The Lure of White Oak Lake (5 page)

~~~

The seats of the Jeep were wet with morning dew and stuck to the pair of running shorts that Morgan had thrown on after her shower. Dust and leaves covered the dash from the work done in her yard the day before. Morgan decided that cleaning it would be her next project. “Just keep moving and doing,” she said aloud. She was determined to do anything to keep her mind off of the last few months when her life went to hell in a handbasket.

Morgan breathed in deeply, catching the hint of creosote from the docks and piers jutting into the water. It brought back memories of when her father used to take her and Brad fishing at False River. Morgan allowed herself a second to visualize her dad with the bottoms of his jeans rolled up wading into the muddy waters to catch a turtle for Brad. She blinked and shook her head when the images of his last hours began to filter into her mind.

Instead of turning left onto Main Street, Morgan crossed over, and the road went from Lake Shore Drive to Blackwater Road. There were a few offices on either side, then White Oak Grocery came into view. Morgan wheeled into the lot that was virtually empty and parked. Two cashiers were chatting at one of the registers and waved as Morgan picked out a cart and headed for the produce. The smell of lavender mixed with something else hit her as she passed a woman looking at the fruit.

Morgan tossed a bag of celery into her cart and was about to pick up a cucumber when the woman whispered, “You’re better off growing your own.”

“I just moved here,” Morgan said with a shrug, taking in the woman’s odd apparel. The white gauzy dress looked more like a nightgown and was almost as sheer. Morgan looked down when she noticed the woman’s nipples poking at the material. Her feet were in a pair of sandals that looked handmade by a child.

“I know,” the woman said in an airy tone. She picked up an apple and scratched at the skin with her fingernail, shaking her head. “So many pesticides. Chemicals to make the breasts of a chicken larger, hormones to make the cow grow faster, and where does it all go? To us.” She dropped the apple back into the bin. “Rabbits, rabbits, rabbits, they ate everything.” The woman reached out and grabbed Morgan’s arm hard enough to nearly make her lose her balance. “When you plant your garden, surround it with a fence and bury the bottom at least a foot into the earth.” Her voice rose with every mournful word. “Learn from my mistakes, so you won’t be forced to eat the chemical-laced filth you find here.”

“You don’t have to shop here, Clarice,” someone called out from another aisle.

“It’s a conspiracy,” Clarice whispered as she released her hold on Morgan. “My breasts used to be so beautiful and now—”

“Whoa! Wait a minute,” Morgan cried out when Clarice began opening her dress.

“Don’t show your boobs in the store, Clarice,” the same voice called out a little louder. “You’re gonna make me call the cops on you again.”

Clarice shook a finger at Morgan. “You were warned.”

Morgan stood mouth agape as she watched the woman stalk off, dress billowing. And then she heard Betsy’s voice in her mind,
That’s Clarice Minden’s place, she’s a little…eccentric
. Morgan swallowed hard as she realized she’d just met another one of her neighbors. “Oh, my God,” she whispered as she went back to her shopping.

~~~

Morgan sighed happily as she nibbled a protein bar and admired her well-stocked pantry. The fridge held milk, water, and beer. There was fruit in a bowl on the cabinet, and next to it laid a loaf of bread. The kitchen looked as though someone actually resided there. The living room was another story as she stepped around the bar that divided the two rooms.

She went over to the small pile of boxes in the corner and opened one. Inside were a few books, and wrapped in a hand towel was a framed photo of Morgan, Brad, and their dad taken in Brad’s backyard. She tried not to look at it too closely as she set it aside. The towel made Morgan laugh as she thought of Celeste.

“That bitch kicked you to the curb and you’re leaving all your shit with her? Oh, hell no.” Celeste snatched the hand towel and washcloth from the rack in the bathroom.

Morgan watched as she wrapped something in the towel and set it in the box. “That’s part of a set, Celeste. They match the bath towels.”

“And half of it is yours, fool.” Celeste took the bath towel and wrapped Morgan’s glass jar of keepsakes in it. “If I could get the love seat in your Jeep, I’d stuff that in there, too.” Celeste’s black curls bounced as she looked around the room. “That chair was yours before you met her. That’ll fit in the backseat.”

“I don’t want it. It’s just junk. All I want is what has sentimental value to me. Resa
can keep the rest.”

“I’m feeling really sentimental about this damn watch.” Celeste picked up the Movado and waved it at Morgan. “You gave this to her when she got that promotion at work, and this is how she treats you?”

“It’s hers, leave it,” Morgan said as she taped up a box.

Celeste folded her arms. “I don’t think you looked hard enough for a job.”

“I’ve combed my network and yours. I’ve sent out a million résumés and beat the pavement until my feet are as bruised as my ego. Besides, I need a change.”

“But what if you go off into God’s country and you get a hit on a résumé and have to come right back here?”

Morgan smiled. “Then I’ll stay with you until I find a place.”

“You could stay with me right now.”

“And Keesha
would kill us both. There’s barely enough room at your place for the two of you and all of your hair accoutrements and clothes.”

Celeste opened her eyes wide. “I know you didn’t just make fun of my weave.”

“I love it, and when your real hair grows back in, it’ll be beautiful.”

“Keesha
and her experiments. She needs to practice on her own damn head. I don’t know what that shit was, but my hair was on fire. It melted in my hand.” Celeste put a hand on her hip. “She knows she’s in the doghouse with me. She won’t say a damn thing if I tell her I want you to move in.”

Morgan hefted a box and set it on the floor. “I’m going. Brad’s already been there and had the utilities hooked back up. I’ll be closer to him. It’s only an hour and a half from where he lives.”

“Fine.” Celeste threw her hands in the air. “But if I hear that you’re wearing overalls and wrestling alligators, I’m dragging your scrawny white ass back to Atlanta.” She waved a finger. “Don’t expect me to come visit you down in no hole, either. There better be a Hampton Inn or something close by. Celeste don’t do no shack in the woods.”

Morgan laughed out loud when she opened the next box and pulled out a fork, Resa’s favorite coffee cup with the handle broken off, and the espresso maker Celeste had given her. It had never been used. The sticky note inside the small glass pot said,
Bitch, I bought you this, you better damn well use it. Love, Celeste!

Y
ou know what I want to know, so start talking.”

“Good morning, Maddie,” Jaclyn said as she stocked the liquor cabinet behind the register. “I’m doing fine after my day off. I did laundry, cleaned the house, and paid my bills.”

“Well, that was mighty exciting. I think I’ll sit down because my heart is about to flutter out of my chest. I know you went there yesterday, so spill it.”

“That means you’ve already talked to Betsy. You probably know more than I do.”

“She’s never been married and is apparently single. She’s obviously not into makeup. She’s from Baton Rouge but came from Atlanta. There’s a big gay scene there, you know. I saw it on TV during Pride month. Oh, and she lost her father recently.”

“Well then, I was right, you do know more than I do.” Jaclyn kicked an empty box away and opened a case of bourbon whiskey. “How’d they talk you into posing for the picture on the front of the Wild Turkey bottles?”

“The same way they got you to pose for the…oh, come on, Jaclyn, tell me what you know!”

“Slow on the uptake this morning? The tree in the living room smash your coffeepot, too?”

Maddie ignored the jab. “Here’s what I think your problem is, you don’t advertise enough. Strangers coming into town don’t even know you’re gay unless we tell them. Now Morgan, she’s easy to spot, even though no one would mistake her for a guy.” Jaclyn closed her eyes when Maddie said, “She’s got the wallet in her back pocket, the strut, and the cool messy hair—”

“I’ll run out and buy some flannel,” Jaclyn said as she kicked the box she’d just emptied. It bounced off the counter and hit her in the head, which made her madder at her sister.

“My point is, how is she going to know you’re on her team and available? I know you won’t tell her and you’ll get pissed if I do.”

“Didn’t you just say she lost her dad recently? She’s probably going through a hard time and wants to be left alone. And I want to be left alone. I don’t need you and the hens swooping down on every woman that comes into town on my behalf.”

“Hens don’t swoop.”

“You get the point.” Jaclyn waved as Skip walked in. “I have work to do.”

“Don’t be mad. I want you to have someone in your life that makes you happy like Heath does me. I want to kill him every other day, but really, I’m happy with my life.”

“Then quit meddling in mine. Crickets? Yes, we have them. I’ll be right with you. I have to go, Maddie.” Jaclyn hung up the phone as Skip set an energy drink on the counter.

“I didn’t ask you about no crickets,” he said with a furrowed brow. “You okay?”

Jaclyn nodded as she rang up the drink. “I needed an excuse to get off the phone with Maddie. You’re gonna have to take a cricket, so I won’t be a liar.”

Skip yawned. “She on you already about Morgan?”

“Yes, and unlike you, she’s serious. I wish she’d find a hobby that didn’t embarrass the hell out of me.”

“That’s what little sisters are for. Mine, she still likes to tell the story of when I had dat stick hanging out of my ass cheek. She always forgets to tell people she put it there. Never turn your back on dat girl when she mad ’cause she can be evil like my Rene. She puts hot sauce in my coffee when I forget to take out the trash.”

“And you wonder why I’m still single,” Jaclyn said as she took his money and handed back his change.

“You’ll be happy like me one day, you watch,” Skip said as he walked toward the door. “I didn’t get my cricket, so dat makes you a liar. I won’t tell nobody, though.”

Jaclyn watched him go, thinking she’d been called worse. She walked over to the large window overlooking the parking lot. In the distance, she could see the orange Jeep parked in front of the old cabin. Morgan was attractive, Jaclyn could admit that to herself. Unlike everyone else, though, she didn’t hold out hope that a romance would spontaneously occur. Just because they were both lesbians didn’t mean they’d automatically have anything in common. And then there was Austin. Some of the women she’d dated didn’t appear to be interested in raising a teenage boy. The woman Jaclyn dreamed about would accept her and her son as a package deal. But it seemed those women were in short supply.

~~~

Morgan pulled her Jeep around the side of the house once she’d wiped down the inside and put the top back on. She’d filled a pot with water and dish liquid and grabbed the hand towel that Celeste had packed into a box. Resa would be furious to know that she was scrubbing bugs off her Jeep with her ivory towel. She smiled as she hooked a hose she’d found in the tool shed to the hydrant and turned it on. Water shot out of the hose, but not where Morgan expected it to come from. A thin spray erupted from behind a kink, hitting her legs and the crotch of her shorts. She wrapped the breach with duct tape and tried again. Before long, the green hose was almost entirely covered in gray tape. And that was when Morgan lost her mind.

A slow burning rage had been steadily building inside of her. Anger at the loss of her father, her job, and Resa’s heartless timing bubbled over. “Just fucking once! I need something to go right just fucking once!” Morgan screamed as she grabbed the hose and began beating it against a tree. “Die, you green bastard, die!” Her rage spent for the moment, Morgan staggered a step, then turned to find Betsy staring at her open-mouthed. “Um…hi, how are you?” she said shakily.

Betsy’s gaze slowly drifted down to the pine bark around Morgan’s feet and the mangled hose. “Honey, Harlan will cut that tree down for you, won’t take but a minute.”

Sweat and water streamed down Morgan’s face, the laugh bubbled up from somewhere deep inside. Betsy took a step backward as she began to cackle hysterically.

“I can see that you’re busy, I’ll just come back later,” Betsy said as she turned and walked off.

~~~

“Okay, forget everything I said earlier,” Maddie said when Jaclyn answered the phone, “and stay away from Morgan Chassion. She’s certifiably insane.”

“I don’t have time for this.”

Maddie went on undaunted. “Betsy just found her screaming and beating a tree with a hose pipe.”

“I may join her then.” Jaclyn put the last of her new spinner baits on the display rack.

“Betsy said she was all wet and sweaty and laughing like a hyena. Do you think maybe Clarice gave her some of the tea she drinks? My God, I bet no one thought to warn her.”

Social networking sites were totally unnecessary in White Oak. One’s status was automatically transmitted by the nosy hens who tended the business of everyone in town. Morgan’s had just been updated to “insane at home.”

“She’s sitting on her deck, very unladylike, staring up at the sky,” Maddie said slowly.

Jaclyn slammed her hand down on the display, sending all the baits she’d just arranged flying. “Put the binoculars away, Madeline, and leave her alone.”

“Fine, I have to get back to work anyway. You stay away from that nutbag and keep Austin at a distance, too. Local nuts like Clarice we can deal with, but this one is foreign, and we don’t know what to expect. She could be a killer hiding out in—”

Jaclyn ended the call with a push of a button and growled at the mess she’d made of her display.