Lu steered into a parking spot near the lobby of the Holiday Inn. She and Susan grabbed their bags out of the trunk. “Let’s get checked in and freshen up before we go to dinner,” Lu said. In just a few minutes they were headed back to the car.
“Are we going to the same restaurant where we had dinner with Uncle Martin and his family?” Susan asked.
“No, actually,” Lu responded, “I was hoping we’d find someplace along the beachfront this time.”
She started the car and pulled out toward the strip along Flagler Beach’s section of A-1-A. While Susan looked at the front of restaurants along the road trying to judge which might be the best, Lu noticed she’d driven out of Flagler Beach without realizing it. She pulled off the road and turned the car around. “Let’s just park the car up by the Pier and walk around,” she suggested.
After a very brief walk they decided to have dinner at the restaurant on the pier. It was not crowded which surprised Lu. The hostess said it was because it was close to the end of the snowbird season, a phrase that was new to both Lu and Susan. She sat them near the window where they could watch the waves foam the sand and then slide back into the Atlantic.
“I’m starving,” Susan admitted. She eagerly ordered a steak with loaded baked potato.
“Me, too,” Lu said, ordering the same for herself.
“Mom, Barberville was really fascinating, especially after Miss Pearl shared her story.” Susan said. “It just meant so much more after she told us about her life.”
“Do they give tours, or it is just a museum?” Lu asked.
“It’s a historic pioneer settlement, actually,” Susan said. “They have a museum there, an old school house, but they also have a log cabin and a little house from one of the turpentine camps. It was exactly the way Miss Pearl described it! It’s a self-guided kind of tour, so you can take all the time you want walking all around. I took a lot of pictures.”
Lu stared out the window at the rolling surf and nodded. She was too choked with emotion to voice a reply. When the waitress brought their meal she ordered a glass of wine hoping it would calm her. As she pushed her plate aside, politely complaining that she had eaten too much, she suggested they take a walk on the beach. As they descended the steps of the boardwalk, Lu could taste the salt in the wind.
“I wish I could get your father to take walks after dinner,” she complained. “It’s good for digestion.” She wanted to talk to Susan, but her fears kept getting in the way. As they walked along, she found the rhythmic pulse of the surf and the mild glow of the wine relaxed her.
“Oh, we left Granddad’s house so quick, I forgot to ask you,” Susan said. “That big old pine tree in the side yard—is that the kind of tree they used to get the turpentine from?”
“That tree has stood there as long as I can remember,” Lu said. “It’s funny, when we were kids Martin and I carved our initials in it. We called it our ‘family tree’. I should have looked to see if our initials were still there.”
“What kind of pine is it? Is it the kind they used for turpentine?” Susan asked.
“Gee, honey, I don’t know. My father always said it was a ‘Florida pine’. They probably could have gotten turpentine from that tree, though. I remember it being really sticky,” she laughed. “I didn’t notice. Was the cactus still growing all around it?”
“Yeah,” Susan said. “There’s some kind of prickly cactus growing all through the limbs, almost to the top. It’s probably going to kill that tree.”
“No, it won’t kill the tree.” Lu said. “That cactus has been there for years, too. The tree and the cactus are friends, I think. I remember once my father was going to chop the cactus down, and Grammy Mayetta had a fit. It’s a night-blooming cactus that only blooms once a year. She said her mother used to know how to do something with cactus blossoms and they ate them like fruit. Do you believe it?”
“It didn’t look too appetizing to me,” Susan said. “’Course, I didn’t see any buds on it. It just looked like long, triangle-shaped fingers with spikey thorns.”
“Oh, but you should see it when it blossoms,” Lu encouraged. “The flowers are huge, maybe six inches across. I remember my mother loved it when it bloomed. She’d take us out in the moonlight so we could see that big old tree full of blossoms.” Suddenly the emotions of the day overtook her. She stopped walking and turned to Susan, grabbing both of her hands in her own.
“Honey, I’ve made a terrible mistake in my life,” she said. “Miss Pearl and I had a long talk this afternoon, and I need to tell you how sorry I am that I kept my family a secret from you, from everyone.” She wanted to say more, but burst into tears, the words catching in her throat. Susan threw her arms around her and let the sobs come.
“Mom, I love you, we all love you,” she said. “Please, don’t cry. It’s okay. Really, it is.”
Lu pulled herself away, wiped the tears from her cheeks with her palms and suddenly began to giggle. She put her hands on Susan’s shoulders and held her at arm’s length. “How did you get so smart?” she asked.
“I got it from you,” Susan answered, blinking back the tears in her own eyes. They turned together and walked back up the beach, holding each other in the twilight. Lu felt the waves lap at her feet as though they were washing away years of pain and leaving only glimmering shells on the moonlit beach.
It was just after 7:00 in the morning when Lu awoke with a start. When they returned to their room the night before, Lu called Reverend Parker and arranged a visit for the next morning. She was confident they could find his house now that they had been to Eatonville once already. Since their flight wasn’t scheduled to leave Orlando until late that afternoon, she intended for them to get up early and get on the road. But she’d overslept and now felt rushed.
“Susan,” she said sharply. “Get up, honey. We’ve got to get going if we’re going to get to Eatonville and visit Reverend Parker before our flight home.”
Susan sat up, still groggy with sleep.
“Yeah, I know,” she mumbled. “That’s what we get for sitting up half the night.”
Lu was busy putting her makeup into her suitcase. “I know, but I’m glad we stayed up,” Lu said. “There’ve been too many times when I wished we were closer.” She sat on the bed beside Susan. “I want to work on that from now on.”
Susan gave her mother a sleepy half smile and got out of bed. She looked in the mirror and patted her hair. “That’s the thing about cornrows,” she said. “This little pickaninny doesn’t have to worry about doing her hair this morning!”
Lu stepped up behind her and gave her hair a tug, “Yeah, but you’re my little pickaninny,” she teased.
“Oh, gosh,” Lu said, carefully making her way onto the interstate. “I hope we don’t hit a lot of traffic.”
“Mom,” Susan replied. “I’m sure we’ll get there in plenty of time. I’m just glad our flight isn’t until this afternoon so that we can do this. It’s like we’re getting all the answers this trip. Like it was meant to be, you know? It’s been incredible.”
“It’s definitely been interesting.” Lu acknowledged.