Wiped Out

by Tamara Woods

  “Kanoe and Kekai get your tails over here! You need to eat your dinner!” Leilani called.

  “I’m just glad it’s over. Let’s talk about nicer things, huh?” Fraya said with some semblance of a smile.

  FRAYA HAD PUT UP A good front for her friends, but her exhaustion couldn’t be denied. After they’d eaten with her and talked story for a while, they’d all left. And now all of the negativity from the last week had firmly lodged in her heart. She needed to clean her aura, maybe sage her home again. She felt emotionally unstable. Even though her mind knew it was all over, her heart wasn’t sure. She'd have to consult her Aunt Maybel for some advice.

  Her phone started playing Eryka Badu and she knew exactly who was calling her. She grinned and answered the phone.

  "Hey, Cuz!"

  "Hey, favorite cousin. How are you doing?"

  She and her cousin Isa had been close since they were teeny tiny. Her mother, Isa's mom, and their Aunt Maybel had been sisters. When Isa's mother had passed away, Aunt Maybel had taken her in. They were only separated by a couple of years age-wise and had always gotten on more like sisters than cousins.

  "How are you doing, Isa? How's that library treating you?"

  Her cousin had moved from their hometown to Ohio where she'd gotten a library degree. She worked at a public library over there and seemed to love it.

  "I wouldn't know. I'm not there anymore."

  "You're not? Whoa, what happened?" Fraya took a seat on her couch, tucking her legs underneath her.

  "Auntie needs me at the Mystic Eye Bookshop. I'm moving back to Whisper Valley."

  "Girl. That's...wild." Fraya had never thought her cousin would move back home. They'd both pulled up their roots and left as soon as possible.

  "Auntie needs me."

  Simply put. That was that. Isa and Aunt Maybel were definitely more like a mother/daughter team. The cousins talked for a minute about that, speculating how much Auntie would actually allow Isa to do at her bookstore. Fraya's guess was just cleaning the bookshelves, but her cousin was a little more optimistic.

  "How is she taking you helping her out? Auntie has always had her own way of doing things.”

  "She'll let me do all of the grunt work, but she's not going to let me even see her accounting books."

  "I bet all of her accounting is still on paper."

  Isa's groan filled the air.

  Fraya grimaced in sympathy. "Sorry, Cuz."

  "Yeah, yeah, yeah. So when are you going to tell me that you found a dead body?"

  "Huh? How did you find out about that?"

  "You have to know, just because you live five thousand miles away, you're not safe from gossip, girl."

  "Huh. Oh no, look at the time. I was right in the middle of a thing—"

  "Fraya Josephine Taylor, don't you dare—"

  "I'll talk to you soon, all right? Tell Auntie I asked about her. Bye!"

  Fraya clicked off her phone. Even after hearing from one of her favorite people, she couldn’t let Gamilla go. Was she obsessed now? She wished she could've actually stopped Gamilla from being murdered. That was her real problem. She’d been here. Probably sitting on that very couch and someone just steps away from her home was having her life stolen from her. And that was a terrible fact that she was going to have to learn to live with.

  She felt so guilty deep inside. But what could she have possibly done better? Done more?

  "Nothing," she said aloud.

  She took a sip of her tea and looked out at the ocean. Everything was so much bigger than she was. It all seemed so infinite, but even the ocean had an end. Such a huge house for all sorts of creatures, but even it could be hurt. She wondered if the ocean ever felt exhausted from all of its efforts. She shook her head. Clearly, she'd been a writer too long if she was personifying the ocean. She hadn't written on her novel in the last few days. She couldn't force herself to concentrate.

  But even that would pass.

  Her phone rang again and she reflexively picked it up, expecting her cousin on the other end.

  “Hello?”

  “Yes, is this Mrs. Fraya Taylor?”

  “Yes?” She had that sick feeling in her stomach again, like when she’d found Gamilla. Fraya fought the urge to hang up.

  “There’s been an accident. Your ex-husband has been seriously injured and he wants to see you.”

  “I can’t fly out to West Virginia. I’m sorry, I just can’t,” she said.

  “Oh, no, ma’am. You misunderstand. He’s not in Western Virginia. He’s at The Queen’s Medical Center.” And then she registered the voice’s accent.

  Her ex had shown up on her island and now he was injured. The bottom fell out of her stomach as she lowered the phone from her ear. Things would never be the same after this.

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  Acknowledgments

  Thanks Beverlee, Shannon, and Amber for taking a look at this novella in its beginning stages. Thank you so much Kay for helping me whip this thing into shape. And a special thanks to Ivy for commiserating with me on the days when I hated editing, my story, and this very laptop. Let's do a writing sprint later!

  About the Author

  Tamara Woods doesn’t spend her time sipping on Mai Tais on the beach. In fact by living in Hawaii, she’s found that she’s more of a mountain person than a beachy one. Must be her West Virginia roots.

  Maybe that’s why there’s such a strong call to small towns and country living in her books whether they’re women’s literature or cozy mysteries. She likes to talk about writing and books on her YouTube channel. She also hosts a weekly Twitter chat called #writestuff where writers talk about writing.

  And she's conistently working on the next novel. She’s a hillbilly hermit in Honolulu living with her Mathmagician.

  Read more at Tamara Woods’s site.