ANOTHER SUNNY DAY (26 page)

“Hello, pretty bird,” she said.

The bird looked at her like she was crazy.

Kelly smiled.  “Okay, then, how about handsome bird?  Maybe you’re a boy.”

Still nothing.  The parrot twisted his head almost upside down.  His black marble eyes blinked, then he lifted his head and shook, causing his rainbow-colored feathers to fluff up.

That was the full extent of her bird talk.  Kelly had grown up around horses, dogs, cats, chickens, ducks and even a miniature goat.  But her experience with tropical birds was limited to occasional visits to the zoo.

“You look like a boy to me, so if you keep hanging around, I think of a real name for you.”  What was it about parrots that made people want to engage them in conversation?

The parrot opened his yellow beak and let out an ear-piercing squawk that was clearly heard through the closed window.  With a last glassy wink at her, he lifted out of the tree with a graceful flap of his colorful wings and flew away.

Kelly turned back to the room, but instead of standing up, she slid down until she was sitting on the floor, her back against the wall, and looked around her.  It was a stranger’s room, decorated in beiges and soft greens.  The walls were mostly bare with only a large mirror over the dresser and a print of a beach hanging on opposite sides of the room.  The curtains were sheer lace that had done nothing to delay the first light of day from waking her.

She sighed.  A glance at the alarm clock confirmed that it wasn’t even 6 o’clock yet.  She rarely slept late, but this was a little too early.  The day stretched long and empty, and she wouldn’t have minded putting off the inevitable until a little later in the day.

Just yesterday, she had awakened in her own bed, in her own room back in Friendswood, Texas.  If she had looked out her window there, she would have seen oak trees, green fields divided by white-railed fences, a small red barn and a beautiful pinto horse grazing in the pasture.  Kelly squeezed her eyes shut, trying to force back the rush of tears that never seemed to be far from flooding out.  Just a week ago, her parents would have been asleep down the hall.  The alarm would have gone off at 6 a.m. and her mom would have fixed breakfast while her dad got dressed for work.

It was crazy how quickly things had changed.

The air conditioner had chilled the tile floor, and Kelly shivered.  She stretched her arms over her head and stood up.  The one good thing about this totally impersonal bedroom was that it had its own private bathroom.  She had to work her way around the maze of moving boxes, gathering clothes out of her suitcase along the way.  As she brushed her teeth, she tried not to look in the mirror, but her reflection refused to look away.  She stopped, her mouth filled with foam and stared at herself critically.  Her eyes were probably her best feature.  They were large and an interesting shade of greenish-brown that could be called hazel.  She wasn’t as happy with her stick-straight dark-brown hair that fell several inches below her shoulders.  It was a constant challenge to coax it into anything resembling a curl, so she rarely tried.  Her complexion was having a good day, but her face was nothing special at the best of times and it was still missing the high cheek bones God had given all the beautiful girls by now.  Maybe they would show up if her cheeks were less . . . round, was the word she was searching for.

She finished brushing her teeth and rinsed her mouth.  After a quick splash of water on her face, she brushed her hair and pulled it back into her usual high ponytail.  With her arms raised to twist the elastic band around it, her attention was drawn to the slight bulge over the top of her shorts.  Her mother would call it puppy fat.  Tyra Banks would call it a muffin top.  Kelly called it embarrassing.

She turned and checked it out from the side but the issue was just moved ninety degrees clockwise.  It meant that this would be another summer spent in a one-piece swimsuit.  She remembered seeing a pool in the backyard.  That would be a good way to kill some hours with the added benefit of helping her find her waist.

Within a few minutes she was prepared to meet the world or at least her Aunt Jane, and she left her new bedroom and headed downstairs toward the kitchen.  Muffin top or not, her mom had always told her breakfast was the most important meal of the day, and old habits die hard.

“Good morning,” Aunt Jane said with obvious surprise.  “I wasn’t expecting you to be up so early.  Did I wake you?”

“No, there was a parrot squawking outside.”

“That stupid bird.  I don’t know who he belongs to, but he hangs out by the pool and poops on everything.”

“He’s beautiful.”

Jane shook her head.  “He’s messy.”

Kelly had already noticed that everything in the house was very neat and orderly.  Aunt Jane’s comments further confirmed that she wasn’t used to having anything disrupt her lifestyle.  It must be quite a shock to suddenly have a fifteen-year-old thrust into your household.

“I don’t know what you like to eat, but I picked up some basics.  I usually grab a cup of coffee and a bagel on my way to the office.” Jane smiled, but it didn’t hide the concerned look on her face.  It had been Kelly’s parents that were killed in a head-on collision last week, but Jane had lost her older sister and brother-in-law.  Jane was a well-respected assistant district attorney, and she had to handle all sorts of people and problems.  But it was clear she had no idea how to deal with this awkward situation.

“I can fix something for myself.  My mom taught me a lot about cooking.”

Jane paused with the spatula in mid-air.  Her expression softened.  “Your mom was always a much better cook than I was.  She took after our mother.”

They were silent for a minute, each lost in
her own memories.

The smell of burning eggs brought them both back to reality.  Jane hurried to stir the eggs, turning them from over-easy to crunchy scrambled.  Kelly watched, helplessly, wanting to take over, but hesitant to butt in.  Jane looked over her shoulder at Kelly and grimaced.  “I think these are ruined.”

Kelly nodded.  “I think you’re right.  Want some help?”

Jane dumped the overdone eggs into the garbage and handed Kelly the spatula.  Kelly noticed there were burned crispy lumps already in the bag.

“Waffles?”

“Sort of,” Jane admitted.  “They didn’t turn out right either.”

Kelly glanced around the room and noticed the box for a waffle iron on the counter. “Did you season the waffle iron first?”

“No.  Was I supposed to?”

“Actually, yes.  Then the waffles won’t stick.”

“Listen, I went straight from four years pre-law at the U to law school and then to twelve-hour days at the DA’s office, so I barely had time to eat, much less cook.”

“I’d be glad to help out.  It’ll give me something to do.”

“Until you make some friends.”  Jane washed her hands and watched as Kelly cleaned the waffle iron, then wiped oil all over the ridges and into the creases.  Kelly poured batter on the waffle plates, then closed the lid.

“That might take awhile,” Kelly said as she wiped off the batter that oozed out.  “I don’t have a lot of experience with that, if you know what I mean.  My mom said I needed to work on my social skills.”

Jane studied her niece and noticed the flush of color on Kelly’s cheeks, showing she was a little embarrassed by the conversation.  Jane knew that Kelly’s life had been centered
around her family and a few lifelong friends from surrounding farms.  Living in a city, even one as small as Fort Myers Beach would be a new experience for her.

“It’s too bad school doesn’t start for three months.  I’m sure you’d make a lot of friends there.”

Kelly had her doubts about that, but she didn’t voice them.

“I’m glad you’re able to take care of yourself,” Jane admitted.  “I wasn’t sure what to do if you needed daycare or something.”

“Daycare?” Kelly repeated incredulously.

Jane hurried to add.  “I didn’t mean daycare like a nursery school or a babysitter.  I just wasn’t sure if you would be comfortable if I left you alone.”

“I’ll be fine.  I’ve always spent a lot of time alone.  Well, sort of alone.  I had a horse and a dog, and I’d ride over to my friends’ houses sometimes.  I brought some books and I have my  games.  Really, you don’t have to worry about me.”

Kelly finished the cooking as her aunt set their plates and silverware on the island.  The waffles turned out perfectly golden and fluffy, and even Jane’s mouth was watering at their delicious fragrance. They sat next to each other, facing the pool in the backyard.

“Sometimes on a weekend I like to sit here in the early morning and just stare out across the pool and waterfall and watch the morning sun reflect off the water.  It’s very calming.”

“Do you swim often?”

Jane shook her head.  “Almost never.  By the time I get home, it’s usually pretty late, and I almost always bring work home.  There’s a guy who comes on Wednesdays to clean the pool, and I have a cleaning service in on Fridays.  The last six months, I’ve been involved with remodeling this place, so I just don’t have the time.  But you feel free to swim all you want.  It’ll be good for someone to use it.”

“I went out late last night and sat by the pool for a while.  It looks really pretty with all the lights around the backyard and shining on the waterfall.  If it wasn’t so humid and hot out, I’d leave my window open just to hear the sound.”

“I have the lights set on a timer, and there are nights they’ve already shut off by the time I get home.  Usually I’m so tired, I’d be afraid of sitting on the edge of the pool . . . I might fall in and drown.”  Her aunt smiled.

“Do you like working at the DA’s office?” Kelly asked, helping herself to a second waffle.

“I love it . . . just love it.  As long as the bad guys get put away for as long as the law allows, I feel like I’ve done my job.  What sucks is when the bad guys walk.”

“Do the bad guys walk often?”

“Some do.”  Jane shrugged.  “Not enough evidence or a lawyer that cares more about the money than the truth will occasionally allow someone to get away with a crime.  I guess you can’t win them all.  I used to worry about that, but then I watched some of my colleagues get burned out.  It took a couple of years until I learned that I have to do the best I can with what I have, then try to forget the ones that slip through.”

“Are you in court today?”

“Not today.  I have to drive to Tampa and take a couple of depositions for a trial next month.”

“How far is Tampa?”

“With traffic, which there always is, maybe two hours.  I’ll be home around 8 p.m., I hope.  I’ll call you and let . . . oh no.”

“What?”

“There’s no land line in the house.  You don’t have a cell phone, do you?”

Kelly shook her head.

“How’d you guys survive without cell phones on the farm?” Jane seemed unable to comprehend a world without cell phones.

“It would have been fun to have, but all my friends were a horseback ride away.  Besides I always heard the coverage was pretty spotty out where we lived.”

“Well, I can’t fix that today.  Maybe this weekend.  There are just so many things I’ve got to do to get you settled.”

“Aunt Jane, stop fussing over me.  I’ll be fine.  Actually, I don’t have anyone to call . . . anymore.”  Kelly’s face saddened as the reality sunk in.

Jane reached over and covered Kelly’s hand.  “I’ll never replace your parents, and I wish I could introduce you to some of the kids in the neighborhood.  But the truth is, I can’t even tell you which houses have kids in them.  When your grandma died five years ago and I moved in here, I did check for sexual predators in the neighborhood, and there weren’t any.”

“That’s good to know,” Kelly smiled at Aunt Jane’s comment but her face didn’t change.

“You should be okay, but I wouldn’t go door to door.”  Jane pulled a twenty dollar bill out of her purse and laid it on the counter.  “Maybe you can use one of the neighbor’s phones and call out for pizza.  Feel free to use the computer in my office to Google it or to play games.”

“Sounds good.  I’m hoping to get my computer set up this morning.”

“Well, if you get done with your room I could use some help in the garage.  I never had time to go through your grandma’s things, and then I started this remodeling project so every room has gotten moved to the garage then moved back when the decorator was done.  I think there are even some boxes from your great-grandma.  They’ve lived in this house since the early 1900s, so who knows what you’ll find.  I need to have a garage sale soon so I can park my car inside.”

“I really like what you’ve done so far.  This kitchen looks awesome.”  Kelly felt safe in extending that compliment as there were still some paint spots that hadn’t been cleaned off the floor and back splash, proving the job had recently been done.

“Thank you.  I haven’t gotten to your room yet, so you can pick out the colors and the flooring.  You can get new drapes and a nice comforter for your bed, too.”

“I’d like that.”  Kelly smiled.  “And I’d be glad to help with the garage sale.  I helped with a few at church, so I kind of know what sells and what doesn’t.”

“Great.  If you get to it, make three piles.  Throw away, sell and keep.  As far as I know, there’s nothing out there that I want to keep.  I’ll glance through them all this weekend.  And feel free to keep anything that catches your interest.  There might even be some stuff of your mother’s mixed in.”