A Big Life in a Small Town (Bellingwood #2) (27 page)

"You're still a rat."

"But you think I'm wonderful, right?"

"Sure. We'll call it that," she grumped.

"Wonderful it is," he let her hand go and pulled back from her then came back in and took her hand.

"Stop that," she said. "You're freakin' me out."

"Basic box step it is," he laughed.

The song ended and as the band picked up the next song, Mark tapped Jeff's shoulder and took Polly in his arms. More people began to join them on the floor and she saw Jeff find Lydia. He bowed to Aaron and escorted her out to join them. For the next twenty minutes, Polly found herself dancing with several others as the floor filled with dancers. Then, the band stopped and she saw Jeff pushing the dancers to the back of the floor. She was confused until she heard the lead singer shout out, 5-6-7-8 and the 4-H kids, led by Sylvie and Hannah, filed in and began to dance in unison as the music began. The room erupted in applause and before long, the floor was filled with people of all ages, mimicking the steps the kids were doing.

Her heart caught in her throat and what came out was, "Oh my."

"Do you want in on this?" a voice spoke into her ear. She turned around and Henry was standing there, dressed in all black.

"Oh my," she repeated, taking him in.

He smiled and said, "Are you ready to join them?"

"Not really, it's fun just to watch it happen. Have you eaten anything?"

"Not yet. I'm sorry about being late."

"What happened?"

"I keep telling Mrs. Naylor that she needs to get a real furnace repairman in, but I have a feeling that as long as I'm her neighbor, I will continue to be re-starting that old thing. She'd been without heat most of the day, so I took her over to my house until I got it up and running and her place started warming up again."

"You're a good guy, Henry Sturtz."

"I'm sorry I'm late, though."

"No big deal. You did miss me telling the world about how wonderful you were, but otherwise I don't think you missed much. Come on, let's find you some food."

They went into the classroom and since there was no one there, she picked up an empty pie tin and said, "Pork or Beef?" then slapped some pork on a bun and handed it to him. He scooped his own sides, then followed her back into the auditorium. She picked up an iced tea as they passed the drinks table and set it down in front of them when they got to their table, then turned her chair so she could watch the fun on the dance floor. Mark had dropped in beside Sylvie and wrapping his left arm around her waist, doubled up with her as they performed the next dance. Hannah moved into the crowd to find her husband and Polly watched him protest a little, then acquiesce and join his wife on the floor.

One more song and Sylvie pulled away and scooted her helpers out of the auditorium, leaving to another round of applause. The kids were beaming and Sylvie's face glowed. Several of the other women who chose not to dance soon followed her into the kitchen.

The band finally announced they needed to take a short break and Polly stood up, "Do you want anything more?" she asked Henry.

"No, thanks," he said.

"I'm going to check on a few people," and she headed for Beryl and Andy’s table in the middle of the room.

Lydia dropped into the seat beside Aaron with a "whompf."

"That wears an old lady out. How are you doing, Beryl? I noticed that you found plenty of people who wanted to dance with you. And Andy, my friend, are you sweet on Len Specek? You two looked pretty good out there."

Andy blushed. "He's an old friend, so stop it."

"I don't know!" Beryl laughed. "You know what they say about those widows."

"No," Andy said, "Tell us what they say about widows."

Beryl looked around the table and then bowed her head. "Nothing. They say nothing about anything. Good heavens, I'm in trouble again."

"That's better," declared Andy. "We're old friends and that's all there is to it."

Aaron leaned into his wife and said in a stage whisper, "Sounds like she's protesting a bit much."

Polly interrupted, "I'm here for a reason. Can we get a picture?" Then she said, "Wait. We need Sylvie, too! Just a minute." She looked around the table. "Don't any of you go anywhere. Got it?"

She ran into the kitchen. Sylvie was loading dishwasher racks and looked up.

"Sylvie, we need you for a picture."

"Like this? I look like hell!" Sylvie protested.

"You look great. Come on."

Sylvie sputtered and tried to push her hair back away from her face. She pulled her apron off and looked around for a place to put it. Polly took it out of her hand and said, "Go. Move it."

She pushed Sylvie into the auditorium and through the crowd back to the barn setting, beckoning to Lydia as they walked past the table. When they all arrived, there was a short wait while a young couple attempted to look at each other with adoration but couldn't get past their giggles.

The five of them finally made their way onto the set and began with a shot of all of them standing together in a row. The photographer took the shot and then said, "That's all you have for me?"

"You all make me feel like a kid again," Lydia said and she dipped Beryl. Andy looked stunned and Polly did the same to Sylvie. The picture was priceless. A few more crazy poses and Sylvie said, "I've got to get back to work."

Before she could get very far, Jeff and Henry stopped her and Jeff said, "We've done the work, we're gonna get in the shot." He and Henry each went down on a knee and patted them for the girls to be seated. Polly took Sylvie's hand and the photograph was taken.

The band had started up again and Sylvie escaped to the kitchen. Henry didn't let Polly leave the barn set until they'd taken a few shots, then Jeff insisted that he be allowed to pose with her. Doug and Billy saw what was happening and begged for a picture and the next thing Polly knew, she was posing with friends she had been meeting since moving into town.

When she was finally released, Henry said, "I don't think there is much time left and I want one dance with you tonight. I've asked for a waltz, can I have it with you?"

She winked at him and put her hand in his, "Lead on," she said.

Jeff announced that it would be the final dance. The band began a slow waltz and the floor filled up. She looked up and saw Mark find her and nod. Then he left the auditorium to return with Sylvie. Hannah was back on the floor with Bruce and when Polly found Lydia, she was stunned to see Aaron holding his wife as they danced. This was a good way to end a great day.

Reaching for the phone with her eyes still closed, Polly grabbed it to shut off the alarm. She opened them enough to dismiss the annoyance and turned over on her side where she was greeted by a quick lick on her hands. "No, don't make me," she whined. "I just want to sleep."

But, it was too late. They knew she was awake and from this point forward any hope of extra sleep was lost. She pulled the blankets up around her neck and tried to cocoon back into the bed, but her animals were smarter than that. Luke stretched, then walked up her side, settling in at her shoulder. Leia began walking back and forth across the pillow above her head, kneading her paws in Polly’s hair. Obiwan stood up, wagged his tail, then lay back down in front of her face, nuzzling her with his nose. She felt guilty for making him wait, but didn’t want to move away from the snuggly warm cat. The dog nuzzled her once more and Polly decided to pay attention. She dislodged Luke and threw the blankets back, covering Obiwan. He wiggled out the other side and jumped to the floor.

"You are mean. Why don't you ever want to sleep in with me?" The cats ignored her commentary and jumped to their ledges in the window, glancing back every once in a while to check her progress. Obiwan sat down in front of the bedroom door with expectation while Polly stretched and pulled on her clothes. "I hope you know that this is a sign of how much I love you, you dumb dog. You won't let me sleep, but I still get dressed to take you out in the cold." She snapped the leash on, stopped in the kitchen to start the coffee and then went out the back door with the dog.

The morning air was cold and she was still a bit bleary-eyed, but they walked the perimeter and were back upstairs before seven o'clock. Polly fed the animals, showered and dressed and headed downstairs. She had been so exhausted yesterday after the full day on Saturday, that she hadn't bothered with a shower. In fact, she hadn't bothered with anything, but had spent most of the day curled up on her couch with her laptop, the animals and a huge amount of recorded television. She'd taken calls all day long from her friends, but had refused any human interaction, choosing to stay inside alone instead. Henry had called to see if she wanted to do something and she'd begged off, surprised that he had any energy at all after spending the day building a barn.

Before going to her office, Polly set a platter of extra cupcakes onto the counter, leaving them covered in plastic wrap. She got things set up to feed people through the day and left a note by the coffee machine that she would have leftover soup and sandwiches ready to go at noon. Sylvie worried about all of the additional food and Polly had promised to make some calls. Lydia had told her that Rev. Boehm might have some ideas or she should start handing food out to anyone who stopped by. The phone call was first on her list this morning.

Polly rummaged around in the refrigerator and pulled out one last breakfast casserole, fully intact. Sylvie had told her that she could put it in the oven and easily re-heat it. She set the alarm on her phone and went in to her office. The kitchen and classrooms had been cleaned by Sylvie's crew before the end of the evening on Saturday, but Jeff had promised that the cleanup of the rest of the place would be great fun today, so rather than laugh at him in front of everyone, she'd simply nodded and said, "I suppose so!"

Joanna Wagner, the new guest, was arriving this afternoon and Polly hoped she was ready for her. During one afternoon Sylvie's boys were here, they'd camped out in the conference room and assembled packages of the items she had requested to be delivered to her room each day. Polly needed to run to the grocery store this morning and pick up some fruit and figured she would get a case of water to be safe.

Polly pulled up her notes program and began composing a list of things she needed to accomplish before the day was out.

She smiled at Jeff when he came in and sat down in front of her desk.

"Are you rested up from last week?" he asked.

"Just barely. It nearly killed me to get out of bed this morning."

"Me too. But, here we are. I hope you were happy with how the day went."

"Jeff, I don't know how I could have been happier. What a wonderful day."

"It was wonderful. I think we made a good impression on the community."

"I hope so. I'm going to live here for a long time," she said.

"We have people coming in to clean up the auditorium this afternoon, but I think we need to talk about bringing on a part-time custodian. You can do laundry and cleanup in the rooms, but we need more help after big events and Polly, I have eighteen emails and three voice mails requesting more information on dates for weddings, birthday parties and even a Quinceañera reception."

"That's exciting! And you're right. Let me see what I can do. I'll try to get someone hired this week. It would be good to have them on board to help us keep up."

“By the way," he said, "do you want to put some blackout dates in the calendar so I don’t schedule every day?"

"What do you mean?"

"Polly, there is going to come a day when this place has a lot going on. Think about how much you needed to be alone yesterday. Could you do that with activities happening down here?"

"Jeff, I really didn't leave the apartment except to take Obiwan for a couple of walks."

"Do what you want, but I've warned you."

"Thanks. I'll think about it."

Henry, Leroy and Ben walked in. "Good morning!" Henry said. "Do I smell breakfast?"

Polly's phone chimed and she said, "I don't know how you did it, but that's perfect timing. Come on, it's ready."

She pulled the pan out of the oven and Jeff brought out plates and silverware. Jerry Allen showed up with Doug and Billy, and were soon joined by Sam Terhune and Jimmy Rio. They laughed and talked about the great day they'd had on Saturday. Temperatures were supposed to be in the mid-forties again and Henry wanted to get up on the roof and push forward. Jerry was going to install the breaker box and take electricity into the building, hooking up interior lights and power boxes. Before too long, she was going to have a barn.

Polly let them get to work and cleaned up the kitchen, then set up the buffet server for lunch. She stuck her head in Jeff's office and said, "I'm running out for a little bit, I'll be back."

He was on the phone, so he nodded and waved. Polly ran upstairs to get her coat and then headed to the grocery store uptown. It was a small store with only four aisles, but they seemed to serve the community well. She stopped at the small produce section and chose some apples, bananas and grapes. It didn't take long to wander the aisles, but Polly pushed the cart and filled it with things she needed for her own refrigerator. She stopped in front of the frozen foods and found herself drawn to a frozen pizza. It had been so long since she'd popped one of these in the oven and shared it with her friends in college. Without another thought, she whipped the freezer door open, grabbed a pizza and tossed it in the cart. She picked up some wrapped candy for the office, M&Ms for herself and headed for the checkout counter.

No one was there and she had to press the bell for service. A young woman came from the back and said, "Good morning, Polly!"

Polly smiled. This was going to be her life for a while. Everyone knew her, but it was going to take time for her to know their names. "Hi there, and I'm sorry," Polly said, "I don't know your name."

"I'm Dana Bright. Sylvie always talks about you, so I feel like I know you." Polly put her groceries on the counter as Dana checked her out.

Henry's roofing crew had expanded and they were heading up the ladders when she arrived back at Sycamore House. She grabbed the grocery bags and went inside, finally returning to her office to make her calls.

The first was to Rev. Boehm. His secretary told her that he generally took Mondays off, but Polly told the woman what she wanted and was promised a return phone call.

She had asked Jeff for a list of people who should receive thank you notes and that was sitting on her desk. That was her next task and she figured the sooner she started, the better, but was interrupted by a woman rapping on the main door of the office.

"Good morning?" she queried.

"I'm Joanna Wagner and you have a room for me?"

Polly shouldn't have been surprised and managed to maintain a semblance of control. This poor woman was trying to remake herself into her image of a nineteen sixties artist and she'd failed miserably. In her late forties, her hair had been spikey, but was growing too long to hold its shape. She had rings filling her fingers and colorful bracelets of all widths covering her arms, under an expensive and well-tailored coat. Polly could tell she wasn't used to them, because she fiddled with them over and over. She was wearing a variegated colored skirt with a tailored blue blouse. That had to have been from her former life. Her shoes were brand new and she was wearing dark blue leg warmers. The picture in front of Polly was one of a woman desperately trying to understand a life that had previously been alien to her.

"Hi, Joanna," Polly said, as Jeff stepped out of his office. He offered to take the woman up to her room, explain the lock system to her and help her get settled. All Polly could think was that this poor woman needed a few doses of Beryl Watson before she escaped from Bellingwood. She wrote a quick note to herself; she was going to make sure that happened.

Her phone rang and she answered, "Hello?"

"Good morning, Polly. This is Del Boehm. Sue said you called about some food from Saturday night? That was quite a feast you put on."

"Hi Pastor Boehm. It was a lot of fun, but we have quite a bit of soup, barbecue and salads left over and I was wondering if you might know anyone in town who could use the food? It's all in family sized containers and I can deliver it or do anything you like to make it happen."

"Sue mentioned this to me and I called two of my cohorts and yes, we have three families among us who are in a bit of a crisis right now. This would certainly help them out. If you don't mind, I'd like to stop by in the next hour and then I'll make the deliveries. I hate to embarrass them, you know."

"That would be great. How bad are these situations?" she asked.

"One of them is pretty rough. They're close to being evicted. He got laid off and hasn't been able to find work. The other two are holding on, but just barely."

"That was another thing I wanted to talk to you about. We're looking for a part-time custodian and I don't know where to begin. I thought you might know someone who needed a job. It's not going to pay much right now, but if things keep going as I think they will, the job will grow and there is also for extra income if they want to work the events we're holding."

"You know, Polly, people around town keep talking about what you're doing here. If this is what they are experiencing, I can see why so many are big fans. I'm going to call Shawn Wesley and bring him with me. Would you mind doing the interview this morning? If they thought there was hope on the horizon, it would do wonders for them."

"Why don't you two show up around eleven and I'll have the food bagged up, then you can do what you like with it while I talk to Shawn."

"He's a little rough around the edges, Polly, and he could use a job."

"If you're putting in a good word for him, Pastor, I'll keep that in mind."

"Thank you, Polly."

She thought for a few moments and wrote a quick note to Jeff that she'd be back and left it on his desk. She ran out to her truck and drove back to the grocery store. When she got inside, Dana was finishing up with another customer.

"Did you forget something, Polly?"

"No, I need to talk to you about something."

The woman left with her groceries and Dana said, "How can I help you?"

"I need three gift cards, do you have something like that?"

"I don't have gift cards, but I can write out a gift certificate. Who is it for?"

Polly stopped. She didn't know any of the names except Shawn Wesley and she hadn't asked if he was the guy Pastor Boehm had talked about being laid off.

"I don't know their names. I just need to buy the gift certificates. Does it matter?"

"No, I guess it doesn't. How many do you want?"