Mart, Andy, Trixie, Peter and Linnie’s basic character belong to the wonderous Powers that Be…they are being used without permission. Linnie’s developing character, Jessica, Lucinda, and Ian all belong to me. My apologies if I screw up any details about Ozark mountain life…I’m really basing it on Salmon River life in the mountains of Northern California. And none of these places or the lake, really exist (at least not under these names) so I’m doing my best with them. Thanks heyday for the name of the song.
Learning to Live Again
Part III
Mart rode the rest of the distance to the lodge in silence. The night didn’t seem quite as dark anymore. The memory of Linnie’s laughter and smile pushed the shadows, both physical and mental, away as he reached home.
Humming to himself as he entered the kitchen, he switched on the lights and grabbed the phone before going into the big living room. Throwing himself on the couch, he reached for the most recent letter from his mother. The number he needed was there.
In a couple of minutes, he heard the familiar, yet sleepy voice of his sister saying,
"Huh?"
"Profound as usual, Trix," Mart grinned at her greeting.
"Who is this?" Trixie asked groggily, shaking her head and squinting to see the bedside clock that was half-hidden by a pile of books.
"You don’t know who I am?" Mart laughed, "I’m hurt."
"Okay, whoever you are, you’re starting to weird me out." Trixie tried to keep any fear from her voice.
"Trix, it’s me – Mart."
Trixie collapsed on her bed with a sigh of relief. That was the last time she stayed up late on Halloween reading Mary Higgins Clark."Trix, are you there?" Mart was beginning to feel a little worried.
Propping herself up against her head board and wrapping a quilt snuggly around her shoulders, Trixie answered her brother.
"I’m here, Mart, I just wasn’t expecting…."
"You weren’t expecting to hear from me," Mart interrupted wryly.
"No, I just wasn’t expecting to hear from anyone at one in the morning."
"Sorry, I wasn’t thinking about the time," Mart admitted as he glanced at the old grandfather clock in the corner of the room that had must passed midnight.
"Been out trick-or-treating?" Trixie asked lightly.
To say that she was surprised to hear from her brother Mart was an understatement. Shocked was a better word. Since Di had left him, Trixie had only spoken with him two or three times. And that had been when she had been home for a week or so in the summer. Mart had left his room rarely; not even meal time had brought him out, which was definitely not Mart’s usual behavior.
So many times, she had wanted to pick up the phone and call her "almost-twin," but she had never been able to make herself take that step. Moms had told her that he needed some space and when he was ready, he would let her know. This "experiment" in the Ozarks didn’t seem to be working. At twenty-one, patience still wasn’t one of her strong points. But now it looked like it was paying off.
"Well, kind of," Mart smiled as he thought about how he had spent his evening.
Trixie was curious – no question about it. But she was afraid to probe too much. Just to hear him talk was enough.
Continuing Mart said, "You don’t exactly trick-or-treat around here, you know."
Remembering back to the visit they had made to the lodge with their friends as teenagers, Trixie knew what he meant. Houses were kind of sparse."I can see what you mean," Trixie replied, "So what did you do?"
"I went to a party."
"What?" Trixie exclaimed.
"Don’t sound so surprised. You’d think that I was an eccentric recluse or something." Mart was visualizing the expression he knew would be on his sister’s face. Blue eyes wide with surprise, blond curls in disarray from sleep, and her mouth hanging open.
Forgetting her earlier decision not to probe and to let Mart do all the talking, Trixie began, "Something like that! I don’t think I would’ve been more surprised if Jim’s old Uncle James had shown up at one of our Thanksgiving Open Houses!" Softening her tone she finished, "It’s great though, that you are getting out."
Mart chuckled, "Great! Compare me to Old Man Frayne. I didn’t realize that I was that bad!"
"You’re not," Trixie hastily assured him, "That was a lame comparison." Wanting to change the subject she asked, "So how is Uncle Andrew doing?"
Mart snorted and muttered something under his breath that she didn’t catch.
"What?"
"Oh, well, Andy’s not around much. He’s gone more days that he’s here. That’s how I ended up at this party thing."
"How’s that?" Trixie asked, happiness filling her as they quickly eased into the familiar relaxed mode of discussing the goings-on of their lives. When they had both gone off to college, they had discovered that they were really good friends and valued the other’s opinion on what they did.
"He left me a note yesterday asking me to drop off some pumpkins at the school. They were for some pumpkin carving contest." Mart paused, remembering how angry he had been the other morning with that note – now he was actually kind of glad that he had gone.
"This contest was at the party?"
"Yeah, and I guess Andy had volunteered to judge it – which he neglected to mention in his note. I didn’t want to and when Linnie asked I said I probably wouldn’t make it… but then for some reason I decided to go." The smile sprung back to his face.
"Linnie? As in Linnie Moore?" This was an unexpected, yet pleasant surprise.
"Uh-huh. Linnie Moore - she’s one of the teachers at Turkey Hollow."
"She accomplished her goal of becoming a teacher – that’s terrific!" Trixie said.
"She just came back here. She did a great job with this Halloween extravaganza." Mart continued to tell Trixie about the party and why it was held.
Trixie couldn’t suppress the smile that broke out across her own face. As she listened to Mart describe the activities of the evening; she heard happiness in his voice for the first time in a long while. She had missed hearing those tones in his voice.
Mart’s broken relationship with Di had been hard on everyone. Di was one of Trixie’s closet friends. As angry as she had been when Di had sent a messenger with a note to Mart instead of showing up for her wedding, Trixie had been relieved. She loved both her brother and her friend dearly, but she just didn’t think that they were right for each other. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but she knew that neither Mart nor Diana was as happy as they could really be. They had both changed a lot since high school, and she sometimes thought that Mart wasn’t aware of it.
Suddenly she became aware of silence on the other end.
"Mart?" she asked guiltily, realizing that she had missed the end of what Mart had said.
"Did you fall asleep?" Mart asked, his hurt coming through the joking tone of his question.
"No, I was just," she didn’t want to tell him she was thinking about him being better off without Di and vice versa. "I was just thinking about how glad I am to hear from you and how happy you sound."
Once again, there was silence on the Missouri end.
‘Happy? She thinks I sound happy?’ Mart wanted to laugh. For someone as astute as Trixie, how could she think he was happy?
"I don’t know if happy is the word, Sis, but I’m not feeling like the world has ended anymore."
"You just need to get out and mingle!"
Feigning shock, Mart responded, "I can’t believe you said the "m" word! And one doesn’t exactly mingle in Turkey Hollow."
Both Beldens laughed. The name definitely didn’t conjure up visions of huge parties or other such social gatherings where mingling was necessary.
Looking at her alarm clock, Trixie sighed, "I hate to say this, but I really need to get back to sleep. I have a test tomorrow plus a couple of deadlines."
"I understand. I shouldn’t have called so late. Deadlines for the paper?"
"Yeah, and an exchange program application I’m thinking about doing – if I get in."
"You’ll get in – no problem. Your Spanish is good enough." He didn’t even have to ask – he knew she was applying for a program in Spain. Since their trip to Spain several years before she’d been almost obsessed with the thoughts of returning.
"Thanks for your confidence…I’ll let you know how things turn out. Call me anytime – as long as I can do the same."
"Sure – I don’t go anywhere." For some reason, the thought of his inactive life made him feel depressed.
"Go do things!" Trixie almost shouted. Then throwing caution to the wind, asked, "Are you going to see Linnie again?"
Defensively he asked, "Why do you ask?"
"I just wanted you to say "Hi" and give her my email address," Trixie said innocently, "We used to email frequently."
"Oh," relaxing he added, "Yeah, she invited me in for hot chocolate tonight and I was a jerk." Rushing to explain himself, he finished, "But I went back and apologized and asked her for a rain check."
"Did she give you one?"
"Yeah?"
"Are you going to see her again?"
"Maybe."
Trixie decided to leave it at that. She didn’t want to push too far on his first return to contact with the human race.
"I’ll tell her you said hi," Mart added, "and now I’ll let you get to sleep."
"Good-night."
"’Night, Trix."
* * *
With the phone still in his hand, Mart continued to sit in silence on the couch. It was good to talk to Trixie – it was something he should’ve done earlier. He still couldn’t believe that she thought he sounded happy. Reflecting back on the evening, Mart realized that he had had a pleasant time.
He crossed the room to the big picture window that overlooked Lake Wamatosa. The moonlight shone across the lake making a silver path in the water that led directly to the entry of Bob-White Cave.
Mart wondered if it was still as beautiful as it had been when they had first discovered it. He knew that the few years that had passed weren’t comparable to the eons that had created the cave. Enough time hadn’t passed to return the cave to what it had been before Slim’s blind rampage, but he hoped that the signs had been smoothed over and were maybe less noticeable.
Maybe I should check it out. I could ask Linnie to come along and we could take a picnic or something. Savagely he shook his head. A date? He couldn’t ask someone out on a date! Why he was…
Why not? Another voice in his head whispered. Diana is married now. It’s not like you would be cheating on her. That didn’t help him. He still felt committed to Diana; he still felt engaged. Was it always going to be like this?
* * *
Trixie shook her head. She still couldn’t believe that Mart had called her. According to Moms, he’d only called them once since he’d left. Moms wrote him weekly and he sent short stilted e-mails in return and that was it.
Even though it was almost 2 AM, Trixie knew she needed to call and let her parents know that the old Mart was on the way back.
Linnie Moore…they’d lost touch over the past few years – since shortly after Trixie went to college. She’d always liked Linnie. Now she was someone she could see Mart with. Maybe some good with come out of this whole Ozark "experiment" after all.
* * *
"What?" Peter Belden’s voice, made deeper with sleep and the apprehension that comes with middle of the night calls, came across the miles to his only daughter.
"Hey, Dad, it’s me, Trixie. Sorry to call at such an awful time, but I wanted to let you and Moms know…" she paused, for some reason she felt like she was going to cry. "Well, Mart just called me. He’s going to be alright, Dad."
Part IV
"That was quite a sigh. It sounds like it came from your toes!"
Linnie looked up from the stack of papers she was grading and half smiled at her co-worker.
"Is the end of the quarter always like this? Tons of papers to sort through and grade, percentages to mess with and comments that become repetitive by the time you reach your last report card?"
Jessica Craig replied sympathetically, "Yes, that's pretty much how it goes. Welcome to the teaching profession, Linnie."
"Well, at least there's no school today - thank goodness."
"Thank the calendar committee," Jessica retorted. "Ian and I convinced Miss McCrae and the board to schedule the calendar this way every year. After the Halloween party the kids are really too wired to do anything. So instead of wasting the day and everyone going home frustrated, we just schedule it as one of our work days."
"That's a good plan. If we didn't have this day, I don't know how I'd have report cards ready by next Friday," Linnie shook her head, "Miss McCrae left me a bunch of things to grade."
Jessica patted Linnie's shoulder; "First year teaching is hard enough without coming in mid-stream like you have done. You're doing a terrific job, by the way."
Another smile flitted across Linnie's serious face, "Really? I feel like I'm just barely one step ahead of the kids."
"Don’t we all feel that way?" Jessica sat down on one of the student desks directly in front of Linnie's desk; "Seriously, Linnie, you are doing a great job. You know how to handle the kids and their behavior - that is the most difficult skill to develop. You’re also acquainted with the area and the majority of the families, which really makes things easier." Ruefully Jessica continued, "I've been here five years and I still get lost going to Laurel."
Linnie thanked Jessica, remembering that she was originally from St. Louis and found the Ozark mountains, even though part of her home state, a foreign country. Linnie wasn't sure why Jessica chose to stay.
"Another thing, you did a superb job with the Halloween party. It was wonderful. A lot like Miss McCrae did, but even better."
Linnie's smile stayed this time as she replied, "That was easy. After participating in one every year for nine years, it really wasn't hard to organize it. And Miss McCrae did leave everything planned out perfectly."
The talk of the party reminded Jessica of something she’d been meaning to ask Linnie. "Say, Linnie, who was the man helping you last night?"
Much to her chagrin, Linnie felt herself blushing as she said, "That was Mart Belden."
Noting the blush, Jessica decided to probe further. Now was as good a time as any to get to know her reserved new colleague. "Belden? Isn’t that who was donating the pumpkins? I thought Miss McCrae said that he was in his late thirties."
"Andrew Belden is the one who donated the pumpkins – he’s been doing that for several years. Mart is his nephew."
"Are they locals? I don’t remember hearing the name before – even with the pumpkins. I though Bill Hawkins usually brought the pumpkins."
"I think that Bill has been taking care of Andy’s lodge for the past few years. Andrew Belden’s been up in Iowa, I think, and just moved back here." Linnie liked Jessica, but didn’t feel comfortable going into the details of Andy’s life. She finished what she hoped would be a suitable explanation for Jessica with, "Andy’s not a local. He’s originally from New York. His nephew is just visiting for awhile. He’s also from New York."
"It’s about time that we got some new blood in these mountains," Jessica said thoughtfully, "And good-looking blood too."
Linnie didn’t respond, so Jessica kept prodding, "If they’re new, how do you know so much about them?" This was one of the most interesting things to happen in Turkey Hollow since she’d taken this job four years earlier and Jessica decided to let her curiosity have free rein. "You’ve been gone for years."
With a sigh of resolution Linnie replied, "My mother cooked and kept house for Andrew Belden years ago. He had purchased some land here with money he made after selling off a large part of his farm in Iowa. Land in the Ozarks is cheap, for obvious reasons," Linnie added with a smile. "The land he bought bordered the small property that my great-grandparents had settled long ago. My mother and I were living there. She refused to sell; even when the realtor told her his buyer would pay top dollar. Lots of folks around thought she was crazy because she sure could’ve used the money. Andy Belden came down and built his lodge with the help of Bill Hawkins and some other locals. He needed a cook and a housekeeper – he was planning on having fishing and hunting groups here – and he did for awhile."
Linnie’s tone softened as she continued, "Mama interviewed for the job and got it without a problem. We stayed in our cabin and cooked and cleaned for Mr. Belden and his guests. He treated us like family. Even tried to help us find out what had happened to my daddy." Linnie’s voice had naturally fallen into the rhythm and drawl of the Ozarks, something that Jessica had not yet heard from her. Linnie’s usual speaking voice was more refined, much like the people Jessica had grown up with in St. Louis.
"Mart is one of Andy’s nephews. Seven years ago, he came to visit with his brother and sister and some of their friends from New York State. It was while they were here that my daddy found us. That fall I started at the School of the Ozarks. A year later my parents moved out to join me so that we wouldn’t be separated any longer. I’m not sure when Andy left or when exactly he came back. The few times that my parents and I came back to visit the cabin, he was never around. Bill kept up the lodge and the garden. Mart is just visiting his uncle for awhile."
Jessica had sat quietly as Linnie had shared her brief story. There were several things that she wanted to know more about, but she didn’t feel she should push any further for more information. She had watched closely as many emotions played across Linnie’s delicate features. Happiness, sadness, utter joy and lastly confusion tinged with excitement all flickered over her face. Jessica had a suspicion that the appearance of Mart Belden in the Ozarks meant more to Linnie than she revealed.
"Are you two getting a lot of work done in here?"
Linnie and Jessica turned toward the door and saw Ian Nielson, the third teacher at the school.
Jessica smiled sweetly and replied, "Of course we are, Ian, what did you expect?"
Turning back to Linnie she said quickly, "Ian is taking over the slave driver/mother hen position that Lucinda held for centuries, so you must forgive him."
Linnie still wasn’t used to hearing Miss McCrae referred to by her first name, so it took her a few seconds to register what Jessica was saying.
Ian hurried to defend himself. "That’s not it at all Jess, and you know it. I just don’t want the board to get angry with any of us if the reports aren’t done on time. Remember last year?"Apparently Jessica did remember, because she immediately became serious and headed toward the door saying, "Well, Linnie, we’d better get back to the grind." She paused at the door and looked back, "I really enjoyed talking with you – we should do that more often." With a genuine smile and a half wave, she was gone.
Ian, too, turned to leave and then stopped. Linnie waited expectantly. She was sure that Ian had something he felt was important to say. She still hadn’t decided if she was more comfortable around Ian, who was condescending to her most of the time, or Jessica, who jumped from topic to topic and Linnie was never sure what she was really thinking.
"Linnie, you did an absolutely wonderful job with the Halloween Party. Lucinda couldn’t have done better."
"Thanks, Ian. Actually that was a lot easier than this," she motioned to the pile of papers in a letter tray marked TO BE GRADED, "I participated in so many Halloween parties that Miss McCrae planned while I was growing up that organizing one was a piece of cake."
"I don’t think it was actually a piece of cake, Linnie, but you made it look that way." Ian had been worried when the board had told him that the teacher that was going to take Lucinda McCrae’s place was a new teacher, right out of college, with no formal teaching experience. He had been teaching at Turkey Hollow School for six years. Upon Lucinda’s sudden decision to retire, he became the principal. He didn’t feel as if he would be able to take the additional burden of mentoring a new teacher along with all of his new administrative duties.
Once Linnie arrived, however, he found that she was incredibly competent for a first year teacher, and the unique challenges that went with a rural classroom with multiple grades in the same room didn’t phase her a bit. Soon he discovered that Linnie was an alumnus of Turkey Hollow School and that impressed him even more. He knew that the majority of the children from Turkey Hollow School didn’t get many opportunities to further their education.
"How are your report cards coming?" he asked, hoping that she wasn’t having too many problems with them.
"Well, once I get this grading caught up, doing the actual report cards won’t take very long. You explained the procedures very well yesterday." Ian had met with Linnie for over an hour, explaining each section of the report card and what she should include in comments. When the meeting had ended, Linnie had felt like stringing Ian up. She understood he was under pressure as the new principal, but he’d treated her like a small child as he’d explained each portion. She only had 15 students in her third, fourth and fifth grades class. Jessica had 23 in her kindergarten through second room and Ian himself had around 20 sixth, seventh and eighth graders. What was taking her so long was to grading the papers that Miss McCrae had left. It didn’t appear that she had graded anything since school had begun in late August.
"Grading caught up?" Ian looked at her in surprise. "You shouldn’t have that much to grade with having only been here a couple of weeks. Just combine your scores with those that Lucinda left."
Gritting her teeth, Linnie explained to Ian what she had told him yesterday afternoon, "Miss, err, Lucinda, didn’t leave any scores. She left several stacks of papers with a Post-it that read, ‘Please grade.’ Every evening I’ve been grading as many papers as I can." That even included last night. After the party and her ride home from Mart, she’d been unable to sleep. She’d graded papers until three in the morning.
Taken aback, Ian stared at her for a few moments. He didn’t know what to tell her. He’d assumed that Lucinda had left grades. If he remembered correctly, that had been one of the conditions that the board had insisted upon when she had informed them that she was leaving three weeks before the quarter ended. "Are you sure that she didn’t leave you any grades anywhere? Maybe with all that you’ve had to do with getting the Halloween party organized you overlooked those."
The lack of sleep from the night before was starting to effect Linnie. She just wanted to be able to get her work done. Her voice quiet and low as she stood to face Ian she answered in clipped sentences, "Ian, there are no grades. Lucinda McCrae left no grades. She left only ten stacks of ungraded papers marked ‘Please grade.’ If she had left grades, I would have found them. Now, if you want these report cards completed by next Friday, I suggest that you leave so I can get to work."
Knowing that arguing would be unprofessional, Ian quickly left the room. He couldn’t understand why Linnie was getting so worked up – first year teachers. Well, he’d go call Bill Hawkins or another board member and ask what Lucinda had told them concerning grades.
As soon as Ian left the room, Linnie collapsed into her desk chair. Her hands were shaking and her head was starting to throb. She rarely got angry, but when she did this was always the result. She knew very well that Miss McCrae had left no grades – she hadn’t returned a single paper to the students since school began. The kids themselves had told her this. And the letter Miss McCrae had left for her had told her the same – that she hadn’t graded any papers since school began because she hadn’t felt like it. She quickly looked at the clock on the wall. It was only 9:45. She’d only been at work for two hours. Sighing she bowed her head and whispered a quick prayer. She knew that was the only way she was going to get through the day.
* * *
Linnie jumped at the soft rap on her door. She’d closed it shortly after Ian had left because the music from Jessica’s room was disturbing her. She could not grade papers to the accompaniment of Def Leppard and Aerosmith. For her the quiet tones of Enya kept her from going insane as she tried to decipher her students writing.
"Come in?" Why were hands trembling slightly?
For some reason, her heart plunged when she saw Ian’s face. ‘Silly girl, why would Mart come again to see you? He was just doing a favor for his uncle.’
"Linnie, I want to apologize." Ian turned red. He was supposed to be the administrator for this school and also Linnie’s mentor. Great way to start by practically accusing her of lying. "I talked to a couple of the board members and they said that Lucinda had told them she’d "taken care" of the grades and they were waiting for you. They never checked it. I managed to get her current phone number from Mr. Hawkins…" Now he was turning even redder, this time from anger, not from embarrassment, "When I spoke with her she laughed at me and said of course she hadn’t worried about those papers. She’d been planning on retiring since school started. She’d been too busy planning her cruise to worry about grading papers!"
Linnie bit her lip to keep from laughing. The letter of instructions that Miss McCrae had left for her had alluded to the fact that this "sudden retirement" wasn’t all that sudden on her part. For a moment, she wondered if she should tell Ian what she knew. Why not? Then he’ll really understand why Lucinda McCrae, after a lifetime of teaching, had suddenly quit.
"Ian, I knew about the cruise…."
"Why didn’t you say something?" he snapped.
"Well, it wasn’t exactly my place to do so," Linnie retorted, "Anyway, she wasn’t sure if it was really going to happen."
"If she booked it and made the plans, how could she be unsure if it were going to happen or not?"
"She didn’t book it, Roger did."
"Roger?"
"Roger – her fiancé. They’re taking a wedding cruise." At Ian’s expression, Linnie couldn’t keep back her laughter any longer. She preferred laughter to anger, and this was welcome after their earlier discussion."What? Where? She’s in her sixties!" Ian knew his response was incoherent, but he couldn’t quite process all that Linnie was telling him.
"Age shouldn’t matter. Roger is in his seventies. In her letter, she said that they’d met in some online chat room for "Senior Singles." She wasn’t sure if they were going to take a cruise until Roger actually proposed. She had told him that she wouldn’t go on a trip with any man unless she was married to him. When he proposed, turned in her resignation the next day."
Ian was still speechless a few moments later when Jessica came to the doorway. "Lunchtime guys." Glancing from Ian’s expression of total confusion and Linnie’s laughing face she asked curiously, "What’s so funny? Ian, you look as if you just woke up on another planet."
"Try the Twilight Zone," he sputtered. "Jessica, you will not believe what Lucinda has done."
"Try me," grabbing his arm she pulled him toward his classroom, "Tell me about it while we eat lunch, okay?" Winking over her shoulder at Linnie, she said, "Wanna’ join us, Linnie?"
"No thanks, I’m going to keep working here while I eat."
"Don’t work too hard, kid," then turning to Ian she asked, "So what insanity of Lucinda’s is still haunting us?"
Linnie shook her head bemusedly. At least now, she had a pretty good idea on what was keeping Jessica at Turkey Hollow School. It wasn’t the rural atmosphere or love of her job.
* * *
Leaning back in her chair, Linnie looked once again at the clock. Two-thirty. This had to be the longest day in the history of education. She’d finally given up on grading her students’ writing assignments and went on to their math papers. Math was usually easier to correct and read, and it was also something that was more interesting to her.
All day long, she’d been fighting back thoughts of the previous night and Mart Belden. She couldn’t afford to get distracted right now. "A few moments of day dreaming can’t be that bad," she murmured, and replayed some scenes from the night before in her mind. She saw Mart laughing as he helped a little freckle faced girl who had fallen head first into the apple bobbing tub. He’d carefully dried her face and hair and then given her a prize. There had been a few times when she’d seen evidence of the fifteen year old boy she’d met years prior in the hardened face of the man who had been helping her last night. She wasn’t a detective like his sister Trixie had been, but you didn’t need to be one to know that something terrible had happened to change the happy boy into this man who rarely smiled.
"Lina Anne Moore, you need to get to work and put Mart Belden out of you mind. Remember the motto?" Linnie reprimanded herself sharply.
She had to smile as she remembered the motto she and her roommate at the College of the Ozarks had composed when they had started the teacher education program together. ‘No men = no distractions = graduation.’ Her roommate had quickly forgotten the motto and had gotten married after their first year and never finished her degree. Linnie hadn’t made that mistake. It had been a goal for years to become a teacher, and she had accomplished it. There still wasn’t room in her life for a relationship, so why even entertain thoughts of one?
"Miss Moore, you are excused to go now," Jessica stuck her head in the door. "Slave Driver Ian says that since you worked through lunch you can leave an hour early."
Glancing at her desk, Linnie responded, "I should just stay here and keep working. That’s all I’ll do if I go home. That’s where Miss McCrae left the piles of papers that need to be graded. I only brought a couple over here."
Jessica hurried over to the desk and scooped the papers into a pile and replaced them in the TO BE GRADED tray. "Leave ‘em. If you’ve got more at home - worry about ‘em later. You need a break." Lowering her voice and bending closer to Linnie, she whispered, "And I think Ian feels pretty bad about not believing you earlier today. He’d never admit it, but he does. That’s another reason he said that you could leave early."
Before Linnie could answer, her stomach growled.
"Did you really eat lunch?" Jessica asked suspiciously.
"Kind of," Linnie responded. An apple was food.
"That’s it. Go home, eat, relax a bit, watch some TV, day dream about that cute man that helped you yesterday and forget about report cards for the rest of the evening. They’ll still be here tomorrow."
Taken aback slightly with Jessica’s reference to Mart, Linnie sat still for a moment. Again, her stomach growled.
"Okay, I guess I’ll leave. Are you going to be around here tomorrow?"
"Heck no, Saturday is my play day. I’ll be over on Sunday. How about you?"
"I’ll be back tomorrow. Sunday I have church – in Laurel."
Jessica shook her head, "Why do you go all the way to Laurel? If you insist on going to church why don’t you just go to the one in White Hole Springs? Going all the way to Laurel is a waste of time."
Linnie sighed. She’d tried to explain all of this to Jessica last weekend, to no avail. "My church is in Laurel. And it may seem a waste of time to you, but it doesn’t to me…and it’s my time anyway."
Shrugging, Jessica said, "Whatever. All churches are pretty much the same anyway – singing, praying and being told what to do and what not to do."
Deciding that answering this last comment would really get them nowhere except into a long debate that she really didn’t feel up to right then, Linnie stood up. "Well, I’ll see you Monday then. I think I will head home and get something to eat."
"Have a good weekend. If you’re in White Hole Springs tomorrow, stop by. I’ll probably just be hanging out. Maybe we can convince Ian to go into Laurel with us or something." Jessica rented a small one bedroom apartment above the general store. Ian also lived in town, in a small house that Bill Hawkins had built and then rented out.
Before Linnie had a chance to respond, Ian called for Jessica to come help him with something. As soon as she left the room, Linnie gathered up her grade book and a couple of teacher’s editions that would make grading the piles of papers at home easier. She was actually glad to be getting out of the school before three o’clock. Maybe now she’d have time to do something that she’d wanted to do since she had returned.
Fifteen minutes later Linnie was trudging up the trail that led from Turkey Hollow school to her childhood home. "I don’t remember this being such a long walk," Linnie muttered as she neared the clearing where her great grandparents had settled over a hundred years before. She couldn’t count the number of times that she had walked this path during her school days. Only during inclement weather had she ridden a mule or used the wagon. She could see that the trail had been improved slightly – many people in the mountains now had four wheel drive Jeeps and the old trails were being altered for that purpose. It made Linnie a little sad to see modernization intruding on the idyllic wilderness of her ancestors. For that reason, she had left her own Jeep – another hand-me-down from Lucinda McCrae – at the cottage.
Anyway, it was a beautiful autumn day and she knew that she had a couple more hours of daylight before night would fall. That gave her plenty of time to walk the mile and a half to the cabin where she, as had her mother and grandfather, had been born. Since she had returned she had wanted to check on the cabin, but she never was able to get out of school in time to have enough daylight for the excursion. Even though many of the other cabins and homes in the area now had generators to provide electricity, her family’s cabin wasn’t one of them. She hadn’t wanted to be alone out there in the dark. City living for the past several years had made her soft she chided herself. Until two days ago, she had thought that Andrew Belden’s lodge was empty. Knowing that someone was there was a reassuring feeling. Another feeling, one that was deeper down and centered on the lodge’s current occupant, also urged Linnie to visit her old home.
Taking a deep breath, Linnie realized how much she had missed the fresh mountain air. Point Lookout wasn’t a huge metropolis, like St. Louis, but it was still the city compared to White Hole Springs and Turkey Hollow. Just being back in the mountains where her roots really were helped Linnie to forget the stresses of her new job and all that it entailed.
A huge smile broke across her face as she caught her first glimpse of the cabin. "I wish Mom and Dad would move back here now," she said to a squirrel that ran in front of her. "It’s too weird being here without them."
She reached the fork in the trail – one path led directly to the cabin, the other went around the front of the lodge and then down to the cabin. Which way should she go? Did she want to go past the lodge? Did she want to see Mart? Did she want him to see her? No. She didn’t want it to look as if she were coming to see him. She hated this high school feeling that came over her whenever she thought of Mart Belden. ‘Remember the motto, remember the motto,’ she thought as she headed down the path that led straight to the cabin.
She wasn’t ready to see Mart. First she had to get her own feelings and thoughts about him straightened out. She had never chased a boy and wasn’t about to start now. And she had a feeling about him; something told her that he needed space.
As she knelt down to unearth the small key that was buried by the front step, Linnie heard music coming from the lodge. She vaguely recognized the song…but it sounded like the same few lines were being played over and over. She sat on the porch for a few moments, trying to place the tune. It reminded her of high school.
It must have been love, but it’s over now
It must have been good, but I lost it somehow
It must have been love, but it’s over now
It was all that I wanted, now I’m living without
She listened to the words three times before she remembered. It was a Roxette song. One of her roommates in college had played the song over and over after her boyfriend had dumped her. Linnie and their other roommate had renamed it, "The Break-up Song."
Shaking the dirt from the key and wiping it from her hands, Linnie opened the door to the cabin. Instinctively she knew what had doused the light and happiness from Mart Belden - love gone wrong. With a sigh, she closed the door, blocking out the music and shutting out adulthood. Now she was a child again. Sinking down on a cushioned rocking chair, she let the memories engulf her of happy times with her parents, and forgot all about her neighbor for the time being.
To Be Continued
Finally more of my story! It’s taken me longer than I had hoped to get this done once school got out…darn things like toothaches, sleeping, cleaning, water damage from leaking air conditioner (which luckily we caught before it got nasty) and other mundane things keep getting in the way of my writing. L Also, I used the lyrics from "It Must Have Been Love" by Roxette without permission…I also combined the choruses ‘cause I liked it better that way…