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Eleven
This long stretch of highway always made Bunny feel as though she was well and truly beyond civilization. Thick ranks of pine trees marched steadily up the hill on her right and the marshy fields next to the river on her left were familiar enough to give her a sense of home, but not of belonging. No matter how many times she tried to redirect her thoughts to the city being her home, she hated to entertain the dark thought she had whenever she came to this town:
You could take the girl out of Mosswood, but could you ever really take the Mosswood out of the girl?
It was just starting to get dark when Bunny pulled Morticia off the highway into the Beep’n Sleep, the gas station-slash-motel squatting on the city limits. The hearse’s headlights shone off the windows of the office, announcing to the owner that a customer was waiting.
Maude Merriweather was a tall, well-built woman who seemed to be in her early seventies. She’d owned and run the Beep’n Sleep ever since Bunny could remember; her curt manner was famous the whole town over. For some reason, her shock of curly white hair always seemed a little windswept.
“Well now, look what the cat dragged in,” Maude drawled, shuffling out of the office and letting the old screen door bang closed behind her. She eyed Bunny appraisingly. “You here to see your kinfolk?”
Bunny opened Morticia’s driver’s-side door, making it look like an extended bat wing. “Sure am,” she replied, scooting over to unlock the gas tank. “Fill her up, please. Old girl needs a little jiggle juice.”
“Don’t we all,” Maude muttered, tempting Bunny into a smile. The drive had been long and plagued by conflicting thoughts and feelings. As much as she hated coming back to Mosswood, good people like Maude made it a little bit worthwhile.
“I know your Pa’ll be pleased,” Maude told her, reaching for the pump with businesslike efficiency, as though they had only just spoken days ago, not weeks. “For what it’s worth, I am too.”
“That’s kind,” Bunny smiled. “Thank you.”
Maude popped the nozzle into the gas tank and got to filling. “Kind, schmind,” she scoffed, squinting in the low light to make sure that the pump was working properly. “We don’t hold with grudges, now do we girls?”
A small but well-kept hen house sat squarely next to the office on a patch of sweet grass. The chickens inside were clucking quietly to themselves, as they all settled in to roost.
“How’re they keeping?” Bunny asked, craning her neck in an attempt to peer through the fading light for a glimpse of Maude’s chickens—known locally as The Dames.
“Good as ever, bless your heart,” Maude smiled. “Suspect the summer’s gonna be tough on them, though. I’m fixin’ to install a new misting system.”
Genuine affection looked good on the somewhat grizzled older woman, making Bunny wonder whether she’d ever had a husband, or a family. No one really talked about it. She’d always just known Maude as… well. Maude.
She fixed her with a warm smile. “I’m sure they’ll love it.”
“I’m sure they will,” Maude parroted back before falling into a short silence.
Bunny raised a brow and was just about to ask a question to fill the silence when Maude stepped up to the plate.
“We all miss her,” the older woman said. “Just thought you oughta know it.”
There was such tenderness in her voice, and even though Maude hadn’t said her mother’s name, Bunny knew exactly who ‘she’ was. A lump formed in the back of her throat, and she swallowed it down quickly before she could be coaxed too close to tears.
“Thanks,” she said, a little hoarsely.
“Well now,” Maude replied, glancing at her as though to check she was all right before giving into a one-shouldered shrug. The gesture was clear—enough emotion for one night. “Figured you needed t’hear it, and might not from anyone else,” she added.
Bunny smiled, her heart warmed. “You’re a peach.”
“I’m an old woman who’d do well t’mind her own,” Maude disagreed with good humor. “But that ain’t never stopped me meddlin’ before.”
Bunny chuckled ruefully before she could stop herself. You and I have that in common,” she told Maude, before a thought occurred to her. No one in town was as connected to Mosswood gossip as Maude Merriweather.
Bunny nodded in the direction of the town. “Speaking of meddling,” she began, hoping she was on the right track. “Do you know anything about what Mom got up to before…”
“Before it happened?” Maude finished for her.
Bunny nodded. “I’d ask Dad, but I don’t want to upset him.”
“Of course you don’t. This whole thing’s been hard enough on him as it is.
“Now let me see. I know that she’d been in to see Dr. Goode. And Elladine over at The Moon said that she saw Connie the day before, because she went in to buy some bread. And then of course bridge club would have had their regular weekly gatherin’.”
