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THE DAYS WERE GETTING warmer and warmer and Glinda was happy for it. May had come in with thunderstorms and chilly nights but had leveled off to temperatures in the seventies during the day and the fifties at night. The flowers in her yard were budding or blooming and so were the trees on her property.
Grabbing the tray with the sandwiches and chocolate milk she took it out to the swing in the backyard where Myrtle, her right arm in a cast, her face still black and blue, waited for her. The night Myrtle had almost died had changed everything. She’d broken her arm as the current had sent her tumbling down the creek as well as cutting and bruising her body up. She’d been in intensive care for over a week and slowly recovered; no one had thought she would but she did. Stubborn old woman.
Weeks later when Myrtle was released from the hospital Glinda put her foot down and demanded she come live with her indefinitely. Glinda was trying to convince her to make the move permanent and wouldn’t give up until it was. Myrtle didn’t need to be living alone anymore. She needed someone to watch over her and care for her.
“About time you brought me something to eat, Niece. I’m famished.” Myrtle was reclining in the swing, her feet not reaching the ground. She looked frailer than Glinda had ever seen her, but better than when she’d come home three weeks before. All in all everyone said it was a miracle she was alive. And Glinda wanted to keep her that way.
“Didn’t I feed you two hours ago? Bacon, eggs, toast and you ate seconds?”
Myrtle’s face curved up to her. “Was that only two hours ago?”
“Give or take minutes.” Glinda pulled the small round table closer to the swing and set the tray on it.
“So,” Myrtle said as she picked up the sandwich and aimed it for her mouth. “I heard you on the phone before you came out. What’s going on?”
“Your keen hearing, Aunt, never ceases to amaze me. Abigail was asking about last minute preparations for Kate’s wedding. She also wanted to know if you were feeling well enough to attend.” The wedding was in three days and Martha, their real estate friend in town, was having the reception afterwards at her grand house. Martha had insisted it be there instead of at the donut shop and Martha always got her way in the end. According to Martha the donut shop was too small. But that was Martha, she loved to entertain at her fancy mansion out in the woods, they’d had many an elegant party and gathering there, even a séance once, and, in the end, Glinda was grateful it was going to be at Martha’s. The garden, Glinda knew from personal experience because she’d walked its paths and admired its lush beauty, was beautiful in June and absolutely perfect for a wedding reception. Martha, with her, Abby’s and Frank’s help, was doing the decorating. Myrtle wanted to help, too, but Glinda had put her foot down and told her positively no way. She was still recovering. Attending the wedding was all she’d allow Myrtle to do in her condition.
“Of course I’m going to go to the wedding and the reception,” Myrtle snapped. “I’m feeling fine enough to sit for a while in a church and then eat a delicious free meal in a lovely garden–and I wouldn’t miss Kate and Norman’s wedding for nothing. I never pass up wedding cake and I bet Kate’s will be spectacular since she’s baking it. Four tiers at least. I’d go in that wheelchair you have in the kitchen if I had to. It was bad enough I missed Samantha’s baby shower and the birth and had to wait to see the baby until Samantha brought her here to see me. Ha, you said she was having a girl, even though she had been told by the doctor it would be a boy. I told her the same thing. A girl. And they had a girl. At least they painted the baby’s room yellow. That works for a boy or a girl. I like the name they’ve given her, too. Clementine. Clem for short, after Kate’s late mother and my old friend. I thought that was sweet of Samantha to name her after Clementine.”
Glinda had never met the woman Clementine, that had been before she’d come to Spookie. But she knew and liked Samantha and was happy she’d had a healthy baby and was, Abigail reported, already at work again and going full force towards the mayoral election. Glinda had recently read Samantha’s tarot cards and they’d revealed Samantha would win in a landslide. She’d be Spookie’s first woman mayor. Glinda had given that good news for free to Samantha the day she came over with her baby to visit.
Myrtle was growing more restless every day. She hated being confined to the house and the yard so it wasn’t unexpected when she announced, “I think tomorrow I’ll start searching for Masterson’s gold again.”
“How are you going to do that?” Glinda picked her sandwich up from the plate on the tray and took a bite of it. “Uh, we never did find your metal detector after you fell in the creek.”
“I know. I ordered another one off the Internet last week and your laptop says delivery date is tomorrow. So back to work I go.”
“How are you going to use that metal detector with only one arm?” Glinda shook her head at the woman. “And you can barely walk straight much less ramble through the hills and gullies of this place. What’s the rush? The treasure has been lost for decades so what are a few more weeks?”
“Because I’m tired of sitting around like an invalid. I have a broken arm, so what, it’s healing, and I don’t see any reason why I can’t start looking for the treasure again. It’ll give me something to do instead of sitting around all the day long. I’m not dead yet, you know.
“And I figured...maybe you could help me? You could use the metal detector for me and I could show you where to look. You haven’t had any more dreams about Masterson, have you?”
“Not since before your fall into the creek. He’s been quiet since then.”
“Darn.” Myrtle snapped her fingers together. “I keep hoping he’ll visit your dreams again and tell you where he buried that treasure. It sure would save a lot of time and trouble.”
“It sure would. But so far he’s been absent.”
“So, how about helping me look for that treasure?”
“I’ll make you a deal, old woman.” Glinda had lifted her face to feel the breeze and it fluttered her hair. “If you allow yourself to heal for another week I’ll help you look for the treasure. I don’t want you to go running around outside when you’ve been so ill. Not yet anyway.”
Myrtle pouted but seemed to think about it. She finally nodded yes. “One more week and then we look for it. Could be by then Samantha or Frank might have found out what happened to Masterson’s daughter. They said they were really working hard trying to find her or her descendants.”
“You still want to give her the treasure?”
“If she’s alive. And if not I’m sure we’ll find good uses for it. The nursing homes are full of old folks who need things. And Silas and his wife could use a new car, supplies and cash, too.”
“You’re not in it for the money, are you Myrtle?”
“Heck no. I just love looking for it. It’s been like an exciting game, but better. It’s made my life interesting again for a while. I was getting really bored.” Myrtle had finished her lunch and was getting up. “I think I’m going in for a nap right now, Niece. I’m a little tired.”
Well, so much for the old woman roving around in the woods. She wasn’t feeling well enough yet. Thank goodness.
After Myrtle went inside Glinda leaned against the swing and closed her eyes. The warm sun felt so good on her skin. After several minutes she got up and also went inside. Maybe she’d take a nap, as well, before her next client showed up.
*****
THE MORNING OF KATE’S wedding Myrtle climbed out of bed and with Glinda’s help put on her best, brightest outfit. A dress of yellow flowers on a blue background. It was a flowing silky creation topped off with a shimmering pink shawl. Glinda had ordered it for her off the Internet at some la-di-da store as a late birthday present. It was so soft. Wearing it made her feel like a queen or something. She was excited about the wedding and had been looking forward to it for weeks. She was happy she was well enough to go. Abigail, Nick, Laura and Frank were picking them up in an hour and she had to be ready. She was in her bedroom gathering things to put in her purse.
She stared around the room and smiled. Glinda had finally talked her into, more like begged her, to moving in with her permanently and Myrtle was secretly glad of it. Glinda had fixed up her room to be so comfortably pretty. It was a large room with a smaller one, once a spacious walk-in closet, attached. The year before Glinda had found someone to transform the closet into a compact bathroom which housed a tiny sink, toilet and bathtub. It wasn’t a big bathroom but it was perfect for her. It was strange now living in her dead sister’s house but she could feel the love all around her of both her sisters. They were here with her and Glinda. Sometimes their ghosts talked to her in the middle of the night when the house was silent. She whispered secrets to them and they whispered their secrets to her. They kept her company. Yes, it was good she was living here.
She hadn’t listed her own house with Martha yet. The real estate lady would bug her again today at the wedding to sell, no doubt, but it was hard for Myrtle. That place of hers had been her home for a very long time, contained so many memories, and she wasn’t sure she could ever sell it. For now, she thought, she’d just think on it and let it be. The house wasn’t hurting anyone sitting out there in the woods. Good thing she had no pets. She heard a plaintive meow and went to the window to let Amadeus in. He often came to visit her. The cat jumped on her bed and promptly fell asleep.
“Go ahead, Niece,” she said to Glinda when the young woman reentered the room to see if Myrtle was ready to go, “get ready yourself. Our ride will be here soon. I’ll wait for you out on the swing. I’ll let you know when Frank and the gang show up.”
So Glinda went to get dressed and Myrtle waited outside in the sunshine. It was a gorgeous day, perfect for a garden wedding, she thought as she looked out over the yard. She’d been doing some hard thinking, too, since her last chat with her niece, about Masterson’s buried treasure. She was no longer sure if she should keep hunting for it. Had her little accident been because Masterson’s ghost had decided, in the end, he didn’t want his buried booty to be found? Had the ghost pushed her into the water? All interesting notions. All she knew was since her close brush with death everything had changed. Kate believed there was no hidden treasure; there had never been. What if Kate were right? That would mean she nearly died for nothing, not to mention all the days of dragging that heavy metal detector around until she was exhausted.
She heard Frank’s truck horn before Nick came running around the corner of the house looking for her. “Hi there young man!”
“Hi there yourself, Aunt Myrtle.” He’d started affectionately calling her that since she’d moved in with Glinda. She’d let him, though she really wasn’t his aunt at all. But she liked having more family. “We’re all out in the driveway waiting for you and Glinda. They said to hurry it up or we’ll miss the wedding.” Then the boy sprinted around the house and disappeared.
Myrtle got up from the swing and hobbled to the rear door. She’d make a short cut through the house to the driveway. It was faster and less steps. She cradled her wounded arm. It still hurt and she’d be happy when it healed and the cast would come off. The doctor had told her because of her age the healing would take longer. So she was sort of stuck with the pain and the cast for now and for heaven knew how much longer.
The truck conveyed them to St. Paul’s in time for the wedding. It was a simple, yet poignant, ceremony in the church beneath the stained glass windows. Kate was lovely in her baby blue chiffon dress, her face glowing as she walked down to meet her husband to be, Norman.
Myrtle hadn’t met Norman before but she thought he was a nice enough looking middle-aged man. Looked like he’d eaten a few too many of Kate’s donuts, though. He wasn’t exactly chubby but he wasn’t thin, either. He had short hair an odd white color even though he wasn’t very old, or Myrtle didn’t think he was. But when he smiled, gently took Kate’s hand at the altar when the vows were over, the look of pure love in his eyes was obvious. Their kiss was sweet. She liked him.
Then everyone, with big smiles, trailed the newlyweds from the church, got in their own vehicles and drove to Martha’s house.
Pouring into the garden along with the other guests, Myrtle went straight for the group of decorated tables covered in food. Martha and friends had outdone themselves. The tabletops were festooned with colorful crepe paper and balloons and beneath the food plates were expensive lace tablecloths. Under the tables there were crates of red and white wine. Martha liked wine. A lot. The variety of dishes was impressive.
The four tier wedding cake sat in all its splendor in the center of the refreshments. Myrtle had been right. Kate had fashioned a delicious looking confection with snow white icing dotted with pink, blue and yellow icing roses. Myrtle wanted to just dive in and eat the whole cake, but since she couldn’t, she grabbed a few pieces of the already cut up chocolate cake on a plate beside it. The wedding cake was surrounded by stacks of glittering presents for the bride and groom. Myrtle’s fingers just itched wanting to tear open the wrapping paper and see what everyone had gotten them. Since she couldn’t she had to make do with touching, lifting and shaking the individual packages and trying to guess what was maybe inside. She and Glinda had gotten them something really useful. A card with money. Everyone could use that.
“Myrtle,” Glinda, in her long pale green dress, had come up behind her, “not waiting for the wedding party to start sampling the fare, huh?”
“Ah, they won’t mind if I nibble on a thing or two. There’s so much out here they’ll never miss it. That wedding made me hungry. Weddings always make me hungry.” She snatched up one of Martha’s teeny-weenie sandwiches and ate it, too. There were many kinds of finger foods and goodies. That Martha could really spread out an impressive feast. Of course, she had had help from Abigail and Glinda. Myrtle herself had helped a little. She’d made an apple cake. Oh, there it was at the end of the table.
The garden itself had been spruced up with benches and chairs topped with soft cushions and adorned in more balloons and crepe paper so people could sit and chat, though it normally had more than enough of them scattered around anyway. There was also a stair-stepped waterfall embedded in sparkly rocks. It was marvelous. Martha’s waterfall gurgled and flowed down the rocks and into a pond full of golden fish the size of teaspoons.
The day was perfect. It was sunny, not too hot, and with sapphire hued skies. For the first time since her near death drowning experience Myrtle was perfectly content. Now if she could just get rid of her uncomfortable cast. But, not to fret, that was coming.
The newlyweds had arrived amid cheers, hoots and gleeful comradery and made the rounds of the guests. Myrtle hugged both of them and wished them a long happy marriage and life. Music began to diffuse through the garden. Thank goodness Martha wasn’t playing that heavy metal stuff or much of the newer songs. She said Kate preferred the softer classics from the nineteen sixties and seventies because they weren’t hard on the ears. But Myrtle liked the big band sounds from her youth better. Yet it was Kate’s wedding so it was her choice. There was a part of the patio cleared off and people had begun to dance.
It was a great party, Myrtle mused, as she viewed the guests eating, drinking, talking and dancing. Everyone seemed to be having a good time.
Samantha was there with her handsome husband, Kent, showing off baby Clementine. Myrtle thought the baby was fairly cute for an infant. It had a whole mop of reddish hair. Samantha cradled the child lovingly in her arms as she conversed with her friends, flitting from person to person. She had a dreamy look on her face. That’s what happiness looked like.
“So how do you like being a new mama?” Myrtle spread out her arms, cast and all, gesturing for Samantha to give her the baby.
“Sit down first, Myrtle,” Samantha advised. “She’s heavier than she looks.”
“Yeah, you just don’t want me to drop her. I won’t.” But Myrtle settled down on the nearest cushioned bench anyway. The baby was carefully laid in her arms and the old woman cooed at her and laughed when the baby cooed back. “Smart child. She’ll probably grow up to be president one day.”
“She could. But I hope there’s a woman in the Oval Office before that.”
Myrtle glanced up at the baby’s mother. “Talking about politics...how’s the campaign coming, Samantha?”
Abigail had wandered close to them, a plate of food in her hands, and must have overheard the question. She joined them.
“It’s going great,” Samantha said. “Isn’t it Abigail?”
“It is. With a tad over four months to go, we’re getting the word out. I begin painting the promotional ad on the newspaper’s outside wall on Monday. It won’t take long. Two days at most.”
“Oh goodie,” Myrtle commented as she gently rocked the baby. “I’ll have to mosey on out there and follow your progress. I love to watch you create your on-a-grand-scale artwork. It’s fascinating how you can paint something so big and still get the proportions right.”
“Practice and experience, that’s how. Sure, come on by and watch me paint. It’s a public area. And I don’t mind an audience, you know that. I like company.” Abigail took the baby from Myrtle’s arms and had her time with the newcomer. The infant was the hit of the party almost as much as the newlyweds. That was what was important in life really, the good stuff like births and weddings. Wedding cake. Parties. From her great age Myrtle could vouch for those truths.
Of course, Myrtle didn’t talk to anyone about Masterson’s buried treasure. That was still a secret. The main topics were Frank and Glinda’s stunning success at bringing the Chicago kidnappers to justice, Clementine and the coming mayoral election and, of course, how Kate and Norman’s renovation of The Delicious Circle was going. Kate said she enjoyed working with her now husband. They were a good team. For the first time Myrtle believed Kate was the happiest she’d ever been. Good for her.
At one part of the day Myrtle was eavesdropping on a conversation Glinda was having with Frank:
“Glinda,” Frank was saying aside in a subdued voice, “I wanted to thank you for the heads up about the danger in Chicago. Because of it I didn’t let my guard down for a moment. I was looking for the danger and when it came I was ready for it.”
“I think you would have been all right whether I’d warned you or not. You still know how to handle yourself even though you’ve been retired for years. I was afraid at your age the physical exertion would be too much for you. I shouldn’t have worried. You still have it. I just don’t want you going anywhere yet. Good friends are really hard to find. I didn’t want you hurt or worse. It was close.” Glinda had put a hand on Frank’s shoulder and smiled at him. “I want my friend to hang around for a long time. I want all my friends to hang around a long time. You’ve all become family to me.”
“Don’t worry,” Frank assured her. “I don’t plan on going anywhere. Abigail and the kids need me.”
“Your friends need you. The town needs you. You and your mystery solving gang have saved a lot of people’s lives.”
“And you’re now one of that gang and you helped save lives in Chicago.”
Glinda, as always, was humble. “I just sent you and the police in the right direction. You and your officer friends did the rest.”
That was all Myrtle could overhear because Glinda and Frank mingled away. She would have tailed them to hear the rest of what they were saying but she knew she could grill Glinda later at home about it. Glinda usually told her everything if she asked. For the moment, the dessert table beckoned and she obeyed. She’d already eaten a handful of those baby sandwiches and a plate of those tiny barbequed chicken drumsticks. All delicious.
The remains of the day were full of joy, gossip, laughter and town community. As it came to an end and the guests started going home, Myrtle had to admit it’d been a very good day. She sat on a garden bench as the evening shadows began to collect and ate her third piece of wedding cake and drank her second glass of wine. Two glasses were more than enough for her because anything more would have her on the ground.
“Are you ready to go home now?” Glinda was poised above her. “Frank is driving us home and then returning with Abigail and me to help Martha clean up.”
“I’m ready all right. I wonder if Kate would mind us taking home some of this yummy cake, there’s a lot of it left, and possibly some of that meat pasta Abigail made. Both would sure make a nice lunch tomorrow.”
“I imagine she wouldn’t mind. You go ahead and ask Martha to make us up two plates, put everything in a bag so you can carry it because of your wounded wing there, and then join us at the truck.”
“Okey-dokey.” And off she went in search of Martha.
Myrtle was sleepy on the drive home her mind full of all the day had held. It’d been an excellent day indeed. When Frank pulled into the driveway Glinda helped her into the house. “I’ll be back as soon as the remains of the wedding feast are cleaned up, Auntie. I might even bring home some more leftovers. You get some sleep. You look ready to collapse, old woman.”
“You’re right. I am a little weary.”
And after the truck drove away Myrtle hobbled to her room and was soon sleeping in her bed; that crazy magic cat tucked in beside her, his motor running. Since her accident the silly cat wouldn’t leave her alone. He was always wanting in her lap or her bed. It was fine with her as his purring helped her fall asleep. Boy, if her late sister Evelyn, the animal hoarder, could see her now she’d be laughing. Well, maybe Evelyn did see her and the cat. It wouldn’t surprise Myrtle one bit. The house was full of ghosts. Masterson’s. Evelyn’s. Bedelia’s. And every cat, dog, rabbit or bird that had ever lived and died in the house. And that was a whole lot of critters.