“I was wondering when I was going to see you again!” He said as he came around the counter and went in for a hug that Celeste felt obligated to accept.
She ended the hug as soon as possible. “I told you I was coming in today.”
“I know, but you never specified when. I’ve been on pins and needles all morning.”
Now Celeste was really confused. “Why is that?”
“Because you’re Andrew’s girl!” He told her as he went back around the counter. She handed him her prescription and he started typing on the computer as they spoke. “Look, that guy was the best friend I ever had as a kid, so I’m excited to get to know you.”
“Well, that’s very sweet of you.”
“Plus, I get bored when there are not many customers.”
“How often is it like this?”
“Almost every day.”
“Yikes. Why don’t you just move?” She regretted saying that as soon as it came out of her mouth. That was way too forward.
Jax seemed to take it in stride. “I like it here. The people are good, and I’m the only pharmacist around. Without me, they’d have to go to the next town over, just like the kids have to for school.” He paused for a moment. “I’d just hate to be another reason my hometown’s dying.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, at a loss for words. “I didn’t realize-”
“You’re fine!” The smile was back. “You didn’t know any better. But, I think it’s only fair that I get to pry a little in return.”
“Go for it,” she feigned bravado, thrown off by the sudden shift back to lightheartedness. “I’m an open book.”
“What’s with the age gap? Andrew’s got to be, what? Eight years older than you?”
Celeste wasn’t at all surprised at his question; she got it all the time. Andrew was forty-two and she was thirty-two, a gap that had drawn the eye and ire of many people throughout their relationship. It frustrated her at first, but she got used to it. By that point, it was as normal as telling people what she did for a living.
“Ten, actually. We met when I was finishing up college in Massachusetts. I think we were both nervous about the gap at first, but our connection was strong enough that it ended up not being that big of a deal for us. Convincing my parents it wasn’t a big deal, though? That took a little bit longer.”
“I can imagine! But you guys seem like a good fit, so I’m happy it all worked out.” He finished up typing on the computer and printed something out. “I’ll head back and get this ready for you.”
And with that, Jax walked out of sight, leaving Celeste alone in the pharmacy. She looked around, taking it all in for the first time. The building was shaped like a shotgun barrel, long and thin. Windows lined the outside entrance, full of posters for town events that had passed months and even years before. Fluorescent lights shone down harshly on the rows and rows of medicines lining the aisles. It was all very standard fare for a pharmacy, outside of one peculiar detail.
A large cork board hung on the wall near the counter, filled with missing person posters. Each sheet of paper bore the image of a woman only a few years younger than Celeste. There were almost thirty of them fighting for space on the board, each one from a different year. The oldest paper occupied the top left corner of the board and was dated October 1993, and the newest one on the bottom right was from just that month.
The most recent girl looked strangely like Celeste. She had the same dirty blonde hair falling in a wavy cascade down to her shoulders, and a very similar facial structure. The only notable difference was that the girl on the poster had brown eyes, not blue eyes. But outside of that, they could’ve been cousins. Her name was Amelia Barnett.
Celeste felt a pang of sadness as she looked at Amelia Barnett and all the other faded pictures of smiling young women who should have had their whole lives ahead of them. She thought briefly of their families having to live with the fact that they may never know what happened to their little girls. Then her mind turned to her own family and resolved to call her mom before going back out to the house again.
“It’s tragic, isn’t it?” Jax asked as he reappeared behind the counter. Celeste jumped and clutched her chest at the surprise.
“Don’t sneak up on me like that!” She practically shouted at him, immediately regretting her tone.
“Sorry! I just have a light step.”
“Right. What were you saying?”
“I was saying that it’s tragic, all those missing girls.”
“Absolutely,” she replied, her curiosity getting the better of her. “But why these girls? And why’d you keep them so long?”
“I dunno, those are just the flyers that get brought in. And as you can tell by all the other old signs hanging up around the store, I’m not the best at throwing things away.”
“So you wouldn’t be any help cleaning up Corvus’s old place then, would you?” She teased, secretly hoping it might prompt an offer.
He chuckled a bit. “I might be around every now and then to lend a hand, but this place keeps me pretty busy.”
“We’ll appreciate all the help we can get. That house is gonna need a lot of work done.”
Jax rang up Celeste’s prescription and handed her the small paper bag with her new inhaler inside. She thanked him before adding, “Can I ask you something about Corvus?”
A somber look fell across Jax’s face. “Absolutely.”
“His house has some seriously creepy junk in it. Was he okay in his later years?”
He thought for a moment. “Corvus definitely lost himself a bit in his old age, but he was always a little bit strange. He garnered a bit of a reputation as the town weirdo. People never really trusted him.”
Celeste leaned forward onto the counter and asked, “Why’s that?”
Jax did a quick scan around them before answering quietly, despite the two of them being the only people in the store. “Most people around here think he killed his wife.”
Her eyes grew wide. “What?”
He nodded enthusiastically. “Yup. She went missing back in the 90s and was never seen again. It was actually just a few years before Andrew came to live with him. The cops investigated him and didn’t find any evidence, but a lack of proof never stopped a small-town rumor mill.”
“Do you think he did it?”
Jax leaned back. “Nah, Corvus wouldn’t hurt a fly. He was just a superstitious old man that everyone loved to gossip about. I thought the world of him, all the way to the end.”
There wasn’t much left to say after that, so the two of them said their goodbyes, and Celeste left. She spent her walk home in silence, choosing to listen to the sounds of the small town rather than her own music. She had never heard about Andrew’s grandmother before. She couldn’t blame him for not wanting to talk about it, but it made her wonder how much else she didn’t know about his life. That thought spiraled in her head, drowning out any other thoughts she might have had.
Celeste got back to the motel room and did the only thing she could think to do to help clear her thoughts. She called her mom.
CHAPTER FIVE
Andrew kicked up dirt as he pulled into a parking spot at the motel. The sun had started to set by the time he had finished cleaning up the mess in his old room. There were shards of porcelain everywhere, and nowhere near the house to dispose of it all, so he filled multiple trash bags to bring back and throw in a dumpster in town. He was satisfied with a job well done, but he was also more than a little aware of just how long he had left Celeste alone at the motel.
As soon as he had gotten service again, Andrew’s phone buzzed with several new notifications, including a handful of missed calls and texts from his wife. Andrew had called her back to let her know that he was almost there and to ask her to think about what sounded good for dinner. Now that the sun was setting behind him as he walked across the parking lot to their door, Andrew felt even guiltier than before.
He knocked and called out that it was him, then lis
tened for the soft reply on the other side. Celeste opened the door with a smile, to Andrew’s surprise, and greeted him with a hug and a peck on the cheek.
“Hey gorgeous,” he said as she pulled back from the hug, a smile supplanting his penitent expression. “I’m sorry I’m so late. I had no idea it would take that long.”
“Are the dolls gone?” She asked.
“Yeah.”
“Then I don’t mind one bit.”
The two of them grabbed their bags and headed out to one of the few restaurants in town. It was an old-fashioned burger joint full of people who kept sneaking glances at the two outsiders in their midst. Andrew did not miss that feeling at all. One of the main reasons he preferred cities was the anonymity they allowed him to have. No one knew him or cared what he was doing, and that was the way he liked it.
Uncomfortable with the stares and whispers, Andrew and Celeste only made small talk as they ate. Celeste asked how Gracie was doing out at the farm, and he told her that she was loving it. He said that it would be a miracle if they could get their cat to go home with them at the end of their visit.
They finished up their food and began their trip back to the house, talking more earnestly about their days and their emotions now that there weren’t prying eyes and listening ears. Andrew told Celeste all about his battle with the ceramic army in his room, and about how he felt sorry for anyone who went dumpster diving where he threw them away. She told him about calling her mom and about her chat with Jax but wasn’t overly talkative.
Andrew was glad that she seemed to like him, but he could tell that she wasn’t saying everything she thought. He decided not to press her for the rest. Celeste would always say what was on her mind eventually, and Andrew had learned over the years that asking her to talk before she was ready would only make it harder for her to string her thoughts into words.
They spent the last few minutes of the drive-in relative silence, listening to the quiet music playing over the car speakers. Andrew wondered what was going on in her head, but chose again to bide his time. If it was worth saying, she would say it.
The two of them arrived at the house and started winding down for the night. Celeste had downloaded some movies on her computer for them to watch together since Corvus never ended up buying a television. Despite Andrew’s assurances that he had found them all, Celeste did a full sweep of the bedroom to check for any remaining dolls. Once she had full confidence in his work, the two of them snuggled up on his old bed and watched a romantic comedy together.
It was a pretty generic story about a guy who missed his chance with the girl of his dreams, who was of course now about to marry his best friend. The hook of this movie, though, was that the man found a genie’s lamp and got three wishes to help him make things better. Andrew had spent the whole movie hoping the dude would fall in love with the genie, but it ended with him using the lessons he had learned and got the girl without needing the genie’s magic. As far as Celeste’s movie choices went, it wasn’t too bad.
After the film ended, the couple went through their nightly routine and got ready for bed together, again rather quietly. Andrew wracked his brain trying to figure out what she could be chewing on for so long but kept drawing a blank. They had climbed into bed together and Andrew was about to turn off the lamp when Celeste finally spoke up.
“Why didn’t you ever tell me about your grandma?” She asked plainly.
“I thought I did,” he replied, unsure of what she was getting at. “She died a few years before I moved out here. I never really got to know her.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about.”
Then Andrew understood. He felt like an idiot for not considering that this would come up while they were here. “Did Jax tell you?”
“Yeah.”
“What did he say?”
“Does it matter what he said?” She sat up straighter. “I want to know what you have to say and why you never told me.”
Andrew pursed his lips for a moment before sighing. “What should I have said? That the people out here thought my grandpa killed my grandma? That I was not only an outsider when I moved here, but I was also living with the town pariah? That people would either stare at me or talk about me behind my back, but would never be caught dead actually talking to me? I’m sorry I didn’t really want to relive that.”
He paused for a moment to steady himself. Celeste reached out and squeezed his hand, and his shoulders relaxed a bit. “I just wish I could forget it all, yet here I am sorting through the past.”
Celeste moved in for a hug and Andrew pulled her close. He took a deep breath as they held each other, and the scent of her shampoo filled his nose, comforting him with its familiarity.
“I’m sorry you had to go through all of that,” she whispered, her head against his chest.
“I’m sorry I never told you about it.”
They held each other for so long that Andrew fell asleep. He was snoring softly by the time Celeste shook him awake. His eyes blearily opened.
“Andrew,” her harsh whisper woke him up a bit more, and he picked his head up to look at her. She was sitting straight up, hugging a pillow to her chest.
“What?” he asked as he rubbed his eyes.
“I can hear something moving around on the back porch,” she hissed urgently. “I think there’s someone out there.”
Andrew rolled over and closed his eyes. “It’s probably nothing.”
“But what if it’s not?” She shook him again. “You need to go make sure.”
He let out a sigh as he sat up and put his feet on the floor. That’s when he heard it too. The faintest sound of creaking wood came from the back of the house, just quiet enough that Andrew couldn’t tell what was causing it.
A sudden sense of urgency passed over Andrew, and he tiptoed across the room to grab the broom he had left there after sweeping up the broken porcelain. He picked it up and headed slowly toward the stairs. Was someone outside? He winced at the creaking that every step brought as he descended toward the living room.
He reached the bottom of the stairs and peeked around the corner to the left. Nothing there. Soft moonlight bathed the living room as Andrew crept over and crouched behind the half wall that separated it from the kitchen. He paused to listen. The creaking had grown quiet now. Did they hear him coming?
His heart pounded in his chest as Andrew moved slowly into the kitchen and approached the mud room that contained the back door. He stepped up to the door, turned the lock gently, and took a deep breath.
The door squeaked as he slowly pushed it open and stepped out onto the back porch, broomstick raised in preparation. Andrew stood frozen as he listened, his eyes scanning the porch. All seemed to be quiet.
Piles of junk and garbage sat inert to his left and right. He looked out at the tree-line, squinting through the darkness. All seemed to be still.
A sudden burst of movement near his feet startled Andrew and he let out a yelp. He jumped forward out of the way and raised the broom to swing when he realized what he was looking at.
Gracie paced aggressively in the doorway, clearly agitated. Andrew let out a sigh of relief and lowered the broom, silently chastising himself for getting so worked up over nothing.
“It was just Gracie!” He called out as he stooped down to pet the cat. “I’m sorry we forgot to let you in before bed, bubs.”
She rubbed against his hand once before turning around and running inside. He closed the back door and locked it, then followed Gracie through the kitchen and into the living room. Instead of trying to follow him upstairs or begging for a treat, Gracie crawled under the couch and looked up at Andrew with massive eyes.
“Are you okay, kitty?” He asked as he crouched down to get a closer look at her.
The cat scooted deeper under the couch, recoiling from his outstretched hand. Something was upsetting her, but Andrew figured it was just the jitters of being in a new place.
“I get it. I’m a little creeped ou
t too,” he crooned to Gracie as she watched him intently. “But don’t worry, I’ve lived here before. There’s nothing to be scared of out here.”
Hit by the post-adrenaline wave of tiredness, Andrew yawned before standing up and heading back to bed. He was halfway up the stairs when a shadow passed by the living room window.
CHAPTER SIX
The morning sun cut through the bedroom curtains as Andrew woke up. He rolled over to check his phone and saw that it was 6:45, fifteen minutes before his alarm was supposed to go off. Typical. He rolled over and pulled Celeste close, determined to make the most of his unfortunate premature wakefulness. Still mostly asleep, his wife instinctively snuggled up against him, an experience that never got old.
Andrew hadn’t always been an early riser, but his time with Corvus changed that. Much to his chagrin, his grandfather made him get up early before school each day to do some work around the farm. Andrew refused to get up on his first morning there and was met with a bucket of water for his insolence. Corvus didn’t know the meaning of the word gentle.
He of course hated the early morning work schedule at first. It took months for Andrew to complete the work without complaining the whole time, and another few months after that to start waking up on his own.
“Chorun’ has to be done,” Corvus would always say. “You can lose your morning to it, or you can lose your evening, but it’s gotta get done.”
Ultimately, Andrew valued the possibility of free time away from the farm more than he valued that extra sleep, so he decided to accept his fate and lean into the work that had to be done. Much to his surprise, at some unknowable point during his stay at the farm, Andrew began to enjoy the early morning chores. That newfound appreciation for getting things done in the early hours of the morning never left him, much to Celeste’s dismay.
Andrew discovered early on in their relationship that Celeste would sleep until two in the afternoon every day if given the chance. He often joked that she loved sleep more than she loved him, a statement she had yet to deny. It frustrated him for a little while, the way she would stay in bed for hours after he had gotten up, especially on weekends, but Andrew learned to use that time to his advantage. He would go on a run, clean up around the house, and start cooking breakfast, the smell of which would awaken her from her slumber better than he ever could.
The Ragged Page 3
