Kaleidoscope Summer (Samantha's Story) (56 page)

“A bright light in
this sorted
mess. Most of my childhood
I prayed for a sister
.”
Her tears flowed.
I wished
they
c
ould cleanse away the sadness and
leave
only
the good
.

She smiled
but the blueness in her eyes filled with more tears.
“I don’t wear clothes better than you—I’ve been b
usy
put
ting
on airs.
We’re starting with not much more than
the house
,
which I’m thankful
for
.
My father is paying for the remodel.
” She blotted her cheeks
with a tissue.
“
I heard the wealthy summered in the homes
on the ridge—I wanted to fit in. My mom bought me a wardrobe to start my real e
state business.
”

“
I would say
you were
blessed
with loving parents
.
”

Hand in hand
,
we returned
downstairs
,
pausing at the door
. “T
ake
Daniel
’s whole l
ife into consideration—not
a teenager
’
s irr
esponsib
l
e decisions
. The rest should mean something
,
too.”
A
hundred years of good c
ould never out
weigh how he ran away
and deprived me of my birth mother.

Audra left. Not wanting to rehash our conversation,
I checked my email
s. O
ne
was
from
Dr. Evans,
at the school
. I clicked it open.

“Dear Samantha,
I’m pl
eased to announce we have
finally
secured
a new
source of funding
.
Please advise me when you will be returning.
I l
ook forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely, Dr. Charles Evans”

I
paced around the room
. Was
this God’s answer? Where wa
s the peace I should be feeling?
I grabbed my keys and headed to the hospital to visit my grandparents.
I
had a responsibility to the school—I
was leaving
Serenity
Cove.

Thelma
cheerfully
waved me over as I entered the hospital. She leaned over the counter. “Here
,
my angel.” I ran interference and gave the treat to Goldie. “Can she stay with me while y
ou go visit?” She hurried
aro
und
the desk
as if she’d won a prize
.
“
By the way, your grandmother has moved to one o
f our standard rooms, third door
on the left.
”

“Thanks.” I found
John
napping—h
is chin drooped on
his chest. My grandm
other smiled when she saw me, and tucked her
knitting
needles filled with a pale blue yarn
next to her on the bed
. “Hello, Grandmother
. I love the feel of
that word
.” I smiled
and signed it to her as well
.
“
How are you feeling today?”

Sh
e lau
ghed. “
Please say it often. I’m
ready to go home.”

“
I brought pictures of the furniture in the apartment. Can you tell me if any of the pieces are family heirlooms?”

She picked up her reading glasses. “Let me see.” She flippe
d through the photos. “The book
case with
Anne
’s book
s
belonged to my mother. The di
ning table with
the
matching
hutch
belong
ed to
one of my aunts. Everything else
…
I guess
Anne
bought o
ne
place or another.” She handed me the
pictures and laid her glasses on the bedside table.

“The di
ning room furniture,
is it important to keep it?”

“You do what you want with it
,
child.”
She placed her frail fingers on my arm.

My gran
dmother nodded in John
’s
directi
on
. “
Hi
,
Sami
.
” He yawned.
“
Did
Liz
tell you
they’re kicking her out of here
tomorrow?”

I’d never been called Sami before—I liked it.
“That’s great news. I need to talk to both of you.
It’s time for me to go
back
to
Stone
Valley
.
” I too
k
hold of my grandmother’s hand, blue lines
showing
through her parchment
skin
.

“I thought you’d be h
ere f
or your birthday.
” The disappointment
on her face w
ould ha
ve made me agree with anything she
’d
wanted.

“I’ll still be here for my birthday
.”
Waves
of sadness stormed my heart.
I would soon be saying
good
bye to a world I’d come to love.

Chapter
Forty-seven

An increase in our town’s crime rate wasn’t making for good press
.
The
Serenity
C
ove Chronicle
had
added a monthly column
listing
criminal incidents
.
Although
I was
n’t
crazy about the i
dea of the new
section
, my concern was how to
stop the
escalating
problem
.
According to the lat
est article
,
f
ive residential break-ins ha
d occurred over the past month,
plus
a
deposit
had been
stolen from
the barbershop on Main Street, and three vehicles were vandalized.
I’m surprised they failed to men
tion Mrs. Murray’s missing kitten
we found trapped under her house.

Via text, I instructed Hank
to inform the whole department
of
a mandatory meeting
at one o’clock
. “
T
ell them to come prepared
.
I want
id
eas
for attacking this increase
in crime
.
Also,
Detective
Zack
Johnston
is scheduled to start this morning, make sure h
e knows about the meeti
ng
.
I’m on my way in.
”

This could prove inte
resting.
Zack
was
the
first official detective
assigned to our small division
—I
was depending
on him to
provide
some
insight
into
this
situation
.
I folded the
news
pap
er,
and
double-
timed the stairs to change for the meeting.

I arrived ear
ly and found
Zack
and
Alec
compa
ring notes in the coffee room.
I
slapped
Alec
’s shoulder i
n the way of a good morning, and
reached my hand toward
Zack
. “Welcome aboard. S
ettled in?”

“Thank you, s
ir. I lucked out and rented
one
of the summer cottages.”
Zack
took a slug of his coffee.

“Good. Were you
apprised of today’s meeting? Any ide
as?
” I grabbed a mug and filled it.

“A meeting with the business owners would be bene
ficial. Give them a
few
advantageous
crime
deterrents
for them to incorporate into their daily routines.”

Zack hadn’t come up with anything I hadn’t already thought of, but he impressed
me
with his quick
answers. “
Sounds like a plan
. You
’
r
e
in charge of the details.” The small room had begu
n to fill up
. “Let’
s go in the conference room—
get this meeting underway.”

We
end
ed
an hour later
with the team
ready to launch an
all-out
attack
on
our town’s crime rate
.
The officers assigned to the
various shifts would spend additional time patrolling the town and our
new detective would
coordinat
e a meeting with the business owners.

After
I
adjourned the
meeting
,
I spent the day making adju
stments to the budget, finally sending it through the proper channels
for approval.
I stood stretching out the kinks from too many desk hours, and drove to Maggie’s, again seeking approval.

W
he
n she didn’t respond to
the beep of my horn
,
I
checked her garden
. Not
finding her there
,
I
followed t
he
path
down
to the
sandy beach. I spotted her
sitting
on what she referred to as her
dreaming
rock
.
With late afternoon casting its long shadows, she looked lost in thought, h
er eyes
focused
on
the waves
.

“Hey,
sis,
”
I called, not wanting to startle her.
Wolf
came
running
looking
ready to romp and play
.

Maggie laughed shaking her head at the dog.
“Hey, yourself.” She scooted over
,
ma
king room. “What’s up
?”

I settle
d beside her. “
How’s Rachel?”

“Good.
The
kids love their rooms. She and the children
are coming to church on Sunday. Before you say anything,
it wasn’t me. Pastor Jim spoke
with her.”
I didn’
t miss the watering of her eyes
.

“Sure h
ope
Brandon
hangs in there with rehab
.
”

“You have that
look
—what’s on your mind?
”
Her sisterly affection was clearly evident in the concern that filled her eyes.
Maggie and I shared a special bond, maybe because we lost our parents so young.

“Held a meeting at
the station.
Zack
’s been assigned to our department.”

H
er eyebrows
flashed up
. “He’ll be a nice addition to the force
.”