Mind Games

* * *

They bumped their way to town with the windows open and the radio on bluegrass. It seemed just the right way to drive to the hilly little town with its Front Street lined with shops and restaurants with names like Taste of Appalachia and Down Home Eats all hoping to snag some tourist dollars.

They helped carry the boxes to the back porch of the shop. A woman came out, clapped her hands. Thea remembered her from other visits, and knew the woman with the blond hair all curled up and the glasses hanging from a gold chain owned the shop.

“I swear, Lucy, we were just saying we hoped you’d bring us some Mountain Magic today. Didn’t we sell out of your lavender soap this morning. Sold the last bar, and the lavender candle and lotion, to a woman from Chicago, Illinois. And we’re down to your last orange peel candle, and the one you call Forest Walk.”

“Just in time then. Y’all remember Miss Abby, don’t you?”

“These can’t be your grandbabies!” She slapped a hand to her heart in what Thea knew was fake surprise, but it made her smile anyway. “Why, I swear they’ve both grown a foot since last summer.”

“My precious weeds. Thea, you go on and carry the soap into the storeroom right in there. Rem, you can handle that box of the liquid soap. People sure do seem to like that nowadays.”

Lucy lifted the first box of candles.

“I’ve got the door for you. And we’ve got some sugar-stick candy for you kids, if that’s all right with your grandmama.”

“They’ve earned it today.”

“Y’all go on out there and tell Miss Louisa that Miss Abby said you’re to get two sticks each, one for now, one for later.”

“Thank you, Miss Abby.”

Thea didn’t really like the sugar-sticks, but she knew she could bribe Rem with hers later. Plus, she could poke around the shop. It would take time for Lucy and Miss Abby to settle accounts, to gossip some and ask about each other’s families.

Her mom said it was the southern way, how everything took twice as long or more than it might because you had to pass the time and converse.

She didn’t mind waiting, since she could look at the crafts, the ones out of wood, or out of glass or metal, or some of each. She could look at the paintings, and she could feel pride looking at the shelves holding her grandmother’s work.

And when Lucy came out, she had to pass the time with Miss Louisa, and somebody named Jimmy who’d started working there before Christmas.

He had big, wide eyes and a long neck. Thea imagined him with pointy ears and decided he could be one of her dream elves.

Devouring his sugar-stick didn’t stop Rem from devouring a grape Popsicle. She ate hers more slowly as they took a little walk down Front Street.

Lucy passed the time some more because she knew mostly everybody and mostly everybody knew her. They walked clear down to the bank, where Lucy made what she called a night deposit, since the bank closed at two.

“How do they know it’s your money?”

Lucy looked down at Rem as they walked up the hill. “Well, the check’s made out to me, and endorsed by me, and my name and account number’s on the deposit slip.”

“How do you know they won’t just steal it and say they never got it at all?”

“You got a cynical mind in there, boy. One good reason is I’ve known the man who runs the bank since he was your age. He used to run around with my brother, Buck. I even went to a dance with him once because your grandpa was too slow to ask me. It was the last time he was slow.”

“Did you kiss him on the mouth?”

“I did not, because I had my sights set on Zachariah Lannigan.”

“Maybe he’ll steal your money because you didn’t kiss him on the mouth.”

Tousling Rem’s hair, Gram let out her rolling laugh. “I don’t think he’d carry that one so long, especially seeing as he married my good friend Abigail Barns—that’s Miss Abby? And they had three daughters together, and have five grandbabies.”

“Men can hold a torch,” Rem said wisely.

“Remington Fox, you never fail to entertain me.”

“Do I have a purple tongue?” He stuck it out for examination.