Small Town Angel

by K'Anne Meinel

  Amy smiled too but it didn’t reach her eyes, not quite.

  “What, what did I say?” Abby asked knowing she’d pushed a button, however unintentionally.

  “I lost a baby once,” she shared quietly, knowing she had to share some of her past, however painful it was.

  Abby nodded. She had known that Amy was pregnant before. She’d seen the stretch marks and never asked about them. She’d wanted to ask, she’d been on the verge many times. She also knew if she pushed that Amy would stubbornly have clammed up. She waited now but the redhead didn’t elaborate. She sighed and leaned her forehead in to touch Amy’s. “When you’re ready to tell me, I’m here,” she said softly, leaving it at that, although she was curious…being pregnant she must have known a guy.

  “Thank you,” Amy told her. It was obviously still painful for her to talk about.

  Abby had noticed that Amy had let her in a bit more but still there were huge gaps in her past that she refused to talk about or disclose. Sometimes it was so frustrating as they would be in the middle of a conversation and the redhead would simply close down or refuse to continue. She wanted to shake her, but at the same time she didn’t want to fight with her about something she didn’t know. She didn’t know if was merely painful or something more.

  * * * * *

  Abby talked Amy into letting her ‘invest’ by ‘selling’ her the lot where her house had stood. Amy in turn was going to turn it into a dance hall with large porches along the lake side front, lattice work all over to make it look pretty, and big enough that wedding receptions could be held. The windows alone were going to cost them a fortune but her partner in this endeavor, Abby loved the ideas that flowed out of this redhead.

  “Amy I’d love to accommodate you but you are getting a bit over-extended and I can’t see the bank lending you anymore against the cabin or the store, I’m sorry,” the bank manager told her.

  Abby was disappointed as she had counted on further expanding the store with the dance hall. They could even subdivide it into smaller halls so that three venues could be going on at the same time and they could use the first venue from the store itself as she had always hoped to. She wasn’t used having to take loans out but she didn’t dare contact her grandmother’s lawyer for the estate. “What about my percentage in the brewery?” she asked knowing that the laundromat wasn’t worth a lot.

  “They too are maximizing their loans as they want to expand,” he informed her. “Didn’t they tell you?”

  It was obvious they hadn’t as Abby had no idea of their plans. After leaving the bank she went to see Thomas.

  “Hello Thomas,” she said as she entered the micro-brewery. It was a pleasant place to get a hamburger or sandwich and to try the various micro-brews that Thomas and his wife had created.

  “Well hello there stranger. You’ve been so busy lately with The Emporium we thought we’d never see you in here,” he responded with a smile of greeting.

  Carol waved from where she was taking an order from a couple of tourists who were seated at the now closed windows. It was late fall and too cold for them to be open or the guests to be on the landing outside.

  “Hey, what’s this I hear you’re expanding?” she asked to open the ball.

  Thomas looked immediately uncomfortable. “We meant to discuss that with you but you’ve been so busy,” he began lamely.

  “Look, Partner,” she stressed. “We went into this with barely more than a handshake. I’d make time to discuss finances with you,” she pointed out.

  “How did you find out?” he asked worriedly. They wanted to open some more breweries further down The Thumb and then on the main land but they were still so new he hadn’t been able to get the loan. He had then intended to ask Amy to invest more, she seemed to be doing well and she had come into town only a year ago with plenty of money it seemed.

  “The bank, when I went to apply for a loan myself,” she told him. She wasn’t happy. She owned most of this brewery but was a hands off owner. This was how they paid her back?

  “Oh, you need a loan?” he asked curious.

  She nodded. “Even I need to expand,” she told him, not really explaining how maxed out she was.

  He nodded as though that explained things but didn’t apologize for not keeping her in the loop.

  “Are you two ready to buy me out from this?” she gestured at the busy micro-brewery they were running.

  He laughed as though she had said something genuinely funny. “No, we just thought we could make more money if we expanded and opened a couple of more sites,” he explained.

  “You do realize that you couldn’t have done that anyway without my permission?” she pointed out.

  “Why do we need your permission?” he asked a little testily.

  “Because I’m the majority investor here Thomas. I haven’t asked for a dime of the profits. You have left me out of the runnin’ of it and that is fine,” she quickly put in before he could argue, putting up her hand to halt him from speaking. “I need to be kept in the loop as a silent partner if we decide to expand. Make sure you read the contract,” she advised.

  “But the other sites would be ours,” he protested, getting a bit louder.

  Carol came walking up to put the order in for their guests. “What’s going on here?” she said putting her arm around Amy and giving her a sideways hug. “I can hear you over there,” she said admonishingly to her husband.

  “She says we have to get her permission to open any of the other sites,” he said hotly, lowering his voice ominously.

  “Did you go to her when I told you we needed to figure out costs and stuff?” Carol asked him incredulously.

  “It’s our beer, we should decide where we sell it!” he argued.

  “Did you go to her with the costs?” she shortened the question.

  “No, I went to the bank so we could expand without her,” he said pointing at Amy as though she wasn’t there.

  “You dumb dork,” Carol said succinctly. “She invested in this place so you could start your dream. I told you we had to get those costs together before we proceeded. Then I was going to run them by her. You went to the bank with what you had? You’re an idiot,” she told him and stared him down.

  “But it’s my recipe,” he said weekly.

  Amy watched the two fight back and forth for a while before she put in. “Thomas, I own this establishment. You agreed for me to invest in you and your ideas you would give me that right. I own your recipes as without them, this place isn’t anythin’. So technically, you work for me. I don’t come in here and tell you how to run it, but I don’t like you going behind my back to open other places usin’ my recipes that you willingly signed over in exchange for my investment.” She couldn’t think of how to get through otherwise to the hot-headed blockhead.

  “They’re my recipes!” he gasped angrily.

  “That you signed over to her,” Carol countered.

  “You’re my wife; you’re supposed to support me! You’re not on my side?” he was getting louder again.

  “Not when you could cost us all our hard work. I put as much into this business as you did. Did you realize that she could shut us down for what you pulled you dumb dork!?”

  They stared angrily at each other for a while and Amy had enough. “Well, you know where to find me when you need me,” she dismissed. She was very disappointed but she was glad the contract she had with them was iron-clad. She had agreed to be the silent partner, but she owned most of the place and the recipes that Thomas or Carol would come up with during the course of the business, so she knew she had the upper hand. She hadn’t liked pointing that out, but he’d been foolish and greedy. She left shortly afterwards with a look at Carol who understood and nodded.

  Amy was disappointed as she looked out at the empty space where Abby’s home had once stood, now bulldozed flat. She had wanted to start building on the dance hall which she thought would be an excellent use of the space. She simply didn’t have the money
with the expansion at the cabin and the work on The Emporium. While insurance had paid for the damage it was still money she simply didn’t have. She hadn’t received any monies from her investment with the brewery and while The Emporium was going well, she was feeling a tiny kernel of fear. Even the laundromat, which was mostly a cash business, was still not making so much that she could start on the dance hall. She wished she could contact her grandmother’s estate attorney but she simply couldn’t take the chance of anyone finding out where she was…her worry began to tell.

  * * * * *

  Abby knew something was bothering Amy because while she was normally an exuberant bundle of energy she seemed ‘distracted.’ She didn’t really take an interest when they began to dig the cellar on the cabin once the building permits came through. They lined the edges with a special building block to give it better definition and on the outside was black tar to seal it from the elements, then they back filled it with gravel to keep the water out. Amy simply smiled, a fake smile, and nodded as Terry showed her the logs he was going to use to make the addition natural and conform with the log cabin look of the original structure.

  “What’s wrong with you baby?” Abby asked her. She was worrying that perhaps having the three of them living there with her was asking too much of Amy. Between the dog, the cat, and the kids, it was one endless parade of cleaning and feeding. They didn’t have as much time alone as they thought they would. Hell, when they had dated they had more time alone together.

  “Wrong?” she feigned surprise. “Nothin’s wrong. I think the addition is coming along beautifully,” she said to distract the cop in her girlfriend.

  Abby wasn’t fooled. She might not know everything about this intriguing woman but she knew something was bothering her. She caught her idly sketching plans for the dance hall that she hadn’t even approached Terry about building. She knew Amy hadn’t approached him, because she asked him.

  “A dance hall? Nope, this is the first I’ve heard of it,” he said in surprise.

  Abby had seen the sketches. They included a glass cupola on one end, a round pagoda on the other end, and stained glass windows along the walls. Rich wood floors and a wide balcony on the front and back of the building completed the beautiful concept. She’d lose over half the mural that the students had drawn on the side of her building but the media coverage she had gotten from the original design had more than paid for the outlay in costs. The scholarship idea had endeared her to everyone who heard about it. When Abby asked about the loss for the dance hall Amy shrugged and said, “Then we will have to have another contest for the new side don’t you think?” Abby knew that the local artists would go wild with that idea.

  “And what about at the store, everything going okay there?” she probed to try to find out what was bugging Amy.

  “Oh it’s wonderful, we came up with another flavor of ice cream,” she confided.

  “Don’t tell Heather, she’ll be in to try it!” Abby warned.

  “She’s in there each afternoon anyway,” Amy laughed. She was uneasy though. She wasn’t exactly lying to Abby but she wasn’t telling her the whole truth. It wasn’t just the money that was making her uneasy. Toby had been acting funny here at home and something, some intuition, was telling her there was something wrong.

  * * * * *

  “So I’m in the local Piggly Wiggly and I couldn’t get the buggies apart and this boy is laughing at me instead of helpin’,” Amy was complaining.

  “A buggy?” Heather asked concerned, picturing a baby buggy.

  “Yeah, you know a buggy?” she gestured indicating her holding one with her hands out before her in fists. “A shopping buggy?” she asked to clarify.

  “You mean a grocery cart or basket?” someone who was listening put in.

  Amy looked up and smiled at her contributor as she nodded.

  Heather nodded relieved to know what the southerner was talking about and then waited anxiously for her to finish the story.

  “So this boy keeps laughin’ and I yelled at him to come on over and help me with this buggy,” she pointed at Heather. “He too didn’t know what I was talkin’ ‘bout and I musta garbled it or somethin’,” she explained. “But finally some lady helped me separate them there contraptions,” she finished shaking her head. “Why they gotta make it so complicated?” she asked the little girl who shrugged.

  “I think it’s a test,” the listener put in. The child hadn’t been a good audience.

  “A test?” she asked confused.

  “Yeah, they see if you want to shop there bad enough and then they jam the carts together to see how badly,” he laughed.

  Amy laughed with him. “Can I get you somethin’ sir?” she indicated the ice cream in the freezer or one of the soda machines.

  “Are you Angel Sleuter?” he asked with a sudden alertness.

  Amy froze from making her gestures to the machines and turned slowly looking at the man. “Who?” she faked.

  “Angel Sleuter?” he repeated watching her carefully.

  She shook her head as though trying to clear her ears. “I don’t recall hearin’ that name before around here,” she said honestly.

  He caught on before she could blink. “But you have been called that before?”

  By then her heart was pounding in her chest. “I don’t believe I know you sir?”

  “No, no you wouldn’t,” he told her with a smug smile. “But I believe I know you,” he said and with a gesture of a salute he got up from the stool and walked out of the store.

  Amy watched him go. She clung tightly to the edge of the counter, her heart beating a mile a minute. How in the world had they found her? She knew she couldn’t panic, she knew she had to leave. She had to do it methodically and organized or….it was then that she was aware of the child she had been trying to share her story with. Heather was watching her raptly.

  “Are you okay?” the little girl asked concerned.

  “Of course I am honey, why do you ask?” she faked a smile.

  “You look like you’re gonna be sick,” she said with the innocence of youth.

  “I’m fine,” she assured her, hoping to distract her. “Did you want an ice cream or somethin’?”

  The little girl shook her head. “Mom doesn’t like it when we have that every day,” she confided.

  Amy knew that and had been careful not to give the children free ice cream or candy.

  “Well honey we have other things,” she said distractedly as her mind raced. She could run, she could sell The Emporium; she could have her grandmother’s lawyers handle it all for her. She didn’t have to go back, she couldn’t go back…she….she glanced at the child, began thinking about Abby, and realized she couldn’t go, not yet, not now, she had some time. She glanced to where the man had left her store and considered, biting her lip absentmindedly.

  * * * * *

  Abby was thrilled with the new police sub-station. They’d done it out of concrete blocks and she thought it was going to be ugly but they really had done a good job covering up the blocks. It now looked like a stucco building, in white, that was all clean and new and modern. The two cells they now had for drunks or disorderliness were clean and could be washed down with a hose so they wouldn’t smell like pee when someone missed the toilet. They were just now moving in the various legal books and policies and procedures onto the new shelves in the admin area. They were going to have a full wall for their pin board of notices and wanted posters and she had just put up some really interesting facts and figures for the public to read. As she was putting up the duplicates made available from other precincts she realized one of the wanted posters from the past year made a striking resemblance to her current girlfriend. The hair was quite a bit longer from the picture and the description was dead on. The name however was Angel Sleuter, not Amy Adams. She was puzzled as she gazed at the poster for a long while, wondering why this wanted woman looked like her lover. She put it aside as she continued pinning the posts, but her eyes
kept wandering back to it, over and over. She took it home with her that night.

  * * * * *

  Amy was busy getting dinner just right. She enjoyed the idea of cooking for ‘her’ family. Terry promised to finish the addition before snow flew, but she knew that was an impossibility as it snowed around here in time for Halloween. She was a little depressed that they couldn’t have the dance hall, they could have had a Halloween celebration there and with the store attached it would have been fun for both adults and children. They had something at the grade school but according to both Bailey and Heather it was ‘lame.’ She wasn’t sure what ‘lame’ constituted, but she was disappointed she couldn’t offer an alternative. Maybe next year would be different for the kids.

  She was trying to forget the man from the store that day, but knew that she would have to leave because of him; she’d have to explain to Abby why she had to go, none of that was setting well with her. She was cooking stuffed pork chops, and big baked potatoes, and even had a big bowl of warmed applesauce sprinkled with cinnamon from one of the local orchards. All of it was to butter Abby up as she knew leaving her was going to be a wrench. She looked around the cabin at the home she had made. From the polished logs to the pictures she had hung. She gazed for a moment at the one of the two labs in the canoe with paddles in their mouths. It saddened her that all this hard work was going to be for naught. She’d have to start over somewhere else. They’d found her. She had to wonder when though. That man hadn’t been an accident and she had to wonder about the fire months ago. Was that a warning? Was it supposed to engulf her store too? She wondered at Toby’s strange behavior, were they watching the cabin? They had to know that Abby and the kids were living with her. Were they watching through the windows? She glanced through them but couldn’t see into the darkness. She’d looked at the work on the addition and it was coming right along. Maybe she could sell the cabin to Abby and the kids? Her heart was breaking at the thought of leaving Abby, of leaving them all. She’d made so many friends in this small town. Loving Abby was the hardest part of it all. She’d found such happiness with her.