Chapter Eight #2
Wait – Belinda saw Luke today and didn’t tell Blair?
Blair glared at him, trying very hard, and honestly failing, not to look at the lush lips that were on hers not two days ago.
Someone in front of them shushed them loudly, so Bianca and Luke ended their little reunion chat.
Blair tried to focus on the town treasurer, but all she could think of was Luke, sitting three seats away.
Why could she still smell him with her sisters between them?
She was actually surprised he was at this meeting at all.
He was new here, and he wasn’t going to be in Moonbeam Hollow permanently.
At least with two people between them Blair wouldn’t have to speak to Luke.
After the treasurer was done talking about the dwindled summer budget, there were a few moments of disorganization as they prepared for the mayor to take the podium.
Luke leaned over Bianca to speak to Belinda. ‘I’ve been reading all afternoon. That’s why I was late. The book is phenomenal.’
Belinda beamed, always delighted when someone liked one of her book recommendations. ‘Yay! We have more books with the same vibe. There’s a great Middle-Eastern-inspired series that just released its third book. It’s similar to the Polynesian fantasy.’
‘Since when do you read fantasy?’ Blair blurted out, nose wrinkling. So much for not talking to the guy.
Luke raised one brow. ‘How would you know what I do or don’t read?’
‘I don’t remember you reading anything but video game guides.’
‘Okay, but people are allowed to change, aren’t they? I’ve always liked trying new things.’
‘Are you implying I don’t?’ Blair turned away from him. ‘Whatever, Luke. You keep saying I haven’t changed, but you’ve been gone for years. We clearly know nothing about each other anymore. And we should keep it that way.’
‘Children,’ Bianca interrupted with a patronizing tone. ‘Listen to the teacher.’
The women sitting in front of them, two older ladies who were members of the Stitch Witches, turned.
‘Luke,’ one of them said. It was Dottie Cornflower, Blair’s friend Melody’s mother. ‘Are you the same Luke who lived here years ago? Calista’s son?’
Luke nodded. ‘Yes, that’s me.’ His jaw was tense, maybe angry about what Blair had said.
The other woman narrowed her eyes. ‘I didn’t know you were back in town.’
‘It’s temporary,’ he said curtly.
Dottie smiled. ‘Oh, that’s a shame. Are you married? In a relationship?’
‘No. Single,’ he said.
Dottie liked to think she was the town matchmaker, despite the fact that she’d never made a successful match. ‘I had heard that your mother was returning to Moonbeam Hollow. I’m surprised. She always kept to herself when she lived here. Is she still single, too?’
Blair thought about saving Luke from these nosy busybodies, but he didn’t deserve to be rescued.
The mayor finally stepped to the podium, shushing the crowd.
‘Okay, that’s enough old business,’ Mayor Hazel said. She was dressed the same as when she’d been in the Harvest Moon Café earlier. ‘We are now open for new business. Raise your hand and Alex will give you the floor.’
Luke’s hand shot straight up with several others. What business could he have with the town? He’d barely been here a week. Blair didn’t have to wonder long, though, because Bianca flat-out asked him what his question was.
‘I want to launch the bakery at the festival,’ Luke said, ‘but all the vendor booths are already taken. I said I’d build my own, but the festival committee said the city would have to agree to that for insurance reasons.’
‘You can’t launch your bakery at the festival!’ Blair whisper-shouted. ‘Harvest Moon is the only café at the festival!’
Luke rolled his eyes. ‘You’re going to have to get used to a little competition, Blair. The bakery is going to open.’
‘Okay, but are you planning to serve drinks at your festival booth?’
‘I told you I don’t have a festival booth yet. But yes, I’d love to—’
‘So first you try to sabotage my café, then you steal my store sign and now you’re going to steal my festival customers?’
‘I didn’t steal your store sign! Or do anything else! As if I have time for any of that while I’m building a bakery!’
‘In grade ten you managed to find the time to break into my locker and fill it with rubber snakes!’
The busybodies in front of them shushed them again, so Blair raised her hand. She was furious, and she was going to request that any new festival booths would not be able to sell something an established business already sold.
Agatha and Raj had the floor for the first question.
Agatha, in addition to being the leader of the Stitch Witches and the biggest gossip in town, was the head of the Moonbeam Hollow Fall Harvest Festival committee.
Raj, a local farmer, was also on the committee, in addition to supplying all the pumpkins for the decor and pumpkin-carving contest. Agatha and Raj outlined all the problems they’d been dealing with for the last week in the festival and the farm.
Blair had known about the pumpkin blight, but she didn’t know that some of the festival signs had gone missing, or that someone had splashed red paint on the scarecrows they used in the hay maze.
This was alarming. The situation was much worse than Blair had thought.
Agatha and Raj requested extra funds from the town to pay for surveillance cameras for the festival shed, where the scarecrows and signs had been locked up. Blair wondered if she should mention her stolen sign, broken plant pots and tampered-with lock, too.
‘I’m a little confused,’ Mayor Hazel said after Agatha and Raj’s passionate plea. ‘What exactly are you talking about?’
‘The festival,’ Raj said. ‘The Moonbeam Hollow Fall Harvest Festival. It’s in its one hundredth year.’
‘I know Pine Falls Landing has been tampering with our signs and scarecrows!’ Agatha added. ‘They’re holding their own festival this year. All we need is a camera to catch them red-handed!’
Mayor Hazel nodded. ‘Of course, of course, we can’t be accusing anyone without evidence, but I don’t recall being told about this festival. Am I to understand that you are planning a festival in Moonbeam Hollow for this year? Have you applied for the necessary permits?’
What was going on? How could the mayor have forgotten about the Moonbeam Hollow Fall Harvest Festival since this afternoon?
An event going back a century? Blair’s stomach tied in a knot.
This was bad. A quiet hum passed through the room as townspeople murmured with concern.
Alex Liu stood and whispered something in the mayor’s ear, which made the mayor look even more confused.
‘What are you talking about, Alex? Moonbeam Hollow has never had a town festival of any kind. I’m a second-generation Moonbeam Hollow resident, and I’ve been the mayor of this town for fifteen years.
I think I would know if there was a festival every year. ’
‘What’s happening?’ Belinda whispered to Blair. ‘Could it be dementia?’
It was possible. The mayor was getting on in years, but Blair had never heard of any dementia that only affected one topic in a person’s mind. Everything else the mayor had said tonight had been normal. And Blair had talked to her about the festival only this afternoon.
The mayor’s wife, Moonbeam Hollow’s only dentist, Dr. Fairwood, walked up to the front and whispered something in Mayor Hazel’s ear.
She looked so worried – everyone at the front did.
When the mayor still looked confused, Dr. Fairwood spoke to Alex.
Alex nodded and stepped up to the podium.
‘Unfortunately, this meeting will need to be adjourned early. Please have patience while the mayor gets some much-needed rest. Thank you all, and please stack your chairs before leaving, as usual.’
* * *
Blair had a lot of trouble sleeping that night, worried about the mayor, the town and, most of all, worried about her sisters.
The mishaps were no longer harmless pranks.
The mayor’s mind had somehow been tampered with.
One thing that all three of the Briarwoods agreed on during their walk home was that magic had to be behind these things.
There was no way a normal person could wipe the mayor’s memories like that, especially since it seemed only her memories about the festival were affected.
But knowing that there was a magical culprit didn’t really help much.
It would be harder to find a magical being trying to destroy the harvest festival than it would be to find a normal person doing it.
Eventually at about three in the morning, Blair gave up trying to get any more sleep and went downstairs to research on her laptop.
Everything she searched was a dead end, though.
She looked up if it was possible for someone to lose memories selectively, and while she found some evidence that it was possible, it was only when the event they were blocking had severe trauma associated with it.
The last festival had been fine. Blair didn’t know of any trauma the mayor may have experienced there.
In fact, Mayor Hazel and Blair had talked about last year’s festival only two weeks ago when the mayor asked Blair if she was going to serve pumpkin spice boba tea again.