After one ring, Mom-Elise answered, “Calisa!”
There was background noise: voices, music. Mom-Elise must be out somewhere. It was Tuesday—errand day.I can’t have this conversation while she’s in public.“Hey, just…calling to say hi,” Calisa said.
“So good to hear your voice!” In the background, she heard a man asking Mom-Elise whether she wanted a quarter pound or a half. “Quarter of the cheddar. Half of the cranberry Wensleydale.” To Calisa, she said, “Honey, I’m at Brew Cheese. Can I call you when I’m home? Is everything okay?”
“Everything’s fine,” Calisa said. She paced beside her bed, as far as she could before the phone cord went taut. “Just had a question. Actually more of a question for Mom-Kate.”
“She’s got work meetings all day, but I’ll tell her. You can call back tonight, if you want? Are you sure everything’s all right? Do you feel okay? Is Auntie Zee being nice to you? I know she can be…brusque, but she’ll warm up to you, I’m certain of it.”
“Listen—do you know if…” She had no idea how to ask the question, especially in any way that Mom-Elise could answer while she was out in public. Stretching the phone cord, she crossed to the window and looked out at the mountains blanketed in pine trees. “Is there something special about the inn that I should know about?”
“It is a special place, especially to Kate,” Mom-Elise said. More carefully, she added, “I think she’s hoping you’ll discover all the things that made it special to her, when she was a kid.”
That…was a kind of answer all on its own. Unless Calisa was reading into it what she wanted to hear? “I think I’m beginning to?” She didn’t know how to put what she’d seen into words, or if she was ready to. If she said it, it would make it real, and she wasn’t sure she was ready for it to be real. She wasn’t even sure whatitwas.
“No, half pound of the Wensleydale.” Then to Calisaagain: “Give the inn a chance. I know it’s not what you were expecting—”
“Yeah, you could say that.”
“—but it could be wonderful. And I think…Yes, half pound. I think you’re exactly what that place needs. You’ll give it a chance, won’t you? Open a few doors, both metaphorically and literally?”
For an instant, Calisa couldn’t breathe.
“Calisa?” Mom-Elise sounded worried.
She felt dizzy, and her knees wobbled like Jell-O. Leaning her head against the window, she looked down and saw Steve curled on top of the statue’s head, beside the apple tree. “I’ll give it a chance,” she promised.
“That’s my girl,” Mom-Elise said. “Love you to the moon.”
“Love you to the stars,” Calisa said, staring down at the statue with Steve sunning his lizardy body. “And back.”
The phone clicked, and she returned to the bedside table and placed it on the receiver. Staring at it, she reminded herself to inhale and exhale.
Across the room, the fire began to inexplicably blaze in the fireplace again, flames dancing over the logs. “No,” she told it. “No. I have to think.”
She grabbed Jack’s father’s cookbook and bolted out of the room, refusing to look back at the weirdly temperamental fire. She had too many questions. She felt as if they were all swirling inside her, threatening to rise up into her throat and choke her.
She’d bake the cake, and then…she had alotof questionsfor Auntie Zee. Of course, she wasn’t sure if she’d be allowed to ask any of them, and she had no idea where to begin.
First, make the cake. And breathe. She needed to remember to breathe.
In the kitchen, Calisa read the recipe twice, three times, before actually focusing on the words.I’ll need flour, sugar, eggs, butter, vanilla, salt, baking powder, vegetable oil, milk….A minute later, she had all the ingredients out of the cabinets and strewn across the counter. After a bit of searching, she found two cake pans. She’d make a two-layer cake and spread jam between the layers. She’d seen some raspberry jam in one of the cabinets. It was almost like a Victoria sponge cake, minus the cream.
No thinking. No questions.
Not yet.
As Calisa mixed the dry ingredients, she glanced out the back window and saw that the statue was no longer with the lizard beside the apple tree. Instead, it was on the path to the greenhouse. Its hands were clasped again, and it was in profile, as if looking out at the mountains. Calisa paused, gawked for a moment, and then turned back to stirring even more vigorously.
“It could be wonderful,”Mom-Elise had said on the phone.
She knew,Calisa realized.
“Open a few doors, both metaphorically and literally?”
She absolutely knew.
Maybe both her moms had known all along, even back as far as the visit with the chocolate strawberries.I can understand them not telling me then. But why notbeforeI got on thetrain?Even a hint. Or a warning. Would that have been so terrible?Hey, just a heads-up, Calisa,they could have said,there’s something about the inn we think you should know.
