“Save it,” Patty interrupted. “I can’t do much on my own, but I sure can shop. There’s a boatload of packages headed your way. I can’t live with my kid, but I sure can buy her shit. Wrap it all for me, would you? That’d be great. Thanks.”
When Patty disconnected the call, Theo wasn’t even surprised. She hadn’t gotten the chance to let her know that the bungalow was all cleaned out, but she figured Patty didn’t need an update. It had needed to be done, so it had been taken care of. That’s the way things had always worked out for Patty. Theo knew she’d expect nothing less.
5. UNDERWATER BOWLING
Theo sat at a four-top near the window in the Blackbird Bistro. The world outside was frosty and white, frigid beneath a deep blue sky. It was Monday, and she was waiting for Jordan and Indigo to meet her for lunch. It was just one of the many things that made up a very busy weekly schedule.
Sundays, of course, were, as they always had been, Murphy family dinner nights. Back when Theo and Patty were young, Mamie had made all the decisions about what food would be served. It was rarely palatable, and sometimes it wasn’t even thoroughly cooked. It wasn’t that Mamie hadn’t tried. She had. Preparing meals had never been one of the things she’d been good at, but the idea behind the four members of the family sitting down together for an hour each week had been the goal. In that, Mamie had been successful.
These Sunday dinners had changed since Theo’s return to Colorado. A deal had been struck. At the beginning of each month, Mamie handed Theo an envelope full of cash. Theo then planned, shopped for and prepared each meal. Because Theo found a sort of personal therapy in the act of cooking, she enjoyed the process. She’d taken countless cooking classes when she’d lived in Boston which had introduced and helped hone a culinary talent she’d had hidden inside of her.
Delaney had told Theo once that food had become her love language. The fact that she was good at what she did became currency in which she used to buy Jordan and Delaney a seat at their table every week. There had even been a few other guests in attendance. Mamie had complained about that, but she’d done so in an unusually reserved fashion. There were, however, still rules in place. The Murphys were to be gathered around the table at six o’clock sharp. Mamie didn’t care how they were dressed and didn’t argue if one of them couldn’t linger long after the meal had been served, but nothing short of a severed limb or death would excuse an absence. Theo was fairly sure that Mamie was holding a grudge against Patty for missing the last dozen or so. She hadn’t actually died in that car accident; she’d only come close.
Theo took Indigo to preschool on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings from nine to noon. On Mondays, Jordan picked Indie up, and the two of them met Theo for lunch. Sometimes they brought their mid-day meal to the office. Sometimes Theo joined them at Fireweed Farm, and still other times, the threesome met at one of the many eateries that Whisper Creek had to offer.
After lunch, Indigo and Jordan would take off and entertain themselves until it was time for dinner and the two of them would meet Theo again back at the barn. There seemed to be no end to their activities. They played at the park, they went for walks, and they played with Odette’s cats. Jordan buckled a helmet onto Indigo’s head and gave her rides on the ATV’s they had at the farm. They treated themselves to ice cream floats, afternoons filled with fingerpainting and rounds of Candy Land, Hi Ho Cherry-O, and Chutes and Ladders, and lately, Indigo had taken a real liking to the hockey games Jordan had always loved to watch on television. They’d taught themselves origami, they’d gone fishing in Whisper Creek, and taken long, leisurely strolls on the back of Mae West, Max’s favorite mare.
Tuesdays were still technically considered to be yoga days, even though Cleopatra hadn’t been able to participate in the activity for some time. Mamie took Indigo on Tuesdays just as she had since before Theo even knew of the child’s existence. Their day began at nine. Sometimes they would stay at Murphy House and Indigo would color or put puzzles together while Mamie worked. Other times, the two of them would visit Fireweed Farm.
Throughout the year, Mamie volunteered her time to help with any number of events Odette organized. Winter was the busiest time, and many people in town found themselves at the farm gathering pine boughs and tying them with long strips of red, gold and green metallic ribbon. These handmade wreaths hung all over the walls of the gift shop along with hand poured candles and oversized mugs Eloise and Isaac Sloane made in their store, Mystic Mountain Creations.
Mamie helped run the farmer’s market from opening day in May through October, and she bought and sold tickets to the hayrides and rung up the pumpkins the kids picked out of the patch. She’d be hard pressed to come up with the number of eggs she helped dye for the annual Easter egg hunt, or how many ribbons she’d tied to the handles of baskets the kids used to collect those eggs. That’s what had pulled Theodora from her life as a lawyer in Boston. Mamie’s fingerprints had been found on the handles of a pair of scissors in Odette’s work room. That hadn’t really been surprising. The fact that the blades had been plunged deep into Jamison Hardy’s chest had been the real issue. Fortunately for Indigo, that horrible event had taken place on a Friday, which was not yoga day. Fortunately for Mamie, Theo was good at her job and had proven that as cantankerous as her mother could be, she hadn’t been the one to end Hardy’s life.
When Indigo and her grandmother weren’t at Murphy House or the farm, the two of them could be found around town running errands or at the house on Cascade Trail. It was a home bought by Glory and given to Owen and Mamie when they were newlyweds. They lived there until Theo was about three, then the family moved to Murphy House. The Cascade Trail house had been a rental property since then, and while Mamie had never been exactly warm and fuzzy, she was a very competent and conscientious landlord. When things broke, she fixed them. She made sure the water heater, the furnace, the fridge and the stove were current and in good repair, and she’d had the property repainted four times in the thirty years since her name had been put on the deed.
And on Tuesdays, Mamie and Indigo always had lunch together before they wrapped up their day at about one in the afternoon. Mamie would pull her faded white and baby blue 1980 Chevy Sierra Classic truck in front of the law office, then Indigo would wave to her aunt through the large plate glass window before taking her grandmother’s hand and disappearing inside the Brew Ha Ha, the coffee shop next door. When they would return fifteen minutes later, Indigo always had a hot chocolate—sometimes frozen—and whatever Vivienne, the shop owner, decided to make for Theo on that particular day. Tuesday nights were always reserved for dinner at the barn with Jordan and Delaney.
Mister Henry was in charge of Wednesdays. Theo picked Indigo up from school while Jordan provided lunch which was then eaten in Mister Henry’s office at the farm. At six o’clock sharp, dinner for the Murphy women was served at the barn. It had been made clear to Theo that there would be no bending of the rules during this mid-week meal. There would only be four people in attendance. No questions asked. Theo respected this. The tradition had been altered slightly since Patty’s accident. The Murphy women still had dinner on Wednesdays, it had just been at the hospital for the last three months. Theo had no control over nurses or other medical personnel who inadvertently interrupted.
Indigo spent Thursdays with her mom. When Theo, Trix and Ashley had been preparing the law office to open, it had been decided that, because Patty picked Indigo up early on that day, they would have their weekly staff meeting on Thursday mornings before opening for clients. Patty and Indigo went to see Doctor Gardner together at two. Dinner was never set in stone. Sometimes Indigo ate with Patty, oftentimes Patty would find the visit to Indigo’s therapist more than she could handle and the child would be back at the barn long before it was time to eat. Patty would mutter her “goodbye” and her “love you” without looking at her daughter before rushing to her Subaru and driving too quickly down the long driveway toward Silver Maple Road.
Patty didn’t make Thursdays easy, but that had never been her way. They’d gotten a little more challenging after the accident, but nothing Theo couldn’t handle. Patty couldn’t take her daughter to therapy, but Theo wasn’t convinced that was a bad thing. Theo hated driving to the hospital every week, but not because it was inconvenient. She just hated the fact that Patty was in the hospital in the first place.
On Fridays, Odette picked Indigo up from school and the two of them would do whatever suited their fancy. On these days, Theo had lunch with Delaney while Odette and Indigo spent their time at the farm, usually playing with the goats Indigo loved so much, or whipping up one of the hundreds of recipes the older woman was known for, but Odette knew just about every soul that resided in Cloud County. She was well informed about every event—large or small—and she always had a willing partner to go and participate in whatever festivity was taking place. There was always lots of good food involved, and Indigo always showed up at the barn happy and worn out after her time with Odie.
Belinda MacNamara and her Tiny Tutus dance studio took up an hour of time on Saturday mornings. Class wasn’t very long, but the more Saturdays that passed, the more Indigo expressed a dislike for the leotards and tights that Patty bought her in bulk. She’d been enrolled in class since the previous August, and Theo had hoped the child would eventually grow to enjoy her time at the studio. To her dismay, the opposite had happened, and Saturday mornings had become stressful and filled with anxiety. Indigo, who was normally a very happy and easy-going child often cried and dragged her feet while Theo tried to get her out the door. The hour-long class had turned into a two-hour ordeal that left both of them feeling emotionally wrung out and defeated. Theo kept thinking she should just pull Indigo from the school, but that was a dual-edged sword. If she did that, Cleopatra would sweat her for making decisions about her daughter without asking her. She also knew that if she asked Patty if Indigo could stop going to class, she’d wind up with a sarcastic reply indicating that Theo was Indigo’s legal guardian. Why would she need to ask Patty if such a decision could be made without her? Theo would be made to feel guilty in one way or another no matter what she chose to do.
“Antee!”
Indigo’s musical voice broke through Theo’s thoughts and she blinked them away to see her niece burst through the door and run toward her. Wintry air slinked into the establishment like a silent cat before the door shut behind Jordan’s back.
“Indie, honey,” he said quietly. Indigo slowed down, her seafoam eyes moving around the restaurant.
“I forgot,” she said, looking up at him.
Jordan gave her a grin. “I totally understand,” he told her. “I get very excited when I see your aunt, too.”
He reached down and took hold of Indie’s coat. She slipped out of it, leaving the garment hanging from Jordan’s fingers, then reached up to pull the knit cat hat she wore further down on her forehead.
When Theo met Indigo nine months before, the child had been wearing a similar hat. That one had been knitted by Glory in bright red yarn and given to her youngest granddaughter when Theo was close to Indigo’s age. When Theo wore it, it had two pointed ears, a pair of shiny black button eyes and thick whiskers sewn in bold, straight stitches across the headband. The first time Theo had seen it again—this time on Indigo’s bright blonde head—the ears were gone and the red of the yarn had faded. Theo found out later that it had been Patty who had ripped off the ears—not when she’d been a child, but since Indigo found the hat at Mamie’s house and had decided she wanted to wear it even while she slept. Indigo had developed a bond with her aunt before the two of them had even met. Patty had always hated that bond.
“You’ll never guess what happened,” Indigo declared as she reached their table.
Theo’s eyes moved quickly up to meet Jordan’s and she saw a smile lift the corners of his mouth. He shook his dark head.
“She’s right,” he agreed. “You probably won’t guess.” He bent down to pick up the mittens Indigo had dropped on the floor. In her excitement she’d abandoned her normally quiet and well-mannered self. Theo chose not to bring attention to it. The child had spent all morning with Jordan so she deferred to his judgement.
Indigo climbed onto a chair and Theo reached up to touch one of her rounded cheeks colored pink from the chilly December weather.
“Well, I’m guessing no new animals have been born that need to come live with us at the barn.”
“You’re guessing or hoping?” Jordan asked, bending forward to cover Theo’s mouth with his own in a warm kiss. When he straightened again, he draped Indigo’s coat over the back of her chair and sat down.
“She would have led with that,” Theo replied.
“Yeah, okay,” he agreed with a laugh. “If there was an animal involved, she would have blown right past the greeting, and we’d probably be making a list for the pet store right now.”
“So, what happened?” Theo asked her niece.
“Jordan and I decided to go bowling today,” Indigo began. The heart-shaped nose Theo had sewn on the child’s hat matched the color of Indigo’s cheeks. The yarn she’d chosen was white with bold rainbow-colored swirls, and the pair of ears stood straight up out of the little girl’s head.
“Fun,” Theo said, nodding her head.
“Yeah, but we didn’t get to bowl.”
Theo looked surprised. “No? Why not?”
