He stared out once again at the hot wind waving the tall grass. “We did pay the co-op to help out the others who were affected.”
He didn’t mention his father, Grace noted, or how he felt about the circumstances or the underlying reason why his sister-in-law took off.
“We would have started planting cherry trees, but then… Dad became sick. Other things got in the way.”
Eddy came slamming back out through the door. Randy stopped the story. She didn’t press, as she was pretty sure what “things” he meant.
“Come on, feller,” Randy said. “Let’s you and me ride ’em broncos back to the stable.” He took Eddy, whooping, on his shoulders.
She followed them down the sidewalk to the driveway. “Thank you, Randy.” He nodded. She gave Eddy a big smile and gave his fingers a shake. “And thank you, Eddy, for your help today. We’ll take Shelby her berries soon, okay?” The little boy yipped and kicked his heels into Randy’s chest. Randy winced and then winked at her before swooping his nephew to the other side of the hedge.
Grace picked up the inflated colorful plastic ball Eddy played with and brought it to the porch before going inside. Randy wasn’t such a bad guy, after all.
Ted returned from the hospital and took Eddy on a promised overnight fishing trip, leaving Grace truly alone for the first time. The hours stretched. She went to visit Shelby.
“Please, Grace—just go out to breakfast or something, at Kaye’s—anything—and come back and tell me the latest of what you hear. This bed rest is driving me nuts. I never hear any good gossip anymore.” A dog-eared magazine slipped from her lap to the floor of her living room.
Grace was naturally curious about the local lunch counter. But no way would she walk in there alone. “I’m gossip fodder enough. I want to go, but I’ll wait for you, until you’re better.”
“Somehow I knew you’d say that.” Shelby couldn’t keep a pout. “I guess I’d feel the same way, you know, if someone dumped me in the middle of Tennessee where I didn’t know a soul.” She closed her eyes and leaned back.
Grace hurt for her. She and the baby weren’t out of danger yet. Her friend’s exhaustion permeated the little house. “How about I read to you?”
Shelby nodded, a ghost of a smile on her pale petal lips. “I’d like that. No one else would think of that, you know. I’m so glad you’re here.” She turned on her side and reached for Grace’s hand. “When I’m better, I’ll make it up to you.”
“Hey.” Grace squeezed her hand and prayed silently. “That’s what friends are for.”
Shelby pressed back. “Yeah.” She took off her glasses and sighed. “How about where you left off in that book about the sin eater? It doesn’t make sense without you reading it.”
“Sure.” Grace rose and fetched the book from the basket by the rocking chair, settled in, and began to read.
A couple of days later Grace stood at her screen door, answering Eddy’s summons. Ted, Randy, and Eddy had obviously been primed by Shelby. The trio showed up with a lunch invitation to Kaye’s. Eddy squirmed with delight and swung like a monkey from his uncle’s big hands.
“Come on! Let’s go!” His enthusiasm brooked no argument.
“I can’t imagine why we haven’t come before,” Ted said into her ear as he leaned over to close the car door after she got in.
She met his apology with aplomb. “I’m glad we’re going now.”
Kaye’s Café and Natural Foods was a street front shop in the old-fashioned downtown that made up Main Street, East Bay. Grace was enchanted with the rolled-out striped awning and round blue lettering showing outward on the large windows. The message announced the day’s special of turkey subs and Tanya’s Tuna Salad.
Eddy, barely containing his excitement, helped his father out of the car and handed him the crutch Randy pulled out of the trunk. Eddy matched him pace for pace up to the entrance of the café, then let go of his father’s hand suddenly and rushed forward. Ted stumbled before he could catch hold of the swinging door and stop it from slamming into his good leg. The boy continued to bound into the café where he scampered to the counter and clambered onto a round red-leather and chrome bar stool.
Grace reached for the door to hold it open for Ted, curious that neither Ted nor Randy reprimanded Eddy. She would have held on to Sean. Of course he’d been too little to run like this. Ted raised his eyebrows as he passed. “Eds hasn’t been here in a while,” he whispered.
Once inside, she followed Eddy’s innocent antics. He folded his hands on the breakfast bar and checked his neighbor’s dishes. Mr. Jeffries from church sat two stools down. Eddy waved and made a show of licking his lips and rubbing his tummy in exaggerated appreciation of Mr. Jeffries’s huge gooey cinnamon bun and big cup of hot chocolate with whipped cream.
Grace blinked and caught herself short. She’d almost run right into Randy, who’d come to a stop in the entry. She checked his profile, curious about the pulse that leapt under his clenched jaw. She swiveled in the direction that held his attention. A uniformed woman leaned over the counter to greet Eddy. Her blonde hair was caught up in a net that made her appear exotic in an old-fashioned way. She had to be Kaye. Hmm, not only was Randy not an ogre, he had a heart that was firmly attached to a beautiful woman.
As if the moment never occurred, Randy moved ahead, steadying his little brother on one side. He nodded to various customers and picked up the state newspaper as they walked past a haphazard pile stacked on the end of a vacant booth.
Ted shuffled across the gray-patterned tiled floor, his head bent and his shoulders hunched. Grace couldn’t bring herself to offer the embarrassment of a second helping hand and continued to glance around as they made their way toward a free table. Were they going to call Eddy over? Kaye continued to engage Ted’s son in animated conversation. The blonde looked up once and smiled broadly right at Ted who was studying his laminated menu as if he’d never been here before.
Grace gnawed at her lip and hoped Randy hadn’t seen the bold appreciation the café owner threw at Ted. Of course, she could be mistaken about the identity of the woman behind the counter. A little secret it wasn’t. She took a deep breath and looked around the place, antsy and nervous to meet people who might have talked about her. She recognized three of the customers from church and smiled at them. One of the women who worked at the resale shop was seated at a sunny table under the big window. They exchanged nods. No one approached them, though. Well, whatever. They were probably just as freaked out about a stranger trying to move in on their homeboys as she was attempting to pretend she could be one of them.
She was glad she knew about Jilly. Randy might be a regular here, but Ted obviously was not, and his flushed face hinted at his embarrassment. He had once been popular, Shelby told her. Now Ted undoubtedly thought of himself as broken and crippled, pitiful. And probably ashamed of his former wife’s actions.
When Grace caught both Randy and Ted looking at her, she nodded over to Eddy at the counter. Three older ladies pinched his cheek or patted his head. “It’s a shame no one pays any attention to him at home,” she commented dryly. The grooves on either side of Randy’s mouth deepened for a moment and his eyes crinkled. Ted relaxed, sagging against the seat.
Clattering plates and silver provided a cheerful backdrop to the smell of sweet onions over chocolate and pancake syrup perfume. A coffee bean grinder whirred. To their right another room opened up with a variety of shadowy boxes and bags on shelves. Must be the natural foods side of the business. Since she’d assumed the café only served natural foods on the menu, she hadn’t gone inside before.
Now she wished she had come earlier. She and Jonathan had belonged to the little natural foods co-op back in Woodside and she missed it. Maybe the store could order some of the special whole grains and herb teas she was used to drinking back home if it didn’t already stock them. She reached for a menu as she watched a tall teen glide up to the table, tablet ready. Pretty girl. Somewhat aloof, but not snobby. More
…professional, like she was trying to play a part.
“Grace, meet Kaye’s niece, Tanya,” Randy said. Tanya Smits was waif-thin with mature brown eyes. Ted had explained on the way downtown that Kaye took the girl in when her brother needed a long stay at a rehabilitation hospital a few years ago. The situation suited all of them and Tanya stayed on after her father’s successful treatment. No mention was made of her mother.
Grace smiled. Tanya hesitatingly returned the smile with a hurried glance at Ted Marshall, then an even quicker check of her aunt who was filling a coffeepot with practiced ease, her attention still lasered on Ted. The smile drifted blankly over Randy, then cooled considerably as it passed on to her.
Grace hadn’t connected all the dots yet around the hometown relationships, but she was beginning to pick out the outlines of this particular picture.
Chapter Six
Jimmy Marshall’s annual two-week visit was scheduled for the end of summer. One afternoon when Ted came for his son, he filled Grace in on the sordid details of his brother’s son with little encouragement on her part.
The cousin who “punches hard” according to Eddy was the only child of Randy and his former wife who now made her home in Sault Ste. Marie. High school angst, prom night, and longing for the girl who wouldn’t give him the time of day apparently led to some bad decisions on teenaged Randy’s part.
Grace wasn’t surprised. Hope deferred makes for a sick heart.
“I guess we could say that my eighteen-year-old brother, Righteous Randy, the president of the church youth group, dealt himself and Jenny Walden a bad hand,” Ted said. “They got married then divorced after Jimmy was born. I think Jenny loved him, but…Kaye Smits was her best friend.”
Ted’s tendency to gleefully share personal news about people in East Bay sometimes made Grace squirm, but she was glad to know some of the facts about Jimmy. “The Kaye from the café?”
“Yeah, that’s her. Randy sure had a bad rep at church,” Ted said. “Dad was upset and told him he was glad Mom was gone. That hurt Randy most about the whole thing, I think. Jimmy’s an okay kid. I liked Jenny fine, too, but…well, it’s water under the bridge, now. Jenny helps manage the kitchen at the big restaurant in Soo. Have you ever been to the U.P.?”
“Yoopee?” Grace asked.
“Upper Peninsula—of Michigan,” Ted explained.
“No, Ted, I haven’t been up there. Is it far? What’s ‘soo’?”
“A half-day drive. Soo is short for Sault St. Marie.” He spelled it. “Old French. It’s a really pretty town. The big lock and dam to get through to Lake Superior from Lake Huron is there. It’s fun to watch the big ships go through. And there are a lot of sailors and merchant ships that stop. Eddy loves it. And you can go across the bridge into Canada. Have a passport?”
His enthusiasm was infectious and she smiled back. It was nice to see him happy about something instead of morose and feeling sorry for himself as he sometimes was before a hospital visit. She had not yet asked a direct question about his symptoms and their possible underlying causes.
“Maybe I’ll visit up there sometime,” she said.
Ted looked at her as if she’d just announced she wished to visit the moon and needed directions. “We’ll all go,” he said. “I’ll take you.”
Jimmy arrived the next day. Grace had been invited to meet him at the family campfire pit after dinner. The young man stood shoulder to shoulder with his father. When he finished filling out, he would take after the paternal line with a straight nose and deep blue eyes. He wore his hair fashionable curly and streaked, and proclaimed his joy at being away from the hot restaurant kitchen where he washed dishes. The job was okay, he told her in a growly voice. “My mom’s the manager and makes the soup du jour. She knows my schedule.”
Grace nodded, seeing right through his sullen-on-the-outside act. Jimmy fidgeted. Although Randy spoke with pride of the good grades and musical honors that Jimmy earned, they probably didn’t get together enough to be comfortable with each other.
“So, you’re a junior?” she asked him. He nodded. “What are your plans after high school?”
“I dunno.” He shrugged his young giant shoulders. “I haven’t decided about college yet.”
“Hmm.” Grace poked the fire with a stick. Orange and yellow flames licked at aromatic apple wood, while a gentle breeze wafted the aroma. Eddy chased fireflies near the lilac bushes. Jimmy shifted with restless motions, ill-at-ease, probably, with hanging around the company of older folks and one energetic little boy all day. Several kids from the church youth group were going to Sleeping Bear Dunes on the lakeshore the next week and Randy signed Jimmy up over his protests. But Grace understood about being in the company of strangers and felt sorry for him.
He crouched on the grass in front of the crackling bonfire pit, rocking back and forth. As if suddenly remembering his manners, he turned to ask his uncle, “Um, so, Uncle Ted, how are you feeling these days?”
Ted craned his head back at his nephew, a smile reflected in the firelight. “Thanks for asking. I’m actually feeling okay, Jimmy. Mostly tired—and tired of being tired.” He impaled another marshmallow and handed his roasting stick to Eddy, who promptly stuck it in the ashes.
Jimmy bent his head. “I can’t imagine, man, feeling that way and nothin’ anyone can do. Don’t the doctors have it figured out yet?”
“Not exactly. They can tell me what they think it isn’t—which isn’t saying much, is it?”
Ted was rarely this candid about his condition, and Grace was surprised at the conversation. She looked over at Randy, curiously, to find his eyes on her. He shook his head slightly in agreement. They had spent longer moments together lately talking comfortably and companionably about many things. Ted’s brother certainly stored emotion deeply, something she had only recently come to understand and appreciate. Who would have thought they would turn out to be kindred spirits after the contentious first couple of weeks?
The quiet talk continued between Ted and Jimmy. Grace caught hushed snippets of high school antics, the trumpet, cars, and girls.
She smiled and tuned it out, eventually getting up to hunt for Eddy. It was bedtime. After setting the little guy in the tub and leaving the door open to listen to him sing and splash, she sat down to read the guidebook she found in the Marshalls’ living room. A visit to the famous Lake Michigan dunes climbed to the top of her wish list.
“Hey, Eddy!” she called and then went to stand near the bathroom. “Has anyone ever told you the legend of the Sleeping Bear?” she asked.
Eddy slapped bubbles with a frayed brown terry washcloth. “I don’t think so,” he sang, in time to the splashing. Grace smiled.
“Listen. It’s from Ojibway Indian stories. Long ago, in the land of Wisconsin, Mother Bear and her two cubs swam into Lake Michigan to save them from a raging forest fire. The cubs swam strongly but the other side of the shore was too far away. They fell farther and farther behind and sank in the waters. When Mother Bear reached the Michigan side, she climbed to the top of a bluff, pacing and looking back across the water, searching in vain for her cubs. The Great Spirit saw her and took pity on her vigil. He piled up the two Manitou Islands to mark the place where her cubs vanished and put Mother Bear to sleep.”
She set the book down and went into the bathroom. She reached into the cooling water of the tub to pull the plug and wrap a big fluffy towel around Eddy as she hauled him out.
“Why did the mommy bear have to sleep?” he asked, rubbing his eyes.
“So she could have good dreams about her children, I suppose.” She cradled him, rocking gently, reveling in her good fortune to be part of this little guy’s life. “Let’s get you in bed and see what kind of good dreams you have.”
The spasm of misgiving that taunted Randy since he signed his son up for the youth group trip grew into a heart attack of doubt when he dropped Jimmy off at the church parking lot. About twenty kids and five chaperons milled about with parents or sibl
ings. Beach bags and coolers were being loaded into the back of the bus and someone already had a guitar strumming. Jimmy gravitated slowly toward the music. Randy’s heart shimmied when Kaye arrived with her niece. They didn’t attend First Covenant Church, so what were they doing here? Tanya’s friends must have invited her along on the trip to Sleeping Bear Dunes.
Randy stared at Kaye, the hunger and longing a slow ache that had never healed over twenty years. And now… He narrowed his eyes. What was with that kid? After complaining about rising so early to meet the bus, Jimmy changed directions mid-pace to meet up with Tanya.
Randy paced by his car, thinking maybe he should tell Jimmy not to go after all. This was not a good development. The whole business had started three days ago at the diner when the kids met at lunch. The sparks that flew between his son and the waitress could have lit a fire. Not good—not good at all. Nothing good comes from high school romances. He should know. He couldn’t help it; he had been short with the girl. He’d complained about the coffee first, knowing that ordering hot coffee in the heat of August was a mistake. The pot had obviously been left over since breakfast and tasted stale. Still, a good waitress would have made fresh.
He had ignored her when she brought a full pot several minutes later. Tanya, with uncustomary shakiness, spilled a few drops on his silverware. He gave her the look then, and watched her retreat, breathing hard, her face scrunched and red. A good waitress shouldn’t sweat the small stuff. Of course his attitude fed the animosity Jimmy carried as a chip. Jimmy got on his case then.
“Dad, why’d you have to be so hard on her?”
Randy ignored him while he drowned his French fries in ketchup.
He had been unprepared for Kaye’s steely-eyed assault when she brought their check.
Healing Grace Page 5
