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The wine did the trick, leveling out all the emotions of the day: the exhausting trip, Floyd’s disturbing stories, the surprise of the devastatingly handsome Justin Chastain (Justy) outside her gate, and the first night under the cottage roof alone.
Cleaning up from dinner, she took the tray inside. The front door was a sturdy solid wood, probably cypress, and she locked it and put the chain and barrel bolt locks in place and, like she had in the back, closed all the shutters around the first floor. The air could circulate, but no one would get into those windows without making a racket. She left a nightlight burning on the first floor just to keep it from being a black void, and after taking one last look around, she climbed the staircase.
Chapter 2
The sun streamed in the back window of the master bedroom, and when Maggie finally woke up at nine, she was sweaty and miserable.
“Ugh,” she moaned, climbing out of bed.
She got in the shower immediately, and cool water felt so good on her hot flesh. The key was to get ahead of it, so she quickly closed the shade facing the back and opened the windows to the front of the house.
Downstairs was still cool, so she left everything closed up. Checking her phone due to force of habit, the feeling of anxiety washed over her when she was reminded by the wordsno signalon the face. She could have a tower and a dish installed and was seriously considering doing that because no cell and no internet would not be tolerable for long. Thankfully, there was the landline with the static and bad service, but it was better than nothing, along with the old-fashioned answering machine.
Coffee was the first order of the morning, and then her mother and aunt. Rose and Elizabeth would be waiting for a call. She took coffee out on the porch. Dew on spiderwebs and sun shining on the water from behind her activated images of mornings past, sitting out there with her grandmother and having her grandpa bring them both plates of french toast. His chickens often came right up on the porch as they ate, and Aunt Elizabeth, her grandmother’s younger sister, would shake her head in disgust.
“Lonnie, don’t let those lice-ridden critters get around the little girl. You’ll have to shave her head, I’m warning you.”
Maggie grabbed her head and reared back from the chickens. “Grandpa, that’s not true, is it?”
Her grandfather bent down and picked up the biggest chicken, a red-feathered monstrosity, and rubbed his head on her feathers.
“What do you think, Sassy? Look at my hair. Do you think I’m gonna get lice?”
“No, sir. I don’t think you’d be rubbing your head on that dirty chicken if you were gonna get lice.”
“My chickens are not dirty,” Grannie Langtry said, reaching for the chicken that grandpa had terrorized. “Come here, sweetheart.”
She held the chicken out to Maggie to pet.
“Lookie how tame she is, Sassy. She’ll eat right outta my hands. And she gives us the nicest eggs every day. You might get lice from Aunt Elizabeth before you’d get it from this nice chicken. She’s traumatized by Lonnie Langtry rubbin’ his big ole head on her.”
Elizabeth hid her mouth behind her hand, laughing. Her sister telling the child she’d give her lice was not the worst thing that was ever said about her.
“I think that chicken liked it,” Grandpa said, grinning. “You ladies want anything else? Coffee? Elizabeth, you sure I can’t get you some breakfast?”
Coming back to reality, Maggie had been transported for a moment to the innocence of her childhood, the tender love of her grandparents and aunt in that wonderful old place. She was sure that wouldn’t be the last memory she’d entertain that day.
She dragged the phone out to the porch. The receiver weighed at least a pound. Then she couldn’t remember her mother’s number, so she had to look it up on her phone.
“I didn’t recognize the number at first,” Rose said before she said hello. “Liz reminded me it was the cottage number.”
“Yep, no cell service out here yet, but I’m going to spring for the tower and the dish. I’ve got to have internet.”
“Smart move, bring that place right up to date. So how was it? That first night all alone in the swamp.”
“I slept like the dead,” Maggie answered. “Passed out by ten and didn’t get up until after nine.”
“That air will do it to you. Plus you had the trip and all. I feel a little jealous, to tell you the truth.”
“Come visit, Mom.”
“No, not that. I wish I would have done something like you’re doing. That’s pretty adventuresome, moving all alone to the most desolate place in America.”
They laughed at her description. “It’s not that bad. And I had a visitor already.”
“Who!”
“Justin Chastain.”
