been the main entrance so long ago. The heat and the silence caught her. They slid down and tied their horses and the hot, heavy air folded around them like a cloak.
"It's so silent," she said softly.
"Why are you whispering?" Teri asked her with a smile.
Lea smiled. "I guess I feel like I should be quiet here." The center of the town was an old church. Around it ran a flat-roofed long, skinny building in a U-shape. Lea looked around. The buildings were all built of adobe, mud, and plaster, with heavy wooden beams set in for doorsills. She looked into the first doorway. A small square room met her gaze. The inside was whitewashed and the roof low. She stared up at the blue sky above her. Around her rose the old adobe walls, warm with the afternoon sun. The sweet scent of roses hung in the air. Gently, Lea touched the nearest bloom, planted along the base of the wall. This place, she thought, looked like something out of the Old West movies T.J. was always watching. His favorite was The Alamo with John Wayne.
"The families lived in these rooms. They did their cooking on a big fire in the square," Teri told her. "There were no windows on the outside walls as protection. The Indians who used to roam down here were dangerous."
"Come on." Teri led her to the old steps leading up to where the altar had been. "We can have our snack here." They sank down on them and opened the backpack.
"How long has this been here?" Lea asked.
Teri shrugged. "A long time. Always, I guess. It's older than the town, built from when the conquistadors and missionaries were settling this area. About two hundred and fifty years, I guess."
Lea finished her string cheese. The wind blew through the ruined windows and made a soft, sighing sound. She could almost imagine a wagon standing at the door of the church, the heavy wooden door creaking open to let a shaft of sunlight into the cool, dark building.
Someone touched her and Lea jumped.
Teri looked at her. "I just asked if you were ready to go? You seem to be off in another world."
"I'm just imagining what it must have been like back then," she said softly.
Lea looked at the old walls. Around her, the quiet felt old, like there were layers of time undisturbed for years that you could dig into.
Through the crumbling doorway, seagrass waved at her. The sense of loneliness was strong. She turned back to the tumbled walls and drew her breath in sharply. In the dim shadow behind the rock, she thought she could just make out the outline of a long blue dress. But at the sound of her breath, the image wavered and disappeared. Teri watched her for a moment.
"Every year they have a fiesta out here to remember the town." She looked at Lea. "Our town is having the party tonight, in fact. Why don't you come and spend the night with me and you can see how we celebrate?" She looked at Lea.
"That sounds like fun," Lea said. "I'll ask."
Lea parked her bike at Aunt Meg's and went eagerly up the stairs. Her words tumbled over each other as she told her aunt about the girl in the blue dress and the old mission in the wind-bent trees above the beach. And that she was invited to the party at the mission tonight.
But Aunt Meg wasn't eager to let her go to the party.
"Lea, is this talk about ghosts and missions because you don't want to stay here? Your mother is gone, you can't go home, but I can find a summer camp, maybe, so you don't have to be here." Aunt Meg's voice was tense.
"No." Lea shook her head. "I want to stay. I want to find out what happened to the girl I saw."
"You think you saw," Aunt Meg corrected her.
"No," Lea kept her voice quiet. "I saw something I don't think I imagined. I want to know why."
Aunt Meg stared at her and then nodded slowly. "OK, maybe I need to look at this thing you are sure you didn't imagine. But right now I have to get ready for this art show. It will have to wait until I am finished with that. Until then, we drop this discussion. Deal?"
Lea nodded. "Can I go tonight? I really want to, and Teri's mother will be there."
"If I take you out there, yes."
The sunlight held an orange glow when Lea and Aunt Meg arrived at the town square. Soft strains of guitar music came from a group of three men at one end of the square as Lea stepped from Aunt Meg's car and stopped to look. The old mission had been transformed. Flickering torches in holders burned at the broken corners of buildings. The town square, with its silent fountain, was lit by the glow of a hundred lanterns hung from the adobe walls. The dark wrapped it like a blanket. The buildings were no longer empty and desolate. By night they looked spooky and graceful, draped in shadows that veiled the broken windows that looked like old eyes looking out over tumbled bricks. The smell of meat sizzling on a grill filled the air and Lea realized how hungry she was.
At that moment a blanket hung in the doorway of the nearest house was pulled to the side. Teri's mother stood there. Her dark hair was pulled back and fastened with tortoiseshell combs. She was wearing a floor-length skirt of deep red.
She saw Lea right away and smiled in welcome. "Lea, come and see what I found for you." She reached for Lea's hand. "I'm Jessie Simon, the librarian," she introduced herself to Aunt Meg.
"Meg Moody," her aunt answered. Together they all moved through the curtain. Mrs. Simon sat her on a folding chair and brought out a dress.
"Slip this over your head," she told Lea. Lea slipped into a tiny dressing alcove. The dress was a deep-pink crinkled cotton with a skirt that was heavy and full and swung when Lea walked. The neckline was rounded, with a wide band of lace that curved out to fall against her shoulders. She pulled it on carefully and then stepped outside the curtain to where Aunt Meg and Teri's mother were waiting
"How pretty you look," Mrs. Simon said and hel
d out a hand. "The dress suits you. You should wear good, strong colors, I think, with your hair color."
"Very pretty," Teri's mother approved. "Let me braid this into your hair.” She took a daisy and wove the stem into a braid and wrapped the bottom of the braid in a thick hairband the same yellow as the daisy.
"Now, sit down." She bustled around with a comb, pulling tendrils out so they floated loose in the breeze.
"There," she said a moment later. "What do you think?"
Lea looked at herself in the mirror. With just a little makeup and a dress, she looked so different. Grown-up and mysterious. The flower over her ear seemed to make her eyes look enormous and shadowed.
"So young," Mrs. Simon bent and gave Lea a quick kiss on the cheek and a squeeze around the shoulders. "Now, go and find Teri. I must finish some other things."
Her quick steps tattooed briskly down the hall. Lea touched the flower and felt the prickle of tears behind her eyes. Just like Mom would have done, she thought, and missed her mother with a sudden, sharp jab of pain, like when she'd had to have her appendix out.
Lea turned for a moment, hoping someone would notice, but Aunt Meg was deep in conversation with Jessie. They were laughing about something else and then turned to walk towards the old church. Lea wished she had a camera. She hadn't minded posing for Aunt Meg this morning but wished it could have been more like this. Dressed up instead of in a torn and faded t-shirt with her hair pulled back in a ponytail.
She sat down on the nearest bench. She didn't know where Teri had gone, so she settled back to wait. The adobe wall held the warmth from the sun and felt good against her back.
"Hola!" Teri dropped onto the bench next to her. Her dark eyes sparkled with fun. "Tonight will be special. Want a soda?"
They got soft drinks from an ice chest and then Teri stopped suddenly and said, “My mom thinks everyone should be friends. I get it though, you’re new here and may want some time on your own.”
“No, this is fun,” Lea said. “It’s different, kind of anyone could walk out of the dark with the way the lanterns are flickering. They do festivals like this in Virginia but they’re not about this history as much.”
