Usually, the first questions were, “This is your daughter? She hardly looks like you. She must take after her father. Where is he anyway?” or “How old are you? What, so young? You look much older.” But no, the first thing Amara Blair asked was who had trained me.
Mum hesitated before turning to me and saying, “Wait a minute, Mara.... How much do you need, honey?”
“Just a little bit. I was going to buy a book...”
If Mum had heard the suspicion from my voice, she skillfully ignored it.
“Here, keep the change. You can look around somewhere else when you’re done. I’ll catch up with you.”
I didn’t want to be intrusive, and besides, there was a beautiful book waiting for its new owner, so I turned away from them again and headed back to the little woman’s booth. Still, curiosity wouldn’t let go of me about why the mayor of Blairville had been so interested in my athletic life. Was she perhaps an amateur coach? Or maybe she was just a little weird, like everything else in this town.
Luckily, when I arrived at the booth, the book was still where I had left it.
“Here...” I pressed the money, which looked somewhat unfamiliar to me, into the smiling lady’s hands. “And the amount is right like this.”
I certainly hoped it was right. I didn’t really know how much value the Canadian dollar banknotes had compared to the American ones.
“But that’s twenty...” the lady wanted to start, but I quickly interrupted her.
“The book is worth a lot more, believe me.”
For a moment, it looked like the older lady was going to make another objection, but then a grateful smile spread across her face.
“Thank you, girl.” She stowed the money in her sewing box, and confused, I looked into the empty compartments. Didn’t she have a cash box? “Have fun with this special one. And always guard your shadow,” she said before handing me the book wrapped in kraft paper.
I stared at the woman, perplexed.
“Excuse me?”
The woman’s smile faded, and she stared at me with blank eyes. Then she smiled again and reached for her knitting.
I forced myself to head back to Mum. As I did so, I suppressed the strange urge to turn back to the woman. Probably, I had misheard.
The other stalls, although teeming with books everywhere, didn’t appeal to me much. Worn covers or even coverless paper crumbs that looked like they’d been found in the nearest ditch gutter.
In my opinion, if you owned books, you had to make sure they stayed in a neat condition so that the next person was able to read them again without suddenly turning from page seven to page 246.
I went back to the vegetable stand, hoping that Mum was still standing there.
She was.
“...I mean it. Bring her to us. You know it’s not up to me, and if Gloria finds out about her, you won’t have a choice.”
“But she doesn’t know about it, and nothing has happened yet.”
Mum was still talking to Amara.
“I won’t tell Gloria, but if anything happens here that isn’t of human nature and involves your daughter...”
Amara must have spotted me because, all of a sudden, she stopped talking. Mum also turned to me quickly, and I couldn’t help but notice her worried look.
What had they been talking about? And who on earth was Gloria now? Surely another friend she had left behind. So many names and people my mother had never told me about.
Unbelievable.
But it wasn’t the name that had scared me so much.
What had she meant when she had said what was not human in nature?
Did Amara think I had a tendency toward violence? What in God’s name had Mum told her about me? Had she spilled the tea about my ninth-grade karate accident?
“Who is Gloria?” it blurted out of me just like that.
Mum’s cheeks turned pink, which made me even more suspicious.
All this sneaking around was starting to get on my nerves. If this went on, sooner or later I would have to confront Mum. Without consideration for losses.
“An... old friend of ours.”
Ah, yes. Something wasn’t right here. But I couldn’t tell what it was.
My gaze slid to Amara, but she wasn’t as speechless as Mum. She twisted her face to stifle a grin.
Were these old insiders from days gone by? Could someone please enlighten me?
“Oh yes, the good old days. Aren’t they, Diana?” she finally added. Then the mayor looked around briefly before turning to me, and the color had completely drained from my mother’s cheeks.
“Enjoy the time you have here. Vanderwood is really a great place.” Amara’s gaze moved from me to my mum, who was still standing rooted to the spot. “And I’m sure we’ll see each other soon.” Then she looked at me again, this time regretfully. “See you, Bayla.”
