Iris Avenue

by Pamela Grandstaff

“Bring him over to see me next week,” Doc said. “Now that he’s fully recovered from his respiratory infection we need to get his immunizations up-to-date.”

  Ava stood and gathered her things in preparation to leave.

  “You heard Brian escaped,” she said.

  Doc hesitated, as if he was deliberating over saying something. Then hugged her and kissed her on the forehead.

  “Don’t you worry,” Doc said. “They’ll catch him.”

  The young woman who showed up with the story about researching her ancestors was a credible actress. If she hadn’t known it was all a lie, Ava would have believed everything she said. Ava reflected that she needed to start assuming everyone she met might be pretending to be someone they were not, and that everything that was said could be a lie.

  Ava took Theresa up to her room, where she left her suitcases, and then took her back downstairs to show her how things were done at the front desk.

  “You’re welcome to use the computer and the phone,” Ava said. “We won’t be taking any more reservations for awhile so you don’t need to know how to do that. Tell anyone who calls that we’re booked up through May, but take their information if they want to be on a cancellation call list.”

  “You should mark your reservation book to match that information,” Theresa said. “Right now it shows vacancies.”

  “Then that can be your first duty,” Ava said sweetly, but her voice had an edge to it.

  “Aren’t you worried about losing money by turning away customers?” Theresa asked.

  “I’m more worried about them being murdered by a psychopathic drug pusher,” Ava responded, and the woman didn’t even pretend not to understand.

  “I’m so sorry about all this,” Theresa said under her breath, and looked at Ava with real pity in her eyes.

  “Make yourself at home,” Ava said as she walked away. “There’s coffee in the kitchen and spare ammo in the linen closet.”

  Maggie was determined to stick to Hannah like glue the rest of the day, although Hannah insisted she was fine. Patrick went back home to get some sleep and Maggie hung out in Hannah’s kitchen while her friend showered and dressed for the day. Afterward they spent some time exercising the inmates.

  “I’m ashamed of myself for using these dogs as a weapon,” Hannah said. “Letting them kill a person would’ve been worse than making them fight each other.”

  “I’d have done the same thing,” Maggie said.

  “That doesn’t make it right,” Hannah said. “I gotta tell you, I don’t know how many more executions I can take.”

  “You did everything you could to rehabilitate them,” Maggie said. “You could never trust them. It would be like leaving loaded guns lying around.”

  “I know that, and yet who are we to decide it’s time for them to die? The yahoos who trained them to fight will get off with a fine and very little jail time. These dogs got the death penalty.”

  “It’s all backwards.”

  “I know I say this every month, but I think I may hang it up. I don’t think I can keep doing this.”

  “Then who will save the dogs that can be rehabilitated? Who will do the foster placements? Who will relocate the ground hogs, possums, and raccoons? What about the feral cat project? That’s going to be a huge undertaking and you’ll finally have help. What about the no kill shelter? That’s always been your dream; you can’t give up now.”

  “It’s not even the euthanasia that’s so awful, although it is. The vets who do it are good people, and they do it humanely. It’s how quiet the kennel is afterward. That quiet does me in.”

  Maggie hugged Hannah with one arm and they left the barn.

  Hannah showed Maggie how to plow the driveway using a blade attached to the four-wheeler.

  “I want one of these!” Maggie shouted as she took her first turn and scraped the driveway down to mud.

  “Not so deep,” Hannah called out. “I’d like to keep the gravel, if you don’t mind.”

  When she was through Maggie hosed off the four-wheeler, dried it with some rags kept for that purpose, and returned it to the shed. When she entered the house she found Hannah taking clothes out of the dryer in the kitchen.

  “What’s next? Should we go look for the dogs?” Maggie asked her.

  “No, they’ll come home eventually. Kind of like my husband.”

  Maggie held her tongue, which took an effort.

  Hannah drove Maggie home.

  “I’ll be over to the food pantry as soon as I’m presentable,” Maggie said, gesturing to her matted red curls and hastily assembled attire.

  Maggie went up the backstairs of the bookstore and let herself in the apartment. Her voice mail light was blinking so she called in. She had two messages. The first message was from her mother, wanting to know where in the world she was; did she forget she promised to cover for Mandy from ten to two? Maggie glanced at the wall clock and saw that it was 9:45. She called Hannah to tell her what was up and Hannah told her not to worry, she could handle the food pantry on her own.

  Maggie did not have time to shower, so she twisted her long red curls into a messy knot on the back of her head. She washed her face, brushed her teeth, and put on some clean clothes. She was five minutes late to the bakery.

  “Nice of you to drop by,” was her mother’s terse greeting, even though Maggie brought her a cappuccino.

  Maggie knew better than to answer, and instead she took off her coat, slipped the neck loop of a long white apron over her head, tied the long tails behind her waist, and washed her hands.

  She’d been working in the bakery most of her life, so she immediately fell into the rhythm of waiting on customers: ringing up sales, making change, taking phone orders, washing and re-washing her hands, using fresh food service waxed sheets to pick up baked goods, and bringing out fresh stock from the kitchen. When Scott walked in, she was so worn out she didn’t have the energy to be rude to him.

  He sat at the counter and she poured him some coffee.

  “Patrick told me what happened this morning at Hannah’s,” he said. “You should’ve called me.”

  “There was no crime being committed. I was just worried.”

  “Is Hannah okay?”

  “Yeah, but I’m going to stay with her until Sam comes home. That may be this week sometime.”

  “That’s good news. Anything I can do to help?”

  “Find my car.”

  “There’s no sign of it yet. If it was Brian who took it, he’s probably long gone by now.”

  “Then why are you still staying at Ava’s?”

  “Because we don’t know for sure where Brian is.”

  “Why didn’t Ava ask someone in our family to stay? Why does it have to be you?”

  “You sound jealous,” Scott said. “I wonder why.”

  Her mother came out from the kitchen and Maggie gave Scott a look that said “shut up.”

  Bonnie looked from Maggie to Scott and back before smiling at him and saying, “It’s so good to see you, Scott. Can I interest you in a ham and cheese turnover or a corn beef and cabbage pasty?”

  “I’d love a pasty,” Scott told her. “But you better make it to go. I have places to go and people to see.”

  Bonnie wrapped two pasties in waxed paper and put them in a bag, then poured him a cup of coffee to go. She refused to accept any money. Scott waved to them as he left but Maggie refused to look at him.

  “You need to have your head examined,” Bonnie hissed at her daughter as soon as the door shut behind him. “You won’t find a better man in this town, let alone one that’s willing to marry your sorry hide. What’s wrong with you?”

  “You wouldn’t understand.”

  “Oh, I know all about what he did. Ran your man out of town on a rail and lied to you about it. Saved you from the rotten bastard, is more like it. Would you rather have born the shame of living in sin with a man who sold drugs to children? Folks would have thought you knew about it, would have thought
you were doing the same. Would that have been a better life than the one Scott is offering? You answer me!”

  Maggie untied her apron and threw it on the floor as she left the bakery.

  “You know I’m right!” her mother yelled after her.

  The door shut behind Maggie and Bonnie scowled at it.

  “I should’ve waited until she’d finished her shift,” Bonnie said. “Now I’ve got no help until Alice gets here at two.”

  After Maggie left the bakery, she went straight to the food pantry behind Sacred Heart Catholic Church. What used to be a garage on the alley behind the church was now a collection and distribution point for volunteers, who sorted donations and packed the boxes that were delivered to families in need.

  Hannah was unpacking a recent delivery.

  “Where’s your coat?” she asked Maggie, who went straight to the gas stove to get warm.

  “I had a fight with my mother and left it in the bakery. She probably took it outside and set it on fire.”

  “You and your mother fighting, what a surprise. What was it about this time?”

  “Nothing. I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “Fair enough. You can start on the canned goods.”

  Maggie did as she was told, weeding out the canned goods from the boxes and bags of food that had been donated, and sorting them by contents on the shelves.

  “I can’t do anything right,” Maggie said.

  “Mmm hmm,” Hannah said.

  “What I decide to do with my life is none of her business.”

  “Uh huh,” Hannah said.

  “If I don’t want to marry Scott Gordon, I don’t have to marry Scott Gordon.”

  “Has Scott proposed to you lately?”

  “No, but you know what I mean. Scott came in and she just had to make a comment.”

  “You and your mother are like bleach and ammonia: fine separately, but toxic when combined.”

  “She won’t let up,” Maggie said.

  “She’s right, that’s why.”

  Maggie turned on her cousin.

  “Whose side are you on?”

  “Yours, of course, but I’m sorry, she’s right. Scott did a stupid thing seven years ago, but for all the right reasons, and you need to get over it before Ava snags him right out from under your nose.”

  “Ava’s not trying to snag him. He’s only staying there until they catch Brian.”

  “Yeah, uh huh, just like your brother Patrick was only helping out until Brian came back. You saw how that turned out.”

  “You think Scott is in love with Ava?”

  “Not yet, but you keep rejecting him and making him feel bad about himself, and keep giving her enough opportunities to tell him how wonderful he is…”

  “You think Ava would do that?”

  “Please! Ava’s had a lot of people fooled for a long time with her Miss Perfect act, but not me. All she has to do is bat her lashes and tell a man how big and strong he is and he falls for it. Brian fell for it and married her; Theo must have fallen for it or he wouldn’t have left her all that money; Patrick fell for it, put his life on hold for seven years and now what does he have to show for it?”

  “She broke his heart,” Maggie said. “I thought she really loved him and was just protecting him after Theo was murdered. You think she was just using Patrick, and now she’ll use Scott the same way?”

  “She needs someone to hold her hand and play daddy to her children. So, let’s see, who’s available? Who’s feeling sorry for himself? Who would appreciate all the good food and flattery she dishes out? Who’s always ready to ride in on a white horse and save the day? I’m only surprised it took her this long to get around to Scott.”

  “Scott is Patrick’s friend,” Maggie said. “He knows Patrick is still in love with Ava. Scott wouldn’t do that to Patrick.”

  “You need to wake up and smell the testosterone, sister. I can hear her now: ‘Oh, Scott, you’re so manly and I feel so safe in your arms. I’m so weak and defenseless and you’re so strong and brave.’”

  “She is good at playing on people’s sympathies.”

  “I keep telling you she’s the queen of this town’s pity party, but you always defend her.”

  “She’s a great mom.”

  “People can be more than one thing at a time. They can be good in some ways and conniving and evil in others.”

  “He did look very much at home there the other day.”

  “It’s not too late,” Hannah said. “But it soon will be.”

  “If Scott would rather be with Ava, then so be it. I’m not going to stand in their way.”

  “Pride won’t keep you warm at night, cousin.”

  Maggie was reminded of Anne Marie’s weird prophesy about how pride was her sin, and she should forgive those who had sinned against her.

  “Anne Marie is crazy,” Maggie said.

  “Okay,” Hannah said. “What’s that got to do with anything?”

  Maggie shook her head.

  “Nothing. I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

  “So you keep saying.”

  Maggie’s head was whirring with thoughts while she shelved the canned goods. She pictured Scott holding Little Fitz in Ava’s kitchen. She pictured Ava and Scott having breakfast together every morning. She pictured Scott and Ava alone at night, after the kids had been put to bed.

  “Scott can’t father children,” Maggie said. “That’s one of the reasons he and his ex-wife split up.”

  “I remember,” Hannah said.

  Maybe it would be the best thing for Scott to end up with Ava, Maggie thought. He’d get the family he always wanted and Ava would appreciate everything Scott did. She wouldn’t bark at him and find fault with him all the time. It now seemed to Maggie that this was what was going to happen. Scott would be happier with Ava than with her. Tears welled up in Maggie’s eyes. She wiped them on her sleeve and sniffed.

  “Are you crying?” Hannah asked her.

  “No,” Maggie said.

  “Then you should definitely get that eye-leaking thing looked at,” Hannah said, and handed Maggie a box of tissues. “It’s not a done deal, you know. You could still win him back.”

  “No,” Maggie said. “He could have a family with her that he couldn’t have with me.”

  “That’s not true,” Hannah said. “You can adopt as many rug rats as you want.”

  “No, this is for the best,” Maggie said.

  “Don’t forget Ava is still married to your brother Brian.”

  “Somehow I don’t think that’s going to be for much longer. If Brian doesn’t wind up dead before this is all over, I think Ava will get an annulment.”

  “Can you get one of those if you have kids?”

  Maggie shrugged.

  Father Stephen entered the garage and Maggie hurriedly wiped her eyes.

  “Ladies,” Father Stephen said. “Am I interrupting? Maggie? Are you okay?”

  “Yes, Father,” Maggie said. “I just had a fight with my mother. We’ll both get over it.”

  “Do you want to come to my office and have a chat?”

  “No, thank you. I’m fine.”

  “What about you, Hannah? I haven’t seen you in the congregation for a long time.”

  “I’ll be there this Sunday. I was just telling Maggie that this morning.”

  “That’s great!” Father Stephen said. “I look forward to seeing you.”

  He thanked them for volunteering and left the garage.

  “I’m pretty sure it’s a very bad sin to lie to a priest,” Maggie said.

  “I wasn’t lying. I told you this morning I’d be there, and I will. When do you get there, around ten-ish?”

  “If you want to be there on time, which, if you’re sitting with your Aunt Bonnie, you better be.”

  “I’ll be there, you’ll see. Has it changed much? All I remember is stand-up-sit-down-kneel-get-back-up-sing-rinse-and-repeat.”

  “It hasn’t changed. Wh
y this sudden religious conversion?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe I caught that thing Anne Marie has.”

  “I hope not,” Maggie said. “One crazy queen of righteous salvation is enough in this town.”

  Hannah and Maggie packed up the last of the meal boxes that Elbie, the church van driver and handyman, would take to the families scheduled for deliveries.

  “We barely covered the list,” Hannah said as she surveyed the almost empty shelves of the food pantry they had just filled and depleted.

  “I’ll ask Ed to put an ad in the paper,” Maggie said.

  “Have you seen his new website?” Hannah asked. “It’s good.”

  “He did it himself. I’m thinking about hiring him to make one for the bookstore.”

  “That’s a good idea. Maybe I could get him to do one for my feral cat project.”

  “Have you submitted the grant proposal?”

  “Not yet. Caroline pledged to put up the matching funds but we don’t have a check yet. If she follows through, the mayor says we’re a shoe-in to get the grant.”

  “Well, she’s got the money.”

  “And I placed all her brother’s dogs for free…”

  “On your own time, using county resources,” Maggie finished. “Yes, Hannah, I know. You only tell everyone that every day.”

  “She owes me.”

  “Yes, she does.”

  Elbie Midkiff came in and greeted them, saying, “Hello, girls.”

  Elbie was a retired mine maintenance worker who did electrical, plumbing, and miscellaneous repair work for Sacred Heart Church. He drove the church van that brought people to and from services if they were unable to get there on their own. He also delivered the food pantry boxes on Mondays and Thursdays.

  He sat down in a rocking chair by the gas stove, took out his pipe and a rolled up packet of tobacco. Maggie and Hannah sat on overturned milk crates and watched as he went through his ritual of emptying and filling the pipe. He didn’t then light it, but clenched it between his back teeth, crossed his arms, leaned back, and got started on the latest gossip.

  “I just got back from taking them monks that were staying with Miss Caroline up to the Pittsburgh Airport.”

  “She got rid of the monks?” Maggie said.