The Second Life of Magnolia Mae
by Angela Schroeder
published by Blue Tulip Publishing
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and events are fictitious in every regard. Any similarities to actual events and persons, living or dead, are purely coincidental. Any trademarks, service marks, product names, or named features are assumed to be the property of their respective owners, and are used only for reference. There is no implied endorsement if any of these terms are used. Except for review purposes, the reproduction of this book in whole or part, electronically or mechanically, constitutes a copyright violation.
THE SECOND LIFE OF MAGNOLIA MAE
Copyright © 2014 ANGELA SCHROEDER
ISBN: 978-1-942246-11-4
Cover Art by P.S. Cover Design
To my daughter. Remember that you are the hero of your own story. You may have secondary moments but are never a secondary character.
CHAPTER ONE
THE COLD BIT AT her bare arms; she rubbed her hands over them in an effort to fight off the chill. It had not been that cold when she left the house that morning. She should have known better. It was late autumn, and that meant sweaters, hoodies, hot chocolate, and bonfires. No, Magnolia had to wear a blue-ribbed tank and jeans with the knees ripped out. Her long black hair hung down to her waist, blowing slightly in the cool breeze. She had sacrificed being warm to work in the greenhouse after school. Knowing that she would be digging in dirt had kept her from wearing anything nicer. She truly did not care what everyone at school thought about her clothes. There was nothing she could do about the hand she had been dealt in life, not yet anyway. In a few more weeks, she would be eighteen and could finally leave this place behind.
“Why are you standing out in the cold?” A low gruff voice questioned from behind her. A quick glance over her shoulder was all she needed to see the look of disapproval on Bash’s handsome face. He had graduated two years before but often came back to help his uncle with the FFA projects. “Are you trying to get sick?”
“Why, yes, Bash, I was hoping that I would catch pneumonia. Then I could get a room at the hospital and watch television.” The snarky reply escaped her lips before she had even thought.
Shaking his head, he grabbed her arm and pulled her back into the greenhouse that was only a few steps behind them.
“Waiting on your brother again?” All the gruffness smoothed out of his voice. His one redeeming quality in Magnolia’s eyes was that Bash had been the only one who had not treated her differently after her parents died three years before, leaving her twenty-two-year-old brother to care for her. “I can give you a lift home.” His blue eyes held her gaze, blue eyes that had always haunted her. Eyes that she saw even in her dreams. She shook her head, breaking off eye contact.
“He’ll be here. He probably just had to work late.” It would certainly be handy to have a cell phone at moments like this.
“Mag, I can take you home. It’s not a big deal. Here…” He handed her his phone. “…call Jace and tell him that you have a ride home.”
She let out an exasperated sigh as she took the phone from him and called the farm store. The ringing on the other end of the line stopped when her brother answered the phone. All she managed to say was his name before he interrupted with a quick explanation of having to stay until closing time.
“It’s alright. I got a ride home,” she assured him. “I love you. Be careful.” Her fingers flipped the phone shut. “I guess it’s your lucky day.” A lopsided smile crossed her face as she scooped her bag off the floor.
“I suppose it is.” His smile seemed genuine where hers had been forced.
She felt a twinge of guilt for treating him the way she treated everyone else at that school. Bash had never treated her differently. He’d never snickered behind her back about her clothes coming from the thrift store. He had never cared that she lived in a small farmhouse on the outskirts of town and had never once teased her for always telling her brother that she loved him. Everyone else had been merciless toward her.
They made sure to lock up the greenhouse before heading over to the large black truck. After she tossed her bag onto the seat, she hoisted herself up into the truck. The engine roared to life, and the lights illuminated the football field across from them. Neither of them said a word until Bash pulled up to the diner.
“I’m hungry, come on.”
Magnolia pulled at the frayed strings on her jeans. She did not want to go in to the diner. It was usually filled with her classmates. She hated seeing them in school and tried her hardest to avoid them afterward.
Bash had walked around the truck and pulled open her door. He tugged his hoodie over his head and handed it to her. “Put this on.”
Soon she was enveloped in his soft blue sweatshirt. It smelled of him, a mix of Old Spice and hay.
“Come on. My treat.” He reached out his hand, helping her from the truck.
All eyes in the diner turned toward them when Bash opened the door. Magnolia held her head high as she walked next to Bash. She heard the whispers, she knew the rumors, and she also knew that Sarah had been eyeing Bash for the past few years. The glare coming toward her from the place where Sarah sat with her cheerleader groupies was almost enough to blind a person.
A foot shot out, throwing Magnolia off-balance. The floor approached her face quickly, and a pair of strong hands grabbed hold of her with her nose an inch from the ground.
“Walk much?” Sarah giggled with her friends.
“Yes, and usually just fine when you’re not around.” On her feet, Magnolia stared down at the cheerleaders then turned away to go toward a back table. There was no need for a menu. Jace brought her here every Friday on payday. It had become a tradition after their parents died.
Bash slid into the seat across from her. The looks and snickers from Sarah’s table reached them.
“What did you ever do to her?”
“Apparently, I was born in the wrong town. Didn’t you know that this is Sarah’s town?”
“That so?” a smile sounded from his voice.
She bobbed her head up and down and lowered her voice to a whisper. “She’s going to be crowned Harvest Queen at the Halloween masquerade with you at her side.” Her eyebrows arched when she saw the shock on Bash’s face.
He shook his head slowly in disbelief.
“She’s made it known through the school.”
“I don’t even go there anymore. Even if I did, I wouldn’t want to go with her. She is evil.” The last part came out in a low hiss, causing Magnolia to laugh.
When their food arrived, they ate in comfortable silence. Magnolia dipped her fries into her milkshake. Bash raised his eyebrows but didn’t say anything about her odd eating habits. He had his double bacon burger polished off before she’d started on her grilled cheese.
A loud grating voice came from across the diner. “You know she is the reason her parents died, right? Who can blame them for doing whatever it took to get away from her?”
The expression on Bash’s face turned dark as he stood, tossing the money for their food on the table. He pulled her up with him, holding her hand tightly in his.
“She’s going to do the same to poor Bash.”
A low growl came from his throat as he dragged her across the floor toward the door. He paused in front of the pack of hyenas the town called cheerleaders. “She is better than you will ever be.”
Sarah’s jaw dropped as he walked away with Magnolia tucked close to his side.
CHAPTER TWO
THE HOUSE WAS NEARLY dark, the only light coming from the bedside lamp in her mostly white-walled bedroom. Her father had painted a mura
l on one wall of her bedroom the year she was confined to her room with scarlet fever. Every day for a week he came into her room to paint more for her. The scene depicted a young girl walking through a forest filled with red blossoms, instead of grass. She remembered how she had thought it was like watching a private show just for her.
She flipped open her government book and tried to concentrate on the words, but Sarah’s words echoed in her head. She was right, though she didn’t know it.
If not for Magnolia, her parents would be alive. She’d known they were going to get into a car wreck. She had seen it two nights before it happened. The screams had echoed in her head, the bursts of lightning mixed with the flashes of red and blue from the emergency responders had been forever implanted in her memory even before it had happened. The dream had seemed so real — they always seemed so real — that she’d cried hysterically until her parents found her curled on the floor of her room. They had assured her that it had only been a nightmare. Two nights later, they’d gone out in a storm to pick her up from rehearsal. Trying to avoid the deer had thrown their car into a hydroplane that had connected them with a lone tree in the ditch.
Tears slid down her flushed cheeks as she shoved the government book away from her.
Sarah had been her understudy in the musical. After the accident, Magnolia had stopped singing. Sarah had taken to tormenting her about being the reason her parents had died. She relived that night often. She should have called them and said she’d get a ride with someone else. She could have asked Bash to take her home; he’d had been at the school helping his uncle.
“M&M!” Jace’s voice boomed through the house. “Are you up?” He was soon at the doorway to her room. His light brown hair and golden brown eyes reflected the light from her lamp. His shirt was dirty from working a twelve-hour shift at the farm store. “How was school?” He tossed himself onto the old beanbag chair next to her bed.
A groan escaped her as she shifted on her bed, letting her hair hang over the edge so she could see her brother. “It was no different than any other day.”
“Why the tear-streaked face?”
“Just thinking about Momma and Daddy. I miss them. Tell me again how they met.” Her eyes closed as she listened to Jace describe the day their father had been riding his horse down the side of the road and caught the eye of the beautiful new girl from town. She knew the story by heart; it had been memorized for as long as she could remember. The cowboy on the dancing horse had caught her momma’s eye, and she’d known she would marry that man someday. Magnolia let out a sigh. She felt the covers being drawn over her and heard Jace whisper good night.
The howl of the wolf caused her to glance over her shoulder as she ran silently through the forest. Her eyes moved back to the moonlit path before her just in time to see the fallen log. She leapt over it, but her bare foot landed on something sharp, slashing the tender flesh open. With a tug at the bottom of her skirt, she ripped enough material to quickly bandage the wound, but she was not quick enough.
Blue, shining in the moonlight, peered down at her. It took a moment to realize the blue belonged to the eyes of the man who was now looming over her. Panic began to swell.
He swooped down so quickly she did not have a chance to scream. “I’m here to help.” A deep smooth voice whispered into the darkness near her ear. His breath warm against her skin. Strong arms scooped her up.
“They’re coming. We have to move now.” His movements were swift and silent like a ghost, moving through the black forest. It felt like hours before they came upon a fire in the distance. “Your home?”
She glanced from the firelight to the glowing blue eyes and did not want to answer his question. Though she already knew that he was aware of who she was, It seemed that he did not care. He should. He was not of her people. He should not be here with her. Would he find himself in the stocks for helping her? A few more steps and they emerged from the forest to the camp.
Three men jumped, reaching for weapons when they noticed the outsider in their camp. One of the men yanked her from his arms so quickly that she yelled in pain and found herself on the ground.
The blue eyes of the man who had saved her remained calm as the sharp edge of the dagger pushed against his throat.
“No!”
Magnolia shot up in bed trembling for the fifth time in two weeks. Those eyes were nearly always there, though this time she had seen his raven-black hair. She could still feel his breath on her neck. It had been so real.
The sky outside her window was beginning to lighten, so she quickly pulled on a jacket to go meet with her truest friend. Barefoot, she ran across the frosted ground to the pasture fence and perched to wait. After she let out a low whistle, a large black horse with one red hoof appeared before her. Its velvety nose nuzzled at her, trying to find the treats that she tended to bring. Her hand came from her pocket and revealed two sugar cubes for her friend. “You are the sweetest thing, Dragoste.”
The horse let out a low whinny and tossed his head back.
Magnolia jumped to his back from her fence perch, and he ran through the fields as the sun peeked over the horizon. All the tension that had been building up within her for the past few days melted away as the sun turned the horizon a beautiful orange. It was going to be a good day.
Dragoste shifted under her taking her back toward the house.
“M&M, get ready for school!” Jace hollered out the front door as she charged in the direction of the house on the back of the horse their father had given her a few months before he’d died.
She slid to the ground and patted the horse.
“How many times do you have to be told not to bring him in the yard?”
They walked into the house. Magnolia was rushed into the kitchen by Jace, who was ready to leave for work. She knew he could not go without her, and a part of her felt guilty for having gone for a ride before school.
“He always goes back to the pasture.” The aroma of the coffee drew her to the pot where her mug was already waiting for her. A grin crossed her face when she saw that Jace had actually made breakfast. “So, why the hot breakfast?”
The only answer she got was a shrug of the shoulders and a plate of piping-hot pancakes and eggs.
A few minutes later he looked at her. “The same dream?”
When she raised an eyebrow at her brother, his lip twitched. “I heard you yell out in your sleep.”
“They were going to kill him.”
Her brother locked eyes with her, ran his fingers through his short hair, and nodded. He understood. From the time she could remember, she had always told him about her dreams.
“Alright. Well, finish getting ready for school.” He gently pushed her in the direction of her room. “Wear some shoes next time,” he grumbled, shaking his head.
Sarah and her evil minions were practicing next to the football field. With the homecoming game approaching, the cheerleaders were practicing until it got dark. Every time Magnolia looked up from the greenhouse, she could see the glares that were directed at her. What had she ever done to them?
Everyone knew that Sarah wanted to date Bash, but it was not like Magnolia had set her eyes on him. As far as she knew, she had not shown him more than a friendly interest. Bash was the closest friend that she had, and she’d kept him at a distance. She did not date, so they could not possibly hate her for stealing away a boyfriend or love interest, could they? A heavy sigh escaped her as she grabbed the large push-broom to sweep up all the leaves and dirt that had fallen to the floor.
She watched as a storm started to roll in, the clouds dark and heavy with rain. It did not take long for the first fat drops of rain to send the cheerleaders running, screaming into the building. The football team remained on the field until lightning streaked across the sky. Inside the greenhouse, Magnolia’s heart began to race as the storm enveloped her without ever getting wet. The lightning cracked above her, sending bright streaks through the air, and the fine hairs on her arms to s
tand on end. When, the thunder boomed so loudly it shook the fragile building, she jumped off the table she had been sitting on. She searched through the storm wondering when she could get out of the green house and to safety.
With the next flash of light, she caught a glimpse of a lone wolf standing near the woods on the other side of the football field. The animal’s eyes bore into her soul, beckoning her to join him. When darkness enveloped the world again, she turned away only to see a flash of blue by the doorway, causing her to jump. She tumbled over a potted plant on the floor. Pain pulsed through her backside as thunder drowned out all sounds except the howling of the wolf. Twin lights pushed through the darkness she noticed the wolf, now in the middle of the football field, stopped in its tracks before turning to run back to the woods. The old beat-up, half-rusted-out red Ford that Jace always drove pulled up in front of the greenhouse. She grabbed her things then ran through the storm to jump into the truck.
“Did you see it?”
“See what?” Jace glanced at her then around them.
“The wolf. It was right there.” She motioned toward the football field.
“No, but I wasn’t looking over in that direction.”
“Did you see anyone when you pulled up?” Her eyes searched the darkness as they pulled away.
“Not a soul. What happened?” Jace turned down the radio and glanced at her with his honey-colored eyes.
“I don’t know. I saw the wolf, and when I turned, I saw a flash of something blue, then you pulled up, and the wolf was even closer than he had been before.”
The wolf had been closer. She knew she had not imagined it. The wolf had a lonely appearance to it, almost as if it had been searching for something it had lost.
“Do you think I should tell the principal?”
“Nah, why disrupt the game on Friday if it was the only time you saw it? You have been working in that greenhouse every afternoon since school has been back in session, and this is the only time you have seen it. If you see it again then you can say something. No need to have them out hunting for the poor thing.”
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