God Bless Us Every One. Eva Marie Everson
Testament, North Carolina, was a good eight hours by car. Nine to nine and a half if she stopped her usual half dozen times. If she left at her typical departure time—five in the morning—she’d arrive by two. “I should be there already, but I’ll be tired.” In other words, don’t ask me to be a part of this.
“Of course you will. Call before you leave.”
Charlie nodded as though her grandmother could see the action. “I will.”
“Love you more than blueberry pie.”
Tears formed at the words, an old exchange between the two of them. “Love you more than peach cobbler,” she returned.
Charlie ended the call, stood, and looked around her. There really wasn’t that much to gather—a few framed photographs, a silk plant spilling its leaves down a laminate shelf, some books, a stuffed black bear she’d been given by one of the students here at Miss Fisher’s School for Girls, one of the ten most exclusive private schools in the nation, located in the heart of Florida’s equestrian farmland.
She turned and peered through the open plantation-style slats of the window blinds at the rolling green grass of the outer complex, then beyond to where about a half dozen horses grazed. Class was in session, so no one milled about other than the occasional employee, mostly those who worked with the horses.
Charlie glanced at her watch and sighed. Ten minutes. She needed to hurry. She grabbed the cardboard box sitting empty by her desk. Her stomach tightened, remembering the look on Clara Pressley’s face as she shoved the box into Charlie’s hands not an hour ago. “Pack your things, Miss Dixon,” she said, her face pinched. “With your latest shenanigans, your days at Miss Fisher’s have come to a close.”
Shenanigans.
If only she’d had a minute to explain her actions, perhaps Mrs. Pressley wouldn’t—no, who was she kidding? Mrs. Pressley had taken an immediate dislike to her the moment she’d taken the role of headmistress six months earlier. Even then, Charlie had seen the writing on the old proverbial wall. She and Clara Pressley were cut from two very different cloths.
“At least I’m not stuck in the 1800s,” Charlie muttered as she placed a short stack of her personal books—mostly collections of modern plays—at the far left corner of the box.
“What are you doing?”
Charlie’s body jerked at the words coming from her open office door. She placed a hand on her chest. “Marjorie . . .”
Marjorie Phelps, French II teacher by day and Charlie’s best friend and roommate, stood just inside the office.
“Nooo,” Marjorie breathed, walking to where Charlie stood. “Tell me she didn’t do it, s’il vous plaît.”
Charlie reached for the manila envelope stuffed with her severance details, most of which she hadn’t read. “Oui. She did it. And all because of the musical I chose for the Christmas pageant.”
“And right here at Thanksgiving . . .” The petite blonde crossed her arms and frowned. “You’d think she could have waited until after Christmas.” She reached for the framed photo of the two of them taken at Ocala’s last celebration of the Kentucky Derby from the bookcase and slapped the stand flat against its back. “What are you going to do?”
The thick brunette braid Charlie typically wore had worked its way over her shoulder. She slung it back. “I’ll start with this office. I only have a few minutes to clear out of here before security comes.” She glanced at her office desktop computer. “My passwords have already been changed by IT, so I can’t even get into my files or e-mail my students.”
“But you’re friends with many of them on Facebook, right?”
“Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat.” She raised her brow as Marjorie continued with the packing. “All that social media stuff Mrs. Pressley thinks is the devil’s workshop.”
Marjorie shook her head, stopping Charlie from going on before the walls took names. “We’ll talk about it later. How long do you get to stay in our apartment?”
“Until the end of the week.”
“What?” Marjorie nearly dropped the potted silk plant.
“Careful there,” Charlie said, reaching for it. “I’m going to Sis’s on Saturday.” She shrugged. “And I’ll figure it out from there.”
Tears formed in Marjorie’s eyes, God bless her. “Does she know?”
Charlie shook her head. “No. And if I can help it, she won’t.”
Marjorie stole a look at her watch. “I gotta go . . . five minutes ’til the bell.” Which meant five minutes until security arrived. “I actually . . . I just wanted to see if . . . well, it doesn’t matter.” She wrapped Charlie in a quick hug. “I’ll see you back at the apartment.”
Charlie grabbed the stuffed bear as Marjorie reached the door and glanced back at her. “You’ll be okay?”
“I’ll be fine,” Charlie said, though she wasn’t sure how truthful the words were. She placed the stuffed bear at the top of the box. “We never know what the day will bring,” she said. The words rang with such rhetorical truth she nearly laughed out loud.
Marjorie smiled. “But as Sis always says, whatever the day brings never shocks God.”
Charlie pointed at her. “That’s right.” She forced another smile. “See ya tonight.”
Marjorie slapped the doorjamb. “À plus tard. Later.”
Chapter 2
2
* * *
“Good Heaven! I was bred in this place. I was a boy here! . . . There’s the Parrot! Green body and yellow tail, with a thing like a lettuce growing out of the top of his head; there he is! Poor Robin Crusoe, he called him, when he came home again after sailing round the island. There goes Friday, running for his life to the little creek! Halloa! Hoop! Halloo!”
—Ebenezer Scrooge
Little about her hometown of Testament had changed.
Well, maybe a few things, but not enough to truly note. The minute Charlie crossed the city limits—several miles from the actual heart of town—a strange mixture of yesteryear and today worked her like a tonic. And not necessarily in a good way.
She drove the familiar streets, her eyes darting, looking for a face she might recognize in the outskirts. Seeing none, Charlie frowned. She hadn’t been gone that long, had she? Nine years since high school graduation hardly resembled a lifetime. Not to mention that she visited periodically. All the major holidays. A week during the summer.
Okay, so even then she rarely fraternized with the locals. Only with Sis, who hauled her from pillar to post, showing her off like some prize pig. Naturally, on those outings—to places like the Testament Drug Company for lunch in the side café—she saw a few of her old friends now all grown up. She’d gone to school with them from fifth grade to senior year. A few had children of their own now.
Fifth grade . . .
Charlie gripped the steering wheel of her Hyundai Elantra at the thought of that first year at Testament Elementary. She’d been so afraid back then. What if the other children knew the truth about her? That her parents were convicted felons. That they were serving ten to fifteen in Georgia state prisons. That her father, the man she hoped never to lay eyes on again, was a drug dealer. A liar. Who’d chosen drugs over his own child.
Sis had told her not to worry. “You know and I know,” she’d whispered to her that first night, adding a peck to Charlie’s mop of dark hair. “And the good Lord knows. I can’t think of another soul who needs to know.”
Later, when asked by a neighbor, “Where’s her daddy and mama?” Sis rolled