Page 24 of Shit Happens in Ivydell

Everyone says, “Cheers!”

Except Josephine, who says, “Amen to that shit!”

“Gran always said all women are strong. Some just—”

“Haven’t found their strength yet,” Petra finishes the quote.

“I guess she’d been saying that for a long time before she ever said it to me. When I was a teenager, I told her that women who couldn’t find their strength were weak by definition.”

Petra winces in preparation to hear Gran’s response.

“She told me the only time a woman is truly weak is when she steps on the back of another woman to raise herself higher.”

Josephine nods. “Your grandma was a fucking queen.”

“Yeah, she was.”

My phone lights up on the table. It’s a text from Mom.

Hope you had a good day. Miss you.

I miss you, too. I’m sitting in the community center drinking wine with all the women here and listening to Petra tell stories about Gran.

I’m glad you’re getting to know her.

Me, too.

She means Petra, but I mean both her and Patty before she became Gran. I like them both an awful lot. Every iteration of me will be a better woman for having known them.

Ivydell isn’t a place I could live long term, but I’m glad I trusted to my gut when it told me to come here.

Alma and Elma stand and say their goodbyes. Tawny yells for Leo to come drive them back to Whispering Winds. They protest, but he says the men all drew straws, and he won, so he gets the honor of driving them home tonight. He’s a good guy.

As they walk past, Alma bends down, gives my shoulders a quick squeeze, and whispers in my ear, “I’m so glad you listenedto her. Patrice would never have urged you to come here if it weren’t the right thing.”

Gran never told me to come here. She didn’t even tell me Ivydell had been resettled. I smile at Alma to be kind, but . . . ohhhhhh.

Petra

The Test of Time

Tonight felt like oldtimes. It’s not uncommon for a group of us to spend an evening in the community center, sharing food and stories, but having Ivy be a part of it took me back. Every time I looked over at her, I saw Patty sitting there.

Watching her face light up when she laughed felt like a balm for old wounds. But she worried me for a moment. She recovered and went on as if she’d been fine all along, but I saw it. Something shook her. I hope it wasn’t anything I said that upset her.

She’s in too deep with Stinger. But I guess I saw that coming. Didn’t think it would happen so fast, though.

The next few weeks will be busy in Ivydell. It’s harder with fewer people coming back this year. There’s never a guarantee who all will return, but most of them keep in touch to let me know their plans. We’ll have enough to take care of everything for the festival. It’ll take a few meetings, but we’ll figure it out. We always have. We just have to band together.

There will be smaller meetings, too. To plan for bigger things.

Tomorrow will come. But tonight was good. I loved hearing more about Ivy’s relationship with Patty. Glad to know some of her sayings were passed on to the next generation of McAdams women. She taught her granddaughter well.

I hear her wisdom in my head all the time. Every time I fretted about how I could keep Ivy and Stinger apart, she was in my ear.

You can’t stop the wind from blowing, Petra.

My need to control things hasn’t left me entirely, but my resistance to change has weakened considerably.

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