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“Flora.”
“You know her name?”
“Yeah. She’s actually the real deal.”
“Sadie? Are you sure?” Linda’s brown eyes widen.
“You don’t have to wait for me. You can drop me off.”
“What? This all sounds so crazy.”
“Do you want to wait for me?”
I know she doesn’t, and before she lies and says it doesn’t matter, I insist that she drops me off.
Our commute is fairly quiet. There’s something solemn about traveling on these dirt roads right now that makes me feel disconnected. It’s almost like I am saying goodbye. Maybe I am.
When Linda pulls up to Flora’s shack, it’s only a quarter past noon. We say our goodbyes, and I tell her I’ll keep her posted. Something tells me that she’s going to immediately call Emily and tell her everything that she knows. Or maybe not. Regardless, I feel it in the soles of my feet that I probably won’t be seeing them anytime soon.
Similar to the last time I visited Flora, she is right at her screen door staring out at me. Her smile is wide, and her mini teeth gleam as if she just bleached them. Come to think of it, it’s probably just magic, but she holds the door open for me and declares, “Yes, you are experiencing the forest.”
Her home is nice and cool. I place my backpack on the floor and take a seat at her dining room table.
“Sadie…the truth shall set you free!”
She has two champagne glasses on the table with carbonated water and lemon slices. My eyes swell with tears as it hits me that out of this entire town, it’s right here where I feel the safest. Right here, I feel like I am seen and heard and loved. Inside the little blue shack that people in this town fear is where I feel free enough to be myself.
“Congratulations on entering the forest!”
We clink our glasses, and I take a sip. She slides me a box of tissues, so I can wipe my eyes. We sit in silence for a couple of minutes as she holds space for me to find which words to say. There is no sense of rush around us, and this makes me hopeful and, dare I say, a little bit happy.
“Thank you for this.” I finally speak.
“Sadie?”
I look up at Flora. She wears a sparkly silver blouse with an array of crystal necklaces. Her skin is nearly golden from all her sun exposure, but as always, it appears healthy.
“Yes?”
“Thank you. I want to thank you.”
“For what? What did I do but disgrace my family with nude photos of me and—”
“You shouldn’t apologize for that. Shame on the person who took those photos. Shame on the person that wanted to have them taken if they aren’t the same person. I can’t see that situation as clearly, but I know what they did was an attack on you. You don’t need to apologize. You need to feel the pain and the sadness, and if you feel any shame, ask yourself why.”
Interesting, but “Why did you thank me?”
“For being you in this town of folks who don’t want to be themselves! Anytime anyone in Hillpike questions themselves or questions things that ought to be questioned, I thank them. I do. And that is no shade on this town because I love small towns, but Hillpike can be the worst of small towns when they choose ‘small-mindedness’ over ‘community.’ It is not the same. You can be a small-town person and have an open mind and an open heart. Look at you. Look at me! Hillpike needs me because we’re not the only ones here with open minds and open hearts, so that’s why I stick around here. But as for you…Sadie, I would leave this town.”
“But how?”
“You can call him here if you want to.”
I sip from my glass. I don’t want to call Freddy because he has more to lose than I do.
“I’m not ready for that.”
“Then ask yourself what you are ready to do.”
