“They called it off on account of the shooting that didn’t happen.I’m not sure what that means, but that’s what my dad calls it.Nobody was hurt but the boys who had guns.They were killed dead right there in front of the school.I guess they have to clean up all the blood from it so we won’t be scared of going to school anymore.I’m not.I miss school and all my friends.What are you doing in town?I’ve never seen you before.”
“I’m doing some articles on the town.”That was her cover story, and she was supposed to be taking pictures, too; she’d forgotten about.“This place is steeped in history.Did you know that?”
“I did.I read about it in the library.You should go there and read up on the town, then you won’t have to walk fast to get to someplace.Or get a ride.It’s kind of hot to be out walking today, don’t you think?”The kid was too smart for her own britches, as her grannie used to say.“Well, I have to go and clean my room.I never do, but I go in there and play until they forget that I’m supposed to be doing it, not like my grandma.She even makes me make my bed when I stay with her.I don’t mind.She does things with me all the time.”
When she turned and left her, Mac had to smile.She was the same way when it came to her room.She would keep it neat as a pen until it got away from her.Then she’d have to have her sister help her clean it so that she’d not get into trouble the next time she wanted to have a sleepover.Not that she had those too often.Her dad would ruin it, and then no one wanted to stay anymore.
Thinking that she’d thought about her parents enough for one day, she headed to the local library and had a look around.Just as she said, there was a book on the little town that was named after its founders, the Dresden family.Checking it out along with a couple of steamy romance novels, she made her way back to the little bed and breakfast she was staying in.It had been a long day, and she was ready to unwind and have a good read before bed.She only had to decide on which book she thought would relax her more.
“I’ve read that book.”She encountered the woman who ran the B&B when she went down for a glass of water.“I think it’s required reading for the high schoolers nowadays just so they know where they’re coming from if they leave for the big city.”
“It was recommended to me by Rinny.Do you know her?”She said that everyone knew who Rinny was.She wasn’t the least bit shy about talking to someone.“I got that from her.She’s very smart too, don’t you think?”
“She’s the oldest third grader I’ve ever come across.Reads everything she can get her hands on.I wouldn’t doubt that she’s read those other two books that you have there.”They both laughed at that.“She’s a good kid, though.But she’s a bit too honest for some people.Don’t ask her a question about yourself, or you’ll have the answer.For an eight-year-old, she doesn’t suffer fools easily.”
“Good to know.”After getting her some water to drink, she headed back up to her room.While she didn’t have any idea what she would do for dinner, she was certain it would be something to dowith pizza.There were advertisements and menus all over the room, showing how they would deliver to where she was staying for no extra charge.
She was halfway through one of the romance novels when she realized that she’d read it before.Tossing it across the room, she picked up the Dresden book and decided that she’d be bored with it while waiting for her dinner.After placing an order, coming to a lot less than she had expected it to be, she stretched out on the couch in the main living room to hear when the doorbell rang for her dinner.
She was on the third chapter when her dinner arrived.The book was a good deal better than she thought it would be, and she was only in the first part of the book about how the town was started.The Dresden family had come from England in the early seventeen hundreds, looking for a place to raise their family, and had come across this large parcel of land and decided that it would do.She loved books like this one and was hurrying the man along who had brought her dinner so that she could go back to it.
“Are you here for the basket stuff?They don’t usually show up until July or so.”She told him she was just visiting and was thinking of writing an article on the place.“Don’t forget to go out and see the big pottery along Highway Sixty.There used to be shops out there, but since the mister has died off, nothing much goes on out there anymore.But we have stuff going on around here that’s neat.Tomorrow starts the melon fest.That’s fun to go to and there is lots to see.”
“Thank you.I’ll go and see it tomorrow.”He must have been someone that the town would use to bring more businesses into town.She couldn’t get him to be quiet about the town when all she wanted to do was read her book and fill her belly.Tipping him well, he was gone about fifteen minutes after he arrived.No wonder they didn’t charge you for delivery.He would talk your arm off if given the chance.Next time, she’d just pick it up so that she didn’t have to stand in her jammies waiting on the man to hand over her pie.
~*~
Aaron had heard from no less than five people that there was a new person in town.He even had a good description of her, as well as her name and where she was staying.There was nothing really going on that would bring someone new to town, so he had to wonder what she was doing here.Not that it mattered, he supposed, but they got so few people around town unless it was the basket people coming around.
It had been suggested by Mr.Jones that she was casing the houses along Main Street.Also, he’d gotten a report that said she was running up and down the streets when it was so hot out that it would melt a person if they weren’t careful.He wasn’t going to run her in for either speculation, but he would keep an eye out for her just in case she was there for other reasons.His cell phone ringing had him stepping outside the pizza joint while he was having lunch with his brother, Alaric.They’d caught lunch at the same time.
“What do you know about roses?”He smiled when he realized that it was his grandda Sharps.“Your grannie wants to put in a couple of bushes so she can have pretty blooms whenever she wants them, and I can find a darn thing about them.What do you know?”
“Nothing.But I’m sure that if you wanted to know more than you need, you could go down to the local Lowe’s and figure out what they might have in the way of bushes.They’ll even plant them for you if you want.”Which was just what he was going to suggest if he went that route.He could see it now, their yard would be so full of roses for Grannie that they’d not be able to be out in the yard for all the stickers.“I get off at four today if you want me to take you into town and have a look around.”
“I was thinking that I’d like that.You and me finding blooms for your grannie.”Grandda laughed, and he waited to find out what was so funny for him.“I might have them plant them just to get it out of the way.I’m sure I could do just as good a job, but I’d have to do it, and there are other things that I’d rather do than dig up the yard.Or maybe I can get me one of those big digger things and do it that way.It sure would be easier than trying to get a shovel of dirt out of the ground.”
“I’ll go with you.And I don’t think you need to be tinkering with a large digger at all.You have enough trouble just getting your chair set up in the yard for me to want to trust you with a digger ofany kind.”Grandda said he could finally get her a garden in too if he had one of those bigger machines.“Grandda, I don’t think Grannie wants a garden that large anymore.She’s been complaining about the flowers and how they’re too much at times.”
Aaron was trying his best to get his grandda on the right track without having the family home destroyed by allowing him to get into a large piece of equipment.Not to mention his feelings.He would no more want to hurt him than he would his own mom or dad.But figuring it out might be his worst problem yet.
“What are you saying?You don’t think that I can do this on my own?”He wanted to say yes, but that would hurt him badly.So instead, he told him he didn’t want him to get hurt.“How am I going to be hurt with all the help I’m going to be getting from you and your daddy?”
“Grandda, need I remind you about the shovel that you broke and nearly gouged your leg with?Or the time you thought that a rake would do better than a shovel with cleaning up the stones in the driveway.I thought for sure you were going to be dead when I got to you about the time you fell on your head.”He said he survived on them, didn’t he?“Yes, you did, but what about this heavy piece of equipment that you want to use?You can’t seriously think that it’s going to be much different than using any of the other things around the house that you get into trouble with.”
He didn’t say anything for a long time, and his heart hurt for the words that he’d said.Grandda was his hero, and he didn’t want him to be upset with him.He asked him again about why he thought a large piece of equipment would be any better than the shovel that he already had.
“You’re saying that I’m an old man and that I should leave those kinds of things to you, younger men.That’s it, isn’t it?”He said that he didn’t mention his age at all.“No, you didn’t, but you’re thinking on it.I tell you what.I’ll get me some roses and plant them myself.I don’t need your help on anything anymore.I’ll show you how old I am.”
Then he hung up.Aaron stood outside the little diner with his phone up to his ear, hoping against hope that he hadn’t just hung up on him.Going inside with his brother, he didn’t even try calling him back.It wouldn’t do any good, as he was mad at him and he didn’t know what he’d say to him anyway.He’d have to believe that he still loved him.
After telling Alaric what had happened, he suggested going to the house and talking to him.He would do that, but his grandda was powerfully mad at him, and he didn’t know if he’d talk to him or not.That hurt him to his heart and beyond, not knowing if he’d speak to him or not.It didn’t matter how right either of them had been, but there was pain now, and he had caused it.
He decided that Alaric was right and that he needed to go and talk to him face-to-face.He would hope that Grannie was around so that she could be there for him, but that wasn’t fair to her either.Grannie would be hurt that he’d hurt Grandda, and neither one of them would be able to forgive him.
After work, he did go by their house.And it wasn’t just his grannie that was there, but his mom was too.Telling them both he was sorry, it was Grannie who told him that Grandda could be a stubborn old fool, but he was going to have to fix this before too much longer.She didn’t say it, but she knew that with them being in their eighties, either one of them could die without any warning.And he would die if he hadn’t fixed this before then.He found his grandda on the back deck with a bottle of water in his hand.
“You hurt my heart calling me old.”Aaron said he’d never once mentioned him being old.“You implied it, same thing.”
