Chapter Six
Donna set Lynette’s glass on the kitchen counter and retrieved the lemonade pitcher from the refrigerator. No sense dirtying another glass. She hoped she’d be able to catch Raven on the phone, though she might be at the hospital. A doctor’s hours were impossible to predict.
Her hip was bothering her again. She took her phone and lemonade into the sun porch off her bedroom instead of sitting on one of the hard wooden kitchen chairs. The porch would still be pleasant, and she could always turn on the ceiling fan if it got too stuffy.
Her old friend Raven Black picked up on the first ring.
“Donna! What a pleasant surprise! Unless there is something wrong with the house. If that’s the case, I don’t want to hear it. You and Lynette took it off my hands a year ago. Any plugged toilets or loose window sashes are officially your problem now.”
Donna laughed. “Not to worry, Raven. I’m not calling to complain about anything. Are you enjoying Salt Lake? Was it the right move for you and your husband?”
Raven’s chuckle sounded staticky. “As far as I’m concerned, it was definitely the right move. I love living close to the hospital in a maintenance-free condo. Well, it isn’t maintenance-free, of course, but from our perspective, anything that goes wrong with the place is someone else’s problem. How about you and that brilliant daughter of yours? I know when we last spoke, you worried Lynette was having trouble acclimating to small-town living. Has that gotten any better?”
“I’m not sure,” Donna admitted. “In New York, people knew Lynette. I know that seems crazy, given the countless ultra-successful people in the city, but it’s true. Here, in Ruby Shores, people have no clue that she used to run such a large-scale, successful online boutique. Or if they know, they don’t care. I’m not saying that’s wrong, or that people should fight for her attention. It’s just different. Maybe she’s getting acclimated. She walks almost every morning, which is great for her health and something she never did before. But I worry a little. She has a group of four good girlfriends and the five of them are taking a trip together in a week. It’ll be good for her.”
“What about you, Donna? I know that moving to Ruby Shores wasn’t easy for you, either. I sometimes regret calling you to tell you I was putting the house up for sale. You made me promise to do just that, but you had other dreams for your life. I know you wanted to do lots of travel when you retired. Aside from the whole pandemic mess, have you made any plans? You know, Lynette isn’t the only one who can travel with friends.”
The reminders of things Donna worried she was missing out on made her uncomfortable. “Raven, I called you with news. Not because I wanted to talk about me or my daughter the whole time.”
“Can you hold on a minute, Donna?”
There was a shuffling noise through the phone, along with the distant sound of sirens. Salt Lake wasn’t New York, but it was still a city. The sound of sirens around Ruby Shores was so infrequent, Donna noticed things like that now. In years past, her senses wouldn’t have even tuned in to it.
“Sorry about that,” Raven said, coming back on the line. “I’m glad we moved to Salt Lake, but I am still trying to get used to all the noise. Now, what did you want to tell me? Wait, let me guess. Do you have some juicy gossip about someone in my old hometown? Maybe even that cute, rich guy who lives a block down on Breconwood? The one I told you Lynette should ask out?”
Donna smiled. She knew all about Owen Jameson. “Lynette worked with Owen when they were kids. There’s no way she’d ever go out with him. She insists he’s always been in love with Jackie, one of her best friends.”
“Oh, fine. Forget I said it. I’d never be one to suggest breaking the sisterhood code. My grandma taught me that.”
Donna saw an opening. “Speaking of your grandmother, she’s actually the reason I called. I found something yesterday that I think you might be interested in. Well, Lynette found the box, but I remembered a set of keys that we needed to open it.”
“A box? But we had an estate sale before we moved. I packed up everything I wanted to keep, then we opened the house up with the help of a company that deals in estates. You wouldn’t have believed the crowd that showed up. Everyone was curious about the treasures Sybil might have left behind. Remember, she was quite the world traveler when she was younger. Before she took my brother and me in. They picked the house clean—except for the library, which I locked. It didn’t feel right to sell off all of Grandma Sybil’s books. It felt like those should stay with the house.”
“I’m so glad you kept the books. I spend hours in there every week. Sybil curated an eclectic mix of titles. But Lynette found the box outside.”
“Outside?”
“In the garden shed.”
Raven didn’t speak for a heartbeat. “Oh! I forgot about the shed. I didn’t bother to open that up as part of the sale. I figured it was just filled with junk. What was Lynette doing in there?”
It was getting stuffy in the porch. Donna had forgotten to turn on the ceiling fan. She stood and pulled the cord above her head. “Believe it or not, she’s turning it into a ‘she-shed,’ of all things.”
Raven laughed. “Because the main house doesn’t give you two enough space?”
“That’s pretty much what I said. According to my daughter, all the space in the main house is actually the reason she wants to carve out a cozy little area for herself. Neither of us has ever lived in such a big house before. I think all the open space makes her anxious.”
“That’s surprising. But, heck, she can afford it, so she should be able to turn our old house into anything she wants.”
Donna felt a hiccup of apprehension at Raven’s comments about finances, but she’d never admit something so private out loud. “She found an old wooden box on a shelf out there. It took me a minute, but then I realized I’d seen that box before.”
Raven let out a low whistle. “I think I know exactly which box you’re talking about, Donna. And you wouldn’t believe how long I looked for it when we were getting ready to move. I thought we’d lost it forever. Were there still things inside it, or was it empty?”
“Oh, it wasn’t empty.”
“You have no idea how relieved I am to hear that! Was there a ring inside?”
Donna nodded, then remembered Raven couldn’t see her. “There was a ring. It looks old. Or should I say ‘vintage’?”
“Was it a single diamond, rather small, with a gold band?”
“Yes,” Donna said, doing her best to recollect the details. “A square cut, I believe.” She could hear Raven clapping through the phone. “I’m so glad you’re excited about this. Was it Sybil’s? All I remember her wearing in the nursing home was a plain gold band.”
Lynette wandered into the porch. She’d caught her wet hair up in a loose bun on the top of her head. The box fan was in her hand. “Is that Raven?” she whispered.
“Yes,” Donna mouthed back, then said into the phone, “Hold on one second, would you, Raven?”
“Hi, Raven!” Lynette said in a raised voice, then said to Donna, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt. I’m headed out to the shed, but would you mind picking up more peanut butter when you get groceries? We’re out.”
Donna waved an acknowledgment, then shooed Lynette away. “Now, where were we?”
“The ring. Donna, I can’t tell you how excited I am that you found it, and that you called me. Grandpa gave it to Grandma Sybil when they first got married. I think it was maybe even his mother’s first, but she was dead by the time he met Sybil. Then, when my mother, Eleanor, married, they didn’t have money for a ring. Grandma insisted they use the family heirloom as her wedding ring. She didn’t like to wear it on her travels, anyhow, because she worried something might happen to it.”
Donna loved hearing how generous Sybil was with her daughter. Her own mother had never been that way. Maybe that was one of the big reasons she’d loved Sybil so much. “That is such a sweet story, Raven. And I’m sorry your mother died while you were still so young. You didn’t want to wear the ring when you got married?”
“Grandma Sybil offered, but by then I thought maybe the ring was more of a curse than a blessing. My grandfather’s mother died young. Shortly after my folks got married, my grandfather died in an accident. Then both my parents drowned. Mother was wearing that ring when they discovered her body. I never wanted it for a wedding ring, but I also recognize the family history behind it, so I wanted to at least keep it. But then I couldn’t find it. And Grandma Sybil’s memory had gotten so bad, she was no help.”
When she’d held the ring the night before, Donna hadn’t considered all the potential heartache tied to it. “I’d be happy to mail it to you, Raven. You should have it. There were also a few snapshots in the box. Based on names penciled onto the back, two were from your parents’ wedding day.”
Raven squealed. “Are you kidding? I remember those pictures! Sybil had similar ones in a frame in her room at the nursing home, but when I went through her personal items after she passed, the photographs were damaged beyond repair. I’m so glad you found more of them! Would you mind hanging on to the things you found? The next time we’re in Minneapolis to visit my in-laws we’ll drive over to Ruby Shores and pick them up. Plus, I’d get to see you again, which would be so fun.”
“Of course. I’ll put it all in safekeeping for you. Although there was one item in there that I doubt you want me to save.”
There was another voice in the background on Raven’s end.
“I’m sorry, Donna, but a patient is waiting for me, so I should go. But you have me curious. What else was in there that I wouldn’t want?”
“Sybil’s deck of tarot cards.”
“Well, that stinker,” Raven hissed. “She promised me she’d get rid of those things after the fright they caused us that night. She lied?”
Donna laughed. “Apparently. I had the same reaction you did when Lynette pulled them from the box. But Lynette loves them. She’s always had a thing for stuff like that. Should I toss them? Or maybe burn them, so they can’t come back to haunt you?”
“I don’t care what you do with them as long as I never have to see them again. Give them to Lynette, for all I care. I knew Sybil used to keep her tarot cards in that old box, but I didn’t realize she stored other things in there, like the photographs and ring. How do you suppose the box ended up in the shed? There’s no way Sybil could have put it out there. She wasn’t mobile enough anymore. Someone must have helped her. Oh well, I guess it doesn’t really matter. Seriously though, Donna, it was so good to hear from you again. I miss our chats. I have to go, but I’ll be in touch when we can get back there. You take care of yourself!”
“You, too, Raven. We’ll talk soon.”
Once the line went dead, Donna set her phone down and settled back into the comfortable wicker settee to sip her lemonade. She could see the rose garden and the back of the statue from her vantage point. Yesterday’s storm had knocked a few blooms off, and Lynette and Annie’s son had trampled some stems when they put the statue there, but she’d done her best to clean up the damage.
Working beneath that statue under the bright morning sun hadn’t bothered her as much as she’d worried it would. If she had her way, they’d banish that statue to the landfill. But it was old and hauntingly beautiful, and probably even valuable, so Lynette would never concede to having it hauled away.
Donna remembered seeing that statue of the girl during her first visit to this house. It was a crisp, cold winter day, and by then Sybil needed some assistance to get around, but she wasn’t yet confined to a wheelchair. Donna was there to help Raven get Sybil in and out of the house for her Sunday visit.
Sybil had asked Donna to walk her past the statue, even though it wasn’t the most direct path to the house. As they’d stood in front of it, sunlight glinted off the flowers in the girl’s hair and the single tear that meandered down Sybil’s pale, wrinkled cheek.
“Do you want to talk about it, Sybil?” Donna remembered asking the elderly woman.
Sybil, as Donna had come to know, had a fiery yet calm personality. Her display of emotion on that cold, cloudy day was out of character.
“Isn’t she beautiful?” Sybil asked.
Donna turned to the statue of the young girl in the middle of the barren winter garden. “She is. Does she have a story?”
Sybil had flicked the tear away, and a smile stole across her face. “She was a gift. My husband commissioned her for me for our tenth wedding anniversary. Our beautiful Eleanor was eight years old, and Clifford had the artist create this statue in her image. He said it would be so we could always remember our beautiful child like this, when we were old and gray, and she was off living her life somewhere fabulous with a family of her own. He was always a dreamer, and he promised she would be our first of many children. But, a year after Clifford surprised me with the statue, he was gone. Eleanor was our only child. He didn’t get to see her build a family of her own. He couldn’t have known that I’d be the only one turning gray and decrepit. He never got the chance. Even sweet Eleanor would never have the chance to turn gray. But at least she is here, in my garden. I like to remember her like this. So full of fun and laughter.”
Donna remembered the shiver that had raced through her. The statue may have been created in Sybil’s young daughter’s likeness, but she reminded Donna of a different little girl. One she’d loved with all of her heart. Much like Eleanor, that little girl would never have the chance to grow old.
A clatter pulled Donna out of her memories and back to the porch. Lynette must have dropped a stack of lumber outside the shed. Maybe she should go help her daughter. What other treasures might she be discovering out there that Sybil—or, if Raven’s theory was to be believed, someone else—had hidden away?
But she’d gotten up early to work in the garden, and she’d barely slept the night before. Instead of working in the hot shed, she’d allow herself the luxury of a quick nap, then she’d go pick up those groceries, as she’d promised. The breeze from the ceiling fan felt good against her skin, and the scent of roses rafted through the screens. Her eyes drifted shut, and she felt both lazy and comfortable.
Her thoughts returned to the statue, but this time the bowl at the girl’s feet overflowed with a deluge of rainwater instead of a dusting of snow. Overgrown rose bushes stood as high as her waist, and lightning flashed off the statue’s metal surface. Raven wanted to get Sybil back to the home, but Donna needed a minute to compose herself.
To humor Sybil—and perhaps calm her down on the difficult anniversary of her daughter’s death—Donna had finally allowed Sybil to do a reading for her. It was a simple three card spread with the tarot cards, and even though Donna didn’t believe in that stuff, Sybil’s warning had left her shaken.
As she stood beneath the pouring rain, attempting to pull herself together, Donna struggled to remember the precise names of the three cards. Sybil’s message had come as a shock, leaving her with an intense feeling of claustrophobia. The first card Sybil pulled depicted a child, a woman, and an old man. Sybil said it likely represented a child, sitting on a grandfather’s knee, while the mother looked on. The man passed traditions on to the child. The next card symbolized successful completion of one thing and the start of something new. According to the third and final card, things were coming full circle. Sybil suggested it might all mean it was time for Donna to go home.
Home . . . ?
Donna didn’t think the reading had anything to do with the tiny rental she shared with her daughter. The first card, with the man, could only mean one thing. Panic had sluiced through her veins as the message sank in. Lightning and thunder crashed beyond the windows of Sybil and Raven’s kitchen.
Donna had promised herself she’d never have to go home again.
Home wasn’t safe. Home was a place of lies and dangerous ignorance. No matter how dire things had gotten for Donna and Lynette through the years, even when there wasn’t enough food on the table or money for new school clothes, it was still safer than the home where Donna grew up.
No one, not even her teenage daughter, knew of the letter Donna had received earlier in the week. The one from her mother, begging her to come home. Her father was on his deathbed.
Now Sybil’s cards were telling her the same thing.
Were the cards a reminder that the past still held her hostage, and she was selfishly robbing her only daughter of this last chance to meet her grandfather?
The flood of emotions threatened to overwhelm her. She’d run outside, leaving Sybil with her cursed cards still spread out on the kitchen table before her. Donna was oblivious to the sheets of rain and flashes of lightning as she stood in front of the garden statue of young Eleanor. To Donna, the statue was a reminder of her baby sister, the one she’d failed to protect.
The one she’d failed to save.
Had she been fair to blame her father for her sister’s death so long ago? She’d been running ever since, but maybe she’d been wrong. She hadn’t run because she was pregnant. That came later.
Raven called for her from the house, insisting she come back inside, but Donna needed another minute to collect herself. Sybil’s words kept echoing through her brain.
Home . . . go home . . .
The warning terrified her, and it made her feel exactly like the failure her parents had warned her she’d be.
With the storm raging around her, a blur of movement had caught Donna’s attention. She spun toward it, but the ground was slippery with wet leaves and grass. The shadows tilted around her and she felt herself falling. Just before she hit the ground, lightning flashed again, and she thought she could make out the face of a man, or a boy, yelling something to her, before her world went black.
She jumped awake. Her cell phone was ringing. Disgust over allowing the nightmare to return enveloped her, and she swiped at the bead of sweat on her forehead. Those tarot cards were to blame. She’d take Raven up on her suggestion and burn the damn things.
The phone kept ringing. She eyed the screen and took a shaky breath. Dear Chester somehow always knew to call when she needed him the most.
A glance at the back shed confirmed that Lynette wasn’t paying her any attention. A cloud of dust erupted from the open door of the shed. Her daughter was busy with her own mission.
Donna allowed the dregs of sleep and the old nightmare to ebb away as she reached for her phone with a grateful smile.
Maybe Raven was right. Maybe it was high time she started pursuing her own dreams.