Lisa R. Howeler's Blog, page 60

Sunday Bookends: 60th anniversary party, getting over a cold, and a sick Zooma the Wonder Dog

It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.

What’s Been Occurring

Last weekend my entire family came down with some kind of virus and it kept me from writing my Sunday Bookends post on Sunday.

I had no interest in writing because I had the worst sinus headache for the first part of the cold and then it was like some kind of dam broke and my nose started running for a day and a half. Then the cold was gone but left behind some gunk.

The illness started with The Boy who started attending a career center the week before last.

I should have known that more illness would come now that he’s at a regular school part of the time.

In the end we were really only “sick” for two days but it felt so much longer and then the mucous and coughs lingered for another few days. All of this was going on while I was trying to plan for my parents’ anniversary party which was yesterday. I’ll write a little bit about it here and then I’ll do another blog post later this week, but I will share that it went well.

One of the highlights was when our local state representative presented them with a proclamation to honor them for being married for 60 years and to honor my dad for his service in the United States Air Force.

I also slapped together this video for them but wasn’t able to show it until afterward because I couldn’t figure out where to put the video up for everyone else to see it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXDNg0qWLZM

On Friday I made ham and bean soup and cut up fruit and veggies for the party, while trying to simply relax and not worry about our dog who seems to be suffering from colitis again.

Her symptoms started while we were all sick, of course.

She has these bouts of colitis every six months or so at this point. When it hit her in April, she was so bad she couldn’t even get herself off and on the back porch to use the bathroom and her little backside was bent over to try to deal with the pain.

This time it’s clear she’s not herself but she’s moving better than she could be.

We are hoping we can use all the natural treatment instead of taking her to the vet this time. Today I am home with her while the rest of the family goes to a family reunion.

Despite our illness, we managed to start school a little more earnestly this week than last.

We are starting easy with art, English, and music for Little Miss and history and English for the Boy.

Next week I start adding in the big one – math, which neither of them is a fan of – and science which both are sort of fans of.

The Boy will be learning about forensic science this year and Little Miss will start with ecosystems and then we will be doing some general science.

What I/we’ve been Reading

Last week I finished Crime and Poetry by Amanda Flower.

I liked it but I am always a little confused by her books because the mystery is always solved in like three days and it is back-to-back crisis and also a little formulaic. I still like her writing and books and how she creates characters I get attached to, however.

I didn’t have a lot of interest in reading while I was sick so I didn’t finish All That Really Matters by Nicole Deese yet. I have plans to finish it this week but I did start a comfort read – The Cat Who Blew The Whistle (Cat Who . . . Book 17) by Lilian Jackson Braun.

I just wanted a simple cozy mystery with my favorite cozy mystery sleuth, Jim Qwilleran and his Siamese Cats Koko and Yum-Yum.

Little Miss and I are reading Gone Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright.

The Husband is reading Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane.

The Boy is reading The Red Badge of Courage for school.

What We watched/are Watching

Last week I watched Shop Around the Corner and we watched a lot of Newhart.

I also watched an episode of the new Around the World in 80 Days mini-series with David Tennant with The Boy.

This week I am watching Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Secret World of Arrietty for the cozy, comfy cinema series that Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I are doing this fall.

We will be watching movies and posting our impressions of them on Thursdays. This week only we will be posting on Tuesday and Thursday.

Today my family went to a family reunion without me, as I mentioned above, so I can stay home with Zooma the Wonder Dog and catch up on some rest that I lost last week while battling the aftermath of the cold. I may actually get to watch something on my own, which is a very rare occurrence. I think I’ll probably pick something light and relaxing along the lines of Anne of Green Gables (the 1985 one).

Update: I picked a movie called The Lightkeepers with Richard Dreyfuss and I’m liking it so far.

What I’m Writing

I am still working on Gladwynn Grant Gets Her Footing. I am also working on some blog posts for the upcoming weeks.

Now it’s your turn

Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.

Fiction Friday: Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage Chapter 4

Welcome to the fourth chapter of Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage.

As always this is a work in progress and there could be (will be) typos, plot holes, and other errors but those will be fixed before the book publishes a couple of months from now.

If you want to read the first book in the series, you can find it on Amazon HERE.

If you don’t want to read this story in chapters on a blog, you can pre-order it HERE.

If you want to learn more about my other books you can find links to them HERE.

Chapter 4

“Grant. Where are you? A resident at Willowbrook just called and said there are cop cars all over the place.”

Once again Gladwynn was impressed how her boss, Managing Editor Liam Finley, seemed to know everything that was going on and also seemed to never leave his office at the newspaper.  She wondered if he handed his personal cellphone out to everyone he met so they could call him 24/7 with any breaking news.

“I’m at Willowbrook now and there are, yes.”

“You’re there?”

“I am, but I’m leaving right now.”

“So, fill me in. What are you seeing?”

“There are indeed police cars here. There’s been a death in one of the condos. Possibly suspicious.”

“Whoa. Who is it? Any ideas? One of the old folks?”

“No. A young folk, actually. Samantha Mors.”

There was a sharp intake of breath on the other end of the phone, followed up by a curse word. “No way. I did not expect that.”

“Did you know her?”

“Not exactly, no. I met her at a bar once. Saw her off and on around town after that. Gorgeous woman. Sweet too. Wanted nothing to do with me no matter how hard I tried.”

Gladwynn shook her head, and stifled a laugh, glad Liam couldn’t see her. The man was well-known countywide for his bar visits and his love of women. Lots of women.

“Were you there?” he asked. “I mean, at Willowbrook when the cops were there?”

She didn’t know how much she should share at this point, but Liam was going to find out eventually anyhow. “A friend of mine found her actually. I was the second person on scene.” She glanced at Doris as she started the car. “It’s been pretty upsetting for her and me. How about I give you a call after I get her home?”

“You saw the body?” Liam whistled. “Oh man, Grant. I’m sorry you had to see that. Yeah. Totally call me back later and let’s hammer out a plan of action for tomorrow’s paper. Sadly, you’re a bit too close to the case to cover it. We’d better have Laurel handle it from here.”

At that moment Gladwynn felt like a real reporter because under no circumstances did she want to give up this story. “Why are you giving it to Laurel? This is my story.”

“Hate to break it to you, kid, but it’s not your story. You’re part of the story. Conflict of interest. Call me later.”

The line disconnected. Gladwynn scowled at the phone briefly then flipped it into her middle console.

Doris let out a breath. “Oh, Gladwynn, honey, I’m glad you don’t have to cover this story. What a hard job reporting is.”

Gladwynn shrugged a shoulder. “Yeah, sometimes, but the hard stories are mixed in with a lot of happy stories. Like little kids at field days and church dinners. It all evens out in the end.”

The drive to Doris’ house was quiet after that with Doris looking out the window contemplatively.

After escorting Doris into her house, brewing her a cup of tea, and sitting with her for half an hour to be sure she was okay, Gladwynn headed back home to call Liam and connect with Lucinda.

Lucinda was in the kitchen brewing a pot of tea and loading chocolate chip cookies onto a plate when Gladwynn walked in with the phone to her ear.

She filled Liam in on the details she felt like she could fill him in on, mainly that Tanner was the lead investigator and that there was no conclusive evidence as of yet that there was any foul play in Samantha’s death. She chose not to offer any specific details about the condition or  position of Samantha’s body and, thankfully, he didn’t ask. A photo she’d taken on her cellphone of the police cars and ambulance parked outside of the condo would work for a photograph for the story, he told her.

Lucinda pulled her into a hug as soon as she slid her finger over the button to end the call. “He’s not going to make you write about this horrible thing, is he?”

“No. He’s giving it to Laurel. He said my covering it would be a conflict of interest.”

Lucinda leaned back and pushed a strand of dark hair back from Gladwynn’s face. “Good. You were involved enough as it was with that mess with Daryl Stabler. This would be even worse since you were right there to find her. I just can’t believe it. How are you holding up?”

Gladwynn sighed and sat at the kitchen table, pouring herself some tea. “Okay, I guess. I’m more worried about Doris. The poor woman. She was really shaken.” She winced as she spooned some honey out of the jar. “Rightly so. It was awful to see Samantha that way. I hadn’t met her officially yet, but I saw her earlier today at the lake. It was so weird to see someone you’d seen alive only a few hours earlier dead in her bedroom floor.” Gladwynn shuddered. “Weird and awful.”

Lucinda sat in the chair on the other side of her. “What does Tanner think? Does he really think she was murdered?”

“He doesn’t know yet. He said there are aspects of the scene that are suspicious but he wouldn’t elaborate on what.”

Lucinda pushed the plate of cookies toward her. “Well, it doesn’t matter. The police will release some information soon enough. I’m just so glad you don’t have to worry about it anymore. Laurel can fill you in later or you can read it in the newspaper like the rest of us.”

Gladwynn nodded absentmindedly. It still bothered her that Liam had given the story to Laurel, but she knew he was right. It wouldn’t look right for her to write about a situation she’d been directly involved with, even if she personally had no idea what had happened to Samantha nor had she known her.

Still, she couldn’t push away the uneasy feeling that Samantha’s death wasn’t an accident and she would love to find out if that feeling was accurate or not.

“What are they going to do about the play?” she asked, trying to forget the image of Samantha in that floor.

Lucinda stirred creamer in her tea. “They aren’t sure yet but I think we should continue it in Samantha’s honor. Incorporating the arts into the activities of the older population was very important to her. We’re all meeting Monday night to make the final decision.”

A tear slipped down Lucinda’s cheek. Gladwynn reached over and squeezed her hand. She wanted to tell her it was okay, but it wasn’t okay. It was horrible and heartbreaking that Samantha had passed away. It would be even more heartbreaking if she had passed away because of something someone else did.

Lucinda cleared her throat. “I just can’t believe that this happened right after Derek passed away. He and Samantha were so close. When I heard about what happened I just kept worrying that maybe  — no. I can’t think that. It’s just, she was so down about his death. What if she – ” Lucinda shook her head and dabbed a tissue to the corner of her eye.

Gladwynn rubbed her grandmother’s shoulder. Der. Those were the letters she’d seen on the piece of paper at Samantha’s. “Who was Derek?”

Lucinda looked up from her tea. “Oh right. I guess I ever told you about him. He moved here a couple of years ago. He was such a kind man. I wish you could have met him. He was the one who made sure the little library was stocked and we had all we needed for badminton and tennis. He purchased all that equipment. I’m guessing he had some money, but I don’t know.” She wiped her nose. “He just had such a kind heart. He died two weeks ago. None of us even knew he was sick, but, well, it is a retirement home so residents do die more often than other places. He and Samantha were very close. It’s like they connected right away when she started. They used to play cards together and he always helped her with her various recreation events. They had lunches together and we’d often see them reading books out in the courtyard.”

She took a sip of her tea. “Anyhow, I think we both need a little break from that topic. Jacob is going to come over for dinner after church tomorrow. I hope that’s okay.”

Gladwynn raised an eyebrow. “Grandma, this is your house.  You can invite whomever you want over. You don’t have to ask me permission to have your boyfriend over. Plus, Jacob still owes me a rematch at Chess.”

Gladwynn had slowly become accustomed to Jacob Evans being a regular site at the old Victorian home she and her grandmother lived in. He was often there for dinners or movie nights or simply to repair something around the home. Gladwynn had only learned about their relationship when she moved in so she wasn’t sure how long the pair had been dating.

Seeing her grandmother going out on dates with someone other than Gladwynn’s late grandfather Sidney Grant had been unsettling at first. Sidney had passed away six years ago, though, and he wouldn’t have wanted Lucinda to live the rest of her life without a companion.

Lucinda rolled her eyes. “Don’t call him my boyfriend. That sounds so  – I don’t know – teenagerish.”

Gladwynn snorted out a laugh. “But he is your boyfriend.”

Lucinda waved her hand briefly as she took a sip of tea. “Let’s be honest, you just want him over because you’re just desperate to figure out how he keeps beating you at chess. Admit it.”

“I completely am. It’s not fair. I was Chess champion three years in a row in my dorm at college. I don’t get how he’s so fast!”

Lucinda laughed and broke a cookie in half, handing one half to Gladwynn. “Years and years of practice, my dear, I’m sure. Remember he told you he used to play it in the barracks during Vietnam.”

Gladwynn finished her cookie and stood. “Liam wants me in the office so it looks like our movie night will have to be delayed. There isn’t much information I can provide him with since I’m being considered a witness, but I’ll head in and fill him on what I can so Laurel has a head start on the story.”

“That’s absolutely fine. We can always do it tomorrow after church.”

Gladwynn kissed Lucinda’s cheek. “You usually fall asleep after lunch so let’s do it in the evening instead.”

Lucinda looked up and quirked an eyebrow. “Let’s be honest, young lady. We both fall asleep after lunch.”

The woman was right, of course. Gladwynn had become accustomed to finishing her grandmother’s delicious meals and then curling up under a blanket in the living room and dozing off for a nap. She knew how spoiled she was and she didn’t feel guilty about it at all.

***

She called Tanner’s number at the barracks on the way to the office. He wasn’t there but she left him a message asking him to call her. Maybe the conversation Samantha had been having was unrelated. Maybe she was arguing with a bill collector. Still, she knew Tanner would want to know about it.

The Brookstone Beacon office was quiet with less staff there on a Saturday night than during the week. The buzz of the fluorescent lights was the loudest sound as Gladwynn made her way to Liam’s office. Liam’s appearance, and his office, was in its usual state — empty takeout containers scattered among loose papers on top of his desk and on the small table in the corner of the office; a black leather coat tossed across the couch against the wall to the right; Liam’s dress shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows; and his jawline unshaven.

He was typing fast when she stepped into the doorway. He didn’t look away from the computer screen, even when she sat in the chair across from his desk.

When he did turn to face her, he swiveled in his chair quickly and spoke in his usual clipped manner. “Grant. Hello. Tell me everything.”

She filled him in on what she hadn’t been able to talk about in front of Doris, without going into too many details. He listened with his hands propped behind his head, eyes narrowed, leaning slightly back in his chair.

When she was done, he kept his hands behind his head and nodded, looking wistfully at a spot on the wall above her head. “Sad thing. Sam was a good woman. I worked at a newspaper in Philly [lh1] for a few years and she said she’d grown up there. That’s about as far in the conversation as we got. She brushed me off pretty fast.” He shrugged and focused his gaze back on Gladwynn. “Anyhow, fill Benton in on this and then get out of here. I’m sure it wasn’t easy seeing all that. Good thinking on getting a shot for the front too.” He dropped his hands on the desk, then pointed at her. “Make sure Kinney knows we get first dibs on this story too. I better not see one of the TV stations up north or down south with this story tonight.”

She knew up north meant the small NBC affiliate over the border in New York state and down south meant a group of televisions stations in the central part of the state. They were more competition than the local shoppers and small publications called “penny savers” in the area. Those publications were more about ads than news and even though all newspapers needed ads, Liam only focused on who could compete with his paper on the news side of things.

Gladwynn was certain the man had been born with actual ink running in his veins.

She stood and smiled. “I can’t control what information the state police release and to whom, but I’ll pass on your desire to have the scoop.”

Liam winced. “Grant. No one says,” he formed quotes with his fingers “scoop anymore. Stop reading those 1940 crime novels. Capeesh?”

“Capeesh.”

The sound of one of the 90s style phones that the newspaper used for its landlines slamming back in place echoed up the hallways from Laurel Benton’s desk when Gladwynn walked back.

She had a feeling Laurel wasn’t having a good day – most likely due to a source who wouldn’t return her calls.

Laurel had a few rough edges but not so rough that she and Gladwynn weren’t able to form a type of friendship. Their personalities were very different, but somehow, they clicked enough that Laurel had gone from gossiping about Gladwynn when she first arrived to now inviting her to lunch from time to time.

Gladwynn peered around the wall of Laurel’s cubicle slowly. Laurel’s head was tipped down, her straight dark brown hair hanging down across her face, a few strands of gray streaked through the dark brown, a reminder to Gladwynn that the woman was 10 years her senior.

For a second Gladwynn thought Laurel might be crying, but she’d never seen her even close to crying so when Laurel looked up at her with cheeks flushed and eyes narrowed, she knew it was anger that had her head hanging down, not sadness.

“Are we sure it’s illegal to kill a man who merely lives to make your life a living hell?”

Gladwynn had a feeling Laurel was talking about her ex-husband Lance Brewster, fire chief of the Birchwood Fire Department. Their divorce had been finalized only a few months ago and Gladwynn hadn’t said it to either of them, but she had a feeling that deep down they were both still in love with each other. Of course, that may have merely been Gladwynn’s romantic side speaking, because at this moment Laurel wanted to murder Lance.

Laurel practically growled as she spoke. “He never signed the papers. Can you believe that?”

Gladwynn leaned her side against the cubicle. “Never signed the divorce papers you mean?”

“Yes. My lawyer called the other day and said part of the papers weren’t signed.” Laurel pushed her hands through her hair and held them there, at the top of her head, for several seconds. “I’ve been trying to reach him for three days and he will not pick up. I thought I’d try from here instead of my cellphone and maybe he’d actually answer, but I should have known he’d ignore a call from the paper.”

She really should have known since Lance had told Gladwynn that Laurel’s job at the newspaper was one of the biggest contentions in the marriage. Gladwynn briefly considered pointing that out, but thought better of it.

Instead, she said, “I don’t get it. I thought you said it was final. That’s why you go by Benton now instead of Brewster.”

Laurel tossed her hands up. “I was told it was final. I can’t even believe this! How did my lawyer not even check the paperwork? Or should I say my ex-lawyer since Lance is apparently not my ex-husband like he is supposed to be.”

“What are you going to do now?”

“Take those stupid papers to Lance and tell him to finish signing where he was supposed to.” She let out a long breath. “Sorry. I know you haven’t had the best of days yourself. Fill me in on what you can and I’ll call the state police for the rest.”

Gladwynn relayed what she had told Liam. When she was done Laurel let out a whistle. “Wow. So do they really think she was murdered? I mean, I wonder why someone would even do that to her.”

“Did you know her?”

“Met her a couple of times, but, no, I didn’t really know her well. She seemed like a super nice person so I really hope she wasn’t killed.”

“Liam says I’m out on this one, but I’d love to know what Tanner says the coroner tells him. Fill me in, will you?”

“Definitely will but it’s better you’re not covering it. You’re too close to it all. Trust me. There was a fatal fire a few years ago and it was someone my family had known for years. Our old editor told me he didn’t want to pay for my therapy so I wasn’t allowed to go and cover it. Who knows. Maybe this will all turn out to be an accident and we won’t have to worry about it anyhow.”

As she headed home later, Gladwynn hoped Laurel was right. She hoped that she’d get a call later that told her Samantha Mors hadn’t died under suspicious circumstances. It would still be hard for Doris, her grandmother, and others from the community to deal with her death, but at least they wouldn’t have the added sadness that she had been murdered.

Comfy Cozy Cinema: Shop Around the Corner

For the next three months, Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I will be watching cozy, mysterious, or comfy movies. I think maybe cozy and comfy is the same thing, but you know what I mean. Erin made these awesome graphics detailing what we are doing and what movies we will be watching.

If you want to join in and give us your impressions of the movies we watch you are more than welcome to do so!

This week we watched The Shop Around the Corner with Jimmy Stewart, Margaret Sullavan (yes, this spelling threw me off but that was her actual last name), and Frank Morgan.

If you watch this movie and think that Frank Morgan looks very familiar but you just can’t place him, just imagine him saying, “Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.”

Yes. He was The Wizard in The Wizard of Oz.

In this movie, he is Mr. Matuschek, who owns a leather goods store in Budapest, Hungary and Matuschek and Company. His top salesman and most trusted employee is Stewart who plays Alfred Kralik. They pronounced Matuschek as “Matachek” in the movie.

The movie opens with all the employees gathering together and letting us all get to know a bit about them.

Besides Kralik there is Kralik’s coworkers include Karlik’s friend, Pirovitch (Felix Bressart), a kindly family man; Ferencz Vadas (Joseph Schildkraut), a two-faced womanizer; saleswoman Ilona Novotny (Inez Courtney); clerk Flora Kaczek (Sara Haden); and Pepi Katona (William Tracy), a sassy errand boy.

We also learn in the beginning that Stewart has been writing letters to a woman he connected with while searching for something else in the newspaper. He saw her ad in the newspaper.

They’ve been hitting it off and he’s getting ready to actually meet her.

On this same day, Mr. Matuschek comes into the store with a bunch of musical cigarette boxes that he has to figure out how to sell. Mr. Kralik disagrees that Mr. Matuschek can sell the cigarette boxes and they have a brief spat.

Enter Margaret Sullavan as Klara Novak. She’s looking for a job and proceeds to sell one of the boxes to a customer. Mr. Matuschek hires her on the spot, much to the disappointment of Mr. Kralik, who doesn’t like the threat to his position but also finds her a bit pushy.

Enter a very popular trope in romance movies – enemies to lovers.

This trope has a couple twists, though, and that makes the movie interesting and more than just a romance.

The funny thing about the movie is that it is supposed to take place in Hungary but almost everyone has a New York/American accent.

This was a bit of a goofy movie with a couple of serious themes mixed in. It features wonderful bantering between Stewart and Sullivan and some really great acting from Stewart especially. I don’t know that I would say Sullivan was a great actress in this but she was very good and held her own against Stewart’s strong personality.

According to TCM: “James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan had known each other a long time before making The Shop Around the Corner. Both were in a summer stock company called the University Players. It was there that Stewart realized his potential as an actor, so he followed Sullavan and fellow player Henry Fonda to New York to begin an acting career in earnest.

Even though Margaret Sullavan was infamous for her quick temper and disdainful attitude towards Hollywood, James Stewart counted working with her as one of the great joys of his professional career. And because he knew her personally, he was more equipped than most of the cast and crew members to deal with her frequent and volatile emotional outbursts.”

I also loved this tidbit that TCM shared: “Stewart said: “We were in this little restaurant and I had the line: ‘I will come out on the street and I will roll my trousers up to my knees.’ For some reason, I couldn’t say it. She was furious. She said, ‘This is absolutely ridiculous.’ There I was standing with my trousers rolled up to my knees, very conscious of my skinny legs, and I said, ‘I don’t want to act today; get a fellow with decent legs and just show them.’ Margaret said, ‘Then I absolutely refuse to do the picture.’ So we did more takes.”

You can read the full article here: https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/413/the-shop-around-the-corner/#articles-reviews?articleId=26807

Some people might know that this movie was later remade or revamped a bit many years later in You Got Mail which starred Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks and was released in 1998.

There are a few changes between the two movies, of course.

I don’t want to give too much of the movie away, but there is a falling out between Mr. Matuschek and Kralik and a firing but it is all over a misunderstanding involving Mrs. Matuschek. There are actually a lot of misunderstandings in this movie and some of them are quite funny and interesting.

There are some great lines in this movie including:

“There might be a lot we don’t know about each other. You know, people seldom go to the trouble of scratching the surface of things to find the inner truth.”

Alfred Kralik: There might be a lot we don’t know about each other. You know, people seldom go to the trouble of scratching the surface of things to find the inner truth.

Klara Novak (Miss Novak) : Well I really wouldn’t care to scratch your surface, Mr. Kralik, because I know exactly what I’d find. Instead of a heart, a handbag. Instead of a soul, a suitcase. And instead of an intellect, a cigarette lighter… which doesn’t work.

Klara: [In her letter to Alfred] : Oh, my Dear Friend, my heart was trembling as I walked into the post office, and there you were, lying in Box 237. I took you out of your envelope and read you, read you right there.

Klara : Mr. Kralik, it’s true we’re in the same room, but we’re not on the same planet.

Alfred: Why Miss Novak, although I’m the victim of your remark, I can’t help admiring the exquisite way you have of expressing yourself. You certainly know how to put a man in his planet.

And this one from Klara, I would love to put on a T-shirt for myself: “Psychologically, I’m very confused… But personally, I don’t feel bad at all.”

The movie was directed by Ernst Lubitsch who told a reporter from the New York Times: “It’s not a big picture, just a quiet little story that seemed to have some charm. It didn’t cost very much, for such a cast, under $500,000. It was made in twenty-eight days. I hope it has some charm.”

I would definitely say the movie has a lot of charm.

Next up for our movies is a double feature with Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Secret World of Arrietty (a Studio Ghibli film). Erin and I will share about them next week.

Erin’s impression of the movie is here: https://crackercrumblife.com/2023/09/07/comfy-cozy-cinema-the-shop-on-the-corner/

We plan to watch the following movies through the next three months (the dates are the dates that we will be writing about them on (unless we have to postpone for illness or some other mental breakdown that one of us has *wink*):

The Secret World of Arrietty and Fantastic Mr. Fox (September 14)

The African Queen (Sept. 21)

Arsenic and Old Lace (Sept. 28)

Oct. 5 (break for us or you to catch up!)

The Lady Vanishes (October 13)

Strangers on a Train (Oct. 19)

Rebecca (Oct. 26)

Little Women (November 2)

Tea with The Dames (November 9)

The Fishermen’s Friends (November 16)

November 23 off for Thanksgiving

November 30th? Wildcard at this point because we shifted things around and are short a movie! Oops! We will update

Saturday Afternoon Chat: Slowly getting back into the homeschooling groove and bracing for hot weather in autumn

I almost didn’t write one of these today because our week really was that boring.

This past week it was mainly schoolwork, failing at cleaning the house, washing dishes that got used less than an hour later and were once again dirty, and worrying about a ton of things I can’t control.

I did have my regular tea and honey so that made me happy.

I spent a lot of the week trying to plan homeschool lessons and trying to figure out what to do with all the books I bought from a recent library sale to use for pleasure reading and homeschool.

I also spent a lot of time looking at a space at the bottom of our pantry where I could place some of these books but which is full of miscellaneous items and would take a long time to clean out. I mean, I could clean that space out and have a place for the books but then where will I put the garbage that I clean out?

This is the dilemma of people who don’t know how to throw anything out.

We enjoyed nice fall weather most of this past week but, and I can’t even believe I am writing this, this next week the temperatures are going to be in the high 80s. I am so depressed about it and I’m serious. I know how sad it sounds to be depressed about warm weather but I was looking forward to chilly and cozy weather.

I am trying to look forward to another chance to take the littlest swimming but the idea of climbing in and out of a pool and peeling wet clothes off doesn’t really appeal to me anymore.

We did a lot of that all summer and it was fun but it had its season and that season should be over. At least I know that much of the rest of the country will be experiencing this hot weather as well.

Because of the weather I wanted to stay inside this week but it looks like I’ll have to go out at least three days. On Tuesday I am going to get my hair cut because my mom subtly hinted it looks awful and said she’d pay me to get it done. Ahem. Mothers are lovely, aren’t they? My mother is a sweet woman and I know she meant well, but it was a little annoying since I did not want to go out and sweat this week.

On Wednesday my daughter goes back to Kids Club at a local church. On Thursday she has gymnastics. I’ll be taking her to at least one of those if not both.

Next Saturday we have a 60th anniversary party planned for my parents but so far there aren’t tons of people saying they will attend so I don’t think it will be as big of an undertaking as I thought it would be.

Our neighbors invited us to a cookout tomorrow since their daughter is home from college and I’m sure we will go to my parents on Monday.

That’s if none of us come down with the cold that The Boy caught and dealt with yesterday. I am trying my best to make sure my parents do not get sick before their party on Saturday. It doesn’t help that The Boy was with his grandparents the day before the symptoms hit. Sigh.

I did not pick my camera up all week so I have no photos to share with you but I’m sure I will next week since we will be doing summery things this week.

How about you? How was your week? Are you ready for cozy weather and getting it or are the warm temperatures hitting you as well?

Fiction Friday: Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage Chapter 3

Welcome to the third chapter of Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage.

As always this is a work in progress and there could be (will be) typos, plot holes, and other errors but those will be fixed before the book publishes a couple of months from now.

If you want to read the first book in the series, you can find it on Amazon HERE.

If you don’t want to read this story in chapters on a blog, you can pre-order it HERE.

If you want to learn more about my other books you can find links to them HERE.

Chapter 3

She slid her finger over the end button on the screen as she walked toward Doris. Reaching out she laid her hand on the woman’s thin shoulder. “Doris, what’s going on?” Gladwynn could feel the woman shaking under her touch.

Doris didn’t answer. Her hand was still clasped over her mouth and she’d squeezed her eyes shut as if to shut out whatever she’d just seen. Tears slipped from under her eyelids.

“Speak to me,” Gladwynn said, squeezing her shoulder. “What’s going on?” When Doris only gasped in a breath behind her hand, Gladwynn slid her hand to her back. “Where is Samantha? Did you see her? Is she in there?”

Doris nodded, opening her eyes. She slowly lifted her arm and pointed into the condo.

Gladwynn took a deep breath and stepped into the hallway of the condo. A chill swept over her and she paused, rubbing her hands up her arms. She couldn’t pause long, though. Something was clearly wrong with Samantha and she very well might need an ambulance. Her heels clipped on the hardwood floor, echoing in the sparsely `decorated main living space of the condo.

She should have asked Doris where she’d seen Samantha, but the woman had been too upset. There was no one in the living room or the kitchen, but there was a flight of stairs on the other side of the dining room. Gladwynn ascended them quickly and saw Samantha on the carpeted floor of the bedroom as soon she reached the top. The door was across from the stairs and it was open.

 Samantha was lying with her head twisted to one side, her body contorted, a clenched hand reaching toward the doorway.

Gladwynn lifted her phone and dialed 911 as she inched closer, trying to decide what to do. Should she check Samantha’s pulse? Maybe she shouldn’t check the body at all, but if there was a chance Samantha was still alive, she needed to see.

“Marson County 911. What’s your emergency?”

Gladwynn knelt next to the body, grimacing at the sight of Samantha’s face. Her eyes were open and her mouth was twisted into a grimace.  “I need an ambulance at Willowbrook.” Her voice trembled. “Condo 43. There’s a woman and she’s lying on the floor.”

“Okay. She’s on the floor unconscious?”

“Yes.”

“Is she breathing?”

Gladwynn took a deep breath and laid a hand on Samantha’s back. It was cold and hard and made Gladwynn rip her hand back quickly. “No. She doesn’t appear to be.”

“Is there a pulse?”

“Should I check? I mean, should I touch her?”

“Not if you don’t feel comfortable, but if you do you can check at her wrist using two fingers. I’m dispatching the ambulance now.”

Gladwynn cast a quick glance around the room, her gaze falling on a broken lamp on the floor, a tea cup with spilled tea on the carpet, a tipped over chair, and a piece of paper half crumpled near Samantha’s right hand.

“Send the police too,” she said. “I don’t think this was an accident.”

The dispatcher asked her to stay on the line and she did while she reached over slowly and pressed two fingers against Samantha’s wrist. Not only wasn’t there a pulse but her skin was cold and gray.

“No pulse,” she told the dispatcher. “Her skin is a funny color too. I think she’s been gone for a while.”

“Okay, ma’am. Just stay there. The ambulance and police are on their way.”

Gladwynn pulled her hand away and sat back on her heels, her stomach aching. Doris appeared in the doorway, one hand on her mouth, the other on her stomach.

“Is she – is she –”

Gladwynn looked up, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth briefly. “Yes.”

Doris began to sob and Gladwynn stood and pulled the woman against her. She felt something under her foot, glanced down, and saw it was the piece of paper.

While part of it was crumpled, she could read part of a name and date at the top of the page, as if someone — maybe Samantha — had been writing a letter.

She looked closer at the partially written name.

Der.

Maybe a boyfriend or some sort of relative? Gladwynn wasn’t sure. All she wanted to do at that moment was get Doris out of the room and maybe come back up and cover Samantha up. She knew she couldn’t cover a body, though. Not before the police had been there. Seeing her laying there, though, her body twisted at an odd angle, her hands reaching out and her unseeing eyes staring, was unnerving.

“Come on, Doris. Let’s wait downstairs for the police okay?”

“The police?” Doris looked up alarmed. “ Why are the police coming? Did someone do this to her? Oh my goodness. Oh, Gladwynn.”

Gladwynn ushered Doris toward the door. “I don’t know, but the police are better equipped than us to find out. Let’s go downstairs.”

On her way through the doorway, she noticed a black mark on the wall by the doorframe. It could have been anything, but its position on the wall, just on the edge of the frame, made her question how it had got there.

Very little about the scene seemed like an accident. The broken lap and knocked-over chair were in the wrong places if a medical emergency had caused Samantha’s fall unless she had stumbled around the room in her final moments. That was, of course, a possibility, but Gladwynn truly didn’t feel that’s what had happened.

She had Doris sit on the couch and then went to the kitchen and started to open the cabinet to get a glass of water but hesitated. This was a potential crime scene. There could be fingerprints and clues everywhere. She lowered her hand and went back to Doris just as the ambulance pulled up out front.

An EMT with a bag ran inside and Gladwynn pointed to the stairs. “She’s up there.”

Doris sniffed. “I should call your grandmother.” She sniffed again, reaching into her purse for her phone. “And Emerald. Oh, and Eileen should know too.”

Another EMT ran into the house and Gladwynn pointed up the stairs. The woman followed her co-worker.

Gladwynn held up her own phone. “I’ll call Grandma. You handle the other two.”

Doris nodded meekly, swiping a hand across her cheek.

Gladwynn stood and dialed her grandmother’s number while walking around the living room, looking at the bare white walls, the tan couch, and the plain brown coffee table with a single magazine on it. The house was immaculate but there also wasn’t much inside to clutter it. A small black bookcase with three shelves stood on the opposite side of the room next to a television with a DVD player underneath it. The shelves were only partially full.

Gladwynn stepped back to look into the kitchen as her grandmother’s phone continued to ring.  Its coloring was pale like the living room and it was also spotless. As she started to look away, though, she noticed a flower petal on the floor in front of the stove. Glancing around, though, she didn’t see the flower it could have come from.

“Gladwynn?” Her grandmother’s voice was panicked. “I’m on my way, but Emerald has fainted and we’re trying to help her. Is it true? Is Samantha dead?”

“I think so, yes.” Though she really knew so. There hadn’t been a pulse. Maybe after the EMTs worked on her? But, no. She had to accept that not even that would help.

Her grandmother let out a ragged breath. “Oh my. Oh, this is awful. Are you okay? Did you find her? Who found her? Was there blood? Was she –”

“Grandma, calm down. I want you to go home. There’s nothing you can do here. I’ll meet you there later. I’m waiting for the police.”

Lucinda gasped. “The police? Why would the police come? Is there something else going on? Are you in danger?”

“Grandma, no. I’m okay. I just felt the police should be here because something seemed off. I’ll fill you in when I get home. The EMTs are upstairs now. I’m sure they’re trying CPR. If anything changes, I’ll let you know.”

The EMTs came down the stairs as Gladwynn hung up. The man’s expression was grim.  “Are you family?”

Gladwynn shook her head. “No. My friend knows her but I’ve never met her. We came to check on her.”

The man stepped closer to Gladwynn, away from Doris was crying into her phone.

“She’s gone,” he said. “There’s nothing we can do. We didn’t even try to move her. She’s cold to the touch and her lips are blue.”

Gladwynn touched a hand to her throat. “I didn’t even notice her mouth. I was so distracted by her eyes.”

The EMT shuddered. “Yeah. I can see why. It’s creepy. The police should be here any minute. We’ll let them handle it.” He looked at Doris who had collapsed on the couch. “Ma’am, are you okay?”

Doris pressed a hand to her forehead and nodded slowly, her eyes closed. “Yes. Or I will be.” She opened her eyes and offered a weak smile. “Thank you.”

The front door was still open and a frantic-looking woman with straight dark brown hair flowing across her shoulders rushed inside. Gladwynn guessed her to be around 45.

“What is going on?” she gasped.

Doris stood. “Oh, Eileen. I just left you a message. It’s Sam—”

Eileen’s cheeks were flushed. “I saw the ambulance outside. Did something happen to Samantha? Where is she?”

The EMT stepped toward her, his hand raised. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but if you’re not family I really need you to –”

“I’m the manager of this community,” Eileen snapped, a strand of hair falling across her face. “I want to know what is going on. Where is Samantha?”

Doris walked over and laid a hand on Eileen’s shoulder. “Something terrible has happened.  Samantha is dead.”

The color in Eileen’s face visibly drained, making the red on her cheeks stand out even more. “That’s not possible. I just spoke to her this morning.”

Gladwynn looked through the doorway and watched a state police car yank into a parking space. She immediately recognized the trooper who stepped out of the vehicle as Trooper Tanner Kinney. The only difference from the last time she’d seen him, though, was that today he was wearing a suit and button up shirt instead of a standard state police uniform. Another man wearing a similar suit stepped out of the passenger side. Another state police car parked next to theirs.

Gladwynn stepped out front to meet Tanner.  

“Miss Grant.” He tipped his head forward in greeting as he walked toward her. “Why am I not surprised to find you here?”

She clasped her hands behind her back and tipped her head similar to how he had. “Trooper Kinney.”

“Detective Kinney.”

“Detective?”

“I’ve been promoted to the homicide unit.”

“First, I wasn’t allowed to call you officer. Now I can’t even call you trooper. Your titles aren’t easy to keep up with. When did this promotion happen?”

“A month ago, but I don’t have time to discuss my personal life with you right now. If you haven’t noticed, there’s been a death.”

He started to walk toward the house and she hurried to catch up with him.

“I definitely noticed. I was the second person on the scene behind my grandmother’s friend Doris.”

Tanner glanced over his shoulder. “Someone you know?”

Gladwynn shook her head once. “No. Someone my grandmother and our friend knew.”

He paused and looked down at her and she was reminded how tall he was. “You do have a knack for getting yourself mixed up in things.”

“I promise it was not intentional this time. I was merely dropping my friend off to check on her friend.”

Tanner smiled briefly. “Sure. Now, where’s the victim?”

Gladwynn hugged her arms around herself, a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach as she remembered what she had seen earlier. “Upstairs. In the bedroom.”

Tanner and the other trooper disappeared into the condo.

She followed them into the condo, staying in the living room with Doris and Eileen, though she truly was curious what the men would say when they saw Samantha in the position she was in.

Eileen began to pace, pushing a hand through her disheveled shoulder-length hair. “Why are their police here? Is that standard for a medical situation?”

The female EMT had already gone back to the ambulance. The male EMT shrugged his shoulder. “Sometimes it is. It depends on the situation.”

Eileen paused in her pacing, her hands on her hips. “I mean it was a medical situation, right? Is that what happened? I mean did she trip or fall or maybe it was her heart or –”

“We don’t know yet,” the EMT responded. “I know this is an upsetting situation, but please try to stay calm.”

Eileen began to chew on her fingernail as she paced. “I’m trying. Will the police tell us what happened?”

“When they know, I’m sure you’ll know,” the EMT said, but Gladwynn knew that wasn’t true. The police weren’t usually very interested in being forthcoming with information, especially this early in an investigation.  

Tanner’s voice boomed from upstairs. “Miss Grant? Please come up here.”

Eileen intently watched Gladwynn walk across the room toward the dining room and the stairs. The woman was probably wondering why the police knew Gladwynn by name. A cold chill shivered across Gladwynn like it had when she’d first climbed the stairs. Tanner and two other men were in the room, either wearing gloves or pulling them on. Tanner put his hand up to stop her from entering the room. She could see Samantha’s body behind him, though, and tears stung her eyes.

She never imagined she would ever be caught up in such a heartbreaking situation.

“Miss Grant, is everything here the way it was when you first came in? You didn’t touch anything? Move anything?”

She took a deep breath, swallowing hard. “I touched her wrist to see if there was a pulse. Otherwise, no. I didn’t touch anything.”

Tanner snapped a glove on. “Good. Head downstairs and wait, please. We’d like to talk to you and the others. We’ll be down shortly.”

She nodded briefly and returned to the living room.

Other members of law enforcement trailed into the house like ants looking for a watermelon while she, Doris, and Eileen waited.

Eileen had stopped pacing. She was now sitting in a plain gray chair, texting and chewing on her nails.

“When can we get out of here?” she asked as she stood abruptly. “I need to go check on the residents and calm them down. I’m sure they know something is up with all these police parked outside.”

Gladwynn had to admit she was getting a bit anxious herself. She’d really like to get back home and check on Lucinda, but even more so she wanted to get Doris home. The woman was clearly shook up still. She’d been sitting on the couch, crying softly into a tissue off and on, and rubbing her arms with her hands. Gladwynn wondered if she should call Bill and have him come over, but she knew having too many people on a crime scene was a serious no-no. Bill also wasn’t known for being the most sensitive person.

As if in answer to Eileen’s question, Tanner came down the stairs, a notebook in hand. “Ladies, sorry for making you wait. I hope we can get you out of her soon. I’ll just need a quick statement and then you can all be on your way.” He opened the notebook and sat on the couch Doris was sitting on, but at the other end. “Which one of you was first on scene?”

Doris slowly raised her hand. “Me.” She held the tissue to her mouth and choked back a sob.

Tanner’s expression softened. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but if you could just tell me what position the body was in when you found it.”

Doris’ eyes narrowed. “She was on the floor when I found her.” She put an emphasis on she and her, to make it clear she didn’t appreciate Tanner reducing Samantha to an inanimate object. “She was on her face and her eyes were open.” She wiped a tissue across the corner of her eye. “It was just awful.”

Tanner kept his eyes on the notebook as he scratched a couple of notes. “I know this is hard, but I just need to gather as many details as I can in case this turns out to be more than a medical emergency.”

“Do you think it was more than a medical emergency?” Gladwynn asked.

Tanner looked up at her. “We can’t be sure until the coroner does an autopsy but the EMTs did radio in some concerns about the scene and asked for us to investigate.”

“And now that you’ve seen her body what do you think?”

A small smile pulled at Tanner’s mouth. “Miss Grant, I know you are a naturally curious person, and this has all been a bit of a shock but you also know that I can’t talk about a case while we are still investigating. Furthermore –”

“But you’re calling it a case so –”

Tanner cleared his throat. “Furthermore, I can’t discuss any case with a private citizen unless they are a family member of the deceased and I certainly would not discuss it this early on with a member of the media.”

Gladwynn sat back against the couch and sighed. “Understood. Sorry. I guess I got a bit ahead of myself.”

Tanner turned his attention back to Doris, finished his questioning of her and then turned to Gladwynn and recorded what she had seen as well.

Eileen was last. “I didn’t see anything. I got here after the ambulance.”

“May I ask when you saw the deceased last?”

“I saw Samantha this morning, briefly. On her way out the door. I asked her about this month’s recreation schedule. She told me she’d have it done later today. She was going to the lake to clear her mind.”

“Did anything seem out of the ordinary when you spoke to her?”

“Like what?”

“Like did she seem unwell? Say anything about having been sick?”

“No. Nothing like that. I mean, she seemed tired. That’s why she was going to the lake. She said she had a lot on her mind and just wanted some time to think.”

Tanner nodded as he looked at his notebook.. “And about what time was that?”

“I – I’m not sure.” Eileen wound a piece of hair around her finger. “Maybe 10?”

“How well did you know Samantha?”

Eileen let out a shaky breath. “Well enough that we enjoyed movie nights together and an occasional lunch but not well enough that we knew every single thing about each other.”

Tanner closed his notebook and stood. “You ladies may go but I may need to talk to you again when we have a conclusive cause of death.” He looked directly at Gladwynn. “I’ll send out a release as soon as I have more information.”

“Thank you,” she said. “Let me know if you need anything else.”

“I will.”

Gladwynn didn’t miss Eileen’s tight-lipped expression as she stood, her phone clutched in her hand and against her chest. She left quickly without a word to Doris and Gladwynn.

Doris stood slowly, trembling. Gladwynn placed a hand under the older woman’s elbow. “I’m going to take you home, Doris.”

“Oh. No. I should go back to the theater and –”

Gladwynn squeezed Doris’ elbow. “I’m taking you home and making some tea. You need to rest. Grandma wouldn’t forgive me if I didn’t take you home to calm down.”

Doris managed a smile – the first Gladwynn had seen since they’d entered the condo. “Your grandmother is a good, Christian woman. She’d certainly forgive you. Eventually anyhow.”

Gladwynn’s cell phone rang as she opened the car door for Doris. She knew who it was without even looking at the caller ID, but she also realized she had forgotten to tell Tanner about seeing Samantha at the beach earlier that day.

He was upstairs, though, and she didn’t want to bother him again. She’d call him later and fill him in on what he saw. She didn’t know if it was important or not. Maybe he could find her cell phone and see who she’d been talking to.

Why do you blog?

Today I want to open the floor, so to speak, to all my bloggy friends.

I want to know a few things:Why do you blog?How did you get started blogging?What has been the benefit of blogging in your life?What have been the best parts of your blogging experience?Have there been any bad parts of blogging?You can answer these questions here or write a separate post and then come back and let me know.

I started thinking about these questions as they pertain to my life in the last few weeks because I had become very wrapped up in social media while trying to promote my books and I started to hate it. I hated it because I missed blogging. I missed sharing with my “followers” here. I don’t like the term followers because many of you have become my friends – friends I don’t see or talk to in person most of the time (with a couple of exceptions) but friends, nonetheless.

Many of the people I have met while blogging have prayed for me, checked on me, encouraged me, and sometimes even gently corrected me.

There have been recent seasons in my life that I don’t think I would have survived without my blog friends.

I truly am feeling choked up as I write this.

What a blessing it has been to connect with bloggers in my “real life” (not that blogging isn’t real life). I never imagined I would be able to call my readers my friends – such as Facebook friends but also real friends.

So to answer my own questions:

I started blogging because I enjoy writing and my brother was blogging so I started to keep one too. My first blog was called the same as this one, Boondock Ramblings, and it was what was called a “mommy blog” because I blogged mainly about my son.

I blogged back then to connect with other moms and share stories (both funny and stressful) and simply to have a creative outlet. Today I still blog for the creative outlet and to connect with others.

The benefit of blogging is that it has allowed me to connect with other people who have encouraged me and supported me and laughed and cried with me.

It has also been something I can do other than sit and worry about my problems or concerns.

Connection with the other bloggers has also encouraged me in my walk with Christ, or as a reader, or mom, or just a person.

Is there a downside to blogging? Sometimes. There have been times I’ve felt pressured to write something, even when I’m busy, but that’s more my problem than blogging’s problem and I luckily haven’t had that feeling in a while. There can sometimes be rude people who leave rude comments but that has very, very rarely happened to me.

There are times when bloggers can get into the comparison game and compare their lives to the lives of other bloggers. That’s a negative but something I have not done very often, luckily.

I’ve already mentioned the best part of blogging above but I will reiterate again that the best parts of blogging are meeting people, getting to know them, and forming friendships with people who have stumbled onto my blog for whatever reason.

For whatever reason you stopped on my blog – I thank you. I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad we have become friends. I’m thankful that God brought you here at just the right time in my – and your – life.

I hope you’ll stick around.

She was ready for heaven

We walked into the sparsely decorated hospital room and the tired woman reached out one hand to each of us. Dark circles creased the skin under her eyes. Mom walked to one side and I walked to the other and we each took a hand.

“Oh, girls. I’m so glad you came.”

She turned her head to look at Mom, tears in her eyes. “It’s spread. It’s all over this time. There’s nothing they can do.”

Mom fought back tears but lost the battle and I felt them come fast to my eyes too.

“Don’t cry, girls.” She squeezed our hands. “I’ve been so lucky. I know we thought it was a bad thing when Joy had her babies so young but look at all this time I’ve had with my babies.”

More tears from us and more calm from the woman who had just been given a terminal cancer diagnosis after being in remission from breast cancer a decade before.

I don’t remember how many years she continued to fight but it was longer than doctors expected. We visited her as much as we could with her living an hour away. A hospital bed in the living room became her permanent place to sit and visit.

One of the last times I saw her I was pregnant.

“Boy or girl?” She asked in her matter-of-fact way. “What are we having?”

“She thinks a girl,” Mom answered for me. “But I think that’s because she has so many nieces.”

Donna laughed that loud, boisterous, full-of-life laugh, unique laugh of hers. “No. It’s a boy. We have enough girls. I love them but we need a boy.” She had four granddaughters at the time.

On the day of my baby shower, Mom received a call. It was from Donna.

“I so much want to be there but I don’t think I’ll make it. I’m not feeling well today.”

They spoke briefly and Mom said she, of course, understood.

Later that night Donna’s son called to tell Mom that Donna had just passed away. She thought of me on the day she died. I couldn’t figure out why. I wasn’t anyone special – she had others in her life she was closer to. I am certain she’d wanted to be there for me but especially for Mom.

Over the months, I began to wonder if the baby growing in my womb really was a girl. We had only picked out two names for children  – Grace and Jonathan.

Our baby was born a few months after Donna died. The labor was long — 23 and a half hours. The kid was comfortable in there and was already two weeks late.

When the baby finally arrived at 5:58 a.m., the midwife held the small figure up to me butt first and said, “What’s that?”

I was delirious with exhaustion and said “Her umbilical cord?”

“No!” The midwife cried. “That’s not an umbilical cord!”

“Oh!” Tears filled my eyes. “Is that my Jonathan?”

“Yes! It’s a boy!”

They cleaned him off and laid him on my stomach and in his eyes I saw wisdom beyond what I can explain – not because my child was brilliant already but because he seemed to still have the remnants of heaven in his gaze. I’ll never forget how alert he looked. Maybe Donna had told him about me.

Mom was on the other side of the room, exhausted herself. “What did Donna say?” She asked, her voice breaking.

I was still exhausted and emotional now and I started to cry. “She said we’d have a boy.”

I was angry at God for taking Donna from her family. I harbored bitterness at him for years over it.

“You’re not a fair God,” I told him. “I can’t trust you. Look what you did to Donna.”

One day I told Mom this and she said something like, “No, no. Don’t ever be angry at him for taking Donna home. She wanted to go. She wanted to see him. She was ready for heaven and God knew that.”

My anger has shifted to confusion now and I just want to know why she had to suffer and leave them all behind. I’m looking forward to God’s answer one day.

I wish you could see him now, Donna. You’d be so proud of him. He’s smart and funny and takes care of your best friend like she’s the queen. He helps Dad several times a week and he’s taking a building and construction class. He’s sweet and caring and earlier this year he saved a woman’s life.

You really would be proud of this boy.

Our boy.

Sunday Bookends: Still reading the same books, homeschool starts, baking cookies, and photos of the week

It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.

This week I’m joining up with  Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer  and Kathyrn at  The Book Date.

What’s Been Occurring

I wrote more about what has been occurring in my post yesterday, but will share here a few things: homeschool started, we had what was probably our last swim last weekend, and cooler weather is moving in. If you want to read what I wrote yesterday, that post is HERE.

Last night we had some family time and it was really nice. The Boy wanted to make cookies for the neighbor next door because she always makes cookies for us either when the mood strikes her or around Christmas. He bought the ingredients we didn’t have and he and his sister made the cookies themselves with only a little bit of help from their mom (uh, me) while we watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding (getting ready for the third movie in this series).

Our oven has been broken for a while so we cooked them in the air fryer and they came out pretty good, actually.

The Boy and Little Miss ran them over to the neighbor, even though it was 10:30 at night, because we saw her on her porch. They are night owls like us. Unfortunately they almost gave her a heart attack when they appeared out of the darkness. Luckily she recovered and she and her husband were very appreciative of the gift.

They are experiencing a new season in their life after their daughter left for college last week. It is the first time in 31 years they haven’t had children in their house so we are trying to treat them a little as they adjust.

This morning we watched church and afterward Pixel, our older cat, was yowling on the front porch. The Husband stepped outside and she was sitting there with a dead bird that she appeared to be presenting us with as a gift. She doesn’t bring us dead animals as much as the younger cat, Scout, because she has gotten a little bit lazy as she’s gotten older. We were sad that she grabbed a young bird, but she was so proud of herself so I told her she’d done a good job while The Husband scooped up the bird to prepare it for what he calls a “Viking” burial in our burn barrel.

Photos from Last Week

What I/we’ve been Reading

Anyone who is new here should probably know up front that I am not a book blogger. I don’t read fast. I read slowly. Mainly because I read a couple books at a time, write my books, and homeschool throughout the week. I also don’t enjoy reading so many books that I don’t even remember what I read. I’m old, peeps. If I read too many books, then I just can’t remember what the book was about down the road because my brain has absorbed it into all the other things I have forgotten thanks to my old age.

With all that being said, I’m still reading All That Really Matters by Nicole Deese (enjoying it more than I thought I would), Crime and Poetry by Amanda Flower, and Anne of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery.

I plan to finish All That Really Matters and Crime and Poetry this week. Both flow along quite quickly and easily.

Later this week I plan to share some books I plan to read this fall.

The keywords in the above sentence are “plan to”. I may never get to them, but I “plan to” read them.

Little Miss and I are back to Little House books for the nighttime at her request. They are comfort reads for her and with the changes in our family schedule this week I think she just wants some comfort reads. We are reading On the Shores of Silver Lake. During the day we will be reading Gone Away Lake for School.

The Boy and I will be starting The Red Badge of Courage this week for literature and history.

What We watched/are Watching

This past week I watched two Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers’ movies. One was Flying Down to Rio and the other was Shall We Dance.

I liked Flying Down to Rio better than Shall We Dance. One major issue I had with Shall We Dance was the scene at the end with a bunch of women who were dancing while wearing masks that looked like Ginger. Talk about upping the creepy factor to ten.

Still, the dancing was amazing as always.

Flying Down to Rio was the first movie that Fred and Ginger ever made together and they were not the main characters. They were, however, supporting characters who stole the show.

The pair went on to make ten movies together. Nine of those movies were made from 1933 to 1939 and were in black and white, which always leaves our daughter and I to guess what colors Ginger’s dresses are. In 1949 they filmed a technicolor film together – The Barkleys of Broadway – and that was their last together.

I hope to watch that soon and offer a little review of it. I think I might offer a review of Flying Down to Rio later this week too because that film was a lot better than I expected.

Have you watched any of Fred and Ginger’s movies? Which ones were your favorites?

What I’m Writing

I am working on blog posts right now. I have a few ideas and things I want to share so I’ve been focusing on writing them ahead of time the last few days.

I am also, of course, working on Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage so I can release it in November.

This week on the blog I shared:

What I’m Listening To

There are so many new albums out this week, which The Husband let me know about. I do not pay attention to new releases very well. Tim McGraw and Brooke Ligertwood have new albums and Steven Furtick put out a new motivational message to music so I am checking all three of those out. I am also behind on listening to Elevation Worship’s new album and then Brandon Lake also has two new songs that I haven’t listened to yet. I need more hours in the day.

I’ve also enjoyed finding this new artist from his viral song, Rich Men North of Richmond:

(*language warning*)

Now it’s your turn

Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.

Saturday Morning Chat: Autumn weather arrives, will it stay? Did we have our last swim of the summer? And new routines for the family.

Has anyone noticed how this feature used to be Saturday Morning Chat and now it is Saturday Afternoon Chat? If you haven’t, that’s what happened. I used to write this post on Fridays but I always seem to forget to finish it until Saturday morning now so it goes up on Saturday Afternoon instead.

Autumn came to our area this week and that meant more mornings with a cup of tea sweetened with local honey and more evenings curled up under a blanket while I wrote or read a book.

I had been out of peppermint tea, which is my comfort tea, but ordered a box online. It was a tea that wasn’t my normal organic tea.

Imagine my disappointment when it had no taste whatsoever. It was the weirdest thing and I’ve decided to no longer order tea off Amazon. Luckily, The Husband picked me up my normal tea yesterday, and that first cup was much better and just in time for the cooler weather.

It’s funny because I really wanted autumn to come but now that the weather has cooled down, I find myself melancholy over how quick summer went by and how we didn’t do as much as I wish we had as a family.

We did spend time together and go to the pool a lot but we did not have any big trips and that was disappointing. We can always plan for trips other times in the year, of course.

I also feel bad that a lot of people really rushed summer this year. I don’t know why people wanted the coziness of fall again but online there were YouTubers and others sharing how much they wanted it to be fall. I don’t remember the fall craziness being as intense in other years.

Maybe people just want to escape people again because so many people in the world today are miserable and rude. I don’t know that that is why I wanted autumn to come. I just like being cozy and not feeling so rushed all the time to get outside and enjoy the nice weather like I do in summer. Yet, I will miss being able to get outside more and enjoy the weather. Little Miss and I stayed inside too much on some days this summer, but neither of us enjoys the high humidity, which we had a lot of this year.

You can tell the weather is getting cooler, by the way, because our cats Pixel and Scout are getting a lot cuddlier. They want to lay on my chest and Scout is back to laying on our daughter’s pillow most nights. One night this week she stayed there the entire night but then left after she threw up. *Cue sarcasm alert* Good times. I love cleaning up cat puke at 7:30 in the morning and also taking a couple of tiny pieces out of our daughter’s hair. Ew.

Luckily that’s the first time that’s happened.

Last night the upstairs was very humid so we ran our air conditioner and fan. While reading to Little Miss, I noticed all three animals had  taken up residence on the bed.

A few changes are coming to our family this autumn, the main one being that The Boy is attending a career center two and a half hours a day every day during the week.

He rides a bus from our small town to another small town twenty minutes away for the class.

He, Little Miss, and I are the night owls in the family and it’s been an adjustment the last couple of days with him needing to go to bed early and get up early. I miss our late nights together because that is when he is the chattiest.

The Husband is also used to his quiet, early mornings when he gets ready for work but now The Boy is up with him. It’s thrown all of our schedules off a little bit, but we will get used to it. The career center class is an excellent opportunity and I am very grateful for the local school district helping us get him in to the center since it is usually for public school students.

The schools around here started Thursday, which I thought was really odd. It really didn’t give students very long to get used to their schedule before they were off a couple of days again. Usually they start on a Wednesday. I’m not sure why there was a change this year. Either way – school is underway again.

Little Miss and I started a very shortened version of homeschool on Wednesday and will get more serious about it this next week. We started with a little history and English.

I’ll start homeschool lessons with The Boy at a later date.

I figured I’d let him get used to getting up early again for school before we try to add math, history, and science to the Building and Construction class he’s taking at the career center. Homeschooling allows us to have a very flexible schedule and I know The Boy already misses that but I will be giving him plenty of time to relax when he returns from the career center before cracking the whip (a suggestion from my brother) and making him work on his other subjects.

It looks like Little Miss and I will be joining a homeschool co-op this year. She and I will meet with other homeschoolers once a week throughout the year. The only downside will be the increased chances of colds, but, well, we could also get them at the other events she will do throughout the school year – including Awana and gymnastics. Remember how I once wrote that I planned for autumn to be calmer? Yeah – apparently not, or at least not for two days out of the week.

Last Sunday we had our last official summer swim with Little Miss’s friends. The temperatures are supposed to go down this week so I don’t know if we will be able to have any more swim days. Sometimes we get in our last swim around or on Labor Day.

We certainly could have used a dip in the pool when the humidity jumped up yesterday. I thought the rise in humidity meant storms were coming but they never did. I was glad they didn’t because we had a lot of storms this summer and I suffer from silent migraines that affect my balance and cognitive state but luckily don’t often leave me with a headache.

Today I’m going to head to my parents to help clean. Tomorrow we will have another family day, but, again, probably no swimming.

Next week in addition to homeschooling I hope to be able to work on putting together my grandfather’s poems, maybe copying them into the computer so I can self-publish them for my family. We have piles of them that he wrote over the years – some of them to waitresses or people he met on his and my grandmother’s travels around the country. Eventually, I hope to share more of them on here.

This week I’ll also be in planning mode for my parents’ anniversary party in September. They will be married 60 years on September 8.

I want to say I also hope for some quieter days when I can watch some of my favorite slow-living YouTubers, read some books, and take photographs, but every time I’ve written this in the past, I’ve had a crazy week so I am afraid to jinx it.

I have a few blog posts started and hope to finish them and put them up on the blog this week. I really hope they are more exciting than this post has been today! *wink*

How was your week? Did you do anything fun? Let me know in the comments and visit the blog tomorrow to find out what I have been reading, watching, writing, listening to, and taking photos of.

If you want to follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you can do that by clicking on the words “Facebook” and “Instagram” but you can also just ignore social media and follow me here because social media can often be evil.

Fiction Friday: Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage Chapter 2

Welcome to the second chapter of Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage, which is the second book in the Gladwynn Grant Mystery series. This is a cozy mystery series.

For the last few years I have blogged my books as I write them, sharing a chapter a week for my blog readers. I didn’t do this for the first book in this series, but thought I’d try it with book two. If you want to read book one, you can find ebook and paperback copies here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C1KSQJXP

If you are new here, I just want to let you know that this is a story that is somewhat a first draft, though I actually read over the chapters a few times before moving forward and before posting them here. There will be typos, errors, wrong names, and plot holes. Just keep that in mind. If you see a typo and you want to tell me about it, please do. I have my books edited and proofread before they publish and still many things are missed. It also doesn’t help when I upload the wrong file for the final book. Sigh.
Anyhow, enjoy book two of the series and if you want to check out my other books you can find links to them HERE.

You can find the first chapter that I shared last week HERE.

If you don’t want to read the book as a serial, you can pre-order it HERE. It releases November 21.

Chapter 2

Gladwynn pulled her gaze from the man standing above her and returned her focus on the task at hand. “No, Vince. I can handle it myself.”

“Or I will do it for her,” Abbie interjected.

Out of the corner of her eye, Gladwynn noticed Abbie’s pursed lips and one raised eyebrow, almost as if she had gone all Mama Bear in an effort to protect Gladwynn from being hit on by some man at the beach.

Vince Giordano wasn’t exactly “some man,” though. Gladwynn had had plenty of interactions with him, one of the last ones being on the back of his ATV when he drove her to see a digging operation on the property of a man who turned out to be very guilty of several crimes.

He’d lifted her onto the back of the ATV in an embarrassing moment and then the embarrassment had continued when she’d fallen in the mud and he’s tried to help wipe the mud off of her. After that he’d definitely been flirting with her so she’d been avoiding him as much as possible since.

Today, Vince was standing above her in a pair of blue shorts, shirtless, with muscular arms folded across a broad and well-toned chest. His dark beard was neatly trimmed and his dark green eyes flashed with amusement.

He shrugged his shoulder. “No problem. Just thought I’d ask.” He tipped his sunglasses down. “Nice to see you again, Gladwynn.” He moved his eyes to Abbie. “Mrs. Mendoza. Good to see you too. You ladies have a nice picnic.”

Abbie wriggled her fingers at him in a wave. “You too, Vince. Buh-bye.” She rolled her eyes as soon as he turned to walk across the beach. “The nerve of him asking you if you wanted him to rub sunblock on your back. I mean there is flirting and then there is outright making a pass at a woman.”

Gladwynn laughed and leaned back, propping herself up on her elbows and stretching her legs out in front of her. “Vince is just – well, Vince. He’s a flirt, sure, but he’s also a good guy. Grandma says he came back home to take care of his mom when she was ill.”

Abbie rubbed lotion on her arms. “He did and he’s a prison guard and the bouncer at the Birchwood Township meetings, but he’s still a man who needs to learn some manners.”

Gladwynn laughed again at her friend’s protectiveness.

She looked out over the beach, noticing that Vince had laid on his stomach on a towel, laying his head on his arms and clearly sunbathing. He propped his chin on his hand and looked at her, grinning.

Her attention was pulled from Vince by a slender woman with honey blond hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun talking aggressively on a cellphone further down the beach. A white stripe stretched diagonally across her black bathing suit, which fit snuggly across her curvy form.

The woman shook her head, said something, placed a hand on her hip, and scowled as she listened to the person on the other end of the phone.

Abbie waved a hand in front of Gladwynn’s face. “Hello. Earth to Gladwynn. What’s got your attention?”

“Oh. Sorry. It’s that woman down there. She’s clearly having an intense conversation with someone and her expressions caught my attention.”

Abbie took a sip from her water bottle. “It’s the storyteller in you. I’m sure you’re imagining all kinds of scenarios about what that phone call is all about.” Her expression changed quickly to recognition. “Oh. That’s Samantha from Willowbrook. She’s the recreational director.”

Gladwynn turned her head to watch the woman again. “Grandma and Doris were just talking about how wonderful she is.”

“She is wonderful,” Abbie said, sliding her sunglasses up to the top of her head. “She doesn’t look like she is having a wonderful conversation, though.”

Samantha gestured into the air and then slapped her hand against her thigh, her face twisted in an angry scowl.

Gladwynn winced. “No. She doesn’t. Hopefully it is just a minor lover’s spat.”

Something about Samantha’s expression, though, told Gladwynn that the conversation was definitely not minor.

After swimming with the kids for an hour, eating lunch for a half hour, and stretching out for a half hour on the blanket under the umbrella, it was time to pack up. Abbie needed to get the children home for dinner, baths, and bedtime and Gladwynn had an appointment at the theater. She’d need a shower to wash off all the sand and a change before then.

Logan had definitely had enough and had to be carried on Isabella’s back to the parking lot. Gladwynn and Abbie followed carrying their bags and several bags full of sand toys, towels, and wet clothes. Gladwynn also carried the cooler and had the swan’s neck hooked over one shoulder.  

“Do ya’ ladies need a bit of help there?”

The thick Northern Irish accent was a clear indication of who was offering assistance. Gladwynn glanced over her shoulder and smiled. “We’re doing okay, but thank you for your offer, Pastor Callahan.”

Luke sighed heavily. “I’ve told you before that we are past the formalities. Call me Luke, Miss Grant.”

His blue eyes sparkled with amusement as he fell in step beside her. She noticed he was as clean shaven – and as handsome — as ever. It was apparent he didn’t allow hair to grow along his jawline even when camping. His blond hair was cut short, as usual, and combed to one side. Once again, he reminded her of a classic 1940’s movie star. It was both of their love for classic movies and jazz music that had led them to an in depth conversation more than once before over the last few months. The first conversation had been in the sunroom at her grandmother’s where Gladwynn had caught Lucinda looking on with a mischievous smirk. That smirk had been brought on by the fact she’d invited Luke home for dinner, obviously hoping the two would hit it off.

“Now, seriously, my dears. Let me have a bag.”

Abbie paused and slid two canvas bags off her shoulders. “I will gladly accept your assistance, pastor. Thank you so much.”

“Yes. Thank you for your help,” Gladwynn added. “How was your camping trip?”

He lifted the bags onto his shoulders and smiled. “Refreshing. Exactly what I needed.”

Gladwynn took in his dark maroon T-shirt and dark blue jeans and realized it was the most casual she’d ever seen him. She was used to seeing him in a button-up dress shirt and khakis, even when he wasn’t behind the pulpit.

He set the bags down when they reached Abbie’s minivan then opened the back hatch and set them inside. He held his hands out for the bags Gladwynn was carrying, setting them down as well.

He did the same for the remaining backs Abbie was carrying, then ruffled Logan’s sand encrusted hair. “Did you have fun, young man?”

Logan nodded sleepily from his position on his sister’s back.

Luke laughed. “You’re going to sleep hard on the way home.”

“God willing,” Abbie said with a small laugh and a gesture toward the sky. “Put in a good word for me, pastor.”

Luke winked. “You know what I always say – I’m no better than you in the sight of God just because of my vocation, but I’m willing to say an extra prayer for the wee one to get a nap.” His gaze drifted across the parking lot. “I should be going, ladies, but I hope you have a good rest of the day.” He leveled a gaze at Gladwynn. “See you in church tomorrow?”

She was again struck by how nearly translucent his blue eyes were. “I’m sure Grandma and I will be there, barring any unforeseen circumstances.”

He smiled, tipped his head down briefly, and kept his gaze locked on hers as he stepped away. “Until then.” He broke eye contact as he turned.

Gladwynn watched him cross the parking lot and pause next to a small blue car. It wasn’t the car that caught her attention as much as the woman standing next to it. Samantha Mors had one hand on the car door as Luke about a foot in front of her and propped his hand on the roof of the car.

They began talking and Gladwynn found herself trying to interpret their body language. Was their conversation professional or personal?

She pulled her attention from the scene in front of her and started looking for her keys in her bag. What they were talking about was none of her business. Just because her grandmother wanted her to have a stake in Luke’s life didn’t mean she wanted the same. The man was a pastor. He could be talking to Samantha about her spiritual wellness.

As she raised her gaze and began to turn back to her car, she saw Samantha hug Luke and him return the hug. She chewed on her bottom lip. Hugs weren’t usually part of pastoral counseling, were they?

“I thought you weren’t interested in Pastor Luke.”

Abbie’s voice startled her out of her thoughts. “What? I’m not.”

A small smirk pulled at Abbie’s mouth. “Yeah. Okay. If you say so. You just seem a bit invested into whatever is happening over there.”

Gladwynn unlocked her car door, opened the driver’s side door, and set her bag inside. “Not in the least. Looks like you have a way of imagining scenarios yourself, Mendoza. Get those kids home and washed off and we’ll talk later.”

Abbie gave her a quick hug, still sporting an amused smile. “Okay, hon. Thanks for coming and good luck at the theater event. They can be a rowdy bunch, so prepare yourself.”

Gladwynn laughed out loud as she started her car.

Rowdy bunch? They were senior citizens. How rowdy could they be?

***

The disgruntled voice of a man hit Gladwynn as soon she opened the door to the main part of the community center theater.

“Good grief, Marge. I didn’t say I wouldn’t play the part. I just said I didn’t want to.”

A woman, presumably Marge, responded sharply. “Well, if you don’t want to then I don’t know why you would say you’ll do it.”

“I’m playing it because there aren’t many other men in this community who can play it so I’m fine with playing it.”

Gladwynn paused at the top of the aisle and sought out the source of the argument, looking up on the stage, which was fully lit by the house lights.

A woman with tightly curled gray hair, slightly plump, stood facing a tall man with white hair. The woman was holding a script in one hand, a pair of small, wire-rimmed glasses in the other. The man had his hands shoved deep in his khaki pockets, leaning back slightly as if trying to lean away from the woman. The expression on his face didn’t match his stance, instead he looked incredibly bored by it all.  

The woman remained in the same position, looking at the man, swinging her glasses by the earpiece. “Don’t feel obligated. It’s not the end of the world if you can’t do it. We’ll find someone else.”

The man kept his hands in his pockets slightly leaning forward. “Marge! I already said I’ll do it. Now, can I get a copy of the script so I can see how many lines I have?”

“You don’t need a script if you don’t want to do it.”

 Another woman’s voice broke in off stage. “Greg said he’d do it, Marge. Let him do it and let it go.”

Marge let out a resigned sigh. “Fine. Here is a script then. Don’t be late to rehearsals.”

Brookstone post office employee Floyd Simmons walked onto the stage wearing a floppy woman’s hat. “How do I look ladies? Am I the perfect Matthew?”

Several people in the front of the theater laughed and at least one person told him to take the hat off. Gladwynn wondered how Floyd would play Matthew, since she knew the man was hard of hearing and somedays practically had to be shouted out before he could hear the other person. She experienced this firsthand any time she visited the post office where Floyd still worked after 50 years.

Lucinda, standing by a large chest overflowing with fabric and costumes, waved at Gladwynn from the back of the stage. “Over here, sweetie!”  she called, her voice echoing through the empty theater.

The small group of people on the stage all turned toward her to see who Lucinda was beckoning to. Gladwynn tipped her head slightly in a greeting as she made her way down the aisle toward the front of the theater. Several smiles met her as she walked.

A woman who Gladwynn guessed to be somewhere in her mid-60s stepped in front of her as she reached the top of the steps on the side of the stage. Her dark hair with light gray streaks fell in a straight bob to her shoulders, like something from a 1920s film. A dress made of thin, flowing material covered in purple flowers fell to her ankles and wrists.

Her lipstick, a shade of deep lavender, matched the flowers on the dress.

She firmly grasped Gladwynn by the arms and leaned back to look at her.  “Oh, Lucinda, is this the Gladwynn we’ve heard so much about?”

The woman turned to look over her shoulder briefly at Lucinda, who laughed.

“Yes, this is her.”

The woman turned back to Gladwynn. “Oh my. She’s gorgeous.” She slapped her hands to her chest. “You’re gorgeous, love. Just gorgeous!” Her smile stretched the skin along her mouth and bony cheek bones, slightly cracking a thick layer of pale foundation “You definitely have Grant genes in you. You remind me so much of your father.” Her eyes, outlined with thick, black eyeliner, widened. “What a looker he was. My younger sister was just head over heels for him.”

Gladwynn wasn’t sure what to do with the information about the sister’s crush on her father or with the compliments about her looks. She felt warmth spread across her cheeks and chest as she laughed softly. “Thank you. It’s so nice to meet you.”

“Emerald.” The woman waved a hand out to one side with a dramatic twirl of her wrist. “My name is Emerald Cappucci. I’m the assistant director of the production.”

She slid a hand to Gladwynn’s upper back and gently pulled her forward. “Come. Let me introduce you to everyone. We’re so very glad you could come. Our director will be here soon. She’s back at her place trying to get rid of a headache she developed after a day in the sun.”

Gladwynn exchanged a perplexed look with her grandmother as Emerald propelled her toward a small group of people gathered on the edge of the stage.

Emerald raised her arms and clapped her hands together twice.  “Everyone! This is Gladwynn Grant. Lucinda’s beautiful granddaughter and the reporter from the Brookstone Beacon. She’s here to write a story about our upcoming production. Everyone welcome her please.”

The small group was made up of a mixture of ages ranging anywhere from Gladwynn’s age to Lucinda’s and maybe older. There were smiles, nods of heads, and ‘hellos’ offered. Gladwynn recognized Floyd, Beatrice Gilbert, Jane Henderson, Louise Barton, Mikey Tyler and Fanny Tanner – all whom her grandmother played Pitch with once a week at the retirement community. She didn’t recognize the other three. Emerald introduced each person, gesturing to them with a dramatic twist of her wrist each time and saying each name with an equally dramatic roll of the r in the names that had them.

Emerald’s eyelids — the edges darkened with clearly fake eyelashes — fluttered as she gestured to the younger woman with long blond hair that fell in large, fluffy curls down to the middle of her back. “Summer Bloomfield is our Anne, of course.” She clasped her hands in front of her and continued to look at Summer as if the woman had fallen from the sky with angels wings attached.

Ah, Summer. The Summer. The Summer who worked at the library and who her grandmother had once told her was dating Luke Callahan. Gladwynn wasn’t sure of their relationship status at this point, especially after seeing Luke with Samantha earlier that day, but it was nice to finally put a face to the name.

The name perfectly fit the woman’s sunny personality too. Her face practically glowed. Her smile revealed two rows of perfectly white, perfectly shaped teeth, and her bright green eyes sparkled under the stage lights as if she were born to be a star.

“So lovely to meet you, Gladwynn!” Summer gushed, stepping forward and clasping both of her hands around Gladwynn’s. “We have heard so much about you and all of it has been wonderful.” She winked. “And not all of it has come from your wonderful grandmother. You have made quite an impression on people in Marson County since arriving.”

A good impression? Or a bad one? And on whom? Who had been talking to Summer about her? Was this a veiled reference to Luke? She wasn’t sure how to take Summer’s statement but since the woman was smiling, she’d take it as a compliment. Unless the woman was subtly suggesting that Gladwynn had made an impression on Luke and she didn’t like it. Her mental analyzing was cut short as a door behind the group slammed open, hitting the wall behind it.

Doris walked briskly through the doorway and to the group. Her cheeks were flushed. “You’re not going to believe who just called me.” She paused to smile at Gladwynn. “Hello, Gladwynn, hon. Glad you made it.”

Emerald laid a hand lightly at the base of her throat. “Tell me it wasn’t Ashley.”

Doris’ brow dipped into a scowl. “It was and she’s flaked out on us just like you said she would. She says she can’t possibly play Diana now because she’s sprained her ankle playing pickleball.”

Emerald tipped her head back and groaned softly, pressing the heel of her hand against her the center of her forehead. “Pickleball. Please! That girl! She’s so dramatic.”

Gladwynn stifled a laugh behind her hand at the irony of the statement coupled with Emerald’s dramatic swooning gesture.

Doris placed her hands on her hips. “Who are we going to find to play Diana on such short notice?”

A murmur rippled through the group.

Marge shrugged, looking sour. “There are only so many young people from the area interested in community theater these days. The pickings are definitely slim.”

“We could place an ad in the newspaper and on the radio,” Franny offered.

Emerald shook her head, wrapping her hand around her chin. “That could take some time and we need to get someone in as soon as possible. We only have two months until opening night.” Her brow furrowed in thought. “Who do we even know who is young, with dark hair, and loves Anne of Green Gables?”

A quiet settled over the group. A couple of them looked at the floor. Others looked at each other and shrugged, then shook their heads.

Then slowly, one by one, starting first with Lucinda, the cast began to look toward Gladwynn, who sensed rather than saw the situation happening. She looked up from the script she’d picked up from the top of a crate to flip through.

She looked at Lucinda who had an amused smirk pulling at one side of her mouth, then back at the group. “Why are you all looking at me?”

Emerald clapped her hands together once. “Oh daaahling!! – you’d be perfect!

Confusion clouded Gladwynn’s expression. “Perfect? For what?”

Emerald held her arms out to her sides. “You could totally play Diana. You’re young. You have dark hair. You’re beautiful. Plus, Lucinda was just telling us the other day how much you love the book.”

Gladwynn narrowed her eyes and looked at Lucinda. “She did, did she?” She shook her head once and held up a finger. “No. No. No. And no. I liked reading Anne of Green Gables. I don’t want to act in a play of it. Never. Ever. No. Not going to happen.”

Lucinda stepped across the stage and placed a hand on each of Gladwynn’s shoulders. She gave her granddaughter her best puppy-eyed dog look. “But don’t you want to make a bunch of old people who are on death’s door happy?”

Gladwynn gasped. “Grandma, really? Emotional manipulation does not become you.”

Louise scoffed from the right side of the stage. “Speak for yourself, Lucinda. I’ve got another decade in me at least.”

Emerald waved her hands in a dramatic rhythm above her head. “Just think about it, dahling, and get back to us, okay? For now, let’s get this interview going. Samantha should breeze in — .” She looked down at the watch on her wrist. “Any minute now.”

Gladwynn shook off the shock of being asked to be in the play and took her notebook and pen out of her bag. She asked Emerald and the actors questions about the production, who would be playing what part, and the show dates and times. Half an hour later she had all she needed for the article. For a photograph she took a few candid photographs of the cast rehearsing their lines and Lucinda and Doris looking through the costumes.

Emerald stood from the chair she’d sat at the front of the stage for the interview and huffed out a breath. “I just can’t understand where Samantha’s got to. She’s never been this late.”

Louise fanned herself with a script. “Has anyone tried to call her?”

Doris raised her cellphone. “I have her number. I’ll give her a call and see what is going on.”

Gladwynn grabbed Lucinda by the arm as Doris stepped outside through the backdoor behind the stage and steered the woman toward stage left. “What was with them asking me to be in the play? And who was the lady yelling at that man when I first came in?”

Lucinda smiled. “You just happened to be here at the wrong time, my dear. They probably would have jumped on any warm body who came in the door to play that part, but Emerald is right. You are perfect for the role. As for Marge Dickinson, that’s just how she is. Pushy and demanding. She means well though and she gets things done. She’s in charge of our casting, I suppose you would say. She’s in charge of whatever she wants to be in charge of. She and Emerald butt heads all the time. Both women like to have control.”

Gladwynn sighed. “Grandma, to be perfect for an acting role you have to have done some acting. I never have and don’t have any interest. I read books and write for a small town newspaper. Neither of those things qualify me to participate in one of the most extroverted activities there is.”

Lucinda handed her a script. “Just take this home. Look over it, and see what you think. Diana isn’t in the play as much as she is in the book. Plus, we’re weeding out a few scenes for time. Our actors can only stand so long before the bunions start chaffing or the varicose veins start popping.”

The back door opened, and Doris walked back inside. “It’s going straight to voicemail. I think I’ll head back to Willowbrook and see how she’s doing. I know she’s been taking sleeping pills for her insomnia, but I wouldn’t think she would taken them for a nap.” She picked up her purse from a small table at the back of the stage, then paused and snapped her fingers. “Oh wait! I can’t drive over. I left my car at the shop. Bill dropped me off.”

Gladwynn lifted her keys from her bag. “I can give you a lift. I was planning to head back to the house anyhow.”

“That will work,” Doris said as she slid her purse strap over her shoulder. “Then Sam can give me a lift back here.”

A warm breeze ruffled Gladwynn’s hair as she stepped onto the sidewalk and slid her sunglasses on. Doris sighed next to her. “My goodness it’s gorgeous out today. I’m so glad that humid weather we’ve been having finally let up.”

Gladwynn couldn’t help but agree. She was not a fan of weather that made her feel like she was walking in a sauna. Her hair wasn’t either. Today would be a perfect day to put down the roof of the convertible that she’d bought when she thought her research librarian job at the college was going to be more permanent than it turned out to be. Doris probably wouldn’t enjoy that full force wind in her face or hair, so she opted to keep the roof up, though.

She pulled the car out onto Main Street. “Doris, am I right in assuming that Samantha has her own place in the retirement community?”

“Yes. She has her own condo. It’s part of her salary package. She gets a place to stay and they get a full-time recreational director and all around go-to person. People go to her with their concerns and worries more than they do the community manager.”

“And who is the manager?”

“Eileen Bristol. She’s been here about four years. No one is really sure how she got the job. She’s not very nice and looks like she ate a jar of sour pickles. There are some who have questioned who she slept with to get her job, but no one can imagine who’d want to do such a thing considering how miserable she is.” Doris slapped the tips of her fingers over her mouth. “Excuse me. That was gossip. I shouldn’t have said that.”

Gladwynn patted her knee. “It’s okay, Doris. We all slip up from time to time. I know you didn’t mean to be malicious.”

The retirement community was only about half a mile from the theater. Doris pointed out Samantha’s condo and Gladwynn pulled her car into a parking space next to the car she’d seen at the lake earlier.

“You go on and head to work,” Doris said as she stepped out of the car. “Samantha can give me a ride back to the theater.”

“Okay, then. Have a good day, Doris.”

“You too. Don’t work too hard.”

Gladwynn’s cellphone rang as Doris closed the passenger side door. A small smile pulled at Gladwynn’s mouth as she answered it.

“Hey, sis.”

Gladwynn dropped her voice into a lower octave. “Hey, bro.”

“You at work?”

“Nope. It will probably change soon since a reporter left, but for now I have weekends off.”

Caelen laughed on the other end of the phone. “Enjoy it while you can, right?”

“Right. What’s up with you?”

“Thought I should call in and get the real story about how you’re doing. You know how Mom and Dad are. They tend to be a bit –”

“Dramatic, I know.”

She knew Caelen had decided not to spend  his summer break from college at home this year. Instead, he’d gotten a job at a construction company in Michigan. She also knew their dad wasn’t too happy about his decision. He’d planned on Caelen working at the law office during the summer. William Grant was definitely planning on his son joining the firm after college. After a few revealing conversations with Caelen, she had feeling that was not going to be happening.

“Heard Dad’s going to drop in on you in a few days.”

Gladwynn winced. “Yeah. Not sure how I got that honor.”

“You didn’t move far enough away like the rest of us. So, how are you doing?”

“Pretty good.”

“You’re liking your job?”

“It’s growing on me.”

“How’s Grandma?”

“Crazy as ever.”

“And her new boyfriend?”

“She says he isn’t her boyfriend, but he’s doing well.”

Caelen laughed. “Is it weird to see her with someone other than Grandpa?”

Gladwynn flipped the visor down and looked at her hair in the mirror. She moved a couple of stray strands off her forehead. “It was at first but Jacob’s a great guy. Super sweet. He’s got the sweetest dog he brings with him sometimes. He has lunch or dinner with us a few times a week.”

She heard the sound of cars behind him as he spoke. “You think they’ll get married?”

Gladwynn made a face at her reflection. “I don’t know about that, yet. Maybe? I’m not sure I’m ready for that, to be honest, and I don’t think she is either. She’s enjoying his companionship, though.” There was a pause in the conversation and she wondered if he had another reason for calling other than checking up on her. “So, what’s up with you, anyhow? How’s the new job?”

“It’s okay, I guess.”

There was another pause. She cleared her throat. “You still don’t want to be a lawyer, do you?”

Caelen let out a breath. “No. Not at all.”

“And you haven’t told Dad, have you?”

Another breath. “No.”

Gladwynn let out a brief breath herself. “Well, I hope you’re not calling me to ask me to tell him because I’m not going to. He already isn’t very happy with me. At this point, his youngest offspring are a great disappointment to him.”

Caelen snorted in disgust. “Which makes no sense. We’re allowed to have our own lives. He and Mom both need to accept that. I mean, it wasn’t your fault you got laid off and you took a chance and reinvented yourself. I think that’s cool.”

Gladwynn closed the mirror on the visor at the same moment Doris rushed out of the condo door looking over her shoulder, a terrified expression on her face. The woman stopped, turned back toward the door, and clasped her hands over her mouth, shaking her head slowly, her eyes closed.

Gladwynn reached for the door handle and opened it quickly. “Uh, Caelen. I need to go.”

“I thought you said you had the day off.”

 “I do, but something is going on.”

“What’s going on? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, but I’m very worried that someone else isn’t. I’ll call you back later.”