Lizzie
“Hereitis!”I cry, spreading my arms wide to encompass as much of the church as we can see. Like I’m embracing the shelves upon shelves of books.
“It is a library!” David announces in astonishment. “Geez, Liz, you nearly gave me a heart attack. You know they’re not fond of people like me in small-town churches.”
“You’re besties with Father James down at St. Margaret’s. Don’t even try it.”
Looking about the place, I smile. With its clean, cozy atmosphere and its smell of paper, I’m reminded of how it felt to walk in here that first week in East River. “I like this place. And I like the people."
Glancing over at the welcome desk, I frown. For a minute, I thought I’d seen Alice there in my peripheral vision. But now the desk is standing empty. Odd.
“Didn’t you say you spoke on video call with Jess and Sasha? I thought you had internet.” David mooches towards the first row of shelves, his hands in his pockets and his head tilted as he considers one of the larger, older volumes.
David has a talent for settling in just about anywhere. His clothes, on the other hand, stand out like a wildfire of fine tailoring. Fitted slacks in ebony black with a polo sweater (cashmere, of course) were hardly the usual attire in a mountain town. His shoes have more shine than the sun has managed all day, and his haircut just screams expensive. Despite seeming entirely at home from his perspective, he’s a king piece on a checkers board.
I wonder just how much I stand out. Do I seem just as out-of-town? Caleb seems to think so.
“I have ‘East River Forge Internet’,” I clarify, heading for the admin desk. I spy a curling romance paperback wedged beside the old monitor. Maybe I hadn’t imagined Alice, after all. “Which means you either have a semblance of world-wide-web connection or it’s dead as a dodo.”
“And today it’s of the extinct variety?” David clarifies, returning a tome he’d been perusing back to the shelf.
“Kaput,” I confirm.
David sighs and rolls his eyes with dramatic effect.
“Alright then. I’ll embrace the world of isolation for a few days but I need to let my office know. You said there’d be computers here?”
I point him in the right direction, towards the glowing monitors that I had found that first week in town.
“Over there. They’re old but they’ll do the job.”
“Like you’re mother.”
I choke on my own tongue as he hurries away, hot-footing it over the stone tiles.
“I’ll tell her you said that!”
“I thought you liked me breathing!” he flings back over his shoulder.
Sniggering to myself, I almost jump out of my skin when I turn to face forward once more and find myself face to face with Alice.
“Geez!” I cry, flattening a palm to my chest. “You gotta warn a girl!”
“Sorry,” she says, her little nose wrinkling in apologetic concern.
I glance around us. The desk is a round island, standing alone at one end of the church. Where she’d come from was anyone’s—
I look at the desk. Tall enough to hide a crouching human being.
“Were you hiding behind there?”
Immediately, Alice flushes a bright shade of scarlet.
“Am I that scary?” I try not to take offense. I know Alice hadn’t been a hundred percent confident in our little transformation for the Harvest Dance but I hadn’t realized I’d turned her fearful, or frightened that I’d attack her with a mascara wand.
“No!” Alice says with reassuring vehemence. “No, not you, Lizzie. I heard you in the hallway and then I heard a guy’s voice and before I knew it I was…” She glances towards the floor as if surprised to realize she had been down there.
“Making like a prairie dog?” I finish for her.