The Potter's Daughter (Literary Series) (13 page)

“I heard you were back,” said
Dennis.
 
“Your Dad said you’re here
for a visit.”

“He did, did he?
 
Yea, I’m here for a week or two.
 
Has he been in today?”

“Not yet, I expect him round
supper.”

Abby wanted to look like she had
come in with a purpose.
 
She paused
and looked around the store.
 
She
took her hands out of her pockets and picked up a bottle of brandy near the end
of the aisle.

“That’s not the one,” said Dennis.

“Excuse me.”
 
Abby looked up at Dennis.
 
His eyes were still fixed on his
crossword.

“That’s not the one.
 
That’s not the elixir,” said
Dennis.
 
“It’s the one next to it.”

“The elixir?” asked Abby.

“That what he call’s it, but that’s
not the one, he likes the brand next to it.”
 
Dennis pointed the eraser of his pencil
to the row of ginger brandy.

“Oh right,” said Abby picking up a
bottle of ginger brandy, “here it is, his elixir.”
 
She walked toward the counter examining
the bottle.

“I’ll save you some time and grab
his wines for you so you don’t have to search them out,” said Dennis.
 
He set down his puzzle and circled
around the counter.

“Thanks,” said Abby.
 
This struck her as peculiar that Will
had a particular flavor of brandy that Dennis would know to grab and wines as
well.
 
Then she remembered, ‘drug of
choice’.

“How often do you see my Dad?”

“I work six days a week here now,”
said Dennis while he pulled down the wine, “so I guess I see him in here most
every day.
 
A couple times a week at
least.”

Abby faced away from Dennis when he
said this and good thing because her eyes went wide.
 
As Dennis came back around the counter
Abby composed herself.
 
“So you see
him every day, how long has that been going on?”
 
Abby smiled as if to insinuate that the
fellas had been hanging out together.

“Well, lets see,” Dennis paused
briefly, Abby thought she might have a date as to when this started, “I started
here almost nine years ago, so I guess it’s been at least nine years.
 
Almost every day.”

Abby tasted acid in her mouth, “So
you’re old friends?”

“I guess you could say that,” said
Dennis, “anything else?”

“No thanks, that’s it,” said Abby,
“oh, I almost forgot, don’t tell him that I was in here.
 
I’m making a surprise dinner for him and
wanted to make sure I had everything he liked.”

“Our secret,” said Dennis.
 
“It’s nice to see ya.”

Abby could not wait to get out of
there.
 
She paid Dennis for the wine
and brandy then took the bottles out of the store.
 
Abby stood for a moment on the corner.
 
Surely, Dennis had been exaggerating
about Will going in there every day.
 
The wine and brandy could not be consumed that quickly.
 
Maybe Dennis meant every other day, or
twice a week, neither mattered.
 
Besides, Abby often had more than a few glasses after work and had
effortlessly polished off a bottle in the museum late at night after hours
while doing research.
 
That was not
an everyday occasion though.
 
Actually last time Abby drank a bottle of wine alone had been quite a
while ago.
 
Abby asked herself if
Will could really be drinking this much every day.

Abby looked down at the bag in her
arms, she was not going to take this back to the ice rink.
 
She checked to see if she still had
Caroline’s keys in her pocket then turned up the road toward the parking lot.
 
When Abby got to Caroline’s Subaru, she
opened the back hatch then put the bag into the car beneath a blanket.

Caroline saw Abby returning to the
bleachers and exited the rink to join her.
 
The children had just gotten back out on the ice and would be good for a
few more laps.
 
Caroline noticed
Abby’s eyes moving from the sky, over to the rink and then beyond to the
fairgrounds.
 
Caroline wondered if
Abby was searching for something or someone.
 
Abby was a few feet away and intently
staring past Caroline when Caroline realized Abby’s head was somewhere else.

“I take it you found some answers,”
said Caroline.

Abby turned to her cousin.
 
Abby focused her eyes on Caroline.
 
Caroline took her by the arm and the two
sat down.

“More like questions.
 
Apparently Dad has been making trips to
the liquor store on a daily basis for quite some time.”

“Well honey, I’m sad to say I’m not
surprised.
 
This has to have been
going on for a least the last year.”

“A lot longer than that.
 
According to Dennis over at the liquor
store Will’s been making regular purchases since he started working there nine
years ago.
 
About a case of wine and
half a dozen bottles of brandy a week, nine years Caroline.”

Caroline’s hazel eyes grew
large.
 
“That is surprising,” said
Caroline.
 
“How could we not have
known that?”

“How would you have known?” asked
Abby.
 
“There was no one in the
house to watch him.
 
I bet this has
been going on since Michael died.”

“Well, we have to put a stop to
this.
 
Did you tell Dennis not to
sell to him anymore?”

“I didn’t even think of it.”

“I’ll grab the kids, lets go tell
him now.
 
What was he thinking
anyways?” said Caroline.
 
Caroline
stood up and raised her hand to get the twins attention.
 
Abby grabbed Caroline’s arm and eased
her back down to the bleacher.
 
“There’s no point banning him from the liquor store, at least not until
I talk to him.
 
He’ll just get
pissed off.
 
Besides he’ll probably
just drive the twenty miles to Fremont to get what he wants anyway.”

“You have a point,” said Caroline,
and then she asked the question spinning in Abby’s head, “So what are we going
to do?”

“It’s time for me to do what you
suggested this morning,” said Abby, her blue eyes welling with water and her
cheeks turning flush, “listen to my heart.”

* * *
* *

Mitch and Brian walked up to the
ice rink bleachers carrying their hockey sticks and large duffel bags full of
gear.
 
Caroline had her arm wrapped
around Abby.
 
Abby’s head rested on
Caroline’s shoulder.
 
Caroline
consoled Abby, still the fellas could see that both had been crying.
 
When the girls saw the two helpless men
watching them, they both started to laugh.

“We look that bad, do we?” asked
Abby.

“You look like two beauties,” said
Mitch.

“I take it we missed something?”
asked Brian.

“I’ll fill you in later,” said
Caroline.

Abby sat up and wiped her eyes with
her gloves.

“Here,” said Mitch, he offered the
girls a small package of Kleenex that he had in his pocket, “these should
help.”

“Thanks,” said Abby, she wiped her
eyes and nose.
 
“I must look
ridiculous.”

“Not at all,” said Mitch.

“You know, you fellas are
early.
 
No fair sneaking up on us,”
said Caroline.

“We thought we could get some
practice in inside before everyone shows up,” said Brian.

“Uh
uh
,”
said Caroline, “ there’s a price to be paid, you will help me get the twins
together, and Mitch, you’re going to take Abby for a coffee.”

“Brilliant,” said Mitch, “I can’t
argue with that.”

“That would be nice,” said
Abby.
 
“Let me get my things
together.”

“I’ll get your skates,” said
Caroline.
 
“You go on and we’ll see
you when you get back.”

“You can just put them with my
stuff, I have to drop it inside,” said Mitch.

Abby got up and gave Caroline and
then Brian a hug.
 
Mitch gestured
toward the indoor arena with a turn of his head and Abby stepped up, waving to
the twins as they came off the ice.

Mitch looked good to Abby in the
bright sunlight.
 
Mitch smiled at
the children and though the sun reflected on everything around them, his face
still managed to stay in the shade.
 
His unconventional handsome face looked more boyish outdoors.
 
Like a dark haired cherub, Mitch’s
cheeks puffed like a babies when he squinted in the light, giving him a
completely new dimension than his inside look.
 
Abby also liked the sporty black jacket
Mitch was wearing over his jersey.
 
The jacket gave Abby a different perspective than the canvas coat she
had seen Mitch in that last couple of times they were together.

Perhaps the vulnerability that
Mitch sensed in Abby with her eyes red and cheeks puffy, another dark haired
cherub, gave him the urge to nurture her.
 
Mitch put his hockey stick in his hand with the duffel leaving the arm
closest to Abby free to put around her shoulder, which he did.
 
Abby reached up with her outside arm and
touched Mitch’s hand.
 
Thinking Abby
was going to remove his arm Mitch relaxed to let her.
 
Abby did not push his arm away.
 
She moved close to him, walked in step,
and pulled his arm tighter around her shoulder.

Abby and Mitch walked silently to
the arena and once inside she let go of his hand so he could set down his
duffel.
 
Abby motioned to the large
ice rink with the Plexiglas towering above the removable sidewalls.

“This place makes me feel so
nostalgic,” said Abby.

“You and Caroline came here to
learn how to skate?” asked Mitch.

Abby’s cherub cheeks spread wide
with a toothy smile, “And later as young teens to meet boys.”

“I see.”

“I think they are still playing the
same music.”

“Some things don’t change.”

The music that played low through
the sound system was the same as twenty some years before.
 
How ironic that now Abby was with a boy
she liked inside the arena while Caroline was with her fella outside.
 
She felt good in a giddy way.
 
If anything, Abby had needed a
distraction and what better distraction than Mitch.

Pleased as Mitch was that Abby had
come to the fairgrounds he did not like seeing her so upset.

“Would you like to go over to the
Lakeside for a tea?” asked Mitch.

“Yes, the Lakeside Diner would be
lovely,” said Abby.

Mitch and Abby exited the arena and
made their way across the fairgrounds toward the village corners and the
Lakeside Diner.
 
Mitch made small
talk to help Abby to relax.

“Can you believe how sunny and warm
the weather is?” asked Mitch.

Abby smiled, the enthusiasm she had
mustered in the arena already passed.

As they came upon the ice road leading
out into the lake from the corners Mitch pointed to the edge of the shore.
 
“Would you look at that, the edge of the
lake is melting.
 
If the warm
weather holds, the winter carnival coming up will be more of a slush
fest.”
 
Abby giggled at the thought
of ice and snow sculptures, with the bright colors sprayed on them, turning
into slurpees before the eyes of all of the people attending the festival.
 
Seeing he had Abby’s attention again,
Mitch scrunched his face causing her to laugh
out loud
.

* * *
* *

The diner was an old Silk City
prefab with lots of stainless steel and pink neon in the windows.
 
The diner had been built in the early
sixties when the summer business first started to boom by the lake.
 
Today the diner was out of place next to
the older IGA and an outright anachronism to the old Stone tavern.
 
Though initially seasonal, the diner was
now open year round and many of the locals often ate there, including Mitch.

Abby and Mitch took a booth near
the door.

“I don’t recognize anyone in here,”
said Abby.

“Really?”

“You know I can still tell who
everyone is.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, there have always been three
different types of patron in the diner,” said Abby.

“Seriously?” asked Mitch.

“Sure, there are three classes of customer
in here.
 
You see the year round
locals are dressed in comfortable clothes and sit nonchalantly amongst the
other patrons,” her fingers waved across the counter.
 
“The weekenders and vacation home set,
also nonchalant.
 
They however wear
newer fashions and brands not custom to the lake.
 
Now those kids over there,” she gestured
to a loud group in a corner booth, “just stopping in on their way to or from
the ski lodge on Mount Frisia.”