All She Wrote

by Tonya Kappes

  “Ahem,” Florence cleared her throat. She lifted her chin in the air as she looked down the aisle at Tiffany’s parents. They were trying to escape without being seen, but that wasn’t happening.

  “Ladies and gentleman, please give a warm congratulations to Aaron Brotherton, this year’s recipient of the Sugar Creek Gap Baptist Church Scholarship.” Florence carried on like nothing had happened.

  Politely, everyone clapped while Aaron walked over to Florence and took the microphone.

  “I’d like to thank the committee and you, Ms. Gaines, for the generosity. I’m honored to be able to put this money toward my future and my career at Eastern Kentucky University, where I’ll be pursuing a degree in law enforcement. I hope to one day come back to Sugar Creek Gap and join the sheriff’s department while I work my way up from deputy to elected sheriff.”

  As Aaron talked, I watched the faces of the people in the crowd. There were a few murmurs from various people I recognized from the high school booster group. I made a mental note of who was super shocked, because we had a booster meeting coming up after the weekend and I was one-hundred percent positive this was going to be the topic for the month. . .maybe the entire summer.

  But the strange event that’d happened during Aaron’s acceptance speech was something Florence herself did. She had moved behind the banquet table and whispered a few things to Brother Don before she darted stage left and down the far side aisle. I turned around in my seat to see what she was doing, and standing in the back waiting for her was Zeke Grey.

  He looked awfully dolled up for a Saturday. He had on a light-gray suit with a pink tie and a cute little gray hat with a silk ribbon around the base.

  “Oh gosh.” I gulped after I noticed he and Florence matched. “I’ve got to go,” I told Grady.

  “Okay. See you tomorrow night for Sunday supper.” He continued to look forward at the pulpit. I was sure he was trying to process Wes not winning and how he was going to handle it.

  “I’ll call you and finish up our conversation when we can talk.” I didn’t want him to think I was brushing him off. I just wanted to see exactly where Florence and Zeke were going in their matchy-matchy outfits. I had a hunch, but I had to see it with my own eyes.

  Grady loved all his football players and many times did take their problems on. He and Julia had gone above and beyond for a lot of those boys and their families, but I respected Julia for telling him how he needed to look out for his own family now that a baby was on the way.

  There was no way I was going to let him think he was anything like Richard Butler. He wasn’t. Grady was faithful, dedicated, and had a heart of gold.

  There was a flurry of activity outside of the church. Some people were pointing one way, and I looked to see what they were gawking at. Poor Tiffany Franklin was still running as fast as her little legs would carry her down Main Street, hurdling over the planted ferns the beautification committee had placed along the sidewalk in front of all the shops. One by one, she jumped over them before she took a quick right next to the Sugar Creek veterinarian office and headed toward her home.

  But my focus was on the big building next door. The courthouse, where I’d just seen Florence and Zeke walk in, giggling the entire time.

  “Oh no.” I gulped, wondering if they were going in there to tie the knot, because it sure did seem like it.

  “Well…” Radio DJ Lucy Drake’s voice held a curious tone. “What did you think of that?” she asked but really didn’t care about my opinion because she yammered on. “I can’t wait until tomorrow’s show so I can get all the gossip.”

  “I’m sad for any child who needed the scholarship. Do we really know the financial status of the Brothertons? I mean, I guess the scholarship committee does or has it on the application.” I didn’t want to gossip with her, because somehow she’d turn it around and put it out there on the radio that I said something.

  “Oh, Bernadette.” She tsked. “You do try to see the good in everything. I thought you’d learned that everything isn’t all unicorns and roses after Richard died.”

  “I hope you have a great day.” My fake smile showed up. I grabbed the handle of the cart and looked both ways before I crossed Main Street over to Short Street so I could deliver the mail to my neighbors on Little Creek Road.

  I took a few deep breaths and allowed my head to clear with each step because if I didn’t, Lucy’s comment about Richard and my unicorn land would put a damper on me all day, and that wasn’t going to happen. Iris had already put a little kink in it. I wasn’t going to let Lucy knot it completely.

  Quack, quack. I could hear my duck friend greeting me before I even made it to the bridge that connected the sidewalks over the little creek.

  It was a daily ritual with us. He loved to greet me from this bridge and get a little snack before he swam along the creek as I delivered the mail. Then he waited for me at the other bridge across from my house on Little Creek Road.

  It was a nice little break that I looked forward to every morning.

  “Good morning, duck.” I opened my mail carrier bag and took out the pouch of food Kayla, the veterinarian technician from the Sugar Creek Gap veterinary clinic, had given me for ducks. She’d overheard—which by the way meant gossip—that I was feeding the duck people-food.

  An apparent no-no to ducks.

  Kayla had the duck food waiting for me when I’d taken Buster in for a checkup after I’d officially adopted him. Though he was technically willed to me, Kayla insisted we have an adoption ceremony.

  “Here you go.” I tossed in some of the pellet food. “You better eat it, because it’s all you’re gonna get.”

  The duck, since the day I changed the food choice, almost snubbed the pellet food and would look up at me as if to say, “Is this all you got?”

  I put the bag on the ground next to the old wooden bridge and leaned on the railing with my elbows to watch the duck swim around the floating pellets until he finally pecked at them.

  “See, we all can be healthy if we are hungry enough.” I was like the duck. The more artificial ingredients in my food, the better I liked it. And it wasn’t good for me, but I made myself feel better by saying I walked a million miles a day.

  Not really a million, but my point was made.

  “I’ll see you down at the other end, my friend.” I decided to put the mailbag on top of Courtney’s packages and pull the cart behind me all the way to my first stop. I bypassed Mac’s house even though it was the very first house on the dead-end street.

  Since we’d been dating, I’d combined his office mail with his home mail, which was easy since the delivery was in the same loop.

  “Here she comes.” Millie Barnes wasn’t even trying to cover up that she and the Front Porch Ladies were waiting for me on Harriette’s porch. “Here she comes.”

  “I heard you the first time.” Harriette shhh’d Millie and got up from the rocking chair to go into her house.

  “Mornin’, ladies.” I unlatched the gate to get into Harriette’s yard so I could go up to her front porch.

  All the houses on Little Creek Road had a small front yard that was fenced in, with a gate at the sidewalk that ran along all the homes. More times than not, the group of women had morning coffee around the time I was delivering the street’s mail, which was around ten a.m., give or take a few minutes depending on who wanted to chitchat along the way.

  “Early afternoon.” Gertrude corrected me in a way that told me I was late with the mail service.

  “It’s almost time for our dinner.” Ruby Dean, like the other ladies, called lunchtime dinner, which was normal in the south. Dinnertime was referred to as supper. “My belly is growling.” She eyeballed the bag I’d grabbed off the cart.

  “I’m afraid my mom was too busy to send any treats today.” I knew exactly what she was getting at. My mom loved to send extra biscuits or even some soups with me for the ladies. They loved to put some of their homemade jellies on Mom’s warm biscuits in th
e morning.

  So did I.

  “Well?” Harriette came out with a big, tall glass of iced tea for me. Sweet iced tea at that.

  One of the perks of knowing my customers and chatting with them was that many days, they had special treats for me. Again…happy I walked a lot so I could burn off the calories.

  “I’m afraid you’re going to be disappointed today.” I frowned and lifted my hands. “You don’t have any mail, but you—” I pointed to Millie and dropped the bag on the top step. “Your Save the Children envelope came, and I think they sent your new address labels.”

  Millie Barnes was one of those customers who gave money to any organization that mailed her a sheet of sticky labels with her name on them or her return address on them. She loved getting them. The more she donated, the more they sent her.

  “Great,” Gertrude groaned. “More to add to her already three drawerfuls. You’ll be dead before you use them all up. Why don’t you stop giving them money?”

  I bent my head down and dug through my bag so they wouldn’t see me smile. Monica was good about separating all of their mail with rubber bands. By the end of the day, my wrist was full of rubber bands since I took them off the mail before I gave it to customers or put it in their mailbox or slots.

  “Why don’t you mind your own business?” Millie snarled and happily took her new labels from me. Like a kid, she ripped the envelope open to admire the foiling they’d put on her name.

  “I wasn’t talking about Millie’s labels; I was asking about the scholarship and who got it.” Harriette handed me the iced tea, and I sat down on the top step.

  “I’ve got a minute to spare since I don’t have to go to everyone’s house on the street.” It did save me time when they collected on the porch together. “Aaron Brotherton was awarded the scholarship.”

  “Why on earth would he get the money? His dad is on the bank board, and his business is thriving.” Gertrude was as taken aback as the rest of the ladies. “His grandparents left him a trust, and I know it was more than enough for him to go to college four times. You know they sold all that land when Wally World came to town. Plus I heard the bank is trying to buy more land from their family for that new bank branch they’re building. It would be so nice to have a bank out there with all them shops going up.”

  Before all the big-box stores and strip malls moved to Sugar Creek Gap, the land was owned by many families still living in the area. The Brothertons were one of them. They made a killing, from what I remembered, when a couple big-box stores bought up acres from them.

  “Maybe it’s like a trust and he only gets a few dollars here and there?” I questioned, knowing there were so many ways a trust could be dispensed.

  “That’s awful.” Harriette shook her head. “I didn’t vote for him. I voted for the Rogers boy. That’s a kid would could use it. His family worked their fingers to the bone at the old mill before it closed up, and his daddy has had a hard time keeping a job since most of the factories have closed down and moved out of town.”

  “I voted for Tiffany Franklin, myself.” Millie pushed her fingers through her hair. “Her mama does hair out of her house just to keep the lights on.”

  “I think Tiffany was expecting it.” I knew not to gossip about it, but I had to tell them about the poor girl. “If you know her mom, you might want to check on her. She didn’t take it so well.”

  “How so?” Millie questioned and used her big toe to stop the porch swing she and Gertrude were sitting on.

  “After Florence had announced the winner, Tiffany jumped up and told Florence off. Called her old among other not-so-kind words before she took off out of there like a jet. She hopped over the pew and darted out of the church and—” I stopped talking after I suddenly remembered what Florence did.

  “What? And what?” Millie asked. All the Front Porch Ladies’ mouths were wide-open.

  “Well, something strange happened after that.” I gnawed on whether or not to tell the ladies, but I had to know if my hunch about Florence was true. “Florence didn’t do her usual speech about how she does so much for the community. Don’t get me wrong, she mentioned how proud she was and all about giving the money along with the church, making it very well-known that the majority of the scholarship came from her money, but. . .”

  All of us abruptly looked at the speeding car zooming by.

  “Speaking of Florence.” Gertrude’s nose wrinkled when we saw the car was Florence’s. “I hope she doesn’t visit Little Creek Road too much, or we just might have to make it a gated community and keep her out.”

  “They are just going to see her niece.” Ruby shrugged, and we all leaned over to see what Florence got out of her car.

  It wasn’t a what—it was a who.

  “Is that Zeke Grey with her?” Harriette pulled the eyeglass chain dangling around her neck and placed the glasses on her face. Then she pushed them up on the bridge of her nose.

  “What were you going to say about Florence?” Millie wanted to know.

  “I’m married! I’m Mrs. Zeke Grey!” Florence squealed from the sidewalk so loudly that we could hear her all the way down to the porch.

  She held her hand up in the air, flailing around her ring finger. She tucked her hand into Zeke’s arm. “Say hello to your new uncle!”

  “I was going to say that I think Florence and Zeke got married.” I gulped and couldn’t help but notice Courtney Gaines and her aunt had a few words before Courtney threw down the gardening tool in her hand. She stomped into her house, slamming the door behind her.

  “I’m guessing Courtney Gaines didn’t want a new uncle.” Harriette pulled the glass of iced tea up to her lips and took a sip with a big grin on her face.

  There was a weird, uncomfortable silence as we all tried to process what had just happened.

  “Did she say she and Zeke got married?” Gertrude looked over at Ruby.

  Ruby shrugged. “Married?” She jerked back. “I thought she said something about being buried.”

  “Geez, Ruby.” Gertrude waved her hand toward her. “You’ve got to get them ears of yours checked out. Florence and Zeke got married.”

  “Married!” Ruby’s eyes grew big, and she looked at Harriette. “I’m guessing your letter got the after-spray of his cologne from using it with Florence.”

  “If that’s the case, he must’ve been dousing that cologne everywhere.” I started to distribute their mail to them, with each of them getting a thank-you card from Zeke Grey. “I’m so glad to get those out of my bag.” I waved my hand in front of me like it was stinking and couldn’t help but notice Harriette’s smile had faded. “Are you okay?” I asked her while the others were busying themselves looking through their mail.

  “I’m fine.” She gave me the most pitiful look. “Why on earth would I want a man at my age?”

  “Maybe not a man, more like companionship.” At least it was originally how I’d felt after Richard had been dead about five years. I wanted a companion to just chitchat with and not necessarily get remarried.

  “Is that how you feel about Mac?” she asked, and I noticed that while everyone kept their heads down when Florence and Zeke drove past, their eyes were curled to the top of their sockets watching the taillights.

  “It was at first. I liked having him around to run and get something to eat with or just him stopping by for a drink, but now—” I sucked in a deep breath because I had to prepare myself for what I was about to say. “Now I’d entertain getting remarried.”

  “The first time was a sham, so I wouldn’t even consider that a marriage.” Ruby had no filter.

  “Ruby Sue Dean!” Harriette scolded her.

  “It’s fine,” I assured them. “Ruby isn’t saying anything that’s not true. It wasn’t a sham to me at the time, but now I think it was something Richard had gotten himself into and just didn’t know how to get out of.” I glanced over my shoulder when we heard another car driving past. “Speaking of Richard.” I was never so happy to see Gr
ady’s car. “I think my boy is going to see me. I better get on out of here.”

  I hoisted the bag up on my shoulder and waved goodbye while I hightailed it down the street toward my house. What Grady had told me a little bit ago in the church about him and Julia not seeing eye to eye on a few things was still on my mind, and he probably wanted to talk about it.

  I’d invite him to walk the third loop of my route. When he was a little boy, he’d come on my routes and enjoyed visiting with the neighborhood dogs.

  When I tugged the cart into the gate of Courtney’s house, I noticed Grady was sitting on the front step with her.

  “Mom, I thought you’d be done with this loop by now.” He jumped to his feet like he was surprised I’d even be around there. “I guess you know Courtney.”

  “Yes. We are neighbors.” My brows rose. “I’m guessing you’re waiting for me to walk down?” I questioned in hopes he’d seen me up at the Front Porch Ladies.

  “I. . .” Courtney looked between me and my son. “I needed someone other than my aunt Florence to talk to, and Grady has been great since I moved here.”

  I didn’t like the way she emphasized great.

  “Yeah.” Grady shrugged. “She needed some help with the mulch, so I told her I could come by and help since Wes couldn’t make it.”

  “I’m guessing that Julia’s doctor appointment went okay.” I wanted it known that I was not liking this situation. “I’m sure the baby is fine. I’m going to be a grandmother. First one for Grady and my daughter Julia.” I laughed. “I call her my daughter even though she’s the best daughter-in-law in the world.”

  Uneasy, Courtney shifted her knees in a few different directions.

  “Yep.” Grady rubbed his hands together. “The doctor said everything is good. She called me right before I got here because the doctor was running early and she got in while I was at the scholarship announcement.”

  “How did that go?” Courtney shifted her train of thought, and I didn’t like it one bit. “I was going to ask Aunt Florence about it, but her news left me dumbfounded and realizing she’s completely lost her marbles like my family thought.”