Page 29 of Love Hollow at Last
His dad had gone off to work, but his mom was home.She was with little Hana again, scolding the baby for making a mess in her high chair.She had a twinkle in her eye as she chatted, though, which was the way you could always tell her scolding was meant as praise.
But there was no twinkle in Noah’s eye.He was furious.“Why did you let Mrs.Irving take over?You might as well put a loaded cannon in charge.”
“I’m sorry, son.”The “son” was usually a pretty good indicator that she was not sincere.She didn’t tend to use that word affectionately, which might have told the casual observer something about her feelings for both her children.
“Well, I’m sorrier.I have no idea why she’s making trouble about it now.Again, the festival has been in the works forever.”
“Yes, but you only just moved it from the state fairgrounds,” said Mrs.Kato.Her eyes, which had been warm as she cleaned her granddaughter’s sticky fingers, cooled as she regarded Noah.“So neither Aya nor Mrs.Irving had a great deal of time to adjust to this new reality.”
Noah sighed.“I don’t know what I was supposed to have done, Mom.The festival’s sold out, and there was such a bad rockslide at the fairgrounds we never would have been able to get that area cleaned up.”
His mother set aside the miso soup and rice she had been giving little Hana, slipping the tray and the baby out of the device in one smooth series of movements.“You didn’t have time to find a solution,” she said evenly.“You’re going to have to find one now.That’s not so unreasonable.”
“It is when I can’t even talk to Aya,” he said.“We need to sit down, look at maps, and go over things face-to-face.But apparently, we can’t meet anywhere without it becoming some kind of scandal.”
For the first time, his mother gave a genuine smile.“You were a teenager once,” she said.“I’m sure you’ll think of something.”
Nothing was more embarrassing than hearing one’s parent allude to anything sexual.At least, that was how Noah had always felt.But his mother did have a point.Parking a car in a secluded spot was not safe for a celebrity, and the A-Wing theater tech booth was definitely out, but only one more private location came to mind.
“I guess we can meet at the cabin,” he said.“But I’m going to need some help getting there.”
His mother nodded.“How about this,” she said.“I’ll call your sister.She and I can go there with Hana and get it ready.Nobu can help, too, since he’s still preparing it for the engagement party.You set up a meeting with Aya later.We’ll make sure it’s not a mess anymore.”
He frowned.“How much of a mess can it be?”
His family’s cabin was a homey place, but it was never untidy.
“You’d be surprised what Nobu has managed to accomplish,” she said.“Unlike your father, he doesn’t seem to feel a need to work constantly during these summer days.”
“He took time off, Mom.”
She shrugged.“I’m sure he did, but he needn’t spend all of it at the cabin.”
“What exactly has he been doing to that place?”
She shook her head.“You’ll see soon enough.”
26
Aya
Twyla was working, so Emi was the one to drive Aya up into the mountains.The view was ridiculously beautiful, with the mountains all around and the valley looking picture-perfect.Aya tried to look away.People were always talking about that view, as if it made up for the sins of the town’s past and present.The legend was that the earliest white settlers had named the place Zion Creek because they felt that such beauty could only have come from God.Of course, they weren’t actually the first people there, but the tribal name for the area had been conveniently lost to history.Just as “Zion Creek” would be lost, if that history were not preserved.
Aya had gone back to using the name Zion Creek when she first moved back home.It seemed fitting, somehow, to force the now-infamous name back on the place.But Twyla finally talked her out of it.They had gone to dinner at Chang’s, and Twyla was upfront about how she was going to pay so that Aya would be forced to listen to her.
Aya, who did not have a lot of spare cash, had agreed.But that meant that, even with a table full of delicious food, the meal had gotten off to a difficult start.
“Zion Creek is not accurate,” snapped Twyla.“You make yourself sound like a fool, not a historian.”
Aya simply raised her eyebrows.“You’re not exactly a neutral party.You work for a publication that has the aim of pumping up how supposedly wonderful Love Hollow is.”
Twyla glared.“I hope you’re not implying that I’m bad at my job.”
“No, but part of mine is teaching people what actually happened here.If I go with the postwar-amnesia narrative, accepting the schmaltzy name that the stupid town council thought would be good for tourists, I’m a part of that.”
Twyla put down her chopsticks.She took a long swig of tea then sighed.“Do you also go around talking about Prussia, then?”
Aya was silent for a moment.“The town’s borders didn’t change.”
