Marriage Seasons 01 - It Happens Every Spring (7 page)

The whole thing had started off with only a hot pot and a few tea
bags. She didn't charge, even though it meant doing a whole dishwasher load of mugs every night. Pretty soon, Patsy had noticed
women carrying chairs into the glass-windowed alcove so they
could hear each other over the hair dryers. She'd bought a little
table and some pretty chairs for the sunroom. Then another table,
and another. She hunted in antiques shops for china teacups and
saucers. And then she got the idea to paint the walls between the
windows a soft shade of lavender.

Before she knew it, women were arriving before their hair
appointments and staying afterward to chat over cups of tea.
Finally, Patsy had purchased a large stainless-steel urn that kept the
water just at the edge of boiling. She started asking twenty-five
cents for tea bags. Then she began baking goodies at home and selling them from an antique glass counter case she bought at an auction. Now she oversaw a regular cottage industry of local women
who baked for the tearoom. They brought in banana bread, blueberry muffins, cinnamon rolls, you name it. Patsy charged a small
commission and gave the women the rest of the money.

These days, the little Just As I Am tearoom was famous all over
the lake area, and Patsy sold china cups, teapots, tablecloths, stationery, candles, and tea-themed gifts. She had raised her prices
enough that she had been sure people would gripe, but they didn't.
If she ever lost her salon, Patsy thought she might be able to keep
the tearoom open as a stand-alone business. But the two went
together so perfectly, and the ladies loved it. Even some of her male
customers had been known to drop an English Breakfast tea bag
into a cup of hot water and sit around chewing the fat for a while
after they'd gotten their haircuts.

As Patsy put away the broom, it occurred to her that over the
years, the salon had become her own little garden-and the
women were the flowers and trees and growing things she nurtured there. Ashley Hanes was a rose in bloom, a ripe strawberry, a
bluebird's song. Everything about that girl said springtimeexcitement, joy, hope, trust, anticipation, and most of all, love.
Ashley fairly glowed with awakening.

Esther Moore, seated across from Ashley and talking the poor
girl's ear off, radiated contentment. She was a golden sunflower, a
soft sweet peach, a chirping robin redbreast. When she walked into
a room, it felt like summer had arrived. Patsy knew it was because
Esther and Charlie were so comfortable together, so relaxed. While
Ashley and Brad were so crazy in love they were just about to burst,
Esther and Charlie had settled into a calm, unflappable unity.

Patsy loved her garden of women. Over in the far corner sat Kim
Finley with her twins, Lydia and Luke. A dental hygienist, Kim
sometimes got off work early enough to meet the school bus when
it stopped at the strip mall in Tranquility. She and the kids would
walk over to the salon for teatime before she drove them to their
tidy gray house in Deepwater Cove to start on homework.

At a young age, Kim had weathered a rough divorce from the
twins' father, Joe Lockwood, and she had spent several years as a
single mom. When Derek, a State Water Patrolman, entered her
life three years ago, Kim had fallen deeply in love and married
quickly. Patsy knew from cutting Kim's hair so often through the
years that Kim and Derek had experienced a few rocky patches too.

Kim wore a soft resignation on her face. She made Patsy think of
autumn-beautiful, but a little tired. Kim was a windblown shock
of wheat, a ripe apple hanging heavy on the tree, a mourning dove
that gathered her little ones close about her and cooed in the wind.

The young women, the children, the widows, the jovial men ...
Patsy treasured them all. As she crossed to the desk to check that
her stylists were caught up on all their appointments, the front
door opened.

It was Brenda Hansen. Winter had arrived.

When Brenda walked into Just As I Am, she felt every eye in the
salon fasten on her. And when Cody shuffled through the door
behind her, she heard an audible gasp.

Well, so what? She didn't care if people were scared of Cody or
disliked having him in Deepwater Cove. The stranger who had
showed up at her door during the power outage was the best thing
that had happened to Brenda in a long time. Cody was a child-a
sweet, slightly confused little boy who needed looking after. And
Brenda had decided that God had given him to her as a mission.

"Hey, Patsy," she said.

The salon's owner hurried to the front desk as the pair
approached. Look up the word nice in the dictionary, folks said,
and you'd see Patsy Pringle's picture. With her exaggerated hourglass shape, pretty face, and hair whose color changed on a whim,
Patsy was a fixture at the lake, and everyone counted on her. If her
shampoo, set, and style couldn't lift a woman's heart, her warm
tearoom certainly would. More than once, Brenda had gone to the
salon just to sit in a corner, sip tea, and read magazines. It sure beat
pacing the floor waiting for Steve to come home.

"I didn't expect you back here so soon," Patsy told Brenda.
"Your cut still looks great to me. In fact, I think that's one of the
best cuts I've ever given you. Let me look at the left side there. Oh
yes, that's perfect." She focused on Brenda's companion. "And
who's this?"

"Hi, I'm Cody!" The young man held out a dirty hand.

Patsy shook it firmly. "Welcome to Just As I Am. You must be
the fellow who's been sleeping on the Hansens' porch."

"Okay." Cody nodded. "Because Brenda is my friend. She
makes me chocolate soup cake."

"Soup and chocolate cake," Brenda said in a low voice. "Cody's
words sometimes get tangled up."

"Oh, mine do too." Patsy smiled. "Just last Sunday the deacons
were trying to put my name on the kitchen committee, and I said,
`Sorry, boys, but I don't want to be on the commitchen kitty.' Can
you beat that? I thought those fellows would never stop laughing."

Brenda chuckled, appreciating Patsy's kind attitude even
though Cody's presence had obviously upset the regular flow and
rhythm in the salon.

"I love my cut," Brenda told her. "I was wondering if you could
trim Cody up a little. Maybe give him a shave. He says he used to
shave when he lived with his father. I think this beard is just too
thick for him to manage right now."

"I look like Jesus," Cody announced. "I thought Jesus was in
Brenda's basement, but it was me."

"He saw his reflection in the sliding glass door," Brenda
explained.

Patsy tilted her head. "Come to think of it, Cody, you do look
like Jesus."

"Because I'm a Christian."

"Is that why you look like Him?"

Cody nodded. "Okay."

Patsy laughed. "I'd love to shave off those whiskers, Cody, but
I'm afraid I've got a perm coming in right now. Of course, if you
and Brenda could wait a little while ... I ... uh..."

Patsy glanced at the sunroom, apparently realizing that having
Cody sit down among the tea-sipping ladies was probably not the
best plan. "We've got all kinds of magazines in the waiting area,"
she said, gesturing toward a row of five chairs that lined one wall. "I
keep men's magazines in stock too. Fishing, hunting, boating. All
that."

Brenda squared her shoulders. "Cody and I will have a cup of tea
and wait for you to do the perm," she said. "Then you can work on
his hair and beard while she sits under the dryer."

"Well-" Patsy swallowed-"all right. We've got chocolate cake
in the counter. Help yourself."

"Chocolate cake!" Cody's blue eyes brightened. "My daddy told
me that only a Christian would give you chocolate cake. Are you a
Christian?"

"I certainly am," Patsy said. "That's why I named this salon just
As I Am. My favorite song in the whole world says that Jesus loves
us just as . . ." She stopped speaking and gazed at Cody. Her eyes
misted. "He loves us just as we are. No matter where we come from
or how we've acted or what we look like. God loves us all."

"Okay," Cody said.

"You and Brenda step over there for a cup of tea and some chocolate cake. I see my perm just driving into the parking lot."

"Thanks," Brenda said. For a moment, she covered Patsy's hand
with her own. Then she nudged Cody toward the tea area.

Young Ashley Hanes was sitting with Esther Moore at one table.
Kim Finley and her twins, Luke and Lydia were at another. No
doubt they had come into the salon this afternoon for haircuts,
Brenda mused. Their mother always kept the ten-year-olds
scrubbed, pressed, and looking adorable in color-coordinated outfits.

Brenda steered Cody to the empty table and pointed him to a
seat. She sensed everyone staring as she arranged her coat and
purse on the opposite chair. The moment Cody sat down, Kim
began gathering up her children, wiping their mouths, and urging
them to put on their jackets. Red-haired Ashley went as pale as a
ghost. Esther looked annoyed.

"Hey there, Esther." Walking past the table toward the
hot-water urn, Brenda greeted the older woman. "And how have
you been, Ashley?"

"Fine," they said in unison.

"That's Cody at the table. You've probably seen him around."

As she bent to fill two teacups with hot water, Brenda heard
someone come up beside her. She didn't have to look to know it
was Esther. With her glossy white hair and sweet smile, Esther
Moore had a kind heart and was loved by the neighbors in Deepwater Cove. But Brenda knew the woman had strong opinions
about everything. Her husband, Charlie, had been a mailman
before retirement. Now instead of letters, he carried gossip from
house to house. If he wasn't driving around in his golf cart gathering up hearsay, he was down at the dock fishing for rumors. And,
of course, every tidbit had to be filtered, sorted, organized, and
officially stamped at the grand post office-Esther.

"How are you getting along these days, Brenda?" Esther
dropped some change in the basket and took another tea bag. "I
hardly ever see you out and about. Seems like the last time we
talked was the day you came in to get your hair cut."

"That's right," Brenda said. "When the weather warms up a little more, I'll probably be in the yard. Have you seen my pansies? They made it right through the winter this year. I don't think I lost
a single one."

"I noticed that." Esther used a pair of tiny silver tongs to drop a
sugar cube into her cup. "You always have such a pretty yard.
Charlie thinks it's the nicest in the whole neighborhood. We love
those baskets of petunias you hang by the door, and last year you
had so many roses!"

"It was a bumper year, all right." Brenda was about to head for
the sweets when Esther put out her hand.

"Brenda, I ought to tell you that Charlie's been a little concerned
about your friend."

"Which friend?"

Esther looked flustered. "Uh ... him." She glanced over at Cody.
"As a matter of fact, several of us in Deepwater Cove aren't quite
sure what to make of the situation. You know ... him sleeping on
your porch swing."

Brenda clamped her mouth shut to keep from saying something
she might regret. All these months of emptiness-sitting alone in
her house missing the children, cooking meals that nobody would
eat, painting and sewing on furniture that didn't matter to anyone-and the first time anyone in Deepwater Cove acted like they
cared, it was to complain! No one had stopped at the house to visit
her. No one had asked why she'd let the fallen leaves molder on the
lawn or the spiders move back onto the porch at the end of the
summer. No one wondered how she was getting along without her
children there.

"You can tell Charlie that Cody is very comfortable on the
swing," Brenda said. "I appreciate his concern. It's sweet of him to
care about my friend."

Esther stood gaping as Brenda walked to the glass counter and
took out two pieces of chocolate cake. Carrying the cake to the
table and then returning for the tea, Brenda kept her focus on
Cody. He was scratching his head with the pointed tines of a fork
while studying himself in the stainless-steel napkin holder.

"I sure do look like Jesus," he said when Brenda sat down. "Like
in the Bible when He was sitting on that rock with all the kids on
His lap and around His feet. `Suffer the little children to come unto
me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.' Mark
10:14. I look like Jesus on that rock."

"Not for long. I'm eager to see what Patsy can do with your
hair." Brenda pushed Cody's tea and cake in front of him. As he
warmed up to her, he had become more verbal, and much of his
conversation showed a fairly high intelligence. He could cite many
Bible verses.

"That beard has to go," she told him. "No one can see what you
look like."

"I'm twenty-one," Cody said. "Time to make my way."

"You're an adult, all right. I wish we knew where your father
went off to."