House on the Forgotten Coast

by Ruth Coe Chambers

  “Finish your own dance,” she sobbed. “I’ve quit caring.” As she pulled her damp gown over her head, the dream returned so vivid, it seemed more than a dream, and she shivered in the drafts of cold air. “I can’t see you,” she whispered, “and that makes me afraid. But you can’t have Lawrence. I won’t let you!” She didn’t go back to bed, determined to be out of the house before Edwin came downstairs the next morning. She left a note secured with a magnet to the refrigerator.

  Gone for a walk

  Be back for lunch

  Let them think she was at the Myers’. They wouldn’t find her there. Not today.

  Careful not to wake her parents, Elise eased the door open and rushed down the front steps, again reminded of Annelise’s feverish flight toward the river. The trees, wet with morning dew, were filled with the sounds of jays and cardinals and the rustling of sparrows. She took a deep breath and hurried away from the house and Edwin. She crossed Avenue E and walked aimlessly, finally pausing to look in the window of a coffee shop she hadn’t noticed there before. She stared without seeing when Ty pushed the door open.

  “Elise! What are you doing here this time of day?”

  “I could ask you the same thing.”

  “Having some java. When I make coffee, it tastes like diesel fuel. Come keep me company.”

  Without a word, she followed him inside. Ty’s lone cup of coffee was on a table near the window. The other tables were crowded with men in plaid shirts and heavy boots, everybody talking about the work that lay ahead of them. They rubbed their hands across oilcloth tabletops smoothing out their ideas, their schedules, and plans for the day. Steaming cups of coffee vied for space among plates of grits and eggs and sausage. Elise and Ty sat down, and Gladys Sexton appeared at their table.

  “Business is booming, Gladys.”

  “Sure is, handsome. What can I get for your girlfriend?”

  Ty looked at Elise, but she just stared expressionless. “Just coffee, I guess.” Gladys started away and Ty called, “and a plate of toast. Bring us some toast. Please.” He looked at Elise. “Unless you want something more.”

  Elise shook her head.

  “I don’t want to take up one of her tables and not spend some money. She’s got lots of competition with all these bed and breakfast places springing up all over town.” He took a sip of coffee. “You’re mighty quiet. Sure you’re awake yet?”

  “I’m tired. I didn’t sleep well last night.”

  Ty knew the men were watching them, but he didn’t care. He waved and turned back to face Elise. He couldn’t help but feel good to be sitting at the same table with her. She sat with her head bent and her hands folded in her lap. Obviously she wasn’t taking the pleasure in the moment that he was. Service was slow, and he could see why. Gladys had hired mature women, inexperienced as waitresses. They worked their way single file among the tables, each carrying one dish. Ty couldn’t help but smile. He hadn’t realized Elise was watching him until she asked, “What’s so funny?”

  “They act like bridesmaids,” he said, “carrying bouquets of grits and eggs.”

  “Classical music and now metaphors. You bring a whole new meaning to redneck.”

  “Hey,” he started, but Gladys came then with Elise’s coffee. “The toast’ll be here in a minute. You need water or anything?”

  “Thanks, Gladys, but we’re fine, I think. Elise?”

  She didn’t answer so he flashed his most engaging smile and said, “Like I said, we’re fine.”

  “This old building’s been here forever. Gladys bought a lot of history with this place. Back in the 1800s it was a bakery, Mrs. Emily Bell’s bakery. Quite a lady, Mrs. Bell. She ran a hotel, too, after her husband was blinded in the Civil War.” Elise didn’t comment but did sip her coffee. He felt like every eye in the place was on them, and he tried to pretend everything was okay. “Guess you’re not interested in commercial buildings, no matter how old they are.”

  Elise glanced up and gave him a withering look.

  He blew on his coffee and said, “This will probably become my favorite hangout in the near future. Yep, I’ll probably be joining these guys full-time soon.” He looked at Elise for a response and wasn’t sure she’d even heard him. He was thankful for the diversion when a waitress brought their toast.

  “I guess you can hold your curiosity about what I was trying to tell you while we have a bite to eat. I can see you’re just dying to know what I’m talking about, though.” He let out a heavy sigh. “Elise, please do me a favor and eat a piece of toast. I have a bit of a reputation here.” The words were no more out of his mouth than the door opened and a pretty young girl came in. She stood for a moment and looked around the room before going out of her way to walk past Ty’s table. Elise looked up at her, but the girl didn’t acknowledge her presence, saying very pointedly, “Hello, Ty.”

  Ty flashed his smile again and said, “Morning, Jess. Nice place your mom has here.”

  “Isn’t it just?” she said, looking back at Elise now before going behind the counter to speak to her mother.

  “Your girlfriend?” Elise asked dully.

  “No.”

  “Too bad. She’s pretty.”

  “You’re prettier.”

  “But I’m not your girlfriend either.”

  “No, you’re not. More’s the pity.”

  “Ty, would you have time to take me by the Lovetts’?”

  “But you were just there yesterday!”

  “I know. I wouldn’t ask you, but I feel too tired to walk.”

  “I don’t suppose being up at the crack of dawn would have anything to do with it.”

  “Probably.”

  “I always have time for you.” He took another bite of toast. “You should know that by now. But as I was saying, I’ll soon be joining these guys here mornings.” Seeing she still wasn’t paying attention to what he was saying, he reversed course. “Do you mind my asking why you’d want to go to the Lovetts’? I swear you must have a thing for old houses.”

  “I have an obsession with ghosts.”

  “You believe that stuff about their house being haunted?”

  “Oh, yes, I believe it.”

  “I guess it’s people like you who keep stories like that alive.” Elise shrugged and drained her cup of coffee. She started to stand up and Ty said, “I’ll pay the check and be right with you.” As they walked out the door Jess called, “See you around, Ty.”

  “Yeah, Jess. See ya.”

  “Bet she’d be your girlfriend if you wanted her.”

  “If I wanted her.”

  They rode in silence until they reached the Lovett house. “I’m sorry to be such a bother.” Elise hesitated with her hand on the handle of the door but then got out of the truck. She stopped by Ty’s window. “I won’t be long.”

  Her knees felt rubbery as she climbed the steps. She drew a shaky breath and was about to knock on the door when she saw something out of the corner of her eye. Her box of cookies was still on the table, alive with ants. She seemed unable to look away when the door opened and Aunt Lacey was there, staring at the white box crawling with ants. “Oh, my dear, I’m so sorry. You’ll have to forgive Jenny. Do come in.”

  Just as Aunt Lacey stepped back to let Elise enter, Aunt Jenny, old as she was, came down the stairs so fast she might have been fleeing a fire herself. Still in her nightgown, she went straight to the open door. She knocked Lacey aside and pushed Elise backward, nearly knocking her over. “I thought I made it clear you weren’t welcome here.”

  “I hate to trouble you, but I’m having a problem. I need your help. Please let me come in.”

  “What kind of problem?” Aunt Jenny snapped.

  “I,” she hesitated, “I think it’s Annelise.”

  “You may have a problem,” Aunt Jenny snorted, “but I assure you it isn’t Annelise.”

  “Then why did I hear music, that beautiful waltz, in your ballroom?”

  “You didn’t!”


  She thought she heard Aunt Lacey pleading, saying Elise had heard music, when the door slammed in her face. A breeze picked up and cold air swirled about her legs. Elise looked at the long flight of porch steps, sighed and spoke into the breeze, “You’re here as sure as I am. I know you are. I just can’t see you.”

  Ty started the truck as Elise came down the steps. “I see they didn’t invite you in for tea.”

  “Please, Ty, don’t.”

  “Sorry. Where to now?”

  “No, I’m the one who’s sorry. Here you’re providing free taxi service, and I behave like an old grouch.”

  “I’m not sure how free it is.”

  “What?”

  “Nothing. Never mind. Want to come to my place for a while, unless you’re worried about your reputation?”

  “You mean my parents’ reputation. I seem to have ruined mine already. I really want to go to the Myers’.”

  “Elise, I’ll take you any place you want to go. I’ll take you to Tallahassee if you want me to, but I really don’t want to take you out there. I can’t understand . . . oh, never mind.”

  Elise’s eyes narrowed. “Have you been talking to Edwin?”

  “What? Your dad? Why would I talk to him?”

  “I just wondered. I guess that settles it then. I’m not up to the walk, that’s for sure.”

  “Boy, you must be tired! You’ve hardly insulted me today. I’m not used to you being so docile.”

  “I’m tired of so many things, Ty. My dad especially.”

  “Anything I can do?”

  “No, but you’re sweet to offer.”

  “You have no idea how sweet I can be if you’d give me half a chance.”

  Ty pulled up in front of her house and jumped out to open her door. When they reached the steps, he could see Edwin standing behind the door. Elise squeezed Ty’s hand. “Thanks again.” Before he could answer, she was out of his reach and up the steps. Edwin stepped aside to let her pass. “Margaret’s at the shop, Elise. We were worried about you.”

  Elise didn’t answer and started up the stairs to her room. Edwin shouted at her, “I’m talking to you!” The only sound was her door closing. She lay back on her bed, unable to escape the weight of her dream, a pressure that tormented her. I have to rest, regain my energy so I can deal with this.

  16

  Dallas had just finished a late lunch when she heard a car pull up in her front yard. She went to the door and was surprised to see Aunt Lacey getting out of a taxi.

  “Why, Aunt Lacey, what an unexpected pleasure. Do come in.” She leaned over to kiss the old woman on the cheek. Lacey gripped her arm and whispered, “It’s not a pleasure call, Dallas.”

  Dallas waved the taxi driver away. “It’s okay, Henry. I’ll give her a ride home.”

  “HERE COMES THE LAST OF the big spenders, Bobby,” Peyton called when Dallas came in the shop.

  “Don’t you wish? Hey, Bobby.” Dallas waved and walked over to a turnstile that glittered with brooches. “This new?”

  Peyton grinned. “Want to get my hand in before the competition beats me to it.”

  “We just expanded on the stuff we already had, Miss Dallas. Bet you’ll find something there you like.”

  “I’m not buying today, Bobby. Just looking. I feel restless.”

  “I got a sure-fire cure for restless,” Peyton said.

  “Peyton Roberts, do you ever get your mind out of the gutter?”

  “Not if I can help it, darlin’, not if I can help it.”

  “How ‘bout buying me a bottle of Coke and a package of peanuts? I want something cold that fizzes, and I need to talk.”

  “I can talk to a pretty woman ‘til the cows come home, but you’ll have to buy something so I have money.”

  “Peyton!”

  “Okay, let’s get that bottle of Coke. It’s all yours, Bobby.”

  As they walked past Margaret’s shop, she was placing a sign in the window. In fancy script it read, A TOUCH OF CLASS.

  “That sticks in my craw,” Peyton said. “Makes it sound like the rest of us don’t have any class.”

  “Do we?”

  “You know what I mean.”

  “I’ll admit I envied her when they first came here. She’s so beautiful and seems to have such a charmed life. But any more, I don’t know. Despite all she has going for her, she doesn’t seem happy. The more I get to know Margaret, the more I feel sorry for her.”

  “I don’t feel sorry for her,” Peyton muttered.

  “What?”

  “Elise is the one I feel sorry for.”

  “Me too, but she’s young. There’s still time for her. Say, let’s give some business to one of our own. Did you know Gladys Sexton opened a coffee shop?”

  Peyton laughed. “Where do you think I get my coffee every morning, one of those fancy bed and breakfast joints? I’m glad Miz Bell’s old place is in the food business again.”

  “Umm,” Dallas murmured and looked around. Gladys’s barebones establishment reminded Dallas of her own childhood passion for playing café. She looked around at the wooden tables covered with blue checked oilcloth and the long table with a cash register that served as Gladys’s counter. Open loaves of bread spilled out on a worktable in the back, with jars of mayonnaise and mustard in plain view. The light on the Coke machine winked at her from the back wall. Gladys, Dallas thought, hadn’t gone much beyond playing herself.

  “What’s on your mind, Dallas, that’s making you so restless?”

  “I had a visitor today.” She opened the bag of peanuts and poured a generous amount into the bottle of Coke.

  “Anybody I know?”

  “Aunt Lacey. She had Henry bring her over in his taxi.” Peyton whistled. “Aunt Lacey?”

  “Don’t think I wasn’t surprised. She said I was the closest thing to a relative they have. She can’t talk to Jenny. All they do is argue. While Jenny was taking her nap, she called Henry to come get her. Their first stop was the old family cemetery. Turns out Elise went to their house this morning asking for help. She thinks Annelise is haunting her or something, and Aunt Lacey believes her. Believes Elise heard the music too, so she paid Henry to pull some weeds and clean Annelise’s grave up a bit. Sounds like she’s trying to bribe a ghost into leaving Elise alone. Aunt Lacey insists Annelise still comes to the house, but Jenny says she’ll have her put in a mental institution if she ever tells anybody.”

  Dallas lowered her voice. “Jenny’s taken out a restraining order on Elise. Doesn’t want her near their property. I think it’s more to get back at Lacey for taking Elise’s part than anything, but she swears she’ll have Lacey committed if she sees Elise near their house again. Poor soul’s scared to death. And, get this, Aunt Jenny’s been threatening to go to Edwin, if she hasn’t already.”

  “You’re kidding!”

  “Not in the least, darlin’.” Dallas hesitated a moment before she said, “Peyton, I hate to ask you, but will you be a dear and talk to Margaret? All that child needs is to have on her conscience that she was responsible for having Aunt Lacey put away someplace.”

  “Yeah, sure, but I’ll have to think how to approach it.” He stood and picked up the little green ticket Gladys left at their table. He paused a moment and looked down at Dallas. “Why don’t you and me go out for oysters on the half shell some night?”

  “You really know how to get turned down for a date, don’t you? You know good and well I can’t stand raw oysters.”

  “Like I always told you, darlin’, they go down like a bad cold. But I’m willing to compromise. I’ll eat ’em raw, and you can have yours fried.”

  “Let’s do that, but first let’s settle this business with Margaret. No point in going for a bout of indigestion.”

  “Okay. But soon. You can’t stay in mourning forever.” Peyton tipped his imaginary hat to Gladys, and when he returned to the table, Dallas stood and gave his hand a quick squeeze. “Thanks, Peyton. Don’t know what I’d do without you.”
r />   “You don’t have to, you know.”

  “No, I don’t, do I? That’s what’s so nice about being friends with the landed gentry.”

  They stepped outside the door, and Peyton’s voice took on a husky tremor. “You know what I mean.”

  “Do I?” She laughed and jangled her car keys from her up-raised hand as she crossed the street to her car.

  MARGARET LOOKED UP FROM THE cash register when she heard the shop bells on the front door. She moistened her lips and gave Peyton a dazzling smile.

  Peyton feigned interest in some stationery until the last customer left the store.

  “You won’t find what you’re looking for over there. I haven’t put it out yet.” Margaret reached under the counter and drew out a simple but elegant tablet of lined paper. The lines were silver on a blue gray background. The cover was of nubby cream-colored paper. She held it out to Peyton. “A gift for being such a nice neighbor and checking on me the other night.”

  “Do I owe you a pair of shoes now?”

  Margaret gave a disgusted sigh. “I’m only trying to be nice. Give it back if it makes you uncomfortable.”

  “I’m sorry. I appreciate it, really. I’m just a bit concerned about something right now. You ever take a break from all this good smellin’ stuff ?”

  “I suppose I could close for a few minutes. Do we have some kind of emergency?”

  “We don’t, but there’s something I need to discuss with you.”

  “You seem so serious.”

  “I am serious, Maggie. It concerns Elise.”

  “Oh.” She didn’t know whether she was more shocked by him calling her Maggie or his reference to Elise. She pulled an ornate fan from under the counter. The word “Closed” was lettered on the front, and she propped it in the front window. “Lead the way.”

  “Maybe we could just sit in the back. Do you have any kind of office?”

  “Nothing elegant, but I’m working on it.”

  “Well, I don’t want a headache, but we need some privacy.”

  “I’ll give you a headache,” she threatened as she walked toward the back room.