by H. P. Munro
Maddie stood. “Hi, I’m sorry I didn’t mean to intrude,” she said quickly, conveniently ignoring the fact that intruding was exactly what she’d meant to do when she sneaked into her neighbor’s garden. “I had car trouble and Sam found me. My car is at Campbell’s and it’s going to take a couple weeks to fix.” She twisted her upper body towards the Anderson property, “So Peter and Ruth are letting me stay here. I’m Madeleine, well, Maddie really,” she corrected, hoping that her full name would be ignored. “Marinelli,” she held her hand out giving the blonde woman her best smile in the hope that she would forget about the whole trespassing thing.
The blonde woman still looked slightly hesitant, before stepping forward and offering her own hand in return, a wary smile breaking out on her face, showing exactly where Jessica had inherited her dimples. “Alex Milne. Welcome to Grace Falls,” she shook Maddie’s hand then turned her attention to her daughter. “Honey, you’ve got to go get ready or we’ll be late.”
Jessica hopped on the spot then set off up the garden.
“Yes ma’am. Bye Maddie-Lyn,” she yelled as she sprinted towards the whiteboard house.
“Bye Jessica,” Maddie shouted in return. She smiled at Alex. “I should…” she pointed back towards the Anderson house. “It was nice to meet you, Alex.”
“Nice to meet you too,” Alex replied, a hint of wariness still in her tone as she wondered why her temporary neighbor was in her garden in her pajamas talking to her daughter.
Maddie set off, walking awkwardly thanks to the large damp patch on her backside from the grass. She walked in the direction she’d come from hoping she’d be able to find the gap in the fence again.
“Madeleine,” Alex shouted after the departing woman. “There’s a gate a little down on the right.”
Maddie nodded her thanks, managing not to frown at the use of her full name, and switched her direction towards where Alex had pointed.
It was only then that Alex remembered the figure at the window during the night, she frowned and, as she turned, her eyes stopped on Buttercup’s grave. She shook her head as she realized that Maddie must have wondered what she was burying and a small smile appeared on her face, growing into a belly laugh, as she walked back towards her home.
“Alex Milne bunny burrier,” she giggled to herself, before entering the house and shouting for Jessica to hurry up.
***
Without a plan, agenda, or her beloved car, Maddie was slightly bereft. She realized that it had been years since she had not had anything pressing on her time and it was a disconcerting feeling for someone used to schedules and activity. After eeking breakfast out for a long as she feasibly could, Maddie entered the living room fighting her impulse to be doing something.
She sucked air through her teeth as she examined the array of books on the shelf, her fingers dancing along the spines. Selecting a copy of To Kill a Mockingbird she sat down and opened the book, which she had not read since school, only to rise ten minutes later sighing as she put the book back in its place on the shelf. Picking up her cell phone she scrolled through her contacts until she reached the name she wanted, hitting the call button she lazily dragged her fingers along the book shelf as she waited for the call to be answered. She smiled as a familiar voice came on the line.
“Hello, Doctor Marinelli.”
“Zoe, how’s things?” Maddie asked flopping down onto the sofa.
“All good here, getting all set for your arrival. Your boxes have arrived, I’ve dumped them in your room. I am so excited, I can’t believe that I’m getting my best friend back,” Zoe replied.
“Yeah, well about that, you may have to wait a little bit. I know you were planning to take some time off so we could hang out and I could do some sightseeing before starting at the hospital, but I’ve got a bit of car trouble.”
Maddie could hear the exasperated sigh from her friend and knew she was about to be lambasted again about her choice of vehicle.
“I told you not to attempt the journey in that death trap you call a car.”
“Hey, you were happy to have me come pick you up at all hours in that death trap during residency I seem to remember.”
“Yes but that was fifteen minutes tops not a trek across the country. So what’s wrong anyway?”
“It’s sort of like a mitral valve going on a heart. It’s fixable but it’s going to take them a couple weeks to get the parts,” Maddie winced as she waited for the inevitable response.
“Two weeks!” Zoe shouted. “That means you’ll barely have any time when you get here and I had plans for us to go to up into the wine country, and everything, and I really wanted you to get to know Mitchell, before you started working together.”
“I know,” Maddie soothed. “I’m pissed too but there’s not much I can do. Besides you talk about Mitchell so much that I feel like I know far too much about him.” Maddie was fairly certain that Mitchell would prefer that a co-worker not know quite so much about aspects of his life, however as best friend to his girlfriend Maddie had been privy to some intimate aspects of their relationship thanks to Zoe’s apparent lack of filter.
She could almost imagine the pout on Zoe’s lips as she came to terms with the news.
“Two weeks to get the parts? It’s twenty-twelve! What are they doing, making them from scratch?”
Maddie laughed quietly, “It’s a classic car, the parts are specialized you can’t just magic them up. Quality takes time Zoe.”
“Pff, you say classic, I hear deathtrap. So where are you anyway?”
“I’m not exactly sure to be honest, I came off the interstate as it was dull driving and that’s when I ran into trouble. I’m in a small town called Grace Falls, everyone seems nice so far.”
“I hope at least it’s a decent hotel or guesthouse you’re in.”
“I’m not in a hotel or guesthouse, the mechanic’s letting me stay in his wife’s late mother’s house.”
“Let me get this straight, you Maddie Marinelli who can’t cope without a Starbucks on every corner is in Hicksville staying in a creepy old house.”
When she was able to get a word beyond Zoe’s laughing, Maddie attempted to defend herself and oddly, she felt the need to defend Grace Falls as well. After she ended the call, she felt buoyed by her conversation with Zoe, however, after only a few minutes the feeling of disquiet returned. She restlessly paced the room before deciding to take a run, which would get her out of the house, use up some of her pent up energy, and let her see more of her hometown for the next two weeks.
She stood out on the porch in her seldom-used running gear, perched her foot on the small stone stump around the wooden supports of the porch and stretched out her calf muscle. She performed a few lunges and stretches before shaking her head with a muttered, “Who are you trying to kid Maddie? Just run.” She hopped down the stairs and set off at a steady jog to explore Grace Falls.
After twenty minutes of running, Maddie realized that Sam’s drive the night before had indeed hit the town’s high spots. As she jogged through the streets she collected ‘good mornings’ from the inhabitants she came across and smiled at the friendly feel of the town. Growing up in Brooklyn, she was not used to exchanging pleasantries with strangers. Her usual approach was to avoid eye contact and try to exude a ‘don’t mess with me’ attitude, today she felt enlivened by the nods and waves she received as she ran. She stopped on the sidewalk outside the closed Sullivan’s Sports Bar; Jessica’s father’s bar she reminded herself, recalling her conversation with girl earlier in the day. She laughed as she read the menu stuck to the door, which had the name of the bar altered to ‘Sullivan’s Sports Bra’.
“You’re working up quite a sweat there.”
Maddie turned towards the source of the voice. Standing behind her was a tall man, his hair and stubble goatee were peppered with grey, lending him a distinguished quality, which belied his mischievous blue eyes and flirtatious tone. She caught him giving her a subtle eye sweep, assessing her
curves.
“You must be the Sullivan of Sullivan’s bar,” Maddie said, deciding that the ‘manhole’ or as she suspected ‘manwhore’ description may hold some water.
The man looked momentarily stunned before hiding it behind a charming smile. “You’re not about to serve me a summons or something are you?” his eyes narrowed. “Have we met before?” he asked cautiously, fairly sure that he would have remembered meeting this woman previously.
Maddie enjoyed the fact that her correctly identifying him had put the cocky man off guard by even a small amount. “Nope, but I have met a big fan of yours,” she replied in a teasing tone.
Sullivan’s eyebrows furrowed, his nickname from Teddy wasn’t without warrant, and he was naturally apprehensive when he met someone he didn’t know but who knew him. In his experience, however, it was usually aggrieved boyfriends, or husbands, that sought him out and he had learned to either lie about his identity or duck quickly.
“You did?” he asked carefully. “Who might that be?”
“Blonde, blue eyes, dimples, really cute,” Maddie grinned taking pleasure from playing with the man, whose face was showing more confusion as the conversation progressed.
“Alex?” he asked warily.
“Jessica,” Maddie chuckled shaking her head, her expression softening as she realized that her description could also have fitted Jessica’s mother just as well.
The bar owner exhaled a relieved breath. “My one and only favorite girl,” he smiled proudly at the mere mention of his daughter. “Wait, that must make you the bare-foot doctor.”
Laughing at the description Maddie held out her hand, “The one and only. Maddie Marinelli.”
“Matt Sullivan, although everyone calls me Sully,” he responded shaking her hand. “Alex said you were hot, she undercooked it. So you’re the one that thinks Alex is a serial killer or something?” he said grinning.
“What! No,” Maddie spluttered, blushing in a mix of pleasure at Sully’s comment about Alex’s description of her and embarrassment over the morning’s events. She realized that Alex must have put two and two together and worked out why Maddie was in her garden. “I just was curious, I...I…” she flapped her hands around trying to find the right words to describe what she’d thought, eventually she gave up and ran a hand through her damp fringe. “Okay so I thought she was a serial killer, or something,” she finally admitted.
Sully laughed loudly as he dug his hands into his jeans’ pockets, rocked back on his heels and hooted.
“She was burying Buttercup, the biggest rabbit in the history of the world. I swear we had a great dane when I was kid that was smaller than that damn rabbit. I think it had a gland problem or something!” he smiled. “She just didn’t want Jessica to see it dead.”
“I know that now,” Maddie said sheepishly.
“Besides she buries the bodies on the other side of the house, since it’s not as overlooked,” Sully laughed at his own joke. “So you’re here for a couple of weeks?” he asked pulling the keys to the bar from his pocket.
Maddie scanned the street, frowning as various eyes in the nearby businesses watched her conversation with the bar owner with interest. “Just until my car gets fixed,” she replied returning her attention to Sully. “Then I’m on my way.”
Sully twisted the key in the lock, “Well I hope you’ll come pay us a visit at the bar sometime.”
Maddie couldn’t work out if it was deliberate or if everything that he said just naturally sounded like a proposition. She turned and started to jog off, twisting her head she threw him a flirtatious, “Maybe,” in response, before picking up her pace and running back towards the Anderson house.
***
“I give him two days,” Lou observed from the window of Ruby’s Coffee Shop. “Two days and that doc will be another notch in his bedpost,” she turned and looked at her boss who was concentrating on the books of the shop. “Does he even have a bedpost?” Lou asked flopping down into the chair opposite Alex, who was chewing thoughtfully on her pen.
“Mmm,” Alex replied inattentively. She looked up and seeing Lou’s expectant face, realized she had been asked something; replaying Lou’s words in her head and this time concentrating on them, she frowned in response, “Why are you asking me?”
Lou shrugged as she absently collected crumbs from the table using the pad of her fingertip, “’cause you’ve got a kid together.” She looked up at Alex’s wide-eyed stare before dropping her eyes to the table. “I just meant that you know him pretty well, but okay you don’t know!” she muttered.
Alex put her pen down and leaned back on her chair. “I don’t keep track of Matt’s sex life, basically because that would be a full time job in itself and I have my hands full being a mama and running a business, and you should pay less attention to Matt’s sex life as well,” she finished. She knew her assistant harbored a crush on Sully, who to his credit had always been charming with Lou and never taken advantage, which, to Alex, spoke volumes about the depth of his feelings towards the woman. He was too much of a manboy to make a relationship work, so instead he slept around with women. The ones he wanted to keep in his life, he didn’t sleep with. Alternatively, he could also just be terrified that Peter would pound on him for sleeping with Ruth’s younger sister.
“If the doctor sleeps with him, then more fool her,” Alex said softly.
“Is she pretty? She looked pretty,” Lou said standing up and collecting a cloth to wipe the pile of crumbs she’d gathered.
Letting her mind drift back to the morning Alex smiled at the image of the flustered woman, standing bare-foot in her hoodie and pjs. Her smile when she introduced herself was dazzling; her eyes were the darkest shade of brown, like luxurious chocolate. Recalling them now Alex thought it would be possible to lose days looking into them.
“Alex!” Lou waved the cloth in front of her boss’s face. “I asked, is she pretty?”
Alex shook her head, to clear the image. She thought of her earlier description to Sully. “Yeah, I guess,” she said trying to keep her tone non-committal. She cleared her throat and picked up her pen. Lou seemed satisfied with the answer and disappeared into the kitchen, leaving Alex twiddling her pen, allowing herself another indulgent moment of recalling those brown eyes.
She shook herself out of her reverie, this time requiring more than just a head shake to clear her mind of the image. Reluctantly she turned her attention to the figures in front of her. “God I hope she doesn’t sleep with him,” she muttered under her breath before focusing fully on balancing her accounts.
***
Maddie climbed the steps leading up to the Anderson house, frowning as she spotted a figure sitting on the swing of the porch. “Can I help you?” she asked.
The tall man stood up, running his large hand over his bald head.
“Doctor Marinelli I presume?” he greeted her smiling.
Maddie returned his smile. “Word really goes fast in this town,” she remarked.
“You have no idea,” he chuckled. “Timothy McNeil.”
Shooting him an apologetic look for her clammy hand, Maddie’s eyes narrowed in recognition. “Doctor Timothy McNeil?” she asked.
“Word really does go fast in Grace Falls,” he replied. “There are no secrets in this town.”
Maddie laughed, “I was talking to one of your success stories this morning, Jessica Milne-Sullivan. Would you like to come in for a drink?” she opened the front door to the house and invited the older man inside.
“Ah, young Jessica,” he grinned as he followed Maddie through the living room towards the kitchen. “A precocious young thing, although not altogether surprising with her parents.” He sat down in the seat indicated to by Maddie and watched as the young doctor busied herself making their drinks, “She was a fighter, two pounds of stubborn. She got that from her mama.”
“And her charm from her dad,” Maddie smiled filling the kettle with water. “I met him earlier.”
“Oh I’m
not so sure about that, Alex Milne can charm the birds from the trees when she wants to,” McNeil replied fondly. His tone switched to a businesslike manner, “Doctor Marinelli, I won’t beat around the bush. I believe you’re going to be here for a few weeks.”
“Two,” Maddie corrected, “and a half tops,” she added, using Sam’s prediction.
He nodded as if contemplating her words. “I wondered whether you might consider providing the town with your expertise during your stay,” McNeil asked, his fingers pressed together so that it almost looked as though he was praying.
Maddie cocked her head processing his request. “In what capacity exactly?” she asked.
“Doctor Marinelli, I retired six months ago to look after my wife after her stroke, and since then we’ve had seven locums. They never last more than a few weeks, one lasted a day, the last one left four weeks ago and we’ve been without a doctor in the town since. Our medical clinic closed and our equipment got shipped to St Anton’s medical facility, along with our nurse, which is sixty miles away.”
Maddie was surprised that people had struggled to settle in the town, her experience, ignoring the inadvertently accusing her neighbor of being a serial killer, hadn’t made her think that it would be a hard place to make a life. Perhaps the small town attitude and interest in each other’s business could be a bit cloying, but to have gone through so many doctors in such a short space of time struck Maddie as unusual.
“Why so many?” she enquired as she poured water into the coffee mugs. “Doctors, I mean that’s a lot of doctors to go through.”
Timothy rubbed his thumb against the table. “This is a tough town, we buried a man last year, seventy-four years old, he moved here when he was eighteen and he was still known as Old Bill from St Anton. They can be a hard nut to crack,” he smiled affectionately as he thought about the town where he had been born and raised. “None of those doctors were accepted by the town. In Grace Falls, it’s a case of treating the people, not just their illnesses and I’m not sure those doctors got that. So regardless of whether they wanted to stay or not, the town cancelled their contracts,” he sighed. “The phrase ‘cut off your nose to spite your face’ was created for Grace Falls,” he gave Maddie a smile of thanks as she placed a cup of steaming coffee in front of him.
