3 Never Tell Your Dreams

by Tonya Kappes

  Maybe this was a good thing. Hazel didn’t want Maggie to know, but Maggie had the right. She was a lawyer and this could be her opportunity to use her education for her family. Make good by the community. Hell, make good by leaving him. Didn’t she owe it to him?

  “There you are.” Susie said when she peeked her head around the door into the old musty office. She fanned her nose with her hand, and pointed to the couch that Liz Day, the new interior decorator in town, dropped off. “Really Mitch, you need to get a good makeover in here, starting with some candles. The new little couch isn’t going to make much difference.”

  “The last mayor was here for forty years. Let’s get some air fresheners. You know, the ones you plug in.” He smiled. He couldn’t imagine being mayor for forty-years. Mitch looked back out the window. Maggie was gone. His heart tugged. “Maybe we can get the carpet cleaned.”

  Susie set some files down on his desk and peered over his shoulder out the window. “Maybe we could get Liz to redo the entire place.”

  Mitch heard Susie, but couldn’t focus on her. He just stared at the empty parking space.

  “What are you looking at?” Susie asked with a curiosity in her voice.

  “Nothing. Liz Day, yeah, give her a call on Monday.” Mitch picked up the file and tried to concentrate on anything but Maggie. Having her here for the next 24-48 hours wasn’t any good for anyone right now, unless she was willing to help with the eminent domain issue, and for that he’d need Hazel’s permission.

  “If you need me, I’ll be at my desk for a couple hours until the hoity-toity shower.” Susie scowled and swept her long brown wavy hair behind her head. Her green eyes slowly lowered. “You know the one where you used your authority to make every girl in Grandberry Falls attend.”

  “I’m not using my authority. The Greenlees are good people and Maggie is too.” Mitch did call in a few favors for Belle. She was afraid no one would come to the shower, and she was right. He might’ve called a few of the girls and begged. “She’ll come back. Everyone who leaves generally does.”

  Who was he kidding? No matter how many coins he threw in the falls, he didn’t think Maggie would ever come back home for good.

  Susie sighed. “Whatever. I guess it’ll be good to catch up. And don’t forget to sign off on the Jubilee beauty pageant contestants and the rowboat derby. Every year the mayor’s signature makes the events official.” She put the forms on his desk, walked out, and shut the door behind her.

  Mitch grabbed the pen out of the fancy holder that has his name engraved on the plaque. Hazel Greenlee had it made especially for him after he won the election. He quickly signed his name next to the big red X on the papers, and set them aside for Susie to pick up when she came back in.

  There were a couple more important phone calls about the case he was about to undertake, but a call to Hazel before Maggie got there was at the top of his list.

  “Good morning, Hazel. It’s Mitch.” Hearing her peppy voice brought back so many childhood memories. His family owned the adjoining farm and he’d run like a stallion across those fields to get to the Greenlee’s every morning. “I wanted to call before Maggie made it to your house.”

  “You saw Maggie?” Hazel voice rose with excitement. “Did you ask her to marry you yet?”

  “Hazel, you know as well as I do that Maggie is here for her wedding shower to Grady. Besides we have more important things to talk about.” Mitch couldn’t take anymore talk about Maggie and her wedding to that damn goof-ball. Sure, he seemed nice, but not Maggie’s type at all. He didn’t like Grady’s slicked back hair and pin-striped pink button-downs.

  “You know how I feel about Grady.” Hazel emphasized his name with disgust. “He didn’t even try to appease me by throwing just a pinch of salt over his shoulder. You and I both know that’s not a good way to start a marriage.”

  He loved that about Hazel. Although Mitch never really understood her crazy superstitions, he did embrace them. Maggie had brought Grady to Grandberry Falls for Christmas and as Hazel told it, Grady had knocked over a salt shaker and refused to throw a pinch over his shoulder because Grady believed that “superstition is nonsense.” Mitch knew Grady didn’t have a shot in Grandberry Falls or in Hazel’s heart.

  As a matter of fact, Hazel had carefully given Mitch a sprig of mistletoe, knowing Mitch would run into Maggie. And as superstition would have it, they had to kiss. But it wasn’t any old kiss. It was a kiss that shook them both to their core.

  Mitch opened up the desk drawer and took out the dried up sprig of mistletoe. He knew he was supposed to burn it within twelve days of their “accidental kiss” they had shared when she was in town during Christmas, to break the superstition, but he couldn’t. Even though he did promise Maggie that he would, it was just another reminder that she occupied a place in his heart that he was afraid no other woman would be able to hold.

  He wasn’t getting anywhere with this conversation and Maggie would be there soon. “Anyway, they are still going to try to take your property using eminent domain. I think we need to have a meeting and soon.”

  “Well, I don’t have to go to the shower today.” Hazel sounded a little more upbeat than she should. Mitch laughed. Hazel would do anything to get out of it. “You know I’m right about him, Mitchell.”

  He hated how Hazel danced around the eminent domain case.

  “When is Maggie leaving?” This was a loaded question for Mitch. Besides wanting to know how long his heart was going to be on edge, he wanted to make sure he made it over to the cemetery. He loved how she visited her parents before she left town. It was one of the few times Maggie Greenlee acted like the Maggie Greenlee he knew before she left to go back to the big city. “Tomorrow. But I don’t want this situation mentioned around her. Understand, Mitchell?” Hazel snarled through the phone and Mitch knew all too well not to mess with her.

  No one messes with Hazel.

  “Fine.” Mitch hated to work on Sunday, but would if it was going to benefit the city. He had a job to uphold. “Can we meet after she leaves?”

  “I’ll make sure she’s gone after breakfast, tomorrow.”

  He could hear the TV in the background

  “As a matter of fact, I usually make her a big breakfast, but I’ll tell her we are eating at the Fatted Pig instead.”

  “I don’t want you to feel like you have to run her off.” Mitch didn’t want Hazel to miss out on time with Maggie, but the quicker she left town, the better off he was going to be.

  “I’m afraid the longer she stays, the more curious she’s going to get and she will dig around. It’s her nature. And you know I don’t want her to find out.” There was concern in her voice. “If we tell Maggie about this, she’ll come home and try to fix it. Even though I don’t want her to marry that boy, I don’t want to cause her anymore stress the next couple weeks.”

  When the Pelt Company came in and tried to buy up the Greenlee property, Hazel made sure no one breathed a word to Maggie. And that included Mitch. She told him that she wanted Maggie to come back on her own time, not Hazel’s or Grandberry Falls.

  “I’ve gotta go. Paula has a great bargain on Home Shopping Club,” Hazel said and then hung up.

  Mitch smirked. Hazel Greenlee was one hip and happening grandmother who loved a good deal from the Home Shopping Club.

  Chapter 3

  Superstition: Always leave out the same door you entered.

  Gravel spit from under Maggie’s tires as she drove up Hazel’s driveway. It was already spring and Hazel should’ve had the rocks dampened down by now. That wasn’t the only untidy thing Maggie noticed. The black paint was chipping off on the Kentucky Post fence, showing wear and tear from the past winter. She checked her watch. Usually the farm hands were busy tending to the crop of corn and bush hogs tilling the other fields getting them ready for planting.

  But no matter how battered the farm looked, Maggie’s heart warmed with the wonderful memories of growing up there when she pulled up. T
he years had taken a toll on the old place, but the red brick was still in great shape. The ivy growing around the front door was still vibrant creating a beautiful and welcoming green frame.

  Maggie sat in her car for a moment, wondering how different her life might have been if she had come back to Grandberry Falls after college and made a life here.

  It was Maggie’s last year of high school when she decided she wanted to explore the world. She ended up in New York. In the back of her mind, she knew she’d have to pay back the Grandberry Falls Community Scholarship. After all, one of the stipulations was her services to the community after she graduated. When Maggie did get that degree and graduated at the top of her law school class, she got a job offer from one of the biggest law firms in New York City—Van Meter and Associates. Coming back to Grandberry Falls to fulfill her scholarship commitment of practicing law was no longer in her plan. Slowly, she’d paid back the monetary scholarship, somewhat easing the guilty feeling for not coming back.

  “Granny?” The front door was unlocked, and slightly cracked. No one locked their doors in Grandberry Falls—though Maggie tried to get Hazel to many times before. She stepped up onto the threshold, pushed the door wider. “Granny?”

  “Come on in, honey,” Hazel chirped.

  Maggie followed her nose into the family room. A potpourri canister steamed from the pot-belly stove insert her grandfather put in when she was knee-high to a grasshopper, as he would’ve said. The console television had been replaced by a fifty-inch flat screen, from the Home Shopping Club no doubt.

  Hazel was sitting in her pink paisley Lazyboy with the old rotary phone attached to her ear. She’d never get a cordless. “Too fancy and not reliable,” she’d say.

  Maggie bent down and kissed her on the head, inhaling deeply—comfort. Maggie sighed. The scent of Dove soap swirled around Maggie’s nose. Hazel waved her hand in the air like the person on the other end of the line could see her. Her signature bangles jingled up and down her wrist with each twist.

  Maggie sat down on the couch. They had a few minutes before they needed to get going. And rushing Hazel wasn’t going to get her anywhere, so she might as well make herself comfortable.

  All the family photos, hanging on the wall, told a story. The years progressed with the pictures. Many of them were taken with Mitch Dozier in them. He was always around, especially during family functions. He and Maggie spent many nights pulling Belle’s hair through a plastic cap and applying all sorts of cream with a paint brush trying to get the Marilyn Monroe platinum blonde look that Belle so craved.

  “Yes, Paula, I’m here.” Hazel’s eyes widened. Home Shopping Club was Hazel’s favorite channel. Most the items in the house came from HSC and on Paula, the primary host’s, watch. Paula could sell a gumball for fifty dollars and Hazel would order it. “My granddaughter is getting married and I need to get my son-in-law a great camera.”

  Finally! Maggie was beyond thrilled. Hazel had accepted the fact Maggie was getting married to Grady and not Mitch.

  “You can’t go wrong with the Nikon D3100, Hazel.” The voice boomed from the TV and brought Maggie back from her thoughts. “He is going to love it. Look at this.” The cameras panned into Paula’s perfectly manicured nails that held the digital gadget. “Crisp picture every time. When’s the big day?”

  Maggie laughed. Hazel was on live TV.

  “They don’t have a date set yet, Paula.”

  Maggie was sure Hazel was confused. The wedding was three weeks away.

  “But I’ll have it for when they do.” Hazel nodded as if Paula was in front of her.

  Maggie cursed under her breath. Hazel was back to her old ways and Maggie wasn’t sure how she was going to handle it. She paused, looked over and noticed Hazel had lost some weight. Things were adding up, weight loss, gravel, chipping paint, and no farm hands. Sadness swept over Maggie. Hazel’s health had to be failing her.

  “Great, Hazel.” Paula’s teeth glistened like the ones on the whitening strip commercials. “Make sure you stay tuned. We have a really great case coming up in the next half hour just for this particular model.”

  “I will.” Hazel put the phone back on the hook. She stood up and brushed her zebra print tunic shirt down over her white jeans. “You ready?”

  “Granny, are you feeling okay?” Maggie sat calmly with her hands between her knees, preparing herself for the truth.

  “Never felt better. I’ve been walking over at the Y with Jenna.” Hazel clapped her hands and laughed. She stood up and ran her hands along her silhouette. “Can you tell? I’ve gone down an inch.”

  Maggie followed Hazel to the kitchen. She stopped and looked at the pictures that lined the hallway.

  “Then what was that about?” She found no joy in Hazel’s newfound figure or comments to Paula. Maggie’s brows dipped. “Grady and I are getting married in three weeks. Granny, just because he spilled the salt shaker and didn’t throw a pinch over his shoulder, doesn’t make him a bad guy.”

  Maggie searched all over the wall for the engagement photo she had sent Hazel that was taken in Time Square. Not only did she get the picture professionally framed, she’d sent it first class with insurance. She even got confirmation that Hazel signed for it. “Where’s the photo I sent you?”

  Maggie walked into the kitchen where Hazel was sitting in the chair slipping on her sandals.

  When the last buckle was in the hole, Hazel stood next to Maggie and took her hands. “You know how superstition I am. And I’m surprised how he refused to throw a simple speck of salt over his shoulder just to keep the peace. Humor an old woman.” Hazel leaned in toward her as if she was going to tell a big secret. “I look good, don’t I?”

  “I’m glad you find my future a big joke.” Maggie jerked her hands away and walked into the dining room, with a tad bit of relief that Hazel hadn’t lost her marbles or was sick.

  She scoured the top of the antique buffet table searching for the picture. Nothing. Not a light from Times Square to be seen. She could’ve at least re-used the expensive frame Maggie had gotten.

  “Maggie Greenlee, I know you better than you do.” Lines creased her forehead as her brows dipped. “I’m not asking you to break off your engagement. I’m suggesting you two take more time to get to know each other.”

  Maggie’s blood pressure was rising, or so she thought. She inhaled deeply. She was tired of hearing, from her friends in New York to her family in Grandberry Falls, that she didn’t know Grady and should take more time. They’d known each other for almost two years—long enough in her book.

  She followed Hazel into the kitchen, noticing the file folder Hazel had picked up off the counter and slid into a drawer. Hazel was definitely acting strange. “What’s that?” Maggie pointed. Her temples were already throbbing. That wasn’t a good sign since she just got there.

  Hazel twirled around. “I’m getting my purse.” She snatched the sequined jewel clutch and polka dotted gift off the counter.

  “No.” Maggie leaned forward. “The file you put in the drawer.”

  “Junk,” Hazel replied. “You ready?”

  There was a nagging suspicion in the pit of Maggie’s stomach that Hazel was hiding something. Maybe the coin toss was just a waste of money.

  “Okay, we can agree to disagree. For now.” Maggie said, letting it go.

  Maggie wasn’t going to argue with her. Hazel was the most important person in her life and she was confident Hazel would come to her senses. She’d see how happy Maggie would be. She would prove it to her.

  She’d check the drawer later when Hazel wasn’t looking. She headed for the back door.

  “Maggie Greenlee, I know you’ve lost your mind now!” Hazel shouted.

  Maggie jumped. She hadn’t heard Hazel yell this loud in years.

  “You came in the front door, you need to leave out of the front door. Your boyfriend might not believe in superstition, but when you are in this house, you will.”

  “Fiancé,” Maggi
e whispered looking down at her ring. “Fiancé.”

  The front door slammed. Maggie stood with her hand on the back door knob. She closed her eyes and took a big deep breath. She sighed.

  Just one night. You can do one night.

  Chapter 4

  Superstition: The first bridal gift opened is the first gift used.

  “I’m glad to see the Buy-N-Fly is still around.” Maggie said as they drove past the small store near the farm. She was desperate for conversation, anything instead of the silence that lingered between them. She was used to Hazel spilling her guts about all the gossip going on in town, but today Granny’s lips were tighter than bark on a tree.

  “Why wouldn’t it be?” Hazel snapped, not sounding one bit like herself. She turned her back on Maggie and stared out the window.

  Maggie ignored Hazel for a moment. “I saw Mitch Dozier today.” Maggie was stooping low. Hazel’s soft spot for Mitch would surely open up the lines of communication. “Mayor Dozier.”

  Maggie giggled at the sound.

  Hazel’s eyebrows cocked up and she defensively asked, “Where? What did he say?”

  “Take it easy.” There was definitely something going on. Hazel was too attacking. “We talked about my shower.” Glancing at her grandmother again, Maggie pressed her lips together. Something was definitely off with her today. Usually she wasn’t so belligerent.

  Maggie fiddled with her ring while holding onto the steering wheel. She recalled the shocked look on Mitch’s face this morning when he noticed.

  “Hmph.” Hazel crossed her arms and stared ahead.

  Hazel made it very clear she didn’t want to talk, and Maggie wasn’t going to make her.

  Thank God, there are only three stoplights in town, and the Hair Pin was right past the third. Maggie never thought she’d be so happy to get there.