“Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson both stayed here while they were in office. The fairy stones brought them to this county.”
“I can’t believe I’ve never heard of them until coming here,” Natalie said. “And then within a couple of days of coming here, I’d heard about them twice! I’ve got to see these fairy stones for myself. If there even is such a thing. I’m picturing those little elves that make cookies in a tree, soldiering forth with lapidary tools between cookie cooling to make them in their spare time.”
“It’s a natural phenomenon. I have a whole collection of them. Come with me. I’ll show you.”
Natalie got up and followed Orene into another room of the house. One she’d never been in.
“See here.” She lifted a large flat box with a glass top. It wasfilled with cross-shaped stones. “There are four types of fairy stones. Three are crosses.”
“And they just come that way?”
“Yep, they form this way all on their own.” She lifted the glass top and shuffled through the pile, setting a few out on the table, one at a time. “It’s really quite amazing. There are just a few shapes, but they can range from a tiny quarter of an inch to two inches, like this one.” She held up a large cross between her finger and thumb.
“I like the smaller ones.”
“Me too. See, here’s St. Andrew’s cross. This one is a Maltese, and this one’s a Roman cross.”
Natalie held her hair back as she leaned over for a closer look. “It’s amazing.”
Orene lifted the small Roman cross and pressed it into Natalie’s hand. “They are said to bring good luck. I want you to have this one.”
Where was this before I met Marc Swindell?“I might need a whole pocketful of them. I’ve been pretty unlucky of late.”
Orene tsked. “Oh, just one will do the trick. I promise. I’ve lived a lot of years in this county. I’ve seen them work firsthand.”
“Who am I to argue? Do I have to wish on them or something?”
“No. Just have it. That’s all there is to it.”
She didn’t feel any different, but what could it hurt?
Chapter Twenty-Nine
NATALIE COULDN’Twait to have lunch with Orene and meet her friend Nelle. She arrived at Orene’s just after twelve so they’d have plenty of time before she had to take Paul on his scheduled grocery shopping outing.
When Natalie got to Orene’s, she noticed the new decorations she’d put up.
“Orene. It’s me,” Natalie called through the screen door. There was a new wreath on the front door made of fall leaves in green, gold, and orange. Orene had added a row of deep wine-colored mums along the steps up the porch too. On each of the pillars she had tied colorful ears of corn with raffia. It looked so festive.
Orene came to the door wearing black capris and a fun T-shirt with a row of toothy pumpkins across the front. Her hair wasn’t in her usual tidy bun; instead it hung down her back. Natalie had never realized her hair was so long. “You look pretty.”
“Thank you.”
“Are you ready to go? I can drive.”
“No need for all that. It’s just up the road apiece. Right here off Main Street. Let’s walk.”
As Orene pulled a pumpkin-colored sweater over her T-shirt, Natalie waited on the porch. Orene didn’t tarry one second, walking right past Natalie on her way out the door. “Let’s go. Maybe we can still beat the big lunch crowd,” she said as she marched down the stairs.
Natalie jogged to catch up with the spry old woman, who was pointing out the spots where the concrete seams had risen and might trip an unsuspecting newcomer.
Other than that, Orene didn’t have much to say on the walk to Nelle’s.
Orene swerved into the hardware store’s front entrance, which took up the better part of this block. A trio of bells rang as they walked inside and headed to the right, hoofing it toward the back.
Natalie puppy-dogged behind the little woman, who wove between the rows of bolts and hardware and paintbrushes. Throwing a hand in the air, she said, “Heya, Bobby Wayne. What’s cookin’ today?”
“Hey, Orene. She’s got jambalaya that’ll smack your lips for you.”
