Page 35 of Grounded
“I’d love to get these copied and framed.”
“Wyatt’s Drug Store does a good job on film development. It’s right downtown near Duncan’s Hardware.”
“Good! I’ll take them next time I’m in town.” Annie carried the casserole wrapped in dish towels, still warm from the oven. Beulah carried the pie.
“Grandma, I can take it over there by myself if you don’t feel like going.”
“Heavens, no. I want to get out as much as I can while I can. I’ll be confined soon enough.”
In a minute or two, Annie was pulling into the drive to the stone house and crossing the wooden bridge of the creek. The silver car was there. Blankets still covered the windows, like Annie said.Why would this woman want to be shut up in a dark house on a sunny day like this?Beulah didn’t know a thing about how a person wrote a book. Maybe this was what it took.
Annie got the casserole dish in one arm and the pie in the other and carried them to the house. She had to set one down to knock on the door. Beulah noticed movement in one of the upstairs windows as if someone had peeked out. She watched as Annie knocked again. Another minute went by and finally, the door opened a crack. Annie was speaking through the door opening and trying to hand the food to her. The opening widened and she saw Stella Hawkins accept the dish and the pie.
Annie smiled at the woman, but the door was shut in her face as soon as Annie let go of the dishes. She turned back and raised her eyebrows at Beulah when she walked to the car.
“What was that all about?” Beulah asked when Annie got in.
Annie started the car and backed out. “I don’t think she appreciates Southern hospitality. She said she was busy right now.”
“Law, law,” Beulah mused. “I’ve never heard of a body not appreciating home-cooked food. I guess she’s not sick.”
“What is that?” Annie said, slowing the car on the other side of the bridge.
Beulah peered at the tree Annie pointed to. There was a small brown square with a round circle in the middle nailed to an old oak. Annie stopped the car when she got across the bridge and got out to look.
Beulah waited on her to come back, wishing she could jump out and do things like she used to. In the rearview mirror, she could see Annie looking at the strange piece of plastic with what looked like a small antenna stuck on top. Annie didn’t touch it, and Beulah noticed she was careful to stay on the side of it.
“What is it?” Beulah asked when Annie got back in the car.
“I think it might be a sensor that beeps when someone passes through. That’s what it looks like anyway.”
“I swan,” Beulah said. “You mean it beeps in her house when somebody comes into the driveway?”
“Yep. Maybe Stella wants a warning. She might be a little afraid out here by herself. In fact, it wouldn’t be a bad idea for you to have one. It would give you time to load your shotgun.”
Beulah cut a sharp look at Annie and saw the grin on her face. She laughed.
“Well, you might be right about that. I might discover the first good use of all this technology.”
Chapter Fifteen
That night, while her grandmother watched a rerun of a Billy Graham special, Annie prepared the coffee, adding two heaping scoops more than her grandmother’s instructions.
“Need anything before I go up?” Annie leaned around the base of the stair rail.
“Nothing dear. I’m fine.”
Dear?When had her grandmother ever called her Dear? Evelyn always said it, but terms of endearment from her grandmother were rare as four-leaf clovers. She liked it.
Undressing in the bathroom, Annie turned the squeaky faucets in the clawfoot tub and let the water heat up before plugging the rubber stopper into the drain. A bottle of bath salts brought to her grandmother from a long-ago trip sat dusty and unopened on the shelf above the tub. Annie poured a generous amount under the hot flowing water.
While the tub filled, she mindlessly traced the rust stain that stretched from the spout to the drain. Gently, she climbed in and eased down into the water. Leaning back against the curved back of the tub, she let her mind roam over the events of the last couple of days.
Jake had called to see if they had gotten in to see the doctor. He was with Camille and made phone introductions to both her and her grandmother by speaker. Camille, or Cam as he called her, sounded nice enough, as much as one could tell over the phone.
Stella Hawkins, on the other hand, was not adorable. She was out of it, high on something. Her eyes were glazed and she slurred the words, “I’m busy” and seemed to take the food only to get rid of her.
Annie was glad she could keep an eye on the stranger for the next few months and curb any of her grandmother’s neighborly overtures.
