Chapter 22 #2
“Let me guess. She thought I was Frankie Forsythe, too.” The waitress scowls then turns back to the table to wipe up the coffee she’s spilled before I can ask her what she means. Who else has made Junie’s same mistake?
Flo will probably give me a less irritated answer, so I carry Junie toward the counter, patting her back and telling her she’s okay. I don’t tell her I’d hoped the woman in Frankie’s uniform and wig was actually Frankie, too.
Once we elbow our way to the full counter, I see Flo’s in the kitchen. I don’t dare break any Health Department rules by taking Junie back there.
“Can I talk to you, Flo?” I call to her.
She glances up from the grill. “Little busy here, Cal. Good to see you again.”
At Flo’s voice, Junie lifts her head and angles her body to see Flo. “Can I have pancakes, peas?” she yells over the noise of the diner, with only one small hiccough.
“Course you can, Birthday Girl!” Flo calls back.
Gerry swivels around, then squeezes out of his seat at the counter. “It’s your birthday, Junie? You better take the birthday chair!”
Pearl shuffles over with Junie’s booster seat. “I’ve got your magic chair right here,” she says gruffly before setting it in Gerry’s chair, then handing Gerry his half full plate of eggs and toast.
“Doc says I should eat standing, anyway,” he says when I hesitate putting Junie in his seat.
In the seat next to Gerry’s, Barry points to his breakfast. “I’ll take this to go, Pearl. Sit down, Cal.”
He pats me on the back. I wonder how everybody seems to know I’m torn up about Frankie leaving. But it only takes a second to answer my own question: Mom’s talked to Flo.
I don’t have the energy to argue with anyone, and Junie’s getting heavy. I help her into her booster seat, then take Barry’s place next to her. Pearl’s already on the other side of the counter, ready to fill my coffee cup.
“Thank you, Pearl,” I tell her when she slides the cup to me.
“We all miss her,” she grumbles before padding away with the coffee pot.
“Can we watch Frankie?” Junie asks, her eyes still wet.
“How about later?”
Junie shakes her head. I don’t have the energy to argue with her either, so I take out my phone and pull up the video.
I turn the volume down low, so only she’ll be able to hear it, but she’s no dummy.
How to use the volume button is as intuitive to her as how to start a DVD was to me when I was her age. She turns it up full blast.
“What’ve you got there?” Larry asks from her other side.
“Frankie. She’s my friend.” Junie turns the phone for a fraction of a second to show Larry.
The video ends and I hold out my hand. “Okay, Bug. Let me have my phone.”
But Larry’s already pressed play for her and leans in to watch with her. Barry and Gerry look over Junie’s shoulder, curious, too. By the time she pushes play for a third viewing, Flo’s come from the kitchen and even Pearl’s joined us.
“That’s nice,” Flo says when the video ends.
“How about a Bluey?” I ask Junie, then scramble to pull up her favorite episode before Flo escapes back to the kitchen.
“Okay, Daddy, because it’s my birthday?”
“Yep. Because it’s your birthday.” Usually, screens are off-limits until late afternoon when she needs some downtime.
“You mind keeping an eye on her for a sec, Ger?” I don’t wait for his answer before jogging after Flo.
I follow her into the kitchen where she’s already back at the grill. “Hey, Aunt Flo…”
“What are you doing back here?” she asks only slightly interested in the answer as she pours pancake batter in perfect circles on the grill.
“I had a couple questions. The new waitress mentioned something about being mistaken for Frankie.”
Flo finishes pouring and looks at me.
“Have people been in here asking about her?”
She shrugs. “Kids with phones and selfie sticks, or whatever they are.”
“No reporters or anyone like that?”
She shakes her head, picks up her spatula, and flips the first row of pancakes in a few smooth motions. “Only reporter in here was the same one who came in before asking about Frankie. Apparently, Gerry got a hold of him and said he had a story about Sanctuary Inn.”
For a second I’m confused how that’s not the same thing, until I remember not everyone knows Frankie is a partner in the hotel.
“Brandon McVey?” I ask.
“I think that was his name.”
What I’m still confused about is why he’s asking about Sanctuary now. Is he aware Frankie’s involved? Is he looking for some way to hurt her?
“What did Gerry tell him?”
“The group behind Sanctuary is going back on their promises to all of us in Serenity.” She scoops mini-chocolate chips from a container and drops them into a pancake so they make a smiley face. “This one’s Junie’s.”
“What do you mean? What promises?” I move out of Miguel’s way so he can help plate the orders.
“Not using local meat and produce. Putting up barriers so only hotel guests can use the beach. Draining water resources. All the things big developers do.” She slides pancakes onto the plates while Miguel adds the sides that go with specific orders.
“They’re for sure doing this?” I move out of his way again and ignore Flo’s glare. She’s reached the end of her patience with my questions.
She points her spatula to the other side of the order window. “Ask Gerry about it. He planted acres of some kind of special lettuce because of the promises they made to buy it, now they don’t want to pay him more than what it cost him to grow it. And he’s not the only one.”
I stare at her, trying to process, wondering if Frankie knows any of this. Wondering how I’ll feel if she does.
“You should get out of here. Junie’s got Gerry in a headlock.”
I follow the direction of Flo’s spatula to where Junie’s booster is on the counter and Gerry’s in his seat again, Junie on his back with her arms wrapped around his neck, neither of them bothered by the arrangement. His eyes, along with Junie’s, are glued to my phone screen.
“That’s called a hug, Aunt Flo,” I say on my way back to the dining room.
I’m still a few feet away when Junie says to Gerry, “That’s how Frankie talks,” and then she asks Gerry a string of questions about whether Frankie does things the way Bluey does.
Rather than interrupt Gerry to ask him my questions about Sanctuary, I let him handle Junie’s Frankie questions. I need to wrap my head around the basics Flo just told me.
I stay out of the business side of the ranch, but Mom and Dad have beef and avocado contracts with Sanctuary.
If Frankie’s partners are backing out of contracts, Mom and Dad will be hit hard.
They’ve already picked avocados that could have been left on the trees until the market was ready for them, and the longer they hold onto the cows, the more expensive they become.
I slide into my seat between Gerry and Junie and Larry. Barry is as enthralled by Bluey as Gerry is and hovers over Gerry and Junie, watching with them.
Larry leans his elbows on the counter and turns his head to me. “What’s the birthday plan for today?”
“Whatever Junie wants,” I tell him.
“The beach,” Junie says without looking away from the screen. “Daddy’s gonna build me a castle, like his Jo-Joe used to build him castles.”
Larry eyebrows rise. “You’re going to the cove?”
I nod.
“Good luck. It’s a mess down there.” He takes a sip of his coffee, then shoots Flo a smile that makes her eyes roll, but the seams of her mouth tug into a grin.
“I know it’s busier than usual.”
Pearl sets a mug in front of me and an entire pot of coffee. “You’ll be lucky to find enough sand to build a shack. Forget about a castle.”
Larry nods as Pearl leaves me to pour my own coffee.
“The hotel sets up beach chairs for their guests first thing in the morning. They take all the fire pits, then put up easy ups and tables, taking up enough space for a dozen or so people when there’s only three, maybe four in the party.”
Before I have time to process what he’s said, he offers more. “They’re putting in ‘landscaping’ too.” He makes finger quotes around landscaping. “To make it harder to get to the beach, unless you’re staying at the hotel.”
“They can’t do that. There are no private beaches in California.”
Larry looks at me like I’m still the na?ve kid who worked at Flamingo’s and let a group of girls flirt their way out of paying.
“They’re not officially blocking access to the beach, only making it impossible to walk to unless you park in their thirty-dollar-a-day lot.” He tips his head to his shoulder, like he’s daring me to say what else I think the developers can or can’t do.
“And the growers’ contracts? How are they getting out of those?” I ask.
“Finding little flaws that make the products too imperfect for them to buy or moving the goal post about what they consider ‘organic’ to an impossible marker.”
“But they signed contracts.” I let my na?ve teenage self surface again.
Larry snorts. “They’ve got the money to fight any claim that’s brought against them and keep it wrapped up in court for years till the little guys run out of money. That’s how they win.”
“Why haven’t I heard about any of this?”
“They’ve kept it pretty well under wraps until a reporter started digging around.” Larry claps me on the back as he stands. “If it helps you get over her any faster, you can remind yourself, Frankie’s partly to blame for this.”
“How so?” The instinct to protect Frankie proves stronger than my worries about how involved she is with what Sanctuary is doing. I don’t want the people who welcomed her here turning on her the way her dad did.
“She opened the door for developers. I appreciate that she tried to close it, but you only have to crack the door a little bit for those roaches to scurry in, then there’s no turning back.” Larry clicks his tongue, then puts on his hat. “Happy Birthday, Miss Juniper!”
Junie waves goodbye to Larry as Flo sets her smiley-face pancakes in front of her. She squeals with joy, but when Flo hands me my plate, I’ve lost my appetite.
I’m relieved Larry didn’t mention anything about Frankie being part of Sanctuary.
At least that’s still a secret. But I'm not sure what to do with the details I have that he doesn’t.
Larry thought he was giving me a tangential reason to forget her, but he may have given me the most concrete one he could.
Is being found the only reason she’s left Serenity Cove?
Or did she know this stuff with Sanctuary was coming?
Is she running from the people who’ve kept her secret and protected her for the last three years, leaving behind exactly what she swore she’d prevented when she bought out the original Serenity Cove Inn from under Malcolm?
I don’t want to believe she’d do something like that. That she’d hurt our community and my family.
Instead of eating, I text Mom and Dad to see if they know anything about Sanctuary cancelling contracts.
Mom texts back right away.
Just had an email from them. Says our products are below standard.
They’re threatening to back out of the avocados and beef if we don’t lower our prices. We can’t afford what they’re offering.
I’m glad I don’t have anything in my stomach. I feel sick.
That feeling stays with me when Junie and I leave Flamingo’s, all the way to the cove.
I can’t shake my suspicions about Frankie.
Especially when we reach the cove and discover everything Larry’s said is true.
Parking is impossible and the entrance to the cove is blocked by fencing and Under Construction signs.
Flatbed trailers with large palm trees and succulents line the street, taking up a dozen parking spots.
But Junie wants the beach for her birthday, so I pay the outrageous fee to park in the hotel parking lot for the day.
While Junie waits impatiently at my side, I pull beach chairs, an umbrella, and sand toys from the back of my truck. Just as I have everything balanced in my arms and on my back, my phone rings. I dig it out of the beach bag, just in case it’s an emergency call.
But it’s Frankie’s name on the screen.
I let it ring, wanting to answer, but not sure what to say if I do. I have to ask her what she knows, but I’m afraid of the answer. If it’s everything—or even a little bit of something—that’s it. Frankie and I will be done. All hope for seeing her again will be gone.
If our goodbye is forever, I don’t know how to save myself or my kid from missing Frankie even more than we already do.