Still, that was in the past, just like Richard, and I was done living with all that baggage. It was too heavy for me to carry around.
The knock on the glass made me and Iris jump.
“Wait!” Lucy yelled and grabbed the wireless microphone.
“Oh gosh.” Iris grabbed my arm. “Run!”
We took a step off the curb and quickly jumped back up when a car went zooming by, honking its horn for us to watch out.
“You two aren’t trying to avoid me, are you?” Lucy flipped her long hair behind her shoulders and shifted to her right tiny hip. She was slender and tall.
“Nope. Just need to get the mail delivered.” I patted my bag.
“Just like you need to get back in there, because if I’m not mistaken, this song is almost over.” Iris continued to smile the fake smile.
“And just as luck would have it, our very own downtown mail carrier, Bernadette Butler, was walking by during our last song, so I grabbed her to get her take on her now-famous son, Grady Butler.” She’d brought that darn microphone up to her lips, and her voice echoed from the speakers. She tossed her head over her shoulder and glared into the DJ booth, where the producer of the show was fiddling with the switches and buttons to stop the echo. “If you are just joining, Grady Butler is the Sugar Creek Gap High School English teacher who is the big influence behind our very own Stella Jane Clark, who wrote the must-read book coming out today titled Beyond Boundaries.”
Lucy flipped her hair and looked directly at me.
“Bernadette, you’ve been keeping a secret from us. What do you have to say about this sudden fame our little town and your son is getting?” She shoved the microphone in my face.
I started to reach for it so I could grab it and smack her over her head, but my eyes shot past her, and there stood my mother a few buildings down in front of the Wallflower Diner with her finger shaking at me.
I recalled what she’d told me when we thought Mac was dating Lucy Drake. She’d said, “Bernie, Mac will see through her exterior. Honey, you can’t make silk purses out of a sow’s ear.”
“You know, we are just as surprised as you. We had no idea Grady had such an influence on Stella Jane, but isn’t it wonderful that our little high school employs wonderful teachers who are making differences in our youth today?” I turned it around on Lucy.
She swallowed hard, trying to manage a feeble answer to my question while bringing the microphone back to herself.
“Why yes, Bernie. You are right. And that’s a wonderful way to look at it.” She glared at me, and since it was radio, she could disguise the fact she didn’t like my answer, and it certainly wasn’t good gossip for her to expand upon. “I think we have a caller.”
She twisted around and looked back through the window at the producer. He flipped a switch.
“Umm… yeah, Lucy. I think you are great, by the way,” the caller’s voice came back through the outside speakers that the producer had turned back on.
“That obviously wasn’t the answer our viewers want,” Lucy snarled. “Why can’t you participate just once and give our town the excitement they are craving?”
“Gotta go do my job. Just like you do.” I shrugged and took the moment of no car traffic to run across the street with Iris giggling right beside me.
Iris and I’d made it through the last delivery stops on my second loop just in time to see the big unveiling of the new bookstore. Angela Hafley had one of her deputy cars at the corner of Short Street and Main to block off traffic and another deputy car at the opposite end of Main in front of the post office.
The crowd was so large that I could have sworn citizens from the neighboring counties were there as well. The line was already down the sidewalk, past the old mill and beyond, spilling into the street. The old mill building window had a big red velvet covering over the outside of the window, which made it even more dramatic and built the anticipation of seeing what was behind it.
“Golly, who knew this was going to be so big?” Iris noted when Mayor Leah Burch stepped up onto a makeshift box to address the crowd with a bullhorn up to her lips.
Behind her, in front of the bookstore window, stood the town council members, including Ashley Williams, Willy Bingham, and Zeke Grey. There was another group of citizens standing behind them which was some members of the preservation committee. I didn’t see Mary Ester.
“Zeke sure has aged.” Iris nudged me.
“He’s an older gentleman,” I whispered and didn’t mention how his wife had actually been murdered recently. Death of a loved one did age you. I knew firsthand.
“Welcome!” Leah’s voice boomed through the megaphone. “We are very surprised by the turnout. As you see, if we’d known, we’d have had some entertainment for you. But since you’re really here for the grand opening of our newest shop, Old Mill Books , or here out of curiosity about our very own Stella Jane Clark’s highly anticipated novel, the Sugar Creek Gap town council and I would like to welcome you.”
Just as she finished the greeting, Zeke Grey and Willy Bingham pulled the cords on each side of the velvet covering, letting it fall in a dramatic way to the ground, unveiling the large window that read Old Mill Books.
Oohs, aahs, and gasps came from the crowd. Some people cheered, while others turned to their neighbor to talk about the big display of copies of Stella Jane’s book. There was even a huge photo of Stella Jane next to them with a time for the book signing tomorrow.
I looked around and smiled when I noticed Elsbeth and a group from the nursing home were all gathered together and talking. Elsbeth had a huge smile on her face. I sure did miss her on my route. I recognized a few of them since I’d helped Iris call bingo a few times at the nursing home. Colvin Batty lived at the nursing home, and Kate Pitts. I didn’t see her husband, Willie, but I was sure he was in that crowd somewhere.
I waved to Mary Ester Pitts, Kate and Willie’s daughter, who I bet had helped Vivian with getting the group to the bookstore. I’d dealt with Mary Ester a few times down at the post office when she was serving notices to people who didn’t take the preservation laws in Sugar Creek Gap seriously.
Poor Peaches Partin took a good ol’ southern smackdown from Mary Ester when she tried to get a permit to resurface the outside of the building she’d purchased for her shop, Tranquility Wellness. Peaches really wanted it to have more of a Zen look instead of the white-washed red brick. She actually wanted to paint the outside, but the building, like all the downtown buildings, was covered by the preservation law, and Mary Ester took her job as president of the committee very seriously.
We had to give her credit. If it weren’t for Mary Ester, the town wouldn’t be as cozy as it had turned out to be. Most of the new stores were located on the outskirts of town where the bigger neighborhoods and several strip malls had gone up. As for me, I rarely visited those areas and was mighty happy to see that the committee had obviously approved the old mill to be turned into the Old Mill Books. We needed that.
My attention shifted back to Elsbeth. I’d always enjoyed delivering her mail when she lived in the neighborhood behind the old mill. Now that she was in the nursing home, I rarely got to visit with her. She looked happy and healthy. Especially today with the big release of Stella Jane’s book.