“There are plenty of great schools within a two-hour drive. I broke his heart and the rest of you paid for it.”
“I loved your father and I never had a word to say against him. But he was wrong to discourage you from making your own choices. If I hadn’t decided to visit new places, he never would have met me. Not all your genetics come from your father’s side, you know.” Which was hard to remember sometimes with the way there were Greenes all around me all the time.
“That doesn’t change the fact he had a heart attack.”
“Your father ate a pound of butter and half a cow every other day. And don’t get me started on his ice cream habit. It’s pretty hard to keep your heart working properly when your arteries are flowing with fudge ripple.”
“I still didn’t have to upset him.”
“Dani, his heart attack came after you’d been gone more than three years. Trust me, he’d gotten used to it. And he was proud of you for going.”
“Celadon blames me. She said I was guilty of killing him.”
“Celadon told me about your argument. Did she say you killed him or that you felt guilty for killing him?” Mom reached out and took my hand in her own. Despite everything else that had happened, the ugly conversation with Celadon was still fresh in my memory.
“She said I only started the business because I felt guilty about Dad’s heart attack. And then she broke a wooden spoon and stomped out of the room.”
“See, she doesn’t blame you. She said you felt guilty, not that you were guilty. She’s been worried about you. We all have. I was chatting with your father about it just the other day.”
“He’s dead, Mom.”
“What does that have to do with anything? We talk all the time.” Usually I just smile and nod when my mother gets started in on her spirit world mumbo jumbo, but this time it got a rise out of me.
“Really? What does he have to say?”
“He said you should stop in at Mountain View Food Mart for some snacks. And while you’re there, you’ll find something worth discovering in the pet supplies aisle.”
“That’s the message my father wants me to receive from beyond the grave? An ‘I love you’ would have been nice. An ‘I’m proud of you.’ Even a little confirmation that the afterlife lives up to the brochures. But not a reminder to run errands.” I couldn’t help but feel ripped off. My mother just shook her head at me.
“He also says just because you don’t look at things the same way as someone else doesn’t mean you shouldn’t listen to what they have to say.”
“Is this exactly what you heard or is it an interpretation of one of your visions?”
“Information from the other side always has to be interpreted. It isn’t like communication with words. It mostly comes in pictures. And you know how your father was a man of few words.”
“So what exactly did you see?” I might not believe she was really in touch with the great beyond, but her impressions when she visited the sugarhouse earlier were hard to ignore.
“I saw you standing on a big hill holding a box of animal crackers and waving excitedly at Aunt Hazel’s fat old cat Petunia.”
“So, of course that means I should stop for snacks at the grocer? And maybe a flea collar?” I asked as my mother rose to her feet.
“What else could it be?”
• • •
Even though it was still late afternoon, it was November so the light was starting to fade as I grabbed my keys and headed for the minivan. So help me, I pointed it in the direction of the Mountain View Food Mart. While I wasn’t quite ready to believe my mother had received a message from my father saying he wanted me to go to the grocer, I wasn’t willing to discount it entirely. I parked out front, picked up a box of animal crackers, and grabbed a bag of cheese curls for good measure. I stood in the pet food aisle pretending to scrutinize the ingredients on the cans of cat food for as long as I could stand. As much as I love to read, lists of glutinous barley meal and poultry by-products have only so much power to fascinate. While I knew it had been a long shot, I have to admit I was disappointed there was nothing more exciting at the store than a fifty percent discount on name-brand toilet paper.
I started for home the long way, slowing as I passed the footpath leading to Bett’s Knob. I put the van into park and stuck the snacks in the pockets of my down vest. If my errand wasn’t going to lead me to anything important, at least I could enjoy something for my efforts. I picked my way through the leaf litter and fallen branches, listening to the wind and noticing how the autumn light slanted through the bare branches of the trees. At the top of Bett’s Knob, a rocky outcropping offered a natural seat from which to view Sugar Grove spread out below. I settled myself in a dimple in the largest boulder and soaked up the warmth radiating from the sun-soaked stone.