Songbird Season Read online

  “That’s good. The storage room is still packed with boxes and crates, lots of places for them to hide. Let me know if you see them about to sneak in. As for being an expert, I’m glad Dad’s handling this one.”

  “Oh, there’s nothing to it.” Roger shrugged as she shined the flashlight in his direction. Despite the less-than-ideal working conditions, he was in a great mood. He loved to keep his hands busy, which meant he had been nearly as excited about the farm’s purchase as she was. “We just need to remove the old fixture, then hook up the new one and screw it into the ceiling joist, there above the plaster.”

  “Uh-huh.” Melinda reached for the battery-powered lantern resting on a nearby box, and aimed both beams at the ceiling. “Are you sure this is safe? I wouldn’t touch that thing.”

  The ceramic light fixture was so old, an unused pull chain still dangled from its surface. Two of the base’s screws were missing, and its far side sagged dangerously away from the ceiling.

  “Don’t worry, the power’s cut off.” Roger got on the step ladder and reached up with his screwdriver. “Maybe shine the lantern a little more to the right, thanks. This won’t take long. Man, listen to that rain. You can really hear it up here, in the top of the house.”

  Melinda stared into the room’s northeast corner, where a bucket was stationed on a folded garbage bag. “And we can see it, even inside. Dave said he should be able to get out here next week, once things dry out, and patch those shingles for me.”

  “It’s too bad Horace didn’t get that fixed sooner, but I can understand why.” Roger handed her the old fixture, and waited on the ladder while she exchanged it for the new one. “He rarely came upstairs those last few years, except to take a shower, and probably hadn’t been in this room for a long time.” He whistled. “Hey, I really like this little light fixture. Small and simple. Fits right in.”

  “Well, Prosper Hardware only carries two styles, and I wanted to take advantage of that employee discount.”

  Melinda studied the brown-stained plaster above the bucket as Roger worked on the wiring. She was thankful Dave agreed to patch the roof for what he called his “family rate.” But she would still need to disinfect the water stain, seal it, and repaint.

  And that was just this room; one that, for the foreseeable future, wasn’t going to get much use. Melinda loved her smaller bedroom, and saw no need to switch. Besides, there was still so much stuff to sort through in here. She would have to prioritize her projects, or she’d never get anything done. Several important tasks waited for her outside. To start with, the pasture fence needed repair in several places, and the garden soil would have to be loosened and turned. Both of those would have to wait for drier days.

  With many of the Schermanns’ furnishings now out of the house, it felt both spacious and strange. She scrubbed and dusted, and threw the farmhouse’s windows open to the fresh spring air as many days as she could. Part of her wanted to leave everything just as it was; part of her wanted to paint most of the rooms and refinish the home’s hardwood floors, a daunting task considering the wealth of oak boards as well as her three furry roommates.

  The changes in their home weren’t lost on Hobo and the kittens. Hobo had finally stopped studying the downstairs bedroom with that confused look on his face, wondering why his elaborate iron bed was the only piece of furniture left. Grace and Hazel cautiously padded along every newly exposed section of baseboard, tails low, trying to sniff out the house’s mysteries.

  Melinda was happy with her life, but she was restless. Maybe it was just the welcome change in the weather, the near-euphoria that arrives every year with the robins’ return. The hope for a fresh start, a chance to start again. For so many months, she’d often struggled from one moment to the next, trying to keep her little boat upright as life’s waves crashed around her. At last, the waters were calm. And she wasn’t quite sure what to do with this peace, as welcome as it was.

  She was so blessed. She had everything she wanted. But … what would she do now? What would this next chapter of her life bring?

  “Well, there it is!” Roger interrupted her thoughts. “No dangling wires, a new energy-efficient blub, you’re all set. How about you run to the basement and flip that breaker?”

  The switch clicked into place and, even though she was two floors below her parents, she could hear their claps and whoops of joy. Melinda was relieved when she returned to the kitchen, and not just because that fire-hazard fixture was no longer in service. Down in the basement, she had a lightbulb moment of her own. There was something she needed to do. It wasn’t going to be easy, but it would make her way forward so much easier.

  “Well, that was a fine dinner.” Roger pushed his scraped-clean plate away and started to cut a slice from the chocolate cake in the middle of the kitchen table. “If you’re going to feed me like this, and put sour cream in those potatoes, I’ll clear my schedule for whatever else you have in mind. If Dave needs another hand with that roof, let me know.”

  “I don’t want you climbing up there, not at your age.” Diane passed her husband a dessert plate, then handed one to her daughter.

  “I see what you mean, Melinda, the dining room does seem bare since the Schermanns’ fancy table is gone. But I bet when you get a new one, you’ll still eat most of your meals right here. It’s so cozy, and that view! You can see out over the drive and to the barn, and across the pasture. Honey, what’s the matter?”

  “You’ve been pretty quiet since we sat down.” Roger pointed at Melinda with his fork. “Bad day at the store?”

  “Well, not really. But I think I need to talk to Frank. No, I know that I do. All this stuff with the land …” She scooped into her cake and shook her head.

  Diane nodded understandingly. “He’s not handling it well, I know. Especially since those other people don’t seem interested in even responding to Allen’s requests, much less cooperating.”

  “Trouble is,” Roger said gently, “do you think there’s anything more to be said, anything that will really help? Maybe it’s best to let it go for now, see what happens.”

  “Frank’s been cold to me for weeks, and I know why. I’ve said too much, I’ve stepped on his toes time and again. I think he thinks I’m trying to replace him, you know? Take over his role in the business.” She shook her head. “I get all these ideas about how to handle things, what to do, and I just want to go off and do them. Miriam’s agreed with my suggestions, but I think that’s making it worse.”

  “You’re just trying to help.” Diane placed a hand on her daughter’s arm. “And your ideas have been good ones. Your background in public relations has helped all of us navigate this mess. Once things settle down, Frank will forgive and forget.”

  “I don’t know. I find myself trying to avoid him. But then, it’s not like he comes for coffee every morning, like he used to.”

  “That, right there, is a sign Frank’s not taking this well,” Roger said. “So, how are you going to approach him?”

  “I’m not sure yet. And I certainly don’t want to do this in public. I think I know someone who can help.”

  ✽✽✽

  Nancy looked up over her dark-framed reading glasses when Melinda came into the library. “Hey, is it raining out there yet? Looks like it could burst at any moment.”

  “Not yet.” Melinda pushed back the hood of her windbreaker. “I know all this rain will make everything grow, but I’m getting a bit tired of it.”

  “Well, I’m glad you came over. And not just for that.” Nancy cut her eyes toward the opening between the library and City Hall. She leaned over the heavy walnut desk that served as the library’s checkout counter. “We got another shipment of books this morning. And I might have a new recruit for book club. She checked out a copy of our next book yesterday; we’ll see if she shows up next time.”

  “That’s great! And I’ll look through the new titles once I’m done.” Melinda lowered her voice to a whisper. “He’s over there, right?”

/>   “Yes. And Jerry’s not. The coast is clear.”

  Bill was watching the counter at the store, as he always did during Melinda’s lunch hour. She often wandered across the street to chat with Nancy and check out a book or two, so he was none the wiser to her real errand. Melinda found her way back to the little office where Frank worked, her heart pounding in her ears. No matter how tough this conversation might be, it was one she needed to have. And the sooner, the better.

  “Frank?”

  There was a rustling noise behind the fort of boxes stacked on a battered metal desk. “Yep, over here.”

  “Hey, it’s me.” Melinda popped through the entryway and, even though this space was off the beaten path, gently closed the door behind her. Frank smiled, but she could see the tension in his shoulders.

  “Everything OK over at the store?” he said a little too cheerfully, then busied himself straightening an already-neat pile of leather-bound ledgers.

  “Oh, sure, it’s all good over there.” Melinda tried to relax as she reached for a nearby chair and rolled it closer to Frank. One of the armrests was missing and a front caster was loose, and the battered old thing made a terrible racket on the hardwood floors. So much for an easy opener, she thought.

  “Frank, I’d like to talk to you. I know you’re upset and …”

  “Oh, everything’s fine. There’s no need to …”

  “Yes.” Melinda reached for the corner of the desk and tried to inch her wobbling chair closer. “Yes, there is.”

  Frank looked at his lap for a moment and she waited. When he didn’t answer, she had to speak.

  “I just want you to know, I’m just trying to help.” She chose her words carefully. Raking Frank over for his rude comments would only make him more defensive. “I love Prosper Hardware as much as you do, and I don’t want anyone to do something that might jeopardize the store, or put us at odds with the people in this town.”

  “Well, I don’t want to ruin Prosper Hardware, either,” he muttered, then crossed his arms. “And nobody loves that store more than I do. Nobody.”

  Melinda thought her mom and Miriam might challenge that claim, but let it go. “I just wanted to say, I’m not trying to run the show here, I’m not trying take your place.”

  He looked at the floor. “I know,” he finally said. “But in many ways, you already have.”

  “I’m sorry,” was all she could say.

  “Not your fault,” he sighed. “Times change, we all get older. We get our time in the spotlight, if you will. And then, and some point, it’s time to get off the stage. I always thought I’d be like your grandpa, shuffling down the aisles when I was pushing ninety, greeting people and sliding that old broom back and forth. Until one day, just like him, I can’t get of out bed, and then I’m gone before sundown. But it’s not going to be that way for me.”

  “I don’t want us butting heads all the time. You’ve been avoiding everyone lately, especially Jerry. Don’t you miss coming to coffee in the mornings? It’s one way for you to stay connected to the store. Don’t you want that back?” She leaned over the desk. “Instead of trying to tell you what to do, I’m here to ask: How can I help?”

  Frank didn’t say anything at first. Then he pushed the stack of ledgers out of the way.

  “Don’t you dare tell Miriam, she’ll drag me to some shrink. The day I had that heart attack? I was behind the counter, I’d just rang up someone’s stuff and, all the sudden, there was this pain, it was terrible.” He put his hand on his heart. “Right in the chest, and down my arm. Everything started to spin, I couldn’t breathe. I tried to grab the edge of the counter, but I couldn’t hold on. In a second, I was on the floor.”

  He stopped for a moment and blinked rapidly. Melinda glanced around for a box of tissues, but couldn’t find one.

  “There’s a reason they call them widow-makers,” he whispered. “Good God, that pain … The sunlight coming in that day was really bright, the tin ceiling panels were just glowing, you know? I felt myself getting lighter, like lifting up somehow. I’m sure it was just the loss of oxygen, but still. And I remember thinking: If this is how I’m going to go, then I’m ready. If I live, but I can’t work at the store anymore, I might as well be dead. I said goodbye to Miriam, to all of you, in my mind. I made my peace.”

  “And then what happened?”

  “There was all this shouting, it seemed like it was coming from another room. But then Bill was there, right in my face, yelling at me. ‘Don’t look away, Frank, don’t look away,’ he kept saying. Then he started doing something, I can’t remember what.” Bill, like Doc, was a member of Prosper’s volunteer emergency crew.

  “And then there were sirens and more yelling, and everything went black. When I came around I was in the ambulance. I could feel us moving, and fast. It was crowded in there, because Bill, who wasn’t on call that day, had insisted on riding along, too. The rest of it, you already know.”

  Frank looked at the floor again. “I’m so thankful to be alive. But when the doctor told me I couldn’t go back to work, I just … it was like a part of me had died.”

  Melinda had never walked in Frank’s shoes, but she knew how it felt to have a job you loved suddenly taken away. How hard it was to pick up the pieces, and reconstruct your life without something that was such a big part of who you were. Who you used to be.

  “There’s got to be a way to keep you more involved at the store.” She thought for a moment.

  “It won’t be the same, but … what if we got a nice, padded chair behind the register? Could you take a turn, even an hour or two a few times a week, if you stayed off your feet? We’re into the busiest time of year,” she added hastily, not wanting Frank to feel like a charity case. “It’d give me a chance to straighten up more. Esther’s coming in a few afternoons a week, but we can always use more help.”

  Frank’s eyes lit up with hope. “Do you think Miriam would go for it? She badgers me all the time about not overdoing it. I mean, when she’s not pushing me to exercise.” The wry grin Melinda knew well made a brief appearance.

  “Let’s talk to her about it. I think you need to get out of the house more.” Melinda hesitated for a second. She couldn’t start telling him what to do; that had started all this trouble.

  “I know you love volunteering, but you’re pretty isolated in this little office. Once you wrap this up, later this year, have you thought about how you’re going to fill your days?”

  Frank shook his head. “Haven’t looked out that far, I guess. I’m sorry I’ve been snapping at you. You’re trying to help. I’ve been upset, I just can’t take it out on you.”

  “And I need to be more careful, not just jump in like I know everything. I get excited about stuff, I guess, the ideas start coming and …”

  “There’s nothing wrong with that.”

  “Do you think,” Melinda took a deep breath, “you can give things a little more time before you put this mess on the city’s doorstep? Set that aside, at least for now? The surveyors said themselves, there’s no deadline to resolve this. And can you let Jerry know?”

  Frank thought for a moment. “OK, OK. I just wish the landowners next door would cooperate. It’s their problem, too.”

  “I know,” Melinda sighed. “I did have an idea, though, on something that might help …”

  “Another idea, huh?” Frank raised an eyebrow, but he was smiling now. “Why am I not surprised? What’s this one about?”

  “Well, those canvas caps with the store’s logo, the ones Miriam ordered last month? That huge box is nearly empty. Every day, someone comes in asking about them. I’ve got them at $20, and I can’t believe they’re selling this fast. I thought maybe I should set them at $15, but …”

  “Twenty dollars?” Frank’s eyes widened. “Why, they only cost us … hey, that’s some serious cash! I mean, it’s not thousands, but still.”

  “What do you think about not only ordering more caps, but expanding the clothing line? How about
tee shirts, or sweatshirts? Even just a few, to see how they do?”

  The gears in Frank’s mind were starting to turn. “Well, I guess it depends on what they are wholesale. With this land mess, I don’t know if we should be taking any risks right now.”

  Melinda had already done her research, but didn’t want to push the issue. The numbers were in their favor; Frank would see that soon enough. “How about I look into some pricing and get back to you?”

  “Sounds good. So, what did Miriam say?”

  This was Melinda’s chance to really put him at ease. “I haven’t asked her yet. I thought I’d come to you first.”

  That make Frank smile, and Melinda, too. If he could come to the right conclusion on his own, it would go a long way toward repairing the rift between them.

  He picked up a pen and started figuring numbers in the notebook by his elbow. “This could really start to add up. Maybe we could make enough off this merchandise to put a serious dent in those legal expenses.”

  CHAPTER 14

  The noise in the restaurant was starting to pick up as Melinda and Karen lingered over their plates. Melinda’s furniture needs had pushed them to make an early start for Mason City, and the Sunday lunch rush was about to begin.

  “I’ve almost forgotten what this place is like,” Melinda said around another mouthful of chocolate-raspberry cheesecake. “The pasta is always good, and the desserts are even better. It’s a good thing it’s forty minutes from home, or I’d be here more often than I should.”

  “Mmm-hmm.” Karen nodded as she savored her pecan-and-caramel pie. “No calories here, nope, not a one.” She tucked her blonde hair behind her ears, leaned over the table and whispered. “Do you think we can get them to box up the rest of these breadsticks?”

  “I asked for more, earlier, just so we could take them home.”