“We’re on the brink of an adventure.”
~P. L. Travers
Cecelia stood at the counter and stirred her cup of tea, grimacing as she did so.
“Oh, it’s not all that bad, dearie,” Reveena assured Cecelia from her seat in the café area.
They were both enjoying a quiet moment that morning at their cozy bookstore, Sunny’s, before the deluge of toddlers arrived for Story Time. Reveena had become the shop’s resident storyteller since opening day in April.
“I love your teas, Miss Reveena. You know that, but I really miss my coffee,” Cecelia replied.
“Balance, dear heart. Too much of one thing is not always good,” the little lady reminded the caffeine-craving woman. “This,” she pointed to her cup and declared, “is my new summer blend. Hibiscus and mint with just a touch of lavender.”
“It is good, but is caffeine an ingredient, too?” Cecelia asked, only half-joking.
Cecelia’s family had cautiously brought up the subject of her current coffee consumption at dinner the other evening, prompted by Zelda’s recap of what she learned that day in health class about the side effects of too much caffeine. After an interesting PowerPoint presentation, Cecelia promised to cut her “cups a day” down to a minimum… for now.
“What we do for family,” Cecelia grumbled as the bells above the shop’s front door tinkled and announced their first visitor of the day.
“Why, Flora, dear. It’s good to see you this morning.” Reveena welcomed her friend. “Here, sit. Let me make you a cuppa summer tea.”
“Oh, I don’t want to be a bother,” Flora insisted but accepted the vacant seat at Reveena’s café table. “I just wanted to pop over before Story Time to ask if you’ll hang this flyer on your community board.”
She slid the paper across the table towards Reveena. Cecelia walked to the table to take the flyer to the corkboard hung by the front door.
“How cute!” she exclaimed, peering over Reveena’s shoulder.
The paper announced the start of the shop’s bicycle rental season with a pencil sketch of a vintage bike centered amidst the store’s information.
“What a beautiful drawing, Flora. I didn’t know you were an artist.” Cecelia said.
“Oh, I don’t deserve the credit for that. My Jonas sketched it a lifetime ago. Oh, how long? Now let me think.” Flora looked at the store’s rafters and ticked off the decades on her fingers. “Ah yes, right after we bought the building and opened the shop. We couldn’t afford any of those fancy professional artists, so Jonas sketched that bicycle on some old butcher paper and, poof! Our original logo!” She smiled and looked at Cecelia through misty eyes.
“Well, my dear, bring it back as your shop’s logo once again,” Reveena suggested and reached over to pat Flora’s hand with hers, her amber ring catching the rays of the overhead light.
“Maybe. I’ll talk with Jack about making that work. All this computer and internet stuff makes no sense to me. I cut and pasted this thing using actual scissors and glue this morning,” she chuckled.
Cecelia carried the flyer over to the board and pinned it in place just as the front door swung open, and Reveena’s Story Time regulars ran to the children’s section at the back of the shop.
“Remember, children. Do we run?” Reveena reminded them.
“No, Miss Reveena,” they replied in unison and politely sat on the floor in front of the over-stuffed armchair.
Reveena set her teacup on the table and looked at Flora.
“Are you going to be here for a while? Cordelia should be coming with Lilia soon.”
“Oh, no, I should get back to the shop. Talk with Jack about that logo...” her voice trailed off.
“Nonsense. Jack’s fine. Have a cup of tea and enjoy the story,” Reveena directed, and she hopped up from her chair and bounced towards her awaiting audience, not waiting for Flora’s response.
Cecelia brought a clipboard to Flora’s table, sat in Reveena’s vacant seat, and checked off the attendees’ names. Flora quietly sat and watched Reveena stand in front of her chair, raise her arms above her head, and weave a tapestry of tales about trolls and goblins living under a deep wooden bridge in the forest. The children sat entranced.
“She is quite magical with her storytelling. She has bewitched most of the town with these tales of hers. All originals,” Cecelia pointed out, looking up from her checklist and catching Flora’s gaze.
“Amazing,” Flora agreed.
“And she always treats each child to hot chocolate, too.”
“Quite the added bonus,” Flora chuckled, “and not a screen in sight. No digital thingy-ma-bobs among them.”
Cecelia nodded her head in agreement. “These little ones have much more instant entertainment than I did growing up.”
Flora smiled and nodded in agreement. In her mind’s eye, she saw the games she and her cousins would play while sitting on their living room floor. Monopoly had been a Christmas time splurge; it was brand-new with such exotic-sounding places. There were also decks of playing cards, always ready for a quiet round of solitaire to a rowdy neighborhood game of Briscola. On countless evenings, she would fall asleep in her bed under the open window listening to the men on the porch below her count. ‘Uno, due, tre, quattro, cinque!’ Then there was the ever-present jigsaw puzzle on the dining room table. It was a family effort to complete it. They all took turns placing the pieces in the frame during breaks from daily chores and after Sunday dinners. She could hear her father yelling, ‘Fatto! Done!’ as he plunked the last piece into place. Applause would erupt from all corners of the house.
Little hands clapping brought Flora’s attention back to the bookshop. Cecelia looked up from her clipboard towards the Story Time group.
“Our first story seems to have gone well,” Cecelia surmised from the raucous claps and delighted grins of Reveena’s audience.
“Well, those are some happy kiddos,” a voice exclaimed behind Flora.
“Oh, Aunt Cordelia! Hello! I didn’t even hear you come in.” Cecelia stood up and came around the café table to hug her visitor. “Where is Lilia?”
“She’s coming. Needed to find a parking place. The ones out front are all taken,” Cordelia explained and sat down next to Flora.
“Aunt Cordelia, those are most likely the parents of our Story Time kids,” Cecelia replied and motioned towards the other occupied café tables.
“Well, what am I supposed to do with Nigel? Someone took his favorite table.”
“He can go behind the counter for now,” Cecelia reassured her.
Lilia walked into the shop carrying Nigel’s crate in one hand and a large tote in the other.
“Well, cousin dear, what’s in the bag?” Cecelia asked curiously.
“Ah, swatches for the bridesmaids’ dresses and flower samples for the bouquets,” Lilia said, quite out of breath. “Story Time seems to have taken off. I had to park two blocks away.” She smiled and placed the tote on the table.
“Here, let me put Nigel behind the counter.” Cecelia took the crate from Lilia and left the three women to the wedding supplies.
“So much planning for weddings nowadays. Let me tell you. We were engaged for less than four months when I got married. Just enough time for my mother to sew my gown. Now it seems like you have to reserve the hall two years ahead of time,” Cordelia commented.
“Momma, it’s not new. Jack and I were engaged for almost a year,” Lilia remarked.
“Yeah, but that’s because you were still in college,” her mother reminded her.
“Hadley and Patrick are happy with their engagement plans.”
Flora sat quietly nearby, taking in the mother-daughter banter. At that moment, she desperately missed her own mother. It shocked her to have such a sudden and robust gut reaction to this scene; her mother had been gone for a while. She and her mother could never have the back-and-forth wit that Cordelia and Lilia seemed to have. She could only remember these types of conversations with her beloved grandmother. Before she could analyze her feelings more, Lilia started pulling bits of fabric from the bag.
“Momma, I’m sure Miss Flora does not want to hear our bickering this morning,” Lilia teased Cordelia.
“We’re not bickering; I’m just observing.” Cordelia laughed and turned to Flora. “Let’s get Flora’s opinion. How long were you engaged?”
Flora sat for a moment, debating on which answer to give. One that wouldn’t prompt any more questions… or the truth?
“I was never engaged,” she answered.
Lilia and Cordelia both sat for a second, brows furrowed.
“Wait a minute. We know you were married to Jonas,” Cordelia finally said. “We did meet him.”
“I never said I wasn’t married. I just wasn’t engaged,” Flora replied. “We eloped.”
“Oh,” Cordelia answered.
As Lilia pulled the remaining flowers from her tote, the Story Time regulars made their way to the café area to pick up their cups of cocoa and claim their patient parents. Reveena found her way back to the table and sat across from Flora.
“Oh, wedding fun, I see! Hadley must be so excited,” Reveena said, picking up a deep purple piece of satin.
“I think I’m more anxious than she is at this point. She started her internship and hasn’t had time to think about much else,” Lilia updated her.
“I’m telling you, there are so many decisions when you get married nowadays. My biggest dilemma was whether we’d have a double or two twin beds,” Cordelia cackled.
“Momma! Please. I'm sure there were more things to think about than just that,” Lilia rebuked.
“Of course. Whether to buy Percale linens or Damask tablecloths. Oh, and to ask for a meat grinder as a wedding gift, most definitely.” She looked over at her daughter’s scowl and added, “What? It’s true!”
The three older ladies laughed as Cecelia walked back to the group. Sitting down, she mindlessly picked up several flowers and created a simple bouquet. She listened as Lilia filled her in on their conversation.
“Miss Flora, I never knew you eloped! How mysterious!” Cecelia said, still working with the flowers.
Flora sat back, not used to the spotlight being on her. She was more comfortable standing unnoticed in a crowd. Being a noticeably quiet person, she rarely shared her stories. They never came as quickly to her as they did to Cordelia or Reveena, not that she didn’t want to weave her own tales. The opportunity was just never there in her mind. So, yes, she seemed to move away from attention. She admitted there was a certain aloofness about her. But the Flora Godfrey who sat in the bookshop that morning held more than one secret. There was a mystery surrounding how she was married, but it wasn’t elusive or discreet in any romantic way like the movies portrayed. Her elopement was her most significant act of rebellion, just not the only one. She had run from her family for love, but they had also run from their magic.
As she pointed this out to the ladies, they weren’t sure how to react.
“Well,” Cordelia started, “we all have a bit of mischief in us, don’t we?”
Cecelia and Reveena chuckled lightly in agreement. Lilia preoccupied herself with the swatches but kept an open ear. It was then that Flora finally spun a story of her own.