Читать книгу Death of a Wicked Witch - Lee Hollis - Страница 11

Chapter 5

It had been Hayley’s idea, when Gemma announced that she and Conner would be visiting Bar Harbor on Halloween and would be in town for the Garbers’ Witches Ball, that she and Gemma should go as a pair of iconic witches from the 1939 classic film The Wizard of Oz. With her cascading, silky blond hair that she had clearly inherited from her father’s side of the family, Gemma was the obvious choice as Glinda the Good Witch, leaving Hayley to slap on some green makeup and a crooked black hat and try out her full-on Margaret Hamilton–inspired evil laugh as the Wicked Witch of the West. Gemma had instantly jumped at the idea, and the two of them got to work assembling their costumes.

Luckily, Liddy still had her frilly white dress from her disastrous ill-fated wedding day over a year ago boxed up and shoved in a corner in her attic. She was more than happy for Gemma to take it off her hands, and she certainly didn’t care that it needed to be altered and hemmed to Gemma’s exact size. They still needed a magic wand and a cheap tiara to complete the look, though. As for Hayley, she had already ordered some green water-based face and body paint from Amazon, ironed the black cape and dress she had worn to last year’s ball, and had found a crooked black hat at a yard sale the previous spring. On her list remained a broom to carry around, and so she and Gemma stopped into the local hardware store to find one. Hayley wanted a broom with a wooden handle and quickly settled on one she liked. She held it out to Gemma.

“What do you think?”

Gemma, who appeared to be lost in thought, didn’t answer her at first.

Hayley tried again. “Gemma?”

Gemma turned to her mother. “What?”

“Are you okay? You’ve been quiet all morning.”

“No, I’m fine.”

Hayley knew her daughter well enough to know she wasn’t being completely honest, but she didn’t have to say anything because Gemma could easily read her mother’s skeptical face.

“I’ve just had a lot on my mind lately.”

“Would you like to tell me about it?”

“Not really. I’m hungry. Can we get lunch somewhere?”

Gemma knew her mother’s weakness was food, and so when she wanted to change the subject, that’s where she would usually steer the conversation.

Hayley decided to drop it for now. “Sure, I know the perfect place we can go.”

After paying for the broom and walking back to the car, Hayley had barely strapped her seat belt on when Gemma suddenly blurted out, “I’m thinking of breaking up with Conner!”

Hayley gripped the wheel and slowly turned to her daughter, mouth agape. “I certainly didn’t see that one coming.”

“I love him, I do, or at least I think I do. I don’t know anymore . . .”

“What’s changed?”

Gemma shrugged. “Nothing, really. I mean, we get along great, and I know he’s been down lately because his career hasn’t turned out the way he had hoped it would, at least not yet, and I don’t think he resents me because I’ve been kind of on an upswing career-wise, but sometimes when I talk about working for Cyndi, he gets really quiet and I can sense he’s frustrated.”

“It can be hard on a relationship when one person is succeeding and the other is struggling, but that’s something that can be worked on...”

“I guess so, I just feel we’ve been in a rut for a while now and I don’t know how to get out of it. I just wish I felt more confident that we can go the distance, you know, make a future together...”

“How does Conner feel?”

Gemma thought about it for a moment, and then nodded. “I’m sure he feels the same way. He has to...”

Hayley shifted the car in reverse and backed out of the hardware store’s gravel parking lot. “Well, whatever you decide, I support you one hundred percent.”

“Thanks, Mom...” Gemma whispered, staring absently out the window.

Hayley left her daughter to ruminate until they pulled up behind Trudy Lancaster’s food truck, Wicked ’Wiches.

Suddenly Gemma snapped out of her reverie and bolted upright, excited. “When did Bar Harbor get a new food truck?”

“It hasn’t even been a week. Her gourmet subs are amazing. Trust me, I’ve sampled most of the menu.”

They hopped out of the car and walked to the window where Trudy was slapping together an Italian Combo for a balding, potbellied, middle-aged lobsterman with a scraggly beard, still in his waders from hauling traps all morning.

Gemma grabbed a paper menu off the pile that was set out on the counter and held down by a rock to keep them from blowing away in a sudden gust of wind.

After serving the lobsterman, who gratefully took a giant bite of the sub as he ambled away, Trudy happily waved at Hayley. “Good seeing you, Hayley.”

“Trudy, this is my daughter, Gemma,” Hayley said.

Trudy smiled. “I’ve heard a lot about you, Gemma. Welcome home.”

Gemma’s eyes were glued to the menu. “Thank you. I want one of everything.”

“May I recommend today’s special? It’s a bacon cheddar grilled cheese with sweet mustard,” Trudy said, pointing to a chalkboard listing her off-the-menu items of the day. “It comes with waffle fries.”

“Please, you had me at bacon,” Hayley said with a laugh. “I’ll take one.”

“Make it two,” Gemma said.

Trudy disappeared from the window and got to work filling their order. As Gemma continued perusing the menu, Hayley noticed another food truck, this one called Burger She Wrote, pull into an empty parking space directly across the street. Hayley recognized the fifty-something woman with her wild, unkempt gray hair, jumping out of the driver’s seat and hustling across the street, failing to even look both ways and nearly getting mowed down by a passing pickup truck with its horn blaring. She could hear the truck driver shouting out his open window, “Get out of the street, idiot!”

The woman, Cloris Fennow, ignored him as she marched up to the Wicked ’Wiches truck, ignoring Hayley and Gemma. She violently pounded on the counter just below the service window.

At first, Trudy didn’t hear her over the strips of bacon sizzling on her grill, but after a few more attempts at slamming her fist, Cloris finally got her attention.

Trudy poked her head out the window, somewhat annoyed.

“May I help you?” Trudy asked.

“Do you have a permit to park here?” Cloris Fennow shouted.

“As a matter of fact, I do,” Trudy said.

“May I see it, please?” Cloris demanded.

“Are you the police?” Trudy asked calmly.

“I most certainly am not!” Cloris huffed.

“Then I don’t have to show you anything,” Trudy said with a pleasant smile. “Now if you would like to order something, you’ll have to wait a few minutes.” And then she disappeared back inside her truck to resume preparing Hayley and Gemma’s lunch.

Cloris reared back, thoroughly aghast and insulted, and twisted around to Hayley and Gemma. “I don’t know how she expects to do well in this town if she’s going to be so rude to the locals!”

Cloris stared at Hayley and Gemma, as if expecting them to agree with her, but they didn’t. Hayley had never been a fan of Cloris Fennow. She liked that she was a bit of an oddball, opinionated, and creative with the name of her food truck, the only one in town up until now. But Cloris was also paranoid, abrasive, and basically unpleasant to be around, and so that was why Hayley made it a habit of avoiding buying lunch from her despite the fact that others in town had readily attested to the fact that Cloris made a decent hamburger, despite Sal’s opinion of her stale buns.

But as the only game in town, Cloris didn’t feel the need to actually be nice to her customers. However, now that she had some real competition in the form of the pretty, young, and talented Trudy Lancaster, Cloris was going to be forced into making more of an effort.

And that cold, hard fact did not sit well with her.

In fact, it made her downright livid.

“I don’t see how this woman can just blow into town with her big ugly truck and try to run me out of business!” Cloris cried, her face red and puffy. “Did you hear the Garbers passed me over this year in favor of this stranger? I mean honestly, what do we know about her?”

Hayley decided not to point out that the Garbers had never hired Cloris Fennow to cater one of their Witches Balls because, quite frankly, nobody in town could stand her, least of all the Garbers themselves.

“She has no history here!” Cloris wailed, stomping her foot.

Trudy set out a plastic tray with two delectable-looking grilled cheese and bacon sandwiches and a generous pile of waffle fries on the side of each paper plate.

Ignoring Cloris, Gemma picked up the tray and looked giddily at the sandwiches. “Oh my God, Trudy, they look absolutely delicious!”

This innocent comment just enraged Cloris even further. She stomped her foot again and wagged a crooked finger at Trudy, who did not seem the least bit perturbed by her business rival’s childish temper tantrum.

“You better watch yourself, lady, because I can play rough if I have to!” Cloris warned.

“Is that supposed to scare me?” Trudy asked with a dismissive chuckle.

“Mark my words, you will rue the day you decided to come to Bar Harbor and set up shop in my territory!”

Cloris raced back across the street, again not looking where she was going, nearly getting hit by a passing Volvo, horn blaring. She climbed into her Burger She Wrote truck and roared away, nearly sideswiping two Cub Scouts who were in the middle of the crosswalk in front of her.

Trudy, who possessed a remarkable sense of calm, glanced down at Hayley and Gemma, who were already diving into their sandwiches, and asked, “Should I be nervous?”

Hayley shook her head, mouth full. Once she swallowed, she finally answered. “Cloris Fennow is just a big talker, kind of a crank. Believe me, there’s no need to worry.”

Gemma, her mouth also full, nodded in agreement.

Both of them could not have been more wrong.