Chapter Four

Chapter Four

 

            The next few days passed in a blur of shopping for and arranging of household items and accessories. For a woman who used to be able to buy a new set of curtains and layer of paint for her dining room whenever the whim took over the new experience of bargain shopping and budgeting seemed daunting. The final outcome was a house full of mitch matched items and furniture. Even though it was not the grandeur that she was used to Linda looked around her new home and sighed a contented breath of happiness. The place had a certain country charm about it that she liked. It was the perfect place to sink her roots into.

            Linda walked out of the front door and stepped onto the front porch. Even the squeaky hinge on the old worn out screen door seemed to announce that she had made a good decision. She hadn’t thought much about that night since she left her old life behind. She hadn’t wanted to. She didn’t want to jinx herself.

            She felt as though the mere thought of the incident could spiral her back into a reality where she had murdered her husband in cold blood albeit with just a tinge of self defense. She didn’t want to think about the possibility of Rosa coming in the next day and finding the house empty. Maybe she just went home, but maybe she searched the house and remembering the tense situation in the kitchen between herself and Trisha decided that something fishy had taken place and had decided to call the authorities. Maybe she went out side and maybe the rain had forced its way into the already sodden ground and had unearthed her evil deed. Again.

            Linda could already see Rosa’s terror stricken face and hear her piercing scream which was sure to bring the neighbors running. Soon the flashing lights of the police cruisers would fill up the usually peaceful block. Neighbors would crowd around on the side walk in their robes and huddle together to talk.

             “Trisha did it of course” all of the neighbors would tell the cops. “She was having an affair.” Some of them would think out loud.

            “She must have snuffed poor ole James Spilling so that she could empty his bank account and run off with her pool boy.” The rumors would spread. The cops would end up checking out the bank accounts and sure enough they would be pretty damn close to empty.

            She hadn’t had a pool boy of course, James was a jealous man and could bat for paranoid with the best of them, but she would become suspect number one and the hunt for the murderous woman would commence. They wouldn’t rest until they captured the heinous woman who took their beloved James away.

            Linda shook her head raggedly to wash the thoughts away. There was no use fixating on it. The only thing she could do is start over and keep smart. She reminded herself to not do anything to make her look suspicious in her new town. She knew one thing about the country life and that was that they didn’t need much to get them to start talking through the laundry line.

            With another small sigh that was only a fraction less contented she sat down in the old rocking chair that she had picked up on the side of the road the night before. A little bit of wood glue that she had found in the carpenters shed out back had fixed its broken back enough to allow her to enjoy it in the cool summer shade.

            Emmy and Justin were out in the yard running off their last bit of steam before bed. Emmy with jar in had was running after lightning bugs in the ever darkening evening. Justin kept right on her heels with only the occasional yip of amusement.

            Already the last few days were bringing big changes in the child. Her arms before were milky white and delicate as a flower’s petal. The last few days the summer sun had given her daughter a bronzed shade to her skin. Emmy looked healthy and high spirited.

            She occasionally asked about her daddy but as the days wore on she spoke about him less and less. It was as if she could sense that Linda had made some changes. This was her new life and as kids go Emmy was as flexible as most children are. Like rubber bands, kids could seem to bounce right back from the most difficult situations.

            Linda needed to learn from the vitality of her daughter. Tomorrow she planned on taking Lance up on his word and heading down to the local press shop to talk about starting some kind of work. The thought of being so close to Lance again seemed to send a lightning bolt of nervous energy down her spine.

            Lance, with his muscles and sweet eyes was hard enough to handle but mix in his southern charm and you had a killer combo. Common sense told her to not get her hopes up though. A man like that could never be single. She didn’t notice a ring on his finger but that doesn’t mean he didn’t have a woman, or two, that he spent regular nights with. Lance was off limits no matter how delicious she though him to be. Surely he wasn’t the only honest, sweet, and caring man in this town. She had already met a number of charming characters during her trips into town.

            Linda thought about the people she had met within the last few days. Mrs. Gregory, at the corner store who had given Emmy a fresh peanut butter cookie when they had came down to stock the kitchen. Maxwell lived about a mile behind them through a small grove of pine trees. He was a handyman by trade and had come to fix a few shingles and stuck windowpanes for nothing more then a cold glass of sweet tea.

            The south seemed to move at a slower pace then the rest of the world. Manners were a part of their life, not a choice and Linda was proud to be a part of it.

            With one last smile Linda took a sip of her own glass of sweet tea that rest on a wicker table beside her. Laughter bubbled its way across the cool grass and up to her ears. The sound was like the sweetest of songs. Linda didn’t think she would ever hear anything sweeter.

Reviews

[Craig2591]

You add just enough small details to make it real but not enough to bog it down with too much worthless info. That's hard to do sometimes.

[Tabitha t]

Thank you! I consider that a high compliment!

[MoriartyMesa]

I am enjoying the mystery in this. Yes a few things to look at, but this sort of rings from something you would see in either a play or a well written tv drama.

[T. Logan]

Just a few spelling errors. Doesn't bug me much because I read it the same anyway. But this is really good.

[gombeggar]

the grammer and dialogue is getting better as u progress it seems

[Marie]

Nothing basically wrong with this chapter. You need to go back over it and fix the mistakes--starting with "mitch matched items"...