Page 10 of Special Agent Anastacia

“Yeah. Mom is still too upset to come here. She wanted to sell the place, but he left it to me, and I didn’t want to part with it. I have good memories growing up and spending a lot of my summers here.”

“But you said it was isolated? Being an only child, didn’t you miss not having your friends here?”

“That never bothered me because I was always allowed to bring whatever bestie I wanted to join us. Sometimes I did, but many times, I was happy to be here alone with Mom and Dad.”

“Sounds like you were close to them.” Hanna sighed, her expression saddening.

“I guess I was. Especially Dad. He was an introvert too, liked his space, and always understood me better than Mom. I guess it’s why I decided to become an FBI agent.”

“Follow in his footsteps you mean.”

“You could say that. Probably romanticized him and made my mind up early to go into law enforcement.” Ana turned to speak to Hanna. “You know, he always seemed so happy in his chosen field. It’s easy to see when a man loves what he does, and my dad was that man. Against my mother’s wishes, I wanted to be happy in the same way.”

“And are you? Happy? Do you like what you do?”

Ana shook her head back and forth. “Yes and no. It’s a good feeling when we bring the bad guys to justice, but it sucks to see how many rotten apples there are out there too.” Before Hanna could reply, Anastacia pointed her finger.

“Here’s our small convenience store. Let’s go and pick up some cold drinks and buy some ice to take with us.”

Both girls left the vehicle and wandered to the front door, barely missing getting knocked over by two men whose attention hadn’t been on them. Instead, they’d been talking low, with the closest man strutting like he owned the world and taking more room than he should have. If Ana hadn’t known better, one could almost assume he did so out of pure spitefulness.

Neither of the men apologized and Ana felt shame at their behavior. She hated for Hanna to see the worst of their countrymen. Once inside, she walked up to the counter and waited for the older man to look up. His thick white hair tied back in a pony tail hadn’t changed since she was a young girl, and she felt the giddy smile break out.

“Hey, old man. You gonna ignore us forever?”

When Lew turned and saw who it was, he whipped his tall lean body around the counter and swept her up in a big hug. “Shorty! My God, girl but you’re a sight for sore eyes. Blasted guys in hereearlier had me almost reaching for the baseball bat. Figured the day was a write off and now you’ve brought the sunshine back into my world.”

Jokingly, she shoved at his shoulders, pretending to fight him off but she’d hugged him as hard as he had at the beginning. “Let me go you old fool. I want you to meet my cousin from Ukraine. Hanna, this here goofball is Lewie, an old family friend. He’s been around here since Jesus was in diapers.”

Lew straightened, his face undergoing a transformation from joking to serious. He took Hanna’s shoulders in his big hands, and when she seemed to be willing, he pulled her in for a hug. “Hey sweetheart. Happy to meet you and horrified at what’s been happening to your country.” They broke apart, and Ana watched Hanna’s usually forlorn face break into a huge grin.

“Thank you. I’m happy to meet you too. I’m wondering… can you share stories about my cousin when she was my age?”

Ana broke in, laughing. “Uh uh. No telling tales, or I’ll have to gossip with Maria about your sneaking—”

“Shush. She’s on her way over.” He cut her off by snaking his finger and thumb pinched together across his mouth saying, “I swear, she’d kick my butt into the next world if she knew about my smoking a bit of weed.”

He pretended to check the window for his wife, making the girls laugh. “How long are you here for?”

“Don’t know. Just wanted to get Hanna away from the city for a while. Figured there was no better place than the cabin.”

“You got that right. Mind you, not everyone is as happy about this place as we are.” He pointed at the door and griped, “Those two who left as you arrived are a good case in point. Assholes tried to give me a hard time, rude as sin.”

“What happened?” Ana’s cop antennae shot out. “They try anything?”

“Nah. Just kept after me about the spotty Wi-Fi in the vicinity and why didn’t we have better reception. Couldn’t find any snacks they liked in the store or the types of drinks they wanted. Told ‘em to go buy from someone who gave a shit.”

Ana laughed. “Did you know your New York attitude shines through when you get riled?”

Lew started to laugh. “I guess. Never with you though, Shorty. It’s wonderful to see you. So you know, I miss your dad every day. We always had a good time when he came here.”

“I swear it was one of the reasons he came back all the time… to bug you.”

“Yep. He did like to yank my chain, but it was reciprocal. He’d always bring some of my ahh… some medicine, and we’d have great times together laughing and going through multi bags of chips and snacks.” Lew’s sigh rang with emotion before he changed the subject. “You hear about the fires they recently fought not far from here. Bloody scared the hell outta me. I thought we’d be hit but those Hotshots fought like the devil and saved our asses. Every owner in the area have those men to thank. Gotta give it to the firefighters, they’re tough, hardworking, mother… ahh, lovers and worth their weight in gold.”

Ana, thankful to see Lew curtail his colorful language in front of Hanna, nodded. “I’ve been watching the news. Go figure, huge sections of California are in flames. Soon as they get one area under control, another breaks out.”

“Yeah, I was driving from my sister’s a couple weeks back, she lives on the other side of the park, about four hours drive, and they were lucky. The fire came within a mile of their place. Blasted smoke got so bad, we couldn’t breathe, had to clear out, get my sister’s husband, Lennie to the hospital for oxygen. He suffers from COPD.”

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