Chapter Seventeen
A s I walked home, I pondered what Lise had told me.
Leo had labeled me a witch. That, in itself, didn’t concern me.
Thanks to his research, Leo was steeped in folk magic, and people probably figured he saw witches everywhere.
Besides, his definition of witch was fluid and applied to regular people who cast spells as well as those rumored to have magical abilities.
History interested him. Folk tradition. I didn’t even know if he believed in magic.
Why had she brought it up at all? Unless she had magic, too. I’d felt a gut-level connection with Lise, but I couldn’t tell if I should trust it or stay far away.
Rodney emerged from the brush to follow me along the trail. After a dozen yards or so, he dashed into the bushes again. A few steps later, I saw why. One of the workers from the Empress’s renovation was ambling toward me. He lifted his baseball cap and raked a hand through dirty hair.
For a split second I wondered if I should be worried by his furtive glances to the side. Here, if I screamed, no one would hear me. The nearest building was the library, and that I knew to be empty.
Then the construction worker smiled, and my fear dropped away. I recognized him as Cliff, the man arguing with Tyrone earlier in the week, the one who lived in his van. No wonder Cliff was out stretching his legs on the trail, although I would have thought he’d be at work.
There was no way we could pass each other without a greeting.
“Hello,” I said. “I’m surprised to see you. I didn’t think many people knew about this trail.”
“Why not? It seemed like a good afternoon for a walk.”
I raised an eyebrow at his defensive tone. “Obviously, I agree.” Tyrone had said that he and Cliff went “way back.” Did that include way back to Baltimore?
Cliff looked to the right and left. “Nice day.”
Not much I could say to that. “How do you like Wilfred?”
“It’s all right, I guess.” He stepped forward. “I heard you and Tyrone were talking at the tavern.”
Cliff may have warned me off Tyrone, but that didn’t mean I had to follow his every command. Besides, I barely knew the man. I braced myself. “That’s right. You told me to stay away from him.”
“I warned you. Don’t believe anything he says.” Cliff turned to leave.
“Just a moment, please. What, specifically, has Tyrone done that makes him so dangerous?”
Cliff opened his mouth, then closed it and nodded. “I’ve already said too much. I’ll be moving on.”
“One more thing,” I said, before he’d taken more than a few steps. “Are you from Baltimore?”
“Am I what?”
“Baltimore.” I quickly searched for the right way to say it. “I know someone in Wilfred originally from Baltimore, and he thought he recognized an old friend in the crew at the Empress.” Only a slight fib.
He looked at me with curiosity. “What’s your friend’s name?”
“Ian Penclosa,” I said.
Cliff’s expression cleared. “Never heard of him.”
“It’s probably nothing,” I said. “So many new people in town.” New subject. “Are you local?” I knew the answer, but it seemed the polite thing to ask.
He seemed to accept my explanation and let it go.
“No. I’m camping in my van. I like the lifestyle.
” He smiled that vulnerable smile again.
“In the construction business, framers are known as hard workers and hard partiers. I can’t say they’re wrong.
I like to travel, see nice places like this.
” He took in the landscape— the fir trees, rich smell of pine needles and loam, the Delft blue sky.
A song sparrow trilled in the background.
Once again, he turned to leave. We continued on our ways—me to the library, and Cliff, presumably, toward the retreat center and millpond.
I couldn’t say I was getting closer to answers about Ian, but at least I’d eliminated Lise as a suspect. I also received a doubled-down warning against Tyrone. That is, if I could believe either one of them.
* * *
I was used to Lalena coming to the library for regular baths in the old mansion’s mammoth clawfoot tub, but it was rare for me to visit her at home.
Tonight she’d invited me to dinner. Both of us were in love with men who were MIA, and both of us felt it deeply.
I suspected tonight might end up as a meeting of the Lonely Hearts Club.
I wished I had more hope to offer her about Ian, but at least I could proffer one bit of news.
It was early evening when I made my way to the Magnolia Rolling Estates.
I kept an eye on Babe Hamilton’s trailer, just behind Lalena’s.
The curtains were drawn, and her car was gone.
My magic still felt free and full, and books talked to me from the homes I passed—from a farming magazine in one home, hens clucking and a droned list of planting dates; from another home, a historical romance’s orchestral waltz.
Through Lalena’s screen door, I waved the bottle of pinot gris I’d brought.
Lalena, wearing a vintage chemise likely from Babe’s stall at the This-N-That, answered the door. Her chemise would be perfectly safe since Babe—or should I call her Beata?—hadn’t charmed it.
“We’d better not drink all of that,” she said, “not if you’re going to the meeting at the retreat center tonight.”
With that, Rodney let out a mournful meow. I sighed. “Maybe I should have brought two bottles. You’re coming, too, aren’t you?”
“I can’t. I have a communication at seven with Maggie Foster’s grandmother. Maggie can’t find her photo album anywhere and thinks her nana knows where it is.”
Nana Foster had passed away last winter. She’d been known for her prowess at scrapbooking and likely had squirreled away a dozen albums.
“What’s for dinner?” I asked. I didn’t smell anything cooking, and the kitchen counters were bare.
“Hors d’oeuvres.” Lalena opened the refrigerator. “Bean dip, pickle-flavored potato chips, crackers, cheese puffs, hickory smoked almonds, and malted milk balls.” She turned to me. “Is that okay? It’s too hot to cook.”
I made a mental note to get out the antacids. “Sounds great.”
“Let’s eat outside. The heat has brought out a second flush of roses.”
Normally I’d jump at the chance to sit in a lawn chair in the crazy quilt of roses, dahlias, and zinnias outside.
When Lalena had inherited the trailer from her aunt, its yard had been an expanse of white rock.
Slowly, Lalena had replaced the rock with fresh soil and plants, and now her yard matched her character: messy, lovely, and slightly eccentric.
Today, however, I was on the alert for Babe Hamilton. “Outside would be nice.” As if I’d only just thought of it, I added, “Have you seen Babe lately?”
The cork gave a hollow pop as Lalena opened the bottle of wine. “Didn’t you hear the news?”
“Hear what?”
“She’s giving up her booth and leaving Wilfred. It was all really sudden. In fact, she might already be gone.” She pushed aside the kitchen window’s ruffled curtain. “Her car’s not in the drive.”
She’d left town? It couldn’t be this easy. My magic was truly powerful. I’d vanquished a witch. “I wonder why she left?”
Lalena shrugged. “Family emergency? Beats me.”
When we’d settled outside, I sprang my news. “I might have a lead on Ian.”
Lalena paused, malted milk ball in hand. “What?”
“Orson says Ian is from Baltimore. They’ve talked about it when Ian was watching baseball at the bar.”
“Baltimore. Really?” Lalena’s focus softened, as if she were picturing Ian as a kid among the row houses.
I nodded. “The construction manager at the Empress is from Baltimore, too. I wonder if Ian saw him— Tyrone Beaudrie is his name—and fled? They might have a past.”
Lalena stared thoughtfully into the distance. “Tyrone. Ian never mentioned him. Of course, he never mentioned Baltimore, either. Tyrone is the snappy dresser, right?”
“Shined shoes, ironed button-down, that’s him. I asked him if he knew Ian, but the name didn’t ring any bells.”
“If I’d brought up Baltimore to Ian, I bet he would have switched the conversation to Edgar Allan Poe.” She drew her attention back to me. “What would scare him so much that he’d leave town without telling me?”
“I wish I knew.” I pushed the pickle-flavored chips toward her. “It’s the not-knowing that’s the worst, isn’t it?”
Sadly, I spoke from experience. Sam had cut me out of his life as if I’d never existed.
If anyone had asked me a month ago if he’d ever do anything like this— refuse to even give me a reason for utterly ghosting me—I’d have insisted they were wrong.
That it wasn’t like him to behave that way.
Sam had always acted with integrity. Once he returned all the way to the P.O.
Grocery during a downpour to refund a quarter to the cashier who’d accidentally given him too much change.
But I was the wrong one. I’d revealed who I truly was, a witch, and therefore ceased to exist for him. That he wouldn’t face me to explain hurt even more.
“Why does it always end like this?” Lalena asked. I’d never heard this kind of pain in her voice. “Always.”
“Surely you’ve had good relationships, and you will again,” I said.
“No.”
“But,” I said, “men love you. And you love them.” Lalena had a reputation for falling for bad boys. Ian, although mysterious, had seemed like something new. Unless he wasn’t.
“So what if men are interested in me?” She clasped her hands in her lap. “Sure, they’re intrigued, and, sure, I know how to engage a guy looking for a diversion, but that doesn’t mean I can keep a relationship going more than a few months. The thing is….”
“What, Lalena?”
“The thing is, as I told you, I was sure it was different this time.”
I understood. I had thought it was different for me, too. I had felt so at ease with Sam. Not that he was perfect, but I loved his quirks and felt confident he loved mine. Still, I asked, “How?”
She let out a sigh more eloquent than words.
“It was so easy to talk with him. I felt I could be myself, and we had so much fun together.” The look on her face broke my heart.
“We did dumb stuff together, like pretend we were part of a reality TV show. We laughed so hard. You should see his Donald Duck impersonation.”
I felt as if my grandmother’s words were leaving my lips. “Your grief is proof of your love.”
Lalena looked at me like I’d grown another head. “Where did that come from?”
“I’m right, aren’t I?” I said. “You felt something special with Ian. The flip side of that feeling—of letting yourself be known so deeply—is the pain that comes with its loss.”
In saying these words, I knew they were true. Even if Sam never looked my way again, I didn’t regret my time with him. It had ended too soon, but it had been worth it.
A crow cawed from somewhere nearby, and I jolted to upright in my chair before relaxing again. Babe was gone, and crows did exist outside of her , I reminded myself.
“What?” Lalena said.
“Nothing.” Then, seeing a few people walk down the trailer park’s central lane followed by another clump of Wilfredians, I said, “Do you usually get this much traffic in the evening?”
“It’s people on their way to Wanda’s meeting.” She cleared our plates from the table. “Don’t you think you’d better go?”