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MOLLIE
Strawberry Springs Neighborhood Watch
Tammy Jane
Did anyone hear those popping noises a few minutes ago? What was that?
Comments:
Kerry Winsor: Is everyone okay?@SherriffMike Finchgot some info for us?
SherriffMike Finch: Hugh’s car needs to go to a damn mechanic. It’s backfiring like crazy.
Tammy Jane: At this point, I’ll pay for it if I have to. That scared the bejeezus outta me.
Henrietta Brown: I heard that from miles away!
Kerry Winsor: It was THAT loud?
Marjorie Brown: Er, honey, that was me. Sorry. Got tired of the damn can opener and gave it a funeral with a baseball bat.
Henrietta Brown: We will be talking about this later.
Jade Clark: I’ll be giving things baseball-bat funerals from now on. Great idea, Marjorie!
Kerry Winsor: JADE, NO!
Papa Bennie’sroom was mostly unchanged. The walls were still light green, and the bed was in the same spot I would run to when I’d had a nightmare so I could crawl into bed with him. I could tell this was a different bed, but the room held the same warmth that it had when I was a little girl.
There was a dresser in the corner and a small closet. I set my purse on the floor before falling onto the mattress.
My heart hadn’t fully calmed down from when I’d heard someone walk in the front door, but instead of looking back on my conversation with Cain with a hint of regret, I felt proud of myself.
Sure, I had been annoying. He didn’t like me, and I probably shouldn’t have insulted what he’d done with the farm, but I’d said things that weren’t simply placating agreements.
I didn’t feel like Mollie, Trevor’s fiancée. I felt likeMollie,the girl who used to spend hours running around here. I didn’t know when I’d become a version of myself I didn’t like, but this felt real.
I highly doubted Cain felt the same way. I could tell that every word I’d uttered had pissed him off.
He had obviously been here for a while. I closed my eyes, trying to think back to the time when Bennie was alive. His final years had been filled with fewer and fewer visits as his health had declined.
“There’s a boy I work with,”he’d said one Christmas.“He’s kinda like you.”
“I highly doubt that,”Mom had said.“And don’t be trying to set her up with anyone. She’s got school to worry about here.”
I wondered if that was Cain. I didn’t knowhowhe was like me, but Bennie had liked him. The kid seemed to like him too.There must be some side of him that was nice. I’d probably never see it with the way I’d barged in here.
The window in the room looked out over the fields. They had been mowed short, but I remembered when they were filled with strawberries. It was a sight I wanted to see again.
I turned on my phone to Google how farms worked, but I was bombarded with messages.
Mom
Where are you?
Dad
Mollie, answer the phone.