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“Can’t you see?”
“No. Sally borrowed my phone to use as a flashlight, and when she ran back out, she took it with her.”
“Oh. I guess I better conserve the batteries on mine. It’s down to 7%.” And that was before she’d just used it for the last five minutes.
She turned her phone off as she spoke, wishing she had not been so busy all day and had thought to plug her phone in. Even an hour would have made a difference.
“Who lets their phone get down to seven percent?”
“I know. I was busy doing the barn dance stuff. Decorating and I even did some baking this morning, and I arranged a lot of things, and I also had to watch a few YouTube videos because I couldn’t get the icing just right on my cake—” She closed her mouth. There was no point in trying to explain it.
“I forgot. So you’re the one who organized that?”
“There were a lot of people involved, but I guess I kind of was in charge.”
She was in charge because no one else wanted the job. Or, she should say more fairly, no one else had time.
“How did you get that honor?” he asked, and the humor was back in his voice. He didn’t seem terribly upset.
She tugged harder on the door as she spoke. “I guess I just had time. Maybe because I’m not married and don’t have kids. And I wanted to, really. I love Strawberry Sands, and the idea of a barn dance was super fun.”
She still couldn’t get it to move. The door was just not budging.
“Do you think you can push from that side? I mean, I don’t want you to worry about stepping on the cat, wherever she is.”
“There are some rags or something over in the corner, and that’s where she was. That’s where I hear her meowing. Is it normal for a cat to meow while she’s having babies?”
“I’m not sure.” She bit her lip. She did work with animals for a living, but mostly dogs and never while they were having babies. If he had a question about how to clip a dog or what the best shampoo to use was or which brush would fluff hair the best, she could give him some advice.
“I suppose if we get the door open, you can come in and use your phone flashlight to see what’s going on. Maybe it’s completely normal.”
“Yeah,” she said, remembering that her phone was at seven percent, and they wouldn’t have much time to use the flashlight at all.
She didn’t remind him.
“I’m pretty sure the door comes this way. I mean, that makes sense, right?” Surely she hadn’t been trying to pull the door when she was supposed to push it.
“Yeah, I think so. It latches on that side, so that would make sense.”
He sounded like he was thinking about it, and Eleanor figured as a businessman, Franklin wouldn’t have had much opportunity to open doors like this one.
She shivered. She hadn’t realized how cold it was. At the barn dance, she’d been active the whole time, bustling around, trying to make sure everything worked just fine. She’d taken a few minutes to rest, mostly when she’d been talking to Sally, and the one time when she went over to ask Franklin to dance with her. Otherwise, she’d been busy most of the night.
Now that she was standing around, the cold was starting to get to her. Her fingers felt it the most, but the rest of her shivered.
“I don’t want to smash the door into you,” he said, and it sounded like he had come even closer. Maybe was leaning his head down, fiddling with the latch. His voice was just right there.
“I can move back if you want me to.”
“How about you do that.”
She let go of the latch and moved back and to the side, so when the door opened, she would be well away from it. And from him, in case he came crashing through.
“All right. I’m ready.”
There was a thump, and she assumed it was his body hitting the door.
“It didn’t budge,” he mumbled, and he sounded surprised.
