Kaleidoscope Summer (Samantha's Story) (7 page)

“I
’ll
drop you at
Maggie’s later
.”
I reached to scratch
Goldie behind her ears
, but
she pulled away
, moving
clo
ser
to Sam
.

Sam laughed. “
Don’t take it personally. W
hen Goldie has her ves
t on
,
she’s a working dog and is tr
ained to respond only to me because
she’s on duty
.” Sam reached down and ruffled the dog’s fur.
“Th
ere are a few more
desk drawers I’d like to go through
,
if it isn’t an inconvenience.”

A
chance to
spend more time with Sam
stay
ed
on my mind a lot these days
.
“No problem.”

Maggie pulled her keys from her crochet
ed
bag.
“See you at home
then. B
e careful and
d
on’t overdo
.” She
left
through the rear of the shop
,
to the alleyway where she usually parked.

I caught
Sam
’s attention
.
“Lilyan and I have never dated.
I’ll talk to
her
and make sure she doesn’t bother you again.
”

“
L
ike
I told
her,
I’m only here to put Anne’s affairs in order
.
My life is in Stone Valley.
” Sam stood
and Goldie popped up besid
e he
r. “
I’m going to get busy on those drawers
.”
Sam
cross
ed
the room to Anne’s
desk and
began
poring
over letters and
pictures
she had pulled from a bottom drawer
.
I moved and sat
across from her
.

“Pictures of you?
” I picked up the
photo closest to me.
Even as a small child
,
her
azure eyes and
honey blond
hair were unmistakable.

She shuffled
through the
photographs. “
M
y
mother
sent these snapshots to Anne. Evidently, t
hey exchanged letter
s.
I found the notes
Anne had written to my mother—
that’s how I learned
about the adoption
. Why the secrets? Why the deceit? Why the lies?” She lowered her voice
to not much more than a whisper
, apparently
directing
the ques
tions to herself.

I to
uched her hand and
she looked up. “It’s possible they
both
loved you.”

“So
why withhold the truth?”
A mixture of anger and s
adness
filled
her eyes
. “If you d
on’t mind,
I want
to
get out of here
.”
She reached down to the bag sitting on the floor and winced with a sharp intake of breath.

I
helped her lock up the shop
. My earlier conversation with
Maggie still lingered
.
I
f
a
meeting could be arranged
with Sam’s
grandparents—t
hey’d fall in love with her. How could they not?
Those eyes and that smile—
man
.

As I drove
,
Sam peered from
one side
of Main Street to the other.
“This
town—
it seems fictional.
If I could custom design a town,
I’d copy
Serenity
Cove.”
She looked at me as though waiting for a reply.

“Not
much
designing went on.
”
I looked around at the shops and chuckled.

She ran her finger
s through her hair
,
pulling it over one shoulder.

“You’re right. Mi
sm
atched homes turned into shops—
I think
the city planners
followed a crazy-quilt pattern a
nd created a town. But i
t certainly has a
uniqu
e charm.” Sam
lowered her
window and
Gol
die climbed
from the back
and
laid
her head on th
e edge of the opened space, allowing
the
wind
to
ruffle her fur.

W
hen had the town becom
e so
vibrant
?
I glanced at Sam—m
y he
art pounded with a
desire t
o know this beautiful creature
better.

Chapter Four

My life seems
twisted in knots—
I haven’t a clue how to work them lo
o
se. Everyt
hing I
believed about my life has
been
proved
false. I heard the story many times.
A
child
born to parents in their
late
forties
, an unexpected blessing.
They called me their
miracle
child.
This self-indulgent pity
isn’t helping
. Father
, please help me stop dwelling on the negative.
~ Journal e
ntry

At my
doctor’s appointment, Doc fussed at me for overdoing it, and putting
too much
stress on my ribs.
So I
stayed home for
a few days, and although it
helped, it was time to get back to searching for answers.

I waited until
Maggie
folded the morning paper and pushed it aside
.
“Mind if I rid
e into town with you
?”
Rely
ing on others made me edgy. My parents had ins
isted I learn to be independent
so people wouldn’t view my deafness as a handicap.

“
You’re welcome to ride with me a
nytime. But
today
I’m spending the morning in my garden
. And later,
I’m going to a quilti
ng lesson
at the church. Y
ou might enjoy it—Thelma’s giving a
demonstration on appliqué
tech
niques.
”

“Thelma from the hospital?”
Thelma
had
hel
ped with
Goldie
during my hospital stay
. Once my little furry sweetheart
learned the routine
,
each time
Thelma entered
the room Goldie
greeted
her,
swishing her tail
.

“One and
the same
. She’ll have some of her
gorgeous
quilts on display.”
Maggie set
her fork and spoon on her plate and stood.

“Sounds fun
,”
I
agreed
,
before I could stop myself.
“Go
. V
isit your garden—I
’ll
clean
up
.
”

“Aren’t you
the boss
y one this
mo
rning?
”
Maggie tossed me a wink as she
raked her hai
r back and secured
it
with a red
band
from her wrist
,
and
slipped
out
the back
door.

With an extra swipe of the towel across the kitchen counters, I dried my hands
. Satisfied that it
sparkled the way Maggie liked it.

Goldie
lay
curled up asleep on her mat by the back door.
“Ready to go outside, girl?”
W
e
traipsed ac
ross
dew
-covered grass
to where M
aggie knelt
,
tugging
weeds
from around a stone birdbath
in the
center of her garden
.
“You look as though you
’re enjoying the morning
.”

She leaned back
on her heels
. “Relaxes me and works out my stress. And
I love
watching it
burst with color
.”

“
A few pots on the deck of my condo are about
the extent of my
gardening skills
.”
T
he sea caught my attention
, and
I longed
to get closer. “Think I’ll take
Goldie for
a walk.
”

“There’s a g
reat dreaming
rock
down by the shore.”
Maggie pointed with her dirt-covered glove.

“Okay. W
on’t be long.” We
fol
lowed the path
leading to
Maggie’s
dreaming
place
.
I removed a solitary string
of
slimy
kelp from the rock and eased onto it
.
Pelicans dipped
into the surf and
once again took
flight.
T
he
tangy
sweetness of the
ocean
b
reeze caresse
d
my skin—I closed my eyes and
inhaled the blue
peace
spread out before me
.

Since losing my hearing
,
my othe
r senses had become heightened.
Where
many
people
enjoyed mus
ic and
felt inspired by a
song, the
lyrical beauty God wove into nature had become my inspiration
. In my mo
ther’s garden
,
I often bur
ied my face in a rose
,
drawing in
its
sweet
fragrance
and stroking
the
velvety
petals
with my fingertips
.
Natu
re had become
silent music that performed a concert
o
of love
for
my soul
.

The endlessness of the
sea left me in awe, yet vulnerable
. L
ife had stopped making sense.
And now,
Logan
complicated
it
more.
Several times he had
stop
ped by the shop
with
a late lunch for the two of us.
And
he never forgot Gol
die. Those two had formed a
mutual
admiration society. W
hat were we forming,
Logan
and I?

T
wo weeks of my
month-
long
leave of absence
had v
an
ished with little
progress in my search for answers.
Being injured hadn’t helped.
Enough.
I slid off the hard surface
and headed
back
down the sandy path.